True, then again, this is supposed to be mostly a sandbox game with lots of features. Besides, this game is far from what you would call linear, and games with a plot need to be somewhat linear. The game world is pretty small after all and to be honest, I can't really imagine what a good main story would look like in a game constructed like this. I think it's better off without one in the end.
Maybe challenge/goal scenarios of some sort like conquer faction X in Y time or something like that would be more appropriate.
Morrowind had a plot, and wasn't linear. You could add something similar to Morrowind's main quest to M&B without making it linear. Morrowind's main plot quest line, while in itself linear, didn't impact the game world too much. Unlike plot-driven games, where the plot is central to the entire game and you can't remove it without breaking everything, you could easily have removed Morrowind's main plot quests and still have kept the game perfectly playable. Nothing forced you to follow the main plot at all, so it was pretty much as non-linear as it gets.
On the other hand, maybe the game simply doesn't lend itself to any kind of plot at all. What WOULD be good is if it had a procedural story or something, driven by the player's actions. But that's probably too much to ask.
I finally got round to playing the demo/trial version of this. I originally put it off because it, honestly, looked like crap. However, you guys have been ranting and raving so I thought I'd try it.
It's good. I played it constantly 'til I got to level 6 and the demo ran out. I would buy it, however I have a dislike of sandbox games. They're amazing fun for a while, but eventually I need something to drive me rather than me just running around repeating the same tasks over and over and over and...
I might still buy it though, it seems worth the ~£15.
<!--quoteo(post=1681493:date=Jun 18 2008, 05:35 PM:name=lolfighter)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(lolfighter @ Jun 18 2008, 05:35 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1681493"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Morrowind had a plot, and wasn't linear. You could add something similar to Morrowind's main quest to M&B without making it linear. Morrowind's main plot quest line, while in itself linear, didn't impact the game world too much. Unlike plot-driven games, where the plot is central to the entire game and you can't remove it without breaking everything, you could easily have removed Morrowind's main plot quests and still have kept the game perfectly playable. Nothing forced you to follow the main plot at all, so it was pretty much as non-linear as it gets.
On the other hand, maybe the game simply doesn't lend itself to any kind of plot at all. What WOULD be good is if it had a procedural story or something, driven by the player's actions. But that's probably too much to ask.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Well, Morrowind also had a few million dollars and infinitely more manpower behind them...
Bumping because 1.0.1.1 is out and nothing has been said since pre 1.0.
I noticed I had the trial version installed earlier this week and gave it a shot. Wowza, I quickly learned the ropes of small scale combat and earning massive money from arena fights betting 100 denars on myself. Swiftly I level up and soon my army expands to 30+ and... then I got to level 7 and it quit the game for me. I checked a few stores and found it for 15 dollars, purchasing! What, my old save is corrupt after patching? Bawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. Oh well, I'll just rack up some kills in the arena. What the hell is this, melee fights? No bets? Get 250 dennar from beating 20 enemies with a ###### stick I'm not proficient in?! Below 40 if I dont?! I want to steal some cattle about now. My only hope was stealing a bow from another guy or suffer from being ###### by an AI who dosn't care he has a guy behind him swinging through his torso to get me. As soon as I got a bow, it was all headshots and wins :/.
The tournaments are awesome though, each city seems to have its own theme. I'm a bowman kind of character so when one place was all about bows and horses I won without hardly struggling. The key is stealing a horse as fast as possible if one starts as footman. 4000 denars per tournament victory woeeeeeeeeee <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />. However, at my very first tournament a chick named Xena or something like that made it to the finals. I started on horse with a lance and shield, she got a bow. Surprisingly she had superior aim and damage and I almost went down from two arrows in the chest. This was before I learned about couched lances. So after missing the initial blow I got off my horse and thought "I'll just poke her to death, they can't use bows in melee anyway". Ahh why are you so fast? You should be AFRAID. Ow ow ow, stop punching me. Shields ups! *bop bop bop bop bop bop bop* oh ###### she is fast, I cannot outrun her and this lance takes 2 seconds to mount a thrust. Low on HP, shield cracking from repeated blows. I'll make a strategic retreat for my horse! Oh jesus just get up fast, faster! SHE IS KILLING YOU AND YOUR DREAMS AND YOUR MENS PAYMENT U SPENT ON BETS... Nooooooooooooooo.
