Mount and Blade series

[JadedDM]

With Bannerlord coming out...whenever (soon, I hope) I decided to do another replay of Mount and Blade Warband. I'm playing the Swadian rebels, hoping to put Lady Isolla of Suno on the Swadian (and then, later, the Calradian) throne.

Progress has been slow so far. Nobody will declare war on Swadia for some reason, which means they are free to throw 100% of their forces at us. Indeed, Swadia hasn't been to war with any nation at all since the rebellion began. They don't have any treaties or anything, just...nobody will attack them. You'd think the other nations would view the rebellion as a weakness to exploit, to attack Swadia now while they are busy with internal affairs, but nope.

So basically, I've just holed up in the three castles I've taken so far and just keep repelling their attacks over and over again. Eventually they retreat to lick their wounds, and I take that time to restock supplies and earn some coin in tournaments, then it's back to being defensive again. Man, hopefully another nation declares war on them soon to split up their forces a bit.

Anyway, speaking of Bannerlord, has anyone seen this yet?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-wYZvApOmE

You can read more about it here (https://www.taleworlds.com/en/Games/Bannerlord/Blog/13), as well, where they go into details of the video. But there's some exciting stuff there, including siege engines and seasonal weather. Those are the ones I'm most excited about, I have to say.

[thorgrim29]

Looks good. I'm currently playing the Clash of Kings mod, I spend almost 2 years being a sellsword for Lys and then The North while I was running around amassing a ton of wealth (I was up to 160 000 at one point) and leveling up myself and my companions, but I was tired of being capped at 140 something troops so I joined The North as a vassal, hoping to get a castle pretty soon, then I'll probably strike out on my own and attack one of the smaller factions, maybe the 3 Sisters or Lorath.

[Iruka]

More possibilities to interact with other people and to actually plan a siege were among the things I missed most in the old game. Definitely looking forward to that. :smallsmile:

[JadedDM]

Absolutely. I'm really excited about using siege engines and battering rams. It looks like sieges in the second game will be much more involved. I'm really pumped about the seasonal weather, too. Waging war in the winter consumes food faster and your morale drops quicker, so it's smarter to wait for warmer weather for campaigning.

In my current game, the Khergits declared war on Swadia, bless them. And while the Swadians are distracted, this is the perfect time for the rebels to swoop in and take a castle or two. I also need to go attend to a tournament or two, just to earn some extra cash. I like to keep my army well-stocked with numerous kinds of food, so it always pays to have extra denars.

[Sian]

I would have had waited with declaring for Lady Suno till Swabia was actually at war with someone

[Closet_Skeleton]

I just conquered the whole land by myself with Swadia being the first to go, and then never got any achievement because only Swadia ever actually gave up while the other kings just hung around as exiles.

I did spend a lot of time with just one Swadian castle in my Empire. Swadia was reduced to one city that I didn't have enough troops to think about taking and it was just me, Count Klargus and some nomad who ended up backstabbing me; desperately trying to hold unto my 'Empire'. After all we went through and all the cities I gave him for his service in this desperate time, Klargus still ended up hating me and whatever that nomad guy was bounced around every court in Calradia as I took them out one by one.

I tried to be a loyal Swadian in another game and managed to get a castle but never got very far.

[JadedDM]

I would have had waited with declaring for Lady Suno till Swabia was actually at war with someone
Well, they were at war when I started the rebellion. But shortly after, they made peace and then nobody declared war on them for several months (in-game) until just recently.

It was just really weird, because Swadia tends to be at war almost constantly, being in the center.

But with the Khergits on their heels, I've managed to take another couple of castles (the Khergits took a whole city from them!). So suffice to say, they aren't doing too well at the moment.

Go rebels!

[JadedDM]

I've made some more progress in my rebellion. The Khergits are still at war with the Swadians and even took one of their cities, Dhirim. We haven't taken any of their cities yet, but that is about to change.

