Everything about mounted combat

Everything about mounted combat

This is a transcript of a podcast episode from some months ago.

Honestly, I do not think mounted combat has ever come up in my games. Usually, I GM D&D-style fantasy games, where most of the action transpires in the dungeons or other confined places that traditionally are not very accommodating to mounts. Also, mounts come with some extra bookkeeping, as you have to feed them and sometimes buy gear for them. However, the idea of mounts and mounted knights has always interested me, especially if the mounts are exotic. So, let’s explore all things mounted in GURPS.

The first thing that you should keep in mind when playing a character with a mount is your character’s weight. In many cases it is not very important, but this is not one of them. Not only you have to keep note of your weight, but also the weight of your carried gear and gear carried by the mount itself. It’s a good idea to note down the encumbrance levels for your mount with and without the rider. Basic Set states that very few mounts willingly carry more than their Medium encumbrance. There’s more information on how much horses and camels can carry and need to eat on pages 32 and 33 of GURPS Low-Tech Companion 2.

First, let’s talk about the advantages and disadvantages related to riding or being ridden.

The mount itself, depending on its nature and the nature of your character, can either be bought for money as normal equipment or as an Ally. In that case, it probably should be constantly available, unless it’s a summonable creature.

Animal Empathy is a useful advantage for those who want to calm down a startled horse, or tame a wild beast to use as a mount.

Catfall can be incidentally useful if you get blown out of the saddle often. But it’s probably a better idea to prevent that from happening than to buy Catfall.

Lifting ST is a very useful trait for a mount, as it lets it support heavier riders.

Speak with Animals is a supernatural advantage, but a rider with it would obviously be better at communicating with his mount.

Animal Friend is a talent that contains many skills related to riding and caring for animals.

One of the disadvantages that many mounts have is Horizontal. The important part here is that kicks are penalized, unless the mount has Claws. This does not apply to Hooves, so a horse’s kick damage is at -1 per die for Horizontal and at +1 per die for Hooves. That’s not very intuitive, but it does result in just thrust crushing damage. Iron horseshoes act as heavy boots, giving +1 to kicking and trampling damage.

Now, let’s look through the skills chapter of the GURPS Basic Set and see what skills are useful to riders and mounts.

First we have Acrobatics. If you are performing acrobatic feats, such as Acrobatic Dodge, while mounted, your Acrobatics skill is limited by your Riding skill. Or Driving, if you are riding a motorcycle.

Animal Handling can be used to train and work with animals. The training time depends on the animal’s intelligence. It is described in more detail in Chapter 16.

Armoury (Body Armor) should probably allow working with animal bardings as well.

Brawling is the skill that most of the mounts will use to attack. Some might use Sumo Wrestling instead to perform better slams.

Climbing could be useful to, for example, climb into the howdah carried by an elephant, or ride a sandworm.

Driving is somewhat related to mounted combat, as some of the rules are the same for mounted combat and vehicular combat. Motorcycle jousting could be a thing in your setting as well. Same applies to Piloting for small contragrav gliders.

Dropping could be a useful skill for riders with flying mounts. Same for Artillery (Bombs). Speaking of that, Flight is an important skill for flying mounts, as it lets them traverse much longer distances before tiring out.

If your GM allows that, I think that the Immovable Stance skill should let you avoid being knocked out of the saddle.

Lance is a weapon skill that can only be used while mounted. Lasso has some special rules concerning mounted use as well.

One often forgotten skill is Mount. It is taken by the mount itself and can be used to improve the rider’s Riding skill.

If your mount can also serve as a beast of burden, consider taking the Packing skill.

Of course, the most important skill is Riding. You must specialize by riding beast. Also, note that there’s a +5 bonus to Riding if the animal knows and likes you. So, take care of your mount well and take the Animal Handling skill.

Running is a very useful skill for mounts that need to traverse long distances without tiring. Swimming does the same for aquatic mounts.

Teamster is a tangentially related skill that allows you to drive carriages and chariots.

