Beginners Guide to SoD

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Uhtred of Bebbanburg

Uhtred of Bebbanburg

Sergeant at Arms
Beginner’s Guide to Sword of Damocles Mount and Blade

By Uhtred of Bebbanburg

I was asked to make this beginners’ guide to SoD touching on several key topics which have been talked about in various threads throughout the forums and to bring as many as I can into one thread.

Please feel free to ask questions that I haven't answered and I will try to elaborate or expand in my original posts so they are all in one spot. This isn't everything about the game but I will get to it eventually or link to it.

I. Getting started—Hints and Tips
II. How do I make money?
III. Understanding the new factions and how to use them.
i. Field Battles
ii. Siege Battles
IV. Nation Building
V. Exploits or Features?
VI. Special Section on Weapons, Horses, and Other Stuff


I. Getting Started--Hints and Tips

1. For the easiest leveling use a horse for yourself and your companions.  This is still Mount & Blade after all.  After you’ve mastered SoD you can do something more frustrating like not using any horse troops at all (including yourself and companions).

2. I try to keep their equipment uniform.  For instance they all carry two shields and a one-handed blunt weapon.  Blunt weapons are good for fighting on foot and on horse and they allow you to capture lots of prisoners.  Selling prisoners is a good source of money and will enable you to upgrade equipment faster in the early game. 

Some other good reasons to specialize in blunt is that it allows you to separate your companions from your other troops. Hitting F11 will allow only those troops with blunt weapons to go into battle. This is good if there is only a few enemy and you want to give that experience to your companions. 

Smashing a guy in a face with a Flanged Mace always does the job but other weapons can just bounce off if you are too close or don’t have momentum. Plus there is the stupid AI which chooses the wrong weapon at the wrong time.  Blunts are good all the time and if you employ a more powerful secondary weapon like a Balanced Foil  or a throwing weapon you can make them choose between them by selecting F11 to use only blunt weapons or F5 to cease fire on ranged weapons.  But if you have a sword and spear you can’t make them choose either and there’s nothing so irritating as watching a companion climb a ladder with a dinky spear knowing that he’s going to get killed.

3. Your prisoner level should be increased but you will never be able to get it high enough to hold all the prisoners you capture in many battles. For this reason you should deploy a regiment to carry your prisoners.  Simply talk to one of your soldiers and ask them to form a regiment. Then on the campaign map, click on them to do the troop transfer.  This regiment can follow you or you can tell it to go to an owned castle or town to wait until you can show up to sell them all.  This method is useful in that none of the prisoners in a regiment will be recruited by your town or castle. It frees up space in the castle jail for captured lords and other prisoners you actually want to recruit and it allows you to immediately return to defending your realm and deal with prisoners later.

4. As you level up your companions you will be able to take on much larger groups of enemies.  This is very important for several reasons.

a. First is you won’t have as many soldiers to share loot with which means more loot for you to sell.

b. Your renown for each battle will be higher and this is essential if you want to be able to take on the Legion invasion when it comes.
 
c. Because it’s just you and your companions there is no wasted experience. When fully leveled elite troops make kills some of that experience is lost on them.  Also if you have troops that are ready to upgrade but can’t be upgraded because there are no facilities then they also soak up experience to no end.

d. You start off with some homeland troops.  I generally use them for a few battles to gain some loot and then I disband them.  It will be months before you are able to take a castle and you will have to pay wages to troops you can’t upgrade and who will take a share of loot from every battle.  More recently I’ve turned this group into a regiment and used them to hold all the prisoners so I can sell the low value prisoners at Tihr and the high dollar prisoners whenever I find a Ransom Broker. 

e. As long as you have your original homeland troops in your army don’t click on them to upgrade when they are ready.  You don’t get the upgrade but you do have to pay them the higher wage. That’s like buying a chick an expensive dinner and going home by yourself.

f. If you click on “Camp”, “Take other Action” and then “Quick Start” you can get all the companions you want in the game and add some money and experience to your group.  Not everyone wants to start from scratch every time and this gives you some options to accelerate (cheat?) the early game. 

5. The best troops to recruit are from refugee countries. These troops will cost you less money and are easily found wandering about Calradria in deserter groups.  If you have a group of blunt wielding horsemen then they are easy to capture.  I put them all in a regiment of one and keep building them up until I’m ready to take a castle.  Having 500 of these troops as prisoners costs you nothing and recruiting them into your army will give you enough men to take and hold castles.  You will have to protect this regiment from bandit attack.  It does you no good to have 500 elite troops as prisoners and have group of 5 looters capture it.
 
II. How do I make money?

a. As Benjamin Franklin said, “A penny saved is a penny earned.” This is true for SoD.  So, as I said above, keep your band small.  If you want to make lots of money bring as few troops to battle as possible. When I’m farming Sea Raiders of 100 or more I bring myself and 10 companions all on heavy chargers.  The upkeep on these troops isn’t that high, and I don’t have to share the loot with extra soldiers, which means more loot to sell in town to make money.

b. Specialize in Blunts—I recommend you arm your companions with blunt weapons to maximize prisoner captures.  Once your companions get good in battle you should start to attack the Zerrikanian Deserters.  Keep the Z. Militia, and the Scouts, Harvesters, and especially Reapers.  Reapers in my opinion are the best cavalry with their blunt weapons.  Blunt weapons do better damage than swords or other cutting weapons.  They practically bypass armor defense and they don’t kill.  Having a horde of Reapers to go against the Legion will make you filthy rich.  NOTE: Using blunt weapons in castle defense battles is not so good. The enemy will retreat and take their wounded soldiers with them.  Unless you can counter attack and capture those troops you will have done little damage to the attackers in the long run. 

c. Attack the Black Army--Sea Raiders still drop good loot but they are not the best loot droppers anymore.  They are still the most available at the beginning of the game but when you can get about 30+ heavy cavalry (including your companions) you should try to farm the Black Army. These guys drop mad loot and will fill up your inventory with 2 handed swords that “sell” for 382 denars or more (depending on trade skill and town attitude towards you).  You will have to travel to several towns to sell all the loot, but that is a problem I’m sure we all don’t mind having.

