The Wandering Knight
Sergeant
I have been playing Mount and Blade for several years now, ever since version .7 was released. This isn't anywhere near as long as some of you guys, but it's longer than others have even known about the game existing. I came across the game while surfing on moddb.com; while scrolling through the list of games with mods, I saw this game and decided to Google it. An hour later I was hooked and tale worlds got another customer. So much for game companies not thinking mods sell games, no?
Anyways, I'm taking a break from the game for a moment to do a small write up on combat in Mount and Blade, This is intended for new players who've got the game but don't do so well in larger scale conflicts. This simple guide contains mostly common sense, though the few new people I've gotten into the game all seem to ignore these concepts.
When you start a battle in mount and blade, you have the ability to command your troops to do what you need them to do, beyond simply charging headlong into the enemy, who may or may not be doing the same. Controlling your guys is very simple, though I admit sometimes I press the wrong buttons myself. The number keys 1-4 are your primary troop categories. Keys 5-7 also have functions, but I do not use them and have won battles outnumbered 3-1. Key 1 gets the attention of your entire army, key 2 gets the attention of your infantry, key 3 gets the attention of your archers, and key 4 gets the attention of your cavalry. Cavalry are obviously distinguished from the rest of the army by the fact that they ride horses, archers are ranged units (their name will make this obvious), and infantry are melee units. I am not totally sure what makes them respond as such in code, because there are several units with ranged weapons that act when “infantry” is called; I assume the flag guaranteed_ranged is responsible but I have not tested this.
Each category of troops has a number of actions they can do besides killing the enemy. How and when you chose to do them decides the outcome of battles more than some would give it credit for. Given the computerized personality of each soldier in your army, combat morale is not something you need to worry about, for better or worse. This means troops will not run away during combat, and will follow your orders to the death. The actions and their keys are as follows: F1 causes the selected category to hold the position you are currently standing on. F2 causes the category of troops to follow you. F3 causes the selected type of troop to charge. F4 orders them to mount or dismount horses, alternating with each key press. F5 orders your troops to hold their fire by putting away ranged weapons, or orders them to take out ranged weapons and fire at will. F6 orders your category of troops to advance ten paces, while F7 does the opposite, making them fall back ten paces. F8 causes your troops to cluster together, forming a line, the quality of which actually seems to be tied to the quality of troops involved. F9 spaces troops out.
It has been said that the art of infantry warfare is putting your troops in the wrong place at the right time. The truth of this has been contested back and forth in every major war, from the set-piece battles of ancient Greek city states, to the pitched battles of the Hundred Years War, to the trenches of the first world war, to the jungles of Vietnam and beyond. From fighting battles in mount and blade, I can tell you that the successful army contains a large body of infantry, or none at all. You have the option of who you recruit, and what you turn them into, and I encourage you to try things differently every time, until you find what you enjoy most. Personally, I keep a fairly sizable army of midrange and high level infantry, with a smaller group of heavy cavalry which can be heavy infantry at a moments notice. When using foot troops, that is archers and melee infantry, you must use your terrain to your advantage, and keep your troops in close order, to prevent riders and footmen from turning your line into several smaller lines.
There are three important terrain features in mount and blade. They are: hills, trees, and rivers. Since each battle is randomly generated you cannot accurately guess exactly what you will have, but as you've probably seen, battles in forest sections of the world map have a lot of trees present, and ones closer to the mountains have a lot of hills, getting steeper and steeper as you get near a peak. I have singled these three features out for good reason. Trees prevent units from moving in a group; you have to break up to go around them. Rivers and hills slow units down.
Combat in this game consists of units with a set number of HP and armor dealing damage to each other. This is abstracted, but still fun. Having some experience with actual sword play (yes, the real stuff, not the Hollywood hack and slash), the general melee is simplistic, but I still get a lot of enjoyment out of it. The largest factor of damage in game is weapon type and unit speed. Weapon types are: blunt, which has the lowest damage but knocks out opponents and isn't heavily reduced by armor; piercing, which is somewhat slowed by armor but does lethal damage and cutting, which is the most common and easiest to pull off but is mitigated by armor the most. Unit speed increases the damage done by the one hitting the target; this is further increased if the unit is moving towards you, or decreased if moving away from you. Shields are used to simply block attacks from melee or ranged units, but are not capable of doing the more complex shield techniques that have been shown in some fighting manuals. I never fight without one.
