There is more advanced chapters five posts down on the first page here. Any questions just post them.
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Advanced guide
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Things to know
1. You cannot be a King of a pre-existing faction.
2. There is no marriage to companions as a male. (I read something about females,but I never made a female and explored it)
3. Weapons deal the most damage at their maximum reach.
4. Using a 2handed weapon or polearm as a 1hand incurs a 35% penalty.
5. In general all regular soldiers will get one share, your hero companions will get three shares each, and as the leader you will get ten shares of the loot.
6. Map speed is affected by riding for mounted units and athletics for infantry. This explains why khergits are not only faster because they're all mounted, but because they also have 6/7 points into riding, confirmed by manual. However it is not affected by horse type, and since the game calculates the party speed by average between slowest and fastest, you'll only see the benefits of improving riding for your companions on a large scale and if they compose most of the party.
7. You can not marry Kings or Claimants. (Can with diplomacy)
8. When giving the 'hold this position order' you can simply hold the F1 key, which will make a small flag appear in the middle of your targeting reticule. Simply point to where you want the people to go, and let go of F1.
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I hope this helps out. Vonskyme is one of the author's as well, thank him too on the extra info that was put in the database.
Black- Galdus quotes
Blue- Vonskyme quotes.
Other sources
Wiki manual- http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Mount%26Blade:_Warband/Table_of_Contents
Steam manual- http://cdn.steampowered.com/Manuals/48700/PDX5505US_Warband_Manual_US.pdf
Companion guide- http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,36781.0.html
Female page- http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,115836.0.html
Troop's stats- http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,114836.0.html
Charles Du Lac guide- http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic%2C112413.0.html
Karmine's info thread- http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,128730.0.html
Reputation- You have a reputation with each of the factions and lords in the game while faction relations are pretty straightforward. Fight against a faction and you’ll get low relations, help them in battles and you’ll have high relations. They’re only of limited interest and have a tendency to reset to zero with every peace treaty. Lords are a different matter entirely relationships here are lasting, and can affect events even after a lord defects or peace is declared.
With lords there are several ways to improve your reputation;
1. You accept a quest from them and accomplish it. Also, you will gain 1-2 reputation, talking to a lord after capturing a city/castle.
2. When you fight another lord, and you capture him, you have a chance to release them for honor and rep. You will gain +5 rep. and 1-3 honor. (If you attacked him you will lose -1 reputation so if he escapes you will get a negative relationship bonus).
Quests are a good way to get some rep depending on the quest the harder the quest the more reputation you will receive. EX- If you deliver a message you will get +1 rep, or if you capture an enemy Lord you can get up to +5-+6 rep. You can also save lords from a near death fight, and that's a nice payload I have got up to 12 reputation from that before. In general, the more badly they were being beaten before you jumped in, the better.
The real deal for reputation is to join a faction for a while. Gain a castle or City and get married and then stock up your larder with alot of food, beer, wine, spice and oil. This is the jack pot of the game if you don't do this it will take forever to get reputation with everyone. Throw festivals constantly, and make sure your morale is up. It's best to do this during peace time and all the friendly Lords party's are replenished.(That's the most you will get out of it) But you can do it anytime as long as you are not in a Marshal campaign.
When the Lords show up to the castle greet them by talking to them and you will gain +1-2 rep each Lord. It's alot of clicking but in the end it's worth it. If they all stay until the end of the feast you will also gain a +3 to all the lords in your Fief. I will add you will also gain 20-30 renown.
If playing a non-realistic saves game (meaning you can exit w/o saving), you can get major relationship points for breaking lords out of dungeons. You can do this with a realistic saves game, it’s just riskier. If you are good enough to take down five militiamen at once with a staff, and then one armored prison guard in 3-4 quick hits (because that's all you'll get before you get jumped), this can be done with only moderate difficulty. If you don’t mind spending 300 denars to do it, find one of the villages nearby and ask them to set a fire around midnight, before entering then. There will be fewer guards to fight, which can be a great help.
When you're riding around playing the merchant, keep an eye out for notifications about lords being captured; if it’s not too far out of the way, track them down and go to the dungeon where they are being held. If you successfully rescue them, you'll get 5-8 (can't remember exactly what) relationship points, some honor, and 3 faction relationship points. This is even easier when you are at peace with the captor's faction, because you don't have to sneak in and you can use all your gear.
Finally do honorable things like defeating bandits in villages or the ‘hunt the outlaw’ quest and refuse the payment to receive honor. If you have a significant positive honor, honorable lords will gain relation with you periodically – you can be best friends without even meeting!
Renown- If you read the last paragraph the best way to earn it is to throw festivals. Throw them over and over again once a week. Even if you’re not at your castle and your either recruiting or trading. Initiate the invitations and leave if you need too. There are other ways and I am not going to get into the technical of tactics and battle advantage, but if your a bad arse you can solo sea raiders or tundra bandits in packs of 20-30ish. 1v30 I believe you will gain 29 renown for killing them all yourself. Personally, I like taking just my companions once they’re moderately good and taking on sea raiders. With blunt weapons, you can make a fortune from prisoners and loot, and a force of 7-10 people versus 40 sea raiders brings in the renown too.
You will also gain a descent amount of renown if your outnumbered 2/1 in larger battles, about 10-20. Tournaments is also a great way to get renown. You gain about 16-29 per tournament and you can bet on yourself and make a modest fee in the process.
Right to rule- Is more sparse to get. You gain that mostly from when you’re in a faction or in your own kingdom and a truce treaty initiates. I think you will get +3. The other way is to talk to your companions and tell them you aspire to be King, and then send them out for a long mission. You can only do that one at a time, every three days per companion for a +3 boost. Recruiting Lords from other factions also factors in for points towards your rule +5, and Kings that accept you as a "King" +10. Some of that needs to be done when ruling your own faction.
With lords there are several ways to improve your reputation;
1. You accept a quest from them and accomplish it. Also, you will gain 1-2 reputation, talking to a lord after capturing a city/castle.
2. When you fight another lord, and you capture him, you have a chance to release them for honor and rep. You will gain +5 rep. and 1-3 honor. (If you attacked him you will lose -1 reputation so if he escapes you will get a negative relationship bonus).
Quests are a good way to get some rep depending on the quest the harder the quest the more reputation you will receive. EX- If you deliver a message you will get +1 rep, or if you capture an enemy Lord you can get up to +5-+6 rep. You can also save lords from a near death fight, and that's a nice payload I have got up to 12 reputation from that before. In general, the more badly they were being beaten before you jumped in, the better.
The real deal for reputation is to join a faction for a while. Gain a castle or City and get married and then stock up your larder with alot of food, beer, wine, spice and oil. This is the jack pot of the game if you don't do this it will take forever to get reputation with everyone. Throw festivals constantly, and make sure your morale is up. It's best to do this during peace time and all the friendly Lords party's are replenished.(That's the most you will get out of it) But you can do it anytime as long as you are not in a Marshal campaign.
