heavy cavalry engaging heavy cavalry

[Urselius]

The subject of cavalry charging infantry has been extensively debated in another thread. This topic is headed "Heavy cavalry engaging heavy cavalry". So before we get into the whole muddle all over again, perhaps it would be nice to move back on topic AND please also get back into antiquity. Basicly, we are talking cataphracts. Oh and Polish hussars are NOT classes as heavy cavalry, as they are unarmoured.

Armour has nothing to do with the classification of cavalry. It is all to do with battle field use and comparison within contemporary standards of equipment. British cavalry of the Napoleonic Wars were not armoured, but they were divided into light and heavy units. In an era when armour was more common - such as Elizabethan England - a cavalryman in a mail-shirt and iron helmet could be called a light cavalryman as the 'Border Horse' were.