d. Employ an Army of One—If you deploy one low level unit as a regiment just before a battle then this regiment will soak up all the prisoners and freed prisoners that are captured in battle.  There’s nothing worse than getting a few hundred prisoners that you have to let go because you don’t have high enough prisoner skill.  When the hordes of legions come it won’t be uncommon to have 800 prisoners from a battle. That’s a lot of lost money that could have been made by a single regiment. And best of all you can store the regiment of one in a city so you can keep fighting the Legion.  Regiment deployment can be tricky sometimes.  Make sure the regiment appears close to you and the enemy so they will be part of the battle. You will get a message that the regiment has joined the battle. If that message doesn’t show up then you should leave if possible and try it again.  Sometimes I have to deploy several regiments because they won’t appear close enough to the battle.  It can be annoying but in the end it’s worth it.

e. Legion Mercenaries—Before the Legion arrives they will deploy groups of mercenaries around the realm.  They consist of Sons of Deer and Bastard Brothers.  These troops drop pretty good loot as well but are also pretty tough so be warned.
 
Uhtred of Bebbanburg said:
III. Understanding the New Factions and how to use them.

As Sun Tsu said, “If you know yourself you will win as many battles as you lose. If you know the enemy you will lose as many battles as you win.  But if you know yourself and the enemy you will be victorious in every battle.” (Actually it was something in Chinese that I don’t understand but this is the gist of it.)

1. Understanding essential abilities of the various factions is essential to victory.

a. Villianese—they specialize in ranged attack and their infantry are quick on their feet and carry sabers.  Their religious troops are ranged and make awesome castle attackers and defenders and are, well, awesome at everything really. They have a Power Draw of 10 and carry a War Bow, shield, and a Foil.  Foils do great piercing damage and in groups they are more effective than other weapons because Foils only thrust. This means that if an enemy is in line of sight he can be attacked where as with other swinging weapons the guy next to you may obstruct your attack.  Oh yeah they also have a mounted troop that is so pathetic I almost forgot to mention it.  They aren’t worth recruiting unless you like seeing guys on horses get ripped a new one. (Special note: Villianese archers and infantry look like Hobbits. It’s kind of funny to look down on them from a horse. Just sayin’.)

b. Zerrikanian—The Fearsome Zerrikanians specialize in horse units and field heavy cavalry, horse archers, and a mixed ranged/melee mounted religious troops.  They also have some modest axe wielding infantry and colorful ranged troops.  Their big advantage will be money because their primary heavy cavalry, Reapers, carry blunt weapons and jousting lances and can capture everything they attack and make lots of money in prisoners. This also has an added advantage of allowing this faction to recruit lots of the very best of the refugee country troops, ie. Villianese Archers, Marinian and Antarian Elite Infantry. With other factions you will have to capture the Zerrikanians to get enough Reapers to capture refugee country troops. It’s doable but takes longer.

c. Adenian—They have modest infantry and ranged troops but truly fearsome heavy cavalry.  Their religious troops are ridiculously strong in battle and if you can get enough of them they will man rape the Legion invasion.  Sadly, you won’t get rich using them because they kill everything they even look at.  So prisoners will be limited. And since the Legion loot drops are awful you will have to build up a war chest before the Legion arrives. 

d. Marinian—I have a love hate relationship with Marinians. I love that they use polearm weapons and you’d think they would rip cavalry a new one but in truth, without the ability to brace spears in SoD they are the ones who get ripped. And since they don’t have shields they are vulnerable to archer fire. They also field crossbow troops and a crossbow/polearm wielding religious troop.  No Cavalry.

e. Antarian—Heavily armored two-handed sword wielding infantry and javelin throwing troops for ranged support.  No cavalry or archers.  They can be good in defense and offense but they are vulnerable to ranged attack.

Antarians and Marinans DO have cavalry (or are at least supposed to have). The Marinan Scout Cavalry is quite pathetic though, around the same level as the Villianese one. The Antarians however have two tiers of cavalry troops, with the second tier roughly equaling a Mercenary Horseman in quality. Sure, for Antarians it is more beneficial to hire the cavalrymen of other nations, but those who want to play "purely" a single civilization should be aware of the existance of these rider units.--MorrisB

f. The Legion—a well balanced mix of foot, crossbow, archer, horse archer, lancers, swordsmen, spearmen, javelin throwers, and whatever else there is. If it’s in the game they probably have it.

i. Strengths—Numbers. The shear weight of numbers is enough to overwhelm most armies.  For this reason you should boost Tactics skill to increase your battle advantage or reduce theirs.  Also, having a high renown will allow you to field more men so you can counter their numbers.  In the absence of either of those you will need Regiments to bring greater numbers into the field.  This gets expensive so make sure you can afford it.

ii. Strengths—Well balanced troops and in the beginning they are all top tier units.  Later on they field more green troops but you have to kill the initial invaders first.

i. Weaknesses—The Legion are not good castle defenders. They rely mostly on crossbows as ranged troops with the occasional Sons of Deer mixed in.  If you have a ranged infantry advantage you will do well in siege battles. Also they don’t have very good infantry defenders compared to Marinian, or the Foil wielding Boundless Rangers.

I agree with everything you've said except for the part about the Legion sucking at siege defense, I've played almost every mod you can play for M&B, and I've lost around 9 sieges total since I've started playing. 4 of them were in SoD, and 3 of them 4 were against the Legion. The legion is quite good at siege defense, if your encountering easiness in beating them, then your probably encountering their easiest troops.--X-Warrior-X

Results may vary on Legion defense capabilities.

ii. Weaknesses—The Legion can only produce armies if it has Lords to lead them.  If you capture lords then don’t allow them to be ransomed back.  Doing so in the early invasion is just asking for a new army to be sent against you.  The fewer lords they have the less their ability to hold what they’ve got and take more land.

iii. Weaknesses—The Legion’s overwhelming success is their greatest weakness.  Every castle and town they take is a castle and town that has to be defended.  They have to put troops and lords in these castles and that means their offensive capability diminishes the more territory they take.  So, defend what you’ve got and let the other factions fall to the enemy.

iv. Weaknesses—The Legion may have thousands of troops in a town, but they still get the same number of reinforcements you do.  Come with numbers and trap them like rats in a hole.  You don’t even have to keep the city.  Abandon it and let them retake it so you can trap them again.