When the Lords show up to the castle greet them by talking to them and you will gain +1-2 rep each Lord. It's alot of clicking but in the end it's worth it. If they all stay until the end of the feast you will also gain a +3 to all the lords in your Fief. I will add you will also gain 20-30 renown.
If playing a non-realistic saves game (meaning you can exit w/o saving), you can get major relationship points for breaking lords out of dungeons. You can do this with a realistic saves game, it’s just riskier. If you are good enough to take down five militiamen at once with a staff, and then one armored prison guard in 3-4 quick hits (because that's all you'll get before you get jumped), this can be done with only moderate difficulty. If you don’t mind spending 300 denars to do it, find one of the villages nearby and ask them to set a fire around midnight, before entering then. There will be fewer guards to fight, which can be a great help.
When you're riding around playing the merchant, keep an eye out for notifications about lords being captured; if it’s not too far out of the way, track them down and go to the dungeon where they are being held. If you successfully rescue them, you'll get 5-8 (can't remember exactly what) relationship points, some honor, and 3 faction relationship points. This is even easier when you are at peace with the captor's faction, because you don't have to sneak in and you can use all your gear.
Finally do honorable things like defeating bandits in villages or the ‘hunt the outlaw’ quest and refuse the payment to receive honor. If you have a significant positive honor, honorable lords will gain relation with you periodically – you can be best friends without even meeting!
Renown- If you read the last paragraph the best way to earn it is to throw festivals. Throw them over and over again once a week. Even if you’re not at your castle and your either recruiting or trading. Initiate the invitations and leave if you need too. There are other ways and I am not going to get into the technical of tactics and battle advantage, but if your a bad arse you can solo sea raiders or tundra bandits in packs of 20-30ish. 1v30 I believe you will gain 29 renown for killing them all yourself. Personally, I like taking just my companions once they’re moderately good and taking on sea raiders. With blunt weapons, you can make a fortune from prisoners and loot, and a force of 7-10 people versus 40 sea raiders brings in the renown too.
You will also gain a descent amount of renown if your outnumbered 2/1 in larger battles, about 10-20. Tournaments is also a great way to get renown. You gain about 16-29 per tournament and you can bet on yourself and make a modest fee in the process.
Right to rule- Is more sparse to get. You gain that mostly from when you’re in a faction or in your own kingdom and a truce treaty initiates. I think you will get +3. The other way is to talk to your companions and tell them you aspire to be King, and then send them out for a long mission. You can only do that one at a time, every three days per companion for a +3 boost. Recruiting Lords from other factions also factors in for points towards your rule +5, and Kings that accept you as a "King" +10. Some of that needs to be done when ruling your own faction.
Cash denars- If you play like I do, I start out like a bum. You can do the Merchant missions and you will get a total of about 600 denars. Then you need a trader in your party. I would go around and recruit one or make your main guy have trade skill. The higher the better.
If your good enough you can kill some sea raiders for a good hour or so and make a clean 20k or bloody, and equip yourself in the process considering they drop mail armor. Day 500, and a lot of my companions still have a Bernie for armor. Jacking up the loot skill of someone in your party can help lots too. Just remember that the larger the party, the smaller your share of the loot.
Let’s say you only have 2000 denars. A good starting point to make money and recruit at the same time is to travel to Curaw. When you get there or to any other Citys you should recruit some Mercenary's. Caravan guards, Mercenary horsemen, and cavalry. Do that until you get about 25 ish. Remember mercenaries cost more than faction troops to maintain and hire, however you get ready trained warriors without a morale penalty if you’re fighting their faction, I suggest starting with mercenaries and swapping to faction troops gradually. Ok now, Curaw they sell iron there cheaper than anywhere else, and you only have to travel to Khudan or Rivacheg to sell it. Buy as much as you can afford and trade away rinse and repeat until you have a good 10k. If there is no iron at Curaw just wait sometimes it takes a few days for it to show up. Now is a good time to kill a sea raider or tundra bandit party or three.
If it's there and it is expensive wait longer until you see a profitable price. Once you have the cash flow you can do a more advanced trade route. Buy some Iron at Curaw, then make your way to Tulga. When you get to Tulga look for salt, and spice if the spice is around 400-600 buy it all out. If the salt is 80-120 buy it all out. Now head to Praven Sell as much salt and spice as you can there. If you have extra's and the money is dried out it's ok keep it and head to Suno. At Suno they produce wine. Buy as much as you can using your products. After your filled up head to Narra or Almerrad sell all of it, and once your done head back to Curaw. Unless you see a profit to be made there. A gentleman in the post made this for us. He did a great job so take a look. Most of it looks plausible. (If you’re going all the way to Almerrad and intending to go back to Curaw, it’s probably worth going to Durquba and picking up a load of date fruit. Sell that at Sargoth or Wercheg and take salt and smoked fish to Curaw. The profit on the salt and smoked fish isn’t much, but date fruit is normally well worth it compared to heading back empty.
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Round trip Calradia (by Vantard)
To buy under X
To sell above X
1. Wercheg
Salt 150
Iron 300, Oil 470, Spice 800, Velvet 1000, Wool Cloth 270
2. Curaw
Iron 150, Tools 380
Salt 270, Spice 800, Wool Cloth 270
Ismirala (village near Curaw) Iron 150
Fenada (village near Sargoth) Flax 100
3. Sargoth
Flax 100, Linen 220, Wool 701)
Salt 270, Spice 800, Wool Cloth 270
Kwynn (village near Sargoth) Flax 100
4. Tihr
Fish 302), Salt 150, Wool 701)
Iron 300, Spice 800, Tools 450
5. Suno
Oil 320, Wine 200
Iron 300, Salt 270, Spice 800
6. Praven
Wool 701)
Iron 300, Oil 470, Salt 270, Spice 800
7. Yalen
Wine 200, Wool 701)
Iron 300, Oil 470, Salt 270, Spice 800, Tools 450
8. Jelkala
Fish 303), Velvet 700
Iron 300, Salt 270, Spice 800Tools 450, Wool 120
9. Shariz
Wool 701)
Fish 100, Linen 350, Wine 300
10. Durquba
Fish 100, Flax 1504)
Iqbayl (village near Bariyye) Salt 150
11. Bariyye
Iron 150, Salt 150, Tools 380, Wool Cloth 200
Linen 350, Wine 300, Wool 120, Velvet 1000
Fishara (village near Bariyye) Salt 150
12. Ahmerrad
Iron 150, Wool 701), Wool Cloth 200
Wine 300
Uzgha (village near Ahmerrad) Iron 150
13. Tulga
Salt 150, Spice 6005)
Iron 300, Wool 120
14. Ichamur
Wool Cloth 270
15. Khudan
Iron 300, Spice 800
16. Rivacheg
Iron 300, Oil 470, Spice 800, Wool Cloth 270
Ruvar (village near Wercheg) Salt 150
... back to Wercheg...
