Mount & Blade: Warband

[polity4life]

I found this gem when the Steam Summer Sale (finally) kicked off.

This is a game from Paradox Interactive, the makers of the Europa Universalis series, Galactic Civilizations II, the upcoming War of the Roses game, and many more.

In this game, you play as an individual with a tailored background story of your choosing in a fictional world. Your goal could be any number of things but it seems like becoming a king of your own land represents the end game ambition. You start the game as a scrubby guy with a horse and have to make your own troop unit. After you have some guys and gals put together, you can do whatever you want.

Do you feel like playing the greedy mercenary who will do anything for a few more denar? Have at it.

Do you want to play a thief that raids and razes villages and caravans? Larceny away!

Do you want to swear an oath to a king and rise through the ranks of his army? Take to the field for his glory!

All the while you do this, you can navigate the political landscape of lords and ladies, play the commodities markets to great profit, start up business ventures (I own four breweries in my game), and manage your fiefs to become the next great city. You can play a romantic trying to woo the men and women of the realm or play kingmaker by backing exiled royal family.

And if you're not doing that then you're in combat, riding people down on horseback, raining arrows down from above, and advancing siege engines to castle walls to break your way in.

Does anyone else play this? If not, go get it. It's $12.00 USD right now and may go down further as the sale progresses.

[Leecros]

This is a game from Paradox Interactive, the makers of the Europa Universalis series, Galactic Civilizations II, the upcoming War of the Roses game, and many more.

More specifically it's made by TaleWorld and published by Paradox, but those are really semantics.

Do you want to swear an oath to a king and rise through the ranks of his army? Take to the field for his glory!

You can also become a King if you so choose, but down that road lies many trials and tribulations.

[Eldan]

INteresting that this comes up now. I just got it on Saturday. I wanted to get my old Mount and Blade (version 1.003 or something) out and it kept crashing, so I got Warband instead.

Quite fun so far. I like the additions over the old game.

Somehow, combat seems pretty easy now: I joined an arena melee as a level one character focused on intelligence and charisma (no points in Weapon master, power strike, iron flesh, etc.) and proceeded to knock out 23 guys with a wooden two-hander. Is it just that I finally got the rhythm down, or did it get easier?

[polity4life]

INteresting that this comes up now. I just got it on Saturday. I wanted to get my old Mount and Blade (version 1.003 or something) out and it kept crashing, so I got Warband instead.

Quite fun so far. I like the additions over the old game.

Somehow, combat seems pretty easy now: I joined an arena melee as a level one character focused on intelligence and charisma (no points in Weapon master, power strike, iron flesh, etc.) and proceeded to knock out 23 guys with a wooden two-hander. Is it just that I finally got the rhythm down, or did it get easier?

I think it's rhythm. It took me a while to learn when to shoot arrows or throw weapons when point-blank on horseback. Once I learned that, I just steamroll tournaments. Also driving enemies into corners of the arena helps.

I went with a strength-based polearm monster. Me and my awlpike at full charge really cause some major damage, like in the tune of 60+ with a well-timed hit. Of course, I keep forgetting to equip a smaller arm for excursions on foot, like raiding bandit camps or during sieges when space is hard to come by.

[Leecros]

Somehow, combat seems pretty easy now: I joined an arena melee as a level one character focused on intelligence and charisma (no points in Weapon master, power strike, iron flesh, etc.) and proceeded to knock out 23 guys with a wooden two-hander. Is it just that I finally got the rhythm down, or did it get easier?

The Melee isn't really too bad, once you've dealt with the initial wave of people they only spawn 1 at a time. There's a timer on the spawn, but it's usually enough time to kill the new person before another one spawns. The only real threat are arrows...and they can be dodged if your timing is good.

[Weezer]

The Melee isn't really too bad, once you've dealt with the initial wave of people they only spawn 1 at a time. There's a timer on the spawn, but it's usually enough time to kill the new person before another one spawns. The only real threat are arrows...and they can be dodged if your timing is good.

