Where's the sweet-spot for the herd debuff?

[Gold♥Shield]

I understand you get the herd debuff from having too many work/pack horses as well as livestock, but I just raised an entire army of Khuzait horse archers and my herd debuff was 3.06. I then started adding a bunch of Aserai recruits to make them palace guards for siege defense and my herd debuff went back down to 1.88.

I have a ridiculous amount of horses and have been trying to get rid of my pack animals in favor of regular/war mounts, but it seems with this new party, my carry weight is all off and I'm moving incredibly slow from the debuff.

I read up on the movement speed on the wiki but I still don't understand all the mechanics on why I randomly get such a high herd debuff (not talking about after battles or terrain - I know about the Disorganized or Forest debuffs).

Speed info: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3023963637

Horses: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3023963895
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3023963903

Party: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3023964213

Can someone explain what's going on here? With my old party that was split almost 33/33/33 was Vlandian Sharpshooters, Imperial Legionnaires, Vlandian Banner Knights and my Herd debuff was almost zero and my weight was down to around 12000.

[ShadowFox]

Each infantry can ride a work horse/pack animal reducing herd penalty if you keep about 40% war mounts 30% pack animals and leave 30% of army size open (since you will get more animals and mounts from winning battles) your herd penalty should be negligible or gone entirely

[Gold♥Shield]

Originally posted by Cheeseburger:

Each infantry can ride a work horse/pack animal reducing herd penalty if you keep about 40% war mounts 30% pack animals and leave 30% of army size open (since you will get more animals and mounts from winning battles) your herd penalty should be negligible or gone entirely

So should I start selling my Noble Mounts then? I've been trying to get as many war mounts as possible but leveling up 100 Khan Guards almost demolished my war mount supply.

[Gold♥Shield]

Also, I just dumped my Palace Guards and Khan's Guards in my new city and now my debuff is -3.5. I don't understand why having fewer troops means now I'm apparently slower.

[Kernest]

Originally posted by Gold♥Shield:

Also, I just dumped my Palace Guards and Khan's Guards in my new city and now my debuff is -3.5. I don't understand why having fewer troops means now I'm apparently slower.

Because you didn't reduce the number of horses, so the herding penalty went up.

Each non-horsed unit can handle 2 animals, and each horsed unit can handle 1.

So if you got 200 units, 100 on a horse and 100 on foot, you start getting herding penalty at 300 animals. All animals count towards this.

[Gold♥Shield]

That makes more sense now because my first army was about 70% infantry whereas my current one was about 70% cavalry. Would it be better to start dumping horses in my fiefs when I start raising a new army so I don't get hit with such a bad debuff? Trying to outrun enemy lords is a bit tricky when I'm so slow.

Time to go raise an army of Fians and Legionaries again.

[Kernest]

Yeah, you're clearly carrying too many horses, turn some into meat or sell them.

[Liro Raériyo]

Dont forget about hogs, sheep and cows as they will also contribute to your herding penalty

[Urmel]

the "sweet-spot" of herd debuff is zero / 0

with a party of 100 infantry, you should have 100+ riding horses for max party speed and you can have between 0-100 other animals without getting the herd-debuff.

[Azunai]

I usually try to have 1 work horse (or mule/camel etc.) per soldier in my party. If i have the money, I also buy one mount or war mount for each foot soldier for the "infantry on horses" move bonus.

I sell off or slaughter excess horses to avoid the herd debuff. I also usually sell or slaughter other animals if I looted sheep etc. in battle.

When my inventory is too heavy, it's almost always because my party is carrying thousands of grain they looted from defeated armies. That stuff gets heavy when you carry too much of it. Having a few weeks of food for long sieges is reasonable, but there's no point hauling enough food for the next 3 years around