It'd be awesome lol!
I'd just love to see it. That way you could actually use horses for what they're for, transport.
If I wanna' get my villagers through uncharted territory, I don't want them wandering through on foot on their own, do I?
No. I get them on horseback with a knight or two and trot them through and if I see danger, ride like hell through the rain of arrows That and these units that will hopefully have dual-roles will make use of them. As I said on a previous post, I'd love for the Germans to have a Teutonic Knight unit (not realistic, but still helluva' cool - as some folks say) which used a flintlock on horseback, but once he dismounted, would fight with a large sword and have a good bonus vs. melee units.
Likewise with Musketeers. They shoot and fight with swords (so we assume - ES have said they're dual-role units) but once they get on their horses, they can charge and thus you have decent enough cavalry.
And who wouldn't love to see a knight dismount and kill off that last pikeman annoying your outpost?
There's so many possibilities and it'd just be so cool. It would make units so much more diverse without having to change them. And people would of course make good use of each of these to suit personal tastes, so instead of saying in multiplayer six months down the line "Boring! He's sending infatry backed by cavalry" and you counter them as normal, the situation then changes... "Shit, he's dismounting his cavalry to fight my pikemen, and those infatry have just mounted to take out my musketeers"
It's all about replayability and options And it would mean each unit had a bit more diversity to it, as stated. And training individual units is still worthwhile, because they'll all fight and act differently.
For example, don't think it's not worth forking out that extra gold for a knight when you can just be a cheapscate and stick an infantryman on a horse, because it's not like that. Knights are stronger and more powerful thanks to their thicker armour, and of course by the start of this game, would be the most advanced ever, due to 16th century (when they were dying out in terms of effective battle use) improvements in flexible armour and weaponry.
You get the idea. Use your imagination for the rest
A lot older, though no wiser.
[This message has been edited by w00tdaddy109 (edited 02-22-2005 @ 05:19 PM).]