A singleplayer manual

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There is more advanced chapters five posts down on the first page here. Any questions just post them.

Reputation- You have a reputation with each of the factions and lords in the game while faction relations are pretty straightforward. Fight against a faction and you’ll get low relations, help them in battles and you’ll have high relations. They’re only of limited interest and have a tendency to reset to zero with every peace treaty. Lords are a different matter entirely relationships here are lasting, and can affect events even after a lord defects or peace is declared.

With lords there are several ways to improve your reputation;
1. You accept a quest from them and accomplish it. Also, you will gain 1-2 reputation, talking to a lord after capturing a city/castle.
2. When you fight another lord, and you capture him, you have a chance to release them for honor and rep. You will gain +5 rep. and 1-3 honor. (If you attacked him you will lose -1 reputation so if he escapes you will get a negative relationship bonus).

Quests are a good way to get some rep depending on the quest the harder the quest the more reputation you will receive. EX- If you deliver a message you will get +1 rep, or if you capture an enemy Lord you can get up to +5-+6 rep. You can also save lords from a near death fight, and that's a nice payload I have got up to 12 reputation from that before. In general, the more badly they were being beaten before you jumped in, the better.

The real deal for reputation is to join a faction for a while. Gain a castle or City and get married and then stock up your larder with alot of food, beer, wine, spice and oil. This is the jack pot of the game if you don't do this it will take forever to get reputation with everyone. Throw festivals constantly, and make sure your morale is up. It's best to do this during peace time and all the friendly Lords party's are replenished.(That's the most you will get out of it) But you can do it anytime as long as you are not in a Marshal campaign.

When the Lords show up to the castle greet them by talking to them and you will gain +1-2 rep each Lord. It's alot of clicking but in the end it's worth it. If they all stay until the end of the feast you will also gain a +3 to all the lords in your Fief. I will add you will also gain 20-30 renown.

If playing a non-realistic saves game (meaning you can exit w/o saving), you can get major relationship points for breaking lords out of dungeons. You can do this with a realistic saves game, it’s just riskier. If you are good enough to take down five militiamen at once with a staff, and then one armored prison guard in 3-4 quick hits (because that's all you'll get before you get jumped), this can be done with only moderate difficulty. If you don’t mind spending 300 denars to do it, find one of the villages nearby and ask them to set a fire around midnight, before entering then. There will be fewer guards to fight, which can be a great help.

When you're riding around playing the merchant, keep an eye out for notifications about lords being captured; if it’s not too far out of the way, track them down and go to the dungeon where they are being held. If you successfully rescue them, you'll get 5-8 (can't remember exactly what) relationship points, some honor, and 3 faction relationship points. This is even easier when you are at peace with the captor's faction, because you don't have to sneak in and you can use all your gear.

Finally do honorable things like defeating bandits in villages or the ‘hunt the outlaw’ quest and refuse the payment to receive honor. If you have a significant positive honor, honorable lords will gain relation with you periodically – you can be best friends without even meeting!

Renown- If you read the last paragraph the best way to earn it is to throw festivals. Throw them over and over again once a week. Even if you’re not at your castle and your either recruiting or trading. Initiate the invitations and leave if you need too. There are other ways and I am not going to get into the technical of tactics and battle advantage, but if your a bad arse you can solo sea raiders or tundra bandits in packs of 20-30ish. 1v30 I believe you will gain 29 renown for killing them all yourself. Personally, I like taking just my companions once they’re moderately good and taking on sea raiders. With blunt weapons, you can make a fortune from prisoners and loot, and a force of 7-10 people versus 40 sea raiders brings in the renown too.

You will also gain a descent amount of renown if your outnumbered 2/1 in larger battles, about 10-20. Tournaments is also a great way to get renown. You gain about 16-29 per tournament and you can bet on yourself and make a modest fee in the process.

Right to rule- Is more sparse to get. You gain that mostly from when you’re in a faction or in your own kingdom and a truce treaty initiates. I think you will get +3. The other way is to talk to your companions and tell them you aspire to be King, and then send them out for a long mission. You can only do that one at a time, every three days per companion for a +3 boost. Recruiting Lords from other factions also factors in for points towards your rule +5, and Kings that accept you as a "King" +10. Some of that needs to be done when ruling your own faction.
Cash denars- If you play like I do, I start out like a bum. You can do the Merchant missions and you will get a total of about 600 denars. Then you need a trader in your party. I would go around and recruit one or make your main guy have trade skill. The higher the better. 
If your good enough you can kill some sea raiders for a good hour or so and make a clean 20k or bloody, and equip yourself in the process considering they drop mail armor. Day 500, and a lot of my companions still have a Bernie for armor. Jacking up the loot skill of someone in your party can help lots too. Just remember that the larger the party, the smaller your share of the loot.

Let’s say you only have 2000 denars. A good starting point to make money and recruit at the same time is to travel to Curaw. When you get there or to any other Citys you should recruit some Mercenary's. Caravan guards, Mercenary horsemen, and cavalry. Do that until you get about 25 ish. Remember mercenaries cost more than faction troops to maintain and hire, however you get ready trained warriors without a morale penalty if you’re fighting their faction, I suggest starting with mercenaries and swapping to faction troops gradually. Ok now, Curaw they sell iron there cheaper than anywhere else, and you only have to travel to Khudan or Rivacheg to sell it. Buy as much as you can afford and trade away rinse and repeat until you have a good 10k. If there is no iron at Curaw just wait sometimes it takes a few days for it to show up. Now is a good time to kill a sea raider or tundra bandit party or three.

If it's there and it is expensive wait longer until you see a profitable price. Once you have the cash flow you can do a more advanced trade route. Buy some Iron at Curaw, then make your way to Tulga. When you get to Tulga look for salt, and spice if the spice is around 400-600 buy it all out. If the salt is 80-120 buy it all out. Now head to Praven Sell as much salt and spice as you can there. If you have extra's and the money is dried out it's ok keep it and head to Suno. At Suno they produce wine. Buy as much as you can using your products. After your filled up head to Narra or Almerrad sell all of it, and once your done head back to Curaw. Unless you see a profit to be made there. A gentleman in the post made this for us. He did a great job so take a look. Most of it looks plausible. (If you’re going all the way to Almerrad and intending to go back to Curaw, it’s probably worth going to Durquba and picking up a load of date fruit. Sell that at Sargoth or Wercheg and take salt and smoked fish to Curaw. The profit on the salt and smoked fish isn’t much, but date fruit is normally well worth it compared to heading back empty.

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                                                                                  Round trip Calradia (by Vantard)

To buy under X
To sell above X
1. Wercheg
Salt 150
Iron 300, Oil 470, Spice 800, Velvet 1000, Wool Cloth 270
2. Curaw
Iron 150, Tools 380
Salt 270, Spice 800, Wool Cloth 270
Ismirala (village near Curaw) Iron 150
Fenada (village near Sargoth) Flax 100
3. Sargoth
Flax 100, Linen 220, Wool 701)
Salt 270, Spice 800, Wool Cloth 270
Kwynn (village near Sargoth) Flax 100
4. Tihr
Fish 302), Salt 150, Wool 701)
Iron 300, Spice 800, Tools 450
5. Suno
Oil 320, Wine 200
Iron 300, Salt 270, Spice 800
6. Praven
Wool 701)
Iron 300, Oil 470, Salt 270, Spice 800
7. Yalen
Wine 200, Wool 701)
Iron 300, Oil 470, Salt 270, Spice 800, Tools 450
8. Jelkala
Fish 303), Velvet 700
Iron 300, Salt 270, Spice 800Tools 450, Wool 120
9. Shariz
Wool 701)
Fish 100, Linen 350, Wine 300
10. Durquba
Fish 100, Flax 1504)
Iqbayl (village near Bariyye) Salt 150
11. Bariyye
Iron 150, Salt 150, Tools 380, Wool Cloth 200
Linen 350, Wine 300, Wool 120, Velvet 1000
Fishara (village near Bariyye) Salt 150
12. Ahmerrad
Iron 150, Wool 701), Wool Cloth 200
Wine 300
Uzgha (village near Ahmerrad) Iron 150
13. Tulga
Salt 150, Spice 6005)
Iron 300, Wool 120
14. Ichamur
Wool Cloth 270
15. Khudan
Iron 300, Spice 800
16. Rivacheg
Iron 300, Oil 470, Spice 800, Wool Cloth 270
Ruvar (village near Wercheg) Salt 150
... back to Wercheg...

