Herd Speed Penalties

[Inigo Montoya]

Testing:
The first 37 Sumpter Horses do not incur a herd speed penalty.
38-41 = +0.01
42-45 = +0.02
46-49 = +0.03
50-53 = +0.04
54-57 = +0.05
58-61 = +0.06
62-64 = +0.07
65-68 = +0.08
69-72 = +0.09
73-76 = +0.10
77-80 = +0.11
...90 = +0.14
...100 = +0.17

Similar testing reveals that for cows, hogs, sheep, and unmanned horses, the herd speed penalty is +0.002667 per specified creature. The unmanned part is important. If you have more horses than footmen, they are slowing your movement, albeit marginally so.

I learned about this when I thought I'd engage in a bit of speculative horse trading. When you try to run around the map with hundreds of horses, you end up crawling along. I love this!!! I feel this was well designed. I don't know if this is how it worked in the first iteration of Mount and Blade, but I give the designers props on this.

[suppa]

My men would like a word with you about your purse and your belongings.

[Inigo Montoya]

Exactly! The bane of any merchant is the old saw, "a lack of speed kills."

[Inigo Montoya]

Further testing on speed reveals cavalry adds 0.0775 to speed per unit and footmen who are able to ride a spare horse add 0.03875 to speed.

[tzeneth]

Herd size is based on the number of people in your group, to my knowledge. Did you test those numbers with different amounts of party size?

[katzenkrimis]

Horses can really pile up if you fight a lot.

I try to keep a nice balance of war horses and regular horses. Sell the rest.

No sumpters, mules or animals are even needed in this game.

Just a large supply/variety of food.

[Inigo Montoya]

Originally posted by tzeneth:

Herd size is based on the number of people in your group, to my knowledge. Did you test those numbers with different amounts of party size?

No, I didn't think of testing that! Will do!

[Inigo Montoya]

Originally posted by katzenkrimis:

Horses can really pile up if you fight a lot.

I try to keep a nice balance of war horses and regular horses. Sell the rest.

No sumpters, mules or animals are even needed in this game.

Just a large supply/variety of food.

True, but isn't it nice to know that you can have 37 sumpters without penalty? 8 )

[Fryskar]

Originally posted by Inigo Montoya:

Originally posted by katzenkrimis:

Horses can really pile up if you fight a lot.

I try to keep a nice balance of war horses and regular horses. Sell the rest.

No sumpters, mules or animals are even needed in this game.

Just a large supply/variety of food.

True, but isn't it nice to know that you can have 37 sumpters without penalty? 8 )

Its all relative to your party size.

[esilva9]

so basicly you need to hundreds of horse without people to ride to actually have a noticable speed penalty, its probably like prisoners their is a thresh hold where if the herd animals outnumber you by a certain amount the army slows big time

[Fryskar]

Originally posted by esilva9:

so basicly you need to hundreds of horse without people to ride to actually have a noticable speed penalty, its probably like prisoners their is a thresh hold where if the herd animals outnumber you by a certain amount the army slows big time

Only if you have hundreds of troops.
You quickly will feel it once you got 2-3x your troops number in animals.

[Inigo Montoya]

Well, it all comes back to my earlier observation: "Further testing on speed reveals cavalry adds 0.0775 to speed per unit and footmen who are able to ride a spare horse add 0.03875 to speed."

If you have a huge army on foot and you suddenly add 50 horses, that's going to up your speed 50 * 0.03875 = 1.9375. You'll feel the speed difference! If you purchase 50 hogs, that will slow you 50 * 0.0026667 = 0.1333, which you probably won't notice. If you have exactly the same number of horses as footmen, then you buy 50 extra horses, your speed will drop 50 * 0.00266667 = 0.1333, and you will only barely notice.

Lessons?
-You should for sure have 37 Sumpter Horses, minimum. They are dirt cheap (~25), so it will cost you less than 1000.
-You should always make sure to have enough horses for your walking troops to be able to ride.
-And you should be wary of massive herds of hundreds of animals because it will slow you down to a crawl.

[Naylind]

everytime after being capture i get into the speed section a constant -3.99 Herd malus on speed so basically everytime you pay your own ransom invevitably someone even the slowest snail on the earth capture you again and again, another campaign where i'm stuck at the enemy prison and even if my liege make peace with them, bandits can still catch me no matter what i do.

[Nightwolf]

there are perks to offset party speed penalties, they can add up if you get enough of them. speed is something to be mindful of if you are still just a small fry though.