Tea's Thorough Guide to Horse Archery for Warband

This aims to be a very helpful guide to horse archery for the game of Warband. Whether it is the vanilla game or a range of mods, horse archery is a strong choice for your character. It allows mobility, good damage with investment, and the countering of a variety of builds and enemies at close, medium or long range. This guide will provide and discuss every single horse archery technique I have seen or used in over 500+ hours of in-game horse archery. This is an mp and sp guide, focusing on attack and evasion techniques, countering unit types and factions, equipment load outs, and creating two types of horse archer builds in single player.

Enter the Horse Archer

This aims to be a very helpful guide to horse archery for the game of Warband. Whether it is the vanilla game or a range of mods, horse archery is a strong choice for your character. It allows mobility, good damage with investment, and the countering of a variety of builds and enemies at close, medium or long range. This guide will provide and discuss every single horse archery technique I have seen or used in over 500+ hours of in-game horse archery. This is an mp and sp guide, focusing on attack and evasion techniques, countering unit types and factions, equipment load outs, and creating two types of horse archer builds in single player.

Horse archery and bow cav (bow cavalry) in warband are often derided online, because they can be very effective in mp, and do not fight fair—they shoot, they evade, they ambush from afar with annoying mobility.

The Khergits are the best horse archers in mp, but mounted Sarranid and Vaegirian archers can also do well (the Sarranids shoot fast and the Vaegirians have powerful warbows), but they are less mobile. Therefore this guide is not only for Khergit players, and it encourages those who have not tried horse archery in single player, to try something new and rewarding.
My name is Tea, also known on warband servers as Kherg_Scum. So as a Khergit scum, here is my guide to horse archery.

Notes on The Basics of Movement

Left click draws the bow, right click cancels the shot. You aim with your mouse, and can hold the drawn arrow. Use shift to zoom into a shot, for precision work. You move your horse forward with W and slow speed with S. A turns your horse left, and D turns it right. As a horse archer, you will mainly use A and D for movement. You can vary your speed, and this is important for evasion, but you will spend a lot more time moving with A and D so as to set up the shot, avoid getting killed, and circling by holding A or D down.



As a moving shooter, you will often be aiming where you think your target will be, not where they currently are. Horse archery is a therefore a fair bit different to shooting on the ground, it is a lot more complex, and requires predicting distance, the drop of the arrow and making that work with the movement of the horse. Exceptional archery on foot is a different can of worms.

Why the Horse Archer is Hated

The difficulties in horse archery turn a lot of people away, but once you master the skills you are quite deadly and hard to kill because you can take off, and come back later. Or, nip at the flanks away from those massive swords and axes, thus rendering their users impotent. This then results in horse archers being cast as cads, bounders and outsiders in mp. Their skirmishing abilities and unwillingness to engage in fair fights “come fight on the ground coward” with greatswordsmen or one handed duellists do not help their reputation (neither does taking women hostage).



Of course the horse archer is the counter to the greatswordsman or great axe user, as they lack a shield while using their weapon.

The horse archer can also counter the pikeman, greataxe or polearm player if they keep at medium range and away from massive damage to archer and horse. This leads to high frustrations for Rhodoks and Swadians, as well as Nord and Vaegirian players that didn’t take a shield. With that covered, let’s get into the techniques.

The Techniques I

Long range sniping: this is to be a horse archer that acts more like a mobile foot archer. This is a technique whereby you use slow movement, and take steady shots, or you stop entirely. The horse is more used to get you into a good spot, perhaps on a hill, perhaps behind some cover and then you shoot as if you were a foot archer. Not very exciting, beginner bow cav will often try this. For non-Khergit factions, Vaegirian horse archers do this the best. They go to long range, you ignore them and then cop a warbow arrow. Of course staying in one spot makes the horse archer vulnerable to being lanced or flanked if they are not at the edge of the map.



Long range: getting up some speed and distance from your target, it is quite possible to hit targets at long range as a horse archer. You have to lead a lot, and I generally aim up and to the right, so that as they move to follow and match direction, the arrow catches them. With long shots, you will need to guess a lot and give plenty of space for the arrow to drop, so aim high. This is easier on sp against large blocks of infantry, and you will need to find where the arrows land by trial and error. Once you know that, keep as much constant as possible, and move the landing area over a target.



