Numidian Camel Riders (RTW Unit)
These tough desert warriors are camel lancers, exploiting the speed of their mounts and the fear effect that camels cause to horses.
Overview
These tough desert warriors are 'camel lancers', exploiting the speed of their mounts and the fear effect that camels cause to horses. The kings of Numidia are wise indeed to exploit this pool of skilled fighters. These are also a hardy people, and can put up with many privations thanks to their desert upbringing. They are not the strongest cavalry in the world, but they can surprisingly effective (sic) against both infantry and especially other (horse) cavalry. Armed with spears and carrying large shields, they are not at their best in protracted melees, but used as hit-and-run raiders they can be very effective.
Details
The only dedicated melee camels in the game that aren't mercenaries Numidian Camel Riders are quite strong and their good stats, anti cavalry spears and camel bonus let them wipe the floor with all hostile cavalry. even Parthian Cataphracts will fall to camels. In the rare event that the camels can't win they are still quite cheap units and the cavalry they kill is often very expensive. Using camels can destroy powerful enemies for minimal cost, giving an edge in the overall war. Camels get a +2 to attack vs the cavalry, while cavalry get -4 when attacking camels. This is what makes them deadly to cavalry.
Vs infantry Camel riders can be tolerable, but not great. Their stats aren't very good when fighting infantry and they are much slower than most cavalry, so they will have harder time chasing down archers and light infantry. They can still be useful in an anti archer role, but light cavalry are much preferred for this.