M&B: Warband or M&B: With Fire and Sword are the two most recent ones.
Jury's stil out on which is better. M&B: Warband has, arguably from my view, a more interesting setting and storyline, as well as far more interesting armor and weapon choices (due to its focus on melee combat, it has a large variety of leather, chain, scale, plate armor, and melee weapons and bows/crossbows), while M&B: WFaS has guns and a historical setting as well as superior army set up (in some ways, such as the ability to buy better equipment for your soldiers; in others, it's not quite as good, as the conscripted non-mercenary units can't upgrade nearly as much as in warband) but lacks a lot of the variety (most "armor" being merely military uniforms, with actual armor being somewhat rare).
Most people seem to prefer Warband, and I rather agree despite my love of customization and blackpowder firearms. I'd start there, unless you really have a hard-on for polish renaissance history, as you can have guns in Warband with the right mods anyway.
Though I have to admit I've never actually played the firearms version, and my aversion is entirely based on mixing traditional swordplay with guns. Albeit entirely valid from a historical PoV and I do like Napoleonic Wars'ish warfare, I simply prefer them remaining apart. Basically, to me, 17th century hits the "uncanny valley" between 15th and 19th. Also, this kind of fighting needs proper line combat, and I'm not sure WFaS is able to convey this, not to mention if this would even work in an "FPS".
For this kind of fighting, I continue to prefer Battle Grounds 2.
I just got the collectors edition from eBay, includes three of the four titles, all except Napoleonic. Cost £15.94 free postage.
Its an open sale so there are copies left as I write.
Even though Fire and Sword was released most recently Warband is actually the most modern version. There isn't much difference in practice though.
F&S features blackpowder weapons which are significantly more powerful than arrows (you can quite easily get one shotted early in the game) so combat is quite a lot harder for that reason. The basic game is the same for each though.
If you must chose one go for Warband, just be aware that the early game is tedious, it only really opens up once you join a faction which can take a long time.
Fighting Looters is the best way to start out. When fighting them, if you start with a ranged weapon and a horse, it's fairly simple. Shoot the enemy, run away, shoot the enemy, run away, etc. If you don't have one (most starts do), then charge in on your horse, hit an enemy, then run past before they can hit you back.
If you don't have a horse... hm. I think all starts give you a horse these days? Well, you're basically screwed, so go to some villages and recruit some soldiers if you can, or buy a horse somewhere.
Soldiers are MUCH tougher than looters, even basic recruits and tribesmen. Heck soldiers are usually far tougher than bandits aside from sea bandits-- after the first upgrade, they can handle most bandits save for the nordic sea raiders, whom at times can be are tough enough to take on anything short of knights in equal numbers.
I think these days everyone starts out with a horse by default. Spoiled brats, I say!
But yes, looters. Search for and fight small groups of looters, then sell their loot to hire recruits from villages. Having at least 1 point in the "prisoners" skill comes in handy here, as you can make some money selling slaves, too. Don't try to face properly trained enemies until you've got an army of at least 20-30 men (or women) and have some better armour than just an ol' leather duster.
Also: Purchased the Napoleonic Wars DLC last night. Amazing. Still have to work out how to properly aim a cannon, but leading a troop of 20 infantry bots into a multiplayer battle is wicked fun.
Hell if you're good you don't really need a horse anyway, you just need a staff and a throwing dagger or some other ranged weapon to take on groups of five or six looters (the prime amount if you only have one point in prisoners).
Melissia wrote:Fighting Looters is the best way to start out. When fighting them, if you start with a ranged weapon and a horse, it's fairly simple. Shoot the enemy, run away, shoot the enemy, run away, etc. If you don't have one (most starts do), then charge in on your horse, hit an enemy, then run past before they can hit you back.
I tried that, it went miss, run away, miss run away. I dont know why but my character with 50 in crossbow was missing the targets at the practice range at ten yards more often than not. At twenty yards I might get one or two hits in, none at thirty.
I 'solved' this problem by attempting to shoot only into masses of infantry. I scored hit and with my character being as low as he was, every other hit resulted in a skill increase. i restarted though and quickly moved to my melee skill instead.
Melissia wrote:
If you don't have a horse... hm. I think all starts give you a horse these days? Well, you're basically screwed, so go to some villages and recruit some soldiers if you can, or buy a horse somewhere.
I think you always start with a horse. Anyway I have a slow poor quality horse. I am happy with that.
Melissia wrote:
Soldiers are MUCH tougher than looters, even basic recruits and tribesmen. Heck soldiers are usually far tougher than bandits aside from sea bandits-- after the first upgrade, they can handle most bandits save for the nordic sea raiders, whom at times can be are tough enough to take on anything short of knights in equal numbers.
I learned that the hard way. I tried to take on some sea bandits at 2:1 superiority. I took them down and losrt the majority of my force. Then all the sea bandits came for me, and they outran me. I couldnt fight so i9 had to leave a man behind, three times before I got away with a huge morale penalty.
Still I learned, the second time I came back with a much larger force. They ran, but by fighting close to the sea I hemmed them in and tookm out sea raiser bands one after the other. excellent look flowed.
After a couple of false starts I got the hang of it. I play with 'ironman' saves, so i restarted the whole game about three times before making progress. That progress has been slow, sea raider prolbems etc, but I think I have the hamng of it.
- I can reliably beat novices in training duels, and have an evens chance against a regular. Not taken down three regulars in a row yet.
- I learned to use the sparring function at the training casmp to built up my recruits.
- Every so often I recruit up to about 50 men. Take it easy for a while then go back to hunting sea raiders. I recruit only Swadians at the moment, so I know what I have got. Recruiits are trained up ASAP. Militia are added to my archer force (normally they *are* the archer force plus a skirmisher or two and a weak character. I sit them at the back and ignore them.
- I still cannot really aim, but if i charge ahead i get the enemy after me. by running around in front of my own army I split up the enemy so my forces can deal with them piecemeal. Even so if will occassionally turn inwards and take a swipe with a large axe. A good hit will kill a sea raider.
- I learned that if ambushed in a town on the way to a tavern I can run out of the gates. I cant handle those ambush parties and they take my cash.
i currently have a band of of about fifty, with a weekly pay of about 430 denars. its draining my cash, but I am getting good loot from the raiders and am selling it in a nearby city. This is keeping me stocked. i had about 2k in cash, but i wasted that on a recruit run which was actually an attempt to search cities for a ransom trader. I am overstocked on sea raider captives, I had to let five go last battle.
Still this is high risk. To catch the sea raiders I am near a hideout of theirs which is conveniently near a city. there is probably a quest to destroy it, but for now it serves my purposes being there. Until the last battle the raiders were running on sight, now they are ambiguous. One fight too many and they will all suddenly turn inwards.
I played the fire and sword expansion and I did not like it. It just seems like the guns have next to no skill involved, and they basically kill everything in one shot. While this may be accurate, it sucks to play with! I cannot count how many times an enemy's bullet randomly happened to hit me and ended the battle. Low end rifles do over 100dmg, and you start with around 50hp...I dont think you can even get over 100 health so the guns will basically be one hit kills all game.
Napoleonic wars is the newest expansion and it looks much better than fire and sword. I havent tried it, but it looks like they improved upon the gameplay SIGNIFICANTLY. They added siege weapons that the player can operate. Destructable terrain. musicians, and engineers. It costs 10$ on steam atm.
I have 471 hours in the original mount and blade and about 390 hours in warband...and 2 hours in fire and sword. Warband is the best out of the three.
Orlanth wrote:I tried that, it went miss, run away, miss run away. I dont know why but my character with 50 in crossbow was missing the targets at the practice range at ten yards more often than not. At twenty yards I might get one or two hits in, none at thirty.
Fifty is pretty low, yeah. But yes, your character sucks when you start.
Orlanth wrote:Still I learned, the second time I came back with a much larger force. They ran, but by fighting close to the sea I hemmed them in and tookm out sea raiser bands one after the other. excellent look flowed.
Sea Raiders have some of the better loot in th game. You get what you risk.
Orlanth wrote:- I can reliably beat novices in training duels, and have an evens chance against a regular. Not taken down three regulars in a row yet.
That's a simple matter of learning when to block, really. One on one is fairly easy unless you have to rely on a bow/arrow and dagger.
Orlanth wrote:- I learned to use the sparring function at the training casmp to built up my recruits.
Good man.
Orlanth wrote:- Every so often I recruit up to about 50 men. Take it easy for a while then go back to hunting sea raiders. I recruit only Swadians at the moment
I actually recommend the norsemen, as well. They're insanely tough infantry with decent archers-- in fact, their infantry is the best in the game bar none, although they lack in mounted soldiers. If you're already fighting lots of Sea Raiders, you could do far worse than going with them.
Is anyone doing multiplayer these days? Either Warbands or Napoleonic Wars. I've rediscovered M&B and having a blast on the various servers. Might be fun to meet other dakkanauts there.
Personally I always look for Sea Raider camps to bump up my reknown, chasing looters all over the map is no fun at all. Sea Raider camps spawn on the Nord coast (you will see a lot of Sea Raider bands if you are int he right area) but can take some finding. They generally contain about 10-15 Raiders so shouldn't be much of a problem for a reasonably sized army, you can't use your horse though.
The other option is to travel from village to village looking for quests, specifically the bandit one as this will give you a decent fight and you will have a horde of villagers on your side so its qutie easy (no loot though).
Once you have sufficent reknown (120 I think) definately join a faction as this will open up much bigger battles including sieges (and a lot less Benny Hill style chases) and you will be granted your first fief. Swadia or Vaegir are probably the best choice as they have heavy cavalry and solid infantry while Rodoks is the worst as their troops are frankly useless.
The other think that I would suggest is hiring companions from taverns, they cost 300 gold each but you can equip them as you like and they can have useful skills.
JohnnoM wrote:I downloaded it, but it doesnt seem to be working.
Well, what does it say? Do you get an error message, is the program simply not responding?
Palindrome wrote:Personally I always look for Sea Raider camps to bump up my reknown, chasing looters all over the map is no fun at all. Sea Raider camps spawn on the Nord coast (you will see a lot of Sea Raider bands if you are int he right area) but can take some finding.
Also seems to be time-based - I've encountered a number of Sea Raiders in my current game, but right now there just aren't any around. I'm starting to assume the game follows some sort of annual cycle and that the Sea Raiders only show up in certain weeks, mimicking the original Vikings' raids.
Palindrome wrote:Once you have sufficent reknown (120 I think) definately join a faction as this will open up much bigger battles including sieges (and a lot less Benny Hill style chases) and you will be granted your first fief. Swadia or Vaegir are probably the best choice as they have heavy cavalry and solid infantry while Rodoks is the worst as their troops are frankly useless.
Alternatively, just offer yourself and your men up as mercenaries. Staying independent can have advantages of its own. Specifically that you can more easily carve out your own kingdom, should you have such aspirations! Being a vassal means you won't have to capture your first fief yourself, though (unless you're playing a woman - no freebies for you in that case).
Even as a vassal you may always choose to rebel against your king, but of course this will brand you a traitor.
Palindrome wrote:The other think that I would suggest is hiring companions from taverns, they cost 300 gold each but you can equip them as you like and they can have useful skills.
Definitively. And they have a bigger chance of surviving injuries.
Also, their prices vary - most seem to cost around 300, but I've had ones for 100 and 500 as well. One, I think it was Ymira, even offered herself for free, just because she wanted to get away. She's a lousy fighter, though. I've begun to train her with a bow, but otherwise she's just coming along for her logistical skills and as my emissary.
Somehow my close combat ability has got worse, this game is hard and I done have the Dex for it frankly.
However I have found a near foolproof way of power levelling a character.
when you begin go out into the wilderness with an extra bag of ammo. Find some looters, it doesnt mattwer how many. Ride artound them watching them throw rocks futily at you, then carry on riding around them counter clockwise tighter and tighter until all the looters are in a tight mass. get in close and fire your basic missile weapon into the mass, you cannot miss.
one you have got the hang of that try it with forest bandits. Yrs they shoot lots of arrows, but you fight them in the open riding around at long range, if you keep your speed up they wont hit you. Oncve the shooting stops they are no more able to defend themselves from your return fire than the looters.
