You be nice, Harfy
The lancer debate is interesting, if unsurprising. What is surprising is the result of the vote, I fully expected everyone to vote no. Kudos to everyone who voted yes! I look forward to facing you all in the tournament.
As Erik has noted there are checks and balances to each class. Lancers have great reach and couching is a powerful weapon. To counter that, our horses are slower and we do not have the ability to block. Hussars can outrun us, and if they have a numerical superiority, can lock us into a stop and an inevitable death. A good hussar - an actually good hussar - will have no trouble dealing with the best of lancers. There are hussars who destroy me on a daily basis, and while I would only consider myself a half-decent lancer (probably even only half a lancer since I don't couch if I can help it!), I get destroyed on a daily basis by hussars and I've seen it happen to all the great lancers I know.
Instead of screaming about broken classes (c'mon, this is M&B, there are so many things wrong and broken with it we've probably not even gotten to the bottom of that list), play against lancers and learn how to counter them. When I face the best hussars on the field and get annihilated by them every time, I don't bitch about it. I love it when that happens, as frustrating as it can get, because it's the best way for me to learn. When I face a powerful opponent I make that opponent my target as much as I can. The best never complain they're facing a lancer, never cry out the perennial "noob class" or "lancer cancer" insults, they engage with us happily and we get a real fight going.
These are some of the best moments in M&B for me, and I've been playing since alpha .400 of the original, way back in 2002-2003, I think. Sure it's great to see your name at the top of the scoreboard, but it's greater still to face an opponent of equal or greater skill and learn from them. I don't know about lancers being cowards and running away - I know I don't. I always gleefully charge at the opposing team, especially where the knot of enemies are thickest. I suppose the reputation comes from many people new to the game picking the lancer class and being terrible at it. Of the lancers I play with in tournaments, I would call none cowards. I will say that, focusing on enemy lancers whenever they appear, many players with names I don't recognise (and thus, possibly "noobs") do often tend to run away from me, so perhaps there is some truth to the claim... but not for the regulars. Not in the least, not in my experience.
There's a lot of salt in here. I thought for a moment that people might be happy to see some variety brought into the melee tournament, but maybe not. I guess there's nothing that needs to be said that already hasn't. I know a lot of players don't do well against lancers... though this will annoy Diarmuid, I can say there will at least be one lancer who won't use the couch to take you down from your horse (only on grounded opponents when we need to move things along). The reason I expected the vote to go against us is because it's obvious that a lot of people are worried. And... you know what?
They should be
