Are there (detailed) rules for mounted combat?

Question

Our group lately showed increased interest in mounted combat (see also my other question). As such we read through the rolemaster source material at our disposal, but weren't really able to find much of anything.

There are combat stats for mounts (riding/draft animals) and there is a single short section in what I think translates to Arms Law/Claw Law. Summed up this section - which is really only about one or two paragraphs - states (I am paraphrasing from memory):

• The offensive bonus (OB) of an attacker sitting on top of a mount is essentially a percentage of their normal OB equal to their riding skill.

That's pretty much it it seems. Our group is looking for more detailed rules for mounted combat, and - seeing the degree of rules complexity existing in other aspects of Rolemaster - it seems these rules should exist somewhere. :)

To give an idea, some questions we'd like answered are for example:

• Are there bonuses/penalties when using certain weapon types from a horse?
• Do mounted attackers get bonuses because of positioning?
• What are the rules surrounding charge attacks (e.g. needed distance, time to accelerate)?
• Are there bonuses/penalties for attackers on foot attacking mounted adversaries?

Are there detailed rules around mounted combat published in one of the many RM2 source books?

N.B: We would also be okay with using rules published in non-RM2 versions of Rolemaster, as long as these are feasibly compatible - which seems to be the case at least partially according to Wikipedia.

Answer 1

The arms law mounted combat (AM&CL #1100) is pretty basic; (Section 5.3) as you've explained.

Rolemaster Companion 3 (ICE #1700) *1 expands this somewhat (a few paragraphs of rules) and is directly targeted at the RM2 system.

In this system horses have "Pace categories" and can accelerate 2 categories a round or decelerate 3 categories a round.

Characters in this system get a Charge bonus of:

Thrusting weapons: +1 per 10ft/round of speed
Other Weapons: +1 bonus for each 20ft/round of speed.

So a lesser warhorse can walk at 90 feet a round and it's maximum pace is dash (x5) for a speed of 450 ft/round (~30 mph)

So at full speed a lesser warhorse would give +45 OB for a thrusting weapon and +22 for a non-thrusting weapon.

Spears set against a charge will recieve the same bonus against the charger.

Horses unable to stop before they hit something recieve fall/crush damage with the charge modifier.

Trained horses charging can attack with their trample attack with the charge bonus added.

The Rolemaster Arms Companion ICE #1120 (RM2 friendly) shockingly doesn't have anything for mounted combat at all.

RMSS doesn't update much beyond RM2 for rules except that a rider can use 10-100% of their action to try and change what a horse is doing each round (otherwise it does the same as last round)

*1 If you get RM3 someone will want to play a Magus. Don't let them. It's a very overpowered class.