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That's the same mod I'm playing. I've switched off most of the "realism" upgrades, because I'm fine with playing a less realistic, more streamlined game. I just want the setting of Medieval British Isles. And it does that extremely well! The architecture and fighting styles are really well represented I feel.

 Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:
Yes, the Brytenwalda mod. I did say this earlier.

Not that I can see. You only mention having heard of it in one post, but that's it.

 Da Boss wrote:
That's the same mod I'm playing. I've switched off most of the "realism" upgrades, because I'm fine with playing a less realistic, more streamlined game. I just want the setting of Medieval British Isles. And it does that extremely well! The architecture and fighting styles are really well represented I feel.

Yes I did that. In my first battle, I suffered a broken leg and it crippled my stats, apparently permenantly.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Avatar 720 wrote:

 Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:
Yes, the Brytenwalda mod. I did say this earlier.

Not that I can see. You only mention having heard of it in one post, but that's it.

Ah well. Da Boss was talking about playing Brytenwalda. I responded to him. We were both talking about it. Sorry for the confusion.

I've got a head wound that has lowered my Int, but I am looking for a way to cure it. Dunno if I'll manage to, though. Seems pretty mean to give you penalties like that and no way to rectify it, even if it is more realistic. It would also be realistic to have my dude die of cholera, but it wouldn't be fun!

 Da Boss wrote:
I've got a head wound that has lowered my Int, but I am looking for a way to cure it. Dunno if I'll manage to, though. Seems pretty mean to give you penalties like that and no way to rectify it, even if it is more realistic. It would also be realistic to have my dude die of cholera, but it wouldn't be fun!

Apparently you can drown...Theres an option in the Camp "Mod Options" to disable it.

How do you drown?

Get knocked unconscious in the middle of a river?

I dunno, the guys that made this mod were pretty realism obsessed. For example, you can randomly fall over backwards if you're walking backwards during a fight. So I figure it might be crossing a river, or wading through water, or on ships.

Can you hunt deer and steal cattle in the normal game? Because you can do that here. I'm not sure if I want to start raiding villages for cattle just yet- though I've already made a faction hostile to me by insulting their Abbot, so I might go raid them a bit. Seems like it would be lucrative, and it's very "in period"!

You can steal cattle in the base game, but cattle are a very... frustrating thing to steal.

You cant sell live cattle is an annoying thing. You can only sell the beef. And quest wise they're only good for villager and army requests. And they're a royal pain to herd around. One nice feature of Fire and Sword is that cattle follow you in that game.

If you can get them near a city with a high beef price its a good money maker. But I only do it if I get cattle when I loot a village. Only stealing cattle isnt worth it.

In the base Warband whenever I get cattle from looting a village I just leave them there. Far more trouble than they're worth, I get a lot more profit from the slots the meat takes up, and it doesn't last very long as food.

EDIT: I also dread the times when the army marshal requests your attendance on a mission; it almost always requires me to secure X cattle from somewhere. Driving cattle from settlement to settlement is annoying enough; driving them towards an army that's constantly on the move is even more painful. I also never take up cattle quests given by elders and guild leaders, even if it means waiting up to a few in-game weeks for a new mission to become available, or writing an entire settlement's missions off entirely.

There are mods that change it so cattle will follow you. I know Prophecy of Pendor includes it, and I would expect Floris' Mod Pack would as well (since that one seems to have everything).

 Grey Templar wrote:
You can steal cattle in the base game, but cattle are a very... frustrating thing to steal.

You cant sell live cattle is an annoying thing. You can only sell the beef. And quest wise they're only good for villager and army requests. And they're a royal pain to herd around. One nice feature of Fire and Sword is that cattle follow you in that game.

If you can get them near a city with a high beef price its a good money maker. But I only do it if I get cattle when I loot a village. Only stealing cattle isnt worth it.

In the Brytenwalda mod Im playing the cattle do follow you. And you also get a prettty decent amount of loot, 2 beef and 2 hides per cow, which for 5+ cows amounts to roughly 1000g. Its a good early game alternative to pillaging villages. You dont have the strength to confront enemy bannermen, and looting a village takes so long that the local forces respond before you can escape. But stealing a herd of cattle only takes an hour or so so you can get in and out quickly.


Also, my "game breaking" invisible towns bug seems to have fixed itself when I logged in today.

I'm kinda fortunate. Every time I've gotten a "get X cattle" mission they army has been stationary besieging a castle or town and near a village.

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
There are mods that change it so cattle will follow you. I know Prophecy of Pendor includes it, and I would expect Floris' Mod Pack would as well (since that one seems to have everything).

