History Main / MountedCombat

** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]]'' only lets you shoot arrows while riding Epona, but ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]'' incorporates sword combat and several boss battles that require you to be riding your horse, including some where you joust against an enemy riding a giant boar.
*** ''Twilight Princess'' also lets you ride a giant boar, but combat is limited to hanging on for dear life and trying to guide the boar into enemies and obstacles until it hits something it can't smash through.
** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Breath of the Wild]]'' also makes it possible for your horse to take damage and die, in addition to letting you use a variety of melee weapons on horseback, doubling the damage of melee strikes done while galloping, and spawning mounted enemies in several areas.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames'' gives you three different mounts over the course of the game, one of which becomes permanent: Ricky the kangaroo (of course you ride in the pouch), Moosh the big blue flying bear, and Dimitri the swimming Dodongo, each of which replaces your attack with their own while riding (a punch that can be charged to throw a whirlwind in a line, a GroundPound, and just eating an enemy).

** Centaurs do not count as mounted when resolving combat. [[https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/at04gd/i_just_learned_centaurs_are_subject_to_the_same/ This has given rise to some...]] [[https://safebooru.donmai.us/posts/4802460 interesting... interpretations.]]

* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' has gradually incorporated this over the years. ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]]'' only lets you shoot arrows while riding Epona, but ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]'' incorporates sword combat and several boss battles that require you to be riding your horse, including one where you joust against an enemy riding a giant boar. ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Breath of the Wild]]'' also makes it possible for your horse to take damage and die, in addition to letting you use a variety of melee weapons on horseback, doubling the damage of melee strikes done while galloping, and spawning mounted enemies in several areas.
* ''VideoGame/EldenRing'' lets you fight while riding your steed, Torrent. Anything from melee weapons, bows, and spellcasts works on horseback. There are many mounted enemies and giant, mobile enemies that encourage fighting on horseback.

** Centaurs do not count as mounted when resolving combat. [[https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/at04gd/i_just_learned_centaurs_are_subject_to_the_same/ This has given rise to some... interesting... interpretations.]]

* Mounted combat is an option in Koei's ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'' and ''VideoGame/SamuraiWarriors'' games. Some characters receive a great boost in fighting ability if they are mounted.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': Generally not used, as mounts are usually significantly weaker than the characters and can be killed, even accidentally, with attacks that players can otherwise survive. However, the Mounted Combat chain of feats is very powerful, and paladins can summon a CoolHorse. (A druid or ranger's animal companion can be a horse, too, being more powerful than a regular horse, especially if ridden by a druid.) The drow use an interesting variant: instead of horses, they ride giant lizards.

In VideoGames, horsemen tend to be [[LightningBruiser very expensive, fast moving and powerful units]] which are excellent if you can afford them... but also tend to come with [[AntiCavalry one cheap opposing unit which can stop them.]]

* Shigure in ''Manga/KenichiTheMightiestDisciple'' faces off against a master of Mounted Combat. She ends up trumping his horse with a motorcycle.

[[folder:Roleplaying Games]]
* Generally not used in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' as mounts are usually significantly weaker than the characters, and can be killed, even accidentally, with Fireballs and other such attacks. However, the Mounted Combat chain of feats is very powerful, and paladins can summon a CoolHorse. (A druid or ranger's animal companion could be a horse, too, being more powerful than a regular horse, especially if ridden by a druid.)
** The drow use an interesting variant: instead of horses, they ride giant lizards.
* Generally not much used in {{tabletop RPG}}s, period, at least not by player characters due to mounted combat training being something of a UselessUsefulSkill to most [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits general-purpose adventuring parties]] (which don't generally "just happen" to be dedicated cavalry units as well and in any case can expect to see a fair bit of action in places where mounts are either a liability or flat-out unavailable). Suitable {{NPC}}s in appropriate environments are a different story, but then again by virtue of ''being'' [=NPCs=] they don't quite "count" as much.

* ''VideoGame/TheLordOfTheRingsOnline'' has mounted combat as part of the Riders Of Rohan Expansion. It is very similar to ''VideoGame/MountAndBlade'', and averts HorseInvulnerability by giving horses a separate, much smaller health bar.

* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' has gradually incorporated this over the years. ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]]'' only let you shoot arrows while riding Epona, but ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]'' incorporates sword combat and several boss battles that require you to be riding your horse, including one where you joust against an enemy riding a giant boar. ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Breath of the Wild]]'' also makes it possible for your horse to take damage and die, in addition to letting you use a variety of melee weapons on horseback and spawning mounted enemies in several areas.

* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' has gradually incorporated this over the years. ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]]'' only let you shoot arrows while riding Epona, but ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]'' incorporated sword combat and several boss battles that required you to be riding your horse. ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Breath of the Wild]]'' also makes it possible for your horse to take damage and die.

* Shigure in ''Manga/KenichiTheMightiestDisciple'' faces off against a master of MountedCombat. She ends up trumping his horse with a motorcycle.

* Semi-realistic depiction in the Two Towers movie of ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings''. On one hand, the charge out of Helms Deep at the end, with the cavalry held close together in tight formation and essentially being used to force the infantry back, before eventually getting bogged down and into trouble when the orcs numbers and discipline begin to show, is fairly accurate. On the other hand, Gandalfs relief charge would probably have ended up a) making a sad retreat after dancing around a pikeline for a few hours or b) completely butchered. Gandalfs charge had decidedly abnormal help in this regard however; Gandalf used the Uruk-Hais aversion to light against them. On the other hand, cavalry are also not good for charging over rough terrain; charging down a massive rocky hill like that would have risked several horses stumbling and breaking up the whole charge; horses are best suited to the plains, which, to be fair, constituted the majority of Rohan. Gandalf may simply not have had much of a choice of where to charge from.

* Generally not much used in {{tabletop RPG}}s, period, at least not by player characters due to mounted combat training being something of a UselessUsefulSkill to most [[RagTagBunchOfMisfits general-purpose adventuring parties]] (which don't generally "just happen" to be dedicated cavalry units as well and in any case can expect to see a fair bit of action in places where mounts are either a liability or flat-out unavailable). Suitable {{NPC}}s in appropriate environments are a different story, but then again by virtue of ''being'' [=NPCs=] they don't quite "count" as much.

* In ''WorldOfWarcraft'', for the most part, players have to dismount to fight.

* Shigure in ''KenichiTheMightiestDisciple'' faces off against a master of MountedCombat. She ends up trumping his horse with a motorcycle.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mounted_battle.png]]

* Semi-realistic depiction in the Two Towers movie of ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings''. On one hand, the charge out of Helms Deep at the end, with the cavalry held close together in tight formation and essentially being used to force the infantry back, before eventually getting bogged down and into trouble when the orcs numbers and discipline begin to show, is fairly accurate. On the other hand, Gandalfs relief charge would probably have ended up a) making a sad retreat after dancing around a pikeline for a few hours or b) completely butchered.
** Gandalfs charge had decidedly abnormal help in this regard however; Gandalf used the Uruk-Hais aversion to light against them. On the other hand, cavalry are also not good for charging over rough terrain; charging down a massive rocky hill like that would have risked several horses stumbling and breaking up the whole charge; horses are best suited to the plains, which, to be fair, constituted the majority of Rohan. Gandalf may simply not have had much of a choice of where to charge from.
*** It's not necessarily their aversion to light that made them do that. It was in part because they were looking straight at the sun. Try concentrating on fighting while you have a sudden bright light in your eyes.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* J.R.R. Tolkien (''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'') and Robert Jordan (''Literature/TheWheelOfTime''), who both have military experience and did their research, are known for using cavalry and other military techniques in a realistic manner. For comparison with the film example above, in the book of The Two Towers, Gandalf came not with Éomer's cavalry (who had joined King Théoden's forces earlier) but rather with a bunch of [[WhenTreesAttack Huorns,]] against which the Orcs had no real defense. Also, Théoden did not wait for the enemy to enter his halls to use his cavalry, but made sorties several times through the battle, charging out and then retreating back to the Deep.

