Mount&Blade Warband Catch-all

I just started this for the first time this week, as it's a 2012 pile game. It took me a few false starts to grasp the concept and a couple thousand random arena battles to gain some mediocre skill with the combat system, but I think I am finally ready to tackle this.

I didn't realize the heavy debt this owes to Sid Meier's Pirates! but given that I hold that game near and dear, it pleases me.

I have a couple questions. During my early flailing about (on prior characters) I got attacked by brigands that far outnumbered me. I tried retreating but that led to just instantly getting the "you are being attacked" message again, leaving surrender or death as the only options. Is this a function of not having enough speed to escape? There didn't appear to be any feedback about why I was just seeing that message again so it was a bit confusing.

In light of that, how worried should I be about being captured or injured in a fight? Are the penalties relatively light? Is there any way to reliably avoid such fates? It seemed that hostile bands would just appear near me, chase me down and imprison me if they so desired. I understand you start near the bottom of the food chain but it seems climbing out relies partly on whether the system decides to be an asshole off the bat.

Well, at the start of the game you should be able to outrun just about any band of brigands.

How many people do you have in your parties? Are you recruiting scrubs from the villages?

garion333 wrote:

Well, at the start of the game you should be able to outrun just about any band of brigands.

How many people do you have in your parties? Are you recruiting scrubs from the villages?

The incident I am referring to happened right out of the gate with a prior "practice" character. It was just me and my horse. Before I even got to the first town to recruit I got jumped by about 8 guys. At that point the dialogue was basically 'Give gold' or 'fight'. Instead of giving them gold I tried to fight, assuming I would get to try and run away at that point. I hit Tab, selected the 'Retreat' option, and it immediately brought me back to the screen stating 'You have been attacked' with the number of troops etc. From there I could only 'Charge' or 'Surrender'. I tried Retreat several more times with the same result.

I would have expected to be brought back to the map or given some kind of message that I was too slow or something. Thus I couldn't figure out if I was doing something wrong or if I just got terribly unlucky and was just not able to run away.

Edit: Perhaps one thing I did wrong --- do you have to run away a certain distance on the tactical map for the Retreat option to work? I didn't really move that far before Tabbing out to retreat. Would that explain it?

I believe, and I could be wrong, that you need to have men in order to retreat. What happens is you leave a forceof men behind (to basically get slaughtered) while you run. Since you had no men, I suppose retreat wasn't an option.

I think you just got horribly unlucky. There are packs of brigands and stuff roaming around who are dodgable, but I think one was literally right outside as you exited the first town. That should be rare as the lords you see prancing around will scare them away.

garion333 wrote:

I believe, and I could be wrong, that you need to have men in order to retreat. What happens is you leave a forceof men behind (to basically get slaughtered) while you run. Since you had no men, I suppose retreat wasn't an option.

mooosicle wrote:

I think you just got horribly unlucky. There are packs of brigands and stuff roaming around who are dodgable, but I think one was literally right outside as you exited the first town. That should be rare as the lords you see prancing around will scare them away.

OK, I get it. So in a lot of ways again this is just like Pirates except instead of needing another ship to escape in you need additional soldiers to sacrifice.
Well, fortunately the only time lost was the five minutes it took to make a character. My current dashing young brute is doing just fine.

The penalties aren't too bad at the (beginning of the game anyway), since you can't really die. You can be captured and lose money/equipment and men, which means you'll have to rebuild your army, but thats about it.

Heads up on a $5 Steam sale this weekend.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/48...

It's a few bucks more for all 3 games, but there's no need for the first if you have Warband and I can't speak to the quality of Fire & Sword. I've heard mixed.

No one mentioned the new DLC yet?

Napoleonic Wars DLC for Warband is also out. Strange it's DLC for Warband considering Fire and Sword already has firearms, but I'm not complaining! I picked it up and I'll give it a go once it's installed.

Redwing wrote:

No one mentioned the new DLC yet?

Napoleonic Wars DLC for Warband is also out. Strange it's DLC for Warband considering Fire and Sword already has firearms, but I'm not complaining! I picked it up and I'll give it a go once it's installed.

