What's your experience with being a foot soldier?

Users who are viewing this thread

I keep wanting to do a Viking raider type of playthrough, fighting and moving across the map on foot with my "Viking" hoard. I've tried in the past but never stuck with it. On foot I feel so slow, even with putting points into Athletics I feel like I might see some speed improvement if I run side by side with my troops for at least 50 meters, but nothing noteworthy. I don't expect to run like Usain Bolt with heavy armor on, but does athletics have a noticeable affect if I just stick with it?

And yeah, I know I could just ride a horse in combat then dismount when I get into fights, but that just feels clunky and I'd like to stay away from any horses other than pack animals and horses my foot soldiers can ride across the map.
 
They nerfed Athletics a few patches ago. You used to be able to run really fast at higher skill levels, but now even at max skill its still feels pretty slow. The speed was unrealistically fast before, but I feel like like they overcorrected a bit too much.
 
I keep wanting to do a Viking raider type of playthrough, fighting and moving across the map on foot with my "Viking" hoard. I've tried in the past but never stuck with it. On foot I feel so slow, even with putting points into Athletics I feel like I might see some speed improvement if I run side by side with my troops for at least 50 meters, but nothing noteworthy. I don't expect to run like Usain Bolt with heavy armor on, but does athletics have a noticeable affect if I just stick with it?

And yeah, I know I could just ride a horse in combat then dismount when I get into fights, but that just feels clunky and I'd like to stay away from any horses other than pack animals and horses my foot soldiers can ride across the map.
the 200 perk in 1h and the 100 perk in athletics still give really impactful speed boosts.
 
Athletics has a big effect, especially when you take the mobility perks. You can catch up to looters in heavy armour. A lot bigger effect than it had in Warband. There are also banners that affect movement speed that may be looking into, but like everything in Bannerlord you need to test them to make sure they actually work.
It's probably worth getting to 275 athletics for most combat-oriented characters since the 275 perk gives you a big boost to hitpoints, along with all the attribute bonuses along the way.
 
For me it is in the future to do.
But i notice in the hideouts i clear my men is far behind. And i always see one or two straglers. They are new companions with low athletic or wearing heavy armor. So it must make a difference atleast in battle scenario. On the world map i don´t know. But caravan leaders i have sent away on foot don´t get catched more often then those on horseback.
 
I keep wanting to do a Viking raider type of playthrough, fighting and moving across the map on foot with my "Viking" hoard. I've tried in the past but never stuck with it. On foot I feel so slow, even with putting points into Athletics I feel like I might see some speed improvement if I run side by side with my troops for at least 50 meters, but nothing noteworthy. I don't expect to run like Usain Bolt with heavy armor on, but does athletics have a noticeable affect if I just stick with it?

And yeah, I know I could just ride a horse in combat then dismount when I get into fights, but that just feels clunky and I'd like to stay away from any horses other than pack animals and horses my foot soldiers can ride across the map.
It's doable, actually works well if you're running an infantry heavy party which is usually case for Battanians/Sturgians.

But it never matches horseback advantage at all. Just too easy to get mobbed and there's no kind of sweeping attacks to stop yourself from getting overrun. Commanding and positioning yourself appropriately is harder for sure, and you're going to need a shield. But you can make a bigger impact in infantry melee battles since you can really go on killing sprees. Also mighty blows is a very nice perk with all the extra HP.

I say go for it, if no other reason to challenge yourself. Horse archery and lancing may be dominant, but for me two handed weapons and horseback javelin (those ragdoll moments) is most fun. Weapons like the Falx are crazy good, especially if you craft your own variant. Experimenting with a two-handed axe build to maximize shield destruction ATM, though I'm not 100% on foot. Early game is pretty hard on foot only til you get athletics up to decent level.


It wouldn't be so bad if you could actually see what's going on. But it does illustrate why war leaders were always on horseback and looking for elevated ground to command from.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I do love cavalry, but want to challenge myself with a build that's not "get horse, get rhomphalia, one shot everything". I am thinking "axes for everything"; one-handed, two-handed, and throwing axes, along with a big shield. Mostly for RP, and because I usually ignore axes in favor of other weapons. At least now we can respec if the build sucks. But after this playthrough I plan on trying to max out athletics and pick up the mobility and hp perks to see how it works out.

 
You know that the vikings actually used horses for traveling every time they got access to it? They needed any speed they could get for their murderous robberies and slave catching, especially to avoid bigger local forces. So it would be totally fine to ride and have your infantry mounted while fighting on foot.

When I play as Battania (as I do most) I usually fight on foot but use a horse to travel, for lore reasons. I changed Battania to a more "Irish" faction, they have noble riders, but mostly fight on foot.
 
I don't think that's how it has worked in a long, long time. Assuming you're talking about needing SP to gain character levels.
You get to a point where the only way to get more levels (ie get attributes or focus points) or to remove that 'cap' skill gain is to learn a new skill. So removing yourself from gaining SP from riding, you're handicapping yourself to a certain max level, same applies for any other skill/route. Minute issue, since it's more a 'roleplay' thing OP essentially asking, but still, highlights how awkward the skill system is here. Where it's both: you must grind exp by using skill and the limitation to it's growth based on requiring points in said skill/attribute too.
The soft cap where it's 'slower' to gain skills the higher it goes, I can understand, but the hard cap (ie you're stuck at 274 unless you get 8 attributes)? I guess it's their way to 'balance' so the player doesn't manage to get the 275 perk of multiple skills without min/maxing...but my character/companions can still die anyways. If death is disabled, sure, things can get out of hand for a super OP player/companions (but that was an after though option they only added after the skill system anyways).
 
You get to a point where the only way to get more levels (ie get attributes or focus points) or to remove that 'cap' skill gain is to learn a new skill. So removing yourself from gaining SP from riding, you're handicapping yourself to a certain max level, same applies for any other skill/route. Minute issue, since it's more a 'roleplay' thing OP essentially asking, but still, highlights how awkward the skill system is here. Where it's both: you must grind exp by using skill and the limitation to it's growth based on requiring points in said skill/attribute too.
Your learning rate doesn't affect the main level XP gain from getting skill XP, even if you hard capped or have 330+ in the skill.
 
Your learning rate doesn't affect the main level XP gain from getting skill XP, even if you hard capped or have 330+ in the skill.
I must've missed that then, so even if I'm solidly hard-capped at 274 in bow, I can still gain skill XP from bow that still applies to my main level XP, even if the bow skill stays stuck at 274?
 
I must've missed that then, so even if I'm solidly hard-capped at 274 in bow, I can still gain skill XP from bow that still applies to my main level XP, even if the bow skill stays stuck at 274?
Yes, that is how it currently works. It will be slow but you can still level this way.
 
I must've missed that then, so even if I'm solidly hard-capped at 274 in bow, I can still gain skill XP from bow that still applies to my main level XP, even if the bow skill stays stuck at 274?
Yeah, when you gain skill XP, it'll pass that value on to gaining raw XP before learning rate gets applied. The only checks against that are if learning rate doesn't apply at all (pretty sure that's just stuff that outright gives levels like the console?) and that you haven't maxed out (at level 62)
 
Yes, that is how it currently works. It will be slow but you can still level this way.
Huh, the things you learn, so one could potentially choose to put +12 in vigor but by only using the bow/control skill even if that attribute is at 2 and the bow skill is stuck at 88; and still gain main xp/continue levelling...
 
Back
Top Bottom