Trick is to have plenty of spare ammo in your baggage crate. I keep a mix of crossbow and two sets of bolts, bow and two sets of arrows and three bags of stones. I use them in reverse order ajnd end up with good skills in all three.
I normally go for bands of ten or so forest bandits, but once I was jumped by 39 and another time by 35 and defeated them on my own with a low level character and no great mouse skill.
If I cant get nimble enough with mouse and keyboard at least I can use strategy.
All this stops once i start an army though, so its a technique for building a character from scratch, before I even recruit five men.
Once you get an army, a lot of it is training, composition ,and making sure you don't fight an enemy who is stronger than you.
Sure, my high level character (who is the queen of her own nation...) can hack her way through an army during a siege, but that's mostly due to buggy siege AI and overpowered great long-axes (which kill most enemies in one hit, and shatter shields easily).
Orlanth wrote:Somehow my close combat ability has got worse, this game is hard and I done have the Dex for it frankly.
Hmmh, if you really dislike getting up-close-and-personal with the enemy, you might try standing back and using a crossbow, maybe? Focus on logistical skills (Leadership, Training, etc) and let your army do the fighting.
Worst case you can always become a raider yourself and loot/pillage some random villages. Peasants are easily subdued, and if you keep your travel speed high the armies of the realm won't be able to catch you. Use the loot to increase the size of your armies.
Best do this only when the realms are at war, though, because it means their armies are busy. Even when you're quick on the road, the pillaging does take some time during which a lord could, in theory, react to your presence.
If you want to focus on commanding, I'd suggest Leadership, Training, and Surgery.
The former is really mandatory for anyone who wants an army (increases army size, increases morale, reduces the upkeep of the army, etc). Training helps in some village missions, and allows you to upgrade your army faster as they get experience faster. And Surgery helps ensure that your units are killed less often (just knocked out instead).
The tactical part of M&B is very slim and basic, but you do have the option of dividing your army into a number of formations which you can issue orders to. If you learn which troop type is best for what, this could make for an interesting game...
For example, putting your army at the top of a hill... march your infantry ten steps forward, down the hill, make your cavalry follow you, andlet your enemy come to you... charge witht eh cavalry at the enemy's flank after they run in to your infantry.
The archers should be free to keep firing as much as they can, while the infantry do what they generally do best (absorb charges) and the cavalry break up thet enemy ranks.
Lynata wrote:Hmmh, if you really dislike getting up-close-and-personal with the enemy, you might try standing back and using a crossbow, maybe? Focus on logistical skills (Leadership, Training, etc) and let your army do the fighting.
I would like it, but somehow melee combat doesnt agree with me.
Lynata wrote:
Worst case you can always become a raider yourself and loot/pillage some random villages. Peasants are easily subdued, and if you keep your travel speed high the armies of the realm won't be able to catch you. Use the loot to increase the size of your armies.
Best do this only when the realms are at war, though, because it means their armies are busy. Even when you're quick on the road, the pillaging does take some time during which a lord could, in theory, react to your presence.
Not how I want to play the character. I suppose I can do passably well in a shield wall with heavy armour if I concentrate on parrying with a shield and attack only when the circumstances are in my favour.
As for mounted combat, I miss an awful lot, even when running down fleeing troops. I just cant get the timing right.
My score on the horseback training was abysmal, and not getting better with practice.
i love the game but am too rusty for button mashing.
With lances though, against other mounted troops you have to really aim for the guy on the horse, otherwise you will always catch the horse. If you're looking down your lance at where the guy's abdomen would be, you're likely to just strike the horse instead.
It's not bad to unhorse a mounted unit, since it slows them down and can make lances they're holding useless, but killing the guy potentially saves your own, and gives you a spare horse in case yours dies, even if its just to escape chasing enemies.
I found that killing the horses is a lot less difficult than killing the knight. I try to direct my blows at the guy, but when he's a tough nut to crack (good parrying skills or a huge shield) I often safe myself the trouble and just unhorse him.
Mounted troops are often ridiculously easy to outmaneuver. Once you get behind them, all you need to do is match their speed and keep poking at the ass of their horse. That's the easy mode, though, and not quite as challenging/fun as a proper charge.
If I'm on foot, I'm using throwing axes against riders. I may hit the horse's head, which makes the rider fall down and allows me to finish him off in close combat. Or I may hit the rider, kill him, and enable me to steal his mount. Either way, I win.
Another alternative is thrusting a spear against an incoming horseman.
A spear, pike, or lance thrust against the horse can sometimes unhorse the rider in one go, and then you switch to a close combat weapon and finish him off.
Potentially frustrating as it requires careful timing, though. It's a powerful weapon as the enemy is basically impaling himself (bonus damage from his own speed), but if you thrust too early you're going to miss, and if you thrust too late you just get trampled/killed.
But yeah, I would advise Orlanth to give it a try! The timing is critical and takes some practice, but it's next to impossible missing such a huge target.
Throwing axes may require some aim and are limited, but I guess you get a tiny bit of more time to react if you should really miss. Just enough time to dive out of the way and evade the killing blow, even if you might still get a few points of damage from bumping the horse.
I must say I dont find it *that* easy. You often need a good amount of speed and and a real fine aiming for a good lance kill. Perhaps it has something to do with my faulty graphic card, but I often end up missing the target slightly.
Even worse in Multiplayer when you have to lower the lance yourself (again and again).
However its really useful to make the cav. follow you and circle the enemy, while your infantry either holds the ground or charges. When your infantry is in range you can order your cav to attack (from the side) and circle to the rear alone. Often the enemy splits up, or wasting fire on the fast moving cav or at least has their shield either to the cav so your archers can hit them or to inf and archers leaving them as easy prey for you and your cav.
I find it a bit boring midplay. Once you get leadership to command 50-60 men its hard to get a bigger army.
I just got a Rhodok castle all by myself and made me an independent nation (one castle only) altough I begin to think it wasnt a smart move. However the income is very handy.
Dark Scipio wrote:I find it a bit boring midplay. Once you get leadership to command 50-60 men its hard to get a bigger army.
The tricky thing is to keep oneself employed as to retain sufficient finances to pay the troops there. Your army is now too slow to pursue deserters and bandits, but at the same time it's (or so I fear) too small to really start a war with one of the big factions, whose lords often run around with 100+ troops, not to mention the size of their castle garrisons.
Still, I'm biding my time now. Going to get me a nice little realm of my own once people are at war again, snatching it right under their noses as long as they're busy.
I'm only on the fence where to take it from. My character 's a Nord, so I'd like a piece of Nord land with villagers in whose veins runs proper warrior blood. On the other hand, I'm currently on pretty good terms with the Nord king and his lords, and there's no Nord territory currently occupied by those Swadian pigs or any of the other foreign nations.
The other option is to side the the Nord rebel leader and effectively become king by proxy. Its not an easy game by any means as you will be fighting off large armies but at least it is exciting and as the Nords lack heavy cavalry is should still be doable.
Dark Scipio wrote:I find it a bit boring midplay. Once you get leadership to command 50-60 men its hard to get a bigger army.
The tricky thing is to keep oneself employed as to retain sufficient finances to pay the troops there. Your army is now too slow to pursue deserters and bandits, but at the same time it's (or so I fear) too small to really start a war with one of the big factions, whose lords often run around with 100+ troops, not to mention the size of their castle garrisons.
Still, I'm biding my time now. Going to get me a nice little realm of my own once people are at war again, snatching it right under their noses as long as they're busy.
I'm only on the fence where to take it from. My character 's a Nord, so I'd like a piece of Nord land with villagers in whose veins runs proper warrior blood. On the other hand, I'm currently on pretty good terms with the Nord king and his lords, and there's no Nord territory currently occupied by those Swadian pigs or any of the other foreign nations.
The funds are not the problem. The Leadership is. Mostly all quest were done by now or are too boring (another Banditchase, but now with a slower warband?) and as you said so with 50-60 men you can hardly challange any faction or castle. I was glad to seize a Rhodok castle they just retook from the ,,Arabs" (forget their ingame name).
And I wouldnt like to attack my fellow Nords either.
Dark Scipio wrote:The funds are not the problem. The Leadership is. Mostly all quest were done by now or are too boring (another Banditchase, but now with a slower warband?) and as you said so with 50-60 men you can hardly challange any faction or castle.
I guess that's just a matter of time. At a certain stage, farming Renown seems to be the primary way to increase party size:
If you're now lord of your own fief (that Rhodok castle) it should give you +10 to army size as well, though. Being a Marshal or a King adds even more!
By the way, I just stumbled over this multiplayer campaign mod ... anyone playing it? -> http://c-rpg.net/
"Throw rocks. Rocks are a great way to participate in the battle from behind the line. Be prepared to run for friends if you draw too much attention." -- C-RPG's "Peasant Guide"
Dark Scipio wrote:The funds are not the problem. The Leadership is. Mostly all quest were done by now or are too boring (another Banditchase, but now with a slower warband?) and as you said so with 50-60 men you can hardly challange any faction or castle.
I guess that's just a matter of time. At a certain stage, farming Renown seems to be the primary way to increase party size:
If you're now lord of your own fief (that Rhodok castle) it should give you +10 to army size as well, though. Being a Marshal or a King adds even more!
By the way, I just stumbled over this multiplayer campaign mod ... anyone playing it? -> http://c-rpg.net/
"Throw rocks. Rocks are a great way to participate in the battle from behind the line. Be prepared to run for friends if you draw too much attention." -- C-RPG's "Peasant Guide"
Thanks. Renown, I forgot about that. You get these from difficult battles too right? Time to get some. For now my army is a bit depleted because I stationed most of it in the castle (still only 40 men), to get more and to cut the costs.
A multiplayer campagin sounds great, I was a bit dissapointed when I found out MP is only battling.
Dark Scipio wrote:Renown, I forgot about that. You get these from difficult battles too right? Time to get some.
From almost any battle - but the bigger / more difficult, the more renown.
It might be better if you keep a large part of your army in the castle and just take a small squad with you to hunt some bandits - lots of fights with little Renown might net you more than few fights with lots of Renown. Also, troops in a castle only need half upkeep, iirc?
Dark Scipio wrote:A multiplayer campagin sounds great, I was a bit dissapointed when I found out MP is only battling.
Multiplayer battles are fun, though! At least the really big ones on a server with 60+ people.
In M&B, I'm usually playing MP with my fierce Nord maiden, Brianna. If I can't go Nord in a battle, I make her a Swadian or Rhodok crossbow infantryman.
In Napoleonic Wars, I'm having a guy by the name of Delazar. Playing mostly as British, French or Prussian whenever possible, either as an Infantry Ranker or Officer.
Yeah that is what I meant with cutting the costs. However my problem is that I am still at war with the Rhodoks and they unfortunally made peace with the ,,Arabs" they fought so long.
So they are roaming around the castle with their full might, leaving me not much to go from there.
Dont get me wrong, altough I totally suck I like Multiplayer battles, a shame most go without any decent teamplay.
Although I prefer Nords, I join any faction, however I still have to get better weapons skill.
Teamplay seems to come much more easily in Napoleonic Wars, I think. Possibly because half the classes are specifically geared towards it, but also because a lot of people agree it's quite simply a lot of fun to see such an army working together.
Granted, line battles are something you're probably only going to see between clans, but even on the public servers with random people you'll have impromptu teamplay with soldiers gathering at their army's flag, or two people sharing a cannon, or musicians forming up to accompany advancing troops with fancy tunes.
Lynata wrote:Teamplay seems to come much more easily in Napoleonic Wars, I think. Possibly because half the classes are specifically geared towards it, but also because a lot of people agree it's quite simply a lot of fun to see such an army working together.
Granted, line battles are something you're probably only going to see between clans, but even on the public servers with random people you'll have impromptu teamplay with soldiers gathering at their army's flag, or two people sharing a cannon, or musicians forming up to accompany advancing troops with fancy tunes.
Using a lance is much more difficult in warband. In the original game, the lance was lowered automatically in the exact same fashion every time. You really could not aim it. There also was no cooldown time between lowering your lance like there is in warband.
