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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.

BlueDagger wrote:I now have 3 fiefs and a castle.

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.

http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,229101.msg5483620.html#msg5483620

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.

Lynata wrote:

BlueDagger wrote:I now have 3 fiefs and a castle.

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.

For reference ,right to rule can be increased by:

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.

Does anyone here play a modded game? Shogun, or floris mod?

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.

*random video madness*

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.

Diplomacy mod only.

Vanilla gameplay with a little more depth.

I am considering installing Diplomacy. How much of an impact does it have on play?

Is there any trading mods anyone has messed with? I really enjoy that aspect, however it's not the most in depth thing in the world.

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.