Cause it puzzles me and couldn't figure it out, why the default melee weapon in the unit_stats_table was changed to 'sabre' instead of 'lance'. Doesn't it matter which weapon the unit uses or will it affect the damage at all?

Further I did some tests in a skirmish battle against some none shooting inf and compared it to several other units. I have to admit I was a bit disappointed...the biggest difference was running 1 elite guard lancer from france and the elite guard light (!) cavalry, the latter did nearly twice the charge damage. It might have been pretty bad luck but after several tries the lancer never out-damaged the light cav with way less charge bonus. (all the way frontal charge *g* with no formation selected)

Experimented later on and changed the melee weapon back to lance (and the row next to it to 'mounted_lance' as well) and it felt a bit better.
Might be my imagination but the unit's damage was at least even or sometimes the lancer did some more (charge-)kills.
And it doesn't seem to affect your equipment change as the lancer were still using the 2nd weapon in melee.
According to these facts I'd rather prefer the faster light cav which does the same impact and moves faster too.

If someone can explain the difference ?

(usually lancers were quite a bit overpowered and needed to be lowered in their charge damage but now even a mediocre light hussar unit etc. is quite more useful at all)