Currently I just got to be a lord's vassal, fighting the superior invading army. Too bad all my heroes suck and are totally suicidal. My hired cavalery survived 3 large scales battles but my heroes die to even the puniest melee fighters. I've even invested lance-type weapons + shield and horse on them and yet they run in, starts poking them and die in a cluster######.
I like the fighting system with blocking and striking with different angles, the weapon hitbox melee, and riding the horse and shooting arrows. Also running people over with a lance. Combined with RPG stats, it's super fun.
I just got a mission to defend a lady's honour. I challenged him just outside a battlefield we both fought on. The actual process was easy peasy but when I was unable to find where the lady in question had gone I asked a lord to locate her, and he said:
So I just played ten days worth of the game. Pretty effing sweetcake. Except I got tasked with delivering a shipment of ale to a far-off town. I got mugged en-route and they stole the booze and all the ammo for my crossbow. Next time I went into battle I had to make do with fisticuffs and a shield. I still won, though.
Also: Herding cattle? Not fun.
Here's hoping for another sale, as much fun as it is it's not really worth $30... <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" />
Could say the same thing about NS if they were to ask 30 bucks for it <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink-fix.gif" />
And I guess you haven't seen the mod availability. Some stuff that people have made will blow you away.
I think it's probably worth $30, but I got in on the ground floor when it was just $10 in beta :>
I always cheat when I fire up a new game these days, 'cause I can't bear to build another character up from no money and no xp <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" />
if you don't know, the universal cheat code is <span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>ctrl-x</span> - that gives you xp if you're looking at your char sheet, money if you're at a store, does something else on the world map (I forget what)...
I miss the black armor that used to be available... I guess they thought it didn't fit the faction war concept... I ought to check out the mod scene.
People were talking about this game back in 2006? I am very surprised.
A friend of mine showed me the game in the beginning of January and I thought of the price of the game, it was one of the best games I ever bought. I played the campaign and literally destroyed. I would recommend that game over and over.
After screwing up as a vassal for the Rhodoks, I went over to the Swadian empire and re-assigned as vassal. There is lots of ground near the Rhodoks which is taken by the Khergit Kharnate, but as they are on the other side of the world they can barely defend and reinforce their castles. Taking advantage of this, I conquer four castles and villages, including one between their three capitols. Quite a large middle finger in their horsesitting faces.
Naturally, they were not too happy about this. So they started sending out groups of parties to reclaim their stuff (but not the castle IN their country, huh?). Hundreds upon hundreds of them pour in our country, selecting a target carefully. However, before their major ganking can take place, we manage to scatter them around. I went in and defeated one or two but the Sanji Khan with his 240 troop army decided I was the one to blame and chased me towards my garrisoned castle. I quickly run inside and wait for him, but the situation looks grim. I have 84 troops (including garrison, I lost quite a few to his lords) against his vast 240 horse trampling army. Luckily, horses aren't allowed in sieges but I didn't get my hopes up. It was pitch dark when the fighting begun, I couldn't find my way to the wall where they would roll the siege machine. Anxiously I run around the castle grounds to find another way up but without much luck. Eventually I see some troops running up the stairs in a tower, so I kept close to them or else I'd be sure to fall down and die. Finally on the wall! Now how close are they? Oh dear cattle butchering hell, they just reached the walls. I see more arrows on the walls and in my men's shield then on a bunch of hedgehogs. With the moon in my face I position myself just behind the bottleneck and fire away all of my arrows on the approaching men. Almost every one of them scores a headshot but their numbers barely made note of it. I move a bit closer and equip my two handed sword. I hack an' slash and bash, none shall enter my castle, NO ONE. We fight for a good 10minutes there, the k/d ratio is 1/20 for our side but they are beginning to break in! I make a strategic retreat jumping off the walls to the soft dirt below. Unable to move through the mass of my own troops I stay and support them from below. Luck shines down on me and I find some arrows the enemies had dropped. I can see the enemies pouring into the staircase, things look hopeless. All of my archers are dead but the hired blades are tough in the second bottleneck. There hasn't been a respawn for a long time, can this be the last wave? I order my men to charge and they trash themselves out of the tower, sending down a few ragdolls from the walls. Just as they reach the siege entrance a rhodok Sargent shouts out and raises his weapon in the sky, slightly touching the moon from my perspective. Victory is ours!
<!--quoteo(post=1705304:date=Apr 20 2009, 01:59 PM:name=Svenpa)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Svenpa @ Apr 20 2009, 01:59 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1705304"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->[z0mg long post]<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Desperate defences are great. So great I'm installing M&B again after quite a while.