1) Don't rely on Wool too much, often it's hard to find a good place to sell it
2) Leave some inventory space for Wine, Oil, Velvet - don't buy too many Smoked Fish
3) Buy as many Smoked Fish as you can, even above 30 denars (below 100) - you'll sell it in the very next town
4) You won't find a better place to sell Flax then Durquba - dump it all
5) Spice - the most profitable goods, always have some room to buy it in Tulga
6. Travel fast (with small company and good path-finding skill)
7. Watch out for Sea Raiders between Rivacheg and Wercheg, and Steppe Bandits near Ichamur
8. Make quests for towns you trading with - that will increase your trade income
9. Often you'll find better prices in village near towns

For those who want to copy this with tags go to my post on page 5.

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Skills- (A note on party skills - all skills described as ‘party skills’ take the highest skill within the party. If you have some skill with it then you add a bonus to that based on your level (0-1, +0; 2-4, +1; 5-7, +2; 8-9, +3; 10, +4). Hence it’s a waste to have three people with path-finding, as only the highest counts. Note that having a backup can be good, as wounded companions don’t contribute. I am going to quickly fill you in on the major skills you need for you or your companions. First and the most major skill is surgery.

Surgery keeps your guys alive and reduces casualty's by 40%+25% base at level 10, but remember your doctor needs to be alive at the end of the battle or you risk losing that bonus. Specifically, your troops end up ‘wounded’ instead of ‘killed’.

Path finding and tracking is a given to any party especially Nords and Rhodocks. It will increase your map movement speed drastically.

Tracking is used for specific quests and for following, and well, tracks of anyone you pick up.

Engineering (in Native) is important as well. It reduces the time it takes to build your fief's additions, and when you need that messenger post to warn you about your towns under attack it's great. It also reduces the time taken to make ladders and siege towers – this is probably the biggest benefit.

Training as in the post below you can stack up training on all companions to add an extra experience bonus to all units, and the higher level your characters are the better. That allows you to train full garrisons with out suiciding your recruits. Training skill on a character gives a given amount of xp, which increases with each point invested, to every party member of a lower level than the character with the training skill – note that this can even include you if you hire a companion with a higher level than you! This is the only party skill which stacks across characters in your party, so it’s a good idea to have all of your companions with as many points as they have left over.

Most of the other skills such as shield skill also improves the size of the shield vs. ranged attacks. Wound treatment heals crippled horses as well as helps wounded troops recover in a faster period of time.

First aid provides an instant recovery of HP lost during a combat round (the base amount is 10%, +5% for each level of first aid. That explains why having 10 points heals 60% life after falling in combat while your medic is still active.
Getting started in a faction- Depending on your choices in the character creation. You can choose to be a Commoner or a Noble. The choices change the dialog initial relationship, and how Lords speak to you. If you choose to be a Noble you receive a banner and 100 renown right off the bat. Also as a Noble Lords you speak to will see you as a faction-less lord. As a Commoner you get remarks on your common birth when you speak to lords some good some bad just as Noble. You have to keep an eye on these things. Knowing their minds and attitudes is the key to the door of Calradia.

Now to the point. You make your character, and You need at least 150 renown or a high reputation with a King or a mix I believe, to become a vassal. My understanding is that every ‘point’ of relationship you have with a king reduces the amount of renown you need by one ‘point’. That is easy to get if you are a Noble considering you start out with 100. If you are a good player or you have a low difficulty level you can solo all types of bandits or deserters for a quick fix to get your renown up enough to be accepted by any King. Tournament's maybe two of them and your set as well.

Well let's say your set, all you need to do is talk to the King you desire and give homage to him if he accepts you. There is also a chance that you can be invited to be there vassal if your a famous man or women. Once your accepted if you're a Commoner you will receive your very own choice of a banner. You will also get a fief of a town of the King's choice. Hint, he will always choose the least profitable fief in the kingdom. Even worse, whoever owned it before you will have a significant negative relationship with you, you upstart.

If you do not like your current faction you can leave. Talk to the King select the choice to leave, and when that's all said and done you can go. The negative effect is you will lose 20 reputation with the King and loose all fiefs you may of acquired.

Creating your own faction- This path is one of the hardest path's in the game along side of choosing to rebel against a King. In order to start this I recommend you to be around level 25+ and have a high level leadership, alongside having a stable companion group, and roughly 80,000+ denars, and right to rule is helpful. These things I said take a while to obtain without cheating. So join a faction for a while maybe even the faction you are going to attack and get your reputation up with the lords there, and the King.

Now you need to target a City (recommended) or a castle. The reason I recommend a city is because if you get a castle first you cannot give it away as a fief to a companion or Lord if you get a city later. The first fief you get is the foundation of your new empire. Note that I believe you CAN give it away if you first move your court to another castle/city. That said, I’d still recommend a city because since when were great empires ruled from a border keep? On a more practical note, castles come with only one village while cities come with at least two, and usually more.

How you start to do this is to attack the enemy's assets farmer, caravans, raid a village or attack a lord. This will give you a negative relations with that faction and allow you to besiege the fief. Now the reason in the beginning I said you need to be ready is when you finally conquer the fief and it's yours, and all is well, it will be priority one to take back. The faction you attacked will come in a massive force unless circumstances are really bad for them. They will most likely siege you within a week of you taking their fief you will also at that point have a -40 relations or more. He’s not joking here – you can have a thousand or more troops knocking politely at the gate within a week. For this reason I STRONGLY recommend picking a faction who is already at war to be your target, bringing around 70+ elite troops (huscarls are ideal) and as soon as you have the town leaving the elites and frantically raising as many troops as you can from the villages. With companions with good training skills and some luck you might have as many as 150 third tier troops to help out. Don’t forget to check the taverns for mercenaries – 6 hired blades can make all the difference sometimes!


Ok, I am going to head back to when you take the fief. You will be given a choice to pick a minister/ambassador. It can be either a companion or if you are married, you can choose your wife if you are male. If you want none of the above because you don't want to waste your one of your companions or you are not married yet or your female, you can appoint a temporary citizen from your castle/city. Who is utterly useless. I’d recommend getting a companion you don’t like or won’t use specifically for the purpose if you are playing a female or unmarried character.

Now at the hard part. In order for you to hold your faction in place you are going to need soldiers. I would put roughly 300 in a city and make some of them fodder for money reasons and make some elites as a backbone for your defenses. I also would have a cavalry section to chase away or fight other lords that attempt to raid your towns. This will be costly so don't give away initial towns to Lords right away you may need all the fiefs you can get to pay for your garrison. I find about 250 in a city, of which 50 or so are tier 4-5, 100 are tier 2-3 archers and the rest are fodder/militia strikes the balance between cost and the ability to actually fight. Normally I have my ‘capital’ more heavily defended than this, as I use it as a storage space for elite troops to top up my own forces when I take casualties in war – it can be a good idea to have an entire ‘spare’ party in case you lose everyone... Around a 100-150 in a castle is plenty, mainly low level.

Another option to start your own faction is to capture a castle or city while you are a sworn vassal of one of the other factions and ask for it to be given to you. If the king agrees, great, garrison it and go and do it again. If he refuses you get the option to rebel and keep all of the castles and cities you own, along with their garrisons. Note that if you don’t own the city/castle which goes along with one of your villages you will lose it. This is a much, much easier way of doing it, as you can stack your castle with several hundred elite troops and simply defend against the hordes that come your way, but if you wanted easy, you’d just use cheats, right?


Start a rebellion- I will not lie this gets real difficult. The first thing you do is join the faction you want to rebel against. Get a castle ,throw festivals, station a "small" garrison, and make money lots of it. Along with reputation will all the lords there. When you have an amazing party size roughly 120+ some right to rule,your companions leveled, and a hefty wallet to sustain troop size for a long time you’re ready. Talk to the Claimant you wish to have join you, and he or she should accept you if you’re powerful enough. (Claimants can be found by travelers once you leave your faction) He or she will join your party as a companion, and will have data on the lands and how many lords the faction has. You will also immediately get -40 reputation bonus. At this point it's started you did it if you followed my advise here. Head to the territory you are rebelling and single out the lords there. Talk to them and persuade them to join you. Do this to whoever you can and fast because once they join you, they will retain all of their fiefs (if they have a castle or city). Make sure you get yourself a castle or city some garrison and have fun.

Alternately, you can do this the even harder way by not joining the faction first and doing it without any lands to support you. I recommend it as a challenge, because without having any relationships with the lords beforehand it’s actually very difficult.
Now besides defending and expanding. I am going to make a subsection for recruiting Lords, and making your companions Lords.