2. Tactics you might use against the Legion:

A. Regiments Guarding the Door—If you’ve got money to burn and lots of freed prisoners you can create a massive regiment of 300 or more troops and deploy them at a choke point like a river crossing or a narrow pass like at Sungetche Castle.  A large enough force will keep most enemy troops from engaging it or getting passed. It’s a good way to limit access to your realm so you can be fighting somewhere else on the map.

B. Rope a Dope—If you are weak in a certain castle that is probably where the Legion will want to attack.  So make as many castles as you can strong and then leave a few in the same area that are under strength.  The Legion will probably go for these first. Now that you have a general idea of where they will attack and can be standing by with a defending force once the siege battle begins.  Obviously pick castles you know you can defend well.

C. Siren’s Song—If you are traveling with a small but elite army use your small size to entice individual Legion armies to come after you.  If you can take just a couple on at a time then the odds are much more in your favor.  You can whittle them down so that when they finally get to a castle or town their numbers won’t be so large. Every bit helps.

D. Time Bomb—You’ve got all these prisoners but don’t feel like selling them. Put them in a regiment of one and deploy them in the enemy territory near some bandits.  It’s possible to make a bandit army of a 1000 or more patrolling in the enemies heartland.  It will probably be too slow to catch anyone but it will still disrupt their movements.


3. Field Tactics: 

i. Gain a height advantage to reduce enemy cavalry charge power.  If no hills are available fall back to the edge of the map to use the map border to your advantage.

ii. Remember that as the enemy approaches there is one man you can kill that will stop the whole group.  If infantry this man is usually to the far right of the group or running out in front. Cut him down and the group stops and that gives your archers more time to loose arrows at them.  For cavalry units if you just kill the lead horse the entire group of horse will stop and reorganize. This often makes them turn in a circle thus exposing their backs to you.  This works best if the enemy horse are in a formation or are advancing in increments but even if it’s a horde of Sipahi hurtling towards you so long as  you can hit the right horse they all stop their charge. Sucks for them. (I love getting out in front of my troops with Giantslayer and ripping the legs off a charging horseman and watching the whole group stop and reassess.  If they stop close enough to your troops you should order everyone to charge them and cut them down where they stand.

iii. Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes. Especially in the Legion battles you will have to exercise fire discipline to save on ammo.  It’s not good to have an army of archers who have no arrows and have to use them to fight heavy infantry. It gets ugly quick.

iv. The AI is stupid.  If you can get out in front of your troops and follow the enemy while on horse they will turn their shields towards your attacks.  Unfortunately for them that turns their backs to your archers. It’s very satisfying to watch them fall like dominoes. However, if you are on foot you can still do this by moving out ahead and to the right and killing the lead soldier or chucking axes or arrows at them until they direct their attention towards you.  This is more dangerous because it’s harder to run out of the way of danger.  Practice makes perfect.

v. Defilade your army.  There is no point in letting an approaching army cut you’re your troops to bits with bows and arrows. If you don’t have ranged superiority, which the Marinians and Antarians probably won’t, and your infantry don’t have shields, which the Marinians and Antarians definitely don’t, you should hide them behind a hill.

vi. When attacking with cavalry you should wait until the enemy gets off a big hill before you charge in.  Level ground increases your advantage and reduces theirs.  Also keep your horses behind another hill or out of range so the enemy won’t camp on the side of a hill and pepper your men with arrows and bolts.

vii. You do more damage with horse if you hit the enemy from behind. Send out your cavalry around behind the enemy as they march towards your infantry and archers. When they get close enough order your infantry to attack and try to time your charge to hit just when the enemy is engaged with your infantry.  Even if you have a lot of green troops, this “hammer and anvil” method is nearly unbeatable if done right.

viii. If you know your troops are outclassed on the field you should order your archers to cease fire and join the charge into the enemy.  They aren’t going to fire on the melee group anyway and they will add attack power to your troops.  Even if you lose the battle you will inflict more casualties on the enemy.

ix. If the enemy has horse and infantry let their riders come all the way to your spawn point in the beginning of the battle. This will deny them infantry support.  After your troops have beat their riders down give them the order to follow you so they will stop chasing the riders.  Now that you are reconstituted your forces you can focus on the infantry. Note: If you have “automatically dismount” selected for when there are only a few enemy riders and lots of infantry then these horsemen, will stop and dismount if they aren’t being chased by you.
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4. Siege Tactics:

i. Archers are your number one troop type.  Put all of them at the top of the queue so they spawn first in siege battles. My method is to allow all archers to fire all of their arrows and then send them up the ladder. Yes they will probably all be cut down. So?  Are archers harder to get than infantry?  When their numbers get low enough your reinforcements will arrive and you can recall the archers and hold position again and kill even more defenders.  If you are using Villianese religious troops you will find they do very well on the ladder. 

ii. Retreating is for sissies—I’ve heard people say they fire all their arrows and retreat.  Here’s why you should never do this.  You can attack a castle with a 5000 troop garrison and guess how many reinforcements they get?  They get the same number you do.  If you can kill all their reinforcements and then win both inner city battles you will capture what is left of the 5000 troops.  That is, of course, if you deployed a regiment to soak them all up. However, if you retreat the enemy will have time to heal, train up its men, and their reinforcement queue will be reset.  That is bad.  What’s worse is that in the time it takes to build another ladder or tower a larger force can arrive to lift the siege or Lords in the city may escape thus denying you the ransom if you capture them.

iii. Deploy a Regiment during Siege Battles—Regiments can be annoying at times.  They have a mind of their own and run off and do stupid stuff. In the hours or days while you are sieging a castle or town there is plenty of time for them to get in trouble.  A regiment of 1 will be run off by bandits or a regiment of 100 will engage an enemy and not join your battle.  Here is how you deal with this. First if you need a regiment for support then put so many troops in it that it is too slow to chase enemies and too frightful for them to want to attack individually. And second, when your ladders or tower are ready, click on Party and tell a low level troop to form regiment.  VERY IMPORTANT—this regiment will not join the battle if you start it right away.  You must continue the siege and as quickly as possible click on the castle to go back to siege options.  In the lower left corner of the screen it will tell you in light blue letters that your regiment has joined the battle. Now you can start the battle knowing that you won’t lose any prisoners.  Even if that regiment is killed the prisoners will be in a regiment of zero.  (Maybe in the future you can deploy a regiment in the party screen and it will be in the battle without having to go to the campaign map. Until then always make sure the game tells you they are in the battle.)

