Hitting Enemies From Horseback

[RyanFialcowitz]

Given that the primary point of this game is mounted combat I'm finding this element of the game to be extremely frustrating. If I use a bow it takes dozens of shots to bring down ONE enemy, if I use a sword it never hits them. Many times I have run up alongside an enemy and missed with my sword time and again- only very occasionally do I score a hit and only extremely rarely is it lethal.

So my question is this: What exactly affects the hit percentage when using a sword on horseback? What skills/abilities affect it? Is it just now viable to use a sword? If not what should I be using? What do I have to do to make a bow viable?

Lastly, if there's a mod that addresses these concerns that would be most helpful. Thank you for your time.

- Ryan Paul Fialcowitz

 

[DameGreyWulf]

As far as I know, there's no hit percentage, you're just doing it wrong.

 

[QuailLover]

What bow are you using? Whats your power draw? Whats your mounted archery skill?

Whats the sword you are using? Ect...


there are a lot of different factors...When I first got the game, I was a little pathetic at using a sword from horseback also. It just takes practice.

 

[RyanFialcowitz]

As far as I know, there's no hit percentage, you're just doing it wrong.

Pray tell, what is the correct way of hitting someone from horseback with a sword? I would have thought that be next to them and looking down whilst swinging was enough. Perhaps your post should have included this rather pertinent information, no?

As far as the abilities go every relevant one was maxed out and all points put into the relevant skills. Still missing far more then hitting.

If only end game characters are capable at the primary focus of the game then game has failed in it's primary focus.

To clarify, if the whole point of the game is to whack people from horseback and you can't do it until you have a godly character then the game has just failed and is no fun. I'm sure this could be fixed with a mod if such a mod were to exist.

- Ryan Paul Fialcowitz

 

[joeman]

I will tell you something that is very frustrating.  A lot of time, you close in on someone on horse...you take a swing from behind him thinking that you will kill him....your weapon then miss the body completely like the body temporarily disappear out of thin air and then you hit the shield in front of his body.  In this game as long as your enemy has the shield up, your enemy is protected from all sides.

 

[RyanFialcowitz]

I find I miss shielded and non shielded enemies equally. I will be literally right next to them and hit nothing but air. Obviously it's possible to hit an enemy from horseback so my question is what are the particulars to do it effectively? Clearly there is either come trick to it or some prerequisite stat that I am unaware of.

- Ryan Paul Fialcowitz

 

[Gimpy]

It depends on your one or two handed weapon skill, the length of weapon, and a matter of timing to hit them at the right time.  It is something you need to figure out to do right.

Maybe this thread will help you:
http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,75422.0.html

 

[RyanFialcowitz]

What skill level and/or length is needed to be effective?

- Ryan Paul Fialcowitz

 

[DameGreyWulf]

Are you sure you're even aiming correctly, bow wise? Do you try to follow your arrow's path with your eyes, or do you assume you were close enough and should've hit?

As for swords and the like, pay attention to your weapon's reach, too. I hit nearly every time I swing (yes, I'm counting the times I hit shields). Any time I don't, I either was too far out, was aiming too high, or swung too soon/too late. Same thing for when I was just starting out. It's all really very simple.

 

[Trimaran]

Check your weapons reach. I use heavy voulge on horse, it has good reach and seems to do the job. If you are fighting against cavalry (you are mounted as well)-this is what I do: When one of them is following me I turn left, with the voulge ready to strike (stretched) from the right. Then I make a sharp almost 360 turn (slow down while turning) so that I am at a position where I can hit the enemy horses head. Then I swing as the enemy is coming full speed towards me in a suprised fashion. Result: the horse dies (unless it is a warhorse), or the rider and the horse die Try it. But I always use the fastest horse I can find. To, me the speed of the horse is the most important thing

 

[Gimpy]

I've heard a skill of 90+ to really even have a chance to effectively hit and a weapon length of 90+ to be able to hit most things.  I'm still focused more on the archery/polearm aspect but I haven't had any problems hitting from horseback once I figured out the timing aspect of it.  I always kept swinging too early was my problem.

 

[Swadius 2.0]

There are no in-game skills that will help you with striking anyone on horseback. They'll only vary the damage.

Learning how to do it is a skill in and of itself .

I've suggest starting off with the longest weapon you can swing on the back of a horse (sword or war or similar) and on a slow horse (charger, steppe, or saddle). Work your way up from that, weapons with <90 length are usually very hard to use on horse back against foot targets.
Good anticipation of the AI trooper is needed. IE. you need to know how they would reach to you when you get close so you can put your horse as close as you want (depending on whether or not the soldier has a long weapon and is looking at you).

 

[Lord Leoric of Wercheg]

And if you're hitting a mounted soldier at the back, the speed penalty might be protecting him from taking too much damage.

