Blood & Wine: Horse Race quest are damn near impossible because mounted combat is ♥♥♥.

[PinhaT]

I love the new DLC, but it has brought forth even more so how bad the horse combat is in game. For those who don't know, and don't worty, I'll be sure to add a spoilers bar to this, The race requires that you race with a time limit and in order to keep your time extended you must hit dummy targets with your sword and hanging targets with your crossbow. This is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, as the time depletes at a substantial rate and the mounted combat's targetting is balls, snapping to either side enemies are on. There are two glaring problems with this system: the first being that you have no control over which side you want to swing from and thus you sometimes might aim left from the start but lets say you want to swing right.

Well because of this you'll have to position yourself on the left of an upcoming target however because of how stiff the controls are for horses, you may find you've varied often too far from melee range and thusly the second problem, when to strike. though time slows down when you hold your strike on horseback there is no clear indicator of when to release. Not even the most basic of deductions as simply as letting go before you pass the target can verify that you hit your mark and sometimes, get this, hitting your mark will still not hit your mark as Geralt swings so lowly while on horseback that your target may as well be a dwarf-sized air elementals because that's surely all you be hitting with your blade.

This entire part of a secondary quest in the DLC is a portruding blemish on an overall amazing expansion to the game, and it only brings to light a side of the game that lacks polish. Please test that the horse combat works 100% while moving before going to try new ideas with it. It's more fustrating than fist fights that add extra foes in tight areas just for the sake of a "challenge" until you realise that every brawl can be beaten regardless of their difficulty with the same strategy.

EDIT 1/3/19: For those who are still looking up this thread after 2 years, CD Project Red patched the hit detection issues almost a month after the DLC was released back in 2016. I wasn't the only one having the issue of hitting targets on horseback; it was a known issue and they fixed it. That doesn't mean that you can swing willy-nilly now, and you will still have to time your strikes correctly, but when the DLC was released, Geralt swung really low and close to Roach and there were prior issues with determining the side he swung on while riding. It's been fixed for years now. The Crossbow thing wasn't a big issue, but I found that you had to manually equip bolts and such before the challenge back then. Shouldn't be too big a deal but my issue was the mounted sword combat primarily, which was, for emphasis, real and later fixed. Now you just need to time your strikes like the challenge was meant to be. No, I don't use any mods, and I haven't played the game in years, even though I still have it installed. It's a great game. If you're still having issues hitting targets now after said fixes, then it's something new and something else entirely.

[Iry]

Had the same problem. I reduced the difficulty, which added more time to finish the quest.
I was able to finish it without hitting ANY dummies.
You still need to shoot the crossbow targets, though.

[*D4rKsKy*]

My horse just frozen in time with that quest i cant even do it lol, neither i cant get off roach, quest is broken for me.

[Kimbo81]

Yup, I am stuck on Roach too while trying to practice with Gaylliume.

[Kash]

If you hold the attack button on the horse before you reach the target, it goes into slow motion when you come near the target which makes it a lot easier to hit the target by simply releasing the attack button. I did this on Death March. And yes, before I realized this, I was having a lot of trouble with this too :)

The crossbow targets aren't as bad - just means you have to start trotting with the horse while aiming but the added time you get is worth it. I missed about 2 or 3 targets during my run and still completed it.

[Apoc]

I don't think I tested it but I'm pretty sure they said you can also shot dummies, if it's easier for you to try. I also found that always hitting the target with your right side is easier since Geralt is right handed and seems to have better range/hitbox. I don't know what they did with those dummies but they are harder to hit than moving bandits.

[Toneloc]

Originally posted by Kash:

If you hold the attack button on the horse before you reach the target, it goes into slow motion when you come near the target which makes it a lot easier to hit the target by simply releasing the attack button. I did this on Death March. And yes, before I realized this, I was having a lot of trouble with this too :)

The crossbow targets aren't as bad - just means you have to start trotting with the horse while aiming but the added time you get is worth it. I missed about 2 or 3 targets during my run and still completed it.

