Hi everyone and welcome to this awesome mod!!
First of all let me say Thank You to DrThomas, Othr and all the other people who contributed to the mod (you can find them here
http://code.google.com/p/dev1257/).
Now the hard part. I wanted to make a F.A.Q. as this mod is still a work in progress and many new players get lost (as i did in the beginning
).
I will try to keep this post updated, so i will edit the first post to add every new question and answer and make it easier to find them. Thanks in advance to all the more experienced players that will contribute to this guide. Keep in mind that i'm not a dev, i just want to regroup some common issues.
1) How can i download/install the mod?
2) Should i install 0.95 version or SVN version?
0.95 version is no more supported and has several bugs. SVN version is the most updated and everybody uses it.
3) What version of Warband do i need to play the mod?
1257 AD works with warband version 1.153 and up.
4) What's the difference between lance recruitment and warband recruitment?
Lance is a new recruiting system that tries to simulate medieval recruitment. In the Middle Age, lords recruited soldiers from their fiefs and not for a very long time.
Here's a good explanation by DrThomas:
Feudal lance system mechanics:
If you are fiefless lord:
You will be able to recruit mercenaries from taverns cheaper.
Your unit upkeep will be lowered.
You won't be able to recruit units from fiefs
If you are lord with a fief:
You will be able to recruit lances(each lance - 10men) from your fief.
In times of war, recruiting lances does not cost anything.
In times of peace your troop upkeep will be increased.
Castle/Town garrisons will automatically recruit units. Currently the player has no control over it. There upkeep will not be payed from players purse.
Lances composition are based on the centers prosperity.
General things:
NPC lord uses lances for there recruitment as well.
Each fief can have up to 14 lances. Except at the beginning of the game - this so the lords could successfully make parties at the beginning of the game without the need to wait for a few weeks.
Each center refills one lance each week.
And another good explanation from oroboros that i modified a little:
Lance recruitment:
- you cannot recruit people from towns, villages and castles unless you are a lord of a fief. Then you can recruit from your fief only. A village produces 1 lance/week and they can have a maximum of 10-15, depending on various factors like prosperity.
- 1 lance consists of 10 men. Depending from where you recruit them they can vary, eg. a lance from town has more town troops, a lance from villages more village troops (and almost no or no town troops, not sure about that). They also can vary in their tier, it can very well happen that you recruit mainly peasants or high tier troops. Don't know on what this depends, if at all, maybe something like prosperity of the fief or your relation with the fief. You also get cav from villages and towns albeit I am not really sure on the latter one. But you don't necessarily need a castle for recruiting cav.
- to not let you down on fighting because you are not able to recruit default troops without a fief there are lots of mercenaries around in taverns, you can recruit up to 50 of them in one row in one tavern. They cost you just half as much as normal troops and their hiring cost have also been drastically reduced - so really cheap and very good troops. And this mod probably has the largest variety of mercenaries of all mods for Warband, including Native.
Mercenary troops can't be upgraded, but can be replaced very quickly (visit 3 towns and you can get at least 100 of them).
- once you become a lord to somebody the costs for mercenaries go back to "normal" standard which then means they cost the same as normal troops of a comparable tier/lvl and equipment; and increased hiring costs. Also, if you are not a lord but a mercenary for a king, they will pay almost all the wages of your party (sometimes i even getmore then i pay)
Default recruitment:
- you can recruit from every fief with which you're not in the negative concerning your relation with it; standard recruitment between no or 13 recruits
- peasants (2-h people, archers, in some regions spearmen or spear throwers too) from villages
- towns folk from towns (crossbowmen, swordmen, in some regions spearmen or spear throwers too)
- cav from castles
- mercenaries from taverns
5) I'm new to the mod, is there a beginning guide?
Here's a guide, thanks to Sifis172:
Ok, this might be a little long.
You start up with crap gear. So your first focus should be to get a nicer gear (Armor, helmet, armored shoes-how are they called?).
You'll need to have a decent strength to get it as the most powerfull gear has a minimum of 16 strength, while there are some armors
which you get with 19! strength. The lowest decent armor you can get is with strength 14, but i'ts a lot lower than those with 16 strength.
So i would suggest to raise your strength in the beginning of the game.
(Edit by Dromel: it's very hard to get good armors from looting, so I suggest you to save some money and buy them, instead of waiting for drops)Second is your weapon focus, a decent weapon is a must.-(Remember that blunt weapons such as mace,and club do more damage to
armored ennemies than a sword.Sword does more damage to ennemies with clothes)-
Don't spend money to buy a 1h-sword it costs a lot and you can find plenty on the field.Just pick up a sword from an ennemie at the
battle.Items or horses you end the battle with are put in your inventory, just as long as you stay alive and well at the end of the battle.
