Mild Frustration/Curiousity

Users who are viewing this thread

loco21666

Regular
So I just exited my game in sheer frustration and decided to bring my frustrations here to share with you all and even possibly relate! In short, crossbows are like the .50 caliber sniper rifles of the medieval age and for a kingdom possessing one of the most powerful units in the game NPC Swadia sure does suck. So let's jump into this:

Background: I personally like to take a little bit from various kingdoms, I'm never exclusively one kingdom. I prefer to combine as many strengths as possible while minimizing my weaknesses. Currently my army consists of about 15 Nord Huscarls, 10 Swadian Knights, 15 Swadian Sergeants, 20 Sarranid Master Archers and about 5 heroes. My heroes fill the role of 3 heavy cavalrymen, 1 archer on foot, and 1 horse archer. I play the game on Normal everything, damage to enemy, damage to me, you name it and its on Normal or whatever the equivalent to that is. That being said, I often find I can take an army twice my size without a single casualty and sometimes an army thrice my size with maybe a couple deaths but nothing tremendous... I like to think I can do that cause I don't fail at medieval pwnage.  :grin:

Frustration #1: Kingdom of Rhodoks. I hate them. A lot. Like... wow, a lot. Screw their stupid spearmen, they're pathetic. Screw they're sergeants, while formidable, aren't that big a deal. But Rhodok Crossbowman (trained or sharpshooter) are like... gods walking among men. I don't know about you guys, but I am FREQUENTLY being one shotted by these troops... and if I manage to live through a SINGLE shot, I need to command from the back of the field cause my health is too low to risk being knocked out cause lets face it, you suffer stupid amounts of casualties when your troops fight without you. My character isn't lightly armored either, mind you, but he has damn near 60 head/leg armor and I'm fairly confident I have like 61 chest armor... nothing else I've encounter hurts nearly as much as those damn Rhodok Pistol Ballista-men.  I swear every time I'm suddenly flung off my horse and all I can see is a swirling blur of clouds and blue sky, I can hear a Rhodok shouting "BOOM! HEADSHOT!".  :evil:

Frustration #2: Kingdom of Swadia. Overwhelmed or mentally challenged? I think most players can agree that since the original M&B (phenomenal game), Swadian Knights have been powerhouses of the medieval world of M&B. It's no surprise their wages are like 120 denars a week or something, all their shiny army, pointy polearms, big fire breathing horses... they're pretty badass. Personally, I'd say the rest of the Swadian units are mediocre to good but nothing real crazy. I retain 10 Swadian Knights currently and should one die, I'm quick to replace him and maintain that squad of 10... however, it's a rare day that one of them dies. Unless I just send them into a spearwall or something, they literally devour the souls of everyone they touch. All this being said, why the HELL does the Kingdom of Swadia never expand? Is it just my game that this happens? I mean, I understand they're generally at war with at least two factions at a time... okay, no problem. But they command the Swadian Knights for crying out loud! So far in my game, off the top of my head I think I'm on like day 390 or 400 (Level 25), the Swadians have lost control of Dhirim and Uxhal. Yet, they haven't captured a single thing to compensate for these tremendous losses. The Sarranid Sultanate took two castles and a town from the Rhodoks in like the first 50 days of gameplay and eventually got Narra from the Khergits, Rhodoks took Uxhal and that castle next to Uxhal along with the attached fiefs, the Nords took Dhirim and all the surrounding fiefs and would've taken Uxhal earlier had it not been for my intervention. I would think a faction that literally has the Grim Reaper's evil demon seed babies on flaming hellsteeds might fare a little better, but that's just my opinion.

Anyway, enough of this long rant, I feel better now.  :grin:
This thread is more for humor/conversational purposes than any real complaints, just gotta vent sometimes... oh! I made an attempt to defend Uxhal with 300 troops vs 1760 Rhodoks... yeah, epic fail.  :neutral:
 
I have to concur about Swadian expansion. I'm a vassal for Swadia and we lost Dhirim in first few game days. Instead of our good marshall leading his horde on to defend a castle under seige or capture one of the weaker enemy strongholds, he takes them for a trot around open country for a bit and then throws a feast. -_-

I managed to take one castle. Once. It was a nightmare because your favourite troop type was there, the Rhodok Sharpshooter, blasting atomic crossbow bolts down at us from the ramparts. I fell in battle four or five times before we finally whittled their numbers down enough to charge up the ladder. And once, when I did manage to fling myself in past their spearmen and run round to the gatehouse, open up the gate and try to lead my troops in to slaughter them on nice, open ground, they couldn't get through the damned archway. >_< No pathing network, probably, since it might lead to them running perpetually into the closed gate instead of up the ladder when you give the order to charge. But augh, crossbowmen. I feel your pain.