iv. Save your infantry—I like to put my infantry up against the castle wall while my archers are firing their arrows. There is no sense in letting them take arrow fire from the castle and if you can put them to the left of the ladder or tower the defenders will turn to face this threat.  This will expose their unshielded sides to your archers. (Idiots!)

v. Forest Bandits—I like to put some of these at the top of the queue in siege battles. They only cost 5 denars a week, you can capture hundreds of them easily and their bows will kill even heavily armored foes.  The best part is they die easily.  Why is that good?  If you carry a bow yourself then you will have a ready supply of arrows in a siege battle that you can pick up.  This is a battle winner because you are probably the best shot in your army.  If it’s in the early game and you don’t have religious troops then every man on the wall you kill will save several of yours. Plus you get lots of experience and weapon skill.  I try to stand as far off as possible to maximize this weapon skill and just lob arrows into the same spot.  It’s hard to miss when they are all crowded up there.

vi. Archers first means infantry last—By using archers first in a siege it means your infantry will come last. This means that your companions who give you battle bonuses won’t be knocked out and that means you will continue to have a surgeon to reduce KIA. It also means that in the inner city battles you will more likely have heavy infantry to accompany you.


vii. Some factions like Marinian and Antarian are shield challenged.  Try putting some Rhodoks or other troop type with big shields at the top of your deployment queue.  They will likely spawn first and therefore be the ones who push the Tower up to the wall.  Sea Raiders can do this and they are cheap to maintain.  They will die in the first assault leaving your second reinforcement to do the killing.
 
3. Birth of a Nation—Building your Fledgling Realm

a. Where do I get troops to build my country?

When you are ready to take a castle the first mistake a lot of people make is to hire mercenaries.  This is bad for two reasons. First is that they aren’t the best troops you can get and second they cost twice as much.  Sure it’s more convenient to hire mercs but you will find it hard to let them go.  What’s the point in spending all that money on mercs only to release them later?  It will take you weeks before you can start generating troops from castles and even longer to make enough so you can let go of mercenaries. A lot of people just can’t stay solvent during this time.

The best way to build your army is to, (yes I will say it again) use blunt weapons to capture deserters and recruit them into your army. They are cheap to recruit (free!), don’t reduce the population of towns and villages, and once you build the facilities in your castle or town you can upgrade ALL refugee faction troops.  Also your towns and castles will recruit some of them every week automatically.  (As a side note it would be nice to have an option like with Forest Bandits to recruit homeland deserters into your army.)

Plus if you have captured noble troops you can upgrade them quickly and be able to start sending missions for the lost as soon as the first Bourgeoisie Congregation is built.  You can send ANY refugee faction’s top tier nobles to find artifacts.

b. Defending your realm.  “He who defends everything defends nothing”.  

You simply can’t put enough troops in all your castles to defend them from every kind of attack.  So when you are building your realm you can put just 1 troop to garrison a castle and take the remaining soldiers and capture another castle or a town. 

If you have only 300 troops total you can defend 3 castles and a town.  How?  Put one soldier in each place and you will have a mobile army of 296 to bring to any siege battle.  The AI will only bring enough troops to attack the garrison so you should always be able to outmatch them and they rarely attack more than one castle at a time.  In the early game when you only have a few castles and towns to defend it will always be close enough to reach them in time to join the battle.  Think of it as a way of creating a 297 man garrison for every castle and town.

c. Castle Selection—You are going to be here for awhile so you better make sure you like the place.

You should think carefully about which castle you want to take first.  You want to select a castle that is close to hunting grounds so you can continue to level and make money.  However, it also has to be close to a place to sell the loot and prisoners you capture.  This means you need a friendly town nearby.

Also, you want to select a castle that you can defend easily.  Not all castles are the same and some are better for good infantry to defend and some are better for archers to defend.  You should walk around the courtyard of a castle before you declare war to determine its strong points and also to plan out how you might defend it later on.

d. Castle Defense Strategies—What to do and what not to do.

You need a good balance of troops to defend a castle. You need good infantry to stand at the ladder and cut the enemy down and you need ranged troops to cut the enemy down as they walk up the ladder.  However, some factions have weak archers or weak infantry and you will find it hard to take on a much larger force.  Here are some tips to deal with that.

i. Weak infantry/strong ranged troops

Sometimes you infantry sucks or your numbers are low or unbalanced.  Try moving your troops off the walls and down into the courtyard.  Position your infantry at the bottom of stairs and your ranged troops out in the courtyard.  Your ranged troops will have more time to shoot at the enemy and you will be able to bring all of them to bear rather than just those archers that happen to be at an open crenelation in the wall.  Wait until the last second before you order your infantry to attack because you want to reduce their casualties but also don’t wait too long because you don’t want the enemy to get off the stairs and spread out. 

This method works best if you have only one stair way available to the enemy, the stairway is really narrow (like many Vaegir castles) or the stairway is far away from where the ladder is.  All this increases the time your archers have to shoot at the enemy and perhaps most importantly it increases the distance that the enemy’s next reinforcements have to travel to reach your troops.  This can give you a break to make adjustments in troop placement or to find arrows.

ii. Kill the most dangerous first

When defending and using a ranged weapon position yourself so you can see the top of the ladder where the enemy is attacking your troops.  If you time your shots so it hits the enemy when he has raised his weapon at your troops you will reset his action thus giving your infantry a chance to hit him first, you weaken him thus making him easier for infantry to kill, or you will kill him.  It is probably better to weaken him because so long as he is stalled at the top he holds up the rest of the troops thus giving your ranged troops more time to shoot at them.

iii. Long arm of the Polearm

If you can stand just behind your infantry who are defending against a ladder attack you can use a polearm to reach over them and add to their attack power.  You can stand behind a wall and strike through the stone at the enemy.  You will be hidden from most arrow shots as well as any melee attack. I recommend the downward chopping attack for the most damage.

iv. If all goes wrong you can retreat from a castle defense and try to escape. Just hit tab and select retreat. You will be at the screen for when you are entering a castle. You can choose to rest or to leave.
 
