Whip early and often?

[SteveD64]

Just started an epic campaign. My horses have no upgrades so I've gone to the whip a lot more than I have in the past. I've been winning quite a bit more races using this strategy. Am I just lucky or is using the whip not as bad as I thought?

I'll only use the whip in corners if I'm desperate, it can take a toll on your chariot but surprisingly my horses are holding up under the strain.

Do you guys whip early and often?

[vonRocko]

Spare the whip, spoil the horse. I whip almost everywhere but the turns, and sometimes there. The worst thing for me to see is some horse damage from whipping right out of the gate! That usually signals the end already. But yes whip and whip often.

[Dorb]

Sounds like we need to insert a Devo song somewhere in this thread. [:D]

[SteveD64]

Auriga's should wear those red flower pots on their heads. [:)]

[SteveD64]

I can see on longer circuits (like Carthage) that my terrible horses are not fast enough, even with all of my whipping. Hmm.

[76mm]

I pretty much always whip the first three turns out of the gate on the Roman tracks, and then selectively until the home stretch, then whip through the end.

If I have a double lightning team (with no "drops"), however, I avoid whipping them unless absolutely necessary, as they are plenty fast already and whipping only kills their stamina for the end of the race.

[Tamas]

I like to preserve whipping for good opportunities, ie. braking away from the herd. It does mean that sometimes I find myself too behind to have any kind of opportunities.

The thing with whipping is that once you damaged one of your horses too much with it, you basically have to whip all turns to maintain a reasonable speed.

[Temple]

After a couple dozen races, I find that whipping at the start is situational; if I don't think I can grab the lead I hold off whipping and save it till the last lap when I can decide whether I can gain enough denarii to make it worth beating up my horses.

[NefariousKoel]

ORIGINAL: vonRocko

Spare the whip, spoil the horse. I whip almost everywhere but the turns, and sometimes there. The worst thing for me to see is some horse damage from whipping right out of the gate! That usually signals the end already. But yes whip and whip often.

I often don't whip on the very first turn, but use accelerate instead. Then Whip starting on the 2nd turn.

Because the difference in gain between the first and second turn, at the start, is very small.

Whip on the straight stretches, but hold off on the curves is my motto. With at least one heart on your horses, anyway. [;)]

[Will_L_OLD]

I haven't been whipping until after I'm done with the first lap coming out of the turn at the earliest unless I get an early release from the gate then its whip whip whip into the lanes.

[decaro]

ORIGINAL: CLEVELAND

Just started an epic campaign. My horses have no upgrades so I've gone to the whip a lot more than I have in the past. I've been winning quite a bit more races using this strategy. Am I just lucky or is using the whip not as bad as I thought?

I'll only use the whip in corners if I'm desperate, it can take a toll on your chariot but surprisingly my horses are holding up under the strain.

Do you guys whip early and often?

Unless there's a random event either banning it, or making it useless, I almost always whip out of the gate, but then I alternate with shaking the reins.

No sense in killing my horse and then beating him.

[Temple]

After playing some more, I've got more thoughts on whipping. On the Roman circus track, where you start off from the stalls on the left side, and there are more than six chariots, whipping a least for the first two time intervals is a must, and even sometimes during the third time interval (I'm trying not to use the term "turn" here to represent a segment of time, since sometimes it can get confused with "turn", the changing direction of the track). Failure to get near the front early gets you back in the pack where nasty people do nasty things to each other. While it might be advantageous to keep your horses healthy for later in the race, usually the guys who get out front stretch their lead while the backmarkers beat on each other.

After that, I try not to whip in the first two laps except to keep my auriga out of trouble; being cut off or crashed into. However, if I have a chance to move into the top three, or to keep from falling out, I'll use the whip.

On the last lap, if I'm not close to any of the top three runners, I lay off the whip and just drive for the appearance money. However, if I'm close enough to get those top three, then hey, I can always get a vet and put the horse into a spa for a few days afterwards, but I need the money to do it, so whip away!

Of course any of the above advice goes out the window if I have the red mist in front of my eyes...[;)]

[Kipper]

I find cheap, 2 arrow horses the best. I have won more races with my 2 arrow whites bought for 4000, than my 2 arrow/ 2 drop horses bought for 32000. Endurance just does not seem to count for as much as raw speed... anybody else finding this?

[76mm]

ORIGINAL: Kipper
I find cheap, 2 arrow horses the best. I have won more races with my 2 arrow whites bought for 4000, than my 2 arrow/ 2 drop horses bought for 32000. Endurance just does not seem to count for as much as raw speed... anybody else finding this?

I've also found the two arrow horses to be good, but it seems that whipping them is generally counter-productive, since they don't have any stamina.

I like the 2/1 horses the best, the 2/2 horses actually seem a bit slower, which doesn't make sense.

[rumata]

What I don't understand is that most of the time I'm slower than other chariots that have apparently lesser stats.

[Niessuh]

If you do not suffer damage, 2 arrow horses are as fast as 2 arrow/2 drop. But if they suffer any damage, their speed will decay much faster. Because of that, I would avoid whipping 2 arrow horses except in the most vital circumstances