Cavalry is the hammer of a combined-arms host: it doesn't hold ground, it breaks the enemy holding theirs. But a horse is a whole second build, and a rider who fights it badly just feeds the enemy two kills at once.

The warhorse

Your mount has its own attributes — Vitality, Conditioning, Agility and Dynamics — and a level ceiling fixed when you tame it. Pouring everything into the Cavalry ability tree bolsters the horse and your blows from the saddle. The full picture of taming, training and reforging a mount lives with the Horse Spawn Map.

Mounted melee

Cavalry kills with momentum. Ride past a target and strike on the way through rather than stopping to trade — a stationary horseman is a big, expensive target the infantry will swarm. The *Momentum* capstone unlocks a charged power attack from horseback for exactly these passes.

Charging & breaking formations

Cavalry's real power is psychological and positional: hit a flank or rear, especially a line that's already wavering, and panic does more than your weapon. Then run down routers — fleeing enemies can't block a rider. Don't charge a braced, intact front of spears; that's where horses die.

Fighting cavalry on foot

• Brace a spear — the spear's reach is the infantry's answer to a charge; present points and make the horse come onto them.
• Hit the horse, not just the rider — on foot you deal bonus damage to mounts (the *Breaker* ability), and an unhorsed knight is just a slow man in heavy armour.
• Don't chase a horse — you can't catch it, and chasing pulls you out of position for the next pass.
• Stay in the line — lone stragglers are precisely what cavalry hunts.