What kind of difficulty are you playing in general? I like challenge, but I'm not a great fan of über turbo realistic one-stray-arrow-death difficulties.
I had recently upped it to around 60% with good AI combat. Still, I like to have 1/3 damage reduction so I can take on larger armies then my own on a bit of gamble. Can't really be arsed to lick my lords boots so they will follow me on my skirmishes. The tournaments are so easy though, I'll probably up it to almost 100% during those.
Is it even possible to erase a empire? Those 300man garrisons in the capitols just seem impossible without the troop number of thousands. I'm also guessing they will pledge for help when things look too grim for em.
I just don't know how I'm supposed to train huge armies like that. All I can recruit from the villages are, well, recruits, and it doesn't matter if you have a ######ton of recruits, a few skilled soldiers will still wipe them out. And considering the gigantic groups of enemies that ride around the map ganking you if you can't outrun them (which you can't when you're dragging around thirty poorly trained and equipped recruits), how am I ever supposed to train these men? I need a goddamn newbie guide!
You need to get the TRAINING skill. And get lots of heroes who also have high training skill. Then you'll turn them from recruits to experts in a couple days.
Aye, let all your heroes have a few points in training, most of them favor INT skills anyway.
Manual: (well, it's not a newbie guide, oh well I'll leave it anyway. Google is your friend) <a href="http://www.taleworlds.com/download/Mount_and_Blade_Manual.rar" target="_blank">http://www.taleworlds.com/download/Mount_a...lade_Manual.rar</a>
Other things to try are attacking bandits and deserters until they gain enough experience. Additionally, hire people from taverns. They are usually of high skill right away but can also often further themselves once or twice more.
The best skill to forward, and most useful in the long run, is the leadership skill for your hero. If you cannot afford max outed armies, just don't upgrade them. Because naturally, it goes longer between levels in late games when you need 100+ troops. Remember; leader skills only apply if they are spent on yourself so don't bother giving other heroes those.
I've recently noticed that if you get good relations with a village, it will offer you more recruits when you visit em. High lord relationships will allow you to have them follow you around and add troops into a battle.
<!--quoteo(post=1705307:date=Apr 20 2009, 02:32 PM:name=Svenpa)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Svenpa @ Apr 20 2009, 02:32 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1705307"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Is it even possible to erase a empire? Those 300man garrisons in the capitols just seem impossible without the troop number of thousands. I'm also guessing they will pledge for help when things look too grim for em.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Invading towns is madness. You basically need the help of other lords, and even then it'll propably take several tries to thin the enemy ranks enough.
I'm trying out the mod <a href="http://forums.taleworlds.net/index.php/topic,52131.0.html" target="_blank">Sword of Damocles</a>. It adds several truckloads of new features. I haven't gotten very far yet, so I can't really comment yet. One small feature I already love is what they've done with your companion management. For example, you can tell your companions what kind of weapons they equip to their weapon slots. Then, after a battle you get the option to let your companions loot and get (better) weapons according to what you told them to use.
The main features of the mod are creating your own kingdom, recruiting lords and managing them, more complicated villages/castles/towns.
invading towns is difficult but best done with a large contingent of archers and lots of armor and arrows and archery skill yourself. If your level and skill are high enough, you can kill a dude every 1 to 3 shots. You can replenish your arrow supply from your fallen doods or the enemy's fallen doods. It is an effective, if tedious and cheap, method. and I don't know if they've fixed it since I last played several months ago.
also, the best way to get a decent army is not recruiting peasants, it's recruiting mercenaries in taverns. Of course that's expensive as heck. I don't know how to legitimately make good money anymore, but I think trade runs can be super lucrative if you manage to load up on something like furs or silk where they're cheap and take them somewhere where they're expensive, you can make like 10k from one trip iirc. I lost the patience for that though, so I just spam the cheat key til my fingers go numb <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
Betting 100 denars at every stage in a tournament earns you 4000 denars if you win. That's my favourite income anyway <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" /> That and selling prisoners. Any loot you find is 99% of the time worth below 100denars. Raiding villages can net some sweet items like tools, silk and fur but obviously you lose relationship.
About picking off archers by yourself, well, I can't see how you do it. Every attempt to reach the wall not running with your minions will earn you several arrows in the face and the castles have very few blindspots. Approach one wall and those on the other will target you. Standing directly below might protect you enough but the same goes for them in that case <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />.