Your party at the beginning must be of average strength, let's say 30- to 50 people.so you can ran away from harder battles, and catch up with
lower tier bandits.In the first levels avoid pirate bandits PS:sorry i meant sea raiders, which are to be found from the height of italy and norther.There are of course pirate bandits to be found at other places randomly.These guys are armored and have the tendencie to throw javelins which are quite dangerous.
If your party is smaller than 20 you must avoid at all costs raving rober knights.You don't stand a chance if you're cought up in a battle like this.
Consider it only if you have more than 25 troops and of good quality.
Trade is a good way of making money, i find that selling iron from england-spain-scandinavia to spain is a good way of making some.
Buying salt from regnum hierosulliminatum(crusader states) and mamluks then selling it to il-khanate is also good.Linen from teutonics
and sell it to mongols has some profit but in my experience i didn't made a lot of money from that, and last buy fures from northern countries and hungary and bulgaria and sell it to medditeranean countries has a lot of potential of profit.I personally when starting a new game make some missions for the merchants guild, but only to escort caravans or herds.Note that there are better trading guides that you can find on the
posts, and more detailed.
When you built up your character you should give some tournaments if you want, and if you are in a possision to win.They give a lot of money
if you bet 500 dens all the time.And you get your renown up a bit, actually a lot.
Something i forgot try and put your archers in the sides or the back of the ennemie or they'll continue to fire uselless pacifist
arrows
in the shields of your ennemies, and never charge with your horse on a shield wall of infantry cause that will get your horse killed.
When a horse is killed in battle it may also but in a small percentage killed pemanently.Or it can be reduced to the status of "lame", if it is
lamed you can get it healed sometimes but not always by placing it in your inventory, it's a matter of chance if it will be healed or not.
Here's a good tip from oroboros:
A good tip for beginners is battlefield looting while freelancing. Which means, if you still are "solo" (no companions, army, etc.) you go to a lord and ask him to join his army (pick a lord that has not too many men in his army as he won't run out any enemies or a lord with too few men in his party as you will get smashed a lot; I usually pick a lord with an army size of around 100 men). Then, when it comes to battle I just avoid going head on into melee, instead I try to wait until the lesser tier troops with their glaives or scythes are appearing on the battlefield of whom I then will try to kill a few, then dropping all my weapons and picking up (by pressing F) 4 glaives or other 2-h weapons. After that I try to run and survive the battle until it's over - if the battle ends you will get the stuff you picked up from a battle. When the battle is over I ask my lord for a short leave and go to the next town and sell the stuff, i.e. the 4 glaives, etc. Independent from your trade skill, well almost, you will get something around 5-6,000 dinar per glaive or 4-5,000 per shortened scythe. This means if you manage to successfully loot on a battlefield and sell the stuff you will get something around 15,000-20,000 dinars. This money I take for either doing trading if my trade skill is somewhat high (4-5 or higher) or I take the money and invest it in enterprises.
And whereever there is a tournament or feast going on, get in and join the tournament. I once managed to make a little more than 100,000 dinar in less than 2 weeks, from scratch, by tournamenting/trading my way down from England over France to Italy.
DrThomas:
Most of the features of the mod are design for middle or end game. Ie when you are as a lord of a faction or you're a leader of your own faction.
But if you want to start from 0. chasing bandits are for absolute beginning. When you only have a few men and don't have anything else. After that, do what vagabonds did at that age - be a mercenary. Either as a freelancer or an actual mercenary captain. Actualy being a captain you will get paid for both your party(as long as it's not too big) and add an extra bonus for you as the party leader.
Trading is also a good start if you're interested in just money.
This is a trading guide made by Transvanio:
First of all, I know there is already a thread like this but I would like to make my own personal guide so it can be more specific. The best way to make money, its of course, trade. So I am gonna show you the trade routes I find more profitable.
For the profit I will put here this requires of course you to choose the merchant presets in char creation. Wich should give you 5 trade skill.
The trade route goes like this:
Poland (Buy Salt, Iron & Tools) - Notes: (Only buy Iron for less than 200, Only buy Tools for less than 350)
Holy Roman Empire (Buy Iron & Tools) - Notes: (previous notes)
Denmark (Sell salt, Buy Iron & Tools) - Notes: (Sell salt only above 250. Buy iron only for less than 200. Tools only for less than 350)
Norway & Swedden (Buy Iron & Tools) - Notes (Iron for less than 200, Tools for less than 350)
Poland - City of Gdansk (Buy Iron, Salt and Tools) - Notes: Sometimes only salt is available, use the previous prices for buying the materials.