The good news for mp is, at long range, your opponents may think you can’t possibly make the shot. as circling at long range and at high speeds is often a waste of arrows. It can be done, but remember, once you know where the arrows land, you can keep everything the same and just slightly adjust where they drop. To gain a higher degree of accuracy and less penalties, you will want to slow your horse down, but not to a crawl, or a lancer may get you, or an archer line you up and compensate for range and speed.

Medium range: the same principles apply to medium range shooting. You are aiming less high, but still dropping the arrows. The good news is you can go over shields, and score forehead shots. The bad news is players will often specialise. There are plenty of bow cavalry tricks, but many horse archers just get good at medium range shooting. That isn’t all there is to it. Now this means in mp they can do well, but they are not using the bow and horse to the fullest extent. So let’s get into what the specialists are missing out on.

Close circling, left leaning shots and herding: this is easy to do, and easy to hit an opponent. You keep really tight to them, keep your speed up and pour the arrows into a very close target. If they ignore you, half way around the circle you will shoot them in the back, head or legs. If they raise their shield, you back off a small amount and shoot at their legs, if they drop their shield you shoot at their head, if they swing, you shoot mid-swing. Got all that?

Look at this huge Nord. Now fill him with arrows as the fool forgot his shield.

You are leaning a lot to the left for this, and you can’t watch your surroundings, so be careful. Importantly, mind your range, you want to be outside pike or greatsword range, if that is what they have. This is because a leap cut may take you out, and you will look foolish if a naked Nord cleaves through your head with an axe because you got too close; especially as the horse archer is the counter to the naked great weapon spammer.

Close circling can be practiced in sp until you are confident with it, as infantry clump together. Swadian pikemen infantry are a good unit to practice upon. What you are doing is actually herding them and picking them off one by one. Try it on villagers until your get your accuracy up.



Skimming heads of groups: against shielded troops at close or close medium range, it is still possible to get multiple head shots. You want to find the right range to just go over the shield and into the face. It is harder against Nords, but still possible if they are distracted. Once you have the line, do not change speed, and maintain distance. You can then get multiple headshots one after the other. This is very good for sp and you will quickly kill groups, but also applicable to mp. Success in the form of multiple head shots in mp, may lead to instant polling and kicking because you are now good enough to kill melee chars in quick succession.



Tight turning shot: this is one of my favourites, but you rarely see it. You ride away from your enemy, lure them towards you, then dart in and make a strong turn. Mid-turn, you draw your arrow. At full draw, you will be aiming at the enemy. Then you release, continue your turn and ride off a short distance, before doing it again. To repeat, you are doing a very sharp full circle turn, shooting in the middle of it, and continuing away from harm. You would not believe how many times this works in mp. I think it stems from the fact that the enemy is chasing you, they want to swing, and they think you are vulnerable during the turn, as you are not riding away. Some don’t even appear to see that the arrow was drawn half way through the turn. They think they are faster. Prove them wrong. Bonus points if you shoot them right in the face mid swing/stab.

Bumping and crowning: a highly enjoyable technique is to cause a foe to raise their shield, bump into them with your horse and then shoot the arrow down into the top of their head, crowning them as it were. Doing it straight on may lead to the shot still hitting the shield, but which cancels any attack they had going. Therefore, you may want to try curving around to the left or shooting off your left flank as you hit them and move forward. If you get the shoulder, that is fine. If they have no shield, you can slow your horse, shoot, then as they dodge or jump, increase speed and draw, bump into them and shoot. Bumping is incredibly frustrating as a footman, so use it well. It is more commonly used by lancers and mounted swordsmen, but the horse archer uses it in a unique fashion. Take a stallion in sp to practice this before the mp battlefield.

Close shooting on the right: shooting off the right side is harder. The reticle cannot be trusted if you turn too far right. I say to shoot right, veer off centre, guide it in, don’t worry about the target reticle, your arrow will still fly. A shot off the right can be done, but I mostly do them at close range, or to shoot a horse as it crosses the direction I am facing. This is another skill many bow cavalry players do not have. They are turned off by not being able to rely on the reticle and the right shot feels unfamiliar.