V. Exploits or Features?

Some have suggested that these are exploits and not features. Maybe they are right but ultimately the end user is the one who makes that decision.  Some of these suggestions won’t be available in version 4.6.

i. Recruit Captured Mercenary Leader—All of the hirable mercenaries have named leaders which can be hired if captured. Some specialize in horse, some are foot soldiers.  You can upgrade them like your regular companions but it seems that some of their equipment choices seem hardwired and won’t respond to the auto-equip mode in the mod. You just have to manually equip them.  I’ve recruited all of them.  There are some bugs in doing this. For instance, they will still spawn out in the world and if the cloned officers are defeated in battle then the officer in your party will also be wounded.  Also if you capture the cloned officer and recruit him you won’t have two of them. And if you strip your companion of equipment and let him go and then recruit the prisoner it will be the same officer with no equipment.  Finally, if you recruit an officer as a companion and release him later then no more mercenary armies will spawn, but as long as he or she is in your army then mercenary armies will still continue to spawn.
 
ii. Recruit Centurion Lords—This is definitely a glitch but it’s not necessarily game changing.  When you’ve captured a Centurion talk to him in the Party window.  Tell him he’s committed treason and execute him.  The computer will tell you he was executed, however, when you look at the party menu he is still there.  So you can talk to him again only this time, along with the option to execute is an option to invite him to join.  I’ve only recruited one Centurion.  It was Centurion Mercury and he had 22 Charisma.  I’m sure you can see how that might be useful.

iii. Regiments on Patrol—Regiments cost double wages, but if you tell a bunch of Reapers to patrol a bandit rich area they will take lots of prisoners. It can offset the cost of these troops and maybe even make you some money.  It’s a good way of controlling the bandit population and after you’ve taken the prisoners off the Regiment you can order them to patrol some other part of your realm.

iv. Rinse and Repeat—If you captured an entire Black Army or hundreds of Sea Raiders you can leave them in a regiment of one and allow that regiment to be attacked by roving bandits.  The more prisoners in the regiment the slower it will go and thus the faster it will be attacked.  Once defeated all the prisoners are freed and join the bandits.  Now attack this bandit army and you will get all the mad loot you got before!  Now put them in another regiment of one and do it again.  Keep capturing Black Armies and put them into the same regiment and you will make it even slower and get more renown and experience for your efforts.  The only bad thing about doing this is that you will hate to discard all the expensive loot that won’t fit into your inventory because there is always a ton of it.

VI. Special Section on Weapons, Horses, and Other Stuff

1. Beginners combat—Things even veterans might not know.

Becoming good in battle isn’t just point and click.  You need to pay attention to your enemy, assess his capabilities and knowing your own capabilities adapt them to defeat your foes.  Below are a mix of strategies I’ve picked up through trial and error.

A. Take for instance, you are on foot and there are five Rhodok Spearman coming at you.  What do you do?  If they all have long spears you should move in close.  Their long reach weapons are not effective at close range. So long as you have a shorter reach weapon you will do more damage up close. 

B. When dealing with multiple foes you can use one or two enemy to block the other. If the guy out front has his shield up then keep him between you and the others so they can’t hit you.  This works best if they have a swinging weapon and less so if they are using a thrusting attack.  They need room to swing and as you know your friends often block your swinging attacks.

C. When fighting multiple foes you must pay attention to all targets.  Focusing on the guy in front is not a good idea.  He may keep his shield up the whole time while his buddies circle around and attack.  If the guy just behind and too the right looks like he wants to hit you or has shield dropped you should strike him first.  Often I hit one of these guys and immediately try to hit the guy in front on reflex because he tries to attack when I’m distracted.  It’s a beautiful thing to take on 5 or more guys (at normal speed) and predict their movements and attack and be the last one standing.

D. You can compensate for short reach weapons and slow swing weapons.  When you see an enemy drop his shield simply step forward into range and turn into the swing. Your momentum will add a small speed damage bonus, but turning at the same time will actually make your weapon hit faster.  (That’s how it seems to me anyway)  Now step back out of range and wait for the next opening.

E. Blunt and Pierce weapons are better.  That’s the reason why they’ve had their reach and speed decreased in SoD.  Truth is if you are on horse back having a shorter reach and speed weapon is actually BETTER (70 reach is about the minimum here).  Here’s why; when you are running down an enemy and his shield is up what do you do?  You bump him to knock his shield out of the way.  In order to do this you are already close enough to hit him even with a short reach weapon.  And since you are speeding by you are only going to get one hit at him so all you need is timing to kill him.  In this case high speed and high reach aren’t important.  In fact high reach actually decreases the damage when you are too close.  And I guarantee you if you hit a guy with a blunt or piercing weapon while gaining the speed bonus from a horse it will knock out or kill in one shot.

F. Now ask yourself how your companions always seem to die when they are on a horse?  They get bogged down in a mass of enemy and the enemy cut them to pieces.  But imagine 10 companions with heavy chargers and 73 Reach Flanged Maces.  All of your companions are bumping them with their chargers and they are at the perfect range to give massive head trauma to the enemy. 

G. If you’ve equipped your companions with spears then they are especially vulnerable to the large melee because spears are long reach weapons and your companions with be at a disadvantage in the horse melee.  But with a shorter reach blunt or piercing weapon they will be just as effective. 

H. Pick weapons you can use in the field and in a siege battle.  I like the War Bow and a Balanced Flanged Mace for field battles and I occasionally swap the mace for a Balance Military Pick.  The range is shorter the speed is good and it does piercing damage.  When defending I don’t want the enemy to retreat and take their wounded to fight another day.  I want them to leave with nothing.

I. If you fight on foot you need lighter armor and weapons than you might use on horse. For this reason I like the Light Plate and Mail. It’s yellow, Red, and Black, and used by Marinian religious troops.  It has 48 body, 12 leg armor rating and weighs ONLY 10.  It’s also ridiculously affordable. Just a few grand for this armor and a bit more if you can find better versions.  The most important item if you fight on foot is your shield. Buy the best but also by them light weight and fast.  Board shields provide good coverage but if they are slow and heavy you may not be able to raise them fast enough to dodge a weapon blow.  Buy Lordly gloves since they only weight 1.0, and by the best helmet since damage to the head hurts more than elsewhere on the body.  Spare no expense on the head gear.  My encumbrance with all weapons and armor is about 25.  This means I am faster on my feet than my companions and many enemy foot soldiers.  Never underestimate the importance of speed in battle.

