Leveling up Companions

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ericmyrs

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My usual early game gig is lancing Vanskerries and soloing small parties of Knights of the Dawn until I hit level ~20.
At which point I usually have decent gear, enough gold to get my companions and ~500 renown.

What are your strategies for leveling up further? And is there a efficient way of leveling companions?
Do companions level up weapon skills the same way as the PC ?
 
Well i'm used to Start at Ravenstern take the ( quali gem ) and use it for free knight of dawns or noldor and hit the jatu earn a lot Recrute companions at 500 renown i'll start he quest at laria knighthood order and hit more jatu
 
The best way I've found is to limit your party to just you and your companions and then start fighting.  Siege defenses can be another good way if you position your companions in the front.  They can rack up quite a few kills (archers should be positioned where they have line of sight to enemies coming up the ladder).  During the save a village from bandit quests, tell everyone to hold and only have you and your companions charge or engage the bandits.  Those are just the tricks that come to mind right now.
 
Usually after I solo to lvl 20 I recruit all my companions and go and solo some small bands of weak enemies like mystmountains and red brotherhood (I take the horses for the latter). After that I move onto Vanskerries and give their armour to my companions (I always buy their weapons, claymore and a comp bow/light xbow). Once they're equipped its back to hunting outlaws since theres less chance of them getting KOd there. When a lot of them are injured I go do tourneys/quests/noldor stalking until they're healed up again. I tend to stop when they reach around lvl 20 since it gets slow after that.
 
Most efficient way is to let your companions do as much of the killing as possible. Dont let them go in melee rightaway during the siege, but first let them rake up ranged kills on some juicy side spot of the ladder. After the enemy got only 50-100 left, pull back your normal troops, hold fire and let your companions defend the ladder.
Give your highest lvl companion some points in training, consider giving Lethaldiran (if ya got him) 1 point in intelligence and  2 in trainer when he levels up.

Afaik the weapon skills for companions level up the same way as for the player, though I never checked what exactly happens with npc skill progression when you autocalc a battle.
 
I find that City Quests and Knighthood Order quests are really good for leveling up Companions, especially INT companions.
 
quests are good, but mainly early on. Taking on a 30 strong band of outlaws consisting of 2 rogue knights, 3 rogue squires, 2 red brotherhood thieves and a bunch of outlaws armed with crossbows will typically give about as much as a caravan escort and it seems that even companions that were too injured to join the battle get exp from it. There's usually loads around Laria where their hideout is located.

I tend to give all my companions 12 str and 9 agi. This let's them wear decent armour, get 4 pd and wield a composite bow, get a few points in wm and horse archery, and for the str/agi types I typically give them ps and ironflesh as well, though my int or cha types typically skip those since they have so many other skills to raise and they benefit from the trainer level of my more dedicated fighters who typically level up ahead of them (even 3-4 trainer is pretty decent on multiple companions, and I typically have 10)

I usually focus on shooting the horses of the enemy riders and letting my companions deal with them. They usually have claymores, shields, a bow/xbow and a stack of arrows/bolts (I give them 2 stacks when I am at the point of the game where I siege a lot). The claymores can be wielded 1h or 2h, require 10 str, have nice speed, can be wielded on horseback and have very nice range, meaning they are less likely to miss as they ride past those dismounted troops.

Eventually you will have lots of injured companions, and while you can solo the enemy bands it's a pain when you have 20 crappy crossbowmen shooting at you, they still hurt in heavy armour and tend to interrupt you as you are about to swing and horse archery can take a while, plus those rogue knights can lance you if you run into a tree or riderless horse while you are shooting at their horses. Typically at this point I go do tourneys for d'shar/sarleon or build up relations with villages while I wait for them to get better, and the village quests will give your companions exp and you kinda need the relations anyway
 
Just found an awesome way to level companions. It also reaffirms that Ethos is indeed the greatest city ever.  :mrgreen:

Note that my Companions are firing 800 enemy kills in. Apparently, siege defenders have infinite ammo. Did not know that until tonight. Before knowing this defending Ethos was a real gamble, now it's a companion leveling opportunity.

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One thing to note: Archer AI will not allow you to manually place your companions within the interior of the city. You need to set them to a unique troop group. I set them to "5," labeled it "Companions." Also allows me to place them behind my archer line in normal battles.
 