1) Don't rely on Wool too much, often it's hard to find a good place to sell it
2) Leave some inventory space for Wine, Oil, Velvet - don't buy too many Smoked Fish
3) Buy as many Smoked Fish as you can, even above 30 denars (below 100) - you'll sell it in the very next town
4) You won't find a better place to sell Flax then Durquba - dump it all
5) Spice - the most profitable goods, always have some room to buy it in Tulga
6. Travel fast (with small company and good path-finding skill)
7. Watch out for Sea Raiders between Rivacheg and Wercheg, and Steppe Bandits near Ichamur
8. Make quests for towns you trading with - that will increase your trade income
9. Often you'll find better prices in village near towns
For those who want to copy this with tags go to my post on page 5.
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If your good enough you can kill some sea raiders for a good hour or so and make a clean 20k or bloody, and equip yourself in the process considering they drop mail armor. Day 500, and a lot of my companions still have a Bernie for armor. Jacking up the loot skill of someone in your party can help lots too. Just remember that the larger the party, the smaller your share of the loot.
Let’s say you only have 2000 denars. A good starting point to make money and recruit at the same time is to travel to Curaw. When you get there or to any other Citys you should recruit some Mercenary's. Caravan guards, Mercenary horsemen, and cavalry. Do that until you get about 25 ish. Remember mercenaries cost more than faction troops to maintain and hire, however you get ready trained warriors without a morale penalty if you’re fighting their faction, I suggest starting with mercenaries and swapping to faction troops gradually. Ok now, Curaw they sell iron there cheaper than anywhere else, and you only have to travel to Khudan or Rivacheg to sell it. Buy as much as you can afford and trade away rinse and repeat until you have a good 10k. If there is no iron at Curaw just wait sometimes it takes a few days for it to show up. Now is a good time to kill a sea raider or tundra bandit party or three.
If it's there and it is expensive wait longer until you see a profitable price. Once you have the cash flow you can do a more advanced trade route. Buy some Iron at Curaw, then make your way to Tulga. When you get to Tulga look for salt, and spice if the spice is around 400-600 buy it all out. If the salt is 80-120 buy it all out. Now head to Praven Sell as much salt and spice as you can there. If you have extra's and the money is dried out it's ok keep it and head to Suno. At Suno they produce wine. Buy as much as you can using your products. After your filled up head to Narra or Almerrad sell all of it, and once your done head back to Curaw. Unless you see a profit to be made there. A gentleman in the post made this for us. He did a great job so take a look. Most of it looks plausible. (If you’re going all the way to Almerrad and intending to go back to Curaw, it’s probably worth going to Durquba and picking up a load of date fruit. Sell that at Sargoth or Wercheg and take salt and smoked fish to Curaw. The profit on the salt and smoked fish isn’t much, but date fruit is normally well worth it compared to heading back empty.
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Round trip Calradia (by Vantard)
To buy under X
To sell above X
1. Wercheg
Salt 150
Iron 300, Oil 470, Spice 800, Velvet 1000, Wool Cloth 270
2. Curaw
Iron 150, Tools 380
Salt 270, Spice 800, Wool Cloth 270
Ismirala (village near Curaw) Iron 150
Fenada (village near Sargoth) Flax 100
3. Sargoth
Flax 100, Linen 220, Wool 701)
Salt 270, Spice 800, Wool Cloth 270
Kwynn (village near Sargoth) Flax 100
4. Tihr
Fish 302), Salt 150, Wool 701)
Iron 300, Spice 800, Tools 450
5. Suno
Oil 320, Wine 200
Iron 300, Salt 270, Spice 800
6. Praven
Wool 701)
Iron 300, Oil 470, Salt 270, Spice 800
7. Yalen
Wine 200, Wool 701)
Iron 300, Oil 470, Salt 270, Spice 800, Tools 450
8. Jelkala
Fish 303), Velvet 700
Iron 300, Salt 270, Spice 800Tools 450, Wool 120
9. Shariz
Wool 701)
Fish 100, Linen 350, Wine 300
10. Durquba
Fish 100, Flax 1504)
Iqbayl (village near Bariyye) Salt 150
11. Bariyye
Iron 150, Salt 150, Tools 380, Wool Cloth 200
Linen 350, Wine 300, Wool 120, Velvet 1000
Fishara (village near Bariyye) Salt 150
12. Ahmerrad
Iron 150, Wool 701), Wool Cloth 200
Wine 300
Uzgha (village near Ahmerrad) Iron 150
13. Tulga
Salt 150, Spice 6005)
Iron 300, Wool 120
14. Ichamur
Wool Cloth 270
15. Khudan
Iron 300, Spice 800
16. Rivacheg
Iron 300, Oil 470, Spice 800, Wool Cloth 270
Ruvar (village near Wercheg) Salt 150
... back to Wercheg...
1) Don't rely on Wool too much, often it's hard to find a good place to sell it
2) Leave some inventory space for Wine, Oil, Velvet - don't buy too many Smoked Fish
3) Buy as many Smoked Fish as you can, even above 30 denars (below 100) - you'll sell it in the very next town
4) You won't find a better place to sell Flax then Durquba - dump it all
5) Spice - the most profitable goods, always have some room to buy it in Tulga
6. Travel fast (with small company and good path-finding skill)
7. Watch out for Sea Raiders between Rivacheg and Wercheg, and Steppe Bandits near Ichamur
8. Make quests for towns you trading with - that will increase your trade income
9. Often you'll find better prices in village near towns
For those who want to copy this with tags go to my post on page 5.
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Skills- (A note on party skills - all skills described as ‘party skills’ take the highest skill within the party. If you have some skill with it then you add a bonus to that based on your level (0-1, +0; 2-4, +1; 5-7, +2; 8-9, +3; 10, +4). Hence it’s a waste to have three people with path-finding, as only the highest counts. Note that having a backup can be good, as wounded companions don’t contribute. I am going to quickly fill you in on the major skills you need for you or your companions. First and the most major skill is surgery.
Surgery keeps your guys alive and reduces casualty's by 40%+25% base at level 10, but remember your doctor needs to be alive at the end of the battle or you risk losing that bonus. Specifically, your troops end up ‘wounded’ instead of ‘killed’.
Path finding and tracking is a given to any party especially Nords and Rhodocks. It will increase your map movement speed drastically.
Tracking is used for specific quests and for following, and well, tracks of anyone you pick up.