You clearly want to win the battle you're fighting in, and I'm going to give you a few pointers on how to do it. In this guide, I assume you are leading from the front and fighting from horseback, which is the easiest way for beginners to start. First, the best way to win combat is to have a better army. I'm talking about large numbers of high-end troops capable of killing everything they see. Failing that, take away your enemies advantage and fight him on your own terms. As I said above, one of the largest factors in combat is unit speed. The faster a unit travels, the harder it will hit. If you plan to be taking the hits, that is, you are fighting defensively (which you should because the AI normally charges you in open battle), you need to take away the speed advantage. This makes hills and rivers your new best friend. First thing you should do in the beginning phase of combat is identify key hills near your starting zone, or failing that, a river. If you've found a hill, order your units to hold fire and position, then order archers to hold position on top of the hill you're claiming. Order infantry to hold the position just before the crest of the hill, and “stand closer” (F
. This will give you your battle line, from which all other tactics are based. Order your cavalry to either dismount (if your enemy is assaulting with larger numbers of superior cavalry or if your cavalry is very low tier horsemen), or stand behind your archers, out of sight. Once the enemy is within weapon range, order all units to open fire. This initial large volley will open up some gaps in the AI's line, which helps a little in the melee. Once the order to fire is given, order your cavalry to follow you. Move to the enemies right side, and then charge. The initial impact will kill several enemy units if you have heavy cavalry. While knights and men-at-arms (even Mercenary horsemen) are powerful individually, it is VERY unwise to let the assault turn into a horseman vs infantry melee. Your cavalry is going to get scattered, and once they get scattered they lose their speed and volume advantage. Once the initial charge has dissipated, order your units to follow you again, and ride away from the conflict. Once re-organized, charge again if the enemy hasn't already hit your battle line, which will quickly kill the oncoming wounded. Losing their speed bonus by fighting uphill, enemy cavalry and infantry are feeble waves against the solid rock of your infantry. If you get a river, simply occupy the shore.
Likely, the enemy archers and crossbowmen have hung back, and are killing or wounding members of your battle line. This is where the second cavalry charge comes in, aimed directly at their archers. After that it should be a simple mop-up.
Now, this assumes you have enough advantage to simply kill the enemy, which is not a hard thing to obtain if you put your mind to it and pick your fights well. If all has not gone as planned, a few tips are good to keep in mind:
*Never give up an advantaged position. That is, if the battle's still in the air, never order your infantry to charge at the oncoming enemy. I play with a high-population in battle, 300, and I don't normally have waves of reinforcements coming at me, but when I did I learned that you do not go out and meet the enemy if you've got the high ground.
*Do not let your cavalry get mired in. Once they've charged and made kills, pull them out of the fight. A large body of lower level troops CAN and WILL rip individual knights to shreds, and knights are expensive to obtain. A horse and his rider is a large target, and your guys will get stun locked before the end.
*If you have a large number of knights, you can heavily wound enemy infantry simply by ordering your knights to follow you, and ride through the enemy footmen. This works best if they field a lot of less armored troops.
*If your enemy fields a lot of heavy cavalry, like Swadians and Vagirs, it is a good idea to charge your cavalry forward while you establish yourself on a hill with your infantry, before joining the skirmish yourself. Don't forget to pull your horsemen back once you're sure the enemy cavalry charge has been canned, though.
I hope you got something from my TL;DNR guide. It's very simplistic, but it's a beginners guide. Happy lancing!
Anyways, I'm taking a break from the game for a moment to do a small write up on combat in Mount and Blade, This is intended for new players who've got the game but don't do so well in larger scale conflicts. This simple guide contains mostly common sense, though the few new people I've gotten into the game all seem to ignore these concepts.
When you start a battle in mount and blade, you have the ability to command your troops to do what you need them to do, beyond simply charging headlong into the enemy, who may or may not be doing the same. Controlling your guys is very simple, though I admit sometimes I press the wrong buttons myself. The number keys 1-4 are your primary troop categories. Keys 5-7 also have functions, but I do not use them and have won battles outnumbered 3-1. Key 1 gets the attention of your entire army, key 2 gets the attention of your infantry, key 3 gets the attention of your archers, and key 4 gets the attention of your cavalry. Cavalry are obviously distinguished from the rest of the army by the fact that they ride horses, archers are ranged units (their name will make this obvious), and infantry are melee units. I am not totally sure what makes them respond as such in code, because there are several units with ranged weapons that act when “infantry” is called; I assume the flag guaranteed_ranged is responsible but I have not tested this.
Each category of troops has a number of actions they can do besides killing the enemy. How and when you chose to do them decides the outcome of battles more than some would give it credit for. Given the computerized personality of each soldier in your army, combat morale is not something you need to worry about, for better or worse. This means troops will not run away during combat, and will follow your orders to the death. The actions and their keys are as follows: F1 causes the selected category to hold the position you are currently standing on. F2 causes the category of troops to follow you. F3 causes the selected type of troop to charge. F4 orders them to mount or dismount horses, alternating with each key press. F5 orders your troops to hold their fire by putting away ranged weapons, or orders them to take out ranged weapons and fire at will. F6 orders your category of troops to advance ten paces, while F7 does the opposite, making them fall back ten paces. F8 causes your troops to cluster together, forming a line, the quality of which actually seems to be tied to the quality of troops involved. F9 spaces troops out.
