First of all I enjoy the more cavalry-centric focus of Total War: Attila, but something has been carried over from Rome 2 that I really don't like. Chiefly it's the dynamic between shock and melee cavalry. It makes sense that melee cav is more versatile and easier to use than shock cav simply because of its passive stats, but why is it that shock cav units, even after getting a clean charge off with every bonus imaginable, still lose to equal- or lesser-quality melee cav? I mean, melee cav already murder infantry. Their effect against other cav is obvious, as most units have that natural bonus versus large. It's kind of frustrating then that the only thing that shock cavalry is good at--charging--is invalidated.

Really the only way I think the two unit types can be balanced is if they have equal effect, just in different ways: melee cav win the slower grind and have more defense, while shock cav should be able to annihilate melee cav on the charge, maybe have an enhanced fear effect to reflect the massive morale shock of losing half your comrades in half a second or less. This is the only way I can see shock cav being worthwhile--they're a high risk unit, so there needs to be high reward too.

Unfortunately I never trust CA anymore when it comes to balancing so that's why I turn to the modding community, and only because I have none of the requisite knowledge to toy with unit stats for my own satisfaction. I already enjoy the mods out that give all or most skirmisher cav parthian shot--necessary since they're already weak against rushes--but in terms of melee/shock cavalry I'm thinking that all in all cavalry battles need to be more fast-paced. The massive health and melee defense of some cavalry units defy physical reality, though I do appreciate that cataphracts can actually pull out of a charge without losing half their unit.

Maybe just give all cavalry a massive bonus versus large naturally, with some (spear cav) having a little more than others? That might also effect elephants and they're already too weak so I don't know. I'm just trying to get something started here, hopefully other like-minded Total War fans will have some ideas we can bounce around.