Engineering (in Native) is important as well. It reduces the time it takes to build your fief's additions, and when you need that messenger post to warn you about your towns under attack it's great. It also reduces the time taken to make ladders and siege towers – this is probably the biggest benefit.
Training as in the post below you can stack up training on all companions to add an extra experience bonus to all units, and the higher level your characters are the better. That allows you to train full garrisons with out suiciding your recruits. Training skill on a character gives a given amount of xp, which increases with each point invested, to every party member of a lower level than the character with the training skill – note that this can even include you if you hire a companion with a higher level than you! This is the only party skill which stacks across characters in your party, so it’s a good idea to have all of your companions with as many points as they have left over.
Most of the other skills such as shield skill also improves the size of the shield vs. ranged attacks. Wound treatment heals crippled horses as well as helps wounded troops recover in a faster period of time.
First aid provides an instant recovery of HP lost during a combat round (the base amount is 10%, +5% for each level of first aid. That explains why having 10 points heals 60% life after falling in combat while your medic is still active.
Surgery keeps your guys alive and reduces casualty's by 40%+25% base at level 10, but remember your doctor needs to be alive at the end of the battle or you risk losing that bonus. Specifically, your troops end up ‘wounded’ instead of ‘killed’.
Path finding and tracking is a given to any party especially Nords and Rhodocks. It will increase your map movement speed drastically.
Tracking is used for specific quests and for following, and well, tracks of anyone you pick up.
Engineering (in Native) is important as well. It reduces the time it takes to build your fief's additions, and when you need that messenger post to warn you about your towns under attack it's great. It also reduces the time taken to make ladders and siege towers – this is probably the biggest benefit.
Training as in the post below you can stack up training on all companions to add an extra experience bonus to all units, and the higher level your characters are the better. That allows you to train full garrisons with out suiciding your recruits. Training skill on a character gives a given amount of xp, which increases with each point invested, to every party member of a lower level than the character with the training skill – note that this can even include you if you hire a companion with a higher level than you! This is the only party skill which stacks across characters in your party, so it’s a good idea to have all of your companions with as many points as they have left over.
Most of the other skills such as shield skill also improves the size of the shield vs. ranged attacks. Wound treatment heals crippled horses as well as helps wounded troops recover in a faster period of time.
First aid provides an instant recovery of HP lost during a combat round (the base amount is 10%, +5% for each level of first aid. That explains why having 10 points heals 60% life after falling in combat while your medic is still active.
Getting started in a faction- Depending on your choices in the character creation. You can choose to be a Commoner or a Noble. The choices change the dialog initial relationship, and how Lords speak to you. If you choose to be a Noble you receive a banner and 100 renown right off the bat. Also as a Noble Lords you speak to will see you as a faction-less lord. As a Commoner you get remarks on your common birth when you speak to lords some good some bad just as Noble. You have to keep an eye on these things. Knowing their minds and attitudes is the key to the door of Calradia.
Now to the point. You make your character, and You need at least 150 renown or a high reputation with a King or a mix I believe, to become a vassal. My understanding is that every ‘point’ of relationship you have with a king reduces the amount of renown you need by one ‘point’. That is easy to get if you are a Noble considering you start out with 100. If you are a good player or you have a low difficulty level you can solo all types of bandits or deserters for a quick fix to get your renown up enough to be accepted by any King. Tournament's maybe two of them and your set as well.
Well let's say your set, all you need to do is talk to the King you desire and give homage to him if he accepts you. There is also a chance that you can be invited to be there vassal if your a famous man or women. Once your accepted if you're a Commoner you will receive your very own choice of a banner. You will also get a fief of a town of the King's choice. Hint, he will always choose the least profitable fief in the kingdom. Even worse, whoever owned it before you will have a significant negative relationship with you, you upstart.
If you do not like your current faction you can leave. Talk to the King select the choice to leave, and when that's all said and done you can go. The negative effect is you will lose 20 reputation with the King and loose all fiefs you may of acquired.
Creating your own faction- This path is one of the hardest path's in the game along side of choosing to rebel against a King. In order to start this I recommend you to be around level 25+ and have a high level leadership, alongside having a stable companion group, and roughly 80,000+ denars, and right to rule is helpful. These things I said take a while to obtain without cheating. So join a faction for a while maybe even the faction you are going to attack and get your reputation up with the lords there, and the King.
Now you need to target a City (recommended) or a castle. The reason I recommend a city is because if you get a castle first you cannot give it away as a fief to a companion or Lord if you get a city later. The first fief you get is the foundation of your new empire. Note that I believe you CAN give it away if you first move your court to another castle/city. That said, I’d still recommend a city because since when were great empires ruled from a border keep? On a more practical note, castles come with only one village while cities come with at least two, and usually more.
How you start to do this is to attack the enemy's assets farmer, caravans, raid a village or attack a lord. This will give you a negative relations with that faction and allow you to besiege the fief. Now the reason in the beginning I said you need to be ready is when you finally conquer the fief and it's yours, and all is well, it will be priority one to take back. The faction you attacked will come in a massive force unless circumstances are really bad for them. They will most likely siege you within a week of you taking their fief you will also at that point have a -40 relations or more. He’s not joking here – you can have a thousand or more troops knocking politely at the gate within a week. For this reason I STRONGLY recommend picking a faction who is already at war to be your target, bringing around 70+ elite troops (huscarls are ideal) and as soon as you have the town leaving the elites and frantically raising as many troops as you can from the villages. With companions with good training skills and some luck you might have as many as 150 third tier troops to help out. Don’t forget to check the taverns for mercenaries – 6 hired blades can make all the difference sometimes!
Ok, I am going to head back to when you take the fief. You will be given a choice to pick a minister/ambassador. It can be either a companion or if you are married, you can choose your wife if you are male. If you want none of the above because you don't want to waste your one of your companions or you are not married yet or your female, you can appoint a temporary citizen from your castle/city. Who is utterly useless. I’d recommend getting a companion you don’t like or won’t use specifically for the purpose if you are playing a female or unmarried character.
Now at the hard part. In order for you to hold your faction in place you are going to need soldiers. I would put roughly 300 in a city and make some of them fodder for money reasons and make some elites as a backbone for your defenses. I also would have a cavalry section to chase away or fight other lords that attempt to raid your towns. This will be costly so don't give away initial towns to Lords right away you may need all the fiefs you can get to pay for your garrison. I find about 250 in a city, of which 50 or so are tier 4-5, 100 are tier 2-3 archers and the rest are fodder/militia strikes the balance between cost and the ability to actually fight. Normally I have my ‘capital’ more heavily defended than this, as I use it as a storage space for elite troops to top up my own forces when I take casualties in war – it can be a good idea to have an entire ‘spare’ party in case you lose everyone... Around a 100-150 in a castle is plenty, mainly low level.
