Cavalry melee weapons choice

[Niezdara]

As a commando lover and cavalry mode addicted, this question come spontaneously: what is the best melee weapon for cav?

Obviously naming the highest damaging 2h swords is not the answer, since on horseback all the 2h weapons recive a damage penalty as if they were bastard weapons wielded one hand. Doing the math a legacy ends up having roughly the same damage of a steel sword, of course retainig the reach advantage, but not usable with a shield. Running around with a 2h sword and no shield is a problem on waves 17 and 19 where those pesky mercenary horse archers menace you, or even spear thowers in lower waves. A bastard sword like aurora blade can be used with a shield, has good reach, but still suffers the damage reduction, while an high-end 1h sword can be used with a shield, has better damage, but lower reach.

So, in the end, what is your favourite melee weapon for cavalry? (excludindg couchable lances)

I still believe that the Aurora is a very good choice for a cavalry, because of length (140 for a bastard sword!). Speed is not that important since you just made one slash while passing by and its just a matter of learning how early you have to start a swing. Keep in mind that you receive a bonus to damage from speed as well. Other bastard sword are not that good because they don't have much bigger dmg output then some 1h (the Justice/Injustice might be exception).
The big vice of using 2h is a lack of shield which become evident as soon as "shotgun" archers appear, but 2h hammers seems to work very well (at least against heavily armoured late waves bots).

I use the Hero's Despair (50c, 102 length) on my RG char and its pretty good but nothing exceptional. The Swadian Courage is very similar (it has 103 length). I'm planing to get the Fire Blade for my Warden (50c, 105 length) and the fact that I like playing on a cavalry server is a main reason here.

In the end you still should rely on lances in my opinion, but for that you need to work in pairs.