Horse Bow vs Cataphracts & vs Elephants? Why the difference?

[skc]

In a recent learning game I explained that Horse Bow being doubled by Cataphracts don't die, but must 'Panic,' possibly because they can move faster than the Cataphracts. (?)
However if the Horse Bow are doubled by Elephants, there is no saving factor and they die. I was a loss to explain why. (Thought maybe the horses were being disordered by the Elephants and fought worse?)

Please can someone explain the rationale between why, vs Cataphracts Horse Bow panic and vs Elephants they die, with identical fighting factors?

Thanks in advance.

[Rod]

The Evade and Panic results for some troops are not just for speed differentials, it also applies to how the troops fight and interact with each other. Horsebow in open terrain are some of the most "evady" capable troops because they don't close to hand to hand and because they are fast. Jav Cav are just as fast but don't get the same evade/panic options as horsebow because they have to get closer. So think of it this way, they panic when an attack goes really bad against other mounted horses which are significantly slower and may not have the ability to reach them at range (which is bad but does not destroy the unit, they get away and recover if command points are spent to return them to battle). Elephants - they attack. it goes really really bad, the elephants have a slightly scarier effect and the unit dissolves in the panic, in other words they are not recoverable for this battle by the time they stop running. So the elephants are just a little scarier than the horses and that helps separate how they interact with the horsebow compared to other mounted units. It is not like the elephants chase every last one down, it is that the dispersal of the unit is much more significant and the units cohesion is gone.

[skc]

Gosh, thank you for your quick response Rod!

That helps explain it better. As I mentioned to the beginners, I thought in HB vs EL the horses would have been more disordered/uncontrollable, etc and all that goes with it. (This used to be the case in DBM, The Horse vs Elephants & Camels would go down 1 in fighting. So I guess this covers that.)

Again many thanks...