Chevalier

The French chevalier of the Renaissance carried knightly cavalry tradition into a world transformed by gunpowder and professional infantry — refusing to let it die quietly. His armor had evolved into something halfway between weapon and art: etched, gilded, proclaiming lineage as loudly as military purpose. Beneath the ornament was a lethally functional system — a half-armored man on a powerful horse, lance capable of unhorsing opponents in a single pass. French chevaliers charged at Pavia in 1525 and were destroyed by Spanish arquebusiers — proving even the most splendid cavalry was becoming obsolete against firearms. In the game the chevalier is a high-cost prestige cavalry unit with powerful charge and respectable armor, most effective in open-field engagements, increasingly countered by ranged gunpowder units in the Renaissance era.