Mount & Blade: Warband

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Anybody else play this? I find it quite fun. It's like it pairs my favorite aspects of Elder Scrolls games and Total War games into one kinda old-school package.

What do you like to play as? What factions do you like? Anyone tried to claim the crown for themselves?

[JadedDM]

I've only run one game so far; I was playing a male heavy cavalry in Swadia. I managed to conquer all of Calradia in the name of King Harlaus with an army that was almost 1/3 Sword Sisters (I was a progressive lord.)

Of course, I cheated like crazy to do it.

[AmberVael]

I haven't played in a while, but I did spend a good amount of time on Warband. Personally, I've really liked playing characters that focus strongly on personal combative prowess. It's one thing to beat someone else's army with your army, it's quite another to beat someone's army with just your sword. :smallbiggrin: I typically focus on one handed swords and shields, though polearms are pretty nifty, and I do generally invest in crossbows or bows as well. Winning tournaments and betting heavily on yourself can get you a very nice amount of money, and it's a lot easier if you're a powerful combatant. Tourneys are one of my favorite things in the game, actually.

I've attempted to set up my own faction and take the crown, but it is tough work and I never finished that game. It's easier to just be part of a faction, really, or be a sell sword. Also a bit more fun- there's just a lot less to worry about.

[Fri]

There was a huge thread about this game, it was pretty popular when it's still relatively new.

My favourite faction/strategy was turtling with the rhodoks. With spearman in front of crossbowman, on top of a hill, I can beat almost any army even when massively outnumbered. The cavalries are hold in position until the enemies are in archer's range, then I let them loose.

Of course, I'm comletely slaughtered when I fight horse archers. Or caught in a plain without any hills.

[AmberVael]

Of course, I'm completely slaughtered when I fight horse archers. Or caught in a plain without any hills.

Oh man, I hate both of the southern horse focused factions. They're so annoying to fight against. "Stop kiting around and let me smack you with my sword dangit!" :smallmad:

[warty goblin]

I spent so long playing the original, I could never really adapt to the new animations in Warband. They kept throwing my slice'n'dice off.

[Kaun]

I have been playing an archery focused character and it is amazing the amount of kills you can get prior to the melee mobs even meeting.

The Nord super foot troops (i forget what they are called) are still the be all and all of siege warfare. You can take over castles stocked with hundreds of troops using just 30 of those guys.

I do get ****y with the way the lords your serving handing out land to you.

The seem to like handing you villages at the complete opposite ends of the map, which makes it worthless to try and build them up because they are forever getting raided while you are miles away.

[Flickerdart]

My favourite way of setting up an army is rolling with Swadia and then just pumping out as many Knights as possible. Their crossbowmen are also quite good; IIRC the Vaegir have the best archers but their knights are awful.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

So...what's the big difference between the Great Helm and the Winged Great Helm. They seem to both have the same STR requirement. So what separates one from the other, other than appearance? I ask because I've been looking at what to kit myself out with, and the build I'm using, which is rated highest in the group because of how relatively easy it is to trash everything with it, recommends the Great Helm, while a build that's less potent, though still powerful, has the Winged Great Helm.

Is it weight? Does that have an effect? I ask because what separates the rest of the armors of these two builds is that the one I'm using recommends the Coat of Plates, while the lower one recommends Plate Armor, mentioned on the wiki as being the most protective armor in the game.

[Leecros]

I do get ****y with the way the lords your serving handing out land to you.

The seem to like handing you villages at the complete opposite ends of the map, which makes it worthless to try and build them up because they are forever getting raided while you are miles away.

That's because the lord doesn't care about you building it up. All he cares about is that you have comparable territory to other lords of similar renown, because if you were an AI you'd complain about not having enough land.

Personally, i'd rather have 1 wealthy village than 3 very poor ones, but that's not how the AI thinks.


My favourite way of setting up an army is rolling with Swadia and then just pumping out as many Knights as possible. Their crossbowmen are also quite good; IIRC the Vaegir have the best archers but their knights are awful.

I'll never understand the dislike for non-Swadian Knights. I remember this discussion taking place in an older thread, but from a statistical PoV, the Swadian Knights are not much better than the Vaegir while being a good bit more expensive. You're basically buying their equipment which, while superior to the Vaegir Knight's, The Vaegir Knight would certainly put up a fight. Ultimately in the end it doesn't even matter, because whether it's Vaegir, Swadian, or Sarranid, if you have an army of knight's you're going to wipe the floor with the AI on all, but the hardest difficulties.



Is it weight? Does that have an effect? I ask because what separates the rest of the armors of these two builds is that the one I'm using recommends the Coat of Plates, while the lower one recommends Plate Armor, mentioned on the wiki as being the most protective armor in the game.