That's kind of awesome. I need to get back into M&B.

Nevin73 wrote:
Redwing wrote:

No one mentioned the new DLC yet?

Napoleonic Wars DLC for Warband is also out. Strange it's DLC for Warband considering Fire and Sword already has firearms, but I'm not complaining! I picked it up and I'll give it a go once it's installed.

That's kind of awesome. I need to get back into M&B.

Having played the excellent Mount and Musket mod, the Napoleonic Wars DLC was a day one purchase for me.

Have there been any other new fan mods that have come out recently?

I had a look not long ago and for single player, Brytenwalda, Prophesy of Pendor and The Eagle and the Radiant Cross are still the most polished experiences. Haven't seen anything else good or unique enough to pique the interest.

Yeah started up a new Prophecy game having fun with that, trying to remember how to please the Elves

Well, this is kind of ridiculous, my character has been gimped by not being able to marry, yippe ka-yeei!

I have this female character I started playing with last year, hadn't played in a long time and restarted about a month or so ago after injuring my ankle playing soccer and spending 3 weeks at home using crotches. So, I picked up where I left and had a handful of castles and villages under my banner, with a small band of lords following my commands. Great!, let's get this unite the kingdom thing going and all that. I prepare for war, avoiding angering the kingdoms while recruiting all over Calradia, my home base was Dramug castle and my main objective Dhirim a short ride nearby, most of my castles lying around her. I begin conquering left and rigth, take Narra, Halmar, Reyvadin and finally Dhirim, Lords start to flock and I struggle to keep them happy as with every conquest I choose to wait and assign fiefs after consulting my subdits. Peace time comes, I've made myself ruler of all Calradia except for Tihr and Sargoth, I frantically ask any lord that comes under my banner if they will marry me, only to be told that i'm not pure enough, or that their heart belongs to another maiden over and over. So, I'm not being able to raise my standing among my most powerful allies because I cannot hold feasts and keep them fed and drunk because I'm still single, great, lets assign fiefs then, every fiefs I assign makes me hated by those I need on my side because they pretty much want everything for them, even though I go out of my way to ride around the kingdom with my puny escort of companions at full speed hunting my Lords to ask whom they think is deserving of this or that. So yeah, Eff that.

So I finnally find a newly-arrived Lord who says, oh sure, I'll think about it m'lady and I take a long ride around the Nord homelands to raise more Huscarls, and, having gone for about a week, about six or seven -100 asshats Lords joined the nords about the same time. I'm now facing conquering again over 4 cities I already had (Suno, Bariyye, Rivacheg, Narra) whenever the Nords feel strong enough to declare war, plus about 8 or so castles, and I've still plenty of -100 Lords with plenty of fiefs assigned that can turn on me any second now.

So yeah, I'm kind of dissappointed with this game by all this stupid mechanichs that corner you into a losing position. Without getting married you're unable to raise your standing with the lords in a practical, massive manner (you still theoretically can by giving money to them through the ladies, but at 3000 denars per +3 points of standing, you'll run the kingdom into bankruptcy by the time you raise your standing to 0 with a handful of Lords, I have about 3 dozens).

So rant conclusion is: I want a better, newer M&B with less clicking for dear's sake, beheadings/dismemberments and workarounds to this kind of stupid catch-22.

Having none of that, I'll take any suggestions on what I could do to turn the tide and bring the rule of Everilf into the hearts of all Calradians once and for all.

Can't you splinter off and take it over for yourself?

AnimeJ wrote:

Can't you splinter off and take it over for yourself?

What do you mean splinter off? not sure I get what you say here :/
Played a bit more, exiled two or three -100 lords, entered a fief-assigning orgy, giving villages and towns to those with some loyalty left, but to no avail, most of them aren't just that loyal, only 4-7, after assigning the fiefs freed by all the traitors and exiles, I was pretty much in the same situation, and the one lord that was considering marriage jumped in the hateful wagon. Can't I name lord another of my companions and propose? I already had Alayen Lord-ed but the treacherous bastard was as greedy as the rest and defected.

