Get off Your High Horse...

[MGibster]

Well, in the Old West the horse was just a means of transport; the US Cavalry fought dismounted by choice.

Yeah, but the mythic Old West involves outlaws on horseback exchanging gunfire with the posse hot on their tail as they head for the Indian Territories. On the other hand, they sure fired a lot of shots without hitting anyone...

 

[Jd Smith1]

Yeah, but the mythic Old West involves outlaws on horseback exchanging gunfire with the posse hot on their tail as they head for the Indian Territories. On the other hand, they sure fired a lot of shots without hitting anyone...

That's because the people who wrote the mythic Old West never tried to shoot from the back of a moving horse...odds are they never rode a horse.

 

[Scruffy nerf herder]

Yeah, but the mythic Old West involves outlaws on horseback exchanging gunfire with the posse hot on their tail as they head for the Indian Territories. On the other hand, they sure fired a lot of shots without hitting anyone...

Hey! Ermm... Firearms could be kind of awful back then though. Not exactly reliable.

 

[Bohandas]

Yep. Horse archers are devastating in terrain that favors them, both in D&D and real life. (See: Mongols. Though in their case, the logistical benefits were even greater than the tactical ones.)

Of course, the qualifier in that sentence is kind of important. Dungeons are not what you'd call cavalry-friendly. Even if you can get your mount inside, there's seldom room to take advantage of its mobility.

Ok, I just now realized that this is one of the advantage of smaller characters that get smaller war mounts

 

[Bluenose]

Horse archers are not the standard for cavalry. And both armies and small groups of horse archers have come to bitter defeats, as history teaches us.

They pretty much are, in large parts of the world. Spain, Italy, the Balkans, all the Eurasian steppe, Turkey, north Africa, the Middle East, Persia, central Asia, northern India, north China, Korea, Japan (where the original Bushi were mounted, armoured horse archers).

Though we should also note there's more than one style of horse archery, some of them being a lot less inclined to high mobility than others.

Yeah, but the mythic Old West involves outlaws on horseback exchanging gunfire with the posse hot on their tail as they head for the Indian Territories. On the other hand, they sure fired a lot of shots without hitting anyone...

Partly because most of the revolvers were horribly inaccurate, and shotguns were much more popular than rifles/carbines and are another short-range weapon.

 

[Bohandas]

I think sometimes fantasy games have skewed our perceptions regarding just how scary mundane animals can be. When I lived in Texas, I had to walk through pasture with horse to get to a friend's house. Now my city slicker self wasn't quite sure how hostile a horse might be but he left me alone and I left him alone. But he was rather large compared to me and could have done quite a bit of damage.

You'd think fantasy games would skew our preceptions towards mundane animals being scarier. D&D 3.5e in particular is infamous for making even things like housecats more formidible in combat than the average mundane person

 

[Jd Smith1]

Partly because most of the revolvers were horribly inaccurate, and shotguns were much more popular than rifles/carbines and are another short-range weapon.

Are you kidding? The revolvers were more than sufficiently accurate. Rifles and carbines were vastly preferred by plainsmen and long riders everywhere. Have you ever shot black powder?

 

[pemerton]

Do RPGs give mounted troops the capabilities that they deserve?

It depends on the RPG. The knight PCs in my Prince Valiant game ride horses, and from time to time cut down infantry from their vantage points.

 

[GMMichael]

You'd think fantasy games would skew our preceptions towards mundane animals being scarier. D&D 3.5e in particular is infamous for making even things like housecats more formidible in combat than the average mundane person

Two words: dire horse. Okay, that doesn't sound scary...

Since PCs are usually not in a military unit, and hopefully not as alone as Markiplier/Tree Sentinel in the OP video, what benefits should riding a horse convey? Or is horse-riding just a good way for adventurers to get from point A to point B?

I'm not a big fan of the typical PC power curve; the idea that a lone footman could be anywhere from level 1 weakling to level 20 minigod. So using an animal, especially one trained for fighting, should give some sort of edge to most riders. I'd expect to see extra damage caused by charging attacks, potential to knock down (if not trample) a footman...