Beginning advice, general tips, random questions

[Ischenous]

I have managed to get 500 denars nearly sometimes without letting it build up. 

 

[Lancefighter]

.
So today I took a look at the options screen, and noticed that combat was rather skewed in my favor. Something stupid like a .25x damage multiplier on all damage that I took, and something similar for my allies.

This is unacceptable. I will not play a game that gives me such an advantage... So i put it to normal... And i had to totally relearn combat. My army of 30 some got totally killed by 10 mountain bandits :\ Usually i eat those for breakfast solo... how in the world can you play like this?

just be patient...don't feel ashamed having it on 1/4 damage, I think it's safe to say most of us did when we first started out. Just leave it there until that's no longer a challenge, then move it to half damage. Leave it there until that's no longer a challenge, then move to full damage. Once you get used to it, it's cake.

I never saw much of a challenge to begin with... was always wondering why i took like no damage, but dealt in the 20's...
Maybe I can live at 1/2 damage for a bit, until i get comfortable with that.

And i guess towns are somewhat worth it... I shall look into the matter (after totally rebuilding my army... >.<)
Is there any reasonably safe way to upgrade my troops, short of just sitting around with a high training skill?

Also, are there any heros you suggest I try out to begin with? I havnt quite put in my fair share of research time on to each of them, and was just wondering if there are one or two that i 'must have'... 

side note: how can i tell if a city or town is mine? Will it be like "pick your color" or something, and i get to chose a unique color for myself? Will it assign me one? Or will it just kinda like just a list, (you own: town of yadayada, blahblah, and soandso), but no color?

 

[Dryvus]

Is there any reasonably safe way to upgrade my troops, short of just sitting around with a high training skill?

Training against low-tier troops at the training ground is the best way to level them up. Of course it's even better if you have points in training.

 

[Sethaniel]

Also, are there any heros you suggest I try out to begin with? I havnt quite put in my fair share of research time on to each of them, and was just wondering if there are one or two that i 'must have'... 

side note: how can i tell if a city or town is mine? Will it be like "pick your color" or something, and i get to chose a unique color for myself? Will it assign me one? Or will it just kinda like just a list, (you own: town of yadayada, blahblah, and soandso), but no color?

None of the heroes are a 'must-have', per say; they just make things easier for you and your party.
Your choice of heroes should be based on your own personal preferences, really.

For example, if you are involved or are planning to involve yourself in a lot of sieges, then Artimenner is a good choice. He's the only hero with a focus on the Engineering skill, if I recall correctly.
Or you could recruit Jeremus, whose healing skills are designed to cater to your war-mongering habits.
Borcha or Deshavi are good at pathfinding, tracking, spotting. Lezalit for training. And Marnid for trading. etc, etc...

Unfortunately, not all of the heroes get along with eachother, so you must take that into consideration when recruiting them. Heroes that don't get along with one of your other heroes usually have their morale suffer with time, eventually resulting in them deserting your party. I'd recommend you do some research on the heroes and their interactions beforehand.

Here's a somewhat comprehensive analysis of heroes: http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,36781.0.html

Oh, and there are banners on top of cities, signifying which lord they belong to. The colour of your towns will be your faction's colour. You can't choose your own colour.

 

[Oskatat]

if you have to level up troops, here's an easy way: move them up all the way in your party screen. after them, put mounted units and archers. equip yourself with some idiotic weak melee weapon. next, find some looters. attack. order archers and cavelery to hold position. your new recruits will charge and you witgh your toy weapon will be able to distract annoying looters. for 8 looters you can level 3 recruits, and lose 1 or 2. and so on and so on. doesnt take too long actualy

 

[Dankor]

And with a good surgery skill, you'll save a lot of time otherwise spent recruiting new troops.

 

[jdoodle]

if the thread starter doesnt mind, ill ask a question. Is there anything to find walking around the towns? I know it adds to gameplay to walk from shop to shop rather then just use the menu, but wanted to know if you could find some secret stuff maybe?

thanks

 

[Demonic Spoon]

Firstly I'd like to state that Rhodoks are not in any way weak.

They require unique tactics but they are incredibly strong if you use them correctly. Keep them together. Don't just charge the enemy. Hold position near the enemy to get them in a pretty cohesive line and then if necessary order a charge when the battle's about to fight. Order them to reform when they start getting too spread out and disorganized. Give the archers a "Fall back 10 paces" or the infantry a "Move forward 10 paces" order. The spearmen will hold the enemies back (and shield you from arrows with their huge shields) and the crossbows will rip them to pieces.

Rhodoks benefit greatly from a few non-spearmen. If you have the spare cash, hire a couple mercenary swordsmen or hired blades or something and they will magnify the power of your spear force by a great deal. Spear wall + swordsmen have GREAT synergy. Some people like to use their crossbowmen for this role by ordering them to charge when the melee begins as they are surprisingly competent at it for ranged troops.

if the thread starter doesnt mind, ill ask a question. Is there anything to find walking around the towns? I know it adds to gameplay to walk from shop to shop rather then just use the menu, but wanted to know if you could find some secret stuff maybe?

Gives you access to the town's dungeon and lets you get quests from the guild master of said city.

 

[Lancefighter]

The thread is only a month old, feel free to ask questions and such :p

I actually gave up on the rhodoks, and moved on to the nords... (went through the veagirs on my way).

I find that nords have excellent foot soldiers, better than that of nearly all other factions.
Nords lack deticated range and cavalry units though, so i add veagir ones 

I dont see rhodoks still as a good starting race though; they have no cavalry, and therefore have the slowest speed on the map. This is bad for people like me who sometimes like to avoid fights (especially for new people who cant fight big battles like that). Nords are similar, but they at least have units that can stand their ground when they need to 

 

[nacmopa]

I don't know English very well, but I have question, please help
my troops leave me because they don't eat, how can I give them food

 

[vulgarmonkey]

buy food and keep it in your inventory.  If you have more than 1 type of food, then it adds the morale bonuses together.

You can buy it in villages or towns (goods merchants).

 

[Demonic Spoon]

I dont see rhodoks still as a good starting race though; they have no cavalry, and therefore have the slowest speed on the map. This is bad for people like me who sometimes like to avoid fights (especially for new people who cant fight big battles like that). Nords are similar, but they at least have units that can stand their ground when they need to 

Rhodoks are great at holding ground. Besides, the lack of cavalry isn't that noticeable...Only the Khergits get a really noticeable speed increase.


With only a couple points in pathfinding I'm able to easily outdistance even full-cavalry Khergit parties that are significantly larger than mine.