I mentioned this a long time ago, but I've recently dived back into mod Prophecy of Pendor which is like the equivalent of a spectacular expansion. There's been several major overhaul last since I played (quite a while ago)

How it differs from vanilla
- Factions are much more diverse and differentiated. There are a lot of similarities, such as the western european faction with the armored Calvary, but the differences are much more pronounced and playing each culture feels interesting.

- Armored cavalry tended to be insanely overpowered in vanilla. The system here is that you can't train heavy Calvary from village recruits anymore. If you have a castle/town, you can attract nobles, which you train to be your culture/faction's noble units. Only noble units can become even more specialized into knighthood orders, which are difficult to acquire units. You can still acquire independent faction cavalry and mercenaries, although they are more expensive to upkeep.

- The item system system is much more refined. Polearms and spears were extremely underwhelming in vanilla. Polearms have polearm reach now, and having them aids greatly against cavalry. Infantry spears are stronger and longer as well and aids against mass cavalry charges. More variety of throwing weapons, much more difference in shields (size of shield, resistance, speed), horses (much more varieties from light to heavy), etc

- All owned villages/towns/castles can be upgraded with a variety of upgrades, which is based on your entire party's stats, which you teach to your village/town/castle's steward, which allows him to get upgrades. Having a balanced party becomes more useful, and skills such as persuasion and trade.

- More unique mercenary factions. Random groups sometimes offer their services to you and you get ~100 of them for a price when you are king, they join your battlements and you can use them as you please. A lot of added variety, especially to balance out your culture's weaknesses. Or just use as fodder.

- Independent factions (can't hold land) that you fight. Bands of unique heroes that lead groups such as packs of cavalry or elite troops, they can be defeated for great loot.

- Smarter AI. Battles tend to be bigger and more exciting.

- More quests, game-appropriate music, companions, graphics, etc

Feeank wrote:
AnimeJ wrote:

Can't you splinter off and take it over for yourself?

What do you mean splinter off? not sure I get what you say here :/
Played a bit more, exiled two or three -100 lords, entered a fief-assigning orgy, giving villages and towns to those with some loyalty left, but to no avail, most of them aren't just that loyal, only 4-7, after assigning the fiefs freed by all the traitors and exiles, I was pretty much in the same situation, and the one lord that was considering marriage jumped in the hateful wagon. Can't I name lord another of my companions and propose? I already had Alayen Lord-ed but the treacherous bastard was as greedy as the rest and defected.

I believe there's an option to set yourself up as a lord in your own right and rule all Calradia under your own flag. So if you could do that, then all the little pissant lords and dukes could come crawling up to you to get kicked in the face.

AnimeJ wrote:

I believe there's an option to set yourself up as a lord in your own right and rule all Calradia under your own flag. So if you could do that, then all the little pissant lords and dukes could come crawling up to you to get kicked in the face.

I thought he was running his own kingdom, and the problem is that he's having a hard time keeping his vassals in line.

misplacedbravado wrote:
AnimeJ wrote:

I believe there's an option to set yourself up as a lord in your own right and rule all Calradia under your own flag. So if you could do that, then all the little pissant lords and dukes could come crawling up to you to get kicked in the face.

I thought he was running his own kingdom, and the problem is that he's having a hard time keeping his vassals in line.

yeah, what MisplacedB said, once you take a castle or town for your own, that is, without being tied by an oath to any kingdom, you're pretty much declaring yourself a new power. My main problem is not being able to hold feasts to make my lords happier because my character isn't married. Without the feasts' benefits it's quite hard to offset the downside of assigning fiefs to those not popular enough among your lords.

Feeank wrote:
misplacedbravado wrote:
AnimeJ wrote:

I believe there's an option to set yourself up as a lord in your own right and rule all Calradia under your own flag. So if you could do that, then all the little pissant lords and dukes could come crawling up to you to get kicked in the face.

