After having forest bandits repeatedly hand me my ass early on, the most satisfying moment so far has been winning a battle against them without casualties. Now that I have some calvary and horse archers, and my horse and myself and my horse have decent armor, I no longer get shot off my horse and lose half my troops even when I outnumber them two to one.
I moved my calvary way off to the left flank, had the horse archers follow me right to circle around to their rear, myself just riding with shield up to draw fire. As I start to attract attention I set archers and infantry to act on their own. A few moments later when I’m on their rear quarter and starting to dip into bow range I set the calvary to charge. As all the bandits are turned around shooting at me and my escort, the calvary crashes into them. As the all turn around again to face that threat I couch lance and charge in, setting my companions and horse archers to do their own thing. There’s barely anyone standing when the infantry charge arrives and those that are break and run (but not far). Not even a man incapacitated. Suck it forest bandits.