# Mounted Combat *The Stable, Mounts, Barding, and Mounted Combat for Exodus NDS. Source: https://exodusnds.com/sourcebooks/the-stable/mounted-combat* ## The Turn The mount acts on its rider's turn. 1. **The rider's maneuver moves the mount** up to its Speed. 2. **The rider takes an action** as usual. 3. **The mount may attack**, if it is Battle-Trained and the rider directs it. See The Mount's Attack, below. A rider fighting from the saddle against someone on foot at Engaged range adds 1 Boon Die to melee attacks. This does not apply against another rider, against anything of the mount's Scale or larger, or where there is no room to use the height. ## The Charge A rider charges when the mount moves **at least two range bands in a straight line** and the rider then makes a melee attack. - Add 1 Boon Die to the attack. - Add 2 damage, and 3 on a mount with **Shock Mount**. - A weapon with **Momentum** adds its Momentum damage as well: the mount's move counts as the wielder's. Only a **Battle-Trained** mount charges. Any other shies at the last moment: the rider makes the attack with no bonus and adds 1 Bane Die. A mount cannot charge in two turns running. It needs a round to turn and gather. **One charge bonus.** A mount's own trait, a Universe's charging rule, and this rule are the same bonus and do not stack. A talent that improves a charge adds to it. ### The Lance A lance is couched under the arm and aimed with the horse. It attacks at **Short** range, at the end of a charge, as the rider passes. - A lance needs a war saddle and stirrups to couch. - It cannot attack at Engaged range. After the charge, most riders drop it. - On 2 Bane from a lance attack that hits, the lance breaks. ### Receiving a Charge A weapon with **Brace** adds its Brace damage against a charging rider or the mount, at the defender's choice, and the defender attacks first if the weapon has Reach. A mount will not charge home against a line of braced spears or pikes without a Hard Riding check, Battle-Trained or not. ## Shooting from the Saddle A rider who shoots while the mount **stands** adds no penalty. A rider who shoots in a turn the mount **moved** adds 1 Bane Die. A weapon made for the saddle ignores this: the Horse Bow of *The Ranged Armory*, and any pistol or carbine. Reloading a weapon with Prepare takes 1 more maneuver in the saddle. A rider who is also steering with the knees, without a hand on the reins, makes an Easy Riding check to do anything that needs both hands. ## The Mount's Attack A **Battle-Trained** mount with a listed attack may use it once on its rider's turn, against a target Engaged with it. Directing the attack is a maneuver. The rider rolls it, using the mount's characteristics and the skill named in the attack at rank 2. A mount that is not Battle-Trained attacks only when it is cornered or ridden down onto something, at the GM's choice. **Trample.** A mount that charges through a target on foot, of smaller Scale, may make its Trample or hoof attack as it passes in place of its rider's attack. ## Who Gets Hit An attacker chooses the rider or the mount. - A rider gets **no cover** from an ordinary mount. - An attacker on foot, Engaged with a mount of Scale 3 or more, cannot reach its rider with a weapon that lacks Reach. - **Blast** and other area effects hit both. - An attack on the mount that deals Wounds forces a control check at Hard difficulty. **Vehicle-scale weapons.** A mount is a creature. A weapon at vehicle scale multiplies its damage by ten against it, as against a person. ## Unseating a Rider An attacker may spend 2 Boons from a melee hit on a rider to try to unseat him or her. The rider makes a Riding check against a difficulty equal to the attacker's net Successes, to a maximum of Severe. On a failure the rider falls. A weapon with **Ensnare** or **Knockdown** that triggers against a rider forces the same check at Average difficulty in place of its usual effect. A war saddle adds 2 Boon Dice. A flight harness or water saddle makes the rider impossible to unseat, and impossible to throw clear. ## Falling Off | The rider falls from | Result | |:--|:--| | A standing or walking mount | Prone | | A moving mount of Scale 2 | Prone, and an Average Reflexes check or 3 Wounds | | A charging mount, or a mount of Scale 3 or more | Prone, and a Hard Reflexes check or 5 Wounds | | A flying mount | See Chapter 5 | A rider in armour of Encumbrance 4 or more adds 1 Bane Die to the Reflexes check. ## When the Mount Goes Down A mount whose Wounds reach its Wound Points collapses. Its rider falls as from a moving mount. **Pinned.** On a Calamity from the Reflexes check, or 2 Bane, the rider is under the animal: Immobilized until an action and an Average Athletics check by the rider, or anyone helping, gets the rider clear. Under a mount of Scale 3 the check is Hard. **The mount is not dead.** It is incapacitated, as any Elite is. After the fight a Hard Survival or Medicine check, or any healing magic, gets it on its feet at one Wound below its Wound Points. On a failure it cannot be saved. A mount that took a Critical Injury carries it, and a horse with a broken leg is finished whatever the dice say elsewhere. ## Critical Injuries to Mounts A mount suffers Critical Injuries as an Elite does, rolled on the core table. Read results for a rider's limbs as legs, and a result that would make a person drop what is held as the mount stumbling: its rider makes an Average Riding check or falls. ## Fighting from a Platform The crew of a **howdah** or a deck fight as if they were on foot on a small, moving floor. They make no Riding checks. Only the driver does. - They add 1 Bane Die to melee attacks against anyone on the ground, and cannot be reached from the ground without Reach. - They have light cover from an open howdah and heavy cover from Howdah Shields. - When the mount panics, charges, or falls, each of them makes an Average Reflexes check or is thrown out. ## An Example Marta rides a Light Warhorse (Speed 2, Battle-Trained) at Long range from a spearman. She spends her maneuver: Long to Medium counts as two bands, so she moves to Medium. She spends a second maneuver for 2 Strain: Medium to Short to Engaged, two bands in a straight line. It is a charge. She attacks with a Sabre, which has Momentum 2. She adds 1 Boon Die, 2 damage for the charge, and 2 for Momentum. The spearman's Short Spear has Reach and Brace 2: he attacks first as she closes, and adds 2 damage.