Animal Training

[Tyrn]

Does anyone know the rules for training animals, specifically horses and mounts as it pertains to Cavalrymen? I should probably clarify this to mean combat-trained.

[Dougansf]

Look at Beastmaster and their Talents. I'm pretty sure that will lead you to what you're looking for.

[Neverbourne]

I too am curious as to what exactly is required to qualify a mount as "combat trained." My personal rule is that it takes a rank of animal training of at least 3 to be able to teach the commands where combat training is used (charge, ride-by, charging ride-by). this means the mount would only be trained for combat, and not other things.
Considering a combat trained mount is worth 10 times the value of a regular horse, even a low circle calvaryman could make a small fortune with just a few weeks of downtime in which to train and resell and animal.

[The_Gun_Nut]

Assuming, of course, that there is a market for such expensive animals. Just because you have 10 tons of gold and gemstones lying about, does not mean that you can sell them all in one session, or even in one month.

[Neverbourne]

[Meat Puzzle]

[ragbasti]

well you could just google it ^^
The knights back in the middle ages also had battle trained horses. Training a mount to be fit for battle basically contains 3 major points:
-Resistance to stress and surprise, the mount must not freak at the first person swinging a sword at it or yelling like a madman
-Maneuverability, the mount must follows its rider's commands and signs
-general commands such as Wait, heel, etc.

As these are three things I'd say that the Rank 3 limit does make sense, for every extra I'd raise the rank by one, e.g. attacking on its own or defending its master,assuming that not every mount is a cavalryman mount, that is not something that should be taken for granted

[arma]

Combat training is done via Animal Bond or Animal Training (see p. 270).
Animal Training would represent more training-style, while Animal Bond would represent building a report with the animal to make it work with you better, so that's a bit more personalized. You can also use both, and in some cases, might have to use both because an already trained animal may not be friendly.
Different starting attitudes, maybe also different levels of creature intelligence you would want to apply, and then on top of that the ability of some adepts to use magic to enhance their command of an animal (Empathic Sense makes part of the commands requirement moot, Animal Talk would make things... a lot easier, given that you can actually talk to the mount, etc.) would make it difficult to use a standard framework for training.
It is supposed to be a matter of a few weeks' work to really combat train a mount. What you have in addition to Animal Training and Animal Bond can make things easier for you, on the other hand, some mounts may be harder to train. Non-adepts would require a bit longer.
Most of it is supposed to condition the mount to withstand noise, actually run into people on command, not freak out on minor cuts, etc.. Observing commands is already part of a riding mount, in any case. You'd just have to add a couple new ones, like telling the mount to kick at enemies.

[Tyrn]

Arma,

Thanks for the information it will help a lot. Now I have one more question hopefully you or someone might be able to answer in regards to mounted combat. If a Cavalrymen conducts a charge attack are they able to also use Down Strike (as a skill) in conjunction with it the charge attack?

[Bastet]