Mounts and Fighting from them

[donbaloo]

Just want to make sure that I'm clear on certain aspects of Mounted Combat.

1)If I want to avoid attacks while on horseback I have two options: A)Command the horse to Avoid (using my action to do so) while scripting a withdraw or close, B) Script Avoid for myself in which case its not treated as a regular avoid but automatically adds +2Ob to my opponents attempts to strike me.

2) p.243: Under "Obstacle Penalties While..." does the +1Ob for the moving or maintaining beast apply to the beasts actions or the riders or both? Does that penalty apply to all actions or just to Avoid attempts?

3)When I declare what location is open for attack, I choose either myself or the horse and which part. It only costs 1 success to move from mount to rider or rider to mount. So, if I declare my head as the hit location the attacker spends 1 success to move his blow to the mounts head then another to move it to its torso? Another to go to the mounts front legs? So 3 successes to go from rider's head to mounts front legs? I think I may be complicating this one...

[luke]

1) Yes.

1B) No. Avoiding while mounted and trying to stay mounted causes a +2 Ob penalty to the Avoider.

2) Applies to all applicable tests while mounted. (In other words, Wises would be unaffected by the penalty, but Brawling would not be.)

3) Ok, this could be a little clearer. But yeah, it costs one success to change your location from rider to mount. I'd enforce a little combat logic in the locations available -- 1 success gets you an adjacent area on the rider/mount, it doesn't get you the pick of the litter.

Note that it costs 2 successes to hit the head of a mounted rider from the ground!

-L

[donbaloo]

2) Does that obstacle apply to the beast as well?

3) I declare my head as the target, and the attacker swings at Ob2. What's his obstacle if he wants to move to my legs? Move to the horses rear legs?

Can I even declare the horses rear as the available target and if so, whats the obstacle to move the blow to my torso?

Not trying to be dense, just want to concrete this in my mind.