Another option to start your own faction is to capture a castle or city while you are a sworn vassal of one of the other factions and ask for it to be given to you. If the king agrees, great, garrison it and go and do it again. If he refuses you get the option to rebel and keep all of the castles and cities you own, along with their garrisons. Note that if you don’t own the city/castle which goes along with one of your villages you will lose it. This is a much, much easier way of doing it, as you can stack your castle with several hundred elite troops and simply defend against the hordes that come your way, but if you wanted easy, you’d just use cheats, right?
Start a rebellion- I will not lie this gets real difficult. The first thing you do is join the faction you want to rebel against. Get a castle ,throw festivals, station a "small" garrison, and make money lots of it. Along with reputation will all the lords there. When you have an amazing party size roughly 120+ some right to rule,your companions leveled, and a hefty wallet to sustain troop size for a long time you’re ready. Talk to the Claimant you wish to have join you, and he or she should accept you if you’re powerful enough. (Claimants can be found by travelers once you leave your faction) He or she will join your party as a companion, and will have data on the lands and how many lords the faction has. You will also immediately get -40 reputation bonus. At this point it's started you did it if you followed my advise here. Head to the territory you are rebelling and single out the lords there. Talk to them and persuade them to join you. Do this to whoever you can and fast because once they join you, they will retain all of their fiefs (if they have a castle or city). Make sure you get yourself a castle or city some garrison and have fun.
Alternately, you can do this the even harder way by not joining the faction first and doing it without any lands to support you. I recommend it as a challenge, because without having any relationships with the lords beforehand it’s actually very difficult.
Now to the point. You make your character, and You need at least 150 renown or a high reputation with a King or a mix I believe, to become a vassal. My understanding is that every ‘point’ of relationship you have with a king reduces the amount of renown you need by one ‘point’. That is easy to get if you are a Noble considering you start out with 100. If you are a good player or you have a low difficulty level you can solo all types of bandits or deserters for a quick fix to get your renown up enough to be accepted by any King. Tournament's maybe two of them and your set as well.
Well let's say your set, all you need to do is talk to the King you desire and give homage to him if he accepts you. There is also a chance that you can be invited to be there vassal if your a famous man or women. Once your accepted if you're a Commoner you will receive your very own choice of a banner. You will also get a fief of a town of the King's choice. Hint, he will always choose the least profitable fief in the kingdom. Even worse, whoever owned it before you will have a significant negative relationship with you, you upstart.
If you do not like your current faction you can leave. Talk to the King select the choice to leave, and when that's all said and done you can go. The negative effect is you will lose 20 reputation with the King and loose all fiefs you may of acquired.
Creating your own faction- This path is one of the hardest path's in the game along side of choosing to rebel against a King. In order to start this I recommend you to be around level 25+ and have a high level leadership, alongside having a stable companion group, and roughly 80,000+ denars, and right to rule is helpful. These things I said take a while to obtain without cheating. So join a faction for a while maybe even the faction you are going to attack and get your reputation up with the lords there, and the King.
Now you need to target a City (recommended) or a castle. The reason I recommend a city is because if you get a castle first you cannot give it away as a fief to a companion or Lord if you get a city later. The first fief you get is the foundation of your new empire. Note that I believe you CAN give it away if you first move your court to another castle/city. That said, I’d still recommend a city because since when were great empires ruled from a border keep? On a more practical note, castles come with only one village while cities come with at least two, and usually more.
How you start to do this is to attack the enemy's assets farmer, caravans, raid a village or attack a lord. This will give you a negative relations with that faction and allow you to besiege the fief. Now the reason in the beginning I said you need to be ready is when you finally conquer the fief and it's yours, and all is well, it will be priority one to take back. The faction you attacked will come in a massive force unless circumstances are really bad for them. They will most likely siege you within a week of you taking their fief you will also at that point have a -40 relations or more. He’s not joking here – you can have a thousand or more troops knocking politely at the gate within a week. For this reason I STRONGLY recommend picking a faction who is already at war to be your target, bringing around 70+ elite troops (huscarls are ideal) and as soon as you have the town leaving the elites and frantically raising as many troops as you can from the villages. With companions with good training skills and some luck you might have as many as 150 third tier troops to help out. Don’t forget to check the taverns for mercenaries – 6 hired blades can make all the difference sometimes!
Ok, I am going to head back to when you take the fief. You will be given a choice to pick a minister/ambassador. It can be either a companion or if you are married, you can choose your wife if you are male. If you want none of the above because you don't want to waste your one of your companions or you are not married yet or your female, you can appoint a temporary citizen from your castle/city. Who is utterly useless. I’d recommend getting a companion you don’t like or won’t use specifically for the purpose if you are playing a female or unmarried character.
Now at the hard part. In order for you to hold your faction in place you are going to need soldiers. I would put roughly 300 in a city and make some of them fodder for money reasons and make some elites as a backbone for your defenses. I also would have a cavalry section to chase away or fight other lords that attempt to raid your towns. This will be costly so don't give away initial towns to Lords right away you may need all the fiefs you can get to pay for your garrison. I find about 250 in a city, of which 50 or so are tier 4-5, 100 are tier 2-3 archers and the rest are fodder/militia strikes the balance between cost and the ability to actually fight. Normally I have my ‘capital’ more heavily defended than this, as I use it as a storage space for elite troops to top up my own forces when I take casualties in war – it can be a good idea to have an entire ‘spare’ party in case you lose everyone... Around a 100-150 in a castle is plenty, mainly low level.
Another option to start your own faction is to capture a castle or city while you are a sworn vassal of one of the other factions and ask for it to be given to you. If the king agrees, great, garrison it and go and do it again. If he refuses you get the option to rebel and keep all of the castles and cities you own, along with their garrisons. Note that if you don’t own the city/castle which goes along with one of your villages you will lose it. This is a much, much easier way of doing it, as you can stack your castle with several hundred elite troops and simply defend against the hordes that come your way, but if you wanted easy, you’d just use cheats, right?
Start a rebellion- I will not lie this gets real difficult. The first thing you do is join the faction you want to rebel against. Get a castle ,throw festivals, station a "small" garrison, and make money lots of it. Along with reputation will all the lords there. When you have an amazing party size roughly 120+ some right to rule,your companions leveled, and a hefty wallet to sustain troop size for a long time you’re ready. Talk to the Claimant you wish to have join you, and he or she should accept you if you’re powerful enough. (Claimants can be found by travelers once you leave your faction) He or she will join your party as a companion, and will have data on the lands and how many lords the faction has. You will also immediately get -40 reputation bonus. At this point it's started you did it if you followed my advise here. Head to the territory you are rebelling and single out the lords there. Talk to them and persuade them to join you. Do this to whoever you can and fast because once they join you, they will retain all of their fiefs (if they have a castle or city). Make sure you get yourself a castle or city some garrison and have fun.