All weight really affects is how fast you move on foot. Plate Armor is the strongest armor in the game, but i believe it's also the heaviest and it's definitely the most expensive.

I typically go for Scale Mail, it provides fair protection for a relatively low cost until you can actually afford the high-tier armor.

[Beowulf DW]

Just finished a game in which I conquered all Calradia and started the Badassian Empire. I also started up a new file in which I tried to stay neutral as much as a I could. I used Ransom Brokers and invested in businesses in the cities to make most of my gold. Eventually, King Yaroglek asked me to be a lord, because I did most of my business with the Vaegirs (selling Sea Raiders to slavers is very profitable).

But my favorite file at the moment is the Song of Ice and Fire mod that I downloaded. I was a noble mercenary for a while. Met Tywin and Stannis. Tywin actually said that I was a "good man to know." I don't know whether to be flattered or appalled.

[Triaxx]

It's definitely on my list of must plays. I've seen in the original game where a fast horse and couchable lance means you can mow down any foot group, I never figured out how not to be immediately murdered by anything mounted. Perhaps that comes later than the Demo I played covers.

[warty goblin]

It's definitely on my list of must plays. I've seen in the original game where a fast horse and couchable lance means you can mow down any foot group, I never figured out how not to be immediately murdered by anything mounted. Perhaps that comes later than the Demo I played covers.

The trick to not getting run over by cavalry is simple: meat shields. Get your dudes to bunch up, and don't stand in center front. A few guys back near a flank is a good place to be. When the charge hits this keeps you from getting knocked over and trampled, and puts you in a good position to get in on a stopped horseman's flank. Preferably with a seriously large axe. Horses aren't usually that well armored, and once dismounted an isolated horseman is dead meat.

IIRC the demo only goes to level six, which means you don't really have the finances or time to get high level gear and followers. Getting weapons and armor that don't suck, and followers who don't die when looked at sternly makes a big difference. Particularly that early in the game you don't want to fight parties that you can't beat the snot out of, which can take some looking to find. Later game you can afford to get into fights where you aren't vastly stronger than your prey.

[Knaight]

The trick to not getting run over by cavalry is simple: meat shields. Get your dudes to bunch up, and don't stand in center front. A few guys back near a flank is a good place to be. When the charge hits this keeps you from getting knocked over and trampled, and puts you in a good position to get in on a stopped horseman's flank. Preferably with a seriously large axe. Horses aren't usually that well armored, and once dismounted an isolated horseman is dead meat.

Careful positioning is also really helpful. If you are at the edge of a river, you can't get cavalry charged from that side. You can get cavalry slowly-approached, while you feather them with arrows from point blank range, but that's not actually a problem.

[Morty]

I had a lot of fun with both the basic game and Warband. In the basic version, I started out as a mercenary for the Vaegirs and then hired myself out to the Rhodoks and eventually accepted a title from the Rhodok king. In Warband, I went with Rhodoks all the way. I just really like the imagery of infantry with polearms and crossbows fighting off cavalry. I did use cavalry from other nations, of course - I kept some Vaegir and Swadian villages where I recruited people to train into cavalrymen.

One thing that both games could use are some more advanced diplomatic options and better AI. The first village you get is more or less going to be perpetually razed, because enemy lords will descend upon it whenever you're not around and you can't defend it unless you want to spend all your time there. There are mods for that, I think. I did play with a mod that introduced some pretty extensive changes, once - it really shuffled the troop variety around, for instance.

[Leecros]

The first village you get is more or less going to be perpetually razed, because enemy lords will descend upon it whenever you're not around and you can't defend it unless you want to spend all your time there.

Whether your village gets raised or not is really up to luck. I've had my first village bordering an enemy and only rarely get raided and another first village in the center of the nation get raided regularly in a different game. It's definitely worth putting time into though as a wealthy village can give you lots of moneyfoods over the course of the game.

[warty goblin]

Decided to fire M&B Warband back up this afternoon. After three hours I've gotten a character to the point where she isn't continually bankrupt, without followers and probably in captivity. My opening game strategy, mostly developed in the days of original M&B v.65 or so, may need some work.

[Triaxx]

Yeah, level 6. I did actually successfully get some troops to play with. Some guy and his heavily armored infantry. Worked pretty well because I'm an excellent archer, and I was able to thin the ranks of the bandits. But we got caught by horsemen and ripped apart. I had another game where I managed to hire some horsemen, but the enemy had heavier armor and faster horses, so we spent a good hour chasing them around the map before it was just me on a horse, surrounded by enemies. Needless to say it didn't go well and when I 'lost' they stole my horse. Which is sad. Doing the training grounds seems to be a pretty good idea to start with. Anyone else think so?

[warty goblin]

Careful positioning is also really helpful. If you are at the edge of a river, you can't get cavalry charged from that side. You can get cavalry slowly-approached, while you feather them with arrows from point blank range, but that's not actually a problem.

