

The influence of athletics/riding skill is why more elite armies move faster than lower level ones, as it applies to troops as well. And if their athletics skill is significantly above their riding skill, adding a horse to a pc or companion will actually slow the party map speed (generally athletics of 3 or 4 above riding means map speed will be faster on foot). Do prisoners slow you down Bannerlord How do I make Warband run faster Do Sumpter horses increase map speed Do horses in your inventory increase speed. One further note, since you are chasing faster map speed: if alone or in small party, pathfinding is less important to map speed than athletics skill (if on foot) or riding (if mounted). A lame sumpter horse has the same effect as a champion warhorse. Type of horse does not matter at all, nor does being lame or swaybacked. Commonly repeated rules like “6 horses is best” are not quite right, and in practice you’d generally have to be loaded down with heavy trade goods in a small party for the 5th or 6th horse to be helpful. Since those two effects run in opposite directions, the optimal number of horses is largely a function of how much weight you carry (and how many troops are in your army, as they mitigate weight as well). Horses are also themselves items, and their presence in the inventory has a slight effect of slowing you down. In Warband, horses decrease the extent to which high inventory weight slows you down.
