Mount and Blade General

You know how bad sieges get, especially with lots of defensive archers involved. And you know the Khergit specialty. If you're going to win a city siege, better bring your A-Game.

edited 23rd Jul '12 12:08:28 PM by Journeyman

Yeah, holding castles is really fun because you end up having like 50 elite soldiers blocking the hot gates to stop the might of the persian army.

Taking them is a lot more work, but I've found a great strategy is to take about 80 rhodok sharpshooters and 50 huscarls with you. Build the ladders, get everyone to hold their fire, then march everyone up close under the shield wall then park them just within range of the enemy. Keep everyone under cover, then you should go up to the walls, find some cover, and start picking off enemies for several minutes. Eventually you'll run out of ammo, and they'll be low on ammo, so your call on if you want to go back to your army and pick up missed bolts and do more shooting, or if you want to start slowly marching your army in closer so they can unleash. Either way, once your rhodoks are out of ammo, you can either retreat and rest up to rebuild the ladders, or if you think the point of entry is thinned out enough, you can send your huscarls in to break their line.

Another alternative for once everyone is out of ammo is to take a bardiche and march up to the wall yourself and start breaking shields and taking heads without actually jumping in, since enemies will never cross the threshold to get into melee range of you.

"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." Twitter

I actually wouldn't mind if they incorporated Brytenwalda-style sieges into the main game. You can build Mantlets in addition to the assault tools, AND there are destructible targets like gateways that can be toppled.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QykfnxFD3_k

The guy complains a bit in the beginning, but that's very YMMV. My only complaint is that it's a self-imposed challenge, because the non-scene siege factors don't affect the AI.

edited 23rd Jul '12 1:54:30 PM by Journeyman

So in the long run: Archers will beat X-Bowers in attack ability correct?

Apocalypse: Dirge Of Swans.

Ehh, depends. It's easier to aim a crossbow and takes fewer bolts to deal with an enemy. Bows are faster, but have more of an arc and don't do as much damage. You'll run out of arrows before you run out of bolts.

On the other hand, with enough Xbow skill, you can reload pretty darn quickly. I'd say it's situational, really.

Also: You can use a higher tier bow from horseback. Not so much with a X-Bow

Apocalypse: Dirge Of Swans.

Can you use longbows from horseback.

If any question why we died/ Tell them, because our fathers lied -Rudyard Kipling

You can use any bow from horseback, but nothing higher than a light crossbow there.

On the other hand, you don't need any skillpoints invested to use any crossbows. If you're playing an infantry oriented character, crossbows are certainly an excellent choice for a weapon. You can allocate points elsehwere, rather than on your weapon of choice. Which is why I say it's situational. Try packing both weapons, a bow and a crossbow, with the associated ammo. Maybe two quivers of each, large size. If you get dismounted during battle, and can make it back to your inventory, you can swap for the infantry weapon and join your missile ranks.

The thing I like about crossbows is that you can hold aim indefinitely, but I assume you get that at high bow levels.

"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." Twitter

i really hate the crossbow's reload speed and the fact that on ground you have to stay still while doing it.

incidently, finding out i had to stay still on horse to reload firearms in napoleonic wars was jarring.

trying out brytonwald or whatever its called.

kinda hard to get going tbh. cant recruit villagers and its astonishingly hard to take on 11 bandits on my own now, and the only tournament ive seen i had to try 7 or so time before i one simply because the polearm while holding shield controls are so goddamn sucky

edited 23rd Jul '12 4:20:10 PM by Tarsen

Well it should be rather difficult to reload a pistol while riding a galloping horse.

quiet, you.

Speaking of ineffectual cavalry charges against gunpowder weapons, I was in a commander battle in Napoleonic Wars and had my group of Horse Guard charge into a group of line infantry. Not sure of how many guys we killed, but it was still pretty epic in my opinion xD

The looter analogue is at level 15, even while you're a level one whatever. It's not an arcading mod like some, you're supposed to run until you have enough warriors to stand and fight. On the upside, see what happens when you get 12 infantry on your side.