2. Weapons—How to find your true love.

When I started playing M&B I chose whichever weapon seemed like the best weapon or whatever I could find in loot drops.  I tended to gravitate towards longer weapons under the belief that I would last longer in battle and I could do more damage but stay out of range of the enemy attacks.  In truth the weapon you choose should reflect your combat style, skill, and the situation you are fighting in.  Below are some weapons that I am familiar with and feel are undervalued by many players.

A. Masterwork Foil— thrust 37p, speed 111, reach 116.  A ridiculously slender weapon which only thrusts and does piercing damage. The Boundless Rangers are equipped with this weapon and they do pretty well at the top of a ladder.  I’ve used this weapon in field battles. It is fast, you don’t have to move your mouse backwards to get it to thrust, and it does mad damage.  By that I mean one hit one kill. This weapon is good if you have several guys using it since they can attack from behind their buddies so long as they have line of sight. However, at closer ranges this weapon will bounce off (has range of about 120 and speed of at least 110 depending on version). So you have to have good athletics to gain distance so you can use it.

B. Balanced Flanged Mace—31b, 95 swing, 72 reach. Usable from horseback and the only weapon I equip my companions with. Good close up but still long enough to use at lower athletic levels.  You will make more money with this weapon.

C. Morningstar—Slower and less reach than the flanged mace but still very deadly.  Once in a blue moon it bounces off the enemy.  Does great damage, and knocks men down too. I love the sickening sound it makes. 

E. Balanced Military Pick—30p, 93, 65,Similar stats to the Balanced Flanged Mace but does piercing damage and is probably a little better than Morningstar.

F. Balanced Pear Mace—33b, 78, 74 Slower than the flanged mace but has slightly more reach.  Good weapon if you can’t find the flanged mace.

G. Balanced Warhammer--30b, 26p, 93, 52.  This one handed blunt weapon is the best for close combat.  It has a thrust option and a bonus against shields.  Very nice. (There are multiple version of the one handed Warhammer.)

H. Balanced Club with Spike—One/two handed, swing 33b, thrust 31p, speed103, reach 80.  A very affordable weapon that can be found from many Rhodok crossbowmen and at the bottom of the weapons vendors in towns.


I. Finally, consider some crappy weapons. Like throwing stones, or wooden clubs. Why?  Let’s say your hardened companions come across some looters. If you send them in to kill these guys they will win hands down. But if you equip them with a wooden stick that does very little damage they will have to hit several times. This means they are more likely to increase their weapon skill with less risk to themselves.  They still have their armor and shield so giving them stones or a stick is just good training.


3. Things  you may not know about weapons stats

A. Blunt and Piercing weapons tend to bypass most of an enemies armor rating.  So if you find a sword and a piercing weapon with the same reach and speed but the piercing does a little less damage it is probably still a better weapon.  Remember that Armor is designed to defend against bladed weapons. And blunt and piercing weapons are designed to defeat armor.

B. Shorter reach weapons are less likely to bounce off because it is harder to get too close to the enemy with these weapons. A long sword however, will bounce off as the enemy gets too close. As you may know the enemy likes to swarm and surround you if it can and once they get too close you won’t be able to beat them off with a long sword. Then you get shield locked and you’re done. 

C. Weapons with shorter reach are not necessarily bad.  If you can get up close to an enemy with a short ranged weapon you can do more damage up close. If they happen to have a 10 foot spear they can’t touch you.  If they are using a Mountain Lord Sword it will likely bounce off.  They will have to back away from you.

D. Slow weapons aren’t as slow as you think.  If you have a slow Morningstar and you are on horseback how important is that speed?  If you are flying towards the enemy on a horse you already have speed.  So all you need is timing to get one hit and that guy is dead.  The Morningstar does mad damage and is a one hit one kill type of weapon once you build up your skill.  And if you are on foot you can get a Speed Damage Bonus by stepping forward and turning into the swing.  This is often what you will have to do anyway to get in range with the Morningstar.  Plus as you increase weapon skill it also increases weapon speed and reach.

v. Horses—A horse, a horse! My Kingdom for a horse!—Shakespeare, Richard III

There’s not a lot to be said about horses that can’t be intuited in the game. I will say the obvious, that Heavy Chargers are the best for attacking ground troops. They take a lot of damage, have good armor, and have a nice charge bonus.

But consider the Courser and the Hunter.  Not every battle is against infantry and if you go against Steppe Bandits, Sipahi, or other mounted troops (even heavily armored mounted troops) then a fast horse is far superior to a heavily armored one.  The reason is because men on horseback are less likely to strike your horse than ground troops are. So if the armor rating and hit points don’t matter then you have no reason not to focus on speed and maneuverability.

That said, if you are using a lance or long spear there is also no reason not to use a Hunter or Course against ground troops since their speed will give you a nice damage bonus on troops you skewer and since the weapon range is long enough to keep you out of trouble so your horse will be less likely to take damage. 

Of course it takes skill to use a lighter horse and the margin for error is pretty thin.  Speed gives you a damage bonus but it also gives your enemy the same damage bonus. I’m not going to go into horse combat too much but I will say a few things.

A. Avoid the soldier who is prepared to thrust you or your horse. Thrusting does the most damage to a horse and if he hits you it may kill you in one shot.  Better to dodge or shield against his attack and find some guy with his shield up. 

B. If you want to charge a group of infantry with a horse make sure you have your weapon primed to strike. You don’t actually have to strike anyone, but in doing so it encourages the infantry to raise their shields against your weapon.  But your real weapon is your horse which will do damage to all troops even those with shields up.  And if they all have their shields up they can’t strike you or your horse. Psych!

C. If your cavalry are outnumbered and outclassed by infantry you can try charging through the infantry repeatedly to knock them down and soften them up.  This reduces the amount of men capable of attacking for a second or two and gives your horseman fewer targets they need to defend against or strike down.  You can do this with lighter horses and higher Riding Skill.  In fact, you will be able to do it more times in a shorter period because your horse is more maneuverable and faster, but you will be limited by your horses hit points so keep an eye on them.
 