I've also noticed that Sarranid mamlukes are at least on par with Swadian knights. Even auto-calcing a battle where our forces outnumbered them about 270 to 80, because they had a few mamlukes, we got slaughtered, it just shouldn't happen. x_x The best way I found to kill them was to shoot their horses out from under them and then carry on peppering them with arrows from a distance, which is highly unchivalrous, but there just wasn't any other way at my character level at the time that didn't end with me getting lanced, chopped or otherwise mown down by them.

I make sure I carry a big fur shield with me whenever I go up against the Rhodoks though, recalcitrant wastrels so they are. >_<

-John
 
I think one of the reasons Swadians are not so overwhelmingly powerful as you'd expect is the fact that in their armies if you pay attention their knight:every-other-troop ratio is pretty low, so their forces don't have a large enough group of them to impose themselves in battle. Another reason is the fact that you battling using knights in the field is one thing, and two AI lords encountering in the field and engaging in battle something completely different. The way a tactical player uses cavalry, telling them to charge and retreat before getting swamped, or having them on follow while you run conversion through the enemy line and back around, is much more effective that how the AI uses cavalry. Moreover when a battle takes place without you being there (as you can tell from when you get knocked out before your own battles are done) the mechanics that determine the outcome are quite different from those of actual battle that are carried out in your presence. I know nothing of how the calculations are done and what that engine does to simulate the outcome, or what stats are calculated and which ones are determined dominant.
 
Mercenary88 said:
I think one of the reasons Swadians are not so overwhelmingly powerful as you'd expect is the fact that in their armies if you pay attention their knight:every-other-troop ratio is pretty low, so their forces don't have a large enough group of them to impose themselves in battle. Another reason is the fact that you battling using knights in the field is one thing, and two AI lords encountering in the field and engaging in battle something completely different. The way a tactical player uses cavalry, telling them to charge and retreat before getting swamped, or having them on follow while you run conversion through the enemy line and back around, is much more effective that how the AI uses cavalry. Moreover when a battle takes place without you being there (as you can tell from when you get knocked out before your own battles are done) the mechanics that determine the outcome are quite different from those of actual battle that are carried out in your presence. I know nothing of how the calculations are done and what that engine does to simulate the outcome, or what stats are calculated and which ones are determined dominant.

I think you are right about that. Also Swadia has borders with all other factions except for the Sarranids. That probably makes them a preffered target.

I think it's a good thing that the Rhodok Sharpshooters are that strong, because their spearmen are not that impressive.
 
Which is why I only go to Rhodoks when I need archers.  I prefer the Rhodok Sharpshooter over the Vaegir Marksman.  I suppose that the faction who is losing locations is not determined by...well, the faction.

In my game, I'm about 250 days in.  Early in the game, Vaegir took Wercheg without me noticing, forcing the Nords to two towns.  Rhodoks took Shariz but is constantly at war with the Sultanate so Shariz has been teeter tooter for both factions. 

The Khergits went after Wercheg and managed to take it while Vaegir went on to Sargoth as well.  The Nords now only hold Tihr and Swadia just declared war on them.  Vaegir is at war with the Khergits and Wercheg is currently under siege.  Defending a caslte should be nothing for the Nords but, here they are...only one town left with 2 or 3 castles.
 
Wait, are you saying the Swadians lost cities without you personally taking them?
I have never in the game seen the AI take a city, ever. And I've played a big bunch of 300-700 day games ever since city sieges were introduced back in vanilla 0.960 or something. Passed day 400 in Warband and still no city captures.
I wish it would happen, it would make the game more interesting, but it never does. They may have an army of a thousand and sit around a city for a while, but never do they attack it.
 
Eluqqa said:
Wait, are you saying the Swadians lost cities without you personally taking them?
I have never in the game seen the AI take a city, ever. And I've played a big bunch of 300-700 day games ever since city sieges were introduced back in vanilla 0.960 or something. Passed day 400 in Warband and still no city captures.
I wish it would happen, it would make the game more interesting, but it never does. They may have an army of a thousand and sit around a city for a while, but never do they attack it.
same
never saw ai take over city
over 300 days ingame
 
@john_pullinger: Lol, I can relate to the marshal taking his lordlings on a romp through the forest and having a big pizza party after. Also, minor thing... but I LOL'd for real when I read:
john_pullinger said:
...the Rhodok Sharpshooter, blasting atomic crossbow bolts down at us from the ramparts.