Veterinary is useful if you want to give your wounded mount medical assistance.

GURPS Basic Set has only one riding-related technique - Horse Archery. GURPS Martial Arts introduces many more.

Back Kick only defaults to Karate, so horses cannot really take it without the Skill Adaptation perk. The Kicking technique, however, can be defaulted to Brawling.

Breakfall can be used to absorb fall damage from being knocked off your mount.

Cavalry Training is an important technique that lets you buy off the -2 penalty for attacking on the same turn as your mount and attacking at high relative speeds.

Combat Riding, again, may be extremely important, as it lets you control your mount in combat better and can be used instead of Riding as a weapon skill limit.

Hands-Free Riding is a must-have technique for mounted archers.

Mounted Shooting can negate penalties for using ranged weapons while mounted and improve the skill limit. The aforementioned Horse Archery technique is just a specific variant of Mounted Shooting used with the Bow skill when riding horses. Mounted Shooting is a more generic technique.

Quick Mount lets you get in the saddle more quickly.

Staying Seated improves your ability to stay in the saddle.

Now let’s talk about mounted combat rules.

First thing we have to keep in mind is that most mounts take up multiple hexes on the tactical map. For example, a horse takes up three. The rider is in the center of a 3-hex mount or the front of a 2-hex mount. Larger mounts may allow the rider to stand up and move around on its back. A horse-sized or larger mount can have more riders behind the one controlling the mount. The controlling rider has an extra -1 to Riding skill in such situations, and the extra riders fall off more easily. When moving multi-hex figures, the head controls the movement, and the rest of the body follows. Also, when a figure two or more hexes in size moves through a smaller one, it is treated as a slam. These rules are described on page 392 of the GURPS Basic Set. Also, many mounts have the Enhanced Move advantage, so it is suggested to familiarize yourself with the high-speed movement rules on pages 394-396 of the GURPS Basic Set.

Page 396 is also where the mounted combat rules start.

To use mounted combat you have to mount your beast first, obviously. This takes two maneuvers - Move to jump or climb up, and Change Posture to seat yourself. Alternatively, you can do it with a single maneuver by making a Riding, Acrobatics, or Jumping roll at -3 or no penalty if using stirrups. If you fail, you fall. This can be improved with the Quick Mount technique.

Dismounting requires a single Change Posture maneuver, if the mount has not moved or moved only a step. Otherwise, you have to jump off with a Move or Move and Attack maneuver and make an Acrobatics or Jumping roll to avoid falling. If the mount makes a successful DX roll to perform a difficult action, the rider must make a Riding roll to avoid being unseated. If the mount fails that DX roll, then it falls, risking breaking a leg and crushing the rider as well.

To control your mount, you must use foot pressure and voice. However, it is better to use hands too, because hands-free riding imposes a -3 penalty to all Riding rolls, and one-handed riding imposes a -1 penalty to all Riding rolls. The Hands-Free Riding technique eliminates these. While the mount is bucking, you also may want to put away your weapon - that requires a Ready maneuver and a DX-3 roll.

Nonsapient mounts without war training are easily spooked in dangerous situations, such as combat. All combat Riding rolls are at -3 for a well-broken mount without war training, and at -6 or worse for one that is not fully broken. War training is a lengthy process that takes a year and makes the mount more expensive. The mount can also receive additional combat training up to three more years to give +1 per year on all Riding and Animal Handling rolls in combat, but such mounts are extremely expensive. Before TL4, mounts are trained to enter the battle and fight. At TL4 and higher, they are instead trained to be reliable transportation, not afraid of gunfire and screams. If the mount has no war training, the rider has to make a Riding+2 roll to make the mount charge into or over an obstacle, onto bad footing, or perform risky maneuvers, unless it’s a life-or-death situation. Failure spooks the mount, but I will talk about spooked mounts later.

It should be noted that the rider and his mount may have different places in the turn sequence - they act separately. At least I have not found anything to contradict that.

