Cavalry and chariots against infantry

[Domen]

and I think that makes you overestimate the power of cavalry and underestimate the power of infantry.

Cavalry did not dominate battlefields in all periods of military history...

Not at all, because I never claimed such things like "cavalry dominated battlefields in all periods of military history". Claiming that I ever wrote such thing, is simply a lie, because I didn't.

Not only I did not claim anything like this - but I also explained in this thread why infantry was often able to beat off cavalry with relatively small losses, basing on examples of many battles.

It is other posters in this thread who try to prove ridiculous things like the idea that horses won't charge infantry and that heavy shock cavalry was just purely a "psychological weapon"...

Here is what a guy claimed on another forum plus my response to this:

The sight and sensation of such a formation heading my way would scare the crap out of me. Most probably, you too.

Rather no because I have mind on my own and I know that trying to run away from cavalry = certain death, because I'm slower.

You seem to claim that horses have mind on their own, but on the other hand that humans don't...

That is simply stupid. Humans are much more intelligent and much more capable of rational thinking than horses.

And - of course - I don't say that infantry never panicked, because people also do irrational things. But the problem is that people are much more intelligent and rational than horses, and will do such things less frequently than horses. Horses - like other animals that can be domesticated, tamed, trained and selectively bred - and will do things their human masters want them to do.

With normal cavalry, sure. However, as I've said before, there is evidence that very heavily armoured cavalry (cataphracts, and later clibanarii) were specifically intended to break up infantry formations, and trained to do so. They lacked the speed and maneuverability for rapid flanking attacks, so head on assault (or at least the threat of it) would surely be their purpose.

There is evidence that there were also light or medium shock cavalry formations (usually lance-wielding ones, as lance was the best weapon for this task), doing the same, and also suffering small losses. Polish Hussars are described as heavy or medium cavalry, but their horses were not armoured - yet they were capable of breaking enemy infantry formations while suffering small casualties.

The conclusion is that you don't need iron-clad horses to break infantry without staggering losses. You need elite, trained cavalry with good horses, using long enough lances and proper tactics.

21st Lancers in the 1880s were by no means such a good cavalry, yet they destroyed experienced in anti-cavalry combat Dervishes while trading casualties at a ratio 30 men and horses vs 200 men...