Yup. the arena can be pretty easy, once you get the rhythm down the only problem being if another person spawns as you're trying to get close to an archer without getting hit. Then you need to deal with fighting someone while being shot at, which is irritating at best.

[Octopus Jack]

I'm currently building up my own Kingdom, I took two castles from the Kharnate and they begged for peace as they only have two left due to many extended conflicts. Now my previous King (Sultan Hakim) has decided to shut down my new Kingdom, and he's proceeded to lose quite a lot of land.

My kingdom is gathering more and more support through Vassals at the moment as I'm taking more land that I previously took for the Sarranids.

Currently my army is mostly a mixture of Swadian Knights, Rhodok Sharpshooters and Nord Huscarls and can destroy pretty much anything in a pitched battle with my character being a Strength and Charisma focused heavy knight with a sword/lance/mace weapon selection.

I love this game far too much.

[Eldan]

I haven't mingled in politics yet. I've won four grand tournaments so far, and I bet all my money in each of them (gives you about 4000 denar total per tourney). Invested that all in armour, horses, and sixty cavalry. Now I'm just travelling around trading. It's day 30 now, and I have 30'000 denar lying around with nothing to invest them in. I can simply buy up all the goods in one city, then trade them away for double the price, but that usually gives an increase of only a few hundred to maybe, maybe one or two thousand.

What does one do at this point with money? I don't think there's an option to actually just buy a noble title, which I'd rather like to do.

I rather want to move fast with my army, so I only hire Khergites and Swadians, so far. They have horses early on. Do the Sassanid have horses? I don't really know that faction yet.

[Leecros]

I rather want to move fast with my army, so I only hire Khergites and Swadians, so far. They have horses early on. Do the Sassanid have horses? I don't really know that faction yet.

The Vaegirs can get horses faster than Swadia. Vaegir Veterans can have horses(but not always IIRC), Swadians don't get their horses until Horsemen. I think Sarranids follow a similar path as the Swadians.

I think Pathfinding has more of an effect on how fast you're moving than what your army actually consists of, but i could be wrong....i always have a gazillion points in pathfinding and a mixed army.

[polity4life]

I have primarily Khergit Lancers and I move somewhere between 6.0 and 7.0, depending on my prisoner load and the progression of the lesser Khergit soldiers to lancer.

It's an expensive army for its size; only in the low 30's in total and I'm paying well over 1,000 denars a week. I guess I need to buy more production facilities, build up my fief, and earn me some cash the honest way. I could also raid and hit caravans but I never seem to find the caravans of the nation with which I'm currently warring.

[Octopus Jack]

I think Pathfinding has more of an effect on how fast you're moving than what your army actually consists of, but i could be wrong....i always have a gazillion points in pathfinding and a mixed army.

Agreed, I believe Pathfinding has much more of an effect than army composition. Hence why I always have one dedicated Pathfinding named character to stick with me and make my army go fast, as despite how good your army is it's worthless if you can't make the choices as to where and when you engage.

[Hajutze]

For those who say that the combat is easy - did you try to .. you know .. adjusting the option so it'll be harder ?

Because believe me - there is a noticeable difference. So noticeable that I actually gave up on melee and started using only archery (It really helps during sieges, I tend to kill at least 40 people on a normal siege, my fallen solders resupply me with the needed arrows xD)

Btw I've found out that 75% archers 15% infantry 10% cavalry can beat almost everything out there, the archers, especially veteran archers can drop down the enemy long before they come near you. They have some problems against cavalty but you can just put a group of pikemen between them and the cavalry to slow the enemies down.

Personally I go with CHA/INT build. Max CHA = a lot of army and believe me it helps a lot more than 10-20% more damage you'll do with a sword or so. The INT ... it's just broken and when someone beats the **** out of you pathfinder becomes pretty much THE most important skill there is. Trainer is quite good as well - you just walk around for a week or two and you'll have decent units before you know it.