 

[Oskatat]

you can hit with a skill of 1, but only for minimum damage and you swing slowly

first, look down, practice a bit so you see at what path your swing goes. Next, find an enemy and get very, very close. That is, when your horse's shoulder glances off his shoulder and you see him stagger. This also cancels any shield he's holding up. THAT close. Remember to keep looking down (maybe not completely downward). Also, there are practice yards spread over the land. Use them for "mounted practice". The tactic above is called bump-n-slash (or bump-n-hack)
trying this with a weapon of less than 90 reach is an exercise in frustration

not hitting the broad side of the barn on horseback with arrows is because unless your skill is near 200, better if its higher, and your horse archery up to 5 or so, its indeed nearly impossible to get any kind of accuracy. Put some points in powerdraw to get more damage with any bow or to use a better bow. Move to a nice position, stop your horse, shoot, run when the enemy gets close again

if you have cheats on, you can ease your practice with ctrl-F9, slowmotion

trust me, we all went through this stage, some a bit longer  some shorter

 

[rageshrub]

Weapon length is probably the main issue. If you're using a cleaver, I doubt it will work.

If you're using a sword, scimitar and the like, and are still missing, it's probably a timing issue. Just practice. It's certainly not difficult for a new character to hit, it's a matter of the player being used to the game mechanics.

Practice on looters or at the training ground.

 

[Shishou]

The aforementioned need for good weapon reach and practice cannot be stated enough.

Some issues that I didn't see mentioned: are you lagging when your swings miss?  Weird stuff happens when your framerate drops below 15-20 FPS...I'm pretty sure at that point the game starts treating some of your attacks as if they never happened, or happened but were jammed for no damage.

Are you finding that you have much better success with your forehand stroke than your backhand (that is, can you hit a target on your right side, and are all your misses coming against targets on the left?)  It's a quality of the game that your backhand has less reach, since you can't really extend the swing the same way you can with a forehand.  If so, make sure you maneuver to keep your opponents on your right when using your sword.  Especially for new players, the forehand is very much a more reliable attack than the backhand. 

When you attack, do you hold a swing for a while and then release it when a target comes close, or do you just click the mouse to swing?  I've played this game for a fair bit of time and I still have trouble timing the latter sometimes, since you have to start the swing much farther away from your target than with the former method, and the more distance there is between you and your target when you think "I'm going to take a shot at that guy" and commit to the attack, the more time there is for something to go wrong.

Oh, and definitely don't use the overhand swing against infantry when mounted, even if they're right in front of you; stabbing isn't much use either.  With a sword, you effectively have a weapon blind spot between 11 and 1 o'clock on your horse, so your best options in that case are to maneuver for a better shot or to just run them over.  Conversely, that's the kill zone for a polearm, particularly a couched one.

Archery: if you're shooting from the back of a moving horse and don't have a.) at least 150 points in archery, and preferably more like 200 and b.) 4 horse archery, you're not going to hit anything reliably except enemy horses and maybe their riders, if you're following close behind them.  If you're serious about having a character capable of mobile archery, work towards increasing your horse archery if it isn't already 4-6 (and 6 is plenty,) and raise your archery skill by shooting from a stopped horse or from the ground.

Hope that helps.

 

[Lord Leoric of Wercheg]

The overhead chop is difficult to connect but it deals great damage. I remember killing a dismounted Swadian Man at Arms with an overhead swing. I was very lucky.

 

[Otto of Finmark]

The overhead chop is difficult to connect but it deals great damage. I remember killing a dismounted Swadian Man at Arms with an overhead swing. I was very lucky.

You must´ve had a very long weapon to even hit him with that pathetic snudge of an attack :V

Edit:

If only end game characters are capable at the primary focus of the game then game has failed in it's primary focus.

To clarify, if the whole point of the game is to whack people from horseback and you can't do it until you have a godly character then the game has just failed and is no fun. I'm sure this could be fixed with a mod if such a mod were to exist.

- Ryan Paul Fialcowitz

Actually YOU have failed in not doing the thing right, no stats or skills affect the way you strike from horseback or on foot, they only affect damage and speed at most. Try to look at your enemy and use a long weapon? Just "looking down" doesn´t really do it. Practice makes perfect, this game is usually more based on personal skill than your characters stats.

 

[Oskatat]

on that last part: yes, that is what we are all saying: practice, practice, practice

I count myself a decent player, not too good, not too bad, and i still have issues hitting with a backhand swing from horseback

 

[RyanFialcowitz]

Actually YOU have failed in not doing the thing right, no stats or skills affect the way you strike from horseback or on foot, they only affect damage and speed at most. Try to look at your enemy and use a long weapon? Just "looking down" doesn´t really do it. Practice makes perfect, this game is usually more based on personal skill than your characters stats.

While I appreciate that there is an element of skill to attacking from horseback it should no be so difficult. If my horse is RIGHT next to an enemy it should be not be hard at all to make contact. Obviously, I'm not the sole person who finds this difficult and for the record I can make kills with a sword on a horse- it's just not nearly as effective as it really should be.

My test in the matter all used a sword with a length just about ninety which everyone seems to agree is the minimum length required to connect. I had not, however, considered that on some occasions my opponent may have been blocking and thus it might appear the hit didn't connect. I also had a few of the difficulty settings turned up and lowering them has made normal combat far easier. Hopefully, in the end mounted combat will be similar.

Thank you all for your help- it was much appreciated.

- Ryan Paul Fialcowitz