Also - Do not think that Nords are weak because they do not have cavalry. My main character is at level 46 and commands an almost exclusive nordic army. They are at a distinct disadvantage on open fields, but when it comes to sieging castles, nobody does it better than nords. Their infantry have some of the toughest shields (health wise, not size wise), they have the hardest hitting weapons as they all use hand axes and great axes, and they have some of the highest armor, in addition to having the highest health and athletics skills. Also - they have throwing weapons that hit very hard. A strategy I use is to cluster my huscarls in a wall 3 or 4 soldiers thick and have them all hold fire until the enemy is very close. Just before my enemies initiate a charge, I switch the huscarl to use their ranged weapons and they usually end up mowing down about a dozen or so knights during the charge. The best part is that the knights out front get killed, and their horses block the path of the other knights resulting in only a few knights actually making a successful charge on my infantry. Once the knights trickle into my shield wall, my huscarls pull out their great axes and surround them.
Castle battles are even easier. Axes do much more damage to enemy shields and my huscarl greataxes usually knock out my enemy's shields with a single swing. Once their shields are gone, the defenders start falling very quickly.
Nordic archers are also very good, I believe they are the only archers that are equipped with long bows which hit fairly hard and are very accurate over long distances.
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Lynata wrote:
Dark Scipio wrote:Renown, I forgot about that. You get these from difficult battles too right? Time to get some.
From almost any battle - but the bigger / more difficult, the more renown.
It might be better if you keep a large part of your army in the castle and just take a small squad with you to hunt some bandits - lots of fights with little Renown might net you more than few fights with lots of Renown. Also, troops in a castle only need half upkeep, iirc?
Dark Scipio wrote:A multiplayer campagin sounds great, I was a bit dissapointed when I found out MP is only battling.
Multiplayer battles are fun, though! At least the really big ones on a server with 60+ people.
In M&B, I'm usually playing MP with my fierce Nord maiden, Brianna. If I can't go Nord in a battle, I make her a Swadian or Rhodok crossbow infantryman.
In Napoleonic Wars, I'm having a guy by the name of Delazar. Playing mostly as British, French or Prussian whenever possible, either as an Infantry Ranker or Officer.
You need an upgrade in the town/city that lowers the upkeep costs. Also - winning tournaments nets a very large amount of renown in a very small period of time, I think you get 20 or so if you win. In addition to a ton of gold and respect from the city where the tourny was held.
Avatar 720 wrote:With lances though, against other mounted troops you have to really aim for the guy on the horse, otherwise you will always catch the horse. If you're looking down your lance at where the guy's abdomen would be, you're likely to just strike the horse instead.
It's not bad to unhorse a mounted unit, since it slows them down and can make lances they're holding useless, but killing the guy potentially saves your own, and gives you a spare horse in case yours dies, even if its just to escape chasing enemies.
It's dishonourable to strike horse against a knightly opponent. Yes I am roleplaying this.
I am ok with my corral and shoot technique for bandit killing, but it doesnt work once i start a warband. The way I see it, I can level up to 15th easily enough playing solo with my technique, could go further if I wished, but thats enough. So first i build the man, after that I go to the second stage of my campaign and build the warband, thirdly the kingdom. I do not expect to be seeing much melee as king, however to make this 'work' I have to be passably good in melee, enough so not to lose to belligent drunks or fall on every battle whenever I get in sword range. I need not be a melee killer with WS6 but for the game to make sense I must be able to stand in the shieldwall or on the battlements and at least parry. To be a real warband leader from this sort of time period being the best fighter wasnt the issue, you were the leader, what was the issue was your courage in the line, fancy horse archery doesn't count. I don't see the character concept as working until my guy can stand in the line and fight a battle, if that requires nearly 100% parry thats ok, so long as my blade is wet I dont even need to be really good, its being seen on the line and staying there is what counts. Thisd means some otken battle are to be fought on foot, even if I switch to lance later, which may seem like a good long term plan.
Just remember that in the long run, intelligence and charisma are far more important. Once you get about twelve strength and agility, that's the highest you will likely ever need to be-- everything else can go in to intelligence and (to a lesser extent) charisma.
I found if you get followers to get the more intelligence based skills, such as the healing and scouting ones, then you can afford to put less points on intelligence. You have to make sure to keep your followers safe, but if you put them on the archer line, as well as the bottom of the party, I've found it perfectly fine to stick a 12 on intelligence and leave it there.
I found charisma to be one of the most important skills in the long run, if not THE most important. Charisma gives you higher leadership, which is critical for a lord looking to lead an army. It increases party size and lowers upkeep cost of your army. After I get charisma to 27, I get INT to 12 and start ranking up str and agi. Once those stats are relatively high, I start stacking INT to get me the extra skill points.
I absolutely must have jeremus and borcha in my party for the pathfinding/tracking and the healing skills. There are many skills that you are better off putting points into that your companions cant have - all of the "leader" skills do nothing on your companions until you make them vassals.
On to ironflesh - It looks pointless early game, and it is, mainly because everything hits you so hard, having 6 extra health wont matter. However, later on in the game, when you have heavy armor, your enemies wont hit you as hard. I generally take between 2 and 10 damage when I get hit, so, my 8 ranks of iron flesh can actually absorb quite a few attacks.
I metagame'd and planned my character's party before even playing... go on the wiki and look up every follower and you can plan all their skills. All I plough my points into are the leadership skills that party members can't cover for you. At the end of the day you can get a surgeon, inventory manager, siege engineer, trainer etc. by recruiting and training characters toward their 'natural' areas.
I've never made nobles in my new nation, though... I keep losing my saves as I am a moron when it comes to backing them up so the furthest I ever got was on Vanilla M&B when I helped the Swadian claimant seize her throne
Ironflesh is one of my most critical talents. It may not add much, but it can make the difference between life and death. Even when you intend to simply not get hit in the first place (as everyone likely does ), sometimes it just cannot be avoided, so being able to endure two or three additional blows can really decide the fight for ya.
Especially once you start having better armor, as KingKodo mentioned.
It's never really been an issue for me.... mind you, with the great long war axe (or whatever it's called) I have combined with power strike, it's rarely an issue that an enemy survives more than one hit anyway.
I'm currently carrying shield + axe, a two-handed greatsword, and throwing axes.
I suppose the tricky thing is that I try to lose as few of my men as possible, having me charge ahead and thus becoming a good target for enemy ranged weapons. Not to mention that the opposing troops then try to zerg me. Even bandits can get bothersome if you're facing 30 on your own with little room to maneuver (-> "urban combat" in a village), heh.
That said, I suppose it's more useful for mid-game when you still have to care about things like trying not to have a single casualty, and not having top armour yet.
The two-handed/polearm axe is the highest damaging weapon in the game in polearm mode, and in two-handed mode it can be used on horseback as a two-handed weapon (on foot, the polearm mode is better). So I have that, a masterwork bastard sword, a reinforced steel shield, leaving the last slot for spears or lances or whatever I want to use to mix it up.
Lynata wrote:I'm currently carrying shield + axe, a two-handed greatsword, and throwing axes.
I suppose the tricky thing is that I try to lose as few of my men as possible, having me charge ahead and thus becoming a good target for enemy ranged weapons. Not to mention that the opposing troops then try to zerg me. Even bandits can get bothersome if you're facing 30 on your own with little room to maneuver (-> "urban combat" in a village), heh.
That said, I suppose it's more useful for mid-game when you still have to care about things like trying not to have a single casualty, and not having top armour yet.
Are you rocking nords? Order your shielded infantry to hold fire and they will throw up those huge round shields and absorb alot of the archer fire. I had an army of 100 Huscarls and 50 veteran longbows go up against over 200 sarranid archers and another couple hundred low ranking infantry (skirmishers, recruits, footmen). I had my huscarls form a 3 man deep wall and hold fire. Once the wall was formed, I just had them advance until they were within throwing distance of the archers. Then I have them spread out a good four or five times and have them fire at will. Spreading out opened up gaps in the shield wall, allowing my veteran archers to turn the sarranid archers (who were still targeting my huscarls) into pin cushions. The huscarls finished the rest of them off between their javalins and their axes.
Also Melissia - I also used the heavy long great axe for the longest time. I think I found it around level 10, and I used until I was almost level 40, when I found a masterwork long great axe. It is very useful when defending cities. Being able to just stand to the side of the siege tower ramp and chop down my enemies without risk of retaliation is priceless.
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Melissia wrote:The two-handed/polearm axe is the highest damaging weapon in the game in polearm mode, and in two-handed mode it can be used on horseback as a two-handed weapon (on foot, the polearm mode is better). So I have that, a masterwork bastard sword, a reinforced steel shield, leaving the last slot for spears or lances or whatever I want to use to mix it up.
I actually dont use the long axe as a polearm, for the simple reason that it only deals 16dmg if your thrust it, but deals 56 on a swing regardless if you use it as a polearm or a 2 hander. Thrusting is pretty much pointless in most situations. If you time your overhead swing right, you can chop down cavalry before they hit you.
Melissia wrote:It's never really been an issue for me.... mind you, with the great long war axe (or whatever it's called) I have combined with power strike, it's rarely an issue that an enemy survives more than one hit anyway.
Single enemies are no problem for me either. But beeing hit by 3 lucky Rhodok bolts while strafing or hitting a tree and beeing surrounded by 5 Huscarls is more of an issue for me. More Health helps then.
Melissia wrote:It's never really been an issue for me.... mind you, with the great long war axe (or whatever it's called) I have combined with power strike, it's rarely an issue that an enemy survives more than one hit anyway.
Single enemies are no problem for me either. But beeing hit by 3 lucky Rhodok bolts while strafing or hitting a tree and beeing surrounded by 5 Huscarls is more of an issue for me. More Health helps then.
If you are surrounded by enemy huscarls I am wondering if extra health will make the blindest bit of difference.
Never even heard of the game till I read this thread... and the game has consumed the last 4 days of my life lol. The graphics are pretty heavily dated, but this game is utterly fantastic. I roll with a high Int/Charm build and horseback with bows. It was rough going at first but I've gotten pretty damn good with the bow and on horseback I can pick off about 50% of an enemy force before I even have my troops come up to engage.
One of the the things that I'm most impress with on the game is it's feel of being a living breathing world that you are just a part of. If you are a part of an army, freelance manhunting, or just being a trader... the game doesn't miss a beat on continuing on with life.
My proudest accomplishment so far is taking out an enemy force of 31 with just myself and a camp defender lol. Took me like 45 mins, but circling their formation running them out of arrows, then I got them to trail me while I fired my 90 arrows at their legs and heads to get around their shields. When I culled it down to about 10 (and I was out of arrows and low on health) I did driveby tactics with a greatsword I picked up off one of them.
The camp defender was knocked out, but live at the end... jumped from like lvl 6 to 8 from that one battle. I think it was like 25 reknown or something and I believe I was at a -16 advantage or something silly like that.
Love, the ,game. Is there any plans for a fll sequel?
That sounds awesome. Glad you like it! Respect for that 2 vs 31 battle, too.
As for a sequel, I suppose one could argue that the upcoming "War of the Roses" is kinda Mount&Blade'ish, though I don't know if it's actually made by the same people or how freedom you're going to have there.
For what it's worth, no sequel is actually needed - you really need to check out the gazillion mods on the forums there!
Also, we dakkanauts should all meet up for a multiplayer siege battle some day.
One thing I did find extremely interesting was the AI in battles. for most of the last 4 days I have just been trading and hunting bandits. (omg I love the trading in the game. It reminiscent of uncharted waters) However I started to get a bit ansy and when I saw one of my favorite towns being raided, I had to step in. Dude was like "I consider this unprovoked!" as women and childen run for their lives, so me and my crew smacked them down 30 to 60 (I had a pile of high level guys and companions and most of his force was lower level".
Safe to say that pissed off his nation so I sided with the Nords and jump another army. However it was a bit of a shocker on how different the army's tactics were compared to bandits. The all stayed in formation and pushed toward my back line without being distracted by my cav arrow tactics. That's when I knew I was playing with the big boys now and I lost half by dang force (which was 67ish at the time). While it hurt, I won and knew I had to step my game up some.