I had just single-handedly taken another one of their castles and was feeling pretty good about things, when one of the rebel counts betrayed us and defected back to the Swadians. Kind of surprised that Harlaus would even take him back, honestly. They should start calling that guy Oathbreaker. He defected from the Vaegirs originally and joined the Swadians. Then he defected from the Swadians to join the rebels, and now has defected from the rebels to rejoin the Swadians. What a tool.

Anyway, as a result, the castle and village I gave the SOB went back to the Swadians, as well. The funny thing was, his castle was right on the border of Khergit territory. So they softened him up for me, and by the time I made it down there, I easily took the castle back. Just goes to show, betraying the rebels is a bad idea!

Anyway, my army is pretty strong now, so I rounded up two more counts and their armies (bringing us up to over 300) and are heading to Uxkhal. It's time for the rebels to take a city. :smallcool:

[Jermell]

I've made some more progress in my rebellion. The Khergits are still at war with the Swadians and even took one of their cities, Dhirim. We haven't taken any of their cities yet, but that is about to change.

I had just single-handedly taken another one of their castles and was feeling pretty good about things, when one of the rebel counts betrayed us and defected back to the Swadians. Kind of surprised that Harlaus would even take him back, honestly. They should start calling that guy Oathbreaker. He defected from the Vaegirs originally and joined the Swadians. Then he defected from the Swadians to join the rebels, and now has defected from the rebels to rejoin the Swadians. What a tool.

Anyway, as a result, the castle and village I gave the SOB went back to the Swadians, as well. The funny thing was, his castle was right on the border of Khergit territory. So they softened him up for me, and by the time I made it down there, I easily took the castle back. Just goes to show, betraying the rebels is a bad idea!

Anyway, my army is pretty strong now, so I rounded up two more counts and their armies (bringing us up to over 300) and are heading to Uxkhal. It's time for the rebels to take a city. :smallcool:

Yeah in my experience once a lord defects they just keep defecting at the slightest (or no) provocation. I practically couldn't finish my first playthrough of Warband because right as I was going to take the last Nord city and win the game for the Vaegirs...Some random lord would defect. Then I'd stomp him and...two more would. It was like whack a mole.

[Sian]

Well, in my longrunning game i'm sitting as lord of Praven, Suno and Uxkhal, with some 190 troops in each (2/3's Nord Huscarls, 1/4 Rhodok Sharpshooters, rest random stuff), swearing fealty to the Nord King, and i'm nowhere near feeling comfortable rebelling.

[Gaelbert]

Well, in my longrunning game i'm sitting as lord of Praven, Suno and Uxkhal, with some 190 troops in each (2/3's Nord Huscarls, 1/4 Rhodok Sharpshooters, rest random stuff), swearing fealty to the Nord King, and i'm nowhere near feeling comfortable rebelling.

It's usually not worth putting your elite troops in a garrison. You can just stack 400 peasants in a garrison, your upkeep costs are far less, and since the AI only looks at the number of soldiers defending a garrison, not the quality, it's actually more effective in deterring sieges. Once I learned that little tidbit the beginning stages of all my rebellions became a lot easier.

The exception to this is if you can predict when the payday is. If you put your troops in a garrison right before payday, even if they've been roaming the countryside with you for the entire week, you still only have to pay them discounted wages.


Yeah in my experience once a lord defects they just keep defecting at the slightest (or no) provocation. I practically couldn't finish my first playthrough of Warband because right as I was going to take the last Nord city and win the game for the Vaegirs...Some random lord would defect. Then I'd stomp him and...two more would. It was like whack a mole.

To manage this you need to take a while to figure out which lords you want on your side. There are a ton of guides on this, but basically it boils down to having only a handful of lords (5-8 is a good amount, you can make do with less) and make sure they like each other as much as possible. Try to look at the family trees in the game, if you find a group of 4 (two brothers, an uncle, a father) then you can pretty reliably recruit all of them without any of them wanting to revolt. If you find a large family with a Marshall as a member (or just some people with high renown), then that's a goldmine and you should start raising relations with them ASAP.

