For the Ayyubids I have a question. When fighting against KoJ, do you think it is better to use masses of cheap Ajnad cavalry when fighting against armies that have abundant dismounted turkopole archers and latin crossbowmen present? I find Ajnad cavalry more worth the cost than fielding Mamluk cavalry, which is wierd considering Mamluk cavalry are amongst the best in BC.
A unit of Ajnad cavalry cost less than a unit of Latin Crossbowmen and three times cheaper than Mamluk cavalry. When I charge a mamluk cavalry at a group of Latin crossbowmen, they inflict a good amount of casualties on my expensive Mamluk cavalry while with Ajnads, they are 40 guys in a group and they move faster (I think) than Mamluks and if they die, they still charge and kill like 30 Latin crossbowmen each time. I even find them to be more useful to Turkopole archers. If I attack a Turkopole archers with Mamluk cavalry, they pull out their spears then all my Mamluk cavalry get slaughtered when they touch
. If that happens with Ajnad cavalry, I just pull out just enough for the Turkopoles to pull out their bows again then instantly order them to charge again with their bows out. Mamluk cavalry are too slow to pull out and in again it seems and they get bogged down then killed by Turkopole archers and Latin crossbowmen.
Do you find Mamluk cavalry to be worth their weight in cost versus masses of ajnad lancers? The good thing about ajnad horses when they fight against Latin Crossbows is since they're about 40 horses each crossbowman tries to divide their fire amongst the 40 instead of concentrating fire more against 25 Mamluks.
What are the strengths of actually fielding Mamluk cavalry versus masses of ajnad horsemen when the Mamluk cavalry will get shot to death by high concentrations of crossbow fire versus spreading out the damage amonst a large horse unit of the Ajnads?