Yes, when using the axe as a polearm, it has a slight speed increase. However, you risk thrusting with it, which will make the extra speed moot for the next...several hundred attacks.
Duh, I've just learned right now that M&B2 was already announced...
Also, had some more multiplayer battles last night. Did some epic throwing-axe-sniping in a siege battle of Nords vs Swadians, though much of it was really just a huge bag of luck - can't reliably hit someone on a distance of about 20 meters, after all, even from an elevated position such as castle walls. That throw did save our flag tho and made me feel like a badass for a minute.
Then I went and played some more Napoleonic Wars. I've barely touched Commander Battle up until now, but damn that was fun. I learned to toy around with the commands a little more this time, ordering my infantry regiment to hold fire and form three lines. Together with another regiment of French line infantry we hid behind a small hill and had our cavalry bait the Prussian dragoons to our position. As soon as our guys had passed by the enemy officer saw what happened and tried to charge us, at which moment we gave the order to open fire. Half his men fell right there, with the other crashing into our ranks. At this point, I gave the order to switch to bayonets and charge. It was a bloodbath, but with few casualties on our own side.
Silly Swadian seem to be pushovers for me at the moment. Thought I have really ticked off several of their generals at this point so my poor fief takes the brunt of their anger. there is one guy at this point that I wish I could execute him.
In my SP campaign I went neutral yesterday, not renewing my mercenary contact with King Ragnar and instead opting to pursue the war with the Vaegir on my own. Army size is at about 80 by now, so I'm starting to plan besieging my first castle. There's a neat wooden fort I've got my eyes set on; its garrison has 140 soldiers. My main issue is fear of enemy reinforcements. I could probably win the battle, but the casualties might force me to lift the siege and render the whole effort a waste of time and resources...
Decided to start a new game on Native (been having fun fiddling with the Diplomacy and PBOD mod and may own additions to them (mainly custom troops for my faction), so thought i'd try and have a go at Native again).
Big mistake to start in the Nord area.
I bought a shiny new bow and arrows, and did the merchant's quest.
I then get kicked a ways out from Sargoth, right next to a group of 11 Sea Raiders I had no hope of outrunning.
I'm level 3 and on 1/3 health, and I had 6 Nord Recruits.
Worst case you can always dismiss the recruits (or better yet, order them to cover your retreat ) and ride away on your own. I don't think anything can catch you when you're solo - you've got, like, Speed 7 or 8 then!
They've been reeeeally scarce with info so far... not even a proper preview or any announcements of features. M&B2 "may" have multiplayer, though. I wonder if that refers to Warband's battles or ... campaign mode?
As long as they keep the bloody firearms out I think I'll be happy, though. Either do it properly and go Napoleonic Wars, or stay with the swords and shields and lances.
Honestly if they did Warband with simply updated graphics and some expansion on politics and other features I'd be happy as can be. No need to ruin a prefect design.
Lynata wrote:They've been reeeeally scarce with info so far... not even a proper preview or any announcements of features. M&B2 "may" have multiplayer, though. I wonder if that refers to Warband's battles or ... campaign mode?
As long as they keep the bloody firearms out I think I'll be happy, though. Either do it properly and go Napoleonic Wars, or stay with the swords and shields and lances.
How do you define doing them properly?
Because if they were more historically accurate they would suck and be unfun to use.
Melissia wrote:How do you define doing them properly?
Because if they were more historically accurate they would suck and be unfun to use.
Okay, that was referring more to my personal preference in terms of a setting. I like medieval combat a la Mount & Blade, and I do like the Napoleonic Wars with its fancy uniforms and muskets and bayonets. I just don't like the two being mixed. The resulting image is something that just fails to evoke any interest from me. Probably because I have a very fixed perception of medieval times, even though warfare and society changed a lot throughout the centuries.
Coincidentally, I'd have less of a problem with a fantasy setting where someone would attempt to mix elements of these eras, as long as it's done in a way that it "feels right" to me. For example, for a P&P game I wrote a nation that used very crude rockets in addition to classic medieval-style blades and polearms.
BlueDagger wrote:Honestly if they did Warband with simply updated graphics and some expansion on politics and other features I'd be happy as can be. No need to ruin a prefect design.
From the few bits we got to see this is how it looks like. For the time being I shall remain cautiously optimistic.
For example, in Napoleonic Wars your guns cannot misfire, which is a huge deviation from reality concidering how often this (supposedly) happened. On the other hand, when you pass through a river in this game, your powder gets wet and you lose any and all reloads - only the one shot you have in your pistol/musket, which you've held above the water, remains usable. I thought this was a rather cool feature, even though I was confused at first. Didn't expect this to happen as I was crossing the river.
There's no "right" or "wrong" on this question, tho - we all have individual definitions of what's fun.
I think that having no misfires is fine. Surviving firearms in MnB is often a matter of luck as it is, inserting more luck-based variables isn't gonna make the game more fun. At least the river thing you can avoid or prepare for.
I've been playing Mount and Blade for a few weeks and really enjoying it, tis a great game. Been cruising around lately with about 70 cavarly, a mixture of Khergit Lancers and mercaneries (I joined the Khergits).
I managed to get stuck fighting a force of like 200 Nords and had to surrender and loose my awesome army :( and i'm finding it very, very difficult to get any reasonable force back together... Groups of 30 steppe bandits keep beating the gak out of me and my low level soldiers get killed so much I get back at square one. I have practically no money at this point and i'm trying to train myself a force of Nord soldiers because everyone been saying how fantastic they are.
Is there anyway to gain some quick cash in this kind of situation?
Lord-Loss wrote:I've been playing Mount and Blade for a few weeks and really enjoying it, tis a great game. Been cruising around lately with about 70 cavarly, a mixture of Khergit Lancers and mercaneries (I joined the Khergits).
I managed to get stuck fighting a force of like 200 Nords and had to surrender and loose my awesome army :( and i'm finding it very, very difficult to get any reasonable force back together... Groups of 30 steppe bandits keep beating the gak out of me and my low level soldiers get killed so much I get back at square one. I have practically no money at this point and i'm trying to train myself a force of Nord soldiers because everyone been saying how fantastic they are.
Is there anyway to gain some quick cash in this kind of situation?
Nords are not the best faction, not by a long shot. They have tough as nails infantry that hit hard, but, they are slow, and they have a very distinct disadvantage in the field against numerous mounted enemies, specifically swadian and vaegir knights. They actually do very well against light cavalry (except for cavalry archers. They cant catch them). I have taken on literally hundreds of those desert bandits in sarranid territory with my force of huscarls. Nords strengths lie in castle sieges, where their speed doesnt really matter. Ironically, that is where the cavalry factions are the weakest.
I would have to say that swadia and vaegir are the most well rounded factions, as they get infantry, archers, and heavy cav. They are most likely the easiest to play and they have something for every situation. Their knights are also the most expensive units in the game though.
While nord lords might not do well, I think a Nord player character could do damned well, using sword sisters as cavalry (they're as good as Swadian Knights in most ways, better in some, worse in others, but far, FAR cheaper to train and maintain) to supplement the badass infantry.
Lord-Loss wrote:I've been playing Mount and Blade for a few weeks and really enjoying it, tis a great game. Been cruising around lately with about 70 cavarly, a mixture of Khergit Lancers and mercaneries (I joined the Khergits).
I managed to get stuck fighting a force of like 200 Nords and had to surrender and loose my awesome army :( and i'm finding it very, very difficult to get any reasonable force back together... Groups of 30 steppe bandits keep beating the gak out of me and my low level soldiers get killed so much I get back at square one. I have practically no money at this point and i'm trying to train myself a force of Nord soldiers because everyone been saying how fantastic they are.
Is there anyway to gain some quick cash in this kind of situation?
Tournaments net you like 20+k if you bet in each round.
This game is liquid crack.... I have played 48 hours since purchasing it last Thursday. Mind you I have a wife, 3 young kids, and a fulltime job... so that is a LOT for me nowadays lol.
I now have 3 fiefs and a castle. Took Lady Afrid as my wife. I'm buddies with 4-5 Nord lords and the king. We have so far taken Curaw, Ravcheng, Praven, and Suno along with all the castles nearby. Looking back it's halarious how the game has cliques within the faction and how everyone shuns you at first. Numerous times I feel like that annoying guy that sees a bunch of the "cool guys" rollin around with the mashal and feeling sad because he didn't invite me to the battles.
LOVE the archery in the game and I fancy myself as a master of it now. I've ever got the "trick Shot" achievement for getting a headshot with a difficulty of 12. I've even warmed up to all the unit commands and actually REALLY enjoy arranging the battle, though I wish there was a "halt command". I typically start with a "followme", get to the tallest nearby hill, "hold here", infantry advance 10 paces, and archers hold fire. If facing cav I have everyone bunch up to halt the horses trying to trample. I then ride out and harass the enemy with archery trying to split up the pack and when the enemy is at a decent range I tell the archers to open fire.
*foams at the mouth* I need 6 more hours in a day because I'm getting no sleep.
Damn you! I'm still trying to get my first fort. Friggin' archers are just too much for my army.
BlueDagger wrote:Looking back it's halarious how the game has cliques within the faction and how everyone shuns you at first. Numerous times I feel like that annoying guy that sees a bunch of the "cool guys" rollin around with the mashal and feeling sad because he didn't invite me to the battles.
lol - I like that description
Also congrats that you've now found a fighting style that suits and serves you well.
BlueDagger wrote:I've even warmed up to all the unit commands and actually REALLY enjoy arranging the battle, though I wish there was a "halt command".
If you hold F1 you can actually set a waypoint for them to run to, rather than having them come running to you.
Supposedly, if you do F1+F4, you get "Stand Ground", which is a "Hold" order that lets the troops freeze where they are. I just discovered this, though - I didn't even know this command existed until now. Probably a change they smuggled into the game some time ago.
For money, if you're up for a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, then the salt trade along the Nord coast can be quite lucrative; buying salt en masse from Wercheg and, to a lesser extent, Tihr, and selling it off in Sargoth or Dhirim (only two places i've tested for selling) can yield extremely large profits even just for a single shipment.
The buying price from Wercheg/Tihr is usually between 60-90 Denars per bag, and selling in Sargoth or Dhirim (provided there isn't any there already, which there shouldn't be unless you haven't waited long enough since your last shipment) starts at around 255-250 Denars per bag. For a shipment of 8 bags, the first should sell for ~250, and the 8th for ~190, so you end up with a profit of around 1000 or so Denars from that one shipment.
If you can catch it, flax from Sargoth doesn't usually cost much to buy, and can sell well in Tihr, but there isn't usually much; not as much as there was when I started playing the first time anyway.
If you're up to it, and can avoid hostilities with the Vaegirs, then setting up an Ironworks in Curaw can also be quite lucrative, since they seem to be producers of iron but not of tools, so you get cheap raw materials and you can sell the finished product in the same market for a decent profit, usually around 400-500 Denars.
Also consider breweries in places with lots of grain production and not much ale; breweries are one of the most, if not the most lucrative enterprises in the game thanks to the fact that the cost of grain/ale will almost never even reach equal prices unless you manage to completely flood the market with ale, and even then it'd be hard to match grain prices unless you induce a shortage by buying it all for ale production.
Most other enterprises seem awesome, like the dyeworks, but can quickly slip into the negative figures, especially if you accidentally flood the market with cheap products whilst still suffering from astronomical raw material prices, and others like mills would be adding bread to a market that already produces it en masse.
Damn you! I'm still trying to get my first fort. Friggin' archers are just too much for my army.
I've found it fairly easy as long as you build your army with fort taking in mind.
I took my first fort with my current character using an mary of forty sword sisters and my companions. Abusing the glitches in siege AI, I was able to take down dozens of enemies without endangering myself, and I made sure I had surgery 5 before starting, so I didn't actually lose any sword sisters (just had them wounded).
The main abuse being the fact that you can stand at the top of the ladder, impervious to retaliation that isn't from ranged units, and simply brain people?
