Mounted Combat Systems

Mount Control Ratings
Mounts have an innate control rating. If the rider’s Ride skill is equal to or greater than a mounts control rating, they do not have to roll to control the mount unless the situation is truly unusual. Otherwise, controlling a mount in combat requires a Wits + Ride roll, difficulty is the mounts control rating +1, usually requiring a mounted character to split his die pool in order to accomplish anything in combat.
Control Ratings of Mounts These ratings are typical, but they are not universal. Every breed has a few members that are unusually stubborn or unusually cooperative.
Animal Control Rating Hippocampus 2 Typical Horse 3 Warhorse 3 Mule 4 Pegasus 4 Unicorn 4 Griffin 5

Melee Combat from Horseback A mounted warrior is limited by his Ride skill. On horseback (or some other mount), a mounted character’s effective Melee rating is limited to whatever his Ride skill is. Thus a character with Dexterity 3, Melee 5, and Ride three would only roll six dice when attacking from horseback.
On the plus side, opponents on foot attempting to attack a mounted character suffer a huge disadvantage from a lack of height. They suffer a +3 difficulty penalty unless using a pole weapon.

Ranged Combat from Horseback
Like with melee combat, a character’s effective Archery score cannot be higher than his rating in Ride. Archery from a moving horse is difficult. A character on a slow moving horse suffers a +2 penalty to ranged combat attacks. A character on a trotting or galloping horse suffers a +4 penalty to ranged combat attacks. If a character has the advanced training Merit, Horse Archer, he suffers only half the penalty, +1 or +2 respectively.

Being Thrown from Horseback and How to Avoid It
If a character is struck while riding on horseback, they need to make a reflexive Stamina + Ride roll to remain in the saddle. Difficulty is variable but a good rule of thumb is the difficulty is the damage successes before soak.
If the horse is struck while someone is riding it. The rider needs to roll Wits + Ride, difficulty 6 if the horse is bruised, 7 if the horse is injured, 8 if the horse is wounded or 9 if the horse is crippled or incapacitated. One success is enough to dismount without taking damage or falling down. Two successes is enough to not drop a weapon and three successes means the rider can stay in the saddle if he wishes. Failure means the character is thrown from horseback and suffers two to four dice of damage. A botch makes the damage lethal. Armor is only half effective against this sort of damage.

Using Lances
Using lances is difficult and punishing work. Characters need Ride 3 and Melee 3 to be able to effectively use lances. Characters with Stamina 1 or the Puny flaw are limited to light lances.
A character using a lance suffers as many dice in bashing damage as he inflicts lethal damage on his foe. This is damage is fully soakable. A botch inflicts four dice of damage on the lance wielder as the weapon splinters and narrowly avoids impaling him. In both cases the rider needs to make a reflexive Stamina + Ride roll to remain in the saddle. A failed attack with a lance merely means the attack misses. No roll to stay in the saddle is necessary if the attack misses.

Mounted Combat Maneuvers
Lance Thrust Lance thrusts are not a common combat maneuver. The wielder thrusts the lance with his own strength while the mount is stationary or moving slowly. This can only be accomplished with ordinary or light lances.
The character only suffers a potential mishap on a botch, requiring a Dexterity + Ride roll to remain in the saddle.
Dice Pool: Dexterity + Melee
Base difficulty: Normal
Base damage: Strength (lethal)

Mounted Charge with a lance
Characters roll Dexterity + Melee to hit their force on a lance charge. A hit inflicts lethal damage on the target and bashing damage on the wielder. Characters struck by a lance need to make a Stamina + Ride check to remain in the saddle as they would taking any other hit. Beings on foot need to make a reflexive Strength + Athletics roll (difficulty 6) to avoid being knocked down.
Dice Pool: Dexterity + Melee
Base difficulty: Normal
Base damage: Normal (lethal) to the enemy. Normal (bashing) to the wielder, Special

Mounted Charge with a melee weapon
Characters roll Dexterity + Melee to hit their opponent. If the horse is moving at half its maximum speed or greater, the momentum allows the wielder to apply greater force, two dice of bonus damage. Lances already factor this in so they do not get the bonus damage.
Dice Pool: Dexterity + Melee
Base difficulty: Normal
Base damage: Normal damage + 2, Special

Trampling
A mounted warrior may incorporate a horses attacks into his arsenal encouraging the horse to bite, kick, or trample humanoid foes on foot. A mounted warrior needs to roll Manipulation + Ride (difficulty 6) to convince his mount to attack.
A single success means the horse attacks to the best of its ability with its full Dexterity + Brawl. A failure means the mount chooses not to. A botch indicates that the mount exposes both the rider itself to counterattacks. Both are difficulty -3 to hit in this case.
Targets can dodge a horses attacks if they see it coming but they cannot gain benefit from shields. Targets that are prone can still try to dodge but they are much easier for the horse to hit, -3 difficulty to their attack roll.