Temple shooting off the right: once you confident with the above, you can work on a temple shot as a cavalryman rides past you. They are crossing the tee (naval term), and if a horse archer, they will take a shot at you as they pass, from their left side (the more comfortable side for them). So as they ride from your right to left, you shoot slightly off the right and into the temple of the enemy. Unless they are turned on a bizarre angle, their shield is in front, and the side of the head is vulnerable. If they are facing you, then the face is the target. You can get good at this in sp first, by facing groups of desert nomads and Khergit skirmishers/bandits. They will try to cross your path, cut you off, throw something or shoot. The perfect opportunity to practice shooting into their temples as they pass.

The Techniques II

Close range shooting of cav: it is possible to continue to use your bow while mounted in extremely close quarters. If you were dismounted, you would be bumped, but as a horse archer you can draw your bow and shoot at any range, even within the length of a sword. This is inevitable during horse archery duels. What is most important here, is to keep your cool. You have a lot of damage on the end of that arrow and you must have confidence. Go for crowning if you can, direct a shot into the face of a cavalryman or lower your aim and kill a horse bringing a rider far too close for comfort. If their horse dies mid swing, the attack is cancelled and useless. Of course a rider also has to get up before they can attack again.

Snaking: my own invention to counter archers is snaking. It is generally done at medium range and it is quite complex. You move the horse right, ideally dodging any arrow sent at you, then left, draw the arrow, finish snaking, line up the shot and shoot. This is a way to deal with archers in a bow cav vs. archer duel. It is designed to make headshots on you very difficult. Some will also aim down and dip their head, but that does not allow the quick shot back that snaking provides.

Charging into the face of the enemy, right at the spearman: while it may seem suicidal, this gets a lot of veteran players on mp. What is a warband veteran? They are someone that quickly seizes an opportunity, kills an enemy when the opportunity presents, and takes the right tools for the job. This experience and lack of hesitation can be used against them, it can be a good thing for you, as you expose yourself so that you can get the perfect shot in a very limited time. Against cav, they may use a pike, awlpike, spear and shield (rare), or long thrusting sword like the boring greatswords used as if they were pikes (yes I have a personal gripe with that). Without feinting or complication, you charge at the enemy straight on. The arrow is drawn and you fire just before or just as they thrust at the horse and you the rider. You want them to commit, to hungrily try and kill you. The aim is to advance, and calmly shoot them in the face.

If they have a shield, they have to drop it to swing or thrust. Aim for the forehead, do not flinch. You can also rapidly slow the horse down at the last minute, if you wish for their thrust to miss, and for you to attack as they pull the weapon back. First though, learn to shoot into the face of the enemy, then make it more complicated.

Jump shot: it is hard to pull off, but you can still aim and shoot while sailing through the air. Space bar is jump. Some bow cav will use this move defensively against other bow cav, so as to throw off their shots. It can also be a variant of charging into the face of the enemy, where you shoot at the last minute and either sail over their heads, or crash your horse into the enemy. I would only use it against single enemies, not groups, and do not use it against throwing opponents, as it is easy for them to score a thrown headshot upon your horse.

The Parthian shot: is to shoot while retreating. Yes, you shoot while riding away.

You wound, like Parthians, while you fly,
And kill with a retreating eye.
—Samuel Butler, An Heroical Epistle of Hudibras to His Lady (1678)



A famous and commonly seen move in warband. You ride away, typically in a straight line and shoot off your left side, almost directly behind you. It is an ancient trick, and kudos to the warband team for allowing it in-game.



This is perfect for shooting into the face of pursuing lancers, or killing horses. Yet it is best against heavy cavalry like the Swadian knights. Faster cavalry may close quickly, limiting the number of shots you can make. Of course in sp, you can reach insane levels of speed with the right horse and riding investment, so no one can catch you.

To counter the Partian shot, stick to their right side. They cannot do a clean straight Parthian shot at you if you are on the right side. To compensate, they will likely turn to the left, to bring you back into the targeting area. Lining up another horse archer trying to do this, is not very difficult as long as you have kept close and can judge their range.

The last note on the Parthian shot is to be aware of your surroundings and where the enemy is. You are looking behind you while doing this, so can be taken out by lancers attacking from the front, or getting a couched lance attack upon you from the front left or front right.
No, after you: this is a variant Parthian shot technique, and one of the most effective ways to counter pursuing lancers, especially heavy lancers. As they are following you, slow you horse just enough, so that they have a go. As they stab, draw your arrow and fire into their face. In sp, this is used to kill Swadian knights, man at arms, Mamelukes and Khergit lancers in ridiculous numbers. It is very frustrating for lancers.

