Favorite Horse to ride

[iffy]

I have been riding Hunters, but yesterday I bought a charger just to try it out.  I don't know... they seem kind of slow.  They show huge charge damage, but I tend to get about 5 damage with my charge vs. about 80 with my elite scimitar...  I might change back to my Hunters and just dump the charger...?

 

[Wheem]

I generally ride chargers, since it's so easy for horses to get taken out from under you in battle. If a few crossbowmen (or infantry with throwing weapons) happen to look your way, even chargers can get taken out quite fast. This is especially true since your own troops' ranged attacks can damage your horse. I recently had one of my own Nord infantry head shot my charger for 80 damage and cripple it; the crappy part is that it was right at the end of a battle and I was chasing the few remaining routers .

Hunters are certainly more stout than coursers, saddle horses, etc...but for larger battles I want the most resilient horse I can get (same for my companions).

As for the charge value - I think that mostly has to do with the chance of a horse rearing up when it runs into a footman.

 

[artifex]

IMO the horses need to have their stats edited. If you download the More Horses and More Warhorses OSPs for warband they make the horses more... "realistic". Normal horses have no armor, their speed is generally similar, they have a higher charge damage so they actually DO damage and their maneuver is increased, especially the new steppe ponies which turn on a freaking dime. The new warhorses and chargers have slightly increased speed but are still slow compared to the normal horses, they have higher armor, MUCH higher charge damage (I did 20-40 charge damage to a guy in light-ish/medium armor) and they can charge through at least 4-5 guys in heavy armor and even more no-armor/light armor guys. Not to mention you get a crap load of new horse skins and a lot more diversity. The OSP also adds Barded warhorses which have various flags and coats of arms.

Normal charge in this game just doesn't feel right. If I have a group of knights follow me and trample a thin line of men, hardly any should be left conscious or alive. I mean honestly, they are being trampled by giant horses, specifically trained to trample men, wearing very hefty armor and going relatively fast. The OSP does a better job of making it a bit more 'real', but it could do for a tad more charge damage.

 

[Puritan]

I have been riding Hunters, but yesterday I bought a charger just to try it out.  I don't know... they seem kind of slow.  They show huge charge damage, but I tend to get about 5 damage with my charge vs. about 80 with my elite scimitar...  I might change back to my Hunters and just dump the charger...?

I've actually had Chargers survive getting hit with a couched lance (and then it got killed by a javelin ;_; ). Somehow I doubt your hunter would be so resilient.

The slow speed does make battles with horsebandits and Khergits (but I repeat myself) kinda frustrating, but I've found that I almost never have my horse die anymore, so I'll trade speed for survivability.

Charge is the (blunt) damage that the horse does when you runover people. It isn't a replacement for using a weapon, but it is a nice way to help out some guy on foot who is surrounded, and I've KO'd routers a few times by repeatedly running them over.

 

[Khalim]

Currently I ride a spireted charger and as a former "hunter/Courser-Rider" I am surprised, that the survivability is much higher. With the right tactic a charger will never die. Immun to arrows, but bolts cause considerable damage(~10) and throwing weapons seem to be the biggest thread. Couched lances are avoidable.

Taking on Searider is much easier with a charger, because if you ride a courser it is very likely that the horse will get killed.

 

[Hughes]

It's good to keep a few spare horses in inventory to speed you up when carrying a lot of baggage, or in case yours gets wounded or killed. If you keep a good variety you can switch it out based on the task. In peacetime I'll switch from a hunter to a courser when traveling through Khergit and Sarranid territory in case I get jumped by horse bandits. (5+ in Riding and a Champion Courser is like warp drive, you can ride circles around steppe bandits - as long as it lives.) In wartime, fighting Khergits I'll use a hunter, against everyone else a charger.

 

[gabriot]

On an open map I use courser, but I go charger if it's an extremely hilly map or a town fight, since I'll be taking more hits with big crowd of footsoldiers around, but w/ the charger's great armor and health I can just sit there and take it while I swipe heads.

 

[manekemaan]

normally charger, when khergits heavy hunter

 

[ianfreddie07]

Heavy Hunters. I dunno why. They seem so well balanced to me.

 

[Kona_Kona67]

I have been riding Hunters, but yesterday I bought a charger just to try it out.  I don't know... they seem kind of slow.  They show huge charge damage, but I tend to get about 5 damage with my charge vs. about 80 with my elite scimitar...  I might change back to my Hunters and just dump the charger...?

If I'm something of a horseman in the campaign, I usually keep horses for different situations.

One thing that you need to know is that Horses (I believe up to six) that are in your bag not being used expand your inventory as they help carry the load. So unless you keep a half-dozen hunters on hand, any alternates are not going to be sitting there like a lump on a log.

I love Hunters, especially Heavy/Champion Hunters. Its just heavy enough to not feel fragile, but not so much that it feels threatening to face down a mixture of Archers/Infantry. Yet at the same time they can get cut out from under me.