The Sword of Damocles- mod is pretty sweet. I've finally managed to start my own kingdom without destruction looming above it.
But when founding a new kingdom, there's a constant economical crisis. You better learn to fight with a sharp stick, a bucket lid and a sick horse, because all that money that went to weapons and equipment as a mercenary/vassal in original M&B goes now to maintenance. I may have ensured my doom in the long run by first taking over a castle from the Nords and then pribing a lord to make peace with my new faction. Though I avoided the 1000 man army coming to retake the castle, the ~8000 denars spent in the pribe would've been vital to getting things started.
Upgrading soldiers is very different in SoD. If you haven't started your own faction yet (taken over a castle without being a vassal) you can hire peasants from villages that upgrade (by gaining levels, as usual) through the 'mercenary tree'; peasant -> watchman -> footman or caravan guard etc. Once you start your own faction you still hire peasants, but you need a barracks or other building in your castle to upgrade them. Once your units gain a level, you upgrade them to be *. These * aren't really different from the originals, but you can upgrade these at their respective buildings to the next unit type. [edit] I called the *-units "faithful", but apparently that was something completely different. Proceed.
For example: I have 5 peasants. After a battle I level them up in the Party-screen and they become 5 Peasant*. I return to my castle with a barracks, and I upgrade them into 5 Regular Villianese Infantry. After some fighting, they I can level them to Regular Villianese Infantry*, and once again at the barracks I upgrade them into Veteran Villian Infantry. And so on. Also, once you have a barracks, practice range and/or stables, you can have your castle train your village population into basic soldiers. Population is much more important now, and having a castle train people will effectively stop the taxpayer population from rising.
I recommend you try this mod, but don't expect to just jump in and start your kingdom. It takes very long before you're in any kind of place to do that. You might want to team up with a faction for some time to get money, experience, money, money, powerful units, money and money.
Raising a big army is easier now, though, since you can divide your forces into regiments. Talk (in the party-screen) to any of your normal soldiers and you can make them form a group of their own. You can then move units from your personal guard into the separate regiment and tell it to follow you. The regiment is very passive; it won't attack enemies near it, but will join your battle as an ally if they're close enough. You can also tell them to move to a location (very handy for sending * units ahead to the castle, so you can rescue prisoners/hire more peasants in their place), but sending too small groups is risky, since enemies can attack them. I think I read that troops in a regiment will also cost extra upkeep, so divide your troops accordingly.
Gar! So I got myself a bunch of heroes, and they all start bickering amongst each other, then running away in droves with all the equipment I gave them! For ######'s sake, can't I bribe them or something? How do I stop them from deserting? And it's always the one I LEAST want to lose, like the guy who had four in training or the woman who had three in first aid, wound treatment and surgery!
<!--quoteo(post=1705452:date=Apr 21 2009, 08:40 PM:name=lolfighter)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (lolfighter @ Apr 21 2009, 08:40 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1705452"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Gar! So I got myself a bunch of heroes, and they all start bickering amongst each other, then running away in droves with all the equipment I gave them! For ######'s sake, can't I bribe them or something? How do I stop them from deserting? And it's always the one I LEAST want to lose, like the guy who had four in training or the woman who had three in first aid, wound treatment and surgery!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> They are aligned as good or evil, or something to that effect, and the good ones get along with the good ones, the bad ones with the bad ones. Mix them up and they get pissed. Also, if your actions are good or bad, they don't like those either. Like raid a town and the good ones leave. They will stay if morale is high, but otherwise not. And if they leave they DONT come back. If you're in danger of them deserting, which happens iirc after 2 complaints total, get captured and they'll end up back in a tavern. You can usually tell their alignment from their backstory.
And the pimp is evil aligned, in case you were uncertain.
<!--quoteo(post=1705499:date=Apr 22 2009, 04:30 PM:name=lolfighter)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (lolfighter @ Apr 22 2009, 04:30 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1705499"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Wait, they don't come back? EVER? Yay, now I'll have to start over again. >_<<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> I'm not sure, but I think they might show up later. But if you do start again, be sure to try the Sword of Damocles mod <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
Update on my kingdom. The Nords decided to declare war on me. I managed to take over TWO of their castles while the lords were away. I hired a lord for my own faction, Knight Daynad, and gave the castles to him. However, while messing around with assigning the fiefs, I ended up with -30 relation with him. Giving a castle or a village gives +10 relation, while taking a castle away gives like -20. May The Void take that man, he wont even join my side in battles!
