Get off Your High Horse...

[Haiku Elvis]

Who here hasn't been riding a horse and have it suddenly shy away from a partridge breaking cover?

I say old chap you must be my kind of fellow. I had the same thing happen to me just the other day.
And I had been in such a good mood setting the hounds on the peasants that very morning.

I bagged the bird though. Hurrah!

 

[Jd Smith1]

You need to hit the books there, friend...

Does owning horses count?

 

[GMMichael]

. . . 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.

Caves or mines, no. Dungeons, yes. A horse is a walking scutum in a dungeon. The archers and casters would probably love to use the horse for cover...until it decides to make a rear attack of its own...
You might want to cast Protection from Missiles on both the horse and those behind it.

. . . There are far too many historical examples of what happens when three or four horsemen face off against motivated footmen . . .

...the footmen are slaughtered as the horsemen pepper them with arrows, well beyond the footmen's reach? Maybe that was a lances-only example...

 

[Jd Smith1]

...the footmen are slaughtered as the horsemen pepper them with arrows, well beyond the footmen's reach? Maybe that was a lances-only example...

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.

 

[MGibster]

There's a reason that the word "cavalry" used to strike fear into the hearts of footmen. Or "Khan." I'm going to chalk it up to a warhorse being a 2,000-pound murder-machine. A footman probably doesn't want to be trampled by such a thing, much less impaled by the big, spikey thing that its rider likely carries.

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.

So, does your warrior use a horse? Does it work as well for you as it does for the Tree Sentinel (see video)? Do RPGs give mounted troops the capabilities that they deserve?

Usually not, no. A lot of games make it flat out difficult to a fighter on horseback by making it so your weapon skill can't be higher than your horsemanship skill while fighting while mounted. While realistic (perhaps?), it's an extra skill people would have to buy and quite often in RPGs you're on foot anyway. In other games, there just isn't a big advantage to being mounted.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Most games also forget the economics of a war horse. A good warhorse in Medieval times should have the period-equivalent price tag of a new BMW.

 

[MGibster]

Mosat games also forget the economics of a war horse. A good warhouse in Medieval times should have the period-equivalent price tag of a new BMW.

Oh, yeah. Warhorses are crazy expensive and I never really gave it much thought to gaming until I read the rules for Pendragon 5th edition. And it's not like I'm riding my warhorse everywhere. I've got my warhorse, my riding horse, maybe a second riding horse, a packhorse, and maybe my squire has a horse too. But in some fantasy games, D&D I'm looking at you, treasure gained typically makes the expense of ownership of a warhorse trivial at best.

Oddly enough, I remember playing the Cavalier class in AD&D 1st edition and hardly ever fighting from horseback. In my Deadlands games, set in the American west during the 1870s, hardly anyone ever rides a horse let alone fights off one. And it's because a character must use the lower of their Fighting or Riding skill. So to be good at fighting from horseback you've got to spend those precious skill points.

 

[Grogg of the North]

Mosat games also forget the economics of a war horse. A good warhouse in Medieval times should have the period-equivalent price tag of a new BMW.

And the equivalent maintenance. Grooming, stabling, feeding, cleaning. In D&D, at least, those costs are pocket change to most adventurers. 15 gold? Here's some platinum. I don't carry gold.

 

[John R Davis]

The cavalier in PF1 is not a bad build
A horse archer in PF1 is very mighty after a solid few levels.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Oh, yeah. Warhorses are crazy expensive and I never really gave it much thought to gaming until I read the rules for Pendragon 5th edition. And it's not like I'm riding my warhorse everywhere. I've got my warhorse, my riding horse, maybe a second riding horse, a packhorse, and maybe my squire has a horse too. But in some fantasy games, D&D I'm looking at you, treasure gained typically makes the expense of ownership of a warhorse trivial at best.

Oddly enough, I remember playing the Cavalier class in AD&D 1st edition and hardly ever fighting from horseback. In my Deadlands games, set in the American west during the 1870s, hardly anyone ever rides a horse let alone fights off one. And it's because a character must use the lower of their Fighting or Riding skill. So to be good at fighting from horseback you've got to spend those precious skill points.

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

You make a good point about the support issues; a war horse would only be ridden into battle. In my Zweihander campaign we are 25 sessions in, and the party leader, a knight bachelor, only has a riding horse, and that only because it was a reward.