What are the stats for those squads? I charged sturm pios (we ran straight for each other) with thomson upgraded cavalry riflemen and I got demolished.
Cavalry riflemen are a very good close quarters squad, but their dps beyond about 10 range is poor. Meanwhile Sturmpioneers have less damage below range 10 but can deal a lot more damage at farther ranges.
What you want to do is hold your ground so that the Cavalry riflemen take damage as they close in and that’ll compensate for Sturmpioneer’s lower near dps