Good guide, I'll read it more carefully when I get some more time but I placed a link in the SoD Links sticky already.  You may have to update it when SoD V5.0 is released, there is much more interactions with mercenary guilds and they are 100% more useful than before in terms of quests, relation bonuses, and pact bonuses.  I say this because they are extremely useful to start the game off and gaining high relations with them will allow them to follow your council around.  For now, don't worry, we are probably a few months away from release.

Thanks for contribution
 
I agree with everything you've said except for the part about the Legion sucking at siege defense, I've played almost every mod you can play for M&B, and I've lost around 9 sieges total since I've started playing. 4 of them were in SoD, and 3 of them 4 were against the Legion. The legion is quite good at siege defense, if your encountering easiness in beating them, then your probably encountering their easiest troops. Not trying to sound like a ****, just giving my 2 cents.




Signed,

X-Warrior-X
 
I read it through. This is a very well-written and detailed guide, it holds valuable information for newbies and veterans alike. However there is room for improvement at some points:

Antarians and Marinans DO have cavalry (or are at least supposed to have). The Marinan Scout Cavalry is quite pathetic though, around the same level as the Villianese one. The Antarians however have two tiers of cavalry troops, with the second tier roughly equaling a Mercenary Horseman in quality. Sure, for Antarians it is more beneficial to hire the cavalrymen of other nations, but those who want to play "purely" a single civilization should be aware of the existance of these rider units.

Also, Marinan infantry troops are very good in sieges, either in attacking or defending. Their long polearms give them a "lengthy" advantage, whether they are marching upwards the ladder/siege tower and try to push off the defenders from the walls, or reversed, trying to push the attackers off the ladders. You should really try this out once, it's a cool experience. The Marinan polearms, while suck against massed cavalry charges in the field, are very powerful in sieges and help out the Marinan crossbowmen a lot.

The Legion itself has an infantry branch which has decent armor, big shields and may occasionally spawn with javelins, while the primary weapons are short swords/spears. Their crossbowmen are quite well-rounded, but not exceptionally powerful. Their cavalry is on-par with most medium/heavy cavalry and use lances/swords.
The Legion's mercenary allies are Sons of Deer who are cavalry archers, and Bastard Brothers who are offensive heavy infantry.

Also, what I'm really missing is a summary of the Mercenary Guilds. They will play a larger role in v5.0 than ever before and have some quite powerful units. For example the Black Army Iron Guard is THE best defensive infantry you'll ever access (beside Faith Troops and certain Nobles, of course). Mercenaries may be costy but some of their troops are quite worth recruiting.
 
MorrisB said:
I read it through. This is a very well-written and detailed guide, it holds valuable information for newbies and veterans alike. However there is room for improvement at some points:

Antarians and Marinans DO have cavalry (or are at least supposed to have). The Marinan Scout Cavalry is quite pathetic though, around the same level as the Villianese one. The Antarians however have two tiers of cavalry troops, with the second tier roughly equaling a Mercenary Horseman in quality. Sure, for Antarians it is more beneficial to hire the cavalrymen of other nations, but those who want to play "purely" a single civilization should be aware of the existance of these rider units.

Also, Marinan infantry troops are very good in sieges, either in attacking or defending. Their long polearms give them a "lengthy" advantage, whether they are marching upwards the ladder/siege tower and try to push off the defenders from the walls, or reversed, trying to push the attackers off the ladders. You should really try this out once, it's a cool experience. The Marinan polearms, while suck against massed cavalry charges in the field, are very powerful in sieges and help out the Marinan crossbowmen a lot.

The Legion itself has an infantry branch which has decent armor, big shields and may occasionally spawn with javelins, while the primary weapons are short swords/spears. Their crossbowmen are quite well-rounded, but not exceptionally powerful. Their cavalry is on-par with most medium/heavy cavalry and use lances/swords.
The Legion's mercenary allies are Sons of Deer who are cavalry archers, and Bastard Brothers who are offensive heavy infantry.

Also, what I'm really missing is a summary of the Mercenary Guilds. They will play a larger role in v5.0 than ever before and have some quite powerful units. For example the Black Army Iron Guard is THE best defensive infantry you'll ever access (beside Faith Troops and certain Nobles, of course). Mercenaries may be costy but some of their troops are quite worth recruiting.
Click to expand...

I have been putting together a mercenary quest guide but not really touching on the troops (as I was testing bugs in all the new quests).  If someone does create a guide for the guilds, I'd be happy to post my 2 cents on new quests. 

I would like to point out that I completely rewrote the in-game manual to have all the information for the guilds in 5.0.  When I release 5.0, I intended to have all that information included on forums as well.  It is different than this guide which is more of a players view point.  The guide is more of statitcs (i.e. when relations = this, you get this, etc.). 


I am saying this to prevent a duplication of effort.  I'd hate to see someone spend a lot of time on this and then when released, the majority of it outdated. 

General Mercenary Guild Features:
- Enjoy fighting or hiring mini-guilds on the map such as jobless mercenaries, forest bandits, mountain bandits, or the Boar Clan
--- Forest bandits and mountain bandits will join your party if you have less than -5 honor (and pay them), but it's random and may happen even if you have up to 15 honor
--- Parties grow stronger depending on player's level
--- No more weak looter parties, bandits are now a force to be feared

- Use the Report Menu or hold cursor over the Mercenary Guild leaders (in mercenary camps) to determine guild relations

- Raise relations with a mercenary guild by completing new quests or signing a pact

- Sealing a pact raises relations to +100 with that Guild
--- Cancelling the pact reduces relations to 0 (regardless of previous relations before pact was sealed)

- Can only have 1 pact with 1 Guild at a time and must have at least 1 castle (be considered a king)

- After you cancel a pact, you cannot start another pact with the same Guild for 1 month

- By design, you cannot seal a pact with the Slaver Guild (they are spread all throughout Calradia) or Boar Clan (can hire parties off the map) 

- Can cancel contract with any mercenary party by talking with them (they demand weekly wages as a compensation)

- Can sell prisoners to the Slaver Guild Master or Slaver Guild Representative at 45 denars each

