At least one of the knights had already dismounted; once the group hit the tree-line and slowed, Tyaethe chose to give her horse a rest rather than forcing it through increasingly unfavourable terrain. She approved of the novice captain's realisation that a cavalry charge through packed woodland into a camp was tactically unsound... or at least a great way to make the trip back take even longer due to getting your mounts all killed.

Tyaethe considered their chances of actually getting through his with no deaths as she trudged alongside the captain, one of the perks of being the longest-serving knight by an entire order of magnitude. They were knights and these were bandits, anyone could tell you the obvious outcome of such a conflict. Yet these bandits were in their home territory and probably had a morale boost after successfully turning back a bunch of soldiers, especially with their braggart of a leader.

Worse than the bandits' confidence was the Iron Rose Knights... greenness. Not just their captain, a lot of the knights themselves had minimal to no combat experience and were hardly inured to the killing that their profession demanded. If they lost anyone, it was probably going to be because some idiot slipped up or panicked and then got torn to pieces when the bandits pounced. Or if their captain failed to cover some weakness...

"Fanilly, though most of us are heavily armoured, the bandits are likely to have a lot of poachers and disgruntled veterans. We should lead with shields, unless you want to try your chances in a hail of arrows," the knight advised, her voice echoing slightly within the helmet. Tyaethe was being far less than respectful... but she'd use the captain's title once she earned it. A good start would be taking the advice. After all, it was actually a sound idea.

And she could get to the fighting faster if she was at the front.