I thought he was running his own kingdom, and the problem is that he's having a hard time keeping his vassals in line.

yeah, what MisplacedB said, once you take a castle or town for your own, that is, without being tied by an oath to any kingdom, you're pretty much declaring yourself a new power. My main problem is not being able to hold feasts to make my lords happier because my character isn't married. Without the feasts' benefits it's quite hard to offset the downside of assigning fiefs to those not popular enough among your lords.

You should be able to copy the "prepare a feast" dialogue option that is normally tied to your spouse and paste it so that your castle steward or whatever can do it too. I know you can edit a village's main dialogue to include the option to talk to the village elder (so you don't have to physically enter the village and find him). I imagine it'd be fairly similar.

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord announced. Thread created.

If anyone is still playing this and wants to use voice commands in single player, I've created a VAC profile. Download.

This is just for vanilla but it could easily be edited to be used for mods or Fire & Sword or the original M&B.

So I've just got into this. I picked up the series cheap a while ago and it's lain fallow since then. I played maybe 10-12 hours of the first one, just getting the hang of things, but didn't really advance particularly far.

I think I'm starting to get the feel for it this time and I'm really enjoying it. It reminds me of nothing so much as Elite or Privateer on horseback - a freelancer game with trading, bounty hunting, mission quests, and scope to carve yourself out a place in the world. Really enjoying it.

My first real "a-Ha!" moment came - after sucking in open combat in the original - when I first formed up a shield wall of hardy Nords and watched the enemy break against them like the ships of Tarshish. Raaaah!

Yeah shield walls and unit formations is something i've never been great at, my extent of tactics (since i'm always horseback) is Archers hold this hill, footmen wait here till i tell you to charge, horsemen follow me while we harass until everyone is in place, fall back now foot and horse charge!!!!!!

then the slaying commences.

Check out the mod community if you really want some silly fun. Prophecy of Pendor is essentially Hard mode, armor becomes much more effective to the point that 20 grunts can't take on a knight in full plate.

Well, this game has completely and totally eaten my brain. A few thoughts.

My tactics so far haven't much advanced beyond the previous post. Archers on a hill, screened by infantry, companions on horseback follow me as skirmishing lancers/archers.

Presently I'm using a mostly Nord force with some Rhodok spearmen mixed into the infantry line and Rhodok crossbowmen with the archers to migrate to garrison duty when they hit sharpshooter. This is kind of not feasible any more as the Rhodoks just declared war.

I had a little play with a Swadian game but could not figure out how best to use cavalry. More practice needed I think.

I think I feel spoilt having used Huscarls for castle assaults. It feels like easymode compared to using other troop types. I'll have to learn some new siege tactics that don't involve around

  • Huscarls charge
  • ...
  • Profit!

Speaking of easymode I've bumped the difficulty up from "pitiful" to "weak" and it's feeling like slightly more of a challenge.

Lessons learnt so far include keeping a compact fief, and using productive enterprises in multiple cities across Calradia to bring money in. Not prepared to restart yet. But I think I'll have to be prepared to take the hit and lose a castle or two in order to keep my fief a manageable size while I build up my reputation with the King and my right to rule.

Nords are the best. Archers are accurate, though vulnerable. Huscarls are like gods. Short ranged high-damage throwing weapons, plus good shields and melee. Great for storming a castle with some and letting the others hurl axes from the grass and lower parts of the ramp. Man I miss this game.

With a bunch of Huscarls kept extremely tightly together defending a castle, you can make the K/D ratio like 20+ deaths on their side to your 1. You get them to stand as close together as you can, then when the enemy is almost in, you make them charge. Once they fight too far out, you call them back to defend and repeat. Keeps them protected from archers and being surrounded, while letting them have the height advantage to hack away at your enemies.

I've not allowed myself to touch this game until M&B 2 is out. Either it will be great and consume my life, or it will lack and I will allow myself to put more time into Warband instead. Either way, I'm doomed.

For character build, what should I be focussing on? I suspect I've not been developing my companion's skills efficiently and need to reassess. I also think I've been spreading myself too thin (mostly stacking INT) and picking up skills that I'm better off leaving to my companions.

Anyone tried the Floris mod for Warband? It's been described to me as Native++, that is the native module with a crapton of upgrades.