The Nord king and two of his lords went for my capital. I lured two of them away from the kings army and crushed their moderate armies with my awesome infantry + archers. Then I proceeded into the castle, and repelled the 200 man siege with my superior archers. With the help of the annoying Knight Daynad, I might be able to take over a fourth settlement in a strategic position near Tihr, but our relations being the way they are, I think I have to find a way to jab a Tempered Heavy ###### Sword between that ######s ribs.
[edit] Victory is but a prelude to the next battle. I took over a fourth castle and repelled the inevitable counter-attack! I'm back to 0 relation with my grumpy Knight Daynad and now that he controls three villages (kept the castle myself), his financial situation is better and he's getting happier with me as time passes. But still I'm behind in my lord quota. The fourth castle was supposed to mean a second lord, but I can't affort a non-cooperative one with two castles.
I still have no business invading a town (Tihr) but the preparations have begun. Now I have a castle right next to it and I've already captured 4 enemy lords and locked them up in the prison tower of my capital. After I've taken over one or two more castles and hired some lords (and imprisoned any enemy lords I might capture) I'll execute Operation Behemoth. Once I control Tihr, nothing can stop me!
Some pictures. Here are some Elite Villianese Infantry, preparing for the final wave of Nord Huscarls. The Huscarls really gave us quite a beating. <img src="http://koti.mbnet.fi/retales/MnB/infantry.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
And here are my Veteran Villianese Archers, trying to soften the Huscarls a bit. <img src="http://koti.mbnet.fi/retales/MnB/archers.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<!--quoteo(post=1705499:date=Apr 22 2009, 02:30 PM:name=lolfighter)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (lolfighter @ Apr 22 2009, 02:30 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1705499"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Wait, they don't come back? EVER? Yay, now I'll have to start over again. >_<<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
They always end up in taverns, the closest ones I'm guessing.
<!--quoteo(post=1705471:date=Apr 21 2009, 11:41 PM:name=juice)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (juice @ Apr 21 2009, 11:41 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1705471"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->They are aligned as good or evil, or something to that effect, and the good ones get along with the good ones, the bad ones with the bad ones. Mix them up and they get pissed. Also, if your actions are good or bad, they don't like those either. Like raid a town and the good ones leave. They will stay if morale is high, but otherwise not. And if they leave they DONT come back. If you're in danger of them deserting, which happens iirc after 2 complaints total, get captured and they'll end up back in a tavern. You can usually tell their alignment from their backstory.
And the pimp is evil aligned, in case you were uncertain.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> actually I don't think that's it - each hero just has programmed likes and dislikes. some are programmed to hate particular other heroes, some hate it when you flee from battle, some hate it when you attack weak enemies, some hate it when you attack towns, some hate it when you fail a quest, or when you disobey your liege, etc.
Comments
Maybe challenge/goal scenarios of some sort like conquer faction X in Y time or something like that would be more appropriate.
On the other hand, maybe the game simply doesn't lend itself to any kind of plot at all. What WOULD be good is if it had a procedural story or something, driven by the player's actions. But that's probably too much to ask.
It's good. I played it constantly 'til I got to level 6 and the demo ran out. I would buy it, however I have a dislike of sandbox games. They're amazing fun for a while, but eventually I need something to drive me rather than me just running around repeating the same tasks over and over and over and...
I might still buy it though, it seems worth the ~£15.
On the other hand, maybe the game simply doesn't lend itself to any kind of plot at all. What WOULD be good is if it had a procedural story or something, driven by the player's actions. But that's probably too much to ask.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Well, Morrowind also had a few million dollars and infinitely more manpower behind them...
I noticed I had the trial version installed earlier this week and gave it a shot. Wowza, I quickly learned the ropes of small scale combat and earning massive money from arena fights betting 100 denars on myself. Swiftly I level up and soon my army expands to 30+ and... then I got to level 7 and it quit the game for me. I checked a few stores and found it for 15 dollars, purchasing! What, my old save is corrupt after patching? Bawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. Oh well, I'll just rack up some kills in the arena. What the hell is this, melee fights? No bets? Get 250 dennar from beating 20 enemies with a ###### stick I'm not proficient in?! Below 40 if I dont?! I want to steal some cattle about now. My only hope was stealing a bow from another guy or suffer from being ###### by an AI who dosn't care he has a guy behind him swinging through his torso to get me. As soon as I got a bow, it was all headshots and wins :/.
