Fire Rules for Mounted Targets

[Raellus]

The players in my PbP have just ambushed a group of men mounted on horseback and we need your help.

I can't find any rules (I'm using v2.2) dealing specifically with resolving fire combat against horse-mounted targets.

I'm trying to figure out how to roll for hits on the horses. If I roll a hit on the player's intended target, I'm assuming the rider is hit and I use the human hit location chart. For a miss, how do I fairly and realistically determine if the horse is hit instead? The beaten zone rules won't work because the horse is under the target, not behind him. I also have one player who is not necessarily trying to miss the horses. He's cut loose with a long burst of GPMG fire roughly between the riders' knees and heads. This puts quite a bit of horse in the target box as well. Engagement range is 100-150m and several of the PCs are firing from second story windows. Others are prone on the ground.

With explosive weapons, I assume that if the horse is in the burst radius, I should roll shrapnel hits and blast damage as I would for humans.

Did I miss something? How should I handle this. I just assumed there was a rule dealing with this and now the firefight is on and I'm not sure what the best way is to handle it.

[pmulcahy11b]

In medieval times, horses were more common casualties than their riders were. Part of this is that medieval troops were taught to first take the horse out from under the rider -- making him less effective in a fight -- but part of this is that the horse is a bigger target.

It may not be from T2K, but I remember some rules from somewhere that if the rider is aimed at, but missed, give it a 50% chance that the round hit the horse instead. If the horse was aimed at, but missed, give it a 25% chance that the rider was hit instead. Can't remember where that rule came from; it may be something we jury-rigged back when I was actively playing and GMing.

As far as automatic weapons fire, I would absolutely use the same beaten-path rules on the horse/rider (depending on what was aimed at) as for targets standing behind/near the initial target. It makes sense.

[Legbreaker]

See page 200, Animals in Combat
Also 203, Fire from the saddle.
And 210, Falls from moving vehicle/animals is also going to be applicable.

[pmulcahy11b]

See page 200, Animals in Combat
Also 203, Fire from the saddle.
And 210, Falls from moving vehicle/animals is also going to be applicable.

I should do that more often! I do have the damn things scanned and OCRed, after all!:o

[Raellus]

See page 200, Animals in Combat
Also 203, Fire from the saddle.
And 210, Falls from moving vehicle/animals is also going to be applicable.

I saw all of those but I didn't want to have to cobble together applicable rules piecemeal if there was something specifically pertaining to firing at horse-mounted targets.

I guess I'll have to do it the hard way, though.

[Legbreaker]

What would we do without OCR?
Remember the bad old days when we had to rely soley on printed books? Back before we had grey hairs and walking frames?
Try telling the kids of today OCR wasn't around when we started out playing and they won't believe you! ;)