Alternately, you can do this the even harder way by not joining the faction first and doing it without any lands to support you. I recommend it as a challenge, because without having any relationships with the lords beforehand it’s actually very difficult.
Now besides defending and expanding. I am going to make a subsection for recruiting Lords, and making your companions Lords.
Recruiting lords- Well on this topic you will understand how to recruit lords. It is slightly tricky sometimes, and even I have problems doing it. First thing you need is to either be joined in a faction or have your very own. Second you need to have relations, right to rule and persuasion helps. Right to rule, I think, will help you the most in convincing other lords to join you. Having good relations sometimes doesn't help you when they are "too" loyal to their King. Persuasion helps them see it in your way higher the better. You have to talk to a specific lord you want to recruit. I would ask how do you feel about your King. There is several responses..The King is a Vile pretender, this subject is offensive (use persuasion to change his mind),I am busy talk to me later or it's hardly private here, I don't go around scheming in corners(need more rep) OR it will open a new dialog on how he should join you or the King you serve. There is several choices you can choose from the one you pick may help you get him to defect. Try not to use different explanations with different lords sooner or later word gets around that you’re just saying what people want to hear. Use the same reason each time and you’ll get better results overall in the long run.
Another way is to have free lands in your realm. Lords will often defect to your kingdom hoping to get some, and will appear in your castle wanting to talk to you. If you do recruit them, be sure to give them some lands, otherwise their relationship with you will drop fairly rapidly...
Companions to lords- This is the easy route. Once you establish a Kingdom of your own, and you have an extra fief you can simply talk to one of your companions and give them a town or talk to your minister and give them one that way. You will have full control over them, and you can give troops to all your Lords as well(Your faction). It's all said and good here except there is two negative effects of this. One you cannot get your companion back or level him up anymore. Two depending on the lord you pick you run your fief, other lords may see him as a commoner (Nizar) and when you talk to them you will be scolded in the arts of not giving commoners lands, and you’re not upholding the Noble Rights. That will give you a -4 reputation to those who oppose it.(Most of the lords) Some will give you a +2 for they do not mind that you have done that. As far as I am aware, Alayen, Matheld, Lezalit,Baheshur,firentis and Rolf are the companions who are not ‘commoners’.
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Companions noble personality's (by SPD_Phoenix) and (Peter Ebbesen)
- Rolf: cunning.
- Baheshtur: cunning.
- Firentis: upstanding.
- Matheld: martial.
- Alayen: martial.
- Lezalit: selfrighteous.
Martial: My sword is at the disposal of my rightful liege, so long as he upholds his duty to me.
Quarrelsome: Bah. They're all a bunch of bastards. I try to make sure that the ones who wrong me learn to regret it.
Pitiless: Men will always try to cheat others of their rightful due. In this faithless world, each must remain vigilant of his own rights.
Cunning: Well, it's a harsh world, and it is our lot to face harsh choices. Sometimes one must serve a tyrant to keep the peace, but sometimes a bit of rebellion keeps the kings honest. Circumstance is all.
Sadistic: My philosophy is simple: it is better to be the wolf than the lamb.
Goodnatured: Well, you should keep faith with your promises, and not do injustice to others. Sometimes it's hard to balance those. Stick with people you trust, I think, and it's hard to go far wrong.
Upstanding: Kingship and lordship have been instituted to keep the peace and prevent the war of all against all, yet that must not blind us to the possibility of injustice.
Roguish: Hmm.. I guess I'm thinking that it's good to be a lord.
Benefactor: A good ruler makes sure all are treated justly. Personally, I intend to use my authority to better the lot of those who live in my demesne.
Custodian: A good ruler creates the proper conditions for people to prosper. Personally, I intend to use my wealth to create more wealth, for myself and for the common benefit.
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Recruiting lords- Well on this topic you will understand how to recruit lords. It is slightly tricky sometimes, and even I have problems doing it. First thing you need is to either be joined in a faction or have your very own. Second you need to have relations, right to rule and persuasion helps. Right to rule, I think, will help you the most in convincing other lords to join you. Having good relations sometimes doesn't help you when they are "too" loyal to their King. Persuasion helps them see it in your way higher the better. You have to talk to a specific lord you want to recruit. I would ask how do you feel about your King. There is several responses..The King is a Vile pretender, this subject is offensive (use persuasion to change his mind),I am busy talk to me later or it's hardly private here, I don't go around scheming in corners(need more rep) OR it will open a new dialog on how he should join you or the King you serve. There is several choices you can choose from the one you pick may help you get him to defect. Try not to use different explanations with different lords sooner or later word gets around that you’re just saying what people want to hear. Use the same reason each time and you’ll get better results overall in the long run.
Another way is to have free lands in your realm. Lords will often defect to your kingdom hoping to get some, and will appear in your castle wanting to talk to you. If you do recruit them, be sure to give them some lands, otherwise their relationship with you will drop fairly rapidly...
Companions to lords- This is the easy route. Once you establish a Kingdom of your own, and you have an extra fief you can simply talk to one of your companions and give them a town or talk to your minister and give them one that way. You will have full control over them, and you can give troops to all your Lords as well(Your faction). It's all said and good here except there is two negative effects of this. One you cannot get your companion back or level him up anymore. Two depending on the lord you pick you run your fief, other lords may see him as a commoner (Nizar) and when you talk to them you will be scolded in the arts of not giving commoners lands, and you’re not upholding the Noble Rights. That will give you a -4 reputation to those who oppose it.(Most of the lords) Some will give you a +2 for they do not mind that you have done that. As far as I am aware, Alayen, Matheld, Lezalit,Baheshur,firentis and Rolf are the companions who are not ‘commoners’.
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Companions noble personality's (by SPD_Phoenix) and (Peter Ebbesen)
- Rolf: cunning.
- Baheshtur: cunning.
- Firentis: upstanding.
- Matheld: martial.
- Alayen: martial.
- Lezalit: selfrighteous.
Martial: My sword is at the disposal of my rightful liege, so long as he upholds his duty to me.
Quarrelsome: Bah. They're all a bunch of bastards. I try to make sure that the ones who wrong me learn to regret it.
Pitiless: Men will always try to cheat others of their rightful due. In this faithless world, each must remain vigilant of his own rights.
Cunning: Well, it's a harsh world, and it is our lot to face harsh choices. Sometimes one must serve a tyrant to keep the peace, but sometimes a bit of rebellion keeps the kings honest. Circumstance is all.
Sadistic: My philosophy is simple: it is better to be the wolf than the lamb.
Goodnatured: Well, you should keep faith with your promises, and not do injustice to others. Sometimes it's hard to balance those. Stick with people you trust, I think, and it's hard to go far wrong.