I play as a bro so i first equip well my companions and then i focus on my character. Things that help to level up companions:

1) Guildmaster Quests

- "Find bandits" quest gives the most xp, ideally you want to take this from the guildmasters in D'Shar towns since the D'shar Raiders party is very easy to find, they spawn in a specific area.
- "Random girl" quest is also good, just tell them that you don't want to pay and fight them.

2) Brigands around Marleons

Grindfest, try to dehorse the rogue squires and do some damage to the Rogue Knights. Let your companions get all the kills.

3) Defending in Sieges

Works best if you are defending a fief against the Fierds, free xp from the berserkers that try to climb the ladder.

4) Rival parties for Order quests.

Much xp, such loot

5) Save villages

Again let your companions get all the kills

6) Follow Marshal as a vassal/merc

Even if the Marshal is derping around by not doing anything productive, i think the longer you follow him the more xp you will get when you complete the quest.

7) When you create your Kingdom and you are at war with your former faction

Make Sir Roland a vassal and appoint him as Marshal, since he is upstanding he will give you tasks like scouting fiefs. Do this and then keep following him, at some point he will end the campaign and you will gain around 30k xp.

It's a bit of a cheesy strat but works most of the times and only happens once btw :smile:
 
Every x seconds (believe 30) ranged weapon ammo is replenished for every defending unit except the player.
I often defend behind the walls and setup a killzone right at the ladder exit. If even possible I set my normal archers to hold fire so my companions get more kills/weapon skills. 
Boadice, Kaverra and Alyssa are always competing who can impale the most men with throwing spears before they set foot on the walls  :lol:
 
Isn't it better to defend at the ladder so the enemy can only attack with 1/2 units at a time? It might be easier to get all your archers able to fire if you lure the enemy up onto the wall and have your archers in the courtyard, but won't the enemy cut through your infantry defenders faster? Also, can you get around the not being able to put archers in the courtyard by tagging them as companions also?
 
Depending on the topography of the castle it is more effective to place ranged troops down in the yard, as enemy units turn to either side when they enter the castle to get to the stairs down into the yard. That is when their sides are exposed to missile fire and your ranged troops can cut them down easily. Additionally your troops will be safe from enemy ranged troops outside the walls and those getting inside will get shot before they can aim.
 
Kiri Kaneko said:
Isn't it better to defend at the ladder so the enemy can only attack with 1/2 units at a time? It might be easier to get all your archers able to fire if you lure the enemy up onto the wall and have your archers in the courtyard, but won't the enemy cut through your infantry defenders faster? Also, can you get around the not being able to put archers in the courtyard by tagging them as companions also?

That depends, if the enemy has got strong archers or headpiercing javelins its sometimes easier to defend behind the wall. Put some decoy infantry on the right of the ladder exit so the enemy will show their unprotected side (or back) towards your archers. The infantry is just for decoy, they hardly do any fighting.
When you defend at the wall half your archers dont fire because the los is blocked and the other half fires at random enemies. Using the killzone all archers focus fire on the same target and they suffer no casualties.
Give Talon castle a try, setup the archers&companions on the opposite wall, cavalry with xbows on the left stairs, and infantry on the right just behind the cover from the right tower and watch the carnage. Castles like this make a nice start for early kingdoms  :wink:
 
I prefer to keep the archers on default AI in places like Ethos as it can be tricky dealing with infantry/archer ratio as the archers accumulate, especially as the "charge" command will have them charging down the ladder. Sometimes they won't even go to the natural archer perches after altering command IIRC...

Didn't really need any more than my 10 companions. I can easily have all 12 down there too, as I kept Alyssa in (Infantry) and Alistair in (Calvary) at the time. Instead of worrying about killing things as I usually do I instead prioritized finding a good shooting spot for my Companions with the intent of telling them to charge after they had run out of ammo...

What a pleasant surprise to find that they never ran out of ammo! :mrgreen:

I have been randomly recruiting Ediz and so forth as well. Should accelerate their growth considerably if I am lucky enough to have a siege like this before they rage quit my warband.
 
Using "hold this position" followed by "stand your ground" command for archers works well in sieges.

