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So I entered my first tournament. Fights are from horse and with lances. Yet most of the hits I land are rewared with a disappointing zero points damage. I am confused on how to fight properly.

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The damage potential of the lance is all dependent on the speed of the horse the faster you go and hit an enemy the more damage you do. Since the lances in a tournament are also practice lances their damage potential is rather low.

There are 2 ways to deal damage with the lance, you can either couch the lance (Keep running with your horse and suddenly you will see the lance level horizontally.) All you need to do then is hit the person.

The other way to deal damage is to click and hold and when close to an enemy thrust the lance and hit them. This together with the speed of your horse will increase your damage.

Now the first way isn't really possible since the arena is rather small, and couching the lance takes time.

So you are going to have to try and thrust the lance against enemies, at a high speed to do a good amount of damage. My tactic in this is I keep running circles with my horse keeping my lance in a thrust position, get some speed and then go straight for an enemy and hope you hit him.

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    unless you have the setting turned to automatically couch lances, the default in M&B has been changed to hitting a key to couch a lance. I've been able to couch lances in the arena just fine, it doesn't take THAT much speed to couch a lance.
    – l I
    Jun 24, 2013 at 13:59
  • @spartacus Everytime you turn the couch cancels, if the arena is circle even turning to hard will cancel it. It is better just arming the lance and then thrust at the right time. Then losing your couch at the wrong time.
    – Lyrion
    Jun 24, 2013 at 14:03
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    its not that turning cancels the couch but losing enough speed causes you to uncouch. Your turn radius becomes huge though due to loss of maneuverability while couched, so you definitely need to make sure you can aim at someone before deciding to couch. The bonus damage is just too good to pass up, being able to 1 shot almost anything in the arena with it.
    – l I
    Jun 24, 2013 at 14:05
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    @k0pernikus Well it depends really, if the other 2 are part of a different team they will start attacking eachother trapping themselves in the corner probably. But if they aren't you have to start weaving. Half a circle and then cross, half a circle and then cross. Suddenly atleast one will be in your way, then just thrust that sucker off. Or either cross, and make a short turn heading towards them is also a good plan. But my favorite tactic is have one chasing you while running towards a wall and making a sharp turn, usually they smack against the wall and are stuck there ;)
    – Lyrion
    Jun 24, 2013 at 17:03
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    @k0pernikus in those situations, I'd try to ride at wall and then bank at the last second to throw them off and get a little separation. After that I'd aim at the horse to kill it off. Once they're on foot, you can get as much separation as you want and safely pick them off.
    – l I
    Jun 24, 2013 at 17:16
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The problem with lances is that you need to build up lots of momentum to put in a big hit. Because they are so big and unwieldy, trying to poke someone with a lance up close is equivalent of trying to tap someone with a 2x4 from inches away. You can't get that hunk of wood up to a fast enough speed to do any damage (especially to someone wearing armor).

When you do attack someone, there'll be a message at the lower left usually telling you your bonus (or in this case) penalty damage from movement speed. Basically, the faster you and your horse are moving when you connect with the lance the more damage you deal.

To do even more damage, you can couch your lance (think jousting) once you build up enough forward momentum. To do so, you press the 'x' button(you can change the button to couch lances in settings) when you are moving fast enough. Hitting a target with a couched lance at full gallop can do massive damage (I've done over 200 with it).

In short, put some distance between you and your target so you can build up some momentum before striking. Also, even though this is a cheap tactic, aiming for the horse is often much easier than aiming for the person, especially since he'll then be on foot so its much easier to hit him with a couched lance later on. Finally, if you can't cause any separation, then its time to pull out a sword (or pick one up from a fallen combatant) for some close up work.

Finally, building up momentum before striking works with every weapon, but its critical with lances as they take a severe damage penalty at slow movement speeds.

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  • Couching the lance isn't done by pressing X anymore. It was changed a long time ago. They do it automaticaly now when you are moving fast enough. Or well they added it that you had to press. But then changed it back afterwards but keeping the option :p
    – Lyrion
    Jun 24, 2013 at 13:59
  • @Lyrion lol, our comments on each other's posts are perfectly contradictory :P Since I haven't reinstalled my game in a long time, I guess its possible my press key to couch lance is left over from my game settings.
    – l I
    Jun 24, 2013 at 14:02
  • @Lyrion there's definitely a setting you can change for lance couching. I just prefer the button press since I don't necessarily always want to couch the lance when I go fast.
    – l I
    Jun 24, 2013 at 14:03
  • We can agree on that atleast ;) . But i think the auto couch is now set on default. But that is my style, the only way i'm using my horse and lance is when i'm trying to kill people so that is why I prefer it on Auto.
    – Lyrion
    Jun 24, 2013 at 14:07
  • If you don't want to couch the lance whenever you reach a certain speed then just hold a block whilst you gallop around and release it when you want to skewer something. If you've got a shield to go with your lance (which you probably do) then why wouldn't you be blocking until you could attack?
    – James
    Jul 7, 2016 at 21:51

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