Recruiting lords- Well on this topic you will understand how to recruit lords. It is slightly tricky sometimes, and even I have problems doing it. First thing you need is to either be joined in a faction or have your very own. Second you need to have relations, right to rule and persuasion helps. Right to rule, I think, will help you the most in convincing other lords to join you. Having good relations sometimes doesn't help you when they are "too" loyal to their King. Persuasion helps them see it in your way higher the better. You have to talk to a specific lord you want to recruit. I would ask how do you feel about your King. There is several responses..The King is a Vile pretender, this subject is offensive (use persuasion to change his mind),I am busy talk to me later or it's hardly private here, I don't go around scheming in corners(need more rep) OR it will open a new dialog on how he should join you or the King you serve. There is several choices you can choose from the one you pick may help you get him to defect. Try not to use different explanations with different lords sooner or later word gets around that you’re just saying what people want to hear. Use the same reason each time and you’ll get better results overall in the long run.

Another way is to have free lands in your realm. Lords will often defect to your kingdom hoping to get some, and will appear in your castle wanting to talk to you. If you do recruit them, be sure to give them some lands, otherwise their relationship with you will drop fairly rapidly...

Companions to lords- This is the easy route. Once you establish a Kingdom of your own, and you have an extra fief you can simply talk to one of your companions and give them a town or talk to your minister and give them one that way. You will have full control over them, and you can give troops to all your Lords as well(Your faction). It's all said and good here except there is two negative effects of this. One you cannot get your companion back or level him up anymore. Two depending on the lord you pick you run your fief, other lords may see him as a commoner (Nizar) and when you talk to them you will be scolded in the arts of not giving commoners lands, and you’re not upholding the Noble Rights. That will give you a -4 reputation to those who oppose it.(Most of the lords) Some will give you a +2 for they do not mind that you have done that. As far as I am aware, Alayen, Matheld, Lezalit,Baheshur,firentis and Rolf are the companions who are not ‘commoners’.
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                                                      Companions noble personality's (by SPD_Phoenix) and (Peter Ebbesen)

- Rolf: cunning.
- Baheshtur: cunning.
- Firentis: upstanding.
- Matheld: martial.
- Alayen: martial.
- Lezalit: selfrighteous.

Martial: My sword is at the disposal of my rightful liege, so long as he upholds his duty to me.

Quarrelsome: Bah. They're all a bunch of bastards. I try to make sure that the ones who wrong me learn to regret it.

Pitiless: Men will always try to cheat others of their rightful due. In this faithless world, each must remain vigilant of his own rights.

Cunning: Well, it's a harsh world, and it is our lot to face harsh choices. Sometimes one must serve a tyrant to keep the peace, but sometimes a bit of rebellion keeps the kings honest. Circumstance is all.

Sadistic: My philosophy is simple: it is better to be the wolf than the lamb.

Goodnatured: Well, you should keep faith with your promises, and not do injustice to others. Sometimes it's hard to balance those. Stick with people you trust, I think, and it's hard to go far wrong.

Upstanding: Kingship and lordship have been instituted to keep the peace and prevent the war of all against all, yet that must not blind us to the possibility of injustice.

Roguish: Hmm.. I guess I'm thinking that it's good to be a lord.

Benefactor: A good ruler makes sure all are treated justly. Personally, I intend to use my authority to better the lot of those who live in my demesne.

Custodian: A good ruler creates the proper conditions for people to prosper. Personally, I intend to use my wealth to create more wealth, for myself and for the common benefit.
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Marriage as a Male- Hmm, the day of love and a new minister. I will start from the beginning. Marriage is not that hard to obtain to start it you will need to court a willing women. There is a chance you will get a -bonus but it's rare (from my experience at least). If you get a negative bonus you need to do tournaments and dedicate it to her, and hope that works. Once you get a positive bonus by talking to her and claiming you are her most ardent admirer it will start. At this point every so often around once a week you will be asked to visit your Lady. Make sure you traveled from city to city memorizing amazing poems to whisper into your lovers ear. You gain reputation depending on the poem. You will have to sneak in to meet her unless you get permission from her Father or Brother. Sometimes if you sneak in there is a small chance you can be caught, and when you talk to her sibling he will yell at you and you will lose reputation with him. If that does not happen and you are loved by the family, and you have enough reputation you can quote the women of your dreams. It is a simple procedure when talking to your Lady you ask her if there is a future between you and if there is it will pop up and you can be married with her siblings permission. You go to him and he will tell you that he is going to throw a feast for the wedding and you will need pay a hefty sum of denars for it. You wait for your wedding and when it pops up you show up there say a few lines and you have a wife.

Note that this will only happen if there’s a feast – and the notification is no different to any other feast. You need to be there, along with the ‘guardian’ of your beloved. Talk to him to get it underway. You can’t have a feast if you’re on campaign, so if you’re the marshal talk to the king and resign.

All I said there works best if you join a faction if you do not join "the" faction the women you want is in, it works like this. So you court your Lady and you have at least 20 reputation with her and you cannot get his permission, but you still want to marry her. You need to be in another faction with a city or castle or your own faction with those things. You get the question is there a future between us (when you meet her) and you say lets get married now. You will be married on the spot and you will loose 20 reputation with your wife. She will be imported into you main fief and your married. 

Marriage as a Female
- (by Asylumer)- There is a random assignment of romantic chemistry that factors into whether or not you can be married to that NPC. NPC's who have good chemistry will tell you they are an ardent admirer. If the NPC is interested in another lady, her relationship score with him is checked against yours. Highest score wins, and the loser gets dumped. Also betrothed NPC's will refuse automatically sorry ladies! Cunning or Good Natured lords will refuse if your relationship is below -3. Debauched, Self-Righteous, or Quarrelsome lords will refuse if your relationship is below -10. You will have to explore there personality's  to figure out what they are I believe. Romantic Chemistry of less than 5 automatically disqualifies you. Martial and Upstanding lords will automatically refuse. Quarrelsome lords demand at least 15 Romantic Chemistry before they'll accept marriage. Debauched and Self-righteous personalities demand you have property. You need at least 20 relationship and 5 chemistry for all non-Debauched/Self-righteous lords. Cunning lords will deny you if your relationship with the King is below -10. You can't get married if you're in another faction. If you pass all of the above hurdles, you can get hitched! Once the lord accepts there's a waiting period before the wedding is arranged. Eventually your chosen lord will give you the quest, and supposedly you can show up at a feast (which he'll suggest) and get hitched... but I can never seem to get him to go there. Instead he'll eventually say that he's tired of waiting and demand you guys get hitched immediately. Vows are said and voila, you're now married to a lord.
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Cons:
-Despite being eligible for castles and towns, you'll never be able to select your own banner if you get into nobility by marrying, and you don't get your husband's banner either.

Pros:
-Storage chest.
-Personal army at your beck and call.
-Ability to arrange feasts.
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Advanced guide
Vonskyme's tome of understanding of the intricacies of the secret arts of the archer - also known as the Power draw Manual

Power Draw is required for most (but not all) bows - I think the only one which doesn't is the hunting bow.  Power draw has two effects on bow shots - damage and accuracy.

1. Accuracy
The power draw requirement of a bow indicates how much you require to JUST be able to draw the bow far enough to fire an arrow. If your power draw is below this point, you can't equip it (the same for any other requirement in strength). If your power draw is AT the level required by the bow, you can barely pull the string back. As such, you will suffer a significant accuracy penalty, and will be unable to hold the bow drawn for very long. This accuracy penalty disappears over a few points of power draw (it's negligible by about +3 power draw), and every point of power draw increases the time you can hold it (I believe this continues above +4 power draw. At +4, I had about 4 seconds of holding the reticle closed, +7 I had about 5 seconds, and +10 about 6 seconds. Hence the bulk of the improvement is in the first 3 points, but it does get better later). Extremely high proficiencies can also help accuracy issues due to power draw, but generally if you have those, you've pumped for the power draw anyway.

2. Damage
The damage a bow can put out according to it's statistics is the base damage. Power draw adds 14% damage for every point, up to a maximum of the power draw level of the bow  plus four points.  This means a bow will cause:

base damage + base damage *(power draw requirement + up to four) * 0.14​

Thus, for a few examples:

A character with power draw 6 tries out three bows - a hunting bow (15p with no power draw requirement), a cracked Khergit bow (16p with 3 power draw) and a masterwork nomad bow (25p with 6 power draw, and my personal favourite).