The tournaments are awesome though, each city seems to have its own theme. I'm a bowman kind of character so when one place was all about bows and horses I won without hardly struggling. The key is stealing a horse as fast as possible if one starts as footman. 4000 denars per tournament victory woeeeeeeeeee <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />. However, at my very first tournament a chick named Xena or something like that made it to the finals. I started on horse with a lance and shield, she got a bow. Surprisingly she had superior aim and damage and I almost went down from two arrows in the chest. This was before I learned about couched lances. So after missing the initial blow I got off my horse and thought "I'll just poke her to death, they can't use bows in melee anyway". Ahh why are you so fast? You should be AFRAID. Ow ow ow, stop punching me. Shields ups! *bop bop bop bop bop bop bop* oh ###### she is fast, I cannot outrun her and this lance takes 2 seconds to mount a thrust. Low on HP, shield cracking from repeated blows. I'll make a strategic retreat for my horse! Oh jesus just get up fast, faster! SHE IS KILLING YOU AND YOUR DREAMS AND YOUR MENS PAYMENT U SPENT ON BETS... Nooooooooooooooo.
Currently I just got to be a lord's vassal, fighting the superior invading army. Too bad all my heroes suck and are totally suicidal. My hired cavalery survived 3 large scales battles but my heroes die to even the puniest melee fighters. I've even invested lance-type weapons + shield and horse on them and yet they run in, starts poking them and die in a cluster######.
Recommended mods: <a href="http://www.modrealms.com/modifications/mount-blade-intensify-your-gaming-experience/" target="_blank">http://www.modrealms.com/modifications/mou...ing-experience/</a>
--Scythe--
I just got a mission to defend a lady's honour. I challenged him just outside a battlefield we both fought on. The actual process was easy peasy but when I was unable to find where the lady in question had gone I asked a lord to locate her, and he said:
"She has been taken prisoner by the Swadian army"
Bollocks..
Also: Herding cattle? Not fun.
Here's hoping for another sale, as much fun as it is it's not really worth $30... <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" />
--Scythe--
And I guess you haven't seen the mod availability. Some stuff that people have made will blow you away.
I always cheat when I fire up a new game these days, 'cause I can't bear to build another character up from no money and no xp <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" />
if you don't know, the universal cheat code is <span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>ctrl-x</span> - that gives you xp if you're looking at your char sheet, money if you're at a store, does something else on the world map (I forget what)...
I miss the black armor that used to be available... I guess they thought it didn't fit the faction war concept... I ought to check out the mod scene.
A friend of mine showed me the game in the beginning of January and I thought of the price of the game, it was one of the best games I ever bought. I played the campaign and literally destroyed. I would recommend that game over and over.
After screwing up as a vassal for the Rhodoks, I went over to the Swadian empire and re-assigned as vassal. There is lots of ground near the Rhodoks which is taken by the Khergit Kharnate, but as they are on the other side of the world they can barely defend and reinforce their castles. Taking advantage of this, I conquer four castles and villages, including one between their three capitols. Quite a large middle finger in their horsesitting faces.
<a href="http://img23.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hellothere.png" target="_blank"><img src="http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/1066/hellothere.png" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a>
Naturally, they were not too happy about this. So they started sending out groups of parties to reclaim their stuff (but not the castle IN their country, huh?). Hundreds upon hundreds of them pour in our country, selecting a target carefully. However, before their major ganking can take place, we manage to scatter them around. I went in and defeated one or two but the Sanji Khan with his 240 troop army decided I was the one to blame and chased me towards my garrisoned castle. I quickly run inside and wait for him, but the situation looks grim. I have 84 troops (including garrison, I lost quite a few to his lords) against his vast 240 horse trampling army. Luckily, horses aren't allowed in sieges but I didn't get my hopes up. It was pitch dark when the fighting begun, I couldn't find my way to the wall where they would roll the siege machine. Anxiously I run around the castle grounds to find another way up but without much luck. Eventually I see some troops running up the stairs in a tower, so I kept close to them or else I'd be sure to fall down and die. Finally on the wall! Now how close are they? Oh dear cattle butchering hell, they just reached the walls. I see more arrows on the walls and in my men's shield then on a bunch of hedgehogs. With the moon in my face I position myself just behind the bottleneck and fire away all of my arrows on the approaching men. Almost every one of them scores a headshot but their numbers barely made note of it. I move a bit closer and equip my two handed sword. I hack an' slash and bash, none shall enter my castle, NO ONE. We fight for a good 10minutes there, the k/d ratio is 1/20 for our side but they are beginning to break in! I make a strategic retreat jumping off the walls to the soft dirt below. Unable to move through the mass of my own troops I stay and support them from below. Luck shines down on me and I find some arrows the enemies had dropped. I can see the enemies pouring into the staircase, things look hopeless. All of my archers are dead but the hired blades are tough in the second bottleneck. There hasn't been a respawn for a long time, can this be the last wave? I order my men to charge and they trash themselves out of the tower, sending down a few ragdolls from the walls. Just as they reach the siege entrance a rhodok Sargent shouts out and raises his weapon in the sky, slightly touching the moon from my perspective. Victory is ours!