If a mount fails a Fright Check or refuses to perform a particular feat, it will usually shy and buck. Regaining control is quite tricky - the rider must make Riding rolls and take Ready maneuvers every second. To calm down the mount, the rider must either make a critical success or three normal successes in a row. If he fails critically or fails three times in a row, he loses control of the mount and rolls on the special table to determine the effects that can be very bad. During this fight for control, both the mount and the rider can dodge, but not use any other active defenses.

In combat, both the rider and mount can attack. The mount usually only attacks if it is war-trained. However, the rider is at an extra -2 to attack if the mount attacked on its last turn. A charging knight can also cause Fright Checks!

A rider uses melee weapons at the lower of his Melee Weapon skill or Riding skill. You can replace Riding with the Combat Riding technique for this purpose, if it is higher. Also, if the mount’s velocity is 7 or more relative to the foe, the attack has -1 to hit, but +1 to damage. This penalty can be removed with the Cavalry Training technique. To use a lance, the rider must have a saddle and stirrups. Lance’s damage depends on the mount’s mass and velocity, not the rider’s, and is calculated as for collisions. Tournament jousting uses blunted wooden lances that break if the damage exceeds 15 points. For jousting tournaments use Lance Sport instead of Lance.

It should be noted that a cavalryman on horseback is effectively three feet above a standing foe, so rules for combat at different levels come into effect - better active defenses, some bonuses and penalties to attack certain hit locations. Also makes leg and foot armor more important, as these hit locations become easier to hit.

Using ranged weapons is a bit more tricky. First, the rider rolls against the lower of Riding or ranged weapon skill to hit. A noisy weapon requires a follow-up Riding roll to prevent the mount from getting spooked. If aiming while the mount moves more than a step, you do not benefit from extra turns of aiming, scopes, and other targeting systems. Surprisingly, mounted shooting in the Basic Set is detailed enough to include tricky shooting, like turning in the saddle to fire at a foe behind you, or hanging on the far side of the mount and shooting over or under it.

In terms of defenses, the mount can dodge, but the rider can make any active defenses. However, if he does not have Riding at 12 or higher, his active defenses are reduced by the difference between 12 and the rider’s Riding skill. That can be quite harsh.

Finally, there’s some extra nuances to mounted combat. If a rider is stunned, he must make a Riding roll at -4 or fall off. If he suffers knockback, he must make a Riding roll at -4 per yard of knockback or fall off, if he has a saddle and stirrups, otherwise he falls automatically. If an attack misses the rider by 1, it hits the mount, and vice versa. If the mount is hit, the rider must roll against Riding minus the shock penalty of the mount to keep it from spooking. High Pain Threshold is a great advantage for mounts!

You should also familiarize yourself with the trampling rules, as they are bound to come up in mounted encounters. They are presented on page 404 of the GURPS Basic Set.

Equestrian gear can be found on page 289 of the GURPS Basic Set. GURPS Low-Tech goes into this topic in a much more detailed fashion on pages 133-135. It also has some additional rules on fatigue when riding and bareback riding.

As I said before, all of this aside from the techniques is in the GURPS Basic Set, while most of the techniques are in GURPS Martial Arts. The latter also has several mounted combat styles, which is cool.

    There’s some additional bits in GURPS Fantasy. It states that riding with and without the stirrups are subject to familiarity penalties. It also has several techniques. Hang From Saddle, Shoot Backward, and Shoot Over Mount mitigate penalties for tricky shooting while mounted. Hang From Saddle can be used without actual shooting too. No-Hands Riding is, I assume, an older version of the Hands-Free Riding technique from GURPS Martial Arts. And there’s Sharp Turn and Chariot Archery techniques.

Animal armor is described in detail on page 117 of GURPS Low-Tech.

    I think that’s all for this post. As you can see, mounted combat is quite complex, adding a new layer to your game, but it can be interesting and rewarding. If you have any experience with mounted combat and chariots in GURPS, feel free to write about it in the comments, I would love to read that. I hope I did not miss anything.