One of my players wants to do the lone hero thing in a domains battle with his trusted battle cat mount. Does he build as a hero or as a cavalry unit?
I would treat the PC as a hero instead of a cavalry unit. If he or she is the only person in the ‘unit’ and has no accompanying soldiers it would be represented (I think) as just a lone figure.
Three options - I’m away from the books, so generating more questions rather than immediate answers.
(a) the trusted battle cat is like a henchman or otherwise has ‘heroic’ status. Seems unlikely but possible, from your description. In this case I would try to treat them as e.g. two heroes in a unit
(b) the trusted battle cat has its own separate combat capability, Seems probable. I would look for elephants and the like in the rules, and see how they are treated.
(c) Despite the name, the battle cat has no combat capability. In this I would treat it as a horse, and thus use a lone hero model.
Maybe someone with the rules nearby can look up option (b) or whatever.
Build and treat him as a Hero, except as follows:
Unit Movement Rate/Formation:
As mounted, determined by movement and weapons carried
Unit AC:
Average of heroic rider and heroic mount’s AC
Unit Hit Dice:
Sum of heroic rider and heroic mount’s HD
Split damage applied equally between hero and mount’s HP
Unit Attack Throw:
Use either rider’s or mount’s attack throw, based on method of attack
Unit Number of Attacks:
(Rider’s number of attacks + cleave factor) x (rider’s average damage) / 45
Unit Bonus Attacks from Charge:
(mount’s number of attacks + cleave factor) x (mount’s average damage) / 45
You should also build each of the hero and the mount as a separate Hero unit, so if one or the other dies you have their stats ready for play.