@Mercenary88: I understand and agree with your reply, makes sense gameplay-wise... but realistically, cmon. Off topic a bit, while following my marshal on one of his afternoon parades around our captured cities, I've noticed that my army of 74 is about 90% top tier troops while all the lords have average grade troops... L2play NPC lords, noobs.

@Maegfaer: Fair enough I suppose, doesn't make them any less frustrating however.

@Brynhildr: Yeah, you'd think a faction's strongpoints would shine through even with the NPCs running the show. Also, I prefer the Sarranid archers because the majority of my battles take place out on the field so I like to "bring the rain" and shower my enemies in a hailstorm of sharp feathered sticks as they draw near before I let the infantry/cavalry dogs loose. :twisted:
EDIT: I plan to eventually form a small sharpshooter squad (haven't decided a faction yet) to augment my infantry, maybe have them advance 10 paces and lob a couple volleys of retard-strength bolts into the leading enemy troops before setting them back with my Sarranid archers.

@Eluqqa: Are you kidding me? There is like nonstop war going on in my game, people are losing cities, raping and pillaging, creating reality shows (The Real World - Dhirim Edition), all kinds of nutty ****! Seriously though, Uxhal has changed owners like four times... Dhirim too... Khergs and Sarranids keep passing Narra back and forth. At the end of my original post I mentioned a super siege defense I did. I owned Uxhal and I think literally the ENTIRE Rhodok faction showed up to pry it from me, 300ish (me) vs 1760 (them).
 
loco21666 said:
I swear every time I'm suddenly flung off my horse and all I can see is a swirling blur of clouds and blue sky, I can hear a Rhodok shouting "BOOM! HEADSHOT!".  :evil:

:lol:
 
You know Night Ninja, it recently occurred to me (about 10 minutes ago) that I may never actually take a Rhodok castle simply because my troops and I can't withstand crossbow bolts tipped with uranium.  :neutral:
 
Grunwalder. It was blooming Grunwalder that I nabbed. >_< Horrid.

Almerra I tried to take before that, and just, no way, there was no way I could get in there, they surround you on the ramparts and while you're trying to hack past the spearmen at the top of the ramp, Joey Rhodok is twanging bolts up your bottom. Infuriating.

There needs to be a ninja skill with agiligty as a governing stat, so you can grapnel up an isolated corner of the castle and scuttle along to the gatehouse to open the gates. I even tried sneaking in once and opening the gate before I laid seige, or trying to talk to the guards to bribe them, but there was nothing. Bring on the spies from Medieval 2: Total War!

Actually, I really like the grapnel idea, I think that could work. Is it out in any mods? Takes up one inventory slot, throw it using throwing skill, hook it onto some stone corner or jutting beam or whatever and then clamber up and through the window/over the ramparts. Some kind of threshold using your STR versus encumbrance which you need to stay below in order to pull yourself up, to avoid the silliness of a full plate guy with a greathammer hauling ass up the wall.

Glad I could give you a chuckle, Loco. :smile:

-John
 
loco21666 said:
You know Night Ninja, it recently occurred to me (about 10 minutes ago) that I may never actually take a Rhodok castle simply because my troops and I can't withstand crossbow bolts tipped with uranium.  :neutral:

I'm probably going to get flak for this, but I run with 100% Swadian cav. Their knights are just unstoppable. Foot or mounted, rain or shine, popular or Scipio, they own. Try sending a block of them up that ladder. Never fails for me.
 
The reason you might not have thought of, for why Swads don't expand is kind of obvious! Knights on horseback become foot soldiers when attacking a stronghold and thus lose their mounted advantage and just become semi-god like infantry.
 
fink said:
The reason you might not have thought of, for why Swads don't expand is kind of obvious! Knights on horseback become foot soldiers when attacking a stronghold and thus lose their mounted advantage and just become semi-god like infantry.

Swad knights on foot > 95% of any other troop out there, including high-end infantry.
 
Yes but they still get killed easily by crossbows and archers while climbing up the single ladder in a big siege. While when they are on horses they are almost untouchable in the open field. Any of their knights that attack my castles don't even make it onto the wall, they all die on the ladder from knights to peasants.
 
fink said:
Yes but they still get killed easily by crossbows and archers while climbing up the single ladder in a big siege. While when they are on horses they are almost untouchable in the open field. Any of their knights that attack my castles don't even make it onto the wall, they all die on the ladder from knights to peasants.

Hmm... Try scaling the battle down in size, then. I know for open fields I do the full amount of fighters, but for siege it just gets annoying. Too many archers is too many archers.  :???:
 
Back
Top Bottom