SP - Battles & Sieges Non-polearm mounted combat is basically useless

Users who are viewing this thread

Due to terrible combat animations and shorter length of non-polearm weapons, it's essentially useless to bring a sword or an axe when fighting mounted. More often than not, the weapon will just sweep right above the head of the target and miss.

In fact, combat animation in Bannerlord is much worse than what it was in Warband. It'd be nice if key mapping can be added for each animation so that the user can at least choose which one to execute,
It takes a higher skill cap to use shorter weapons on cav, but yeah i wish it weren't.
 
Personally i dont really have too much trouble landing hits with 1h weapons and polearms taking prevalence for Cavalry is how it should be.

Historically speaking Swords only work well against less or unarmoured Opponents e.g. Cavalry Sabres when Armour was fading out also fits the Bannerlord timeframe reasonably well. During later Periods where Armour got better and better (swords relegated to sidearms/backups) Horsemen's Hammer/Axe/Maces were quite short and intended for close combat against other Cavalry.

The bigger problem Cav has right now is that Charges do barely any damage, on multiple occasions a Looter somehow managed to block my lance from full gallop with a stick or you get staggered by a rock in full armour at full gallop. lack of Cohesion and keeping formation doesnt help either.
 
Both historically and Warband, 1 handed swords were some of the most popular weapons on horseback, to the point where it wasn't weird to just not bother with a big cumbersome lance, especially in later time periods. That they aren't in Bannerlord is a flaw of the implementation, not a flaw of the weapon.
There's something wrong with the horseback attack animations or hitboxes which is setting one-handers back.

Exactly, I feel the attack animations are just terrible.
 
On horseback, because you're high up off the ground, it makes perfect sense to me that you cant hit anything more than a few feet away from you. A longsword has a blade 2.5 feet long... at the most. And mainly those were considered "hand and a half swords" or bastard swords. Most swords would have blades about 2 feet in length.

I'm sorry for the slight sidetrack but this is simply not true. 24 inches of blade is definitely on the short side.
 
Due to terrible combat animations and shorter length of non-polearm weapons, it's essentially useless to bring a sword or an axe when fighting mounted. More often than not, the weapon will just sweep right above the head of the target and miss.

In fact, combat animation in Bannerlord is much worse than what it was in Warband. It'd be nice if key mapping can be added for each animation so that the user can at least choose which one to execute,

I hate to say it but the problem is you, not the game because initially I was experiencing the same thing. The problem is that this isn't Warband and your timings and distances that you used in Warband don't work here. Took me many hours of frustration to figure that out and then to finally find the right timings and distances. Also, moreso here than in Warband, the weapons characteristics have a lot more meaning. I mean a lance being 20 length shorter than another makes a huge difference in Bannerlord, same with swords or other 1hd melee weapons.

Just to try to help out, one of the easier weapons I found using 1hd from horseback was a Flaux. It is rather long and can only cut so you don't have to worry about the camera angle trying to lock you into a trust animation as much. I found it very useful to learn my timings and distances. Also, the reason you whiffing above their head is you have your camera angle tilted up too much. It seems like the angle is correct but it isn't so try tilting the camera down a bit more. Also positioning is key. You don't want the enemy too close to your horse and you generally want to start your swing just when the enemy comes even with your horses head usually. Again just be mindful that your weapon selection is going to make a hell of a lot of difference with your timings. What works for Sword A, won't necessarily work for Sword B. In fact I would say you are almost better off picking a decent set of weapons and always sticking to them, rather than cherry pick weapons for stats, because the difference WILL throw you off.

Hope this helps.
 
I'm sorry for the slight sidetrack but this is simply not true. 24 inches of blade is definitely on the short side.

A Long Sword has a blade length of 33-44 inches. Scimitars are 30-36 inches. Bastard Sword (Hand-and-a-Half) up to 51 inches give or take. Two Handed Swords typically weren't much longer than a Hand-and-a- half sword but had a longer grip big enough for tow-hands.
 
