[Crakkerjakk]

Oh, absolutely. It just sounded like you were saying that the only reason Knights existed was to do HCCs(Heavy Calvary Charge). All I was saying is that while they were generally a mounted force, the HCC was not the only tool they had at their disposal, and except for the High Medieval period(according to MA), it wasn't even their primary purpose. Before the high medieval they didn't have the armor or stirrups, and after the high medieval they fought a lot more dismounted, again, according to MA.

I do think that effective calvary units would be a lot more expensive to maintain and of much more limited strategic use in a normal mana world, but then, the only place where there's a huge Knightly tradition in the "mounted warrior" sense that I can tell in Banestorm is in Caithness, which is one giant low-mana zone. Granted, I just got it recently, and I'm only partway the section on Al-Haz, but it seems to me that the Magelan Legions are modeled on Rome's Legions, confirming the supremacy of heavy infantry in normal-mana warfare. I know AL-Haz has a mostly mounted military, but that also fits with their general dislike of magic, and the inadvisability of wearing heavy armor in the desert.

Way I see it, in order to have effective calvary, you would need to either have them be mostly missile calvary/scouts or super-expensive heavy calvary, with all kinds of enchantments on the horse's barding to allow them to resist all the stuff that can spook them, and they would still be vulnerable to stuff that affects the terrain. However, I'm assuming this type of magic is expensive on the large scale, and can be countered by the opposing side's mages. I'm not sure of that, as I don't have a real great handle on all the spells in Magic, I'm just assuming affecting very large areas is very mana-intensive.