yea I am sure he was afraid of that possibility.. but he had a bunch of rods/pikes to guard them, so I dunno if your hand cav would have been able to touch them (well unless he wasn't paying too much attention )
True lol. I've only just made a Japanese HC but it's a really cool civ from what I've seen so far. You really have a lot of options (mess with shrines, send most shipments twice, choose between allies in the Consulate, and some really powerful units )