Dont you need to upgrade to get the slo mo targeting with your crossbow?

[laguna82]

At first I was almost about to smash my keyboard and X-Box One Pad retrying this sh**ty quest, but I beat this part and figured out how to win. I just cleared this part in DEATH MARCH.

Here's the best tip, for any of those who (might) suffer and are googling desperately (again, I cleared this part in DEATH MARCH and this tip works perfectly):

1. When you are becoming closer to a sword smashing object, SERIOUSLY, WALK YOUR HORSE. OR STOP RIGHT NEXT TO IT IF YOU MUST. Even if you slow down and stop eventually to smash with sword, successful hit gives you A LOT OF TIME BACK (MORE THAN CROSSBOW OBJECT). 9 out of 10 the reason why most people suffer with this horse racing part is because you feel pressured by timer and you want to smash an object with sword while you are running fast. Well, here's the best tip you WON'T be able to smash down with sword WHEN you are running fast. I think even CDPR recognized this, and that would be probably why if you smash down a sword object it gives you a LOT of time back. Whenever I found a sword object coming nearby, most of the time I walked my horse at lowest speed and eventually I stopped right next to the object and smashed it down, THEN started riding again at full speed: even after I slowed down it still gave ABUNDANT time back.

2. USE KEY BOARD AND MOUSE JUST FOR THIS PART. Crossbow object also becomes MUCH easier. Honestly you won't find too much trouble with crossbow object.

[超高校級のEther]

Do it slowly. When approaching the target, don't press shift.

[QueryInterface]

The trick is passing as close as possible to the target - damn close, toching with your horse. In this case you can strike dummy target even on full speed (though I would recommend to reduce the speed). It took a lot of my nerves (and almost a smashed keyboard) to figure it out.

[Pleby]

I can't even use my crossbow, just comes up with "You can't do that right now"

[Revisor]

I have the same problem, can't shoot the crossbow during target practice in Blood&Wine. I play with the W3EE mod, do you by chance use it too?

[Revisor]

ThePlebyPleb, after various experiments I found out that if I manually equip the most common bolts (I had broadhead bolts equipped before, then I equipped bodkin bolts), suddenly I can shoot.

[Revisor]

Just a tip for those who can't smash the dummies: Hold the attack button, go into the slow motion mode, and release at the very last moment! You must not release the attack button too far in front of the dummies, the swing will miss (even though graphically it looks like should hit).

Release it when you are almost at one level with the dummy.

[PinhaT]

Originally posted by BuzzardBee:

To the OP, yes, they are damn near impossible to complete successfully. That's why nearly everyone who owns Blood and Wine has been able to complete them successfully. You just suck at it.

This thread was made more than two years ago when B&W first came out and there were actual glitches and issues that made mounted combat unreliable at best in the base game (issues with mounted combat were already in the game and only emphasized by this DLC when it realized). The game has had numberous patches since then, and the mounted combat had some fixes as well, mostly related to hitbox detection (yes, there were hitbox detection issues with swinging your sword on horseback where Geralt swung really low and close to roach; they were fixed not even a month afterwards, check the patch notes from then).

To not only see that you've responded to this even though it was posted years ago, but to see you've responded as if it was made recently is just beyond idiocy. Like, it's not even a post that's within the first 10 pages of the forums tab for this game, meaning you were in the forums of a years old game digging around for something to sh1tpost on, saw this from 2 years ago, and went "The mounted combat works fine. I did the quests and I don't see the problem" as if I had just posted this yesterday or something. That kind of pretentiousness takes a whole new level of asshatery. For that much, I commend you, sir. I can only assume the father you didn't have would be proud.

[tragickingdom]

Op your spoiler helped me figure out what i was doing wrong.
I didn't realize there were bulleye targets. I kept running out time prior. Now hitting both the dummies and the bulleyes there's plenty of time to get through this mission. Thanks.