- When hire mercenaries from a Guild Representative in your castle/city, the troops will spawn from their mercenary guild base, not out of the castle/city you are currently located:
--- Slaver Guild Representative will send the party from the closest Slaver base (Sargoth, Praven, Tulga, Jelkala, and Reyvadin) to your current location
--- Depending on location, troops from the Slaver Guild Representative arrive faster than other guilds, since they have bases in all of Calradia (use this fact when selecting first castle)

- All native kings start off with a pact with the local guild:
--- It is possible to stumble upon a Guild Representative in another faction’s castle
--- Use them to hire troops if desired

- When you order mercenary parties that are carrying prisoners to go to a castle, they will drop all the prisoners off in your castle before leaving
--- An excellent source of funds, especially when using Slaver parties (and have a Slaver Guild Rep / Ransom Broker in your council)

- Attacking a mercenary field marshal grants -40 relations to the faction that hired the guild (or to commoner’s faction if no pact with any guild.  The Slavers are an exception, it will be -40 with Slavers since they are not capable of pacts).

- Allow 2-3 days for available mercenaries to increase for hire to your party from guild leaders and representatives
--- Every day, 1 to 5 rank and file mercenaries (1 to 10 with pact) are randomly added to the available troop pool at the mercenary guild leader / representative if there are less than 15 available (30 with pact)
--- Every day, 1 elite high relation only mercenaries (2 with pact) are randomly added to the available troop pool at the mercenary guild leader / representative if there are less than 3 available (6 with pact)


Mercenary Party Price Information:
- Party Price = [(Sum of each soldiers joining costs) * (Size modifier) * (Contract length modifier)]

- The options of selecting a party to hire such as “recruits, average, or experienced” and “melee infantry, ranged infantry, cavalry, or a mixed army” affect the price indirectly since each individual soldier’s price is included

- Size of party affects the price (5% discount per each 25 additional men in party):
--- 25 men:  No discount
--- 50 men:  5% discount
--- 75 men:  10% discount
--- 100 men:  15% discount
--- 125 men:  20% discount
--- 150 men:  25% discount

- Length of contract discount: 
--- 1 month:  0% discount
--- 3 months:  15% discount
--- 6 months:  30% discount


Guild Pact Bonuses:
- These bonuses encourage picking a favorite guild and signing a pact.  However, high relations with another guild will still provide enough benefit to use more than one successfully

- Pact doubles the number of available rank and file troops (to 30) and elite troops (to 6) available for hire to your party

- Receive 25% discount when hiring parties and individual soldiers (the weekly rate is also decreased as long as hold pact)

- The Mercenary Guild's field marshal will support your faction:
--- Join in battles and attack your enemies, even change to your factions color
--- If the guild is unemployed the field marshal temporarily switches to the Commoners

- Lords will hire mercenary parties to follow them

- Individual mercenaries will also be hired directly into Lords parties and fiefs

- A discount to pacts weekly price is received the longer the pact is paid on time:
--- A 5% discount is applied for each week paid in a row up to 50% off (10 weeks paid)
--- If cancel pact (and wait 1 month to renew), no discount is offered until make consecutive successful payments again

- Since a pact automatically grants 100 relations, all high relation bonuses are also in effect when you sign a pact


Guild High Relation Bonuses:
- Can hire troops in bigger packs [size (minimum relation required)]:
--- 100 (25+ relations)
--- 125 (50+ relations)
--- 150 (75+ relations)

- Can hire Experienced party troops with 35+ relations (i.e. 25, 50, 75 parties of experienced troops)
--- Not to be confused with individual elite mercenaries

- Can hire elite individual mercenary units (40+ relations, Slavers 10+ relations since you cannot sign a pact with them)

- Can hire packs for 6 month contracts (40+ relations)

- A Mercenary Guild representative appears in your court (30+ relations):
--- Can be accessed through the castle menu (like Marshall, treasurer, chancellor, or strategy advisor) without going to Castle court each time
--- Can hire rank and file and / or elite individual troops (if relations high enough for elites)
--- Can hire parties of soldiers
--- Can cancel pact
--- Can sell prisoners to the Slaver Guild Representative at 45 denars each
--- It is possible through enough quests to have Guild Representatives from all 7 Guilds follow your council around

- Receive permission to upgrade mercenary guild troops (10+ relations)
--- No permission to upgrade troops is required if you take them to the mercenary base and upgrade from base menu
--- Can upgrade Guild mercenaries from the camp menu (anywhere on map) after: 
------ Achieve 10+ relations with guild, and
------ Request permission with Guild Master at mercenary base (both are required). 
--- Slaver mercenaries (and Commoners) can be upgraded anywhere on the map at beginning of game with 0 relations
--- If lose relations with guild below 10+, you lose ability to upgrade troops.  Must raise relations to 10+ and ask permission again

- 7 mercenary factions offer single troops (individual rank and file troops which can be upgraded and elite high relations only troops) as well as whole army regiments for hire to you and your enemies:

 
ahh i always take a different path but im seriously considering using blunt weapons as a money earner now

i always try to save my starting army so i can upgrade those troops when i get a castle

i usually hire black army troops for my initial army and wait until a castle is low on defenders before i strike

i initially get gold by forcing villagers to give me items :twisted: it's quite a good earner with no effort required and i usually dont do it if they're offering recruits to me (get around 10-20k and hire 1-2 7.5k merc armies then take a castle)

once i have taken my first castle/town i then visit all the villages i can while my barracks is being built and recruit peasants from them - by the time the barracks is built (7 days usually) i will have the possibility of 100 antarian veterans or more

looting and burning then becomes my money earner

mid to end game i always try to make money from trade but i've been failing to get my trade risk low enough for it to be as good as it used to be - i made 100's of thousands of gold originally through trade but i cant seem to in the latest versions

i tend to make my char the Intelligence guy and have surgery/engineering etc on him - i figure if i dont go down i dont lose the bonuses
 
There is a button to sell all of the prisoners with 1 click? My fingers are burning for cliking 100 times on sell. Yes im new on MB, sorry. Thanks on the help.
 
I don't think there is a one click thing. U might be able to find a mod that does it and try putting it into this one, but the game might malfunction.
 
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