* Mounted combat is a staple of TheWheelOfTime. Cavalry, both heavy and light, as well as mounted scouts are frequently important to various campaigns. For some nationalities, it's their [[PlanetOfHats hat]].

** ''Series/SeijuuSentaiGingaman'' featured lots of mounted combat (To the extent that their horses had toys made) although only a small amount made it into ''Series/PowerRangersLostGalaxy''.

* Generally not used in DungeonsAndDragons as mounts are usually significantly weaker than the characters, and can be killed, even accidentally, with Fireballs and other such attacks. However, the Mounted Combat chain of feats is very powerful, and paladins can summon a CoolHorse. (A druid or ranger's animal companion could be a horse, too, being more powerful than a regular horse, especially if ridden by a druid.)

* ''TotalWar'' uses cavalry in different functions each game, as the setting and era changes each time and the games evolved themselves. A general rule of thumb from Shogun to Medieval II is that light cavalry flank and chase off archers, heavy cavalry see off lighter cavalry and can do the same roles better, with the exception of chasing archers, and horse archers stay away from foes and fire upon them out of range. Empire, of course, changes things again, being set in the age of gunpowder.
* ''FireEmblem'' has Cavaliers, Paladins, Great Knights, Nomads, Nomad Troopes, Rangers, Valkyries, and Mage Knights.
* Mounted combat is an option in Koei's ''DynastyWarriors'' and ''SamuraiWarriors'' games. Some characters receive a great boost in fighting ability if they are mounted.

* ''NetHack'' allows you to ride pretty much any large animal you can tame. Unicorns, dragons, [[{{Munchkin}} sky's the limit]].

* In WorldOfWarcraft, for the most part, players have to dismount to fight.

* ''TheBelgariad'' and sequels/prequels, with emphasis on Algarian Light Cavalry and Mimbrate Arend Heavy Cavalry.

[[folder: Live Action Television]]
* ''PowerRangersSamurai'' features this in the ''Clash of the Red Rangers'' movie, when the Samurai Rangers ride into battle against General Gut's Mooger army. This is among footage originally from the source ''SuperSentai'' series, ''SamuraiSentaiShinkenger.''
** On the subject of Super Sentai, ''SeijuuSentaiGingaman'' featured lots of mounted combat (To the extent that their horses had toys made) although only a small amount made it into ''PowerRangersLostGalaxy''.

* ''VideoGame/TheLordOfTheRingsOnline'' has mounted combat as part of the Riders Of Rohan Expansion. It is very similar to MountAndBlade, and averts HorseInvulnerability by giving horses a separate, much smaller health bar.

[[folder: Film]]
* Semi-realistic depiction in the Two Towers movie of ''LordOfTheRings''. On one hand, the charge out of Helms Deep at the end, with the cavalry held close together in tight formation and essentially being used to force the infantry back, before eventually getting bogged down and into trouble when the orcs numbers and discipline begin to show, is fairly accurate. On the other hand, Gandalfs relief charge would probably have ended up a) making a sad retreat after dancing around a pikeline for a few hours or b) completely butchered.

[[folder: Literature]]
* J.R.R. Tolkien (''TheLordOfTheRings'') and Robert Jordan (''TheWheelOfTime''), who both have military experience and did their research, are known for using cavalry and other military techniques in a realistic manner. For comparison with the film example above, in the book of The Two Towers, Gandalf came not with Éomer's cavalry (who had joined King Théoden's forces earlier) but rather with a bunch of [[WhenTreesAttack Huorns,]] against which the Orcs had no real defense. Also, Théoden did not wait for the enemy to enter his halls to use his cavalry, but made sorties several times through the battle, charging out and then retreating back to the Deep.

[[folder: Video Games]]

* LordOfTheRingsOnline has mounted combat as part of the Riders Of Rohan Expansion. It is very similar to MountAndBlade, and averts HorseInvulnerability by giving horses a separate, much smaller health bar.

** And whereas in the film of The Return Of The King, the Rohirrim somehow easily routed the much bigger army of Orcs only to get completely thrashed by the enormous Mumakil (mounted elephants), in the book they spent most of the battle fighting other human cavalry and only took on the elephants when they had sufficient backup from Gondor.