The hunting bow will cause, typically; 15+15*(0+4)*0.14 = 15*1.56 = 23.4 damage. It will also fire accurately and can be held for quite some time, but the last two points of power draw are wasted.

The cracked Khergit bow will cause; 16+16*(3+3)*0.14 = 16*1.84 = 29.4 damage. It will fire accurately, but won't be able to be held for as long as the hunting bow. Note that it will do 6 more damage on average, despite only being one point of base damage higher.

The masterwork Nomad bow will cause; 25+25*(6+0) = 25*1.84 = 46 damage. Unfortunately, as you are at the power draw requirement, the shots will be rather inaccurate, and this character is probably better off with the khergit bow.

If the same character goes to power draw 10, with the same bows:

The hunting bow is unchanged - the twelve levels of strength increases are wasted.

The Khergit bow goes to 16+16*(3+4)*0+14 = 1.98*16 = 31.7, an increase of 2.3 damage, and now 'wastes' three points of power draw.

The masterwork nomad bow goes to 25+25*(6+4)*0.14 = 25*2.4 = 60 damage, an increase of 14 damage. It will also be able to be fired with pin point accuracy, and makes the most of the power draw.

In summary:

The best bow for your character is typically one you have a power draw of 3 to 4 above that required, to allow you decent accuracy - don't just go for the biggest bow you can hold if you want to hit something! I know this was a little long-windedully it gets the message across.
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Things to know

1. You cannot be a King of a pre-existing faction.
2. There is no marriage to companions as a male. (I read something about females,but I never made a female and explored it)
3. Weapons deal the most damage at their maximum reach.
4. Using a 2handed weapon or polearm as a 1hand incurs a 35% penalty.
5. In general all regular soldiers will get one share, your hero companions will get three shares each, and as the leader you will get ten shares of the loot.
6. Map speed is affected by riding for mounted units and athletics for infantry. This explains why khergits are not only faster because they're all mounted, but because they also have 6/7 points into riding, confirmed by manual. However it is not affected by horse type, and since the game calculates the party speed by average between slowest and fastest, you'll only see the benefits of improving riding for your companions on a large scale and if they compose most of the party.
7. You can not marry Kings or Claimants. (Can with diplomacy)
8. When giving the 'hold this position order' you can simply hold the F1 key, which will make a small flag appear in the middle of your targeting reticule. Simply point to where you want the people to go, and let go of F1.
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I hope this helps out. Vonskyme is one of the author's as well, thank him too on the extra info that was put in the database.

Black- Galdus quotes
Blue- Vonskyme quotes.

Other sources

Wiki manual- http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Mount%26Blade:_Warband/Table_of_Contents
Steam manual- http://cdn.steampowered.com/Manuals/48700/PDX5505US_Warband_Manual_US.pdf
Companion guide- http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,36781.0.html
Female page- http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,115836.0.html
Troop's stats- http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,114836.0.html
Charles Du Lac guide- http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic%2C112413.0.html
Karmine's info thread- http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,128730.0.html
 
Galdus said:
- Right to rule is more sparse to get. You gain that mostly from when your in a faction or in your own and a truce treaty initiates. I think you will get +3 but I am not positive. The other way is to talk to your companions and tell them you aspire to be King,and then send them out for a long mission. You can only do that one at a time. I am not exactly sure on how much you get but it's around +3. If there is other ways to obtain it I forgot or don't know.

its +3. you can send more than one at a time. ive managed to get 3 out at one time. but of course sometimes they'll refuse to go when there's another companion out on rtr mission. i am however not sure when they will refuse and when they will accept. i usually try to send them a few days after each other so it could be that, or perhaps some rtr missions conflict and some don't.
 
About the right to rule companion mission: you can actually send another companion 3 days after you sent the first, you dont need to wait he come back, i had 4 companions doing this at the same time when i was farming right to rule
 
this should be a sticky to save a lot of people asking the same questions over and over again :grin:
 
I will be adding any new information here my top post is only got a paragraph left in it.
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Advanced guides
Character and Companion Skill Setups
I use a system to maximize each companion’s and personal character’s abilities. Others have posted things about this, but I have tried to refine it down to be as simple as possible and in 1 place. Everyone has a different play style and with the classes below I have found that when the abilities and skills of the companions and personal character are focused, they are much better. My first characters and companions had points scattered wily-nilly; and though I as a player was effective, this system has led to much more enjoyment and potency (especially in the frustrating realm of companions). Hope it helps others out there. PS: Remember, training stacks; so make sure each companion has a few levels to raise quick powerful armies. Thanks to Hughes, Galdus, Vonskyme, and Archonsod for the info they shared on the boards that I used to make this listing.

Till level 10-12: Basic Fighting Skills:
1. For Fighters (STR based):
  a. AGI: Weapon Mastery (4), Riding (4 to allow for warhorse), Athletics
  b. Training (at least 1)
  c. Shield and/or Horse Archery for mounted thrown weapons
2. For Knights (STR/AGI mix):
  a. Alternate raise STR and AGI immediately 
      i. STR: Power Strike, Iron Flesh, Power Throw (alt out for other skills if needed)
      ii. AGI: Weapon Mastery (4 min) and Riding (4 for warhorse) first
          1. Athletics, Shield, Horse Archery (for thrown weapons)
  b. Training (at least 1)
3. For Archers (STR based): Start STR when AGI needs below are filled:
  a. AGI: Weapon Mastery ( 4), Horse Archery (4), and Riding (4, courser)
  b. Training (If points available)
4. For Thieves (AGI based):
  a. STR: Power Strike, Power Draw (3 min), Iron Skin
  b. Training (at least 1)
  c. Weapon Mastery and Riding (4, courser)
5. For Traders/Politicians (or diplomats if you swing that way) (CHA based):
  a. STR: Power Strike, Power Draw (3 min for both)
  b. AGI: Weapon Mastery (3 or 4), Riding (min 4 for warhorse)
  c. INT:  If attributes above already allow skills add to Int. based skills(till level 10)
  d. Training (If points available, or add later)
6. For Support Personnel: Scout, Medic, Tactician (INT based):
  a. STR: Power Strike (3), (and Power Draw if you want bows instead of crossbows)
  b. AGI: Weapon Mastery (3 or 4), Riding (4 to allow for warhorse)
  c. Training (at least 1)
Once Level 10-12 is reached (or Basic skill-set bases are complete ie: riding):
1. For Fighters (STR based):
  a. Iron Flesh, Power Strike, Power Throw (till lvl 10 each)
2. For Knights (AGI/STR mix):
  a. Continue alternating STR and AGI
      i. STR: Power Strike, Iron Flesh, Power Throw
      ii. AGI: Athletics (Till desired level reached, then go STR)
        1. Shield, Riding, Weapon Mastery
        2. Horse Archery (max lvl 5/6)
3. For Archers (STR based):
  a. Power Draw, Power Strike, Iron Flesh
  b. If Archer needs a boost in Horse Archer to kill more effectively later on, add more points to AGI and bump up Horse Archery and Riding. Extra point(s) to Training
4. For Thieves (AGI based):
  a. Loot (you are a thief after all) and Athletics (quick thief or a dead thief)
  b. Horse Archery (max lvl 6), Riding and/or Shield get the rest of points divided up to suit playing style
5. For Traders/Politicians (CHA based):
  a. Trade (self explanatory)
  b. Rest of points divide up into martial skills (for survivability and support), support skills (healing backup), and Horse Archery if bow equipped
  c. If player character is Politician: points in Trade, Persuasion, Leadership
6. For Support Personnel (INT based):
  a. Scout: Pathfinding, Tracking, Spotting
  b. Medic: First Aid, Surgery, Wound Healing
  c. Tactician: Engineer, Tactics, Trainer
Weapon Load-outs
Here are my personal preferences for Weapon Setups for the classes above (modify as desired)
1. Fighters/ Knights:
  a. Spear (Use whichever kind you prefer. Personal Character usually gets a lance)
  b. Shield (No beating a Huscarl; but if trying to stay faction/style oriented, feel free)
  c. Axe/Sword/Mace/Pick (prefer Morningstar when STR is high enough)
  d. Thrown weapon stack (can remove spear above and use 2 stacks)
2. Archers:
  a. Bow (be sure to keep Pwr Draw 3 to 4 lvls above bow level to avoid aiming penalties)
  b. Arrows (Only the Special K ones for me)
  c. Shield (As said above in 1b, Huscarl etc)
  d. Axe/Sword/Mace/Pick (prefer Morningstar when STR is high enough)
3. Thieves:
  a. Bow (be sure to keep Pwr Draw 3 to 4 lvls above bow level to avoid aiming penalties)
  b. Arrows
  c. Shield (See 1b)
  d. Axe/Sword/Mace/Pick (speed weapon to multiply AGI boost)
4. Support Personnel/Traders/Politicians:
  a. Shield (See 1b… I am sure you are catching my drift :p)
  b. Sword/Mace/Pick (prefer Military Hammers for reach/speed/and anti-armor abilities)
  c. Bow or Crossbow
  d. Arrows or Bolts
  e. I prefer light crossbows (except for Trader/Politician) because of the lack of Horse Archery skill and the lack of Power Draw to overcome the penalties. Unless you possess a Power Draw skill of 3 or 4 above the requirement of the bow, you are penalized in accuracy. (Thanks to Vonskyme for the info on Power Draw).
  f. If you find your support personnel dying too quickly, try to keep them away from the heat of the action and use ranged weapons. I use a Grouping Tab that I label “Support”, and keep them back till the enemy is scattered, outnumbered, or outclassed. Keep your Medic safe! If he’s unconscious you don’t get the benefit of his “Surgical” support!