For me perfecting lance use as a rider was working out as expected - I am able to hit and kill my target. But the overall situation is not better this way.
A couched lance charge makes sense only if done so in unison with a force of other lancers and after the first charge we are back at square one: fighting with a one hand sword from horseback...
I am supporting my troops now by spoiling the enemy lines, just riding through the infantery battles or by diverting archers attention to me until my foot soldiers arrive to kill them.
Do I feel better about the joust charge - Yes. Is it enough to love horse combat - No.
 
I just use a lance for cutting through crowds and relying on my horses charge with my cav behind me, I use my 1h sword for tight situations when I can't get a good thrust with my lance, and for mopping up routed units.
Seems relatively easy to hit people once you get the knack of it, it threw me off at the start a bit I'll admit, but you just have to adapt
 
Due to terrible combat animations and shorter length of non-polearm weapons, it's essentially useless to bring a sword or an axe when fighting mounted. More often than not, the weapon will just sweep right above the head of the target and miss.

In fact, combat animation in Bannerlord is much worse than what it was in Warband. It'd be nice if key mapping can be added for each animation so that the user can at least choose which one to execute,


Just exercise more. Seriously, it is different and sure maybe more tweaking would be nice but I played plenty enough with just a 1h sword and have no problem here. The timings etc. just are different and need new muscle memory. It is not bad just because you are bad at it and need to relearn it because you are used to a different rhythm..
 
As others have said, if you want to use 1h weapons on horseback you have to find the longer, cavalry versions of them. Imperial armies sometimes drop the fine steel paramerion, which is ~116-120 length if I remember right. Much more effective while mounted compared to regular swords that are 80-90 in length.
 
I have a had a much much easier time with my two-handed axe than any polearm while mounted. You can slay multiple people with one swing of an axe.

Two-handed swords seem to me to have broken hitboxes. I tested a two-handed sword that was longer than my two handed axe and I couldn't hit anything. I dont have video but the sword was clipping through enemies. Haven't tried the maces.
 
I won a one/two handed sword in a tournament that kicks ass while mounted as long as I wield it two handed. One handed weapons do indeed suck when used on a horse. Probably a little bit more than they should. You just have to get so close that even looters will butcher your horse before you can get a hit in.
 
A Long Sword has a blade length of 33-44 inches. Scimitars are 30-36 inches. Bastard Sword (Hand-and-a-Half) up to 51 inches give or take. Two Handed Swords typically weren't much longer than a Hand-and-a- half sword but had a longer grip big enough for tow-hands.

That might be correct to some extent. However, what you're referring to as a "long sword" is most likely more commonly known as an arming sword. A long sword in common terminology is a sword used with two hands and would be incredibly cumbersome to use effectively with only one hand.

Generally, in the later middle ages the terminology follows approximately the following order of size but there can be some internal variation between the categories.

Short blades (knives, daggers, shorter swords) < Arming swords (sometimes called knightly swords) < Sabres (also called scimitars in some parts of the world) < Longswords (can later also refer to swords of war or "greatswords")
 
I think it is fine if you are having accuracy issues using a shorter weapon while on horseback. This game is basically a simulation and it should have realistic combat, every weapon shouldn't be balanced to each other 100%. It kind of sucks when you have character progression and skill trees for weapons so I can understand that it is frustrating if you are going for a specific build on paper but in practice its not effective due to physics.

I think the majors points that should be implemented regardless is to balance physics and realism, not to balance statistics and roles. If you are are on horseback with a short weapon: you SHOULD have an issue reaching infantry for an attack (and if moving at full speed, you SHOULD have an issue timing such a precise attack of a short weapon to someone's head). The balance to this for realism is: infantry SHOULD also have a very hard time reaching you with their short weapons (mostly aiming at the feet) and also have to use precision attacks to hit someone moving at full speed on a horse, however there is one massive disadvantage of infantry versus cavalry in this situation: infantry is targeting the legs/feet and cavalry is targeting the head. The advantage to infantry is that the horse SHOULD be a fairly easy target regardless of speed (and the horse is essentially a massive shield and adding a secondary bar of HP to an infantry unit and once depleted will be an infantry unit, the cavalry unit should be cautious and aware of what will happen if he loses his horse and bring a weapon that will allow him to do more than run around swinging a weapon at 50mph trying to reach someone 5 feet away with a 3-foot weapon).

