Horse Tutorial (M&B)

Introduction
In Mount&Blade, the horse is one of the most important features in the game. This makes it unique to other games of the genre and also adds a lot of variety to the game. Basically, in Mount&Blade, the horseman is king. If you are on horseback, there is very little that can stop you. But, if you're not careful with your steed, you could soon find yourself under a tide of angry peasants. There are many different types off horses, all for different uses and budgets. From the lowly Saddle Horse to the mighty Charger, there are horses for every warrior.

The uses of horses
Horses are incredibly useful both on the battle map and on the campaign map. On the campaign map, being a mounted warrior gives you a speed boost, regardless of whether your army is entirely infantry. It does not matter if you have a lame sumpter or a spirited courser. Also, if you're planning to go and loot a few villages on your way to your estate, bringing extra horses in your inventory helps to increase your speed, as they act as pack horses. This can save your life and your livelihood if you are travelling through hostile territory.

On the battle map the horse is even more useful. If you're defending, you can ride up to the enemy on horseback to scout them out before the final clash, or if you just want to get down to the fighting, there are many different uses. Steppe horses and Coursers are perfect for horse archery, being manoeuvrable and fast, allowing you circle your enemy and shoot them down before they can reach you. For the knights, Hunters, Warhorses and Chargers are the favoured steed of choice. With a Warhorse or Charger you can carve a path through a mass of infantry without stopping, but these beasts, although hard to stop on foot, are slow and thus are virtually useless for catching horse archers. The lower tier horses are good for getting swings in at the enemy, just jumping in then out again, but should not be used for prolonged melee.

One thing. No matter how powerful your horse is, if you are stopped, it does not make you immune to being mobbed. In fact, it is harder to fight off a mob on horseback than it is on foot. And when charging gloriously at that peasant spearman in with your heavy armour and deadly lance, just remember that if you're not careful, you may end up being the one getting floored and promptly torn apart by a mob of peasants.

Most horses require a number of points in the riding skill to ride.

Tips and things to remember
Although you can be unstoppable on horseback, if you don't watch out, you could end up dead pretty quickly.

1. If you're using a light horse like a steppe horse or courser, don't get yourself involved in melee slogs if you can avoid it. You will end up unhorsed pretty quickly and it's hard to get yourself out of that mess.

2. If you're travelling slowly, you can be stopped dead by a spearman, which can be very annoying if you're trying to snipe on horseback or similar.

3. If charging at someone with a lance, hit their horse if you don't think you can get them, and also be careful if your enemy has a couched spear as well. You could go down just as easily as he could.

4. Look after your horse. No, this doesn't mean give it sugar lumps every day, but in battle, pay attention to how much your horse gets hit. You don't have a hit points bar for your horse, so you can't really know how much damage its taken. If you think it has taken a lot of damage, be careful when attacking.

5. If unhorsed, if you're not used to fighting on foot, try and find another horse. This can be useful and could possibly save your livelihood.

Modifiers for horses
Horses have six modifiers affecting their manoeuvrability, speed, charging power, and health. These are listed below:

Regular
This isn't so much a modifier, as a horse with no modifier. A regular horse of any type will have no positive or negative affects to its base stats. Horses of this type are perfectly decent types to buy, but if you want better, you'll have to spend more cash.

Lame
Lame horses are the worst modifier on any horse you can own. They are most commonly found in loot or when your horse has been 'crippled' (had one too many blows to its legs). These horses have significant reduction to their speed and manoeuvrability, and are also more likely to be killed if struck down again. Faster horses can still run when lame, but Warhorses, Chargers and lower tier horses like Sumpters will not be able to run at all. You can cure a lame horse by keeping it in your inventory for a long amount of time, but when it is healed, if it had any modifier on it before, that will be removed.

Swaybacked
Swaybacked horses are old horses, most commonly found as starting horses for low level adventurers. It is not known if horses can become Swaybacked after long years of service. They are not curable.

Stubborn
Stubborn horses are exactly the same as regular horses, except that due to their nature, they require one higher riding skill point to use. So if a hunter required 3 skill points to ride, a stubborn one would require 4 skill points. These horses are cheaper than their regular counterparts, and have no negative effects apart from requiring a more skilled rider to use.

Heavy
Heavy horses have more hit points, armour, and are more resilient to attacks, but may be less manoeuvrable than their regular counterparts. This variety is good for knights who want to get stuck into the melee and not get unhorsed too quickly. These horses tend to be more expensive, due to their toughness. They also have a higher charge score, which causes them to do more damage when trampling enemies.

Spirited
Considered by many to be the crown jewels of horses, spirited horses are the fastest and most manoeuvrable horse of their type available. These tend to be very rare and when found, are often very expensive to buy, so only the richest adventurers will be able to afford them. Once bought however, they are well worth the cost, since they outstrip every other horse of their type on the battlefield.

Types of Horses
There are many different types of horses, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.

Practice Horses
Practice Horses are what you find in training missions or in the arena. They require no riding skill to use, and are useful in the arena, but not a lot else.

Saddle Horses
Saddle Horses are basically pack horses. They require one skill point to ride and are weak and fairly slow. These horses are normally very cheap. They are most useful to lower the encumbrance given by your stored inventory due to their low price and high avaliability.

Sumpter Horses
Sumpter Horses are a little better than Saddle Horses and are OK for a beginning adventurer. If the adventurer wants to become a decent cavalry warrior however, he/she will want a better horse ASAP. These only require one skill point to ride. These horses are pretty cheap.

Steppe Horses
Steppe Horses are reasonably fast horses and are very manoeuvrable. They are good for horse archery since they can be steered around quickly, but they have a very low charge attack and not very high hit points, so they're not meant for prolonged melee combat. They require 2 skill points to ride. These are reasonably cheap horses in general.

Coursers
Coursers are the fastest horses on the battlefield, but are also the most vulnerable. They sacrifice resilience for speed, so if your courser gets brought down in battle, it is quite likely that it will be killed or crippled fairly quickly. Coursers require 2 skill points to ride. These are the more expensive horses of the low end due to their high speed.

Hunters
Hunters are good heavy horses for most adventurers, possessing a good balance between speed and strength. Hunters require 3 skill points to ride. These are medium priced horses, and good value if you can afford them.

Warhorses
Warhorses are the chain mail clad tanks of the middle ages. Able to carve paths through infantry, they are very tough horses, but also one of the slowest horses available. They require 4 skill points to ride. These are pretty expensive horses, due to their heavy armour.

Chargers
Chargers are the most heavily armoured horses in the game, and have the highest base charging strength of all the horses. They have one of the lowest speeds, though, and their manoeuvrability is relatively low as well. However, their thick armour and high health makes them incredibly tough, and hard to kill.