However, I can tell you right now how to gear up to arcade-kill those theows (the looters): Go to Wales, the easiest way is to start Briton and work out from Din Gonwy. Trader start is best for the cash. Visit the villages, you can grab things like minerals and metal for around 100 Schillings. Sell them in towns for 300 or so. Grab a long spear, the Hastas are best here, 230 length points (2.3 meters long, a REAL spear) and a good horse. Keep the enemies on your right and you can poke at them from farther than they can hit you.

I wouldn't take on much more than theows until I earned the trust of the villages and started building up an army. Or even just managed to free some soldiers from the enemy.

edited 23rd Jul '12 4:32:39 PM by Journeyman

Turning in for the night and I thought I'd drop an update.

Both the khans and the sultans decided that my castle was the only one worth assaulting so every second not spent fighting them in the field was spent fighting them on the battlements. I scored a lot of rep with the counts through the war and I guess the king likes me as I'm still marshal.

After the third or fourth attempt at seizing my castle they just gave up and peace treatied up. I used this time to train up my newer recruits and compete in tournaments. Just before I quit for the night the nords started a campaign to take back lost land (guess where my first village comes from) so I'll be pulling my merc cav outta guard duty and laying waste to those milk-drinkers come daylight.

Goddamn is this game fun.

Is using "Julian Assange is a Hillary butt plug" an acceptable signature quote?

it is simply The Best There Is

"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." Twitter

Indeed. And with mods there's so much connection to other works. Sword of Damocles plays like a first/third person single-generation version of the other Paradox games. Solid and Shade connects to the occult and Edgar Allen Poe's work. Star Wars Conquest needs no other explanation. With Fire and Sword is based on some cult novels from Poland. I mean, the list goes on. So, if you don't like Calradia, no sweat. You've got lots to work with.

If Copyright Infringement doesn't kill it in the crib, I'd imagine there will eventually be a 1632 mod for With Fire and Sword, given that they both run in a similar time period and it wouldn't take too much work to alter what's there to match the Ring of Fire story. Well, at least not the Native German aspect. It might be a bit game breaking to push rate of fire like the modern Americans in the story do.

uh what

so i started a new game and was rushing towards a group of 10 looters on horseback- shot a bolt in the air without aiming not expecting to hit anything- i was really far away, they'd only just come into view after all

and then bam, headshot

never has a headshot been more satisfying.

even got an achievement for it~

edited 24th Jul '12 5:57:07 AM by Tarsen

I really wish Fire and Sword had more or less the same army building mechanics as Warband.

Is there a mod that just turns Warband into Fire and Sword? I really just want the firing line mechanics and the customizable troops and such.

"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." Twitter

So I've managed to take back a castle, take two and one city and I can't inherent any of 'em. Apparently capturing a bloody town isn't enough to drop your controversy.

Is using "Julian Assange is a Hillary butt plug" an acceptable signature quote?

How is Fire and Sword different recruitment-wise from Warband?

After some unspecified point in time (as in before you hit 15 units), you can't recruit cheap units from villages anymore and have to use mercenaries that you either hire from a tavern, or customizable mercenaries you hire from a camp. Apparently once you join a faction, you can hire from towns/castles, but I haven't seen that yet.

The point is, I just want a line of cheap gunmen that I train from rabble to elite.

^^if you're being all controversial and the king won't give you anymore land, you should spite him by joining the claimant's cause. At least when I did it and got Lady Isolla on the throne, she never refused to give me land that I took.

edited 24th Jul '12 10:48:44 AM by ch00beh

"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." Twitter

x5 I threw a javelin and nailed someone with a shot over 5 difficulty. Randomly managed to get the Gambit achievement off that one, too. I was quite amused.

which reminds me, how do you convince other lords to join your claimants cause?

i failed every time i tried when i took up isolla's cause

old school sniper, ho. shot difficulty of 6

edited 24th Jul '12 10:55:06 AM by Tarsen

It helps if you have momentum, lands to give, and if the lord hates their current liege*

. Also remember that you only have one chance to convince a lord after hearing them assess the situation, so if things don't look good, don't tell them they have to decide now.

The first guy I convinced for Isolla was Lord Tredian because he's greedy (though despite that surprisingly loyal afterward). I promised him a fief to get him to turn, then we all went on to capture a castle which I gave to him to seal the deal. After that show of force, it was a bit easier to convince the other central lords to turn since they were in close proximity, and since their king was on the losing end of all the wars, they were all fed up with that bull.

"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." Twitter