Avatar 720 wrote:For money, if you're up for a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, then the salt trade along the Nord coast can be quite lucrative; buying salt en masse from Wercheg and, to a lesser extent, Tihr, and selling it off in Sargoth or Dhirim (only two places i've tested for selling) can yield extremely large profits even just for a single shipment.
If you want to make money from trade, I recommend getting the Trade skill and using that to determine what to buy and where to sell.
Prices vary between games and between times in the game. You'll notice that as you sell your salt, the price decreases each time you sell, because it has less of a shortage each time more salt is added to its inventory.
Which is why I said that it would depend on having waited for a while after your last shipment of it.
I should clarify, that this shouldn't be used as the only way of gaining money, and should be used to try and build up some funds for other ventures or sparingly to build up recently depleted coffers.
Again, it's really far more useful to use the Trade skill instead. In the marketplace of any city, you can use the trade skill directly to find out where the best deals are in relation to this city.
That would require you to first accumulate points in trade, making small ventures like this one of the best ways of recouping losses or making money early on, since the return is short term, as opposed to requiring levelling trade by grinding exp.
EDIT: It also doesn't require you to trek from Sargoth to Durquba, for example, if you want to sell salt for slightly higher.
It also requires the game to result in high salt build up in Wercheg, which there's no guarantee-- Wercheg produces Tools, Wool, Furs, Linen, Dried Meat and Smoked Fish, not Salt, according to the wiki. And even then, it's a low production city because of its location and isolation from villages.
Just saying.. the salt thing you noticed is kind of based on luck.
Tihr is also a steady producer of salt, which is why I mentioned it. In the games i've played seriously, Tihr has always had at least some salt, and the surrounding villages also produce it.
I've done a LOT of trading as it's one of my favorite features in the game.
Werchang salt -> Rivcheng, Rivcheng Raw Silk -> Suno Oil -> Praven, Praven Flax -> Sargoth, Sargoth check in for missions/lady love etc.
The only thing that I have not liked so far is that lords LOVE to go after my fief of Kulum for some damn reason. It's isolated in a corner with 2 other prime candidates for looting before you reach it, but no no they just have to go for it. My fort is over in Jeirbe, so I don't have a prayer of getting there in time. At first I though it was because I pissed in someone cornflakes and they were out for revenge, but it's lords I have never met before.
I think it's just too early for me to take a fort, or go independent for that matter. Kinda unwilling to give up so fast, though. Maybe if I spend another couple days for training my guys ... need more huscarls ...
All those trade tips kinda tease me to try my hands at a desert-dwelling merchant/archer character some day... something to keep in mind for later.
I only did it so that I could afford decent gear and a decent army. Profits from hunting Forest Bandits and, now that I have a few Huscarls and Nord Warriors/Veterans + Swadian Knights and Men at Arms, the Sea Raiders that so mercilessly destroy me after doing the merchant's quest at the start of the game, now pay for things.
Just as an aside, if you do go prisoner hunting, sell looters to Ramun the Slave Trader in Tihr; looters go for less 50 Denars to other Slave Traders, but Ramun pays a flat price of 50 for any prisoner; other than looters, though, it's never* worth it to sell to him if you have to option not to.
*To clarify, only tested with mountain and forest bandits and sea raiders, other bandits may go for under 50 normally, in which case, sell to ramun.
Plus selling to Ramun is unethical. The prisoners to a ransom broker get ransomed to their families while the slave trader... turns them into slaves. (yes yes I know it has no in game consiquence, but it ranks up there with hunting bandits with farmer prisoners just to save the innocent people!)
I'm current buddies with all but 3 Nord lords, but at the same time I kinda want my own kingdom. However I know that will lead to a whole pile of bloodshed if I renounce my oath. My 105 man army could never stand up to the 300+ king let alone his 4-5 100+ lords. Plus I'd lose my castle and all my fiefs which are a cash cow at this point.
Funny how realistic that is, the hunger for power could cause me to be marked a traitor and lose everything.
BlueDagger wrote:Plus selling to Ramun is unethical. The prisoners to a ransom broker get ransomed to their families while the slave trader... turns them into slaves. (yes yes I know it has no in game consiquence, but it ranks up there with hunting bandits with farmer prisoners just to save the innocent people!)
I like that the game makes people think that way. Very RPG'ish. That said, looters and bandits I always sell to Ramun, they deserved it. Soldiers on the other hand ... meh, depends on their Lord, and how angry I am about my own losses. It felt rather satisfying selling knights to Ramun once.
I also tried selling him a captured Lord, but sadly he doesn't want those. Too much heat, I presume.
BlueDagger wrote:I'm current buddies with all but 3 Nord lords, but at the same time I kinda want my own kingdom. However I know that will lead to a whole pile of bloodshed if I renounce my oath. My 105 man army could never stand up to the 300+ king let alone his 4-5 100+ lords. Plus I'd lose my castle and all my fiefs which are a cash cow at this point.
Well, you could try to make some of your buddies switch to your side ... if your Right to Rule and your relationship are high enough, maybe they turn traitor together with you.
Been playing this game recently. Started in Rhodoks and decided to pledge fealty to King Graveth, and went through a few wars gaining experience and whatnot. Most recently war was declared on Swadia, and I was able to capture half of their lands, with the other generals managing to take what was left over. So after they were finally destroyed, what does Graveth do? He declares war on the Kingdom of Vaegirs! And I'm sure if I manage to take them out he'll go for the Nords next. Ugh.
MnB Wiki wrote:Marry a lady. This will give you some right to rule, as it will make you more 'Calradian' to vassals and ensures your heirs will have the blood of Calradic nobility.
Dominate a faction, then take their desperate cease-fire. Making peace does the same job.
Send an emissary and be recognized as a legitimate lord by any faction.
Send out companions to speak highly of you.
Slaughter peasants and raze towns. To be feared is better than to be loved.(This seldom provides RTR)
Convince a lord to join your faction.
Gram wrote:So after they were finally destroyed, what does Graveth do? He declares war on the Kingdom of Vaegirs!
Well, since the last war went so well ...
Deathshead420 wrote:Does anyone here play a modded game? Shogun, or floris mod?
On my old computer I had a Star Wars mod for M&B. It was pretty fun, actually!
These days I'm thinking about getting one that doesn't change the entire game but rather adds one or two nice minor features. For example, there's one for improved formations, and another one for politics ...
Multiplayer is eating up much of the time I could invest in singleplayer, tho.
I'm thinking about getting one that doesn't change the entire game but rather adds one or two nice minor features. For example, there's one for improved formations, and another one for politics ..
Floris mod is the way to go then. I really like the formation features and volley fire. Not so good to fight against though.
How the hell do you people take on castles with so few soldiers? Do you all play on easiest or something, or are your AI enemies not stocking their garrisons properly? When I layed siege to my first castle, it had a garrison of 270 soldiers (darchios castle). The first city that I conquered had 540 soldiers in the garrison alone (dhirim)! I then pushed swadia until they had praven and one castle left...right before my king signed a peace treaty with them D:. I owned Dhirim, Uxkhal, Suno, and some sarranid city, along with three feifs and two castles before I quit the nords and formed my own factions. Now I own Khudan and two castles and five feifs with five lords vassals under my command.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Also - I found that my favorite tactic for my nords is to mix huscarls with rhodock spearmen, and rhodock sharpshooters mixed with nord longbows. The sharpshooters have much heavier armor than the longbowmen, they make for a tough group of archers to deal with, both in melee and at range. I mix in about 25% rhodock infantry with the nords to provide cavalry defense. The pikes of the rhodock veteran spearmen will stop cavalry charges in their tracks. They also defend castles better than the nords do with the rediculous reach of their polearms and spears.
I used the NPC lords armies along with my own. So white I have 90ish there was like 300 on my side va their 288. However I am indeed on the easiest setting. Before I try another setting I'll start a new character and try some mods.
It's not actually that hard to do, due to poor siege AI you can rack up kills on sieges very easily.
You need a heavy hitting weapon, a big shield (huscarl or a rhodok board) and good armor. Once you charge up the ladder / ramp, try to jump and get behind the enemy lines. They will rarely attack you if you're behind them (focusing instead on the ladder/siege tower) and you'll get to attack them as much as you please barring a few rare individuals who turn around to face you, especially if you don't kill them in one hit (thus why "bring a heavy hitting weapon", two-handed axes or greatswords work great). Just keep swinging, and when reinforcements arrive, make sure you're not caught in the middle-- let them pass you and hit THEM in the back as well. I've personally racked up probably a hundred kills in a single siege this way before.
It helps if you bring troops that have strong shields equipped, like huscarls or Rhodok sergeants, to deal with the initial volleys of arrows. Knights can work in a pinch, but Huscarls are definitely better for this given their huge shields.
Avatar 720 wrote:I only did it so that I could afford decent gear and a decent army. Profits from hunting Forest Bandits and, now that I have a few Huscarls and Nord Warriors/Veterans + Swadian Knights and Men at Arms, the Sea Raiders that so mercilessly destroy me after doing the merchant's quest at the start of the game, now pay for things.
Just as an aside, if you do go prisoner hunting, sell looters to Ramun the Slave Trader in Tihr; looters go for less 50 Denars to other Slave Traders, but Ramun pays a flat price of 50 for any prisoner; other than looters, though, it's never* worth it to sell to him if you have to option not to.
*To clarify, only tested with mountain and forest bandits and sea raiders, other bandits may go for under 50 normally, in which case, sell to ramun.
Looters and faction recruits go for less than 50 denars, everything else goes for more as far as I have seen.
Melissia wrote:It's not actually that hard to do, due to poor siege AI you can rack up kills on sieges very easily.
You need a heavy hitting weapon, a big shield (huscarl or a rhodok board) and good armor. Once you charge up the ladder / ramp, try to jump and get behind the enemy lines. They will rarely attack you if you're behind them (focusing instead on the ladder/siege tower) and you'll get to attack them as much as you please barring a few rare individuals who turn around to face you, especially if you don't kill them in one hit (thus why "bring a heavy hitting weapon", two-handed axes or greatswords work great). Just keep swinging, and when reinforcements arrive, make sure you're not caught in the middle-- let them pass you and hit THEM in the back as well. I've personally racked up probably a hundred kills in a single siege this way before.
It helps if you bring troops that have strong shields equipped, like huscarls or Rhodok sergeants, to deal with the initial volleys of arrows. Knights can work in a pinch, but Huscarls are definitely better for this given their huge shields.
This, mostly. If you stand off to the side when enemies spawn, you can carve a path through their backs. When 20 spawn at a time, if you're quick, you can take out a good half of them before the next wave comes. I've managed to win a siege with a bit over a hundred men when they had five times that, and probably killed a good hundred and fifty men myself. >.>
Why must you force me to continue playing my mount and balde gaem.
How do you get so many Sword Sisters. Hard enough to find captured females on bandits and then they are hard to get to higher levels because they are fairly weak in the lower levels. (Although I didnt train so far).
Steppe Bandits typically have lots of females. So you build up a decent force, take them on and hire the women. Train them at a training ground on via training skill up a rank or two and then they are decent. Don't try for an all female force till a significant amount are sword sisters though.
I forgot how powerful stuff gets when i'm not cheating in order to see how well my custom troops can function xD
Example: "Oh look, 5 Looters, i'll just go and knock them out and- Oh my god my Horse! Ouch! OUCH! STOP HITTING ME! AHHHHH!"
Also doesn't help when King Harlus asks if you want to be a vassal, you accept with your one-third Nord, one-third Swadian and one-Third Vaegir army, then Swadia declares war on the Nords -.- Now i'm just waiting for one-third of my army (see: the Huscarls) to desert.
All in all, it's been a rough re-introduction to serious play I'm now going to have to acquire a shield and one-handed weapon of some description, because once anything gets close, I don't get to even swing my long axe due to the speed at which i'm hit by things, and my mouse seems to like randomising my block direction ("Oh, you wanna block left? See, blocking up is so 'in' right now, so I think you should block up instead.").
