What is the difference between regular cavalry and bodyguard cavalry?

[samoja]

I once had my general turn the tide of battle in which i was outnumbered 2to1 by repeatedly charging the infantry units and inflicting massive casualties, he did not fail one single charge. On the other hand regular heavy cavalry like mailed knights or higher seems to be just as devastating when they perform a sucessful charge, but they often stop just short of their target(happens often with archers in skirmish mode) or they drop their lances befre the charge forcing you to halt them so they get them out again. They also seem far less responsive once they charged and will often linger for a few seconds and get slaughtered, furthermore if any of them gets tangled with an enemy in a fight the entire unit will refuse to break and will continually try to go back and engage the(often superior) infantry, so why is regular cavalry such a pain to use compared to the general?

[Steward Denethor II]

The biggest difference between generals bodyguard and other heavy cavalry is that general bodyguards have 2 hitpoints but half the men.

I would say they linger more often because they have more men and thus are more likely to have people get stuck in melee. If you repeatedly order them out though they will get out of melee, though you will usually lose a few men. Also if you are attacking archers in skirmish mode, attack the unit behind them. This will often completely annialate the archer unit if it is not well armoured. Also feel free to use this tactic when attacking melee infantry as well, I would say it almost always works except against very heavily armoured infantry. I haven't used it against cavalry but I imagine it would devastate lighter cavalry units.

[samoja]

The biggest difference between generals bodyguard and other heavy cavalry is that general bodyguards have 2 hitpoints but half the men.

I would say they linger more often because they have more men and thus are more likely to have people get stuck in melee. If you repeatedly order them out though they will get out of melee, though you will usually lose a few men. Also if you are attacking archers in skirmish mode, attack the unit behind them. This will often completely annialate the archer unit if it is not well armoured. Also feel free to use this tactic when attacking melee infantry as well, I would say it almost always works except against very heavily armoured infantry. I haven't used it against cavalry but I imagine it would devastate lighter cavalry units.

Actually, i found heavy infantry(like various dismounted knights) a perfct target for cavalry charge, they are too slow to get away, valuable enough to hurt the enemy and cavalry charge is absolutely devastating for them despite their high armor stats.

[RuthlessChubbz]

Try to pull them away as soon as they've completed their charge and the enemy numbers have stopped dropping. Early calvary units are not designed for prolonged fights.

Also hold ALT when organising the charge to make sure they use their lances.