Summary
Mounted troops. Cost 2AP. Move 400p on road, 500p in good going, 200p in bad going. Combat factors are +3 vs foot or Stronghold, +3 vs mounted.
If they lose a close combat when they are in bad going, then they are destroyed. Otherwise they recoil.
If they are doubled in combat they are destroyed.

Jeff Bolton writes:
Anyone who plays me regularly knows that rRiders are my absolute favorite "basic" troop element. I like the combat factor of 3 and Movement Rate of 500. I also like the fact that blades (for one) defend at a reduced rate against riders.

My favorite tactic with riders is to team them up with a hero in groups of three. One or two of these groups will move to a flank while the rest serve to pin the enemy line with the threat from their fantastic movement rate. If this doesn't seem to work, I simply line up and charge into the enemy. I resolve the hero versus whatever combat first. Then, with the advantage of the overlap (heroes always win, right?) and the rider's basic combat factor of 3, other combats are likely to go my way.

Chow Li writes:
I like riders. My first army was a rider army (Generic Nomad). Now I use them as support though, rather than the main body.

Riders are good for those end runs to try an envelopment or rolling up a flank. Their speed makes them a natural for those kinds of moves.

Once again, riders are good for the 'ole "buttox of death".

Riders are also good for new players because they move far and, like spear, have one combat strength against all comers. They do have a weakness though. Their +3 makes them easy to roll up on an exposed flank. Even a supported horde can do this at even odds. Turn them and they have noplace to go but home.

Joel Gregory writes:
(1)Riders and artillery may not be a good match if you are the attacker.

(2) Do not let your riders out run the rest of the army. In the second game with Jeff, the army consist of shooters and riders. If playing the game again, I would switch the position of the two types of units, shooters along the edge of the game board and riders to the middle.

Strengths of riders is that recoil more in loss than die, whereas knights would die on some of those combat losses where riders only recoil. Two, they do have speed, which is the same speed as a hero, making them excellent assistants to hero elements. One weakness is their inability to deliver a power punch to a single element head on.

Back to The Stronghold