Animal Movement Rates – the British Way!

I was just reading Al Nofi’s CIC at Strategypage, and he showed some information on animal movement rates from Sir Garnet Wolseley’s The Soldier’s Pocket-book for Field Service. Sir Garnet was apparently the inspiration for Gilbert & Sullivan’s “Modern Major General”. I thought these figures might be useful for RPG’ers, at least as a comparison to the overland rates given in our favorite RPG’s. All of the following is drawn from Nofi’s post …

Animal	Speed		Pack Load		Draught Load		Work Day
Ass *	4.0	mph	150-175	pds	900	pds	15-16	miles
Camel	2.5		300-600		1000		20
Dog *	6.5		na		160		60 by sleigh
Elephant	3.5		800-1200		8000		15-20
Horse	4.0		250-400		350		15-16
Human	2.5		40-80		120-150		4-8
Llama *	2.5		65-125		na		12-18
Mule	4.0		150-300		500		15-16
Ox	2.2		160-200		300-500		4-6
Reindeer	18		na		300		50-100 by sleigh

Note: Since Sir Garnet didn’t campaign in places where some types of beasts of burden were in common use, we’ve added a few of these, as indicated by an asterisk. Pack Load includes weight of the pack; Draught Load includes that of the vehicle; na, not applicable for military usage.

Thought I add to this – the work days, in NOD hexes, would work out to …

Ass: 2 to 3
Camel: 3
Dog: 10 (by sleigh – impressive)
Elephant: 3
Horse: 2 or 3
Human: 1
Llama: 2 or 3
Mule: 2 or 3
Ox: 1
Reindeer: 8 to 16 (again, by sleigh wow!)

The sleigh pulling animals are quick – could be a good magic item – a sleigh that makes its own snow. We usually went by the rule of thumb of 1 hex on foot, 2 by mount, which isn’t too far off, though maybe 1 hex on foot, 3 by mount is better.

2 thoughts on “Animal Movement Rates – the British Way!”

Military load is AFAIK “safe load for rugged terrain”. Same could be said of speed. I guess all those stats (esp. the “Work Day”) can be improved hugely by pushing the animal to strain itself. Possibly to death.