Tate would be a fine option if they implement it, like the crossbow shield.
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The second picture is not a shield but a shoulder protector on the shoulder
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I think the horse armours are the most fictional part of those cavalries, not the sheild.
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Japanese round shield wasn’t a thing, maybe by some monks or martial arts but not in wide combat and battles, but yes horse armours are too much for Japanese civ.
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The shield is the differentiation between heavy units and light units. If they removed the shield it would get confused with Horsemen.
(Although they broke that rule with the palace guard, but maybe that one doesn’t look too similar to something else)
Maybe Japan should have no knights or lancer? They would need something else strong enough to compensate. And would probably make them very weak.
I think the shield make sense on a heavy unit. Maybe a square shield would be best
Or just let the Japanese Horsemen stronger but no typical heavy cavalry there?
From all resources I’ve ever read, Japanese cavalries equip no horse armour, let alone such heavily decorated armour with horns on head.
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Japanese samurais insist on 弓馬の道, means riding and archering. I think could use a heavy armoured horse archer instead, but it seems devs never hear our voice, and doesn’t matter historical accuracy much.
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Light cavarly, no shields and cav archers.
Maybe teppo cavarly like in Shogun but if this is to advanced for the game age period them no.
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At least it’s something in real life history, better than a fiction one.
Have you noticed if cavarly in the trailer use this stirrup?
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There are other says to differentiate, a shield isn’t the only thing.
There are a ton of different options for visuals and differentiation.
Different colored horses, the units armor, the horses can have different cloth on them. Details on the helmets like the antlers.
They already look more heavily armored than the horsemen.
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Before the introduction of European horse breeds in modern times（19th century）, the Japanese cavalry was in an extremely amateur state.
The Japanese army had many characteristics in the Middle Ages, but there is no doubt that cavalry was their biggest weakness. On the Korean battlefield in the 16th century, the most elite troops of the Japanese Warring States were completely suppressed by the cavalry of the Ming Dynasty, leading them to dare not fight outside the city walls.
However, AOE4 Japan seems to have many BUFFs in terms of cavalry, which is obviously unfounded. In fact, those who have some understanding of history know that ancient Japanese horses were of poor breed, and they were generally short and could only be considered as pack horses rather than war horses in the eyes of Europeans.
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(Sengoku is outside of IV’s timeframe, but Heian and Kamakura records are more sparse - had to resort to Wikipedia)
I think if we’re going to challenge the devs on historical knowledge, it’s only fair we drum up some ourselves 
If your complaint isn’t “they didn’t have cavalry”, and is “the cavalry are too strong”, well, the same goes for a bunch of units across factions in strategy games. So long as the representation is historical, “who wins” will come down to a combination of unit design and balance (and player ability).
And this is before we even know how strong they are.
All Knights/Lancers switch weapons after charging, from their Lancer/Spear/Polearm and shield, to a one handed one with a shield.
My only wish is to finally see a Knight unit that utilizes their two handed weapon, as a two handed weapon. I stand with those here requesting that they remove their shields; but I also request another thing. That if this happens, let them continue using their Naginata with two hands. This might be too big of a request, because I suspect they don’t have the animations for it.
But, I really do want to see a Knight unit that has different animations for once. Why do all Knights look exactly the same when attacking? They all, even the Rus who wields a Poleaxe, attack with singlehanded animations?
So dull. Let’s see them swinging their Naginata about with two hands. It’d make them feel a lot more unique.
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Even in Heian and Kamakura era they didn’t use round shields or have those armored horses…
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Didn’t say they should use round shields. Have repeatedly said in this topic already that (rectangular) tate (and modified handheld variant) shields are more of a thing.
I was replying to the guy going on about the lineage of horses and quality of cavalry, and so on.
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