I'm pretty sure everyone here understands that there are difficulty gradients that we can toggle. For my part, this is my first time playing the game and, from what I've read and experience, this game has a pretty steep learning curve. I'm sure once I turn the difficulty up I'll start game raging and lamenting my character build choices.

The point was that there is no need to label the battles easy if you set them on easy =/.

[polity4life]

For those who say that the combat is easy - did you try to .. you know .. adjusting the option so it'll be harder ?

Because believe me - there is a noticeable difference. So noticeable that I actually gave up on melee and started using only archery (It really helps during sieges, I tend to kill at least 40 people on a normal siege, my fallen solders resupply me with the needed arrows xD)

Btw I've found out that 75% archers 15% infantry 10% cavalry can beat almost everything out there, the archers, especially veteran archers can drop down the enemy long before they come near you. They have some problems against cavalty but you can just put a group of pikemen between them and the cavalry to slow the enemies down.

I'm pretty sure everyone here understands that there are difficulty gradients that we can toggle. For my part, this is my first time playing the game and, from what I've read and experience, this game has a pretty steep learning curve. I'm sure once I turn the difficulty up I'll start game raging and lamenting my character build choices.

[Eldan]

No, actually, I forgot about those options...

Well ,that explains how I could just whack ten guys with a stick without getting a scratch. I was used to the difficulty options as I had them in my old game.

[Hazzardevil]

Welcome to the cult new people, we hope you enjoy your stay.
In a nut shell, Mount and Blade is so popular for the key reason that it has so many mods. You will want to try one, at least.
Because there is a metric crap-ton for various time periods and worlds.

[Leecros]

Personally i've moved up to Good combat AI and average Campaign AI, and Normal Friendly Fire. High-Tier units are just too common for my liking when you boost it up to Good Campaign AI.

I was considering boosting up the 1/4 damage on the player to 1/2 at least, but then i took 80-some Couched lance Damage and went. "That's a Quarter!!??" and suddenly didn't want to anymore.

[Hazzardevil]

I was considering boosting up the 1/4 damage on the player to 1/2 at least, but then i took 80-some Couched lance Damage and went. "That's a Quarter!!??" and suddenly didn't want to anymore.

I don't think so, I think it reduces the damage after it tells you how much damage you've taken.

[Leecros]

I don't think so, I think it reduces the damage after it tells you how much damage you've taken.

It can't be that way, I was at full life with 62hp. It wouldn't have killed me if that was the case.

[Cespenar]

It can't be that way, I was at full life with 62hp. It wouldn't have killed me if that was the case.

Sometimes the same couched lance can deal several instances of damage if the enemy manages to hold the lance in you for a couple seconds. Maybe that's it?

[Spuddles]

I find trying to take over the world rather tedious, as it takes FOREVER to resolve sieges. Auto-attacking almost never wins. Maybe if I had a force in the thousands, but that would be hard on morale.

What does one do at this point with money? I don't think there's an option to actually just buy a noble title, which I'd rather like to do.

The best armor, horses and weapons cost ridiculous sums of gold. You'll want they really chunky stuff for when you assault castles.

[/quote]I rather want to move fast with my army, so I only hire Khergites and Swadians, so far. They have horses early on. Do the Sassanid have horses? I don't really know that faction yet.[/QUOTE]

Swadians are OP. Dismounted, they're almost as good as most heavy melee in the game, and if you make sure their morale is 99, they're on par with Huscarls.

I think Pathfinding has more of an effect on how fast you're moving than what your army actually consists of, but i could be wrong....i always have a gazillion points in pathfinding and a mixed army.

An all mounted unit composition increases your move speed. There are a few units that fight dismounted, but count as mounted for the purpose of map movement, like battle sisters and hired blades.