However, shorter weapons SHOULD seem appropriate with cavalry versus cavalry and NOT intentional for jousting someone that is using a pole-arm (especially a couched lance), but in attempt to ride alongside another cavalry unit that cannot fight back comfortably due to swinging motions versus piercing motions AND being at a distance that is ideally closer than any infantry unit can get.

Now a massive disadvantage for a horse regardless of cavalry weapon is that the horse is closer to the infantry unit than the rider is. This means that infantry (with the same weapon as the cavalry unit) can attack the horse before the rider can attack the infantry unit (this is how distance works physically and in real life nothing can change that due to the laws of the universe). If a cavalry unit is using a sword and an infantry unit is using a pole-arm, that massive disadvantage is now exponentially worse. This is how it should work.

It is not reason enough to say: "I like swords. I like horses. Swords on horses should be just as good as anything else.". Otherwise it would be just as logical for me to say: "I like daggers. I like horses. Daggers on horses should be just as good as anything else.". I could use other objects such as guitars and yo-yos as well. On paper I can make anything balanced with math, but logistically and physically things need to make sense and having a longer weapon on a horse (whether it is piercing or swinging) makes more sense if you are trying to use reach and speed (which is the advantage that a horse is giving you) to your advantage.
 
The best weapons for "drive by" swinging I found so far are:

Polearm:
  • Warrazor: 155 Damage, 205 Length, 62 Speed, 52 Handling
  • Rhomphalia: 169 Damage, 203 Length, 69 Speed, 59 Handling
  • Voulge: 188 Damage, 143 Length, 76 Speed, 63 Handling
>> The twohanded polearm weapons Warrazor and Rhomphalia have a really good length for swinging and can use this to mitigate the length penality for being twohanded.

Two Handed:
  • Heavy Executioners Axe: 133 Damage, 138 Length, 76 Speed, 69 Handling
  • Southern Broad Kaskara: 115 Damage, 125 Length, 96 Speed, 87 Handling
  • Falx: 126 Damage, 111 Length, 102 Speed, 91 Handling
>> The twohanded Heavy Executioners Axe has also good length and should work best with additional perks like "Multi-hit" for killing multiple enemies in one swing.

One Handed:
  • Southern Broad Kaskara: 79 Damage, 125 Length, 79 Speed, 80 Handling
  • Long Fine Scimitar: 78 Damage, 120 Length, 82 Speed, 83 Handling
  • Fine Steel Cavalry Broadsword: 75 Damage, 117 Length, 84 Speed, 86 Handling
  • Falx: 91 Damage, 111 Length, 87 Speed, 88 Handling
>> The first 3 onehanded swords have better length, but I prefer the Falx for the higher damage and speed. It also can be used in onehanded and twohanded mode.
 
Coming from Warband I had difficulties in the beginning but once I really understood the physics based combat it got much easier.
Now I can basically use any weapon from horseback with great success.
 
Single player:
OP, sorry, but you are basically completely wrong. If you have a shorter 1h weapon on Horseback you are not meant to charge another enemy with a polearm. If they are mounted, you maneuver behind or to their side until you can close, and then maintain close combat with them engaged in a duel. You will win. I do this all the time. I'm not big on lances.

If they switch to a bow, make sure you ALWAYS close on their right side.

If you have shield, you are sure for the win.

Trick is making sure you either have the most maneuverable or fastest horse. If fastest, choose an approach angle and gauge their course. Close in. If most maneuverable, close in and maneuver so you are in their rear left or right quadrant use a steady gate that allows you superior turning. Use side stepping and quick break or acceleration.

If they are on the ground with a pole-arm, you'd best dismount. Then you are superior, unless outnumbered.


Mulitplayer:
You're not completely wrong.
 
Back
Top Bottom