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Yeah sea raiders are the toughest bandits, if you're just starting out you should probably be sticking to areas with nothing fiercer than mountain or forest bandits. The bandits by the sarranids and khergits have horsies and are rough as well as fast... and the nord sea raiders are pretty harsh while being on foot.

Do what palindrome says. If you just have 20-30 mooks at the first tier then you don't want to go up against sea raiders until they've ranked up once or twice and started to get better at their skill sets, basic volunteer level troopers aren't worth much more than looters, so you've got to pick on easy enemy groups that are smaller yet too slow to get away, a few battles will see them all level up once or twice if they survive, then you can think about going after the sea raiders.

The training skill is extremely useful at turning your freshly recruited peasantry into something vaguely useful.

Try and win a tournament, use your winnings to recruit as many minions are you can (just basic mooks as the more advance mercenaries are rarely worth it) and train them up en route to the Sea Raiders via the training skill and any hapless looters you encounter on the way. Using Swadians as an example by the time that you hit Sea Raiders you should at least have skirmishers and footmen who are more than capable of killing Sea Raiders if used en mass.

Sea Raiders have good loot so you can easily support yourself while you level up and by the time that you are ready to move on you will have a core force top tier troops and a strong cadre of middle ranked minions which should see you well when you get involved in faction wars.

Whelp, the AI fix worked a bit *TOO* well... my empire is being ripped a new one thanks to one massive naval invasion from the mightiest clan on the other side of the country... the one that has absolutely no enemies besides me.

Yeah, note to self I attempt another go: Be a BFF with one of the mighty clans on the other side of the continent ...

Playing the destiny beta, quite enjoying it actually.

 carlos13th wrote:
Playing the destiny beta, quite enjoying it actually.

What's the gameplay like? From the trailer, I thought it looked like Halo with swords and MIND BULLETS!

I bought and tried Divinity... 42 Minutes in (half of it spent trying to figure out why my Cleric's skills require him to have a point in one-handed during customisation - apparently none of his available skills can be used if he has a point in 2H, but none in 1H, and the game hasn't made it at all clear why) and I'm really not feeling it. I got a chuckle from being a boulder during stealth, and throwing gak around, but that quickly became tiresome.

I've had one fight (the 'tutorial' one), where I had AP 'saved' or some such mechanic it didn't bother explaining, so I managed to beat it without giving the skeletons a turn, and I'm still not sure how the combat really works.

It feels a lot like I've been dropped in at the deep-end, and not in a good "I'll enjoy discovering it on my own" sort of way.

 SkavenLord wrote:

 carlos13th wrote:
Playing the destiny beta, quite enjoying it actually.

What's the gameplay like? From the trailer, I thought it looked like Halo with swords and MIND BULLETS!

It's like a mix of call of duty, halo and borderlands. Mechanically it doesn't really do anything groundbreaking but the mechanics are solid and work well. Playing with friends is pretty fun, the story is sparse so far but what there is pis quite interesting. Decent enemy variety so far too.

 TheDraconicLord wrote:
Whelp, the AI fix worked a bit *TOO* well... my empire is being ripped a new one thanks to one massive naval invasion from the mightiest clan on the other side of the country... the one that has absolutely no enemies besides me.

Yeah, note to self I attempt another go: Be a BFF with one of the mighty clans on the other side of the continent ...

My current go seems to be going much better (though that's what I said last time before all hell broke loose). That said my bigger ally was completely incompetent in handling an enemy near us with only one territory. I basically leave my computer ally to handle it after our enemy switches to the imperial faction. Then I go onto the other enemy that joined the enemy we were facing before and destroy him down to a territory. During this time our old enemy regains strength captures a territory or two of my ally's and now is about to attack me. It's infuriating me how inept these A.I. allies are. You'd think I wouldn't have to do all the work but it seems that I do. Currently I have about 7-8 territories and the imperials are starting to kiss my *ss more. Ok it's more like I'm getting the chance to kiss the emperor's *ss but I have people lower on the chain kissing mine so we're forming an *ss kissing pyramid with me near to the top.

got the WOW free to play, wargen warrior lol.

 flamingkillamajig wrote:

 TheDraconicLord wrote:
Whelp, the AI fix worked a bit *TOO* well... my empire is being ripped a new one thanks to one massive naval invasion from the mightiest clan on the other side of the country... the one that has absolutely no enemies besides me.

Yeah, note to self I attempt another go: Be a BFF with one of the mighty clans on the other side of the continent ...