Teutonic Order & Lithuania (Sell Salt, Iron & Tools. Buy spice if available) - Notes: (Sell salt for more than 250. Iron for more than 270. Tools for more than 400. Buy spice for less than 680)
Kingdom of Halych (Sell the rest of your Iron & Tools. Buy Furs and Spice) - Notes: (Furs for less than 170. Spice for less than 680)
Poland (Sell spice and furs, Buy,Salt,Iron & Tools) Notes: Repeat process by now...
City Chart. This is the city chart I use for better travelling:
Krakow - Poznan - Wroclaw - Praha - Nurnberg - Frankfurt - Magdeburg - Lubeck - Wybaerg - Roarskeldae - Lund - Aslo - Westrarus - Wysbu - Gdansk - Elbing - Konigsberg - Thorn - Versviai - Gardinas - Vilnius - Volodymyr - Halych - Lvov - Krakow.
Aditional Notes:
- Gather a party of 40 horsemen so you dont get atacked, and if you do, you can crush all bandit parties.
- Install establishments in all the cities for max profit.
- This guide may have some errors, please consider that this was made in a hurry in my spare time.
- I am also not a native speaker, so be kind to my english.
Thank you all for reading, I wish you a coin abundant game
Edit by Dromel: this is the original thread
http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,222522.0.html6) I don't like troop names, how can i change them?
7) I've searched all the taverns bu i can't find any companion, where are them?
You can't recruit companions in taverns, even with the option "send a message to X"; to recruit them you must be a vassal or have your own kingdom.
Then you can go to your fief and choose the option "invite nobles to a hunt". You will see a new scene with 6 people you can hire (based on your fief's culture: Catholic, Muslim, Orthodox, Balt
or Mongolian). To have more than 6, you need to own fiefs of different culture. They are all low level, only a couple of them has good stats at the beginning (a medic, an engineer and a pathfinder).
7b) Is there a list of compatible companions?
If you play the SVN version, there are no more companion complaints/clashes.
8 ) I joined a kingdom and i have my little village, what can i build?
9) If i talk to my king there's an option to go to the Holy Land, what it means?
Fighting for your god is an honorable thing to do, no matter which is your god
By selecting that option you can temporally leave your kingdom and join the Crusading States. You do not lose your fiefs, they are still be yours when (if
) you come back, you just take a little vacation. You are now under a new King, Ibelin, and you can fight the Muslims to take back Jerusalem. Also your relation with other states changes accordingly. If you hire mercenaries in the cities of the Crusading States, you can get Teutonic Knights, Templar Knights, Knights of Calatrava and so on (depending on the city, they will always be the same in a city), very powerfull but also very expensive.
When you are tired, you can go to your former king and tell him you are back. Your relations will be restored (improved in some cases, you are a holy warrior) and you will regain control of your fiefs.
10) I'm back home but i miss those knights, can i have them?
If you build a monastery in your fortified manor (remember point 6) you can speak to the Priest and invite one of the Orders (it can't be changed, so choose wisely) for a cost of 10.000; you will be able to recruit some of them (around 5) every 2-3 days by speaking again to the priest.
11) Where can i see the troop trees?
There is an old one but is outdated. Stay tuned for more info
12) How can i convince lords to join my kingdom?
Like in other mods: Persuasion skill, good relations with them and an unassigned fief (the more the better). If they have no fiefs is easier to attract them.
13) Can i start a Crusade?
Yes, you can speak to the Pope and pay around 100.000 to assemble it.
14) My weapons/armor keep breaking, can i turn this feature off?
Yes, you can turn it off in the Camp menu -> Mod options -> uncheck Weapon breaking
Thanks to oroboros
14b) My weapon/armor is broken, how can i repair it?
Yes, just go into a town and take the option 'walk around the streets'. Then go around in the scene and find either the armour smith (guy standing besides some armour pieces) or the weapon smith (guy standing beside some weapons) and talk to either which you need. There is a dialogue option which allows you to get your weapon repaired. But you cannot buy a cracked weapon/armour and go to one of the guys and get it repaired/improved to a normal weapon. Just if your weapon is broken in combat is it possible to get it repaired.
Thanks to oroboros
15) Why I died but I'm still fighting as someone else?
That's a new feature. If you die, you can play as one of your soldiers (it's randomly chosen) and keep fighting. You can still give orders, but your profiencies/stats/equipment will be the one of the soldier. If you are fighting a large battle and all your other soldiers died, you will just look at the battle, even if some of your soldiers join the next reinforcement wave after you die. You can't "possess" your companions.
16) There's not a particular question, but in that thread you can find answers to a lot of questions about game mechanics. It's in a subforum for cRPG mod, but i think 99% of the infos are good, because they are just about warband.
Any suggestion is appreciated
