Ok, this is a modding topic to some degree, but I thought it might interest the bulk of the community. First, there are some historical reasons to slow down chariots--the neck-girth harness being a primary one. I've modded most chariots to "heavy horse" in the descr_mount.txt file to accomplish this.

The main reason I'm posting is that I also changed the scythed chariot horse to "cataphract horse." This looks AWESOME (sorry, I'm not into screenies.) Now the horse and charioteer have similar armour. I didn't realize how good this would look until I tried it. Also, the cataphract horse is slower...that was the primary reason for doing this of course, but the secondary visual effect was a nice bonus.

Another thing I wanted to relate is that I've been fiddling with the new fs_chariot_javelinman skeleton in 1.3. I have converted the light british chariots from archers to javelins for historical reasons. Unfortunately, the unit is very ineffective until various measures are taken. I used the simple british peltast skin that is "hidden" in the game. Javelin attack from a chariot is a problem because the formation is rarely in range--it is too dispersed and the range is too short. With only 18 guys firing on "large" the unit lacked any sting and was very slow about using its missiles. So how to make this into a decent skirmisher? Here is what I did: 1. Changed the mental state to "trained" so that the formation is not so loose. 2. Tightened the formation spacing. 3. Changed range to 65 (from 50). 4. Increased missile attack to 11 with armour piercing. 5. Added a second passenger--effectively doubling the missile firing rate--but left the hitpoints untouched, want them to remain vulnerable. 6. Added 2 points of shield defense to be consistent with the skin/model.