Hills also work well to slow the horse-boys down. A guy on a horse that isn't moving very fast is basically just a big target.

I remember one of the beta versions of the original, where all the maps were ringed by steep hills. Usually you spawned near a corner. The cunning commander would bunch up all their units in the nearest corner, at which point you were basically immune to cavalry.

[JadedDM]

So...what's the big difference between the Great Helm and the Winged Great Helm. They seem to both have the same STR requirement. So what separates one from the other, other than appearance?

The Great Helm and Winged Great Helm have the same weight (2.8) and the same STR requirement (10). The only difference aside from appearance (and cost), is that the Great Helm has an armor value of 53, while the Winged Great Helm has one of 55.

So two points of protection, is the answer.

[Flickerdart]

Doing the training grounds seems to be a pretty good idea to start with. Anyone else think so?
Doing the personal training (against the Fighters) really pays off before you have an army, and after you pick up your first bunch of villagers, beating some skill into them might be worth it (if you can afford to pay for the Militia). After that, it takes too long to get anywhere.

[Leecros]

Doing the personal training (against the Fighters) really pays off before you have an army, and after you pick up your first bunch of villagers, beating some skill into them might be worth it (if you can afford to pay for the Militia). After that, it takes too long to get anywhere.

It takes awhile to train up villagers sure, but not in-game. So if you need trained troops in a short span of time(in-game), it's a good way to do it, If you have skilled companions to spar against.

They get more experience for you sparring against more experienced people, so training up your companions and sparring with them would at least get your men through the first few squishy levels and the ones you spar against get a little bit of experience, although it would take that a long time to amount to anything. Leveling them to the top tier, however does probably take longer than it's worth. Probably an hour or two of Real Life time.

BUT if you need an army in a short span of time for whatever reason, Such as wanting to take a castle while it's weak, it's certainly a viable option if you have the patience to do it.

Admittedly i always put as many points as i can into trainer. I don't know off the top of my head if that affects the experience gain during sparring, but it should.

[Beowulf DW]

It's definitely on my list of must plays. I've seen in the original game where a fast horse and couchable lance means you can mow down any foot group, I never figured out how not to be immediately murdered by anything mounted. Perhaps that comes later than the Demo I played covers.

That Game of Thrones mod that I mentioned actually has a fix for that. Any polearm used against a mounted unit gets a bonus to damage. If you hit a mounted unit that's charging toward you with a polearm, you basically do a sort of reversed couched lance damage. This results in an interesting rock-paper-scissors situation in most battles. Cavalry will get torn to shreds by infantry formations, Infantry formations take heavy casualties closing in on archers, and archers get mowed down by cavalry because the cavalry advances too quickly. This also results in more complex strategies, than I employ in the vanilla game. I end up considering the effects of terrain, and using flanking maneuvers, where in the vanilla game, I'd just point my cavalry in one direction and let the infantry back them up.

[Crow]

So...what's the big difference between the Great Helm and the Winged Great Helm. They seem to both have the same STR requirement. So what separates one from the other, other than appearance? I ask because I've been looking at what to kit myself out with, and the build I'm using, which is rated highest in the group because of how relatively easy it is to trash everything with it, recommends the Great Helm, while a build that's less potent, though still powerful, has the Winged Great Helm.

Is it weight? Does that have an effect? I ask because what separates the rest of the armors of these two builds is that the one I'm using recommends the Coat of Plates, while the lower one recommends Plate Armor, mentioned on the wiki as being the most protective armor in the game.

JadedDM is right.

There is also the issue of zoomed-in archery though. One of those two helms is annoying when zoomed in.

[warty goblin]

Thrust-only polearms are the one area where I think M&B seriously messes up. Getting stabbed at repeatedly by a long pointy thing is hard to block. The game really needs to differentiate between high and low thrusts with a polearm, so some dude with a hatchet can't just hold block 'till you're blue in the face.

[Knaight]

Thrust-only polearms are the one area where I think M&B seriously messes up. Getting stabbed at repeatedly by a long pointy thing is hard to block. The game really needs to differentiate between high and low thrusts with a polearm, so some dude with a hatchet can't just hold block 'till you're blue in the face.

I'd agree with this entirely. As it is, if you've got one one handed sword and nothing else one of the easiest thing to deal with is a bunch of spearmen using a spear in two hands. Meanwhile, in real life, if you've got one one handed sword and nothing else even one person with a two handed spear is a pretty big problem, and several is just a nightmarish situation.

[Squark]

Just a tip on the first village issue; The reason it always gets raised is that when you join a faction, you get the least prosperous village- which usually means a village on the border that just got raided. Occasionally you luck out and none of the villages have been raised, and you get a decent village in the middle of the faction instead.