I tried out the Floris mod again the other day, and realised why I didn't quite like it: they tried to improve the look of battlefields, but hit the point where it's not finished enough to be as playable as the vanilla battlefields, but not good enough to stand alone regardless. For example, they've added a LOT more plants and foliage, but they haven't made it clear which ones are and are not solid objects. You end up fleeing a group of enemies into some plants, riding through half of them, and suddenly having your horse collide with and rear up at one of the exact same plants that was arbitrarily solid. That's killed me more times than anything and it's genuinely frustrating; at least when you die at other times it can be because you didn't pick the fight well enough, or you were foolhardy, but this time there's nothing to blame but the game itself. There's also the fact that in some battlefields there is far, far too much foliage and most of it is, for reasons unknown, ridiculously tall, bulky, and completely blocks your view, even when mounted. The AI can shoot you through it all because it knows where you are, but you often can't return fire because you can't see a thing; the same goes for them shooting into it and you shooting out. The colour palette is also dark and dingy as hell, which suits cities and towns but not so much sunny fields. It's difficult to know where the grass ends and a river begins until you're already swimming in it because the colours are so similar.

I've noticed that in Brytenwalda. I disabled the vegetation, so that goes some way to alleviating the "not being able to see the enemy" problem, but I've still noticed random intangible trees here and there, and maybe even a few invisible "walls".

Man, I just had 2 EXTREMELY epic battles in Warband(which I got last weekend)

I had a force of about 50 Man-at-arms/Swadian Knights vs over 600 Nords(about 8 nobles in an army) that dared lay waste to my village.

I wiped them out. Heavy Cav are OP. I got over 200 renown for that series of battles.

Then I did the same thing to the Kergit Khanate although they only had about 300. My character went up 2 levels in this series of battles(22 to 24)

Both times I lost only 3-5 dead and 15ish wounded.

A couple days after each battle a cease-fire was declared with the faction in question.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Man, I just had 2 EXTREMELY epic battles in Warband(which I got last weekend)

I had a force of about 50 Man-at-arms/Swadian Knights vs over 600 Nords(about 8 nobles in an army) that dared lay waste to my village.

I wiped them out. Heavy Cav are OP. I got over 200 renown for that series of battles.

Then I did the same thing to the Kergit Khanate although they only had about 300. My character went up 2 levels in this series of battles(22 to 24)

Both times I lost only 3-5 dead and 15ish wounded.

A couple days after each battle a cease-fire was declared with the faction in question.

Oh, I hate that. You're singelhandedly kicking a Factions arse, destroying their armies, taking their lords prisoner, raiding their villages and capturing their castles and towns...Then you King signs a peace treaty.

Another thing I dislike is that your fiefs eventually become quite spread out and haphazard.

Also, its annoying that the only way to request you receive a village is to go to the king personally and say "I want X", and only if its at the top of the list for what fief will be doled out next. Sure, when you conquer a town or castle you can ask for it, but the adjoining villages don't come with the package.

Has anyone ever gone rogue and established their own indepedent kingdom? Ive never actually got that far. How do you do it? Can you hire Lords as Bannermen?

I only did that in Fire and Sword, and it just tags you as X faction rebels.

Does anybody know what happens if you go independent in Warband?

Yep, you name a kingdom and use companions as lords. When you are good enough other factions lords will join you etc and you run a faction like the AI lords would. Accept vassals and wage war etc.

I never become a vassal. I raid and fight other lords until my army is big enough to solo a castle or town then I fight to establish my rule.

My companions are sent across the land spreading word of my validity and right to the throne and I fight the angry lords who have beef with me (all) after killing their armies in my travels.

Manage garrisons and getting married etc.

Very fun to do.

Out of curiosity, what happens if you are already a lord of an existing kingdom and you decide to strike out on your own. Is there anyway to keep the lands you currently own? Or are you forced to take them back?(IE: do I need to degarrison before I do something?)

You loose your stuff because in order to create your own kingdom you must not be affiliated with another. So you go tell the king you no longer wish to serve him THEN you can create your own kingdom.

So becoming a vassal is somewhat a waste of time.

I think anyway.

So yea you lose your fiefs. Leaving you with the money and troops you can carry.

Got it.

Also, what happens when you get married? What are the basic mechanics that it offers. This game is frustratingly vague on how stuff actually works and you're forced to basically derp around with it.

I'm currently engaged, but her father is also the marshal and won't call off the muster to have the wedding

I snuck away to get married and did it illegitimately. I had defeated her father many times in battle and even fought for her honour but it was not enough. So we got married in an empty hall with just my companions to see.

No idea what the benefits are besides having a lady at the keep. Maybe it helps with legitimacy?

No idea what else though sorry.

From the vague descriptions it sounds like they can do stuff politically.


On a side note: Does anyone know what factors influence your chances of successfully sneaking into a town or castle? I'm never successful and have to fight my way out and there isn't a sneak skill anywhere. Is persuasion the relevant skill?

