Horse archers and movement (SGB)

Angularity · **Joined:** Fri Jun 25, 2010 7:56 am **Posts:** 157

I'm sure it's been done before, but can't find it with the Search function, so...

Do horse archers lose half their move if they shoot? I couldn't find an exception in my rulebook (from the MoM set). It makes no sense to me :roll:

Erunion · **Posted:** Sat Feb 12, 2011 2:58 pm

Yes, horses may only move half their Movement if they wish to fire their bow. This does not apply to throwing weapons.

Noddwyr · **Posted:** Sat Feb 12, 2011 7:07 pm

^^What he said.

Angularity · **Joined:** Fri Jun 25, 2010 7:56 am **Posts:** 157

Noddwyr wrote:

^^What he said.

Well I still think it's silly :-X

I feel a house rule coming on (until I play-test it and work out why they did it).

Erunion · **Posted:** Sun Feb 13, 2011 2:10 pm

I don't know if you've ever tried to fire a gun or bow, but it takes considerable concentration to ensure that you hit your target. At the very least, you would need to slow down, if not stop completely to draw a bead on your target. Now, try doing that from the back of a galloping horse.

Noddwyr · **Posted:** Sun Feb 13, 2011 2:23 pm

Have to agree with Erunion here, I think it makes sense and works with the game dynamics very well.

Angularity · **Joined:** Fri Jun 25, 2010 7:56 am **Posts:** 157

Can I refer you to something like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK7XdnIeH24

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0rsvnav ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stnNCDT-j1o&NR=1

This is what I was thinking of, having seen similar things on TV. They don't slow down much.

I reckon if you practice enough, you can get the hang of it. I haven't fought with a sword or spear, but I've got plenty of opinions about those, too. One of the benefits of age, I guess!!!

hithero · **Posted:** Sun Feb 13, 2011 10:59 pm

As Erunion say's as well as game-play balance and simplicity. Before TTT was released I tried all sorts of rule variatins for cavalry but settled for the SBG simple rules in the end.

Raukov · **Posted:** Tue Feb 15, 2011 8:52 pm

If you're letting them shoot while galloping you'll probably want to make them more expensive, because that's a huge advantage

simmuskhan · **Posted:** Wed Feb 16, 2011 1:04 am

Hi all,
Couldn't help but notice that the videos you're showing are of stationary targets.
I reckon it would be a whole lot harder to hit a particular target if it was moving.
I know that in real life the mongolians, for example, used waves and hit and run tactics.
You could model that by having two units of horse archers, one moves forward while the other shoots, then vice versa. (Often the mongolians used three or four such waves.) This gives the effect of a continuously moving horde while still firing regular well aimed arrows.
eg. Group 1 fires while moving slowly (in real life they actually stopped) while groups 2 and 3 move at full speed.
Then group 1 moves at full speed while group 2 moves at half speed and fires, and group 3 continues moving at full speed.
etc.
They were also well known for riding in and shooting until the other soldiers got close, then just running right away, while on the opposite flank another group would come in and shoot. Very unsportsmanlike, but it worked =)
You could do these in your game by using actual tactics, or if you wanted to modify the rules maybe you could have some elite horse archers that are capable of aiming while shooting at full speed (for a big points increase) or just decrease the accuracy of your archers if moving at full speed (maybe use the volley fire rules or something to simulate not actually being able to aim properly at an individual).
Anyway, just my thoughts.
But I use dwarves, so never an issue for me =)

Angularity · **Joined:** Fri Jun 25, 2010 7:56 am **Posts:** 157

Really good points there. I'll give them a try.

I think the volley shooting thing (I just can't call it "volley fire" when they're not firing anything. Pedants' Corner, anyone?) would be useful against blocks of pike-armed opponents (or dwarves...).

simmuskhan · **Posted:** Wed Feb 16, 2011 10:03 pm

One other point to make, they were all super close range too, so you might want to factor that in, they were riding right past the target, in SBG the archery range is WAY further than that was.

Horse archers and movement (SGB)

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