Do cavalry actually move faster on the map?

[Dahoota]

In my current game I'm chasing off a lot of nomad raiders, they seem to be moving faster around the map than my primarily infantry armies (ie I'm having trouble actually catching them). This makes sense, especially if the army is small, at the same time though even if an army is mostly cavalry they still need a supply train etc.

Are they faster because their armies are primarily cavalry troop types or is it tied to their govt type or something similar?

So then is it worthwhile creating retinues purely consisting of cavalry for the purpose? Normally I don't both chasing off raiders that are not on my demesne but they are cutting off the Silk Road and dropping my MA.

 

[Rags17]

Not sure about mixed groups but all cav armies are definitely faster.

I had one campaign where I played as the King of England from the custom 935 start. I had two retinues of Huscarls that I used for Viking smashers, most of the time I would send them towards the raiders only to have them run away before I got there. My next King married a Norman wife, he culture changed so I could get the Heavy Cav retinue. In short - WEEE ! Sending 500 Heavy Cav at 600 Vikings meant that n most cases they stayed in place because they figured that they outnumbered me, even if they did try to run they could never get away in time. End result was usually 100% Viking losses to 3-4 dead Heavy Cav troopers.

Such fun !

 

[Greybeard0815]

Nomads have buildings in their Capital which increase speed of their armies. So its both.

 

[Dragatus]

I don't thin cavalry actually does move faster by itself. When I was testing the various retinues I didn't notice the cavalry ones moving any faster than the infantry.

 

[CaptainPolyp]

Playing a lot of nomads, I don't have the feeling that cavalery moves faster by itself (compared for instance to my vassal's levies). I can be mistaken tho.
But as it was already said, Nomads have buildings which increase movespeed: Riding contests (lvl 5 give +4% movespeed; at lvl 4, I got +10%) and Meat preserver (gives +20% at lvl 8)... Not sure if these buildings also increase footmen's movespeed; it is written "+XX% global movespeed".
So yes, nomads can be hard to catch.