~ Riding should be at a 4 skill minimum for companions and player to grant faster travel and better mounts. More points help in battle with movement speed and agility, and companions don’t get stopped while riding a warhorse or charger when they hit a line of enemies (well, as often at least).

~Use of blunt weapons helps with damage (+25%) and adds income by capturing enemies. Be sure to have a few points in prisoner management with main character. If prisoners aren’t important, use piercing weapons (+50% dmg) for quick armored foe kills. Military picks are good for lower strength classes, but I am not happy about only a 70 reach as it is difficult to hit enemies from the back of a horse with short 1hand weapon. On the ground however, they are awesome for getting inside a foe’s reach and ventilating him in a hurry. Mounted companions with them do well with kills but take more damage.

~I prefer to use coursers instead of hunters for my thieves and archers to allow them to catch their mounted targets and to be able to get away from any mounted pursuers. Haven’t had them cut out from under them too often (fingers crossed).

~I also prefer the Morningstar for my STR classes because of the piercing and crushing attributes. You and your companions will devastate siege armies with these weapons (I prefer to use long 2handers elsewhere, but switch to a Morningstar and Shield when it comes time for a siege).

~ “Ctrl J” stops and rears horse.

~ “X” toggles thrown weapon mode and melee mode. Also thrust or swing mode with a polearm.

~ “Backspace” key opens Tactics HUD to issue commands and has a mini map (helpful to find chest)

~ Press and hold “F1” to get a marker for “Hold Here” troops, place where desired.

This is my first post, so sorry if its not in better form...
Fiefs: Tax, tariffs, inefficiency and improvements

Right, one thing this guide has so far missed out on is the details of fiefs. We've kind of said that you want to HAVE them (duh!), but not much in how to manage them. The following is a set of explanations as my experience has shown them - don't be surprised if I'm wrong in a few details, or a little vague.

First, each town or village has a relationship with you. This relationship can be positive (if you perform tasks for them, built a school, won a tournament and so on) or negative (looted them, failed tasks you were given, attacked farmers...). The effects of this relationship are:

1) better selling and buying prices at the town. Unfortunately, the difference is fairly small, so unless you want the quests anyway or are a dedicated trader, raising relationship for this benefit is probably not worth it, and:
2) increasing the number and quality of recruits you can hire from a village. This result can be huge - for every 10 relation you have with a village, you have a 10% chance of the troop you hire being one tier higher than recruit. With relationship 90, for example, you get 9 chances. If you have more than one of the chances comes off, you can end up recruiting things like 25 Swadian Men-at-arms! Villages with negative relations will not provide recruits.

Each town, castle and village also provides some sort of income to you. Villages, castles and towns all produce rents, which are related to the prosperity of the settlement (or, in the case of castles, the prosperity of the attached village). These tend to be around the 300-500 mark for most villages, and about 700-1000 for towns and castles. Towns ALSO have tariffs. Tariffs are paid based on how many caravans visited the town in the last week, and can get quite significant (I've seen a few thousand). To increase the amount of tariffs you get, protect the caravans. To increase the prosperity (and hence rents) of a town or village, you need to protect the farmer parties, caravans, and try to avoid any crippling shortages of goods - caravans should deal with those.

Unfortunately, as you gain more and more fiefs under your personal control, it becomes harder to actually tax them efficiently. The first three fiefs generate no penalty, but after that there is a 5% penalty per fief, to a maximum of 70% - note that this penalty is applied across ALL fiefs. So, if you had 3 villages producing 500 each, you get 1500.
Four such villages you get (4*500*(1-0.05)) = 2000*0.95 = 1900

Five such villages you get (5*500*(1-0.1)) = 2000*0.95 = 2250

n such villages you get n*500*(1-(0.05*n))


Note that I've been since informed that towns count as TWO fiefs for this calculation by Peter Ebbeson - I'll take his word for it, and it appears to work. Thanks Peter.

Finally, we come to fief improvements.

Castles and towns have very few options for improvement - prisoner towers and message posts. Prisoner towers reduce the chance of lords escaping when they are kept there, while a messenger post will ensure that the city/castle will let you know when enemies are nearby.

Villages have slightly more variety - the messenger post is the same, but there are other options:

The Manor: This allows you to rest your troops at the village in the same way as you would rest in the tavern of a town or a castle. The cost for this is rather high for something which is, pretty much, worthless. You're better off staying in a town for about 500 days for the same price than going back to one specific village. That said, if you like to roleplay a local lord, go for it.

The Watchtower: This increases the amount of time that a lord requires to loot the village by 33% (note that the description in game says 25%, but due to an error in the maths it is actually 33%). This can be useful if combined with the messenger post to allow you to try to help your village, particularly for the 'rich' ones. It also doubles the spotting distance, giving you a little more time. Put them in enough villages and you may be able to 'track' lords. (Thanks Kefka95 for the spotting distance thing)

The Mill: this offers a one off bonus of 5% to a village's prosperity, and hence tax. Don't do this in villages you can't protect, because the benefit is effectively lost when it's looted back to very poor. Note: Thanks to Asylumer, I now know that this also adds to the villages 'ideal prosperity', meaning that it will stay at a higher level eventually, IF it isn't looted for long enough to get that benefit.

The School: Probably the only improvement really worth making in villages (at least one castle should get a prisoner tower, by the way. Keep all your lords there), the school adds +1 to your relationship with the village every month. This can add up over the course of a long game, and result in much better troop recruitment.

Basically to summarise: other than the prisoner tower and occasional school, upgrades are nothing but a money sink. Don't have too many fiefs (although if you already have 19, just keep going, your tax inefficiency is maxed), and protect your farmers.
KING GUIDE
Walkthrough on how to be a 'Good' King in Calradia

As of this moment, my character has 45 lords, ALL loyal (above 30+ relation), with all lords strategically placed, and new lords still coming in, and the surviving factions (Nords/Rhodoks) too scared to even start a war with me. You can imagine how it looks like whenever I started a campaign, even the world map slows down... the world quakes whenever my army is assembled... literally heh.

How to maintain a stable Kingdom you ask? Read on...

SECTION 1 - THE BEGINNING

STARTING THE GAME

Background doesn't really matter I don't think, but then again I've always started off as a noble because I like having my colors straight away. Regardless, here's what you need to do while you are a Calradian nooblet:

- Level up (obviously)
- Build renown
- Make cash to invest in enterprises
- Meet companions

About 1000+ renown is enough and easy to gain if you kill tons of sea raiders solo (Horse archery is funny), and you'll have plenty of loot money too. With your new cash however, don't spend it all at once, save up for enterprises.

Velvet enterprises are worth 10k each, and each can make you a decent ~500 bucks a week, making them the best choices EXCEPT for these cities; Yalen, Jelkala, Veluca (as Velvet is in abundance). Shariz also seems to be the only non-Rhodok city that doesn't profit much from a velvet enterprise. For those cities, I opened up a tannery instead. When you have enterprises in all cities, you should make up to 10-12k a week income. You will need these to finance your war effort.

Note that in the future, during war some of your enterprises will be 'under sequestration' - meaning you won't gain income from the enterprises you have in enemy territorities (that is also why I put enterprises EVERYWHERE - so not to put all the 'eggs in one basket' so to speak.