Upstanding: Kingship and lordship have been instituted to keep the peace and prevent the war of all against all, yet that must not blind us to the possibility of injustice.
Roguish: Hmm.. I guess I'm thinking that it's good to be a lord.
Benefactor: A good ruler makes sure all are treated justly. Personally, I intend to use my authority to better the lot of those who live in my demesne.
Custodian: A good ruler creates the proper conditions for people to prosper. Personally, I intend to use my wealth to create more wealth, for myself and for the common benefit.
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Marriage as a Male- Hmm, the day of love and a new minister. I will start from the beginning. Marriage is not that hard to obtain to start it you will need to court a willing women. There is a chance you will get a -bonus but it's rare (from my experience at least). If you get a negative bonus you need to do tournaments and dedicate it to her, and hope that works. Once you get a positive bonus by talking to her and claiming you are her most ardent admirer it will start. At this point every so often around once a week you will be asked to visit your Lady. Make sure you traveled from city to city memorizing amazing poems to whisper into your lovers ear. You gain reputation depending on the poem. You will have to sneak in to meet her unless you get permission from her Father or Brother. Sometimes if you sneak in there is a small chance you can be caught, and when you talk to her sibling he will yell at you and you will lose reputation with him. If that does not happen and you are loved by the family, and you have enough reputation you can quote the women of your dreams. It is a simple procedure when talking to your Lady you ask her if there is a future between you and if there is it will pop up and you can be married with her siblings permission. You go to him and he will tell you that he is going to throw a feast for the wedding and you will need pay a hefty sum of denars for it. You wait for your wedding and when it pops up you show up there say a few lines and you have a wife.
Note that this will only happen if there’s a feast – and the notification is no different to any other feast. You need to be there, along with the ‘guardian’ of your beloved. Talk to him to get it underway. You can’t have a feast if you’re on campaign, so if you’re the marshal talk to the king and resign.
All I said there works best if you join a faction if you do not join "the" faction the women you want is in, it works like this. So you court your Lady and you have at least 20 reputation with her and you cannot get his permission, but you still want to marry her. You need to be in another faction with a city or castle or your own faction with those things. You get the question is there a future between us (when you meet her) and you say lets get married now. You will be married on the spot and you will loose 20 reputation with your wife. She will be imported into you main fief and your married.
Marriage as a Female- (by Asylumer)- There is a random assignment of romantic chemistry that factors into whether or not you can be married to that NPC. NPC's who have good chemistry will tell you they are an ardent admirer. If the NPC is interested in another lady, her relationship score with him is checked against yours. Highest score wins, and the loser gets dumped. Also betrothed NPC's will refuse automatically sorry ladies! Cunning or Good Natured lords will refuse if your relationship is below -3. Debauched, Self-Righteous, or Quarrelsome lords will refuse if your relationship is below -10. You will have to explore there personality's to figure out what they are I believe. Romantic Chemistry of less than 5 automatically disqualifies you. Martial and Upstanding lords will automatically refuse. Quarrelsome lords demand at least 15 Romantic Chemistry before they'll accept marriage. Debauched and Self-righteous personalities demand you have property. You need at least 20 relationship and 5 chemistry for all non-Debauched/Self-righteous lords. Cunning lords will deny you if your relationship with the King is below -10. You can't get married if you're in another faction. If you pass all of the above hurdles, you can get hitched! Once the lord accepts there's a waiting period before the wedding is arranged. Eventually your chosen lord will give you the quest, and supposedly you can show up at a feast (which he'll suggest) and get hitched... but I can never seem to get him to go there. Instead he'll eventually say that he's tired of waiting and demand you guys get hitched immediately. Vows are said and voila, you're now married to a lord.
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Cons:
-Despite being eligible for castles and towns, you'll never be able to select your own banner if you get into nobility by marrying, and you don't get your husband's banner either.
Pros:
-Storage chest.
-Personal army at your beck and call.
-Ability to arrange feasts.
Note that this will only happen if there’s a feast – and the notification is no different to any other feast. You need to be there, along with the ‘guardian’ of your beloved. Talk to him to get it underway. You can’t have a feast if you’re on campaign, so if you’re the marshal talk to the king and resign.
All I said there works best if you join a faction if you do not join "the" faction the women you want is in, it works like this. So you court your Lady and you have at least 20 reputation with her and you cannot get his permission, but you still want to marry her. You need to be in another faction with a city or castle or your own faction with those things. You get the question is there a future between us (when you meet her) and you say lets get married now. You will be married on the spot and you will loose 20 reputation with your wife. She will be imported into you main fief and your married.
Marriage as a Female- (by Asylumer)- There is a random assignment of romantic chemistry that factors into whether or not you can be married to that NPC. NPC's who have good chemistry will tell you they are an ardent admirer. If the NPC is interested in another lady, her relationship score with him is checked against yours. Highest score wins, and the loser gets dumped. Also betrothed NPC's will refuse automatically sorry ladies! Cunning or Good Natured lords will refuse if your relationship is below -3. Debauched, Self-Righteous, or Quarrelsome lords will refuse if your relationship is below -10. You will have to explore there personality's to figure out what they are I believe. Romantic Chemistry of less than 5 automatically disqualifies you. Martial and Upstanding lords will automatically refuse. Quarrelsome lords demand at least 15 Romantic Chemistry before they'll accept marriage. Debauched and Self-righteous personalities demand you have property. You need at least 20 relationship and 5 chemistry for all non-Debauched/Self-righteous lords. Cunning lords will deny you if your relationship with the King is below -10. You can't get married if you're in another faction. If you pass all of the above hurdles, you can get hitched! Once the lord accepts there's a waiting period before the wedding is arranged. Eventually your chosen lord will give you the quest, and supposedly you can show up at a feast (which he'll suggest) and get hitched... but I can never seem to get him to go there. Instead he'll eventually say that he's tired of waiting and demand you guys get hitched immediately. Vows are said and voila, you're now married to a lord.
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Cons:
-Despite being eligible for castles and towns, you'll never be able to select your own banner if you get into nobility by marrying, and you don't get your husband's banner either.
Pros:
-Storage chest.
-Personal army at your beck and call.
-Ability to arrange feasts.
Advanced guide
Vonskyme's tome of understanding of the intricacies of the secret arts of the archer - also known as the Power draw Manual
Power Draw is required for most (but not all) bows - I think the only one which doesn't is the hunting bow. Power draw has two effects on bow shots - damage and accuracy.