It's an expensive army for its size; only in the low 30's in total and I'm paying well over 1,000 denars a week. I guess I need to buy more production facilities, build up my fief, and earn me some cash the honest way. I could also raid and hit caravans but I never seem to find the caravans of the nation with which I'm currently warring.

That's because the caravans see you and flee. If you pick up tracking, you can follow the caravan from a couple days out. Just make sure to pick a place far enough away from cities so they can't escape.

[Eldan]

Interesting. I just had a look at the world map after two months of trading.

It seems Swadia is almost entirely wiped off the map, they only have one City left. The Nords conquered it all.

[Leecros]

Sometimes the same couched lance can deal several instances of damage if the enemy manages to hold the lance in you for a couple seconds. Maybe that's it?

In which case i would have had several instances of damage pop up on my screen and i'm fairly sure that issue was fixed for Warband. I could be wrong about that, but it was common to the point of abusable in the original M&B and i've never managed to do it in Warband.


Is it really that difficult to believe that i was one shotted by Couched Lance damage on 1/4 damage? Couched Lance Damage does a lot of damage. On top of that I was charging at him, he was charging at me and i didn't see the lance until the last second. Impacts like that on top of the possibility that he hit me somewhere where i was less armored, i could easily see massive amounts of damage being dealt.

An all mounted unit composition increases your move speed. There are a few units that fight dismounted, but count as mounted for the purpose of map movement, like battle sisters and hired blades.

Fair enough, but i'm still of the opinion that Pathfinding is more important.


Also, i've never heard of battle sisters, but Sword Sisters are indeed mounted units.

[Cespenar]

Is it really that difficult to believe that i was one shotted by Couched Lance damage on 1/4 damage? Couched Lance Damage does a lot of damage. On top of that I was charging at him, he was charging at me and i didn't see the lance until the last second. Impacts like that on top of the possibility that he hit me somewhere where i was less armored, i could easily see massive amounts of damage being dealt.

Could be. I only played the original game, not Warband, and AFAIK, couched lances didn't deal 200+ damages there, except to horses.

[Leecros]

Could be. I only played the original game, not Warband, and AFAIK, couched lances didn't deal 200+ damages there, except to horses.

They aren't called Lancers for a reason.

[polity4life]

I decided to play with squad commands. Wow does it make a difference, even on this easy difficulty.

What few infantry and archers I have I leave at the starting area. I take all cavalry and wheel around to the left or right, depending on terrain and choosing whichever displays the most cover. I poke my head up after a few seconds of riding and usually see the flank or the rear of the enemy where I tell my boys to charge.

I'm presently steamrolling armies above 150 troops with my nearly 100% cavalry army with a max of 50 troops. My greatest achievement was taking on 258 with this group. Though I won, I'm certainly in rebuild mode, having lost 20% of my forces after that sortie.

I'm going to play this out a little bit longer before starting a new game on a slightly higher difficulty.

Question: the choices you make concerning your background affect what exactly?

[Hajutze]

The choice affect the starting stats, skills, items, renown and etc.
http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Mount%2...acter_creation

Btw there is no need to start a new game, just adjust the settings.

[GungHo]

What does one do at this point with money? I don't think there's an option to actually just buy a noble title, which I'd rather like to do.

Beyond kitting out your heroes, you can use it to buy enhancements for your villiages or pay for mercenaries to rebuild your losses from sieges, since it takes a few battles for villagers to be useful for anything. Additionally, the better a soldier is, the higher the wages. Once you have an army of elites, you'll be arming your heroes with blunt weapons in hopes that you'll have plenty of ransoms to pay for your army.

I think Pathfinding has more of an effect on how fast you're moving than what your army actually consists of, but i could be wrong....i always have a gazillion points in pathfinding and a mixed army.

Pathfinding really just increases your speed on the strategic map. Early game, Pathfinding gets you away from Sea Raiders and other bandits who'd otherwise eat your lunch when you're just a guy with a few other guys. Later game, Pathfinding lets you get your army across your kingdom in time to intercept sieges and raids. A burning village really messes up your income.