It has been said that the art of infantry warfare is putting your troops in the wrong place at the right time. The truth of this has been contested back and forth in every major war, from the set-piece battles of ancient Greek city states, to the pitched battles of the Hundred Years War, to the trenches of the first world war, to the jungles of Vietnam and beyond. From fighting battles in mount and blade, I can tell you that the successful army contains a large body of infantry, or none at all. You have the option of who you recruit, and what you turn them into, and I encourage you to try things differently every time, until you find what you enjoy most. Personally, I keep a fairly sizable army of midrange and high level infantry, with a smaller group of heavy cavalry which can be heavy infantry at a moments notice. When using foot troops, that is archers and melee infantry, you must use your terrain to your advantage, and keep your troops in close order, to prevent riders and footmen from turning your line into several smaller lines.
There are three important terrain features in mount and blade. They are: hills, trees, and rivers. Since each battle is randomly generated you cannot accurately guess exactly what you will have, but as you've probably seen, battles in forest sections of the world map have a lot of trees present, and ones closer to the mountains have a lot of hills, getting steeper and steeper as you get near a peak. I have singled these three features out for good reason. Trees prevent units from moving in a group; you have to break up to go around them. Rivers and hills slow units down.
Combat in this game consists of units with a set number of HP and armor dealing damage to each other. This is abstracted, but still fun. Having some experience with actual sword play (yes, the real stuff, not the Hollywood hack and slash), the general melee is simplistic, but I still get a lot of enjoyment out of it. The largest factor of damage in game is weapon type and unit speed. Weapon types are: blunt, which has the lowest damage but knocks out opponents and isn't heavily reduced by armor; piercing, which is somewhat slowed by armor but does lethal damage and cutting, which is the most common and easiest to pull off but is mitigated by armor the most. Unit speed increases the damage done by the one hitting the target; this is further increased if the unit is moving towards you, or decreased if moving away from you. Shields are used to simply block attacks from melee or ranged units, but are not capable of doing the more complex shield techniques that have been shown in some fighting manuals. I never fight without one.
You clearly want to win the battle you're fighting in, and I'm going to give you a few pointers on how to do it. In this guide, I assume you are leading from the front and fighting from horseback, which is the easiest way for beginners to start. First, the best way to win combat is to have a better army. I'm talking about large numbers of high-end troops capable of killing everything they see. Failing that, take away your enemies advantage and fight him on your own terms. As I said above, one of the largest factors in combat is unit speed. The faster a unit travels, the harder it will hit. If you plan to be taking the hits, that is, you are fighting defensively (which you should because the AI normally charges you in open battle), you need to take away the speed advantage. This makes hills and rivers your new best friend. First thing you should do in the beginning phase of combat is identify key hills near your starting zone, or failing that, a river. If you've found a hill, order your units to hold fire and position, then order archers to hold position on top of the hill you're claiming. Order infantry to hold the position just before the crest of the hill, and “stand closer” (F
. This will give you your battle line, from which all other tactics are based. Order your cavalry to either dismount (if your enemy is assaulting with larger numbers of superior cavalry or if your cavalry is very low tier horsemen), or stand behind your archers, out of sight. Once the enemy is within weapon range, order all units to open fire. This initial large volley will open up some gaps in the AI's line, which helps a little in the melee. Once the order to fire is given, order your cavalry to follow you. Move to the enemies right side, and then charge. The initial impact will kill several enemy units if you have heavy cavalry. While knights and men-at-arms (even Mercenary horsemen) are powerful individually, it is VERY unwise to let the assault turn into a horseman vs infantry melee. Your cavalry is going to get scattered, and once they get scattered they lose their speed and volume advantage. Once the initial charge has dissipated, order your units to follow you again, and ride away from the conflict. Once re-organized, charge again if the enemy hasn't already hit your battle line, which will quickly kill the oncoming wounded. Losing their speed bonus by fighting uphill, enemy cavalry and infantry are feeble waves against the solid rock of your infantry. If you get a river, simply occupy the shore.Likely, the enemy archers and crossbowmen have hung back, and are killing or wounding members of your battle line. This is where the second cavalry charge comes in, aimed directly at their archers. After that it should be a simple mop-up.
Now, this assumes you have enough advantage to simply kill the enemy, which is not a hard thing to obtain if you put your mind to it and pick your fights well. If all has not gone as planned, a few tips are good to keep in mind:
*Never give up an advantaged position. That is, if the battle's still in the air, never order your infantry to charge at the oncoming enemy. I play with a high-population in battle, 300, and I don't normally have waves of reinforcements coming at me, but when I did I learned that you do not go out and meet the enemy if you've got the high ground.
*Do not let your cavalry get mired in. Once they've charged and made kills, pull them out of the fight. A large body of lower level troops CAN and WILL rip individual knights to shreds, and knights are expensive to obtain. A horse and his rider is a large target, and your guys will get stun locked before the end.
*If you have a large number of knights, you can heavily wound enemy infantry simply by ordering your knights to follow you, and ride through the enemy footmen. This works best if they field a lot of less armored troops.
*If your enemy fields a lot of heavy cavalry, like Swadians and Vagirs, it is a good idea to charge your cavalry forward while you establish yourself on a hill with your infantry, before joining the skirmish yourself. Don't forget to pull your horsemen back once you're sure the enemy cavalry charge has been canned, though.
I hope you got something from my TL;DNR guide. It's very simplistic, but it's a beginners guide. Happy lancing!