[Closet_Skeleton]

It's usually not worth putting your elite troops in a garrison.

I kept my elite troops in garrison because I rarely needed them and its a waste of XP to have max-level units in your army. That and the easiest way to build up to seventy max level sword maidens was to throw them into my capital in groups of three and replace them with fresh camp followers.

Once you have a proper city money doesn't matter anyway.

Rhodok Sharpshooters I just kept in a castle and swapped my normal army out for them whenever it was siege time.


Well, in my longrunning game i'm sitting as lord of Praven, Suno and Uxkhal, with some 190 troops in each (2/3's Nord Huscarls, 1/4 Rhodok Sharpshooters, rest random stuff), swearing fealty to the Nord King, and i'm nowhere near feeling comfortable rebelling.

If I was in your position I'd be thinking that I'd already basically won and it was time to wrap things up.

If you make yourself a King, you can just give your secondary cities to vassals and the garrisons will fill up on their own (you don't need more than one city yourself until you start having multiple nations under you and even then you don't need more than three).

[Gaelbert]

I kept my elite troops in garrison because I rarely needed them and its a waste of XP to have max-level units in your army. That and the easiest way to build up to seventy max level sword maidens was to throw them into my capital in groups of three and replace them with fresh camp followers.

Once you have a proper city money doesn't matter anyway.

Rhodok Sharpshooters I just kept in a castle and swapped my normal army out for them whenever it was siege time.


It's been a while since I've played Native, I remember in Pendor my upkeep was brutal and I spent a lot of time min-maxing the finances since troops were more expensive and income not proportionately increased I suppose. The advice still holds though, and once you have a large enough army of top level troops you really don't need to worry about wasting XP.

[JadedDM]

Yeah in my experience once a lord defects they just keep defecting at the slightest (or no) provocation.

I have a theory about this. I think maybe certain lords defect if they don't have enough fiefs. But each time he defects, he loses all his old fiefs. So then he defects again and again.

Anyway, I haven't played in awhile because I fell ill, but I'm better now and I'm happy to announce that my Swadian rebels have taken the city of Uxkhal. Swadia still has Suno and Praven, but I imagine they're getting pretty scared at this point. :smallcool:

[JadedDM]

Well, that happened.

Things were going pretty well for us, we had Swadia on the run. Although the rebels have taken most of their territory, for some reason King Harlaus' lords are ridiculously loyal to him, so there haven't been many defections. But other than that, pretty good. Then surprisingly, the Nords declared war on us.

It turns out the very first castle I took from the Swadians was originally the Nords' and they wanted it back. Dhirim has been under Nord control since before I even signed up with the rebels, though, so I figured I'd take it back. I tried to siege the city, but the Nords sent their entire army at me, including their king (who was not interested in discussing peace at all). They had over 750 men, where as I only had a little over 100. But I managed to decimate them with only a handful of deaths.

Since then, their army has broken up into little parts and spend all of their time razing my villages. But at least I took back Dhirim.

[Jermell]

Well, that happened.

Things were going pretty well for us, we had Swadia on the run. Although the rebels have taken most of their territory, for some reason King Harlaus' lords are ridiculously loyal to him, so there haven't been many defections. But other than that, pretty good. Then surprisingly, the Nords declared war on us.

It turns out the very first castle I took from the Swadians was originally the Nords' and they wanted it back. Dhirim has been under Nord control since before I even signed up with the rebels, though, so I figured I'd take it back. I tried to siege the city, but the Nords sent their entire army at me, including their king (who was not interested in discussing peace at all). They had over 750 men, where as I only had a little over 100. But I managed to decimate them with only a handful of deaths.

Since then, their army has broken up into little parts and spend all of their time razing my villages. But at least I took back Dhirim.

I love siege battles! Especially against the Rhodok. No shields and if I ever run out of crossbow bolts I can just get a whole new quiver from the wall I've been hiding behind. They shouldn't even bother if they don't outnumber my forces 10 to 1