I want you to shoot me in the face. Don't let me down.

If two lancers come to kill you and stab at the same time, veer to your right, and cut one off, and delay the other from following. Then try to deal with one, before the other arrives.

Killer bush: yes, this is a strange technique. It involves using cover and your mobility while shooting. It requires a certain amount of foresight to predict the enemy, discipline and calm. The action is to spot a foe, hide behind a bush or cover and emerge or shoot them. This is used a lot in foot archery, but it portable to horse archery. A few examples of the killer bush:



a) Sit in the bush in first person view so that you can just see the enemy, fire from the bush. You want to be deep enough in that you are hard to identify, but close enough to see enough to identify targets.
b) Feign retreat into the bush and fire where you think the target is. If they lower their shield or do not have one, they are in trouble if they are on the same course.
c) Flee into the bush or behind a tree, and then do a sharp circle and come around to their flank, just as they enter the bush or approach the tree. If they are too careful, they can be stuck looking at a plant as the arrow gets them in the side of the head. Plant wins!
d) Shoot high on their shield, getting them to raise it, enter the bush, aim for where you think their legs are, and then shoot. Then combine with C.

Newly Discovered Techniques

Here I will discuss four new horse archery techniques I have just used in game. Consider them advanced, and two are quite risky.

Reverse snaking: snaking is to aim and shoot while snaking your horse left and right with A and D (by default). It has already been covered. A different version is reverse snaking, so you are riding away, snaking to dodge missiles and timing your shots to be unleashed with best effect during the snaking. I first used this against fellow Khergits. A horde of them was sending a lot of missiles my way.

Rearing up shot: did you know, when you rear up (ctrl+j for me), you can shoot through your horses head and not injure it? Rearing can be useful to throw off archers that were lining you up, but the reared head also means a front on shot at you will instead hit the horse head or neck. Now this will cause massive damage to the horse, but not to the rider. Recommended for very strong steeds, or for medium range so the damage is a bit less. At long range, a shot may come over the horses head and into yours. This is risky as it stops you and exposes your horse to damage.You could also use the rear up to briefly shoot over hills (I got a 7.8 shot like this), and mostly keep yourself hidden.

Drag-shot: to counter archers this is to aim away from your target, and then when the arrow is ready to fire, pull it suddenly into line with a quick movement of the mouse. You can also wrench the horse across if need be. This is to make you hard to hit, and so that it is difficult to predict when you will shoot (your rate of fire is not high). You are avoiding shots, not aiming in their direction and then pulling across and firing when the time is right. There is no aiming, it is a snap shot with a heavy drag first. It is similar to the tight turning shot, but you don't do a full turn.

The Over-Hop: this is my favourite new move. This is against riding melee opponents, but if you confound a close horse archer and get them with this, pat yourself on the back. To explain it clearly:

1) you are pursued by a lancer or melee cavalry.
2) move to their left side. Yes, you can't shoot off the right flank, let them get closer.
3) slow your horse slightly, if you are going up a slight hill or down, this is good.
4) hop (with space) over the head and front part of their horse. You cross from their left to their right.
5) you should be now facing their collar bone.
6) bring up the bow and fire at face or right chest.

If you have done this correctly, you will seem to leapfrog. This can be very confusing. Also, their shield which was in their left cannot protect their right.

If you miss, pull a sharp right circle turn, move behind them and continue firing.

Evasion Techniques

Evading stabs while mounted: this is quite easy to do, but takes practice. Move the horse and your rider’s body by holding the shot and adjusting. It requires a bit of practice, but smart lancers with stab and drag, making evasion more difficult. If you dodge the first stab with a lance, you can slow and close distance and ready another shot, because long range weapons need space to be used.

Thus, you are too close to stab effectively. Get that shot off and then get out of there. Remember, if a horseman charges into melee with you, a horse archer, and they miss and you get away, they look really stupid. Here, horses that can quickly turn are your friend.

Evading couched lance damage: this is about ensuring a line of force does not pass through you. One of the easiest ways to counter lance damage is to match speed and course with the lancer, and it will harmlessly bounce off you. The lancing requires momentum, not a light bump into you that you totally managed.

