History Main / HorseArcher

* ''VideoGame/TearRingSaga'': The Horseman and Mamluke. The Mamluke can use swords upon promotion. Also, there is the Arrow Knight class, the promotion from the already Bow + Sword-using Lady Knight, that gains a horse upon promotion and the King's Knight class that uses swords, lances, axes and bows. ''VideoGame/Berwick Saga'' uses the horseman class instead.

* ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpires'' has them, along with several varieties such as Chariot Archers and Elephant Archers. II has Horse Archers, and two civilisations have them as unique units, namely the Mongol's Mangudai and the Spanish Conquistador (which might not count since it uses a gun, not a bow) and then Camel Archers and Kipchaks added later on. The biggest one being the Khmer's Ballista Elephants. III has Dragoons which are basically the same as the Conquistadors from the previous game, some civilisations who have actual horse archers instead of the more usual Dragoon, and the Indians even have gunners firing from camelback. The spin-off, VideoGame/AgeOfMythology has the Turma which throws javelins from horseback, the Centaur[[note]]which is both horse ''and'' archer[[/note]], and the Chariot Archer from the original game makes a return.

* ''VideoGame/ConquerorsBlade'' features four mounted archers: Ironcap Bowriders, Khorchins, Khevtuul Cavalry, and Rattan Rangers (which latter use small crossbows instead of regular bows).

** Parthian horse archers were devastating against the Romans at Carrhae (53 BCE) -- particularly impressive in that they did so without stirrups. (Incidentally, it's often claimed that the phrase "parting shot" is a corruption of "Parthian shot". In truth, it's a coincidence and the two were coined separately.) They in turn learned it from the Scythians, who successfully prevented the armies of both Darius and Alexander the Great from expanding their empires into the Northern Ukraine and Russia through evasion and harassing.
*** The Romans initially considered horse archers as an interesting but ultimately useless trick, as their ''testudo'' formation offered an excellent protection from arrows and even bows with enough power to pierce their shields had a limited supply of arrows. Then at Carrhae, the Parthians showed up with an immense reserve of arrows that allowed them to literally shoot all day, and the rest is history (the Romans were forced to advance, got surrounded, and [[CurbStompBattle most of the Romans were utterly crushed]] by the end of it all, not helped by the following PeaceConference descending to violence and leaving the Romans' surviving forces desperately trying to flee).

*** One notable event in the history of Samurai horse archery is the Mongol invasions, during which the Mongols were consistently outclassed by the superior range and power of the Samurai and their ''long''bows. Only their use of explosives could level the field, but both times the Mongols ended up forced back in the sea just in time for monsoon season.

* ''Manhua/RavagesOfTime'': So far, Lu Bu (hailing from what was considered the western frontier of China and having access to better horses than average) is the only warlord who is seen to regularly use horse archers (a handful of the top-level archers in other armies ''can'' shoot from horseback, but they seem to be an exception and it's mostly done in emergency situations rather than as a regular tactic), but Liu Bei's army is starting to field horse-riding ''crossbowmen''.

In TabletopGames and VideoGames, these are a common form of the MountedMook and often GameBreaker units, but not always. For balance reasons, they are often less powerful than archers who go on foot[[note]]Justifiably; horse archers do often seem to have had to use shorter, less powerful bows than footmen, making good foot archers an effective counter to horse archery.[[/note]] or [[ZergRush are at least easily outnumbered by them]],[[note]]Justifiable at a glance, since it is certain far more people in history at any given time were capable of competently using a bow than competently using a bow while riding a horse at the same time (though predicting a battle's winner solely from the numbers of troops involved would be oversimplifying)[[/note]] and if AnnoyingArrows are in place already, this can lead to them being unable to effectively damage the enemy. Given that they often trade armor for speed, they can also easily be portrayed as {{Fragile Speedster}}s[[note]]Also somewhat justifiably, as long as the game is representing the light horse archers described above[[/note]]. If they can attack with swords as well, it's a case of BowAndSwordInAccord. Historically, many horse archers also carried a javelin or two for close-range work, making them {{Javelin Thrower}}s as well.

