Favorite starter "starter" / "motte and bailey" cavalry?

[Maklodes]

What's your favorite of the earliest cavalry units in the game: those that can be recruited from a mere motte and bailey?

[Scharfrichter]

kazaks, nice skirmish unit

[Aymer de Valence]

Mailed knights

[Maklodes]

I'm voting strzelcy. They combine decent-ish melee, with range and some durability, and they're armor piercing (both in melee and range). Decent in all situations, more-than-decent in others.

[Scharfrichter]

Mailed knights

not the earliest cavalry units ingame
first come the sergeants

[Sir Adrian]

Jinetes. Best of both worlds (particularly Portuguese Jinetes).

[Nzg]

Strzelcy, basicly because in vanilla they beat every cavalry unit 1 vs 1. Armour piercing, nice range(better than Jinetes), fast and they do more than enough in melee. Their main advantage over other armour piercing starter units is missle amount. After Jinetes are done shooting Strzelcy are just warming up.

[Aeratus]

1. Strzelcy. Fast and anti-armor. This unit is basically the knight-killer on the battlefield.

2. Border horse. The strongest melee-only cavalry that rides a fast pony. For this reason, it excels in chasing down routers.

3. Jinetes. Could have been better, if only javelins were better in vanilla.

[Friedrich Ironhide]

Border horse: fast pony mount and you can spam them with cheap pikes in MP battles for relatively little cost.

[Grymloq]

Arab cavalry: fast, capable of fighting a wide range of enemies and upgradable twice, good morale being a "starter" unit

[Aeratus]

Unfortunately, Arab cavalry has a "heavy horse" mount. That means it moves at the same speed as heavy cavalry units like the mailed knight, mameluk, sipahi lancer, and norman knights.

[Makrell]

Sergeants, nice and easy on the eye. Good enough to keep em occupied before your knights arrive.

[Dude with the Food]

Bordor Horse are the best light cavalry in the game being faster and/or stronger than others. However, I prefer medium cavalry so it has to be Arab Cavalry. Used effectively they can inflict devastating casualties early game and are only eclipsed late game when money is no issue and you can train Mamluks/Christian Guard everywhere. I personally like finishing battles quickly so prolonged infantry fights/horse archer combat usually end up boring me so my favourite units are these and mailed knights.

[Maklodes]

1. Strzelcy. Fast and anti-armor. This unit is basically the knight-killer on the battlefield.

Arab cavalry: fast, capable of fighting a wide range of enemies and upgradable twice, good morale being a "starter" unit

Unfortunately, Arab cavalry has a "heavy horse" mount. That means it moves at the same speed as heavy cavalry units like the mailed knight, mameluk, sipahi lancer, and norman knights.

True, although strzelcy also have the heavy horse mount.

[k_Apollo]

Probably Turkomans, enjoyed my Antioch centered Turkish campaigns a lot and they made up the bulk of my armies in the early game. I pretty much enjoy all said cavalry, except for the Hobilars and Scouts which are utterly useless, except for mopping up routers maybe.

[Silverheart]

I´m having a hard time deciding between the axe-wielding danish Scouts, the eye-pleasingly fast and responsive scottish Border horses and the always surprisingly capable Mounted Sergeants. Though in the end, I went for the Arab Cavalry instead.
The Arab Cavalry is basically a medium-weight cavalry unit that, although having no outstanding exceptionalities, make up for their shortcomings with adaptability - they can fight well against the lighter troops of the early age, but also outmaneuver and deliver devastating charges against the heavy elites of the late age. they can also be upgraded quite substantially, which is always a big bonus.
Also, because of the relatively poor maneuverability of the later heavy cavalry units thath the muslim factions can field, I typically continue to use the Arabs to some degree during the entire duration of any muslim campaign.

[Rijul.J.Ballal]

Arabs, those speedy little bastards...

[UndrState]

Dear England - apparently everyone thinks your light cav sucks.

[Dude with the Food]

Because they do. The Scottish are quicker, the Danes are stronger, the Arabs/Sergeants are heaviers and the rest are ranged. Hobilars are probably the weakest cavalry in the game although I admit I prefer them to many on that list.

[Eugene of Savoy]

Strzelcy, I didn't even have to think.