Evading thrown: thrown are a sure counter to the horse archer, if you are close. So take it to medium long range and wear them down, make them waste their thrown weapons. If they move to retrieve their weapons, come closer and shoot before evading, or charge with sword.

Evading arrows/bolts: you have superior movement, so you have to dodge and roll by using A and D and holding an arrow and moving the mouse in circles. If you think they are going for your head, move your head. Shoot them while they are loading, try snaking.


This isn't evasion.

I am trapped, evading shield infantry in tight spaces: not an enviable position, but you can get out. Remember, if you shoot while they attack, and they block with the shield, their attack is cancelled. So draw arrow, wait for it, shoot and then try to escape, jump and dodge. If you stop their best shot, you may get a nick as you retreat. That is acceptable. If the area is tight but there is a long line, like a corridor, use the jump shot, charge into the face of the enemy or bumping to escape.

Keeping the horse alive: against ranged, do not give the large target of your horse’s length to shoot. Expose as little of the horse as possible. If you need to turn and circle, ride straight away, and then turn between shots. If charging an opponent, move the head of the horse with A and D to attempt to negate headshots.

Countering Unit Types and Factions as a Horse Archer

Countering Archers: they are definitely your counter, especially fast bows. You want to use bump and crown and snaking. Or go past them, encircle, crown or draw a melee and hit them after your shot and circling pass.

Countering Crossbowmen: not truly your counter one on one, they are terrible in groups. Because of their slow reload you can stun juggle them leaving them perforated with arrows and still with an unloaded crossbow or dodge the first shot and bump and crown. Warning: powerful crossbows will kill your horse very quickly (same with warbows), so concentrate on evasion, and then exploiting their reload time. I would not suggest jumping and shooting.

Countering cavalry: already covered above, become highly proficient with shooting off your right, No after you and close range shooting. If the horse archer is confident, they are a real counter to a range of cavalry types.

Countering infantry: the horse archer IS the counter to infantry. Watch our for thrown, use any technique you feel works to get around shields, wear them down, rake their heads off, drive them before you and hear the lamentations of their lords.



Dealing with the Sarranids: in many ways, the Sarranids are an anti-horse archer faction. Sarranid foot are nothing special, but they do get shields and the long bamboo spear, which can cause your horse to freak out, stop, and then you are killed. Sarranid archers have fast bows, which means they are likely to spam arrows at you, or your mount. Sarranid cavalry have access to the most manoeuvrable horse in the game, and while it isn’t tough, their cav can chase you down, keep up with your turning and finish you off.

When Sarranid games come up, most play as cav or archer, because they are superior to the infantry, and they often clump together (hey I like the Sarranid full metal axe, but most go cav or archer). To deal with Sarranid cavalry, take out the horse, or shoot the lancer as they attack. To deal with the archers, I recommend long range shooting and evasion. If they ignore you, charge with bow and then switch to sword. You want to flank these fast shooters whenever possible and use your team or army to soak their shots, so you can attack from any direction but the front.



Dealing with Khergits: treat the lancers like Swadians, or take out their horses (which are weaker than Swadian war horses), and wear enough armour to soak the many shots from their horse archers. Simply, you want to be a high level horse archer, and you can go to town. Use a lot of evasive techniques against veteran horse archers, they aren’t that accurate at speed. Here you can practice your temple shots off the right side and centre as they ride across the front of your horse.



Dealing with Vaegirians: many of the Vaegirian units are easily taken out by horse archers. Cavalry with two handed weapons, lightly armed foot troops, they are all meat to you. Beware of getting too close to throwing troops, but otherwise go to town. Treat heavy Vaegirian cavalry as you would Swadian knights—No after you, and getting into the position to shoot them in the back of the head. Avoid the warbow marksmen.



Dealing with Nords: you can waste plenty of arrows shooting huscarl shields so you need to give them something to chase, while you shoot them in the back of the head. Nords have great shields and use thrown a lot, so don’t get too close early in a fight, or you will become a tree of axe handles. The tight turning shot can work, as can finding the perfect line to go over shields and into heads.



Dealing with Swadians: good news, their heavy cavalry is too slow to catch you, but will quickly kill you if it does. Deal with the cavalry first, then I would recommend killing their pikemen infantry, they wear bright red, then you can pick off the rest. Their crossbowmen can be real trouble in large numbers, so evade for a while or use your cavalry troops to deal with them once the infantry and cavalry are gone.