My current go seems to be going much better (though that's what I said last time before all hell broke loose). That said my bigger ally was completely incompetent in handling an enemy near us with only one territory. I basically leave my computer ally to handle it after our enemy switches to the imperial faction. Then I go onto the other enemy that joined the enemy we were facing before and destroy him down to a territory. During this time our old enemy regains strength captures a territory or two of my ally's and now is about to attack me. It's infuriating me how inept these A.I. allies are. You'd think I wouldn't have to do all the work but it seems that I do. Currently I have about 7-8 territories and the imperials are starting to kiss my *ss more. Ok it's more like I'm getting the chance to kiss the emperor's *ss but I have people lower on the chain kissing mine so we're forming an *ss kissing pyramid with me near to the top.

I think it has to do with their behaviour. Takeda is aggressive so they conquered a good chunk of east japan and when he lost 2-3, they were conquered back.
What I did notice is that the enemy clans that are "peaceful" never attacked a province of mine even if the only defenders were the garrison.

Just to give some ideas on what I've been doing in 'fall of the samurai'. Let's just say artillery and naval bombardment are pretty stupid OP. Here's one crazy battle I just won on normal difficulty.

http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/46478202386085251/DBFBCDECDD43AD46C788459935B878A0E1BE4F05/

Yes that's right I was outnumbered 4 to 1 and was fighting a battle against a castle with a large force coming from outside of the battle with a large castle besides. That said most of the enemies I fought were just levy troops I think.

He stupidly went forward with his generals first which I just killed off with spear cavalry and other similar things. Then I got arrows, cannons, sniper shots and everything I could to rain down on his guys coming up through the forest. My samurai swordsman came through charging into the gunmen which were up through the middle and I did some decent damage but due to his crappy position he wasn't able to move around too well and shoot my guys forcing him into a kill-zone sort of. Then just for fun I threw a naval battery down on the big chunk of his guys while they were fighting my samurai. I didn't lose so much but I think naval batteries accounted for 1,000 deaths on his side and then I just ran down what fleeing forces I could. I don't even think he could get away due to the terrain so my guys just ran down whatever they could giving my cavalry something like 600-700 kills for just the one spear cavalry unit.

These are the guys dead in the forests before I even ran down the routing survivors.

http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/46478202386073558/7ED3F72D9B9F59C5A2624502BA618AA1C2C34F68/

Pictured below is what I was facing before the massive naval bombardment.

http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/46478202386070510/D4F6B1D6E99E629FB3DD64D99F3C71CF0140F270/

@flaming

My, that forest looks beautiful That was one hell of a victory, even if they were mostly levy I'm surprised your guys didn't start panicking just because of the sheer numbers of the enemy. Still, that was a nice use of the terrain and naval bombardment!

Here is the final tally of kills with the spear cavalry (mostly routing dudes).

http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/46478202386081300/6316554ABC7FC80A0475A52707FC26BF81A066ED/

The levy have crappy aim esp. if they haven't been firing at a target for very long. They do kill stuff though. All that said the general and similar helped them all hold.

I still think artillery (or at least beyond wooden cannons) and naval bombardment are way OP in 'fall of the samurai'. That said when I faced some enemies that had 3 cannon teams they used them stupidly and lost them. If you've ever played warhammer fantasy you'd know the importance of light cavalry (i.e. harass the enemy, run away, kill war machines and be an annoying little sh*t). Normally a dude with a pointy stick on a horse isn't so bad but the speed they have make them hard to pin down. That and I love out-ranging my opponents in castles. Absolutely awesome. I just out-range them and fire death from guns or arrows into castles and there's nothing they can do about it except leave the safety of the castle. Speaking of which you'll probably find out the awesome that is bow warrior monks in shogun 2 vanilla. They can out-range other archers and just rain death on an entire enemy fortress without any counter-attack unless they run out of castles.

 Palindrome wrote:

 Overlord Thraka wrote:

Because i keep losing to fething bandits!

How? if you have a reasonably large force you should have no issues at all. Ride ahead and distract them so that they waste their arrows shooting at you (always circle them so their arrows rarely if ever hit) while chipping away at isolated individuals on the edges of the group. Meanwhile your minions close the distance and begin cleaning up. This method works extremely well and I rarely suffer casualties (except for myself occasionally).

Just how many men do you actually have? You will want quite a lot, ideally with a goodly number of missile troops. I generally have about 50 by the time I go Sea Raider hunting.

