I think the Spanish Lancer may be muddying the waters here for little reason.
Winged Hussars are arguably a pseudo-Lancer and more comparable to the Chinaco and Red Lancer, having said that, I ran some quick (imperfect) math on them vs hussars.
I’ll be dividing certain metrics by pop for the purposes of fairness in comparing a 2 pop and 3 pop unit. Both have the same RR, so I will leave that out.
Hussar:
Cost in Villager Seconds (VS) ~276.26 (or 138.13 when divided by pop)
6.75 speed
160hp
15 hand attack (1.5 rof)
10 siege (3 rof)
Winged Hussar
Cost in VS ~392.86 (or 130.953 when divided by pop)
6.75 speed
120 hp
10 hand attack with 1.5x vs infantry (1.5 rof)
6.667 siege (3 rof)
Now, this notably doesn’t account for the Charged attack, so we should expect the WH to look worse on paper, but the attack and hp differences look pretty bad off of base stats. They perform in-line on damage only against infantry when adjusting for pop. It’s weird that it doesn’t over-perform vs something.
Currently, the issue is arguably largely dealt with by the 20% discount in age 3, but that helps a pop inefficient unit less in the late game.
I think the unit needs some increases to its base stats and the civ needs a little card reworking. I don’t think 2 pop Winged Hussars is a great option. I’d suggest something like this:
Increase WH siege attack to 30 (in line with a Hussar per pop), increase their charged and melee attacks to 39 (about 13.33% lower than a pop adjust hussar vs non-infantry) but due to the bonus vs infantry about 30% higher vs infantry. Then with Vet add 0.25 speed so they can keep up with Cavalry Archers.
With regards to the cards I would do roughly the below. You save a card slot and have some gains and losses on Winged Hussars and some losses on Retainers.
Cavalry Combat (III) - removed.
+15/15% to cavalry attack/hp.
Koncerz (II)
Deliveries 2 WH. +10% WH all actions damage. +1 AoE and 2 range to the charged attack.
Polish Cavalry Combat (II)
+10/10% on Retainers, WH and CA.
Petyhorcy (II)
+15% hp on CA, WH, and Retainers. CA use hammers in melee.
Polish Horsemanship (II)
Cavalry train faster and CA get Trample mode and WH get stampede mode.
Szlachta (III)
-10% WH cost, -10% CA cost. +5% all cavalry attack and hp. Winged Hussars gain an additional +5% attack and hp.
Team Lithuanian Cavalry Combat (III)
+15/15% on light cavalry for the team.
Riders of the Apocalypse (II)
Retainers, WH and CA +30% siege.
Obviously my card descriptions are a bit vague, but I think you can get the idea. Given the base damage increases the remaining stat boosts have a bigger impact on Winged Hussars.
Early estimates I’ve heard suggest Poland might be strong in 1v1 and treaty, so some nerfs elsewhere will of course be required. I’m not trying to buff Poland. I just think design wise they may have missed on Winged Hussars which are a core cultural unit associated with Poland. They should be a staple unit rather than one that gets overshadowed by a random cheap 1 pop cav imo.