Dealing with Rhodoks: a wonderful counter to horse archers. Rhodoks are slow, often have a lot of shields, good armour and spam crossbows while protecting them with infantry. You will need a distraction, other players in mp, troops in sp. Get behind and pick off the crossbows, assist others dealing with the infantry. Their shields don’t cover everything.

Horse Archer Load outs

Bow and lance (a deadly mix, one of the best load outs for single player is the bow, arrows, a further slot to arrows and lance. In mp, you will want to skirmish, keep far back and then when an opportunity presents itself, lance targets from the rear or their blind sides. Couched lance is good, but aiming and stab-dragging also works, especially if an enemy archer tries to jump around.

No shield is carried, so the lance is used only when you are not going to grow a beard of jarids or arrow eyebrows. Be smart about its use.

If you are feeling particularly good and you have some space, you can lance a jumping archer, and if they survive, draw bow, turn horse and fire. The stun from the lance hit gives you the opening you need.

Bow and sword: a classic option and one available to all Khergit horse archers, the bow is your primary but the sabre is your secondary weapon. Great for dealing with archers or crossbowmen, and it can be effective against one handed foes if they are using short weapons. It is extremely risky to try this against opponents that use throwing, but you can also skirmish a throwing opponent, and cut them down when they go to collect their ranged weapons, or charge, dodge the thrown attack and cut the face, head or neck as you pass. When cutting on horse with a sword, you can turn the horse to give your cut a nice bonus. You can also cut with a turn, reverse the turn, move behind them, draw your sword and fire. It sounds complicated, and it is, but a baffled opponent is a dead opponent.

With bow, sword and the wind in your hair.

Bow and shield: this is quite rare, but some horse archers in mp will take bow, arrows, more arrows and shield. You don’t always have time to get it out, but this is another way to keep you safe if you find trouble bearing down upon you. Block with shield, retreat, get bow out again. If you are on a heavy warhorse (thanks Swadians) archers will try to head shot you, instead of killing the horse. A shield can protect your face and allow you to draw fire, thus potentially helping your team.

Some bow cav also steal a war horse, and then ride around with their shield out to soak arrows and run into people. This is the essence of trolling. When they are ignored, then they go back to shoot and flank or just keeping riding over the top of other players.

Bow and polearm: a curious and potentially difficult loadout. This involves using something that isn’t great while mounted, like the ashwood pike or voulge, but then dismounting to use it later in a battle. You are ready to switch between horse archer and infantry, so it can be fun, and you will improve your polearm skill quite quickly. Although it costs points, this type of character benefits from having some athletics, to move and use the polearm to fine effect, and medium or ultra heavy armour (ha! I was a tank all along) to absorb the damage of ranged battle and be able to still roll as a footman.

Bow and pike: wait what? Yes, for something a little different you can try bow, arrows and pike. The true pike (not ashwood or awlpike) can only be used dismounted, so you shoot your arrows, ride around, have fun and then dismount and get to work. For this load out, I would suggest high athletics and a dex build. Pike does plenty of damage, so you only need enough str to be a good archer. You can also take a break from shooting knights and horses and choose to impale them instead. Or, expend arrows, head back to your troops and support them with your pike in the second rank. This would be a good choice for a real leader character.

Bow and heavy weapon: a skirmisher with punch. By using a maul, morningstar, long war axe or berdiche, you skirmish with an eye for openings to use your heavy weapon. This works best for a high str horse archer, which is covered in the next section. My latest horse archer character got his first kill with a jumping maul smash, so he seems to be more maulist than bow cav.



Subotai special: take the light lance (the balanced light lance is also excellent on foot, fast and damaging), sabre of your choice and bow and arrows. Must wear steppe headgear.

Two Horse Archer Builds For Single Player

This is a very brief guide to making two types of horse archers in sp, with notes for the single player experience.

In each case you want to pick the steppe nomad choice when it comes up, but you can start by emphasising dex choices for creation (thief), str via personal vengeance and squire, or wanderlust to be faster on the map.

First is a lighter horse archer. Average str (get it up to 12-15), great dex (get it up to 30). Wear medium to heavy armour, as it won’t slow you down much when you have 10 ride. Your hp is terrible, and may not have the points to put into iron flesh (you are stuck with regular old flesh) or the str to get it very high.