Lastly, every companion you meet... hire them, but as for those you dont want/need, hire them - then fire them. That way, when you need them, you can still go up to a traveller and ask them where they are. You will need as many companions as you can find to build up your right to rule to a decent level later.

BUILDING SKILLS

Obviously, persuasion is important, but on the battlefield, since for while you will be going up against your foes outnumbered 5 to 1 or even 10 to 1, tactics and surgery becomes the most essential. Leadership comes runner up.

SECTION 2 - VASSALAGE

The reason why it's best to become a vassal at first despite your political ambitions is twofold; Relations with lords, and Right to rule. Right to rule you will automatically gain whenever your nation declares a cease-fire, as for relations, you can build it through feasts (once your married), and telling lords what to do as marshal (I'll get to this later).

Don't bother with the quests, I've found a new way to build up relations quickly which don't require all the running around/training troops/annoying villagers (you must avoid annoying villagers at all costs - they are the main source of your troops and you will need as many as you can whereever the village).

You don't need to build up relation with your liege, as even Sanjar Khan who was 70 something to me still declared war on my little Halmar Khanate later on. There isn't really a penalty if you want to join another faction either (cept for the -20 relation with the King/Khan/Sultan)

BUILDING UP RELATIONS

- Quests
As I mentioned before, don't bother. Waste of time, repetitive, and boring - at least for me anyways.

- Feasts
The obvious way, but slow. It does pay off however in the long run, so do have feasts, just don't rely on them. Also remember, only the lords with a town/castle will attend the feast, the 'little dudes' with villages will stay at home. Also, during feasts make sure you only speak to your guests once a day.

- Releasing prisoners
I always release my prisoners, not only does it build up relations with enemy lords (who in the future may become your loyal vassals), but it builds up honor - and high honor will make you the best friends (100 relation).

- Helping one lady
You will find that a married lady who you have a positive relation with is invaluable in the future. You see, sometimes you will get lords with negative relations with you, and in such times, only such a lady can help you.

Make sure you aid a lady who is married to a lord that you are already planning to win to your side. That way, you will be improving your relations with lords within your Khanate/Kingdom.

- Helping lords win battles
This is my way of building relations. Being Marshal helps a lot, you don't have to, but I found it much easier. Since even indifferent lords will obey your orders. And if you read on, you'll find that when they obey your orders, your renown will increase dramatically.

Now with sieges... yes, you get +1 relation with all lords in a siege you join. Meh. With battles... depending on the odds, you can get from +1 to +8 relation (even more maybe) I've noticed. But you can't be everywhere at once to save all the lords from certain defeat.

But with ordering lords around... this is where the bulk of your relation increases will come from. You see, here's what I do... let's say I have Hugu Noyan and Imirza Noyan with me...

1) I spot an enemy lord, alone and vulnerable.
2) I tell BOTH Hugu and Imirza to patrol in the direction of the enemy lord, and they will start chasing him.
3) I ride ahead and cut off the enemy, 'herding' them towards my friendlies. Sometimes with fast enemies, it's difficult, so in those cases I only get 1 friendly lord to 'patrol' at a time -> otherwise they go all over the place.
4) Once all are engaged, fight the battle, and after the battle, I will get +1 to +8 relation with whichever lord initiated the battle, AS WELL AS +3 relation from both of them because they profited from my orders.
5) Repeat as necessary, per battle - thats +3 relation with whichever lord you ordered around. Within minutes, depending on how many enemies are running about, you can get a great amount of relation from doing this. This works with bandits as well, not just enemy lords - so during peace time you can forget feasting if you wish :wink:

PREPARING FOR A REVOLUTION

- Right to rule
- Intelligence

After about 10-30 right to rule, you can get the rest from companions (remember how I said keep track of all of them?), and converting enemy lords, and of course - agreeing to peace treaties. For companions, send one off, then every 2 days, send another off to gain right to rule. Sometimes they disagree with each other's reasons for supporting you as King, but that's alright, wait a week and they'll be fine, then try sending them off again.

Be sure to send your companions off for recon missions too, you will need to know which lords you can convert, and which lords will be your enemies until the end (rob their fiefs and their relation with their liege will deterioriate over time).

SECTION 3 - STARTING YOUR KINGDOM

There's no one way to do this. But for me the best time to renounce my oath was when I already had a city, and my nation was already at war with the Sarranids. Now, when I was ready to be Khan... I EMPTIED my garrison, ran to Sanjar Khan, and told him "I'm done with you".

Within a day or so, the Sarranids came and invaded Halmar (which had 0 troops). After that, I invaded it back lol. Owning Halmar also meant that I cut off my ingame father-in-law Urumuda Noyan and his castle (Unuzdaq castle) from the rest of the Khergit Khanate, making it much easier to convert him to my cause (and also his helpful wife). Despite stealing his lords, Sanjar Khan was busy trying to fight the Sarranids so it was all good, not to mention I had Khergit lords coming through Halmar helping me defend my little joint for a while.

This is just one example of successfully starting off your kingdom/khanate/sultanate/principality/whatever.

ASSIGNING YOUR FIEFS

New lords will come as long as you have lands free. The number of lords you have will determine whether your faction lives or dies, but you can't be greedy with recruiting them either, as if you have disloyal lords, they are more of a liability then anything else. You want stability first and foremost - and you will need it. If you have cash sure, use a friendly lord's wife to repair relations, but for me, I like everyone at a very safe loyalty level (30+), as no one in my game betrayed me with that.

Sometimes you get lords automatically who have been exiled, I hate it when that happens, because I can't really get rid of them. If you don't want to keep them, assign them no fiefs but over time you will make really bad enemies (-100 relation) in doing so. My mistake, but meh.

Now, with fiefs you have to place them strategically, but you also need to keep your lords happy. Since I already had 50+ relation with all the Khergit Noyans while I was a vassal I pretty much didn't bother too much at first but over time I learnt. The honorable lords (those who are devoted to you with 100 relation because you keep freeing prisoners you capture) I gave them villages, the not so honorable ones I gave them towns/castles. The reason for this, is so only the ones I need to build/rebuild relations with will come to my feasts. Otherwise my city gets too packed.

And whenever I got vassals with less then 30 relation I pretty much took them around whereever I went (told them to follow me, patrol here, follow me, patrol there, follow me, go to Halmar for a feast, follow me, go BACK to the feast, etc). Even as marshal I didn't need to start many campaigns at all.

CONCLUSION

There's no one way to become a good king, this is just mine, and I hope I've helped. Regardless, now at least when someone types in "King Guide" on forum search, they'll find something. I had to pull so many hairs over the months to figure this out (yes... it still took me a while I know, but I only have time to play nowadays from 2pm to 4pm at work lol), and if it wasn't for the savegames I had, meh. You guys should add this to the OP.
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Compiled info from these posts.
Didn't see this info anywhere. 

When buying your trade penalty starts at 100% (you're paying double the base price).  Ea. level of trade skill drops that 5% to a low of 30% @ Trade14.
When selling you start selling things at 20% of their value.  The progression by raising trade skill seemed to non linear or awkward to figure out but @ Trade14 you sell items at %40 of their value.

Intermittent values are listed below, if you're trying to figure out prices ahead of time, multiply the base value of the item against the value @ a certain level of trade party skill.  (remember if you have the party skill bonuses are automatically added to it).

Trading    0      1        2        3      4        5        6        7      8        9      10      11      12      13      14
Buying    2.00  1.95  1.90  1.85  1.80  1.75  1.70  1.65  1.60  1.55  1.50  1.45  1.40  1.35  1.30
Selling    0.20  0.20  0.21  0.22  0.23  0.25  0.26  0.27  0.29  0.31  0.33  0.35  0.38  0.41  0.45

*first level of trader skill doesn't seem to affect selling price for some reason.


