Two Hour Wargames have several fairly closely related rules sets that both provide a fairly decent wargame and could handle anything from small skirmishes with a few dozen men up to full armies. The recent Osprey books "European Medieval Tactics" by David Nicolle (as well as Phil Barker's notes in the DBA army lists) are some of the best reading to get a handle on this stuff.
They really needed to be combined with other troops and well organised themselves to be as effective as they were in the early battles of the Hundred Years' War (which is the main "culprit" as to why wargamers sometimes overestimate them). From ~1080 to around 1380 mounted knights were considered the main arm of battle, but that was as much to do with aristocratic pride and poor quality solid infantry as anything - and that only applied in western europe in any case.Īgainst foot that either were disorganised or broke formation when charged knights coud wreak havoc against disciplined, solid foot they seldom got anywhere alone (except by dismounting the knights' ability to fight well on foot as well as mounted in the later medieval peiod really made them the "killer app" of several armies).Īrchers are often overestimated in wargames rules. The effect of a charge was always more morale than physical - unless morale was broken.
Horse 'dominated' the battlefield on and off - alternating with foot - from ancient antiquity (~3000 BCE) until WW1, so not really a persuasive argument, I'm afraid.