An example:


The power draw is not high, but ride and horse archery is. Weapon mastery isn't too bad. As it is a dex build, I would also beef looting to the max, so as to raise funds quickly.


That is a lot of stolen cattle.

Second is the heavy horse archer. You are slower, hits very hard with bow or without, able to use any weapon to good cleaving effect with minimal investment. The heavy horse archer wears a lot of armour, or medium so you are not so slowed. Take str up to 30+, dex at 9-12. This character is good on foot, has great hp, and can even kill the lightly armoured with their bare hands because of their insane strength.



For this build though, they actually get hit a bit more since they aren’t blindingly fast like the dex horse archer, but they can take a bit of punishment unlike the first build.

An example:


Ride and horse archery remain low, as does weapon master. Power draw is taken to 10, then iron flesh follows. The good news is that you can use masterwork bows with their high power draw requirement.

Notes

Load up on arrows and kill looters to practice your horse archery, from beginner to advanced techniques. The sturdy nomad armour is not bad starting out and is easy to come by while killing looters.

Extending on from this, you can also shoot up whole villages to level quickly, improve archery (long shots into mobs) and get large rewards, but also abysmal honour.



Practice your skills against skirmisher foes, before major battles. Jarids and javelins sell well, and this can fund excellent kit for later.

Taiga bandits and sea raiders can be difficult to take early on, do not eat their throwing axes and jarids. Their head armour is often rubbish, or non-existent, so work the head shots.

The Swadians are an easy (and slow) enemy to pick off, as are the Vaegir foot troops, but their cav is quick and warbows hurt.

The Rhodoks and Nords are not easy early on.

Joining a very stable and defensive army, like the Nords or Rhodoks is a good idea. You have a good opportunity to skirmish early in a battle, kill plenty and get lots of xp, but you must be careful not to die early on or swallow an arrow sandwich while aiming.

In battles, kill cavalry first. Or you may be lining up an infantryman and a quick Vaegirian light lancer puts his weapon through your back.

Conclusion: Time to Ride

I have shared everything I know about horse archery in warband with you. If you hone your skills, you can become excellent in both sp and mp. Horse archery is also quite fun, and that is why I have stuck with it so long. I am always looking for a new type of shot, and the perfect arc to take out a foe.

Trying to be a horse archer in a variety of mods can also be a challenge. Some make armour more effective, but grant new bows and arrows. So good luck in other realms!

Thank you for reading. Here is a link to a complimentary map of Calradia I found, for you to plan your raids and conquests.

http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120625220221/mountbladewarband/images/5/5a/Map_of_Calradia.jpg

Good hunting!

[Timothy]

And to you as well Tea.

[𝔗𝔢𝔞 ❀]

Thank you Tim. May your aim forever be true.

[Timothy]

As a fellow horse archer, I approve of this guide!

[𝔗𝔢𝔞 ❀]

Ha ha! Yes, I know of those exploits. Keep riding, friend .

[Aperson54]

I have encountered an effective method for dealing with large groups of enemies with shields, if you do a fast trot with your horse that so you are about the same speed as your opponents and aim just above their heads and release the string one of the poor sods will find an arrow between their eyes in seconds. I reccomend you test this method though if you are thinking about adding this in the guide as I just did this to 30 Swadian Militia alone and I survived. Oh and oops if this was already in the guide.

[Aperson54]

Also if your attacking enemies with shields (but not those pesky Rhodok shields ) you can hit their knees and it won't hit their shields it will cause damage, but this needs a bit of practise.

[MoshedZ]

Eventually...

[𝔗𝔢𝔞 ❀]

Just to let you all know, I will be putting together a horse archery guide for Bannerlord.

All they have to do is (finally) give us the game. :D

[MoshedZ]

That being said, this is a Horse Archery guide, so we provide you with horse archer tips. In any case, a good tip for horse-throwing is to get behind the enemy, behind his shield, and [get a good archery/throwing on horseback skill level] toss it into his back/head.
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[𝔗𝔢𝔞 ❀]

:)
I would like to, but I'm pretty terrible at it at all but one range (medium close, just out of spear range) with thrown weapons. I like that they are a bit different in the game, so I'll leave that to others.