Well there was the time I ran into 22 Steppe Bandits + Sea Raiders... Then there was the time that the King of Swadia invaded the Nords (who I was a Vassel of) and I ran into the main War Party of over 600 guys.... Every time I start getting men trained up I run into a force too strong for me and I get defeated. Also. not an Archer yet. Putting all my skill into 2-Handed Damage. I 1 or 2 shot everything I come across.

 Overlord Thraka wrote:

 Palindrome wrote:

 Overlord Thraka wrote:

Because i keep losing to fething bandits!

How? if you have a reasonably large force you should have no issues at all. Ride ahead and distract them so that they waste their arrows shooting at you (always circle them so their arrows rarely if ever hit) while chipping away at isolated individuals on the edges of the group. Meanwhile your minions close the distance and begin cleaning up. This method works extremely well and I rarely suffer casualties (except for myself occasionally).

Just how many men do you actually have? You will want quite a lot, ideally with a goodly number of missile troops. I generally have about 50 by the time I go Sea Raider hunting.

Well there was the time I ran into 22 Steppe Bandits + Sea Raiders... Then there was the time that the King of Swadia invaded the Nords (who I was a Vassel of) and I ran into the main War Party of over 600 guys.... Every time I start getting men trained up I run into a force too strong for me and I get defeated. Also. not an Archer yet. Putting all my skill into 2-Handed Damage. I 1 or 2 shot everything I come across.

It sounds like you've pretty much done the opposite of what will keep you alive.

Generally starting in Swadia is best, as Forest Bandits are mainly ranged (which is easier to dodge on the charge) and have little in the way of armour, their cavalry is the best you can get and appears fairly early in the upgrade tree, and the cavalry wear heavier armour for when you're fighting those forest bandits. Generally, you can use the backspace commands to set some expendable infantry/crossbows at a point, and have your cavalry follow you around to flank the enemy army as it charges towards you. If they're set on standing still, then do the same but have your expendables charge in first to draw fire off you and your cavalry as they plough into the flank of the enemy. Running yourself around the enemy army on a fast horse is also a decent way to pull them out of position if you haven't much cavalry yet; they'll focus on you as your army charges them, and waste their arrows/bolts on a fast-moving target. It helps to have a shield equipped for doing this, too, preferably the largest you can find that's usable on horseback; just leave it hanging on your back and it'll catch arrows that would've turned your spine into a pincushion.

Avoid becoming a vassal until you have money, too. Training and Leadership are core skills, as they allow you to train your troops without fighting, and increase the amount you can have without relying on the minor increases renown gives you. You also want to focus on ranged combat first, since you absolutely must survive unless you're using a mod that allows the battle to run it's course after you're knocked unconscious - which can avoid those silly scenarios where your uber army of awesome can suffer a crushing defeat for no other reason than you eating a mace to the face. Short of those mods, though, if you don't survive the battle, you can and probably will lose it no matter what, so focussing on ranged combat not only allows you to fight, but also means you survive. If you do absolutely want to go into melee, then 1-H + Shield is the best way until you're more comfortable with it, and less prone to getting mobbed and having your gak kicked in. 2H Is better on horseback, where it has the reach necessary the decapitate enemies and the speed to avoid being mobbed and dragged to the floor.

I liked the spear and shield approach, like an awlpike, the shield soaks up a lot of projectiles. Something in a crossbow, bolts, longest pokiest spear i can find, and a good sturdy shield. Add some armor and a not gimp horse.. well, i've danced alone with 20-30 bandits... it's tedious but you can totally do it with practice. Either you run them out of arrows and clean up, or you just take them out one-by-one, pending type.

But try to stay a freelancer like Avatar is pointing out, till you're nice and settled and such. Better to be your own boss so you can voluntarily avoid overwhelming enemy forces without losing face. Early money should also be spent on getting those better weapons and armor especially, don't try for the really expensive stuff, there's a break point around 3-5000 monies where the items are almost as good as the 15k+ per piece gear, and much better than starter/dropped gear.

I'm rich off of winning about 8 tournaments.

Too late. I'm a vassal.

I'm currently in the middle of the Khergit land butchering those bandits. My Nords are becoming strong. I'll work on getting points into Training and Leadership.

Gonna be gone for a week though so we'll see when I get back


Also, I made another character just for messing around with. Made him 62 with cheatzy-doodles and used the heal cheat in a battle against a massive Swadian force. They hate me and I beat up the king. But more importantly. I was entirely red from the legs up. It was awesome.

Maybe when I get back I'll record some of my character so you can see exactly what I'm doing

Just got steam. Now I'm wondering how to install TF2 and hoping it really is free and will work on my laptop.