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Desperate defences are great. So great I'm installing M&B again after quite a while.
What kind of difficulty are you playing in general? I like challenge, but I'm not a great fan of über turbo realistic one-stray-arrow-death difficulties.
Is it even possible to erase a empire? Those 300man garrisons in the capitols just seem impossible without the troop number of thousands. I'm also guessing they will pledge for help when things look too grim for em.
Manual: (well, it's not a newbie guide, oh well I'll leave it anyway. Google is your friend)
<a href="http://www.taleworlds.com/download/Mount_and_Blade_Manual.rar" target="_blank">http://www.taleworlds.com/download/Mount_a...lade_Manual.rar</a>
Other things to try are attacking bandits and deserters until they gain enough experience. Additionally, hire people from taverns. They are usually of high skill right away but can also often further themselves once or twice more.
The best skill to forward, and most useful in the long run, is the leadership skill for your hero. If you cannot afford max outed armies, just don't upgrade them. Because naturally, it goes longer between levels in late games when you need 100+ troops. Remember; leader skills only apply if they are spent on yourself so don't bother giving other heroes those.
I've recently noticed that if you get good relations with a village, it will offer you more recruits when you visit em. High lord relationships will allow you to have them follow you around and add troops into a battle.
Invading towns is madness. You basically need the help of other lords, and even then it'll propably take several tries to thin the enemy ranks enough.
I'm trying out the mod <a href="http://forums.taleworlds.net/index.php/topic,52131.0.html" target="_blank">Sword of Damocles</a>. It adds several truckloads of new features. I haven't gotten very far yet, so I can't really comment yet. One small feature I already love is what they've done with your companion management. For example, you can tell your companions what kind of weapons they equip to their weapon slots. Then, after a battle you get the option to let your companions loot and get (better) weapons according to what you told them to use.
The main features of the mod are creating your own kingdom, recruiting lords and managing them, more complicated villages/castles/towns.
also, the best way to get a decent army is not recruiting peasants, it's recruiting mercenaries in taverns. Of course that's expensive as heck. I don't know how to legitimately make good money anymore, but I think trade runs can be super lucrative if you manage to load up on something like furs or silk where they're cheap and take them somewhere where they're expensive, you can make like 10k from one trip iirc. I lost the patience for that though, so I just spam the cheat key til my fingers go numb <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
About picking off archers by yourself, well, I can't see how you do it. Every attempt to reach the wall not running with your minions will earn you several arrows in the face and the castles have very few blindspots. Approach one wall and those on the other will target you. Standing directly below might protect you enough but the same goes for them in that case <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />.
But when founding a new kingdom, there's a constant economical crisis. You better learn to fight with a sharp stick, a bucket lid and a sick horse, because all that money that went to weapons and equipment as a mercenary/vassal in original M&B goes now to maintenance. I may have ensured my doom in the long run by first taking over a castle from the Nords and then pribing a lord to make peace with my new faction. Though I avoided the 1000 man army coming to retake the castle, the ~8000 denars spent in the pribe would've been vital to getting things started.
Upgrading soldiers is very different in SoD. If you haven't started your own faction yet (taken over a castle without being a vassal) you can hire peasants from villages that upgrade (by gaining levels, as usual) through the 'mercenary tree'; peasant -> watchman -> footman or caravan guard etc. Once you start your own faction you still hire peasants, but you need a barracks or other building in your castle to upgrade them. Once your units gain a level, you upgrade them to be *. These * aren't really different from the originals, but you can upgrade these at their respective buildings to the next unit type.
