Topic: Mounted Combat

[gandalf970]

I am getting ready to get into Mounted Combat as my party has raised Worgs and wants to take them into battle.  I understand the 20% activity to control the mount and that the Mounted Combat/Weapon Skill use the lower rule.  My question is can the mount attack and what percent of activity does that cost or does it.

Also I remember something about 50% chance the mount gets hit instead of the player unless that was from another game.

Any insight you have and experiences with mounted combat would be appreciated.  If you have some house rules as well let me know.

[brole]

I haven't done much with Mounted Combat in Rolemaster.
We simply averaged the Ride skill with OB to determine actual bonus, applying charge bonus for anything over a trot.
This was very basic but moved things along nicely.

There are brief rules in RM2III 3.5. that seem to be for horse mounted combat.

The main advantage of horses over mules & camels is they have a strong charge so a plausible system would involve increased charge bonus and trample attack for higher pace & mass of the attacking rider/mount.

Armoured knights wore pointed steel boots for attack while mounted so this could be another skill to develop e.g. armoured boot (only usable while mounted).

However Worgs would be a different matter. Being a predator type creature and lower to the ground would produce different available options.
You would get a biting attack that stopped and mauled as opposed to an armoured horse that would trample and continue galloping.

My vision of Worgs is they wouldn't really be doing a heavy trample attack as a war horse.

Rather they might have some options:
1. The Worg grapples its target in an unmodified bite attack sending its rider into a trained tumble.
2. The Worg has a bite attack at a penalty to not throw the rider off its back.

Sounds interesting.

[netbat]

If you are interested, my house rules including mounted combat are at the october 2013 guild companion issue online under "fighting with style". The september and november issues also include using these rules with the combat companion's combat styles.

[Sable Wyvern]

Between the activity required to control the mount and the cap on OB, it's hard to be good at mounted combat unless the character is dedicated to it. In order to help make it more feasible, I use the following rules:

* A mounted combatant has a +10 OB vs footmen.
* Riding bonuses for mount quality apply to Riding and Mounted Combat skill (this might be the way it's meant to work; the rules aren't entirely clear).
* Any melee attack made while mounted inflicts an additional Unblancing crit of two severities less.
* On a charge, the Unbalance crit is of equal severity.
* A trained warhorse will generally take intelligent actions if not controlled (eg, once a charge begins, it will keep charging; when in melee it will provide a stable fighting platform, and potentially attack unknown people nearby).

I think the Unbalance crits are based on a comment someone else made on the forums here at some point.