skribs
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Something I've been thinking about lately is Centaurs. I'm assuming the literal half-horse, half man. Horses, while known for being faster and stronger than a human (and have a particularly strong back kick), don't have much lateral agility. They don't spin in place very fast and they don't move very quickly to the side.
So assuming a Centaur is about 8 feet tall (5 feet at the shoulders plus 3 feet for a humanoid torso) and weighs about 1200 pounds, this is a creature that will have a significant height and weight advantage. We're also going to assume this is not a magical creature, but simply a different species.
However, while their legs will be more powerful, they will be less agile, and their humanoid part of their body would be assumed to be similar in size to a human. Not only will they not be able to turn very quick, but their arms are very high up and out of the way, there's not much they can do with them. They couldn't grab your legs and might even have trouble grabbing your hands because of how high up they are. If they do lean forward they've gone away from their center of gravity, and if they kneel down they have a lot more mass to get back up.
Their legs give them the potential for much better balance than a bipedal human, but they also are very vulnerable to attacks from the sides, as a horse's legs can't kick to the side, their humanoid body would be limited in flexibility because it is rooted to the horse's spine, and we once again come to the problem of their arms not being able to reach far enough down to be effective.
In fact, unless their humanoid spine is super-flexible, I imagine the only way Centaurs could make use of their horse's back for carrying items is if two Centaurs help load each other up. Because that's gotta be a lot like trying to put stuff in a backpack while you're wearing it.
If you factor in armor, it would take a lot more surface area to armor a horse and man, which might protect their flanks better, but would hurt their agility even more.
Their strengths lie in the power of their forward or rearward kicks, or simply the ability to charge with 1200 pounds at an assumed 30+ MPH.
So this leads to a few questions:
So assuming a Centaur is about 8 feet tall (5 feet at the shoulders plus 3 feet for a humanoid torso) and weighs about 1200 pounds, this is a creature that will have a significant height and weight advantage. We're also going to assume this is not a magical creature, but simply a different species.
However, while their legs will be more powerful, they will be less agile, and their humanoid part of their body would be assumed to be similar in size to a human. Not only will they not be able to turn very quick, but their arms are very high up and out of the way, there's not much they can do with them. They couldn't grab your legs and might even have trouble grabbing your hands because of how high up they are. If they do lean forward they've gone away from their center of gravity, and if they kneel down they have a lot more mass to get back up.
Their legs give them the potential for much better balance than a bipedal human, but they also are very vulnerable to attacks from the sides, as a horse's legs can't kick to the side, their humanoid body would be limited in flexibility because it is rooted to the horse's spine, and we once again come to the problem of their arms not being able to reach far enough down to be effective.
In fact, unless their humanoid spine is super-flexible, I imagine the only way Centaurs could make use of their horse's back for carrying items is if two Centaurs help load each other up. Because that's gotta be a lot like trying to put stuff in a backpack while you're wearing it.
If you factor in armor, it would take a lot more surface area to armor a horse and man, which might protect their flanks better, but would hurt their agility even more.
Their strengths lie in the power of their forward or rearward kicks, or simply the ability to charge with 1200 pounds at an assumed 30+ MPH.
So this leads to a few questions:
- Would a Centaur leaning his humanoid body down to throw a punch be more powerful because of the weight he is bringing down, or less powerful because of how far off of his center of gravity the punch is coming from?
- Would a Centaur lose power in punches from being unable to twist their body to generate power, or more powerful because they are rooted on 4 legs and have more contact with the ground to draw power from?
- How would a Centaur best protect his sides from attack? Is this a case where the herd in a phalanx position or a coordinated charge is best? Or are there things individual centaurs can do to protect themselves?
- In unarmed combat, would a human stand a chance against a Centaur? You can take their flank, but I'm not sure how much blows to the ribs will do. I don't think a human would be strong enough to attack their legs, and the head is probably out of reach.
- In armed combat, a human would probably be able to attack a Centaur's flank. Would the arms of a Centaur with their aforementioned weaknesses be capable of defending their sides with swords or spears? Or would a centaur be very vulnerable in a gladiatorial setting?
- In fantasy, Elves and sometimes Centaurs are often thought of as archers. Would a Centaur's height and four legs be an advantage in archery, or would their inability to twist their upper bodies be a hindrance? (Would a Centaur shoot forward or to the side, and if to the side, does that negate the advantage their long body could provide as a support)? Would their horse's back be useful for carrying arrows, or would that be too hard to reach?
- Would humans and centaurs complement each other's weaknesses or get in the way of each other on the battlefield?
- Would you rather have a Centaur or a Human mounted on a horse in the battlefield?
- Would it be better for humans to mount Centaurs or mount Horses?
- What about a modern battlefield? Would Centaurs be too big of targets for a rifle, or would they have advantages of their own? Might be hard to fit them into APCs.
- Would you design Centaurs a little bit different, or keep them as described? Some things I can think of are: shorter body, less powerful but more agile legs, longer arms. Maybe more of a deer/human hybrid than horse/human hybrid to increase agility.
