Steppe Lancer disscusion: What is wrong with them?

As far as I can see the Steppe Lancer has 4 major problems:

1. It's too weak to be used as a replacement for the Knight line
2. It's too expensive to upgrade for what it gives you
3. It has no unique role in the game
4. It has no civilization dedicated to it (Camels and Elephants have their own civs)

How I think we could fix them:

Too weak:

• The Steppe Lancer is inferior to the Knight in all but speed statistically, so I say we add to that and make them faster so they are more distinct from Knights. They also have 0 melee armour, which is quite pathetic so I think that should change too.

1. Increase speed to 1.5 from 1.45 for Elite
2. Give 1 melee armour to the unit

Too expensive to upgrade:

• It costs 1450 resources to get Elite Steppe Lancer, which gives a unit slightly weaker than a Cavalier, which is an upgrade which costs 600 resources. It is time to reduce the cost of the upgrade. Also, since Cumans have only +5% speed for their Steppe Lancer I think we could give them a boost.

1. Reduce upgrade cost from 900 food 550 gold to 650 food 400 gold
2. Give Cumans free Elite Steppe Lancer?

It has no Unique Role:

• I've made a post about this before, but Steppe Lancers are worse at Knights against units and worse than Light Cav/Hussars at raiding. We could either make them better at one of these roles, or we could give them a new role like anti-Camel, anti-Infantry, anti-Cavalry archer, anti-Building or Anti-Villager. I think anti-Camel (Tamerlane in India) and/or Anti-Villager so it can be a kind of Glass Cannon raider so they do quick raids (with this new speed we've just added) and leave.

1. +4/6 vs Camels for normal and Elite?
2. +4/5 vs Villagers?

It has no civilization dedicated to it:

• The Battle Elephant has the Burmese and Khmer as dedicated elephant civs and the Camel has the Indians and Saracens but the Steppe Lancer is apart of a Cavalry civilization and 2 Cavalry Archer civilizations so it. In the future we could add another dedicated Steppe Lancer civ like the Uyghurs, Khitans, Tibetans, Manchu or Khazars.

If you disagree on my 4 points feel free to leave them in the comments below!