Also, having all mounted troops also increases your speed on the strategic map. You'd be amazed at how fast an all Khergit force can patrol the kingdom as opposed to a bunch of crossbowmen and pikemen.

Question: the choices you make concerning your background affect what exactly?

Starting money, equipment, and skills. Additionally, the various kingdoms will treat you more nicely and be more apt to ask you to be their vassal if you're already nobility. Nobility is also a good way to reserve your preferred heraldry. However, if you want to be an archer (mounted or otherwise), you're better off picking the various hunting options.

[Flickerdart]

Cavalry kicking ass is fairly normal - since battle sizes are limited and the proportions of fielded troops depend on Tactics, it's really going to be something like 50 of your guys versus maybe 80 of theirs at a time, and most lords tend to go for quantity instead of quality. 50 Knights or Mamlukes might be expensive, but they'll win just about every battle with hardly a scratch on them.

[Spuddles]

Is it really that difficult to believe that i was one shotted by Couched Lance damage on 1/4 damage?

I've done 200+ couched lance damage, so getting one-shotted if you're already injured or don't have much HP to begin with isn't that surprising.

Fair enough, but i'm still of the opinion that Pathfinding is more important.

Also, i've never heard of battle sisters, but Sword Sisters are indeed mounted units.

Well, an army of all mounted units will always be faster than an army that isn't all mounted units, given equal levels of pathfinding. That, and Swadian Knights are so OP. I wouldn't really want any other composition other than 100% heavy cav.

I decided to play with squad commands. Wow does it make a difference, even on this easy difficulty.

What few infantry and archers I have I leave at the starting area. I take all cavalry and wheel around to the left or right, depending on terrain and choosing whichever displays the most cover. I poke my head up after a few seconds of riding and usually see the flank or the rear of the enemy where I tell my boys to charge.

I'm presently steamrolling armies above 150 troops with my nearly 100% cavalry army with a max of 50 troops. My greatest achievement was taking on 258 with this group. Though I won, I'm certainly in rebuild mode, having lost 20% of my forces after that sortie.

I'm going to play this out a little bit longer before starting a new game on a slightly higher difficulty.

Question: the choices you make concerning your background affect what exactly?

You can easily take on an army of 100 to 300 with only 30 dudes, as long as they're all heavy cav and you're on easy mode. No need for commands, you just need an open battlefield. Swadian Knights need nerfing.

Cavalry kicking ass is fairly normal - since battle sizes are limited and the proportions of fielded troops depend on Tactics, it's really going to be something like 50 of your guys versus maybe 80 of theirs at a time, and most lords tend to go for quantity instead of quality. 50 Knights or Mamlukes might be expensive, but they'll win just about every battle with hardly a scratch on them.

Agreed with everything here but the cost issue- I've found that the money from winning tournaments, raiding, and the occasional business venture easily covers the trivial cost of maintaining an army of elites. In fact, what ends up becoming hard to maintain is good morale with a bigger army.

[Leecros]

I've done 200+ couched lance damage, so getting one-shotted if you're already injured or don't have much HP to begin with isn't that surprising.

I was at full life with 62hp like i mentioned earlier and i took 80 damage(it was a little more, but whatever). Mathing that out it's 320 points of damage i would have taken if i had full damage on. Which is still within the realms of possibility because i've done upwards of 400+ damage with a 150 skill and an average lance.

and Swadian Knights are so OP.

Swadian Knights need nerfing.

Swadian Knights are the strongest units in the game, but they're not that much more powerful than their Vaegir and Sarranid counterparts. This isn't so much of a nerfing situation as the units with Spears should be buffed. I think if you gave spearmen the ability to brace themselves against a cavalry unit and deal something that's basically the same as couched lance damage and actually give the AI the knowledge to use it, it would fix a lot of the issues involving knights. Spears are to be the Knights' mortal enemy, but right now what can they really do to them in Mount&Blade? Not much.