Where are my horses hoves?

[Nikolai]

Well, solution is obvious. Some horses should not have hoof attack - why would horse archer train his horse to trample. Other horses should have it. Just like it is now.

But by same reconning, light cavalry should be MUCH cheaper. Nomadic horse archers had often remounts - their lifestyle made it possible for each free man to feed many horse - contrasted to Westerners, where it took a village to pay for a few knights.

Right now, horse brothers, for example, are way too expensive. They should be barely more expensive than tribal archers.

[Sombre]

I'm ok with it either way, but I would prefer horse archers simply being cheap, not having the distinction between normal hoof and warhorse hoof, because it introduces another complication for adpating mods to work with CBM. Some cavalry should clearly have strong hoof attacks though - effectively any trained warhorse,.. and most people would agree that light cavalry in basegame are a total ripoff.

[Velusion]

Sombre said:
I'm ok with it either way, but I would prefer horse archers simply being cheap, not having the distinction between normal hoof and warhorse hoof, because it introduces another complication for adpating mods to work with CBM. Some cavalry should clearly have strong hoof attacks though - effectively any trained warhorse,.. and most people would agree that light cavalry in basegame are a total ripoff.

Agreed with everything here...

[Juzza]

That's where light hooves would balance things out a bit. Also we aren't thinking of horse archers here, horses trained for horse archers wouldn't ever need hooves for combat, but light cavalry, I just don't see why not.

[Humakty]

As the only way to represent horse efficiency in battle are the hooves attack, I think they should all have various degrees of it, as in CBM. Normally, a cavalry charge as a huge impact on the cohesion of a unit, which is not represented in Dominions.

Hum, think about it, would you like to be the chap directly facing a 4 to 5 hundred kilos beastie charging at 50 km/h ?

[lch]

I think that being mounted increases action points and defense, doesn't it? Balancing is another thing to discuss.

[Randvek]

Depending on what part of history we are talking about, any horse that can support human weight might be considered a heavy horse. Why do you think chariots were such a big deal way back when?

[Tuidjy]

Not true. The heaviest horses (800+ kg) were arguably never used as warhorses.
Eastern horse archers used horses incongruous with Westerners idea of what a
full-size horse is. Chengis's people rode on horses that were under 500 kg.
Even the fully armored knights of the middle ages only used medium (by today's
standards) horses, as the heavy draft horses of the time were not agile enough.

Given that Dominions mixes time periods, we should assume that all kinds of
horses exist at the same time - from light weight Arabians to heavy Friesians.
It does not make sense that a horse archer will use or train his horse as a
battering ram.

But I wonder whether there is any point in talking realism. In Dominions, horse
archers are a joke, while in Earth's history, they were the bane of everyone and
everything, until the advent of firearms. Yeah, armchair generals will tell you
that Alexander somehow defeated them, and that a combination of pikes and longbows
would have crushed them... whatever.

Speaking purely from a balance perspective, horse archers either should be
drastically reduced in price, or get a 'skirmish' command - advance until in
range, then retreat from closest enemy while reserving points for a shot.
It makes no sense to give them melee abilities. They would never engage, for
example, heavy infantry.