Sucks on console esp when facing multiple enemies. Soemtimes can’t even properly cross the T because the faulty auto lock on
Cumans are a mercenary army in KCD; they aren’t knighted soldiers. Beyond that, with a corps famous for horse archers and (horse) lancers, why even waste time with the pretense of foot soldiers and a foot race?
The cutscene seems a bit incongruous. The Cuman horsemen charge Skalitz at full speed. Knock down the gate, and foot soldiers pour in. It’s like the Cumans are guests in a traditional Japanese or Korean house: instead of taking their shoes off upon entering, they dismounted
I don’t think fighting in an urban area with many fences is done most efficiently on horseback.
As for Cumans outrunning Henry, he has minimal agility, unless you grind out fighting or cheat. It’s like a mercenary unit today killing your average millennial gamer. Even “running for her life” they aren’t going to run very far or fast. Even in full modern kit, body armor, weapons, and ammo. Most mercenaries would be able to catch them.
In pure game terms, low agility means low speed. Low vitality means low stamina. Most Cumans aren’t wearing especially heavy armor. Kill a few and see for yourself. Wearing heavy armor, the heaviest of which are mail shirts and gambesons, does reduce your speed. So too does being encumbered.
Of course if a 20 agility Cuman, that is mildly slowed by armor, is compared to a 3 agility Henry, then Henry is going to be slower. The same applies to vitality and stamina.
#1 Skalitz is hardly urban. Beyond that, go thru the gate and fire away. As a horse archer, I can kill the whole of Rattay minus the unkillable NPCs (eg Nightengale). Cuman horse archers and lancers were better than I. Skalitz has a guard at each post; none heavily armored. Dispatch them and the rest are all ducks in a barrel
#2 Run consists of egressing the castle. Most of the Cumans in pursuit are sans horse. The equine went poof.
Long story short… Henry should be dead meat. It’s only via contrivances that we’re given a chance we shouldn’t realistically have
My impression, in the game, is that Strength in the major factor : even with a lot of gear, you run pretty fast (about 20) with moderate armor.
My main argument is that if you try to sprint at optimal speed at a 50 meters dash (with no armor nor gear) and then do the same thing with just a backpack or while just holding a weapon in hand, you will most probably have a lower score on the second run. Both a light backpack and a weapon in hand makes you less efficient at an optimal sprint (try it for real, with a stopwatch). So a young untrained lad, sprinting for his life, should be a tiny bit faster (at least on a short distance) than an armored and geared person.
As for the fear of kiting in the game making it too easy, it would not be great since you lose your Stamina when sprinting (you need Stamina to shoot the bow in-game), so it can be made balanced so that players who go for light armor or none could not abuse of the kiting (run then shoot). Currently I get the impression that high Strength characters can run you down (but I am not an expert of KCD). That said, it can be done currently with a horse 
Young lads aren’t faster than bullets today, and they weren’t faster than arrows and horses in 1403. Cumans were famous for their archery and horses
Yeah, I get it. KCD is a game and some suspension of disbelief is necessary …
Of course, yes. I am not referring to the Run! scene (where I was hit with arrows :P) while riding like a noob.
My last post was only discussing my impression, in-game, that armored characters, with high Strength, can run almost as fast as an un-geared person. Maybe it is not the case.
I adapt mind you. I stay on my horse unless I really want to fight it out and I of course back-peddle non stop if fighting 2+ enemies. Running away, that is Sprinting away or turning your back in KCD, is death (unless your character is somehow built to outrun…). Fight.
My own character, with armor and plenty of stuff on me, I can catch-up to almost anyone running away.
My impression prior to 1.7 was that armored guys (enemy NPCs) were way too fast relative to Jenda
They fight guards at battle spawn points. Then, switch over to attack me with a quickness in pursuit (minus the ridiculous thinking lag) that seems implausible
You can kill them on foot too.
Fences, bushes, buildings, it’s giant hassle on horseback. Multiply that by 20 horses, and it’s completely stupid to try to bring horses when you can more easily kill, rape and loot on foot.
Exactly. No need for horse archery. They’re all trash. Your horse archery obsession sounds like katana or half swording fanboyism.
It depends on perks and gear, and possibly carry weight? I didn’t test the carry weight. Gear weight definitely affects horse speed.
My horse’s speed is 72. Nothing outruns it.
Nope. The civilians in the cutscene aren’t fleeing in the alleys. They’re standing in the central path.
20 horses? Interesting in a couple respects. Why then charge if all dismount. 5 could take care of first pass either as wedge of lancers or archers. Let the foot soldiers do mop up
And how many horses do you think could comfortably fit there? How many horses would you risk killing for your horse archery obsession?
It is a stupid idea to try to force horses through a bottleneck, the gate, into a densely packed urban environment when going on foot is more efficient, and does not endanger valuable horse flesh.
Skalitz isn’t a densely packed urban environment by any stretch of the imagination… good grief it’s not Stalingrad ‘42-‘43 or Berlin ‘45. There isn’t a proper urban environment in the whole of KCD
I said 5. There wasn’t any danger. Re-watch the cutscene
You wrote that after I typed it, you edited it. Again, why 5?
How many edits? There was POTENTIAL danger. It was behind a fence. There WERE archers. Why put 5 horses in there? Why put any? So you can have muh horse archery?
urban
/ˈəːb(ə)n/
adjective
adjective: urban ; adjective: urban contemporary
in, relating to, or characteristic of a town or city.
Skalitz is a town. You don’t understand words. Urban does not mean some kind of modern ghetto full of black people.
Quickest way to kill
There were ~5 guards total in the outer bailey. Half were disposed of when the gate went down
Not the quickest way to kill at all. Forcing horses through a bottleneck is stupid and slow. It would be much faster to pour unmounted soldiers through than try to get 5 horses in.
Anyway, let’s leave it at that. The whole game should be horse archers, and I’m sure we are all having a lesser experience for the lack of horse archery. 
‘Full of black people’? Where’s that crap coming from? I mentioned Stalingrad and Berlin in the 40s
Urban from a US census perspective consists of area, place, homes, etc consisting of 2,500 persons or more
More recent take from the US federal register (2012, vol 77, no 59):
\2\ An urbanized area consists of densely settled territory that contains 50,000 or more people.
\3\ An urban cluster consists of densely settled territory that contains at least 2,500 people, but fewer than 50,000 people.You’re stupid for suggesting forcing.
Mentioned lancers too. They were the predominant type in the cutscene charge. Toth appeared to scout in advance. Trample, slash, dismount and mop up or move on and let foot soldiers do mop up
You missed the larger incongruity … WTF charge if you’re not going to do anything with it
It’s not a function of carry weight.
It’s that fully armored guys that just got partially wrecked in melee are eager to and adept at chasing after a mounted lancer/archer in repeated 50m bursts