By the way, considering the large amount of space steam takes, is it possible to completely uninstall steam if I need to?

 SkavenLord wrote:
Just got steam. Now I'm wondering how to install TF2 and hoping it really is free and will work on my laptop.

By the way, considering the large amount of space steam takes, is it possible to completely uninstall steam if I need to?

It truly is free. You can buy things but you can play the full game from the getgo. you unlock free items the more you play aswell. Pyrovision ftw

Lots of steam games seem to unlock nicknaks too, especially preorder packs.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Lots of steam games seem to unlock nicknaks too, especially preorder packs.

Getting the urge to play final fantasy tactics again. Barring the gameboy ''sequels'' is the anything fairly close I could try instead? Its one of my favorite games ever so I'm liable to be picky but I'm curious as to if I've missed any gems along the years.

New Skyrim playthrough using Nexus mods instead of Workshop - mostly because you can't get Frostfall on the Workshop anymore. Going really immersive.

War Thunder with the USA, and a cup of tea.

Currently levelling a mage in skyrim. My Magica is still the starting value of 100 but my Stamina is around 500 and my Alteration skill is over 90. got to love that Ebonyflesh spell, but I'm reaching for 100 to get the Atronach perk. combine that with the atronach stone and I get 80% spell absorbtion. I already have 30% reduction in damage, so I will then start increasing restoration to 90 so I can get the best resto spells and be really hard to take down. Smithing is already at 100, so I'm wearing Dragonscale, I also have a pair of Dragonbone bows and have crafted Dragonbone arrows (around 600 left) with enough materials left over to make a second full set of Dragonscale and 2 sets of Dragonbone, enchanting is approaching 100 so I can double enchant each and then I will own the continent with double spell school and magica regen enchants on as much as I can get, and other skill enchants on whatever else, I should be able to use destruction and resto spells for virtually nothing.

 Conrad Turner wrote:
Currently levelling a mage in skyrim. My Magica is still the starting value of 100 but my Stamina is around 500 and my Alteration skill is over 90. got to love that Ebonyflesh spell, but I'm reaching for 100 to get the Atronach perk. combine that with the atronach stone and I get 80% spell absorbtion. I already have 30% reduction in damage, so I will then start increasing restoration to 90 so I can get the best resto spells and be really hard to take down. Smithing is already at 100, so I'm wearing Dragonscale, I also have a pair of Dragonbone bows and have crafted Dragonbone arrows (around 600 left) with enough materials left over to make a second full set of Dragonscale and 2 sets of Dragonbone, enchanting is approaching 100 so I can double enchant each and then I will own the continent with double spell school and magica regen enchants on as much as I can get, and other skill enchants on whatever else, I should be able to use destruction and resto spells for virtually nothing.

If you want to improve restoration, try casting equilibrium and healing at the same time. With healing, you won't lose health and with a heavy magicka regen, you'll probably be able to do it almost indefinitely.

OT: Got started on TF2. Because I'm a little intimidated of PvP, I'm going to stick with bots for the time being.

I got Supreme Commander 2 a few days ago and I am quite enjoying it. I am already in love with those Soul Rippers.

Payday 2. Lots and lots of Payday 2.

So much so that while driving to a friend's house I passed an armored car and thought to myself "4 minutes to drill into that? Man, we really did buy our drills from the cops".

 GrimDork wrote:


Getting the urge to play final fantasy tactics again. Barring the gameboy ''sequels'' is the anything fairly close I could try instead? Its one of my favorite games ever so I'm liable to be picky but I'm curious as to if I've missed any gems along the years.

The only one I know of that I can vouch for is Tactics Ogre (available on PS1) from the Ogre Battle series. Compared to FF Tactics it is a motherfething unforgiving game, where level grinding your troops to keep you overlevelled for the scripted battles (the only ones outside of training fights) is the only way to progress. There is a branching storyline though, and tons of hidden troop types and units and some familiar faces from Ogre Battle show up. I liked it, but FF Tactics was more forgiving (no such thing as Phoenix Down in OT... if you go down you die) and more polished.

Really, the only thing similar I can think of is X-Com: Enemy Unknown. I've also been looking for a turn-based similar to FFT for a while, but nothing really grabbed my attention other than X-Com.

The main issue I have is that squad members are randomly assigned their roles, but I understand why they do it that way.

To annoy the player?

Haha, yes. To annoy the player. To think about it. I do have an awful lot of snipers at this moment....