Does this seem even remotely realistic to anyone?
Okay, so I'm the English, besieging Antwerp which is held by the Danish. I break through the gates (huge walls btw, and a city. Oh, and the campaign is M/M) and order my 6 units of infantry to line up outside the gates. I then move a unit of around 35 or so Dismounted Feudal Knights into the gateway, which draws an attack from a full unit of Nordic Axemen. My knights do away with them fairly handily, having 18 men left afterwards. Before the second unit of axemen can charge men I move the 18 knights back outside the walls and send in a fresh unit. These guys also clean up the axemen very nicely. All that's left now is a unit of 35 Norse Clerics (mounted, in case there's a dismounted version) I send in a full 60 man unit of dismounted English knights to get rid of them.......and the entire unit is demolished to the last man, having killed 2 of the clerics. Keep in mind that the cleric never charged. They were in melee the entire time (unless they were bugged and had a charge bonus the entire time, which is possible since some of my men were being flung into the air as if they'd been charged)
Anyway, I send in another unit of dismounted english knights, full 60 again, and AGAIN they are slaughtered, this time taking 3 down with them, leaving a unit of 30 norse clerics. Before I lose them all (ie, once there's about 14 left) I try to make them retreat out of the walls. The clerics follow, which is good (I've always been bothered that the AI wouldn't come out of the walls when I attack) but destroy them, then they start going to town on the few men I have left outside the walls (I had actually sent a bunch of men onto the walls to deal with missile units while I was fighting the second lot of axemen, hence the lack of infantry awaiting the cavalry)
Aaaaaanyway, I then try one last ditch attempt to beat these guys, using the only units I really have left, two units of mounted English Knights, one at 18 and one at 22. They charge the clerics, and fairly quickly demolish them (probably the only time I've ever managed to properly charge with cavalry, ironically)
So, sorry for the wall of text, but as far as I'm concerned, there is no way that is an accurate outcome for those unit types in melee. Cavalry vs foot halberdiers should stand no chance - even less when they start the fight without charging. This is just the worst example of something I've noticed during the entire time I've been playing this game. Infantry are horribly underpowered, while cavalry, when they *do* charge, are like tiny gods. On top of that, infantry death rates are ridiculously high (perhaps due to the old unit cohesion issue) with my infantry usually being on the verge of total collapse by the time I've brought my cavalry around to a flanking position. Please don't tell me it's my lack of tactial nouse, because I could beat the computer on VH any day of the week in RTW, and had a decent chace of beating pretty well anybody I met in MP. The whole game as far as battling goes just feels a whole lot looser and more disjointed than RTW was. Granted, unit cohesion in RTW was too perfect to be realistic, but it feels more like I'm playing as a high school rugby team rather than a professional army in this one. It really annoys me since absolutely everything else about this game is brilliantly done. I'm one of the seemingly few people who actually likes the camp map diplomacy, the Pope, even the inquisitors (assassination chance of 71% doesn't seem incredibly low to me) so if I'm just doing something horribly wrong that's getting my infantry murdered, please tell me, it would really help me enjoy the game properly.
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