I bumped up to "normal" damages and Average AI Intell/combat speed. It's certainly a lot tougher now, but very subtlety. I love how the difficulty of AI isn't "yar we gave them 700x more health" but rather the computer is just smarter.
My character is defiantly dying a PILE faster now between smarter archers and the increased damage.
I now play with normal damage and good AI, and it definately hurts. Whilst storming a Nordic fort with what seemed to be the entire Kingdom of Swadia, we lost a horrific amount to the initial charge, and when I went to face a Veteran Archer 1v1, I raise my long axe, his is faster, and I end up taking three hits, each time doubling over due to damage so I can't retaliate, and dying.
I wasn't best pleased.
EDIT: Decided to see just how brutal the Good AI was one on one. Training vs a Huscarl, and i've come to the conclusion that my mouse button is sticking. How do I know? When a 2h sword (Huscarl) beats a 1h sword to the punch when swung (or clicked, in my case) at the same time, you know something is up. I've won 5/20 practice matches because my mouse has decided to block in a random direction as it usually does, or because I get hit first and double over, and lose because I can't retaliate, even if i'm facing a slower weapon.
I already had my suspicions about the sticking (letting go of the mouse button when using a bow and having it stay nocked for a second or so afterwards is a pretty decent indicator) but now i'm playing seriously, it's becoming a huge annoyance.
Dark Scipio wrote:How do you get so many Sword Sisters
I specifically hunt down armies, both lord and bandit, which have female peasants as prisoners. I then keep them from fighting as much as possible, and train them regularly, as well as having one of my three remaining followers (all the rest I promoted to nobility) have really high training.
Keep in mind, this is on the game that I have where I have already conquered both the Sarranid and Kergit armies. I would have over sixty of them by now if I hadn't lost some due to combat, and I would have had well under thirty if I didn't have Surgery 10.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Also, to beat someone in a duel, parry and then attack whiel they're recovering from the parry. Unless there's a HUGE skill difference, they won'tbe able to parry fast enough.
The simulate battle very very well in the game, but the one thing that is brutally missing is endurance. Swing around that giant weapon or draw a tensed bow as many times as you do in one battle... you'd be dead of a heart attack from exhaustion.
That being said, I'm glad it's left out kinda, but it would slow things down quite a bit having to rest.
Naw because it takes a lot of endurance to hold a lance up in the air for any given amoutn of time. You'd be shaking like mad making the targeting damn near impossible for extended periods.
Just got a new PC, and I must say Mount and Blade (MP) is a lot easier with a working Graphic Card.
Has a lot fun in MP, because in that server we really had something like teamplay on a CtF map.
Another question: Do you loot hostile villages? I dont because I have followers that dont like it and I dont want to loose them.
I would do it often because I am a nice guy. But to weaken an enemy would also be good.
Sometimes I do a specific 'bad guy' build, where I pick my companions specifically so they aren't bothered by looting villages and slaughtering farmers. Usually when I am playing as a Khergit,
Downloaded the Floris Mod last night and restarted with it. Playing on expanded mode with expanded troop trees.
- TONS more items and options
- Seems like the fights are a lot harder, I'm getting smeared
- the expanded troop tree is a tad confusing because it uses true faction appropriate names
Oh and the expanded tree rebalances troops so all nord isn't godmode anymore. The Nords now rely more heavily on trowing weapons and the english longbows are best archers.
Bromsy wrote:Sometimes I do a specific 'bad guy' build, where I pick my companions specifically so they aren't bothered by looting villages and slaughtering farmers. Usually when I am playing as a Khergit,
I just did that as well, just for giggles. Went with a male Swadian noble, somewhat good-looking but still with a harsh face, and a black banner. It's gonna be interesting to see how far you can get being an ass.
Vendetta 476 wrote:Have you guys tried the DLC 'Napolenic Wars'?
Absolutely, I'm loving it. If possible, I like to play as an Infantry Officer. Buffing nearby soldiers with my aura makes me feel extremely useful, plus I get to hit people with my sword. On top of this I have a cool spyglass with which to look for enemy movements. What's not to like?
Also, "C" is the most important button in the game.
Ma55ter_fett wrote:Bought warband last night (because of this thread) and love it!
Just installed and tried Floris, and it's buggy as hell for me. I can't enter village centres, fights are laggy at the start and I have to alt-tab to rectify it, and it just crashed.
I used the built-in installer, so it's nothing to do with me placing it incorrectly, and my computer should easily be able to handle the graphical changes.
Not sure what to say, I had zero problems. Did you run the the installer .exe as admin? Maybe some of the files didn't get transferred.
I have been using it for the last two months. I really really like the new army trees in the mod and you will too if you get it running correctly.
Edit - Do you use battle sizer? I remember reading somewhere that you need to lower the unit on screen number. If you still have trouble let me know and I will see if I can help.
Deathshead420 wrote:Not sure what to say, I had zero problems. Did you run the the installer .exe as admin? Maybe some of the files didn't get transferred.
I have been using it for the last two months. I really really like the new army trees in the mod and you will too if you get it running correctly.
Edit - Do you use battle sizer? I remember reading somewhere that you need to lower the unit on screen number. If you still have trouble let me know and I will see if I can help.
Everything was run fine.
I uninstalled it and installed just the basic version, which fixed some stuff, but I still can't enter village centres and it freezes mid-battle sometimes, forcing me to alt-tab out in order to correct it.
I'll have a try nuking the battle size though; you know which is the most it'll work with?
Vendetta 476 wrote:Lynata, are you interested in big organised line battles, like the actual Napolenic Wars?
I loved line battles back in the "Battle Grounds" mod for Half Life 2. I think it's a lot of fun trying to re-enact this kind of fighting with a bunch of cool people - so yeah, I am!
I just don't have enough time to actually join one of the MB-NW regiments, and I don't know of random line battles happening in this game as they did exist in Battle Grounds. Or have you heard something concerning this?
I am part of a North American regiment that mostly has events on the weekends but I do vaguely remember having some non-regimental folks on one of the events.
Still playing the Floris mod, and damn is it a hell of a lot harder. Craziest thing happened in the last like 30 days of the game. It seems as though a Lord went rouge and is leading some bandits. There is a pack of 5 bandits lead by this guy patroling forests with a combined total of like 700 Forest Badit/Sea Raiders. In the floris mod the expanded tree is 7 upgrades high and bandits are a Teir 4ish level. It's hilarious watching one of the little packs catch a 200+ army and then the 700 man conglomerate eats it alive.
Scary as hell and I have to constantly watch my riding paths at night.
They're not rogue lords, they're just bandit lords. There's one for each specific bandit type, so one for Forest, one for Mountain, one for Desert etc.
They essentially act as marshals for their various bandit faction, and so they're often found leading their own armies, usually in excess of 200 men, and stringing along several hundred more in various bandit parties.
Although after finally getting Expanded to work, if I play it for long enough then i'm plagued by extreme lag at (seemingly) random intervals, that doesn't cease until I manage to bring up the main menu (through furious beating at 'Esc' to get through the lag) and alt-tab out for a few minutes.
I can't find anything on Google about it either, so either there's some sort of hideous memory leak somewhere, or it just doesn't like me, since it doesn't seem to care whether my graphical settings are low or balls-to-the-wall extreme and they're the only other things I can think of that could cause it.
Wow that is weird Avatar have you tried reinstalling both?
The battle plans is a little odd and I haven't figured it out yet. I just have everyone follow me to the nearest hill and form up. Infantry advances 10 paces and the cav follkw me to a flank. Right when the enemy is about to hit the front line of the infantry I charge with everyone so tohave the choas of the infantry charging downhil and the cav slamming into the rear/ flank. Works well so far.
Huge balancing factor of Floris is armor and horses/archery. If you pile on heavy armor your horse skill goes to crap an horse archery goes to crap. If you pile it really heavily tour archery totally goes to hell.
However Floris changes the battlefield to BEAUTIFULLY done fields with Lots of foliage. Horsebowing in circles around enemies not caring to watch where you are going become impossible due to running into sapplings.
I also noticed that if you horse gets effed up it degrades to a lame horse after a while, and floris makes horses pricey.
Not noticed the archery degredation yet, but i'm still getting used to it.
As for running into saplings, i've become paranoid around those things, since I can never tell which are actually there and which aren't for some textures.
Also, horses becoming lame isn't new; they do that if they die too much in Native anyway, and they heal after a few days, so if you can do without them for about a week or so then you're golden, but they do lose any additional status they had before, such as Heavy, Champion etc.
A decent way of buying a horse is to scan the towns for lame ones and nurse them back, since you can buy them lame for a fraction of what they'd normally cost.
Hmm never noticed that about the horses mainly because the speed doesn't degrade on native after they get shot a few times. I got a shield and a nice one hand 110 reach clever, so my playstyle has changed a bit.
I've been trying to stay neutral and work my way up to snatching a castle to start my own empire, but damn is that hard. The easy way would be to take one when part of the faction and give the faction the finger as you go Independence, but that would almost certainly end in getting my head knocked in by the whole faction.
The change to trade is also really rough. Trade is not the autowin it is in native. However the tournament mode that floris uses seems to be really exploitable, not a fan.
I got froggy last night and took my 86 dudes that were mainly teir 4+ and attacked a swadia castle that was about 94 T3 mainly. I lost about 30 guys but I won! I started my own kingdom and life was good… for about 5 mins.
About 80 dudes from Swadia rolled up rather pissed off, but with some quick thinking I snuck out of the castle and recruited 20 mercs. I fended off the siege but was then down to about 55 guys… and another 110 man army rolled up ><. I held them off the best I could, and saw everyone slaughtered from a high up position as I saw 50 dudes charge my last stand…
I went from 86 highly trained guys, to having my own kingdom, to now being on the run from Swadia with me and one of my companions. *cries* So epic, but I shall rebuild, I shall persevere!
I've gone from Nords to Swadian knights in the last few days. I found that Hurscal take way to long to train up, I could never have more then 15/20 at a time out of 90ish soldiers. You can get Swadian recuits to Men at arms in a few ingame days easily, then it's only a few fights to get them to knights.
Maybe i'll try Nords again later when I can get 150+ soldiers, meh.
I already have a castle that I took with my Nord force but the last two castles i've captured while they've been on 50/60ish men have all been given to lords with no land of their own.
How can I make Sanjar Khan give me the castles I capture?
My relationship with him is fairly low, around 2+ but the only quests he gives me are to destroy bandit hideouts...
Easiest way is to marry someone then hold a lot of deck out feasts, You quickly get a fantastic amount of rep with you other lords and then when a fief/castle comes up for offer you can asked them to change their minds and support you. It's not the king you have to make choose you, it's all the other lords.
Lord-Loss wrote:How can I make Sanjar Khan give me the castles I capture?
I believe you can always protest "injust" rulings - whether this has the desired result or gets you into a ton of trouble depends on both your relationship as well as your importance for the realm.
1. i've just tried M&M: With fire and Sword but not yet taking factions .. yet
2. Does adventure movement speed affected by followes type?
if more cavs are recruited, does it also increases movement speed?
3. I'm now doing Clermont's quest. (or maybe. ones that assigned next to it. given by a russian prince.. can't remember the name). does it specify that 3 Polish villages the prince assigned a player to loot must be ones that belongs to Smolenks? where (in game map) will the prince wants to lay siege?
On the map, movement speed is determined by the highest Pathfinding skill in your party (including the Pathfinding of your named companions), the size of your party (smaller is faster), and the makeup of your party (more cavalry is faster).
My one handed skill is about 250 but I want a range weapon for sieges, is a bow and arrow better then crossbow?
Something strange just happened in my game, three or four of the Khergit lords have just suddenly left and joined Surrands (spell?). Even though I stayed with the Khergits my fief, near one of their towns, have been taken from me. :(
I find crossbows are better because they let you focus on other skills. Shield use, heavy armor + ironskin (acccording to some people in this thread), and weapon skills are arguably more useful for surviving sieges.
But bows and arrows fire faster and are more mobile.
I personally use a bow because I despise the reload time/ can't move while reloading with xbow. For sieges a xbow is fine, but while you are in field it cripples you manueverability/shot speed.