In TabletopGames and VideoGames, these are a common form of the MountedMook and often GameBreaker units, but not always. For balance reasons, they are often less powerful than archers who go on foot[[note]]Justifiably; horse archers do often seem to have had to use shorter, less powerful bows than footmen, making good foot archers an effective counter to horse archery.[[/note]] or [[ZergRush are at least easily outnumbered by them]],[[note]]Justifiable at a glance, since it is certain far more people in history at any given time were capable of competently using a bow than competently using a bow while riding a horse at the same time (though predicting a battle's winner solely from the numbers of troops involved would be oversimplifying)[[/note]] and if AnnoyingArrows are in place already, this can lead to them being unable to effectively damage the enemy. Given that they often trade armor for speed, they can also easily be portrayed as {{Fragile Speedster}}s [[note]]Also somewhat justifiably, as long as the game is representing the light horse described above[[/note]]. If they can attack with swords as well, it's a case of BowAndSwordInAccord. Historically, many horse archers also carried a javelin or two for close-range work, making them {{Javelin Thrower}}s as well.

In TabletopGames and VideoGames, these are a common form of the MountedMook and often GameBreaker units, but not always. For balance reasons, they are often less powerful than archers who go on foot[[note]]Justifiably; horse archers do often seem to have had to use shorter, less powerful bows than footmen, making good foot archers an effective counter to horse archery.[[/note]] or [[ZergRush are at least easily outnumbered by them]],[[note]]Justifiable at a glance, since it is certain far more people in history at any given time were capable of competently using a bow than competently using a bow while riding a horse at the same time (though predicting a battle's winner solely from the numbers of troops involved would be oversimplifying)[[/note]] and if AnnoyingArrows are in place already, this can lead to them being unable to effectively damage the enemy. Given that they often trade armor for speed, they can also easily be portrayed as {{Fragile Speedster}}s [[note]]Also somewhat justifiably, as long as the game is representing the light horse described above.[[note]]. If they can attack with swords as well, it's a case of BowAndSwordInAccord. Historically, many horse archers also carried a javelin or two for close-range work, making them {{Javelin Thrower}}s as well.

** ''VideoGame/TotalWarThreeKingdoms'': Horse archers a standard unit available to most factions, serving as FragileSpeedster skirmishers with lower range and armour penetration than the heavy foot crossbows used by most factions. Special versions are available to the northern factions of Gongsun San and Ma Teng, who can hire [[BornInTheSaddle Jurchen or Qiang auxilliaries]] to their armies. Gongsun San specializes in heavy horse archers who are decent in melee and can follow up their shooting with a devastating charge, while Ma Teng's are light horse who are immune to fatigue and can slowly whittle down opponents.

In TabletopGames and VideoGames, these are a common form of the MountedMook and often GameBreaker units, but not always. For balance reasons, they are often less powerful than archers who go on foot[[note]]Justifiably; horse archers do often seem to have had to use shorter, less powerful bows than footmen, making good foot archers an effective counter to horse archery.[[/note]] or [[ZergRush are at least easily outnumbered by them]],[[note]]Justifiable at a glance, since it is certain far more people in history at any given time were capable of competently using a bow than competently using a bow while riding a horse at the same time (though predicting a battle's winner solely from the numbers of troops involved would be oversimplifying)[[/note]] and if AnnoyingArrows are in place already, this can lead to them being unable to effectively damage the enemy. Given that they often trade armor for speed, they can also easily be portrayed as {{Fragile Speedster}}s. If they can attack with swords as well, it's a case of BowAndSwordInAccord. Historically, many horse archers also carried a javelin or two for close-range work, making them {{Javelin Thrower}}s as well.

* ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic: The centaurs in ''I'', ''II'', and ''V'' are archers (the centaurs in ''III'' are spearmen, while the ones in ''IV'' are spear''throwers'').

* ''Yabusame'' (流鏑馬) is the Japanese traditional sport of mounted archery.
** And before the sport, archery on horseback was originally THE signature practice of warfare for the samurai. It started to fade from the battlefield in the second half of the Sengoku period, as spear- and firearm-wielding infantry became more important to Japanese warfare than missile cavalry. The practice didn't fade away completely, becoming something more of a ceremonial skill. And thus to this day we still have ''yabusame''.

There are basically two categories of this trope. The first category are the light horse archers, who act as skirmishers and rely on agility and speed. They often specialize in HitAndRunTactics, especially with archers who can spur their horse, turn around and shoot ''backwards'' as their enemies pursue.[[note]]This tactic in particular is often called the "Parthian shot," named after one of Ancient Rome's rivals who specialized in exactly this. The Parthians were often fought, but never conquered (at least not by the Romans themselves).[[/note]] Naturally, since it requires expert horsemanship, it is a specialty of any BornInTheSaddle culture. An honorable mention goes to earlier civilizations ([[AncientPersia Persians]], Egyptians, etc.) that used chariots as a shooting platform, but in those cases it was a team of both horses and men.