Hoping that the next version of POP will have the ammo replenish function for the player same as in L&D, always running out of throwing spears.
 
pvtchaos said:
Hoping that the next version of POP will have the ammo replenish function for the player same as in L&D, always running out of throwing spears.
If we do that suddenly players will have unlimited Noldor arrows with their godly Duskfall bow.
∞ Noldor arrows + Duskfall = one very unhappy Fierdsvain army.
 
Compared to now, when they dance a merry little jig on the ladder when I miss a precious crossbowbolt. Which opens them up for a lesson of porcupine, when a few Pendorian Armoured Bowmen loose their shafts.

Not to mention that the thing you really want to hold the breach is anything with huge 2h weapons as the AI is too stupid to use it´s archers properly.

The greatest annoyance I´ve concnerning archers in a siege is that you can´t split them posting them on different places, just like you can´t tell the archers without ammunition to charge up the ladder and those with to give cover fire for them. Sucks.

But with currently 650 party size, the Fierds down to 2 castles, D´Shar gone, Sarleon down to Avendor and Fenbray castle, Ravenstern down to Poinsbruk and only the Empire remaining with a relatively strong position of a few remaining towns and castles, The Gauntlet waiting to be rebuilt in stone, the Ghost Lady Mystery resolved, an opulent Javikslholm, Knudarr Castle, Tragmar, Sarleon, Yaragar, Rebache and Azgad and some trade to pay for the upkeep each week all i really need to do is hunting for the 15 army achievement and patiently waiting for Casus Belli.

The Empire bailed out pretty quickly after I took a couple of their castles and Windholm and slaughtered like 2,5k yellow maggots attempting to siege Ethos before my Marshall and 2,5k various Pendorians showed up to scrap up the remainings.

Kyrios Dux was ransomed for 33300, Marius Emperor for 28800 only, and Guardian and Empire Knights are too easily killed whereas Crossbowmen and Armoured Crossbowmen just put the living fear into anything but Ravenstern Rangers or Pendor Armoured Bowmen.

So interesting times ahead, and I reckon I could finally finish my very first game, without even using lame CMKHO´s. I sipped 3 cabbages juices though, for the fun of it.

Not to mention like 4 zip´s of alternative progressive saves so far. Including 2 Knights of the Dawn and Griffon refounded in Ravenstern/Kelredan Castle (both mine, now) and 2 minor knighthood orders (Golden and Dark Pimpernel?) which now belong to the glorious Kingdom of Pendor as well.

The toughest fight so far was definetly against a freshly spawned Verante Kruus and the Renegade Witchhunt, followed by Maltise and the Dread Legion.

Whatever, interesting thymes ahead.

 
Simple solution for archers without ammo : increase your battlesize so all of them enter the battlefield and more or less have expended the ammo at the same time.
You can split up archers in a separate group by type, e.g. light/heavy or put all bandits and other ranged fodder into a seperate group.
 
fidoman1272 said:
pvtchaos said:
Hoping that the next version of POP will have the ammo replenish function for the player same as in L&D, always running out of throwing spears.
If we do that suddenly players will have unlimited Noldor arrows with their godly Duskfall bow.
∞ Noldor arrows + Duskfall = one very unhappy Fierdsvain army.

Well if you use the chest during the battle it comes up to the same point. Main issue for me is that im running out of javelins/spears fast and I often cant reach the chest because theres so many men on the walls due to battlesize.
 
pvtchaos said:
fidoman1272 said:
pvtchaos said:
Hoping that the next version of POP will have the ammo replenish function for the player same as in L&D, always running out of throwing spears.
If we do that suddenly players will have unlimited Noldor arrows with their godly Duskfall bow.
∞ Noldor arrows + Duskfall = one very unhappy Fierdsvain army.

Well if you use the chest during the battle it comes up to the same point. Main issue for me is that im running out of javelins/spears fast and I often cant reach the chest because theres so many men on the walls due to battlesize.
That's a balance thing. If you have replenishing javelins you'd have to have replenishing arrows and bolts, right? Level 45 Noosers taking pot shots at you with no regard for ammo isn't something I'd wish on anyone (except those D'Shar pricks).

And yes, the chest can have your ammo topped up, but with your battlesize being enough to flood the walls I think you'd run out anyways.

To further that, PoP is a hard game. If having no ammo in sieges is your #1 concern, you're playing a lot better than me.
 
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