1. Accuracy
The power draw requirement of a bow indicates how much you require to JUST be able to draw the bow far enough to fire an arrow. If your power draw is below this point, you can't equip it (the same for any other requirement in strength). If your power draw is AT the level required by the bow, you can barely pull the string back. As such, you will suffer a significant accuracy penalty, and will be unable to hold the bow drawn for very long. This accuracy penalty disappears over a few points of power draw (it's negligible by about +3 power draw), and every point of power draw increases the time you can hold it (I believe this continues above +4 power draw. At +4, I had about 4 seconds of holding the reticle closed, +7 I had about 5 seconds, and +10 about 6 seconds. Hence the bulk of the improvement is in the first 3 points, but it does get better later). Extremely high proficiencies can also help accuracy issues due to power draw, but generally if you have those, you've pumped for the power draw anyway.
2. Damage
The damage a bow can put out according to it's statistics is the base damage. Power draw adds 14% damage for every point, up to a maximum of the power draw level of the bow plus four points. This means a bow will cause:
Thus, for a few examples:
A character with power draw 6 tries out three bows - a hunting bow (15p with no power draw requirement), a cracked Khergit bow (16p with 3 power draw) and a masterwork nomad bow (25p with 6 power draw, and my personal favourite).
The hunting bow will cause, typically; 15+15*(0+4)*0.14 = 15*1.56 = 23.4 damage. It will also fire accurately and can be held for quite some time, but the last two points of power draw are wasted.
The cracked Khergit bow will cause; 16+16*(3+3)*0.14 = 16*1.84 = 29.4 damage. It will fire accurately, but won't be able to be held for as long as the hunting bow. Note that it will do 6 more damage on average, despite only being one point of base damage higher.
The masterwork Nomad bow will cause; 25+25*(6+0) = 25*1.84 = 46 damage. Unfortunately, as you are at the power draw requirement, the shots will be rather inaccurate, and this character is probably better off with the khergit bow.
If the same character goes to power draw 10, with the same bows:
The hunting bow is unchanged - the twelve levels of strength increases are wasted.
The Khergit bow goes to 16+16*(3+4)*0+14 = 1.98*16 = 31.7, an increase of 2.3 damage, and now 'wastes' three points of power draw.
The masterwork nomad bow goes to 25+25*(6+4)*0.14 = 25*2.4 = 60 damage, an increase of 14 damage. It will also be able to be fired with pin point accuracy, and makes the most of the power draw.
In summary:
The best bow for your character is typically one you have a power draw of 3 to 4 above that required, to allow you decent accuracy - don't just go for the biggest bow you can hold if you want to hit something! I know this was a little long-windedully it gets the message across.
Power Draw is required for most (but not all) bows - I think the only one which doesn't is the hunting bow. Power draw has two effects on bow shots - damage and accuracy.
1. Accuracy
The power draw requirement of a bow indicates how much you require to JUST be able to draw the bow far enough to fire an arrow. If your power draw is below this point, you can't equip it (the same for any other requirement in strength). If your power draw is AT the level required by the bow, you can barely pull the string back. As such, you will suffer a significant accuracy penalty, and will be unable to hold the bow drawn for very long. This accuracy penalty disappears over a few points of power draw (it's negligible by about +3 power draw), and every point of power draw increases the time you can hold it (I believe this continues above +4 power draw. At +4, I had about 4 seconds of holding the reticle closed, +7 I had about 5 seconds, and +10 about 6 seconds. Hence the bulk of the improvement is in the first 3 points, but it does get better later). Extremely high proficiencies can also help accuracy issues due to power draw, but generally if you have those, you've pumped for the power draw anyway.
2. Damage
The damage a bow can put out according to it's statistics is the base damage. Power draw adds 14% damage for every point, up to a maximum of the power draw level of the bow plus four points. This means a bow will cause:
base damage + base damage *(power draw requirement + up to four) * 0.14
Thus, for a few examples:
A character with power draw 6 tries out three bows - a hunting bow (15p with no power draw requirement), a cracked Khergit bow (16p with 3 power draw) and a masterwork nomad bow (25p with 6 power draw, and my personal favourite).
The hunting bow will cause, typically; 15+15*(0+4)*0.14 = 15*1.56 = 23.4 damage. It will also fire accurately and can be held for quite some time, but the last two points of power draw are wasted.
The cracked Khergit bow will cause; 16+16*(3+3)*0.14 = 16*1.84 = 29.4 damage. It will fire accurately, but won't be able to be held for as long as the hunting bow. Note that it will do 6 more damage on average, despite only being one point of base damage higher.
The masterwork Nomad bow will cause; 25+25*(6+0) = 25*1.84 = 46 damage. Unfortunately, as you are at the power draw requirement, the shots will be rather inaccurate, and this character is probably better off with the khergit bow.
If the same character goes to power draw 10, with the same bows:
The hunting bow is unchanged - the twelve levels of strength increases are wasted.
The Khergit bow goes to 16+16*(3+4)*0+14 = 1.98*16 = 31.7, an increase of 2.3 damage, and now 'wastes' three points of power draw.
The masterwork nomad bow goes to 25+25*(6+4)*0.14 = 25*2.4 = 60 damage, an increase of 14 damage. It will also be able to be fired with pin point accuracy, and makes the most of the power draw.
In summary:
The best bow for your character is typically one you have a power draw of 3 to 4 above that required, to allow you decent accuracy - don't just go for the biggest bow you can hold if you want to hit something! I know this was a little long-windedully it gets the message across.
Things to know
1. You cannot be a King of a pre-existing faction.
2. There is no marriage to companions as a male. (I read something about females,but I never made a female and explored it)
3. Weapons deal the most damage at their maximum reach.
4. Using a 2handed weapon or polearm as a 1hand incurs a 35% penalty.
5. In general all regular soldiers will get one share, your hero companions will get three shares each, and as the leader you will get ten shares of the loot.
6. Map speed is affected by riding for mounted units and athletics for infantry. This explains why khergits are not only faster because they're all mounted, but because they also have 6/7 points into riding, confirmed by manual. However it is not affected by horse type, and since the game calculates the party speed by average between slowest and fastest, you'll only see the benefits of improving riding for your companions on a large scale and if they compose most of the party.
7. You can not marry Kings or Claimants. (Can with diplomacy)
8. When giving the 'hold this position order' you can simply hold the F1 key, which will make a small flag appear in the middle of your targeting reticule. Simply point to where you want the people to go, and let go of F1.
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I hope this helps out. Vonskyme is one of the author's as well, thank him too on the extra info that was put in the database.
Black- Galdus quotes
Blue- Vonskyme quotes.
Other sources
Wiki manual- http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Mount%26Blade:_Warband/Table_of_Contents
Steam manual- http://cdn.steampowered.com/Manuals/48700/PDX5505US_Warband_Manual_US.pdf
Companion guide- http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,36781.0.html
Female page- http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,115836.0.html
Troop's stats- http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,114836.0.html
Charles Du Lac guide- http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic%2C112413.0.html
Karmine's info thread- http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,128730.0.html