When facing infantry-heavy armies, or just really elite armies (Save Khergits) I bust out a Warhorse or Charger. While yeah, they don't really charge for a ton of damage, what they're great with is they can barrel through more troops and keep going at a decent speed. Try to blow through a tight group of infantry with a Hunter and there's a good chance you'll bog down, they'll pull you out of your saddle, hold you down, and tickle the piss out of you. Or stab you, either/or.

If you're having hell with Khergits or just flat out want to keep up, get a Courser/Sarranid/Desert/Steppe horse of your personal flavor. There's slight variation to each. Coursers can and will haul lots of arse, but they're a fragile horse.

Or if you're like me and Roleplay too much, keep different horses because it seems practical for some high-and-mighty lord.

"CHISWICK! FRESH HOOSES!!"

"Wh--What my lord?"

"I SAID FRESH HOOSES!"

 

[levache]

I keep a few of each Hunter, Courser, and Charger on hand. I used to ride a Charger 75% of the time when I played a melee-focused character, but my current one is a horse-archer character (10 PD, MW Warbow FTW !!!), with a Warcleaver for backup... So currently I take out a Hunter 75% of the time, a Courser likely about 20% of the time, and then rarely I'll take out the Charger (usually if I want to just pile into a group of bandits in a village and slice them up with the warcleaver ).

The Hunter is sturdy enough to survive some flak, and fast enough to stay ahead of most horses. I do get it shot out etc fairly often, usually when passing near a large group of sarranid archers for instance... But I'm good with the warcleaver so it isn't so bothersome, and plodding along on a Charger as a horse archer is quite boring ... and the slower you're going the more arrows my character seems to take... which I care about more than the horses .

 

[Default137]

Spirited Courser

I only ever play 2 Handed as well.

I have no idea why I like this horse so much, its got piss poor armor, it can't get in to an extended fight, and it'll sometimes get taken out when I charge large group of Crossbowmen. Yet it can run faster then anything else in the game, and there is something glorious about whizzing by some poor guy on the ground, and hitting him with my battle axe and seeing 500% speed bonus!

I've actually gotten to the point I am an expert at full speed bolt/arrow dodging with a horse.

 

[Turumbar]

I use Heavy Hunters myself. Their speed is decent, good armor, fair charge and high health. Over all with their cost and skill needed they are the best horses. Honestly, champion charges take way too much skill to be able to ride, not to mention 45,000 + to buy one of them is ridiculous.

 

[Lord Brutus]

Champion Hunters do it for me or spirited hunters when champions dont turn up. With riding 6 I can catch everything except some Khergit lancers.

 

[forte712]

I think..
For fighting infantry troops, Heavy Charger is better, because infantry's aim is lower and hit the horse a lot. Also, speed is not much of an issue in this case.
For fighting cavalry troops, Heavy Hunter is better. Charger would be too slow to catch up with most cavalry, and a Courser is too weak to withstand more than a couple hits. For me Heavy Hunter is the perfect middle ground sweet spot.

 

[Lord Doom]

Anything less than a warhorse is just a time bomb IMO. In M&B my favorite was champion warhorse. In Warband, warhorses are now redundant because chargers are now the same speed (they used to be 2 points faster).

It seems most people only put 4 points in riding - pretty incredible since 90% of the time is spent on horseback (except footmen builds). Riding boosts both speed and manoeverability, try 9 in riding and chargers are viable in any situation.

Plenty of blades, but mounts have been neglected in both games!  Horse armours should be available so people can find their own balance between speed and defence.

 

[Khalim]

Right, I also think that the game could easily be better regarding to horses. Why are Charger in every stat(compared with warhorse) better? No tradeoffs? That sucks and limits the players options.

Also its "unfair" that there is no encumbrance due armor. Something like a horse armor would really be a good thing.

If you play as a horse archer you will be best off in increasing strengh a lot and wearing heavy armor, but if you fight on feet you should wear light armor and set a preference in increasing agility, though you are a melee fighter.(speed is essential)

This situation seems to be ridiculous. At least my opinion...

Furthermore I think that fighing on horse has too much advantage(but mainly because of the fact, that the KI cannot counter horses, even with pikes)

And the choice of different horses is really much too limited. Though there are ~8 different types, there are only 3-4 really useable horses(I am quite sure you wont take a sumpter horse or the warhorse->obsolet because of the charger)

Actually there are only these useable types of horses:

-Courser(fast)
-Hunter
-Charger
-Deserthorse/Sarranidhorse(I dont know but here is the same thing with the warhorse-charger, where one horse becomes useless because of the other one, as all stats are superior)

That means only 4 types of horses -.-
Maybe I should really try to get the more horse mod.

 

[Default137]

I'm surprised to see I'm the only Courser fan here.

Does anyone know if you boost riding to 8-9 will the damage boost rise as well? Right now I usually can get between 450% and 500% speed bonus damage with every hit, but if I could get that up to 600-700% with Riding, well that would be a very useful thing.

 

[Hughes]

I use warhorses plenty as they're cheaper. Big difference when you've got eight companions to equip.

 

[Thorkel]

I usually ride hunters or coursers. I've never played a knight-type character so far and thus I'd find using warhorses and chargers unrealistic.