Almost 300 days into my Floris Mod character. I've had to restart my army like 23 times now. I had to forgo my dreams of my kingdom for a bit because Swadians were becoming a powerhouse and hunting me. Dropped my kingdom (had no castle) and joined Khans then left them to rest my nuetrality. Going to try to build up again and got from there. I would have joined Nords and wed my chickie I have been pursuing, but her brother when to the Saltaniate who I have no interest in joining.
How does 'engineering' skills work? does it really involves with castle (one way or another?)
I know that it has two functions
1. allows player to construct siege engines (in With fire and Sword version. Does the 'siege engine' means cannon only?)
2. allows player to build fief improvements; what can it be, can it only be done at player's castle or can it also be done at any surrounding village? and do players require specific goods to do so?
Melissia wrote:If you want to focus on commanding, I'd suggest Leadership, Training, and Surgery.
The former is really mandatory for anyone who wants an army (increases army size, increases morale, reduces the upkeep of the army, etc). Training helps in some village missions, and allows you to upgrade your army faster as they get experience faster. And Surgery helps ensure that your units are killed less often (just knocked out instead).
I agree on the usefulness of leadership, however training and surgery not so much. Eventually you should collect party heroes which their own special skillsets which render taking most party skills on your own character rather obsolete (only the highest value in the party applies). Surgery can easily be taken on Jeremus (perhaps the ideal medic) and training can easily be taken on Lezalit (perhaps the ideal trainer).
Just my two cents, but remember that heroes have their own likes and dislikes so some hero combinations may be very difficult to maintain.
HOWEVER,
The training skill is cumalative meaning if you have 5 training and your buddy has 3 then the total skill is 8 thus allowing you to build a powerful army easily.
Party skills aren't cumulative, the highest value in the party is chosen (so if you are on 7 Training and Lezalit on 6, then your value of 7 will be the one used, not a combined value of 13).
Khergit was down to it's last caste last night with the Vaeggies and Sultinate beating the piss outta them, so I built up a force again (for like the 32nd time) waited for their 10 lords camping it to take someone on... and sieged their 168 mostly T2-3 vs my 94 mostly T4-5 and some 6. Unsuprisingly I got whomped on, but I knew that would happen. However I knew that I would kill them when they merely injured most of mine and it work mwhahaha!
However, while i rested outside of the Castle the Mountain bandit crew got me! I almost threw my ****in mouse across the room. Infuriated is a slight understatement. However I escaped a mere 3 hours after getting captured and still had 3 companions on me. I ran back up to the castle to check it out and they were down to 45/50... I was never goign to have this chance again!
I ran over to Tulga and recruited mercs. I ran to all nearby villages... I'm up to 30, but most ly T1... that won't work. I stopped off an another city but I'm out of money *sobs*. I stop at another tournament.... a tournament is going on! dumbfounded I join the tournament and I have never fought so hard before and won about 4k gold. I upgrade everyone and grab more mercs. I head back to the castle and they are now at 80 to my 42... Gahhhhhh. However just then I see a bandit crew wit ha PILE of prisoners... it's the SOB that ganked me outside the caste!!
I beat his ever living face in and take back all my men. It's funny how good it felt to have them back even though they are just numbers. With my 96 strong i head back to the castle that is now at 140.... however nearly 60 are T1-2. I say eff it and go in head long. After a blood fight and a LOT of kills by me personally (I was an angry man in that battle) I took the castle and started my kingdom!!!
With the only faction that I pissed off being the now territory-less Khergit there was no real threat of retaliation. Better yet they immediately requestsed a truce meaning I have no threat of attack for the moment! I immediately sent out diplomacy to the Saltinate and the Veggies who neighbor me to buy time for me to stablize and build up.
I start on my new journey as the King of Dragonia!
Just using this as my place to vent the awesome since my wife rolls her eyes the second I talks about the game. It's official, she hates Mount and Blade waaay more then the hobby lol.
Approx Day 290-300 (in game)
Having secured Distar castle and the fief of Bulugur I was now on a roll for the first time as my own Kingdom, which is extremely hard to do starting out Neutral and 10x harder with the Floris Mod on. I sent out all my companions to the different nations to send warm greetings and surprisingly they all recognized my right to rule and sent back warm welcomings. I quickly realized that this was because everyone and their mother was at war and didn't want to have to focus on another front. For me, this was fine because I was in no position to take on a nation 10x my size, so I set out to make some gold and recruit more soldiers.
I garrisoned all my non-Calvary men at the Castle, so that I wouldn't get slowed down and did a few trips aroudn the nation trading goods to get some cash flow going. Every now and then I stopped off at a village an helped out peasants with bandit issues, but never excepted money from them as thanks because they need it more. Once I got back to my castle I decided it was time to go bandit hunting after seeing a bandit group imprison some of my fief's villagers. With my all Cav force I was fast enough to run down any bandits I came across using no real tactics except for charging in headlong and knocking them unconscious with maces.
Fast forward a few day of bandit hunting and I suddenly realize that I had amassed a LARGE amount of wealth from selling bandits off. I would imprison about 40 bandits at a time and drop them off for a solid 4-5k gold just to turn around and do it again a few hours later. I made some enemies though because ambushes of bandits became common when going into town. With my new found fortune I plan to improve my castle and land while investing in the local cities to get a better cash flow going.
The next step however is to take some swings at another faction and spread my kingdom… however in doing so I'm poking a bees nest, and my stick isn't that long.
I highly suggest playing M&B:Warband for a little bit to get use to the mechnics then downloading the Floris Mod. Expands the game significantly *cough* and makes it a lot harder *cough*.
Having built up a good amount of wealth I stopped off at my castle and advised my men to construct some improvements at both the village and the castle so that I could receive word if there were any attackers. I then headed to the two nearest cities and invested in an iron works, a bakery, and bought some land to rent out. Before I heads out again I headed back to the castle to toss the rest of my gold in my coffers of which I still had about 15,000 . As I was about to leave I noticed I had a visitor... it was a Lord of another land asking to join my forces. Rather surprised I immediately took him up on his offer to join, but quickly realized he was rather pompous and had the never to insult me. However as the old saying goes, "beggars can't be choosers" and I since I don't have any Lords to further my army at the moment I let it slide.
I set off to do some more bandit hunting, but quickly was distracted by pursuing my love Afrid formerly of the Nords, but now of the Sultinate. She was in love with me, however her brother won’t not agree do my former status of a mercenary with no land. Now that I was a king his arse is singing a different tune lol. He needed to know me better, so I assisted him with some tasks that included hunting down a criminal, lending him some men, and delivering a few letter (how demining for a king). The seal on the deal however was saving his army from a horde of bandits which at this point was a push over form my army of 250. Grateful for the help he betrothed his sister to me and we are soon to be wed.
Meanwhile I continued to hunt bandits with my 250 slave hunters, which for those that don’t know are men wielding maces and hammers on armored horses. The move fast, hit hard, and instead of killing the enemy not the unconscious so that I may sell the enemy off to a ransom broker for quick gold. At this point I have very high level slave hunters of which several at mounted on elephants for extra tramping of my foes. I however quickly realize that my incoming is getting sapped fast from the number of soldiers I’m holding. With over 380 men in my castle and another 250 in my personal force, money is flying out the window. So I begin to prepare my force for war
Heading back to the castle I send envoys out to the nation of Vaegirs demanding tribute with the threat of war. I knew this wouldn’t go well as they are 10x my size, but I hoped to provoke a fight on their side as I didn’t want to seem like a warmonger just declaring war out of the blue. They however blew me off, no shocker there. As I headed out to scout their castle I saw my first Lord’s army in the field for the first time… he had 380 men and 112 prisoners…. Holy ****. Apparently I had recruited the Chuck Norris of the land as this guy could maintain an army level most Kings can’t. Finding this out I declared war on the Vaegirs as our combined army trumped that of most full forces haha!
Right after I declared war the first enemy army headed into my region sitting at about 100 men. I knew they were out to loot my village, so I gave them no time to achieve their plans. My 250 cavalry charged in as the army attempted to retreat at my very sight… 1 of my men were killed and 100 (well the 40 I could hold) of his were now in shackles. To say my confidence shot through the roof would be an understatement. I declared a campaign and with a combined for of over 630 men the first castle fell like a house of cards. 2 enemy armies showed up to assist in defense, but at the site of our force turned tail and ran. The castle was awarded to “chuck”, the land was award to one of my companions making him a new lord, and I declared chuck as my new Marshall to lead the armies. He more than proved his value and I want to make sure he knows it.
With 2 Castles, 2 Fiefs, and a combined total of over 1200 men I feel confident in my fledgling war with the Vaegirs. We’ll see how I fair against the big boys…
(wow didn't realize how much I wrote. Let me know if this annoys anyone posting this here)
Yesterday, after I consolidated my gains made in manpower, took out some more of the barony of Swabia. The Rhodoks gave me backup, and I rescued about 3 of their princes from border clashes. Ran rampant through Swabia, looting and fighting almost at will. Picked up a half-decent plate suit and heavy bastard sword.
Today - Conquered my first castle, Took it after swabia lost out in a big battle, then whooped the reinforcements there. Stationed 25 men and a few knights there, and now the swabians hate me. The nords and Vangians took Suno, and the adjoining provinces, and I took one of the castles up north and then besieged their home town after reinforcing hugely. Assaulted the castle, with only a few losses.
My relationship with the lords of Khergits is great now, they give me castles whenever I ask for them now.
I own a town and two castles, with a personal army of about 50/50 knights and sword sisters and 100 men in each castle/town.
I feel like it's a good time to start my own kingdom but my only issue is that i've spent a lot of time fighting the lords of other kingdoms and they all hate me now. :( I can't see many lords becoming my vassals in the future at this rate. Meh, i'm just gonna stay with the Khergits for a while longer and try and milk another town or castle out of them.
I've got Lord Durdosh and Klindi, Durdosh is a bit of a prat who is a coward, and Klindi is actually a good worker for a change.
I'm now working on cementing my relationship with the rhodoks, and killing off the Sultanate. The Sultanate keep sending raiding partys north, but they do nothing now except annoy my villages.
Duce wrote:I hate you all... mount and blade and mount and blade warband both bought... which is the more fun one to play first?
No you love us all, once you realise what a good buy you just had.
That is when you get off your game long enough to revisit the forums.
I hate you all cos I know i'll enjoy the game...
And after installing it on friday when got home from work I began playing. I'll admit i didnt bother with the tutorial and did 6-7 restarts at various points once I learnt the systems and after a few unlucky combats right off the bat when bantits caught me walking out of town.
But now i'm siting on a small 35ish man force but most are upgraded, have won a fair few tourneys (I hate the horse ones and especially the ranged weapons... if i can i always swap out for a downed opponents sword).
Now hoping for a chance to dedicate some wins to one fo the nord ladies but haven't had a chance yet as she's missed the last feast... its ok though I have another one (testing what happened when you dediate wins and such... though prefer the other one as her brother likes me a little).
Whats a good time to begin buying the top end armour? also how much should i save and manpower wise should I have for joining a faction as a merc?
Joining a faction as a merc you can do at really any manpower. You just hang out on their campaign and join in the fighting. On the investing in armor, wait for a while. You'll get plenty of goodies from loot over time and buy armor is reaaally pricey.
On my game i'm now up to about 10 lords and other have left the factions to join me. I captured tulga, bayree (spelling) and the city north of tulga. I have about 4 castle and was doing fantastic... Until last night. Appearently the saltinate got a little jealous of my riches and declared war out of the blue. This wouldn't have been an issue except I had just lost a painful battle where I got too ballsie. With my lords having lost a large portion of their force I released the campaign so they could rebuild... And then a seige hit Tulga, my captial. Out of the blue 1000+ soldier were at my front door. I had 300 garrisoned and 250 on me, but when I called for reinforcement only 2 showed up with 90 per. We waited a bit for more and while waiting south of tulga... the effing badit horde showed up. I ran for it but my 2 lords we too slow and were obliterated.
