Conquering Calradia - Mount & Blade: Warband

[Dhavaer]

I picked up Warband a few days ago after having had the original for a few months, and things are starting to get heavy. I've got my own faction now, the Calradian Dominion, with a city, a castle and a couple of villages stuck between the Sarranids and the Rhodoks. They're both at war with me, along with the Nords for some reason, and there's a Sarranid castle bang in the middle of my territory, with too many troops for me to take (200+, I grabbed the city and castle after they'd already been taken a few time by other armies and had less than 50 each). Fortunately, the Sarranids have been beaten bloody by every other faction so they're hardly a threat and I've been able to drive of the Rhodoks pretty well so far. My only problem is keeping up a steady supply of troops; I've got enough for myself, but my garrisons are tiny, just enough to hold off an army for a little while until I ride to the rescue. The problem being that having to be available to ride to the rescue makes it a bit tricky to do anything.

So, anyone else playing Warband at the moment? Experiences or advice to share?

[Flickerdart]

Do you have good relations with any nobles from the warring nations? I seem to recall that you can get them to defect to you with a high enough relation. Or maybe that was only if you supported a pretender.

[warty goblin]

I never really manage to get into the political stuff in M&B, since I'm far too focused on stabbing people in the face. I'd like to, but there's always some group of bandits or sea raiders whose faces urgently need stabbed, and the nobles always tell me to do boring stuff.

[Dhavaer]

Not really, the Sarranids just outright hate me and I've never really had much to do with the Rhodoks. I had a couple of rep points from helping them take the city and castle the first time, but I've lost most of them again by beating them up.

[ninja_penguin]

I play. My first character is so far in the pockets of the Vaegirs, and I've helped them get so huge that I won't ever bother defecting, it'd be too much trouble fighting them all off again.

Swadian knights are pretty fantastic. I'm going to be crushed when they go to war with the Vaegirs and I have to leave them all behind in a castle.

[Flickerdart]

If you want to deal with castles then you'll want Nord infantry, which can dice anything on foot. I'm not sure on the stats but I think Mamlukes are comparable to Knights. A good way to get either if you're not playing as the faction is either capture their villages (which gives you that kind of peasant) or attack lords who have captives of that type and recruit them after the battle. You can easily maintain an army of only top-tier troops that way. Riding around with a contingent of 40 Mamlukes was enough to devastate armies many times my size with minimal casualties.

[Dhavaer]

I've got a couple of mamlukes (and they are awesome, up there with Swadian knights and sword sisters) but the core of my army is merc cavalry. They're great, every battle just turns into a screen full of 'X killed by mercenary cavalry' messages.

[shadowxknight]

I just started playing this game after getting it as a Christmas present.

My only character so far is a mercenary for the Nords, though the page with renown and honor says I'm a lord.
Any general tips for a noobie?

Some of the troubles I'm facing include larger garrisons chasing me down and capturing me repeatedly, causing me to lose hard earned cash and in the latest case even took my armor and shield.
Also, what's the quickest way to get a village/town/castle under your control? Right now my character is level 10 with about 200 renown. The Nord King is being held prisoner in an enemy castle, but I'm guessing I gotta talk to him about it?

[Dhavaer]

Tips: get a fast horse and ride around the enemy in circles slashing and any who break away from the pack. To get a fief, either impress your monarch or capture one yourself (or impress your monarch by capturing one yourself). On being captured... well, 'don't lose' is the only advice I can really give. Generally if you kill more of them than they kill of you, and you still have allied troops remaining when you're knocked out, it gives you the option of leaving and running.

Well, I nabbed that Sarranid castle that was annoying meand now my only problem is gigantic ravening hordes of nobles coming on from all sides. I've taken to releasing Rhodok nobles instead of ransoming them in hopes of getting one to like me enough to defect, but it's not going well. On the upside, by ~80 man force is reliable against ~250 man noble hordes, probably due to them having realistic infantry/cavalry ratios and me having a giant mob of mamlukes that thirst for blood. I'll probably start training up archers now instead of more cavalry, so hopefully my poor bloody castles can stand on their own.

[Partysan]

I love Warband but it misses 2 things: better infantry combat and a feeling of accomplishment. For me it always was, like "Oh, cool I have, with much courting and against the hatred of other suitors, acquired a beautiful bride. Now she just stands around at my castle and says hi. Oh, I have recieved an own castle and village. Now it just gets raided while I'm on duty somewhere else and gives me nothing but trouble. Oh I have gotten someone on their previously ursurped throne. Wow, they treat me like any bastard vasall. Oh, I've managed to get an army of many highly upgraded elite soldiers. Now I can't pay them. Oh, I've become king of everywhere. Woot."

[ninja_penguin]

Now I can't pay them.

How is that happening? Once I really get rolling, I'm making about 10K a week in income after paying off my active troops, two towns, and two castles.

[Flickerdart]

Actually, having a fief is awesome for two reasons. One is the money it pays you, and the other is that the troops you get from there come pre-upgraded. Who wants to waste time training up peasants when you can recruit skilled infantry off the bat?

[Om]

Do you have good relations with any nobles from the warring nations? I seem to recall that you can get them to defect to you with a high enough relationBe careful with that. I managed to grab a Swabian and a Nord city by convincing their respective lords to defect. Working out well. Didn't realise that in doing so I'd pissed both factions off enough to go to war with me. D'oh


Any general tips for a noobie?Don't be afraid to save/reload when first starting out. No point punishing yourself for being new

As for getting a fief, offer yourself to a king as a vassal and (if you're a man) you'll get given the poorest village in the land. Hooray! I tend to take it slow after that and find that other fiefs won't flow until around the 500 renown mark. Being the one to capture the fief is a huge advantage, as is being popular enough to convince other lords to support you

[Jokke1702]

I play Mount and Blade Warband.. and i am a king myself, but i captured a castle and said to my companion that you would decide who would get it at a later date.. but now i can't find out how to do that.. Please help :) (I use a mod called Sword of damocles.)

[Silverbit]

I'm playing a Nord lord, currently we've eliminated Swadia, the Vaegirs, almost all the Khergits (one castle with all of their lords in :smallfurious:) and we're working on the Rhodoks and Sarranids. Almost all the Khergits have jumped ship to the Sarranids, and I hate fighting their horse archers.

[The Glyphstone]

Great Modthulhu: Thread necromancy.