Captain "Leadership" Bonus

[Shizzle]

Well assuming he was a very good archer, you'd have the best horse archers this side of Mongolia...

I'm pretty sure average archery skills quickly diminish once you get on a horse :p certainly if you still need to learn how to ride:)

[Gustav Kuriga]

Not necessarily.

[De-Legro]

There are a few tricks involved in horse archery, such as exactly when in the horses stride to let loose the arrow. You also need to learn to compensate for your own momentum when aiming. If a skilled archer was also a skilled rider, which is definitively not a given, then it is possible that with some retraining they could make a good horse archer. It is highly unlikely that a good archer could simply sit upon a horse and suddenly be capable though.

[Dante Silverfire]

There are a few tricks involved in horse archery, such as exactly when in the horses stride to let loose the arrow. You also need to learn to compensate for your own momentum when aiming. If a skilled archer was also a skilled rider, which is definitively not a given, then it is possible that with some retraining they could make a good horse archer. It is highly unlikely that a good archer could simply sit upon a horse and suddenly be capable though.

Speaking of horse archers, wouldn't it be awesome if you could get horse archer SF? (They start at the front line but as the enemy gets closer they constantly fall back a row shooting arrows the whole time, before retreating at the back without casualties.

[De-Legro]

Speaking of horse archers, wouldn't it be awesome if you could get horse archer SF? (They start at the front line but as the enemy gets closer they constantly fall back a row shooting arrows the whole time, before retreating at the back without casualties.

Did Europeans extensively use horse archers?

[Tom]

Speaking of horse archers, wouldn't it be awesome if you could get horse archer SF? (They start at the front line but as the enemy gets closer they constantly fall back a row shooting arrows the whole time, before retreating at the back without casualties.

That's not how real world horse archers worked.

[De-Legro]

That's not how real world horse archers worked.

One of the background post by Longmane had a good description of Horse Archers fighting Foot Archers. It should help dispel the idea that Horse Archers were some how untouchable.

[Dante Silverfire]

That's not how real world horse archers worked.

I understand that. However, real battles were also 2-d and not 1-d but it is more difficult to make any change in that regard than we would want.

I know one report of mongolian horse archers would ride in circles near the lines of enemy troops with each archer firing when they were closest to the enemy in the circle, giving them time to prepare another shot as they rode around. Horse archers were notorious for abusing enemy lines while staying highly mobile. They were hard to pursue and did not operate alone, but with the aid of other forces that would then have more freedom of movement as the horse archers distracted the enemy.

[De-Legro]

I understand that. However, real battles were also 2-d and not 1-d but it is more difficult to make any change in that regard than we would want.

I know one report of mongolian horse archers would ride in circles near the lines of enemy troops with each archer firing when they were closest to the enemy in the circle, giving them time to prepare another shot as they rode around. Horse archers were notorious for abusing enemy lines while staying highly mobile. They were hard to pursue and did not operate alone, but with the aid of other forces that would then have more freedom of movement as the horse archers distracted the enemy.

The issue would be "no casualties" element. What other unit type can reasonably expect to take no casualties in a large battle. As written every realm would simply make sure to take Horse Archer elements, which would then end up in some running duel with each other.

In RL Horse Archers would come under attack from the enemies archers. Their fast movement made them hard to hit, but then the return fire also caused them issues, as they had to maintain speed to avoid it, which affected their own aim.

[Dante Silverfire]

The issue would be "no casualties" element. What other unit type can reasonably expect to take no casualties in a large battle. As written every realm would simply make sure to take Horse Archer elements, which would then end up in some running duel with each other.

In RL Horse Archers would come under attack from the enemies archers. Their fast movement made them hard to hit, but then the return fire also caused them issues, as they had to maintain speed to avoid it, which affected their own aim.

Its not a serious suggestion, just thought it'd be cool to have a single unit of them. If they were freely available it'd be very bad for game balance.