Another nice merchant path is to buy flax in Sargoth and sell it in Durquba, then buy iron and salt from Ahmerrad (and the other Sarranid cities) and head back through Tulga for the spice. I then make my way back to Sargoth for more flax, selling the spice, iron and salt along the way.

thanks for the manual nood!

i suggest everyone read it even if you're a seasoned m&b player.

i just learned a few things that you may find fascinating:
- surgery provides 4% chance per point to be wounded rather than killed added to a base of 25%. so if you have 5(+2), it's actually 53%; if 10(+2), it's actually 73%  :shock: whoa!
- power draw's bonus damage is capped at 72%, but points still improve the accuracy and how long you can keep a bow drawn.
- shield skill also improves the size of the shield vs. ranged attacks :shock:
- tactics skill will allow you to retreat with fewer casualties--and im guessing less hp lost for your own character if youre kinda close. so pretty much improves the autocalc for retreats.
- wound treatment heals crippled horses--i think most of us already know this, but just throwing it out there
- first aid provides the bonus added to a base of 10%. that explains why having 10 points heals 60% life
- weapon proficiencies are built by damage for melee weapons, and shot difficulty for ranged.
- weapons deal the most damage at their maximum reach--no brainer, so try to keep your distance optimized
- horse maneuverability affects acceleration and deceleration in addition to turning speed
- map speed IS affected by riding for mounted units and athletics for infantry. this explains why khergits are not only faster because they're all mounted, but because they also have 6/7 points into riding. confirmed by manual! however it is not affected by horse type. since the game calculates the party speed by average between slowest and fastest, youll only see the benefits of improving riding for your companions on a large scale and if they compose most of the party.
- using a 2h weapon or polearm as a 1h incurs a 35% penalty--i think most know this one too
- 'most weapons will do more damage in the middle of their stroke than at the beginning or end'
- 'In general, all regular soldiers will get one share, your hero companions will get 3 shares each, and as the leader, you will get 10 shares of the loot.'

Yes and no - the higher base damage of the masterwork war bow means that it will still do more damage than my favourite masterwork nomad bow (as both can use all 10 power draw), but the war bow won't be as accurate as the nomad bow. By the time you're doing that much damage, accuracy is probably worth more than a point or five more damage.

That said, you can still get +2, which isn't THAT bad for accuracy.

And as for the extra strength not being wasted you're probably right there Darklord, but as far as a typical player is concerned, going from 18 to 30 probably is a waste if they did it primarily for bow damage and use a hunting bow. It will probably have SOME effect, but nowhere near enough to justify it. If you want to use cheats to get to 500 strength then you might have an effect, but that's not a scenario I'll be going into in a manual.

Also, you will gain 1-2 reputation, talking to a lord after capturing a city/castle. Just talk to all siege participants to gain that bonus (you have to have positive relations with a lord to gain rep. that way)


I only used it that as an example to show that it not 100% useless, but its true there's no real reason to take any stat above the minimum needed for your skills lvls your aiming for.

As for left over stat points; Str = a tiny bit extra damage +1 hp.
Agil = +5 proficiency points +increased speed (attack and movement).
INT = +1 Skill point.
Cha = + Army size.
I wonder what hidden bonuses INT and CHA give if any.
Personally: I would go INT first unless I got most/all skills I am aiming for, then Agil for the faster attacks & proficiency (unless its a non fighter hero, as faster attacks = chance to interrupt attacks on you).


Edit: You can also click on the 'status' screen (Backspace) minimap to tell groups to move around. You can't see an overhead view of the terrain tho, just your groups as colored blobs and them as red blobs but it does in theory and sorta in practice allow you to tell groups to move to a location out of line of sight. It takes some stabbing...

If you have enabled the 'continue battle after death' tweak, you can still command your troops through this screen as well. It is kinda guesswork as you have limited information available but its better than no command.

Quote from: dedjedi on May 25, 2010, 06:58:15 PM

    Thanks for the linke and awesome, awesome work. I read through this twice and each time started a new save game because of what  I learned. :smile:

    Edit: You can also click on the 'status' screen (Backspace) minimap to tell groups to move around. You can't see an overhead view of the terrain tho, just your groups as colored blobs and them as red blobs but it does in theory and sorta in practice allow you to tell groups to move to a location out of line of sight. It takes some stabbing...

    If you have enabled the 'continue battle after death' tweak, you can still command your troops through this screen as well. It is kinda guesswork as you have limited information available but its better than no command.


Although I'm well aware of the screen, I find that it is far too difficult to use effectively - basically you just can't be sure if you're telling your guys to stand half way up a cliff. The best use for it, as I see it is:

1) getting cavalry to flank when you're on foot.
2) getting units to run away if they're vulnerable, to a map edge.

A way to increase the usefulness, if you don't mind a bit of fiddling, is to remove all troops from the cavalry, infantry and archers groups, then set those groups to stand ground at given points you can recall (e.g. river bank, top of the hill etc). The flags will appear on the map and serve as a bit of a reference point for future movements. Unfortunately, it means you're going to have to remember where other troops are holding, as other groups don't get flags.

You can only set these flags by pressing and holding F1 if you don't have anyone in the group - clicking on the 'map' brought up by backspace will do no good. It's probably more fiddling than it's worth, but it does give some use to the overview.

    Quote

        Well let's say your set, all you need to do is talk to the King you desire and give homage to him if he accepts you. There is also a chance that you can be invited to be there vassal if your a famous man or women. Once your accepted if you're a Commoner you will receive your very own choice of a banner. You will also get a fief of a town of the King's choice. Hint, he will always choose the least profitable fief in the kingdom. Even worse, whoever owned it before you will have a significant negative relationship with you, you upstart.


    Will the King always grant the less profitable fief in the kingdom to a newcomer, even if there are unasigned fiefs to be given (for example, recently taken in a war)?

Usually. I believe that the fief is decided right after you accept the invitation. Between that time and the time you actually sworn in, the prosperity of fiefs may change.

Noble and Commoner Companions: I believe Baheshtur and Firentis are also noble. By looking at the game script that assign companions personality and look up the place where lords make commend about commoner turn vassal, any companion that has personality of roguish (Borcha, Nizar, Klethi), custodian (Marnid, Deshavi, Katrin, Artimenner) and benefactor (Ymira, Bunduk, Jeremus) are commoners. I assume that if lord doesn't say anything, he's ok with that.

The nobles:
- Rolf: cunning.
- Baheshtur: cunning.
- Firentis: upstanding.
- Matheld: martial.
- Alayen: martial.
- Lezalit: selfrighteous.

One obvious question as a player fairly new to M&B: Is there any moderately easy way to discover the personality type of another character chance met on the road - I refer here primarily to lords who turn up asking to join your kingdom or enemy lords you meet in the field and try to convince to join you.

I have sort of convinced myself that enemy nobles I haven't helped out before with relations in the 20-30 range to me have probably had their relations to me boosted over time due to my high honour score or right to rule (one or the other, I don't know that that is why the game frequently hands out free relations points in the daily update but it sounds likely) and that, as such, these lords probably share compatible character traits - but is it actually the case?

Perhaps somebody with a deeper M&B experience could compile that sort of information on personality types for the first post?

EDIT: The question to the answer of detecting personality turned out to be easier than anticipated, at least for meeting lords in the open - it is strictly by the answer of philosophy according to the text files; Possibly you all knew that, but I didn't.  :smile:  It still doesn't tell how personality types interact or what the automatic relationship boosts over time are caused by, but it could help me to track it down. I'd still prefer an answer from somebody who knows it already to spare me an in-depth investigation.  :grin:

martial: My sword is at the disposal of my rightful liege, so long as he upholds his duty to me.
quarrelsome: Bah. They're all a bunch of bastards. I try to make sure that the ones who wrong me learn to regret it.
pitiless: Men will always try to cheat others of their rightful due. In this faithless world, each must remain vigilant of his own rights.
cunning: Well, it's a harsh world, and it is our lot to face harsh choices. Sometimes one must serve a tyrant to keep the peace, but sometimes a bit of rebellion keeps the kings honest. Circumstance is all.
sadistic: My philosophy is simple: it is better to be the wolf than the lamb.
goodnatured: Well, you should keep faith with your promises, and not do injustice to others. Sometimes it's hard to balance those. Stick with people you trust, I think, and it's hard to go far wrong.
upstanding: Kingship and lordship have been instituted to keep the peace and prevent the war of all against all, yet that must not blind us to the possibility of injustice.
roguish: Hmm.. I guess I'm thinking that it's good to be a lord.
benefactor: A good ruler makes sure all are treated justly. Personally, I intend to use my authority to better the lot of those who live in my demesne.
custodian: A good ruler creates the proper conditions for people to prosper. Personally, I intend to use my wealth to create more wealth, for myself and for the common benefit.
A couple of money tips:

Tournaments (as opposed to arenas, which the guide mentions).
Assuming you are playing with a savable game, bet 100 every round for 8 rounds, and assuming you haven't competed in that town before (your odds get worse as they realise you are a killer), you will get 3,980 when you win the the tournament, so 3,100 profit. As an added bonus, you will skill up in some weapons, as well as getting xp, and if you feel really nice you may be able to dedicate the win to the lady of the house.
Oh, and in some rounds (when there's multiple teams with many fighters in each), it pays to use the army commands, tell your men to hold their position or follow you & let some of the other teams wipe each other out before charging, otherwise they can spread out & get mauled, leaving you versus the remaining team(s)!

