Horse armour types

[Jambo]

I have a couple of questions on horse armour in Med II:

1. Does horse armour actually affect the horse and rider in melee combat? I.e. can the horse be slain instead of the rider?

2. Barded - is a barded horse considered to be more or less armoured than a mailed horse?

Cheers

[DukeKent]

For the purposes of M2TW the horse and rider are one AFAIK. Never seen or heard of an unhorsed cavalryman in M2TW or RTW after thousands of battles.

[hrvojej]

To my knowledge:
1) No and no (unless you consider that unarmored horses are faster)
2) No effect (unless you mod it yourself, e.g. give them different mass)

[Jambo]

Hi, the question about barded vs mailed was more one in reality. What is barding so to speak and would it be considered more armoured than mailed?

[pike master]

barding can only be the cloth that is draped over the horse for show but it can also mean a protective covering. in which a cloth draped over a horse would keep it protected a little from the elements

[HoreTore]

Barding = leather armour for the horse. Not just a piece of cloth, but hard leather offering protection.

[Tamur]

Speaking from horse country, a bard (or barding more commonly) is any piece of ornamentation put on a horse, whether it offers protection or not. The trappings used in parades these days are technically referred to as barding. One would have to look the word up in the OED to find whether it had the same broad meaning in the 13th century.

[Philbert]

according to wikipedia barding is horse armour, and can extend all the way to full plate.