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Knights were lifted onto horses as swinging a leg over with armour was difficult, also horses are damn big and messing around with armour and getting on horses was difficult. Knights got off horses and fought as well you know. They were well trained and tactically aware. You lot have been watching too much TV again. Shaolin monks developed a system of fighting that was defensive due to their central city being sacked so often. In combat they were terribly effective not just because of their fighting abilities, but also because they carried religious icons into battle. Normal peasants often ran rather than engage in battle with fighting monks, from religious fear rather than physical. Ninja's were well trained assasins, first developed as part of a religious sect deicated to maintaining harmony and balance. They were never deployed as a fighting force, they were used individually to perform distasteful attacks on key enemy leaders. The argument that monks/ninja/samurai would run from knights or sneak behind them and kill them is to ignore the social aspect of fighting in the medieval period (an example of 20th century western thinking interpreting 14th-16th century lifestyles). Nobles in an army (Eastern and Western) sought out prominent enemy nobles and engaged them one on one. They slugged it out to the finish and then found another noble and contiued in this vain. Formation fighting would only be used in ranged attacks and much later on in cavalry charges. The idea of seeking prominent enemy leaders and engaging them one on one on the field of battle was especially true in Eastern warfare.
My real beef with weaponary in the game is Halberds. these were employed by pikemen and their equivalent to pull calvarymen from their seats and while others rushed around to finish them off. In the game they are used as swinging and slashin weapons, a neat trick all things considered...
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