[Flickerdart]

Just a tip on the first village issue; The reason it always gets raised is that when you join a faction, you get the least prosperous village- which usually means a village on the border that just got raided. Occasionally you luck out and none of the villages have been raised, and you get a decent village in the middle of the faction instead.
Razed. Raised means something else entirely.

[nooblade]

I'd heard and noticed that enemy lords will sometimes pass up other villages just to raid yours. In one game I started the game as a male noble background, immediately joined Rhodoks, and received Ruldi as a fief. This village is deep in friendly territory, very close to Jelkala, and surrounded by mountains on three sides with a river choking up the entrance. I thought it was perfect but enemies would still try to raid it! And it would take forever to snake around back to it. I guess the Rhodok lords concentrated on defending Veluca and the enemies went south through Almera and Ibdeles castles. Perhaps they figured I was the easiest target as a low-renown lord?

[Leecros]

I'd heard and noticed that enemy lords will sometimes pass up other villages just to raid yours. In one game I started the game as a male noble background, immediately joined Rhodoks, and received Ruldi as a fief. This village is deep in friendly territory, very close to Jelkala, and surrounded by mountains on three sides with a river choking up the entrance. I thought it was perfect but enemies would still try to raid it! And it would take forever to snake around back to it. I guess the Rhodok lords concentrated on defending Veluca and the enemies went south through Almera and Ibdeles castles. Perhaps they figured I was the easiest target as a low-renown lord?

The AI seemingly raid villages at random, they'll pass up villages on the border sometimes and go for ones deep in enemy territory. In all my hours of playing, i've noticed that the AI tend to go for villages near castles or cities that they want.

The AI would profit more by going after the villages of Lords that hold large armies, since the wealth of the village does affect how quickly their army grows...although it doesn't affect how many and what kind of troops. that's determined by the Lord's original nationality and renown.

[Squark]

Yeah, the AI's desicion making process with regards to which fief is razed is somewhat arcane, although I'm pretty sure it doesn't take into account your relationship with them, as I've had to chase away lords who considered me to be practically their best friend (in spite of being on the other side. Relationship bonuses for letting them go can get kind of absurd after a while).

[Kaun]

any tips for upping the profitability of a city? I try to clear out bandits in the surrounding area to encourage caravans but aside from that what can be done?

[Flickerdart]

any tips for upping the profitability of a city? I try to clear out bandits in the surrounding area to encourage caravans but aside from that what can be done?
You can do missions for the guildmaster, which I think help, but other than that it seems mostly a function of time.

[Kaun]

do the missions for the guild master actually help or does that just raise your reputation with the city?

[Beowulf DW]

do the missions for the guild master actually help or does that just raise your reputation with the city?

It seems to help as you keep completing missions. Seems to work for villages, too. Though, it could be that your presence in the area drives off bandits, and the increase in prosperity is actually a byproduct of the missions.

[Draken]

M&B:Warband player here!

Rhodoks. I just can't live without my Sergeants and Snipers. Things are great. Let me beat Harlaus once with something akin to one fifth of the soldiers he had. All it took was a mountain, a frontline of sergeants and a backline of about two dozen snipers. Glorious.

I gotta say I have yet to finish any game because I keep wanting to start new files for some reason or another.

[Flickerdart]

AI Rhodoks are terrible, though, as are Nords - their lords, the only mounted characters in their armies, will charge ahead of everyone else, easy pickings for even a lone hero. After that, it's just mopping up, really.

Winning with fractional men is less impressive without mods that increase the battlefield size cap. If they're not fielded all at once, then there's not much of an advantage in having more dudes (especially when the Tactics or whatever skill is against the more numerous side).

[Kaun]

So i was messing around with a new game last night, once again trying to stay more neutral and not affiliate myself with any faction in particular.

And i have to say, slave trading is an amazing way to get over the initial money hurdle.

Level 5 and i am already well and truly cashed up. I took 4 ranks in prisoner management so i could capture 20 people, then i just cruise around looking for sea raiders and other bandits to capture for slaves.

I don't bother to switch my troops to blunt weapons, with me using a long mace pole arm thingy i can ride through a battle and i usually fill up on slaves in a fight or two.

Off sell the plundered gear and slaves and pull it about 3k every time i return to town.

I had never really bothered selling slaves before but it is an easy way to turn pillagers into quick cash.

[Squark]

do the missions for the guild master actually help or does that just raise your reputation with the city?

Having actually looked at some of the underlying mechanics*, I can confirm that yes, doing quests for the Guild Master/Village Elder does improve their prosperity. There's also a chance for the prosperity to slightly increase when the villages return from selling their goods at the nearest town or castle.



*Less impressive than it sounds; I was just using an editor to enable the battle continuing after you fall.