Essentially I am hoping on making cavalry play differently to just being "fast" units on the field.

So far I have made it so mounted units

• Have a dodge penalty - your attacks will more likely connect on a larger target
• Grant their riders extra health - attacking the rider directly isn't always possible
• Give a movement bonus
• Charge bonuses at the start of combat

But what I really want to do is add it so that if the mounted troops move before engaging in melee they prevent their opponent from retaliating. This is to represent the shock of a charge on ranks of troops. At the same time mounted units do not get this bonus if they attack without moving i.e. are engaged in melee.

I will probably not apply this to wargs but will also give them a greater benefit for melee combat, perhaps give the riders a bonus retaliation or something to represent the wargs attacking opponents directly in combat. I do not want to add a flat +damage because it will make no sense when archers do more damage because they're riding wargs.

I hope to make it so that wargs and horses are considerably different creatures for troops to ride with their own advantages and disadvantages rather than the current and relatively bland situation.

I am being quite ambitious with this project and have already balanced a lot of the equipment to make combat more dynamic and not just a battle between initiatives. My goal is to have a situation where equipment upgrades aren't just 'superior' but also 'different' and will have particular weaknesses and strengths.

I have already removed initiative from most equipment and replaced positives on weapons with increased accuracy and negatives on weapons with reduced accuracy.

Spears lose their armour penetration but gain increased defense for their wielders while defending, gain dodge bonuses but lose ranged dodge (tight clusters of spear-men make for easy targets).

Metal maces gain armour penetration at compounding rates at higher levels of research but start to require metal, lose some accuracy and dodge and do not increase in damage done as much as other weapon types.

Swords and daggers retain their retaliation but lose their initiative bonus in exchange for accuracy and generally higher damage than before.

Axes do a LOT more damage but reduce the wielders dodge and lose some accuracy but also start to benefit from some armour penetration.

Ranged weapons are the only weapons that retain initiative penalties to ensure they can not consistently retreat and fire at approaching troops (they will be able to for a bit but not indefinitely). Crossbows do a LOT more damage but still suffer from initiative penalties.

So the big question is: does anyone know how to add a sort of "must have moved this turn" requirement before an attribute (namely retaliation) will be included?