Facing a fight of about 600 vs 1000+ I clicked bargining with the attackers, but I didn't read what was going on.... So tied at this point. I saw they wanted 10000 gold so I figured if I keep tulga that is cheap. No no, that was for me leaving safely. Tulga was insantly theirs and 300 soldiers went poof. Infuriated I went to bed. 600 vs 1000 in a fortifed portision with high level troops I may have stood a chance.... Sooooooo pissed.
That is what happens when not listening during negotiations.
From what it sounds like you still have a mighty realm to fall back on, though, so get an army and take that city back! Throw some screenshots from the siege into this thread while you're at it.
Haha I'll see if I can get fraps to work. With the Floris mod the sieges are rather epic. The MAJOR issue is I didn't kill of any of the soldiers that were attacking the city so there is now a 1k campaign of guys at the city and I'm waaay short of nubmers to deal with that. The fight at the capital would have killed a huge chunk of those numbers effectively neutering the pack, so I'm in a dangerous position.
I'll have to get everyone to rally if I except to hold out which so far my damn lords aren't playing ball.
I don't think you need fraps - just press Print to shovel an image into your cache, you can then paste it into Paint and save it.
Of course, fraps is a little more luxurious as it allows you to capture multiple shots instead of having to tab out of the game again and again just to save them individually (as you can always only have *one* shot cached, and pressing Print again will simply override the last).
Sadly that would not shock me in the slightest.. I'm hopefully goign to use my rage over losing Tulga to not play for a few days and get other things done lol. I kid you not, I was so ticked off I couldn't sleep for like 45mins. I got off the game at 1:15am and I get up for work at 6:30, so I'm running on 4.5 hours of sleep.
As a 30yo guy with 3 kids, but body can't handle that kinda crap anymore lol. Safe to say my workday has been rather unproductive.
PS: On a completely separate note, slaver chief (top tier manhunters) in Floris are board line cheating. They are mounted on elephants which have a charge of like 250 dmg. They literally tramp foot troops like they were walking on water ballons. I usually roll with about:
I've had a few big setbacks along the way like loosing all my troops and getting captured by enemy lords. Also stuff like ruining my relationship with the khergit from stealing from their villages during my merc days means I had to spend ages doing lots of gakky quests.
Well now i've captured a castle and i'm pretty sure it's going to be awarded to someone else so I can start my own kingdom. I've got two castles and a town with 100+ top/mid tier troops stocked in them, aswell as an army of knights which is easily replaceable due to high trainer skill.
I don't think you can really loose on the open field with over 100 knights and sword sisters.
So played more last night, and wow my character's story has changed... started the night as a small 35 man merc party mix of nord troops and some manhunters with upgrades with a few random others.
went and signed up to the nord faction after finding out the lady I wanted to woo wouldn't want me as a merc... then I noticed a nord castle under siege, the armies battered each other and i stepped in and swooped on the garrison and took the castle and requested it as mine, then before it was accepted they retook it form me with a 120ish force, (I fled out of it just before). same thing happens the nords batter them and are battered back, i jump in capturing the garrison and requesting it again and then help out the king in a fight.
Get the castle (yay) though he gave the nearby towen merlen (sp?) to anothe rlord which made me huff, i wanted the town as it was really close to the caste.
anyways i finally found the jarl for the lady i'm chasing, got talking to him and he needed more trust in me, 7 carls given to him later (part of a quest from him to get him some) i'm allowed to talk to his daughter and begin courtng.
meanwhile I garison all my troops to make sure the castle is semi safe, recruit some more and begin leveling them and winning 2 tourneys for cash.
All in all a really action packed night and it has really shifted my character's path.
i'ver about 44k gold and wondering if i should keep that or spend it on getting the top armour and more men.
In the native game without and addons you can go into cities and take to the Guild master to open a business in the city. Without the Floris mod you can't buy land. You can spend that money on upgrades for your castle, but you have to own a town to upgrade it.
Upgrade castle -> invest in 2-3 cities -> look for some new armor/weapons, but don't go top teir on armor (not worth the cost) -> go on a recruiting spree from town to town
I finally started my own kingdom after not having a castle awarded to me and straight away FIVE lords became my vassals. Swadia and Vargaei have declared war on me straight away and i'm already at war with the Khergits. I reckon peace can be made easily with Khergits as I have 40 relationship with their king.
The problem is that due to massive amounts of burning, pillaging and beating up the lords of the other nation over the last thouand days means I have 50- relationship with Nords, Surrands and Swadians. :(
I wish you luck on your fight. When you are the marshall it's rather easy to take land from other kingdoms... like really easy. However when their marshall rolls up with 9 lords trailing, it gets ugly real fast.
Just finished a siege battle of 1100 mixed Vaegir troops against 300 mixed Swadian Knights, Huscarls, and Nord top tier bowmen that I forget the names of.
1. Now i've progressed to another stage of M&B: With Fire and Sword gaming. now i've been invited to join Muscovite Tsardom by the Tsar himself. I did so and has been awarded with a hamlet near Polotsk (can't remeber a name). How can I improve the feif prosperity? if all if five structures are already built and vital positions inside the fief are all occupied.
2. How does siege works? what does Engineering skills do in siege? does it allows player to build cannons of a player is an attacker?
Leaving off from the last time, Tulga had just fallen due to an idiotic negotiation on my part and worse yet there was now a 1000-1300 man campaign at Tulga that was untouched. To make matters even worse the Steppes bandit lord was out in full force with a ~1000 man force that my Lord kept running headlong into... idiots. I quickly retreated back to Distar castle to collect my thoughts and prepare for impending siege, but strangely they didn't come... no... They were heading for Ichamur the city I had just captured from them. In a panic I canceled my campaign and restarted it praying for reinforcements before they got to the city. 2 Lords showed up with only about 60 men each, and I had 250. The main enemy force started to siege the castle but the sultan's 660 man force lagged behind. In a last ditch effort I charged at his force, but my two lords retreated at the last minute leaving me along in the fight.
My 250 men vs. the sultan's 660 man force, wow am I an idiot. This was a reallllly ditch effort move, and even if I won there was still easily 600+ men laying siege to Ichamur. However if I didn't stop them I was going to lose everything! Great... -14 advantage and better yet I got knocked out about 5 minutes into the battle. The first wave of the sultans force was high level cav and was knocking out my guys left and right. It wasn't looking good... but as the battle raged on the enemy forces were getting weaker and weaker at a seriously high rate, but since my force was elite I was mowing through them. The battle lasted about 45mins-1hour but I had won!!! Me: 15 killed 58 unconscious Sultan: 58 killed 602 unconscious LOLOLOLOL. I should be named Rob the Merciful after that fight. With that fight won I got a surge of "I can do this!" so I rushed to Ichamur.
The enemy was still preparing for the siege when I arrived and I had guessed right, just over 600 men. I snuck into the city and sold off my prisoners for a nice 16,000 gold payday and quickly hired all the mercenaries in the tavern. I was sitting at about 100 men on the walls and 260 men in my force, with a large portion injured so I rested for a bit. As we relaxed before the inevitable fight my other lords started showing up with abysmally low numbers. This however worked to my advantage as 2 of the siege lords got anxious and charged at them with about 200 men, knowing I wouldn't get this change again I left the city to join the fight on the exposed enemy forces which ended in a clear victory for my side... the enemy was now down to about 400 men as another enemy lord joined the siege. However while I left the city the enemies began their assault on the city against the poor 100 man defenders. I rushed in to assist but my other lords were too afraid to join. Here we go again, my now 300ish men vs. their 400.
This battle was a shear slaughter. With the combined force of my elite slavers blocking the ladders and my archers laying into their men, the fight was literally a game of tower defense as enemies rushed the walls and were mowed down. The enemy force was broken! With Ichmur secured I rested a while to recover my men and my lord started to show up... gee thanks guys. I gave them all some men to bolster their numbers and began my reign of revenge. First stop, Tulga. On the way down I recruited from villages and freed captured me from bandits tossing the new recruits to my other lords. At this point we were rolling about 5 lords deep with 100+ men. Tulga met my wraith in full force, reclaiming my city from the 260ish defenders. I then swept up the steppes into the desert capturing 4 castles in a rage infused fury. Along the way 11-12 enemy lords fell like wheat to my scythe. Two enemy Lords that I had befriended before all this insanity happened were talked into joining me in exchange for 2 of the newly captured castles to include Aeric, the brother of my in game wife!
With my land expanded I approached a truce with the Sultanate who was now FURIOUS at me, but they buckled and agreed having lost thousands and thousands of men. Time for some peace and rebuilding before my next campaign.
Now own: Tulga, Ichmur, Bariyye, 7 castles, and 13 fiefs.
Anyone tried the new (?) Captain Co-op mode for fire & Sword. Its a big fun, a shame there isnt one for warband yet. There should be a none co-op version too.
Yeah, War of the Roses is definitely inferior to Mount and Blade. War of the Roses doesn't even have single player, and hell, it doesn't even have female characters in it. Either one of which would make it inferior to Mount and Blade. Being purely multiplayer makes the game far too repetitive, especially for those of us that prefer the single player aspect anyway. And let's not even get in to the idiocy over not including female characters again.
I still dont get what should be good about War of the roses. I many instead of a single player, and 7 different factions, you just get an graphic overhaul and two almost identical factions.
thefarseerofnorthryde wrote:Also, the game goes for realism, so there were no female knights/warriors
Excepttherewere. And wholeorders of them.
According to the Bridport Muster Roll, one of the few remaining military records from that time, to this day preserved in the UK Royal Armouries, they were even recruited into the armies for the War of the Roses too - so this game excluding them is actually a historical inconsistency born out of pure ignorance, sexist clichés and lack of historical knowledge, just like so many other "realistic" games that should have some women but don't.
This has been discussed before, so I don't feel inclined to throw a hissy fit about it yet again. Still it's something that people should be aware of. "Historical realism" my ass.
They should've just said they excluded them to save developer resources, that would have been less revisionist.
Even if women weren't involved in combat during the War of the Roses there still wouldn't be any ground for lack of female characters because, lets face it, the game doesn't go for complete realism considering the 'stabby stabby face visor' finishers and so on.
Well this isn't the war of the roses thread. Its the Mount and Blade thread. The war of the roses thread got locked because of this arguement, so please if you want to argue, do it on another thread, or take it to PMing.
I just don't want to see the Mount and Blade thread locked.
thefarseerofnorthryde wrote:Also, the game goes for realism, so there were no female knights/warriors
Excepttherewere. And wholeorders of them.
According to the Bridport Muster Roll, one of the few remaining military records from that time, to this day preserved in the UK Royal Armouries, they were even recruited into the armies for the War of the Roses too - so this game excluding them is actually a historical inconsistency born out of pure ignorance, sexist clichés and lack of historical knowledge, just like so many other "realistic" games that should have some women but don't.
This has been discussed before, so I don't feel inclined to throw a hissy fit about it yet again. Still it's something that people should be aware of. "Historical realism" my ass.
They should've just said they excluded them to save developer resources, that would have been less revisionist.
That was a LOT of links Sorry for any offence, it seems I should have done more research before posting
thefarseerofnorthryde wrote:That was a LOT of links Sorry for any offence, it seems I should have done more research before posting
No worries, and no offence taken - it really isn't common knowledge. Which is kinda sad when you think about it tho. Even in school, people are taught that all knights = men, no exceptions. Whilst the ratio of female combatants during medieval times was very likely extremely small (for the War of the Roses, it was just about 3% in the Bridport Muster roll for the Lancastrian troops, as far as could be recovered from the text), they did exist, and civilisation simply forgetting this fact does no good to the common perception of the role of women in today's society.
Apologies for sidetracking the thread, too - I just feel compelled to point out stuff like this specifically because very few people are aware of it, due to no fault of their own. Years ago, I would've said the same thing, really.
Dammit... The game looks awesome in visual terms, but from what I understood, it's a little like Battlefield or COD just with swords, meaning no unique characters etc - just select a class and jump into the action?
I guess that has some advantages, too, but I'm a sucker for customisation. :(
Still have to work out how to properly aim a cannon, but leading a troop of 20 infantry bots into a multiplayer battle is wicked fun.
That sounds awesome. Glad you like it! Respect for that 2 vs 31 battle, too.
