Slams: My Horse Keeps Falling Down?

weevis · 12-28-2023, 10:17 PM

I was trying to play Caravan to Ein Arris using the rules in the Basic Set about horses and camels. I'm not familiar with these rules and I could use a sanity check. I am following the rules for attacking with my horse. I am hoping to slam and trample. I have to knock down my target to trample them due to my mount's SM, so slamming them to knock them down comes first.

Slams work kind of as I would expect if the attacker does significantly more damage dice, e.g. either because the attacker has a higher velocity or because the attacker has a higher HP, or both.

However, when I try to use my horse to slam someone near me, say 1 or 2 yards away, and I end up with low and equal damage rolls for both sides, the attacker seems like they fall down way too much. I am wondering if I am doing something wrong in my reading of the rules.

Let's say I have a trained cavalry horse from the Basic Set (HP 22). I am facing a HP 11 person. We are in a crowd and near each other, so I only move 1 yard to slam him. He moved 2 yards toward me on his last turn. My issue is with the falling down rule, so let's stipulate that my attack roll succeeds and his defense roll fails.

The damage formula of (HP x velocity)/100 gives both sides the same 1d-3 cr damage roll.

Next, here come the falling down rules. The rule requiring the target to roll to keep his footing seems OK. The problem comes from the 2x rule that follows it on p. B371. It says: "You knock him down automatically if you roll twice his damage or more. If he rolls twice your damage or more, though, you fall down instead!"

That last part has me scratching my head. If both sides get a 1d-3 cr roll, I think my attacking horse automatically falls down 31% (11/36) of the time if I slam a nearby person as in this example. Low speed slams seem to be a great way to fall down. Did I mess up something or is that just how it works?

Also, I can reduce the chance to fall down if both sides do more (but still equal) damage, right? Which seems weird. That is, if both sides get 2d damage (or 10d for that matter) -- my attacking horse will be somewhat better able to keep its footing because of the probability curve for multiple dice. So my attacking horse's footing is surer when ramming another horse head-on at top speed vs. body-checking someone next to them in a crowd.

As a side problem, since a falling horse has to roll DX+1 or break its leg (p. B397) and my horse has DX 9, adding this probability (1/2) with the prior one I was complaining about (11/36) means that whenever I make any contact for a low-speed slam in a crowd, there's a 15% chance my horse has to be put down forever with a broken leg. The mounted combat rules specifically suggest charging with my trained warhorse (p. B396), but these slams seem catastrophically dangerous for the attacker.

I did read the other threads on slams, but I didn't find this issue discussed. (One conversation got close but spiraled off into a debate about whether horses could actually be trained to run into people. So feel free to make the example a centaur if that helps!)

I really appreciate your advice.

12-28-2023, 10:17 PM	#1
weevis Join Date: Jul 2015 Location: 3.165, -3.048, -0.0818	Slams: My Horse Keeps Falling Down? I was trying to play Caravan to Ein Arris using the rules in the Basic Set about horses and camels. I'm not familiar with these rules and I could use a sanity check. I am following the rules for attacking with my horse. I am hoping to slam and trample. I have to knock down my target to trample them due to my mount's SM, so slamming them to knock them down comes first. Slams work kind of as I would expect if the attacker does significantly more damage dice, e.g. either because the attacker has a higher velocity or because the attacker has a higher HP, or both. However, when I try to use my horse to slam someone near me, say 1 or 2 yards away, and I end up with low and equal damage rolls for both sides, the attacker seems like they fall down way too much. I am wondering if I am doing something wrong in my reading of the rules. Let's say I have a trained cavalry horse from the Basic Set (HP 22). I am facing a HP 11 person. We are in a crowd and near each other, so I only move 1 yard to slam him. He moved 2 yards toward me on his last turn. My issue is with the falling down rule, so let's stipulate that my attack roll succeeds and his defense roll fails. The damage formula of (HP x velocity)/100 gives both sides the same 1d-3 cr damage roll. Next, here come the falling down rules. The rule requiring the target to roll to keep his footing seems OK. The problem comes from the 2x rule that follows it on p. B371. It says: "You knock him down automatically if you roll twice his damage or more. If he rolls twice your damage or more, though, you fall down instead!" That last part has me scratching my head. If both sides get a 1d-3 cr roll, I think my attacking horse automatically falls down 31% (11/36) of the time if I slam a nearby person as in this example. Low speed slams seem to be a great way to fall down. Did I mess up something or is that just how it works? Also, I can reduce the chance to fall down if both sides do more (but still equal) damage, right? Which seems weird. That is, if both sides get 2d damage (or 10d for that matter) -- my attacking horse will be somewhat better able to keep its footing because of the probability curve for multiple dice. So my attacking horse's footing is surer when ramming another horse head-on at top speed vs. body-checking someone next to them in a crowd. As a side problem, since a falling horse has to roll DX+1 or break its leg (p. B397) and my horse has DX 9, adding this probability (1/2) with the prior one I was complaining about (11/36) means that whenever I make any contact for a low-speed slam in a crowd, there's a 15% chance my horse has to be put down forever with a broken leg. The mounted combat rules specifically suggest charging with my trained warhorse (p. B396), but these slams seem catastrophically dangerous for the attacker. I did read the other threads on slams, but I didn't find this issue discussed. (One conversation got close but spiraled off into a debate about whether horses could actually be trained to run into people. So feel free to make the example a centaur if that helps!) I really appreciate your advice.