About horse charge

[Digglez]

You're delusional. Barbaro broke his leg at the frickin Preakness. In other words, just RUNNING. That doesn't even factor in running into a 300 lb mass of steel armored human braced against it. You're living in some fantasy Hollywood movie if you think that said horse will simply just spread his legs and avoid hitting the guy after, oh wait, HITTING the guy.

A CHARGER is fully armored, ie protected. We are talking about UNARMORED horses, which WILL be unridable after you try trampling an armored knight, whether the knight survives or not it irrelevant. The horse itself is done.

Learn2Physics 

Ya comparing some prissy 1k lb. RACING horse (running as fast as possible) to a CHARGER WARHORSE makes ALOT of sense, only about a 500-1k lb difference between the two.  Like comparing the bones of a 12yr old vs a UFC heavyweight.

You realize what a cavalry charge in ancient/medieval times was?  They RODE DIRECTLY INTO INFANTRY LINES AND CRUSHED THEM WITH SPEED & MASS, while unarmored.  Armored horses werent all that common in history.

[HarunYahya]

You realize what a cavalry charge in ancient/medieval times was?  They RODE DIRECTLY INTO INFANTRY LINES AND CRUSHED THEM WITH SPEED & MASS, while unarmored.  Armored horses werent all that common in history.

That should close this topic.

[Seawied]

Ya comparing some prissy 1k lb. RACING horse (running as fast as possible) to a CHARGER WARHORSE makes ALOT of sense, only about a 500-1k lb difference between the two.  Like comparing the bones of a 12yr old vs a UFC heavyweight.

You realize what a cavalry charge in ancient/medieval times was?  They RODE DIRECTLY INTO INFANTRY LINES AND CRUSHED THEM WITH SPEED & MASS, while unarmored.  Armored horses werent all that common in history.

did your "high wisdom modifier" conclude that none of those horses got crippled during the process? 

[MouthnHoof]

You realize what a cavalry charge in ancient/medieval times was?  They RODE DIRECTLY INTO INFANTRY LINES AND CRUSHED THEM WITH SPEED & MASS, while unarmored.  Armored horses werent all that common in history.

You realize that you are completely wrong? They were not normally used as bowling balls against pins.

Light (unarmored) cavalry in particular were used against the flaks, opposing cavalry and soft units such archers and skirmishers. In Greek and Roman times the cavalry were positioned at the flaks of the infantry formation to protect them from enemy flakers or be ready to go out flaking.

Even medieval heavy cavalry rarely charged into formations - their greatest disasters happened when they tried that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Golden_Spurs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavalry_charge#Cavalry_charges

Here from Machiavelli:
http://www.online-literature.com/view.php/art-of-war-machiavelli/2

Nor should anyone wonder that a Knot (group) of infantry sustains every attack of the cavalry, for the horse is a sensible animal and knows the dangers, and goes in unwillingly. And if you would think about what forces make him (the horse) go forward and what keep him back, without doubt you will see that those which hold him back are greater than those which push him; for spurs make him go forward, and, on the other hand, the sword and the pike retain him. So that from both ancient and modem experiences, it has been seen that a small group of infantry can be very secure from, and even actually insuperable to, the cavalry. And if you should argue on this that the Elan with which he comes makes it more furious in hurling himself against whoever wants to sustain his attack, and he responds less to the pike than the spur, I say that, as soon as the horse so disposed begins to see himself at the point of being struck by the points of the pikes, either he will by himself check his gait, so that he will stop as soon as he sees himself about to be pricked by them, or, being pricked by them, he will turn to the right or left. If you want to make a test of this, try to run a horse against a wall, and rarely will you find one that will run into it, no matter with what Elan you attempt it. Caesar, when he had to combat the Swiss in Gaul, dismounted and made everyone dismount to their feet, and had the horses removed from the ranks, as they were more adept at fleeing than fighting.

[Casimir]

I dont understand why an unarmoured destrier would do more damage than a warhorse...

[Tequnique]

I think we can conclude that:

1) The unarmoured horses should take damage AS WELL as the footman (the footman should take more damage than the horse)
2) If the footman uses as shield - the shield should absorb some of the impact and reduce damage slightly.
3) The charger - should not take damage due to knocking down a footman.

Comment:
If you think about laws of physics - if you run a courier into a group of footmen - the rider would be catapulted of the saddle
And most likely the horse would stop by it self - even before hitting.
Only a trained horse would charge a group of footmen - trained - and armoured (No living creature will want to get hurt - unless very strictly trained - or not at all)

[Riddaren]

It is only realistic that a horse knockdowns a much smaller creature such as the human.
To those who say knockdown is a cheap way to fight - sure, it is - but it's not hard to avoid getting hit if you are just aware of your surroundings which is not that hard.
Every attempt to bump someone means risking your horse and your life.

Did I mention the down block? It always works, no matter if the thrusting lance aims for your feet or your head. How cheap isn't that?

Also, if you kill a horse running straight at you just 1cm before it is about to hit you, you don't get hit at all...

"Only a trained horse would charge a group of footmen - trained - and armoured (No living creature will want to get hurt - unless very strictly trained - or not at all)"
Good point. I agree. But how would you train it to obey? You can't pick the riding skill obviously but if the CHA and INT attributes would be available you could use one of those for it maybe...

I actually made a post about the free will of horses recently
http://forum.c-rpg.net/index.php/topic,6617.msg104279.html#msg104279