[PvK]

If the mount will fight after the rider is killed (e.g. Gryphon riders, Machakan spiders), then the existing system can give those hitpoints to the surviving unit.

It is true that sometimes a regular mount might be killed before killing the rider, and adding hitpoints to the rider seems to be the current system for representing that.

That's ok, though for the most accuracy, I'd say mounted troops should get the Defense bonus (representing the added difficulty of hitting someone on a horse, since they are high up and may be moving) but not have higher hitpoints.

Ideally, I'd like to see mounts be more like equipment, and so we could have dismounted cavalry, horses recovered after a battle, and re-combining mounts and riders afterwards (rather than currently where you can never re-mount riderless mount units).

PvK