[edit] I called the *-units "faithful", but apparently that was something completely different. Proceed.
For example:
I have 5 peasants. After a battle I level them up in the Party-screen and they become 5 Peasant*.
I return to my castle with a barracks, and I upgrade them into 5 Regular Villianese Infantry. After some fighting, they I can level them to Regular Villianese Infantry*, and once again at the barracks I upgrade them into Veteran Villian Infantry. And so on. Also, once you have a barracks, practice range and/or stables, you can have your castle train your village population into basic soldiers. Population is much more important now, and having a castle train people will effectively stop the taxpayer population from rising.
I recommend you try this mod, but don't expect to just jump in and start your kingdom. It takes very long before you're in any kind of place to do that. You might want to team up with a faction for some time to get money, experience, money, money, powerful units, money and money.
Raising a big army is easier now, though, since you can divide your forces into regiments. Talk (in the party-screen) to any of your normal soldiers and you can make them form a group of their own. You can then move units from your personal guard into the separate regiment and tell it to follow you. The regiment is very passive; it won't attack enemies near it, but will join your battle as an ally if they're close enough. You can also tell them to move to a location (very handy for sending * units ahead to the castle, so you can rescue prisoners/hire more peasants in their place), but sending too small groups is risky, since enemies can attack them. I think I read that troops in a regiment will also cost extra upkeep, so divide your troops accordingly.
They are aligned as good or evil, or something to that effect, and the good ones get along with the good ones, the bad ones with the bad ones. Mix them up and they get pissed. Also, if your actions are good or bad, they don't like those either. Like raid a town and the good ones leave. They will stay if morale is high, but otherwise not. And if they leave they DONT come back. If you're in danger of them deserting, which happens iirc after 2 complaints total, get captured and they'll end up back in a tavern. You can usually tell their alignment from their backstory.
And the pimp is evil aligned, in case you were uncertain.
I'm not sure, but I think they might show up later. But if you do start again, be sure to try the Sword of Damocles mod <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
Update on my kingdom. The Nords decided to declare war on me. I managed to take over TWO of their castles while the lords were away. I hired a lord for my own faction, Knight Daynad, and gave the castles to him. However, while messing around with assigning the fiefs, I ended up with -30 relation with him. Giving a castle or a village gives +10 relation, while taking a castle away gives like -20. May The Void take that man, he wont even join my side in battles!
The Nord king and two of his lords went for my capital. I lured two of them away from the kings army and crushed their moderate armies with my awesome infantry + archers. Then I proceeded into the castle, and repelled the 200 man siege with my superior archers. With the help of the annoying Knight Daynad, I might be able to take over a fourth settlement in a strategic position near Tihr, but our relations being the way they are, I think I have to find a way to jab a Tempered Heavy ###### Sword between that ######s ribs.
[edit] Victory is but a prelude to the next battle.
I took over a fourth castle and repelled the inevitable counter-attack! I'm back to 0 relation with my grumpy Knight Daynad and now that he controls three villages (kept the castle myself), his financial situation is better and he's getting happier with me as time passes. But still I'm behind in my lord quota. The fourth castle was supposed to mean a second lord, but I can't affort a non-cooperative one with two castles.
I still have no business invading a town (Tihr) but the preparations have begun. Now I have a castle right next to it and I've already captured 4 enemy lords and locked them up in the prison tower of my capital. After I've taken over one or two more castles and hired some lords (and imprisoned any enemy lords I might capture) I'll execute Operation Behemoth. Once I control Tihr, nothing can stop me!
Some pictures. Here are some Elite Villianese Infantry, preparing for the final wave of Nord Huscarls. The Huscarls really gave us quite a beating.
<img src="http://koti.mbnet.fi/retales/MnB/infantry.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
And here are my Veteran Villianese Archers, trying to soften the Huscarls a bit.
<img src="http://koti.mbnet.fi/retales/MnB/archers.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Man, this game takes up a lot of time >_<
They always end up in taverns, the closest ones I'm guessing.
And the pimp is evil aligned, in case you were uncertain.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
actually I don't think that's it - each hero just has programmed likes and dislikes. some are programmed to hate particular other heroes, some hate it when you flee from battle, some hate it when you attack weak enemies, some hate it when you attack towns, some hate it when you fail a quest, or when you disobey your liege, etc.