I have never tried sneaking into a castle. I have yet to need a reason to do so.

I have played 800+ hours in this game and never needed to do it.

I wouldnt worry too much about it.

I think it's your agility skill that governs sneak chance. I've had a quest to get into a castle, rescue someone and get out.

Currently playing as a vassal of the Nords. Almost killed Swadia, They've got 2 castles, I have a town (Suno) and two villages (One near to Sarnoth and the other down near the Rhodoks.

The Swadians are just down to raiding towns, I'm trying to pick up peasant women for sword sisters, but I always get them going on kamakaze missions by themselves.

 Grey Templar wrote:
I only did that in Fire and Sword, and it just tags you as X faction rebels.

Does anybody know what happens if you go independent in Warband?

In Warband, you can declare your own faction. It's pretty neat at first, but the ruling side of it gets to be a major hassle. Trying to keep the nobles from snapping at each other whilst keeping the kingdom running. Mods like PoP make it more interesting though.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Doctadeth wrote:
I think it's your agility skill that governs sneak chance. I've had a quest to get into a castle, rescue someone and get out.

Currently playing as a vassal of the Nords. Almost killed Swadia, They've got 2 castles, I have a town (Suno) and two villages (One near to Sarnoth and the other down near the Rhodoks.

The Swadians are just down to raiding towns, I'm trying to pick up peasant women for sword sisters, but I always get them going on kamakaze missions by themselves.

Also party size.

 Grey Templar wrote:


Does anybody know what happens if you go independent in Warband?

You are considered a traitor is already a vassal. If you are not you can take any castle with your existing warband and declare yourself king. This creates a new faction with you as monarch of your own castle and nothing else, the next task will be to defend this castle from several factions lining up to take you down, beat them and over time you will win respect and be able to expand.

 illuknisaa wrote:

3. Now to you got your 100 man swadian knight army (you could use sword sisters too but women suck because no helmets).

The aforementioned Sword Sisters, avoid upgrading to them. As a rule rescue all the peasants you can, send the men home and keep the women. Men become regular mercenaries and are thus expensive, women become female mercenaries which ias a straight tree from peasant woman to Sword Sister. This tree is good because the warriors on it are cheap, right up to Camp Defender. Stop there, while Sword Sisters are also undercosted for what you get you need Camp Defenders more.

All the female warriors are vulnerable, peasant women most of all as they have nothing but dagger and farm tools, however experienced women quickly pick up missile weapons and armour use them as well as men, but only take a fraction of the pay. Sword Sisters return to melee combat and thus become vulnerable again. Sword sisters can have helmets, though its not guaranteed, the real problem is that they have very fast unarmoured horses. This means they hit hard and do a fair bit of damage, far more than you pay for them, but they also tend to die. This is a problem because recruiting women is difficult and the main advantage of women is that they are underpaid, which means you want them long term. Camp defenders on the other hand have no helmets, but do have chain mail and crossbows, and are 16th level for which you pay only 7 denars a week, which is a very good deal. Try and get as many of them as you can, when you get a castle garrison them to reduce their losses and cut garrison costs.Its not a bad idea at all to have a garrison almost entirely of Camp Defenders it wont cost much and will defend very well. Keep some men there for melee work, preferably Nords though you could upgrade some Sword Sisters for garrison purposes, they do quite well when not mounted on their suicidally fast horses and are still a low cost option.
Otherwise bolster your main armies missile block with them, you will be glad for having them if you keep them all alive and shooting and doing far more damage than their pay because level 16 crossbow-women rarely miss and hit like thunderbolts.


Combining both together: as an independent recruit women because you will have cash problems if you dont. Level them all up to Camp defender and get a core of elite troops both foot and missile, cavalry optional, before taking your first castle. Leave the girls there as garrison, and carry on, defending your new lands and leveling up any more girls you find before sending them to your capital as Camp Defenders. Keep your army elite, and by recruiting as many females as you can keep it cheap. This will see you through the tough initial stages of your new kingdom.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Man, I just had 2 EXTREMELY epic battles in Warband(which I got last weekend)

I had a force of about 50 Man-at-arms/Swadian Knights vs over 600 Nords(about 8 nobles in an army) that dared lay waste to my village.

I wiped them out. Heavy Cav are OP. I got over 200 renown for that series of battles.

Then I did the same thing to the Kergit Khanate although they only had about 300. My character went up 2 levels in this series of battles(22 to 24)

Both times I lost only 3-5 dead and 15ish wounded.

A couple days after each battle a cease-fire was declared with the faction in question.

What are your difficulty settings? I can sometimes have trouble keeping 3-5 dead and 15 wounded against a single other Lord's force. Settings are automatically set to their easiest (you take 1/4 damage, your allies take 1/2 damage) when you start.