Selling slaves to Ransom Brokers.
Go to Rivacheg, if the ransom broker is there then farm the nearby sea raiders for prisoners, this usually gives 1k in loot, plus 120 for every slave you sell. It's also handy for getting cheap free kit for your companions early on, as they have some of the best dropped kit. You will need prisoner management to be able to capture prisoners; prisoner management 4 gives you 20 capacity, which doesn't slow your party down too much when you head back to sell. For farming prisoners, as well as using bludgeoning weapons with all your companions (and yourself), grab a few man-hunters (you will rescue some at some point) as they also use bludgeoning weapons by default. You can also tell your army to use blunt weapons only, but as not all army units carry blunt weapons this means the dumb ones that don't will sit there and not even defend themselves = bad.
Oh, and as someone else said, keep your party small, ideally 40 shock troops, and you will be able to run down enemies quickly, once your party is big & slow you can't catch some, and will get dragged far from town chasing them down, meaning by the time you get back the broker will be gone (sods law).

Um...someone must have mentioned it, but starting the businesses in the towns. Given your game will last 100's of days, don't worry about if it will pay itself back...it will, so invest in a business in every town. It's almost always the dye factory that makes the most money, but there's a couple of exceptions if you can be bothered checking. Oh, and don't bother buying cheaper less profitable buildings early on, as you will demolish them to build dye factories later. With 22 towns with business, you should bring in around 8k per week from them.
 
All this has worked for me as well. One thing I would add

If playing a non-realistic saves game (meaning you can exit w/o saving), you can get major relationship points for breaking lords out of dungeons. If you are good enough to take down 5 militiamen at once with a staff, and then one armored prison guard in 3-4 quick hits (because that's all you'll get before you get jumped), this can be done with only moderate difficulty. When you're riding around playing the merchant like the OP suggested, keep an eye out for notifications about lords being captured; if its not too far out of the way, track them down and go to the dungeon where they are being held. If you successfully rescue them, you'll get 5-8 (can't remember exactly what) relationship points, some honor, and 3 faction relationship points. This is even easier when you are at peace with the captor's faction, because you a) don't have to sneak in and b) can use all your gear.
 
Iaksones said:
All this has worked for me as well. One thing I would add

If playing a non-realistic saves game (meaning you can exit w/o saving), you can get major relationship points for breaking lords out of dungeons. If you are good enough to take down 5 militiamen at once with a staff, and then one armored prison guard in 3-4 quick hits (because that's all you'll get before you get jumped), this can be done with only moderate difficulty. When you're riding around playing the merchant like the OP suggested, keep an eye out for notifications about lords being captured; if its not too far out of the way, track them down and go to the dungeon where they are being held. If you successfully rescue them, you'll get 5-8 (can't remember exactly what) relationship points, some honor, and 3 faction relationship points. This is even easier when you are at peace with the captor's faction, because you a) don't have to sneak in and b) can use all your gear.


Ah yes, I forgot all about the prison breaks that is all great info. Is it ok if I add your statement to my post?

EDIT I added it after a few edits to the punctuations.
 
Get trainer skill for yourself and all companions. It stacks, so you can raise elite troops waaaaaaaay faster.  :grin:
 
Instead of starting at Curaw, you should go to Wercheg and load up on salt, then go to Curaw. :razz:

And I trust everyone knows about practicing fighting at the training field to get that first level up. :3
 
DrakeD said:
Get trainer skill for yourself and all companions. It stacks, so you can raise elite troops waaaaaaaay faster.  :grin:

That is correct when you have free points to do so get trainer for all of your companions. In the end you will level up all the way to elite troops with out even fighting. It's great for making garrisons for your fiefs.

Charlie Brooker said:
Instead of starting at Curaw, you should go to Wercheg and load up on salt, then go to Curaw. :razz:

And I trust everyone knows about practicing fighting at the training field to get that first level up. :3

I'll look into that.
 
hey if you guys have time, maybe you can submit some information to the m&b warband wiki:

http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Mount%26Blade:_Warband/Table_of_Contents

dunno who usually maintains it, but i just remember how helpful that site was for the original m&b
 
bigtoebubby said:
hey if you guys have time, maybe you can submit some information to the m&b warband wiki:

http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Mount%26Blade:_Warband/Table_of_Contents

dunno who usually maintains it, but i just remember how helpful that site was for the original m&b

I will see what I get out of all of your help and mine and maybe me or some one with better grammar skills would be motivated to do it.
Going to continue to edit this since I have more info to give I just need to compile it in my head.


I took a look at the wiki it's not so bad. It doesn't have this extensive content I typed out at least I didn't type all this out for nothing.  :grin:
 
one piece of advice for the layout of the OP

the headings (- Reputation-, - Renown-, etc) would be better if they were bold and underlined and on the line above the paragraph to make it easier to find the section you want to read :wink:

eg:

- Renown-
If you read the last paragraph the best way to earn it is to throw festivals. Throw them over and over again once a week. Even if your not at your castle and your either recruiting or trading. Initiate the invitations and leave if you need too. There are other ways and I am not going to get into the technical of tactics and battle advantage, but if your a bad arse you can solo sea raiders or tundra bandits in packs of 20-30ish. 1v30 I believe you will gain 29 renown for killing them all yourself. You will also gain a descent amount of renown if your outnumbered 2/1 in larger battles, about 10-20.
 
Galdus said:
- Right to rule- Is more sparse to get. You gain that mostly from when your in a faction or in your own and a truce treaty initiates. I think you will get +3 but I am not positive. The other way is to talk to your companions and tell them you aspire to be King,and then send them out for a long mission. You can only do that one at a time, every three days for a +3 boost. If there is other ways to obtain it I forgot or don't know.

You also gain right to rule everytime you succesfully recruit a lord.
 
rooperi said:
Galdus said:
- Right to rule- Is more sparse to get. You gain that mostly from when your in a faction or in your own and a truce treaty initiates. I think you will get +3 but I am not positive. The other way is to talk to your companions and tell them you aspire to be King,and then send them out for a long mission. You can only do that one at a time, every three days for a +3 boost. If there is other ways to obtain it I forgot or don't know.

You also gain right to rule everytime you succesfully recruit a lord.

Also, you get some if you are able to convince other Kings into accepting you as one.
 
Urlik said:
one piece of advice for the layout of the OP

the headings (- Reputation-, - Renown-, etc) would be better if they were bold and underlined and on the line above the paragraph to make it easier to find the section you want to read :wink:

eg:

- Renown-
If you read the last paragraph the best way to earn it is to throw festivals. Throw them over and over again once a week. Even if your not at your castle and your either recruiting or trading. Initiate the invitations and leave if you need too. There are other ways and I am not going to get into the technical of tactics and battle advantage, but if your a bad arse you can solo sea raiders or tundra bandits in packs of 20-30ish. 1v30 I believe you will gain 29 renown for killing them all yourself. You will also gain a descent amount of renown if your outnumbered 2/1 in larger battles, about 10-20.

Hey I am here...Just got back from work... :grin: I will look into this.

Mastermind said:
rooperi said:
Galdus said:
- Right to rule- Is more sparse to get. You gain that mostly from when your in a faction or in your own and a truce treaty initiates. I think you will get +3 but I am not positive. The other way is to talk to your companions and tell them you aspire to be King,and then send them out for a long mission. You can only do that one at a time, every three days for a +3 boost. If there is other ways to obtain it I forgot or don't know.

You also gain right to rule everytime you succesfully recruit a lord.

Also, you get some if you are able to convince other Kings into accepting you as one.

Adding.
 
I call for a bit more details, and then for a sticky :smile:

Additional info: (based on frequently asked questions :smile: )
How to become a lord (pledging to a king)
How to start a kingdom (Non-rebel and rebel ones)
Maybe also how to marry?

Just as an example. It needs to be more detailed :grin:
 
Mastermind said:
I call for a bit more details, and then for a sticky :smile:

Additional info: (based on frequently asked questions :smile: )
How to become a lord (pledging to a king)
How to start a kingdom (Non-rebel and rebel ones)
Maybe also how to marry?

Just as an example. It needs to be more detailed :grin:

Yes I know all these things. Good input I will get on this soon check back either later or tomorrow.
 
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