Culture bonuses - your experiences so far?

[anoddhermit]

This is what my impressions are:

Vlandia: Solid all around for any playstyle, really - you can use this to level up troops for donations, garrisons, and clan parties even after getting top tier troops yourself.

Sturgia: Highly niche and the snow slows your map speed too much, so I don't even like playing in it to try to utilize this.

Empire: It seems like the real bonus for Empire is town loyalty just due to how many more cities are Empire culture.

Aserai: I kinda think it's garbage and would rather be Khuzait for trading.

Khuzait: I think if you're focused on just knocking parties on the map out, this is the strongest overall provided you have the party composition to benefit from it.

Battania: This is a good one for general mobility, escaping, chasing, and more foot soldier heavy parties that wouldn't pick Khuzait.

Of course I've played some factions more than others, so I may be overlooking the utility of some of them.

 

[Apocal]

Sturgia: Highly niche and the snow slows your map speed too much, so I don't even like playing in it to try to utilize this.

This bonus was briefly worth it. When there was snow on the ground, Sturgian parties could casually run down pure-Khuzait parties like a cheetah chasing a gazelle. It made raiding Sturgia risky as hell in the winter months even with endgame Scouting perks and an all-cav party. But they patched it to being another lame +0.1 move speed bonus.

As for the others, I always thought Vlandia's bonus was lame because my limit on upgrading wasn't XP but being able to afford the troops' wage increase. The Aserai bonus currently sucks but it is at least better than the Empire bonus.

 

[Ananda_The_Destroyer]

Vlandia: noob trap, looks good on paper but in practice you'll be sitting on troops you don't want to upgrade yet or max tier troops. At it's best it saves you some quick looter fights but will of be irrelevant most of the game.

Khuzait and Battania: Movement + is awesome! Can impact the entire game from day 1 to character death. Khuzaits can be used everywhere with the right party and forest are all over the place too, either is really good. Whatever you're doing, wherever you're going you just get it done sooner. Very strong.

Sturgia: What @Apocal said. It had a day in the sun, got nerfed, could be revised someday to join Khuzait and battanians in the +speed party. If you not planning on playing in the sturgain area the snow might be less useful then the other 2 though.

Aserai: It's $$$, $$$ is easy to get in bannerlord, so this is more Role playing type or perk, not good for serious martial playthoughs. Bad.

Empire: I have hard time ascertaining exactly when it's working and what it does, If anybody has serious break down of it please inform me. I think the siege bonus only effect weapons and not siege camp speed, so it's not good for me. I thoug in the past when II put an imperial goever in I could see the +building speed in the town menu, but lately I can't find it, so I might have been mistaken. Maybe I need to have the culture and then if effects all town building my clam owns? Or is it only if someone's a governor (making it bad for player)? I have noticed when trying to treb down walls of Empire towns they rebuild weapon faster the usual and it's annoying, but I don't know if that's a good benefit to the player. Somebody give me the fact on this culture bonus.

 

[Antaeus]

I find the Battanian movement perk to be the most powerful...

Everyone you're chasing eventually hits woodland, and you can even chase down steppe bandits by shepherding them to woodlands. Conversely, it's really easy to head for the nearest woods to escape stronger enemies.

The Khuzait movement perk is also good, but it doesn't help so much when most of the map has woodlands. I think their real "perk-not-perk" is the ease in which you can build mounted forces. Even the now-nerfed low tier horse archers can be OP when you micro them in mass blobs as fast moving stationary archers rather than leaving them to skirmish.

As per AnandaShanti above... I used to use Asari characters a lot for the cheap caravans... but these days I am better at earning cash so find the speed perks to be more useful.

Although as per the OP above... I often play as Empire characters for the town loyalty rather than the actual "perk" anyway. If you're building as an independent by capturing rebellious cities before declaring a kingdom, then you're going to be taking mostly empire cities. And not having to constantly quest for loyalty is probably the best "perk-not-perk" in the game - they're the only faction where I seem to be able to set and forget a city, and not return to it with -1 loyalty through "local issues"

 

[Agroplode]

Empire: I have hard time ascertaining exactly when it's working and what it does..

I would also like more precise info about these guys.

I have tried to play Empire character with all Empire Companions and it seemed like they Manage Towns better with their faction perks but it could be my imagination.

For Sieges making 4 Trebuchets and taking down walls and enemy sieges engines is pretty sweet. But I see they nerfed this for 1.5.10.

 

[LDominating]

Don't Imperials have + 1 prosperity in cities?
This is actually pretty good since after conquering a city you're gonna lose quite a respectable amount of prosperity.
It also makes towns so much worth to see rising up,especially denar changes.

 

[Apocal]

Don't Imperials have + 1 prosperity in cities?
This is actually pretty good since after conquering a city you're gonna lose quite a respectable amount of prosperity.
It also makes towns so much worth to see rising up,especially denar changes.

Imperial towns -- regardless of player/owner/governor culture -- get +1 prosperity.

 

[Jaang]

The Khuzait speed bonus, combined with various speed perks and topped off with the final perk in the Scouting skill, makes you basically uncatchable.

And if your party is all mounted and under 75 or so troops, you can catch everything, including Steppe Bandits.

 

[Bannerman Man]

There's the +1 bonus to militia for Battanian settlements, similar to the Empire's settlement prosperity bonus. The leadership perk Combat Tips could sort of be considered a general culture bonus as well, and is really strong IMO.

Speed is King though, for sure.

This bonus was briefly worth it. When there was snow on the ground, Sturgian parties could casually run down pure-Khuzait parties like a cheetah chasing a gazelle. It made raiding Sturgia risky as hell in the winter months even with endgame Scouting perks and an all-cav party. But they patched it to being another lame +0.1 move speed bonus.

Definitely should be bumped up to something like 50% less penalty in snow at least, if not higher.

Edit: Just removing the penalty altogether wouldn't be outrageous either, I don't think. The snow penalty tops out at -0.4 speed IIRC, so it would essentially be +0.4 speed at most, relative to non-Sturgian parties. Compare that to Battania's feat that tops out at +0.45, and is arguably less situational than Sturgia's.

Empire: I have hard time ascertaining exactly when it's working and what it does, If anybody has serious break down of it please inform me.

The Empire's Construction Bonus makes any siege project being built complete 10% faster, including the siege camp preparations. For attackers, it depends on the culture of the leader of the army. For defenders, it depends on the culture of the leader of the party with the highest engineer skill inside the settlement. Party leaders that are neutral to the besieging faction don't count.

 

[Ananda_The_Destroyer]

There's the +1 bonus to militia for Battanian settlements, similar to the Empire's settlement prosperity bonus. The leadership perk Combat Tips could sort of be considered a general culture bonus as well, and is really strong IMO.

Speed is King though, for sure.


Definitely should be bumped up to something like 50% less penalty in snow at least, if not higher.


The Empire's Construction Bonus makes any siege project being built complete 10% faster, including the siege camp preparations. For attackers, it depends on the culture of the leader of the army. For defenders, it depends on the culture of the leader of the party with the highest engineer skill inside the settlement. Party leaders that are neutral to the besieging faction don't count.

I'm glad it helps build the siege camp! I wish the engineering skill itself did too! I loved the instant siege in warband when you had max engineering!

 

[Bannerman Man]

I'm glad it helps build the siege camp! I wish the engineering skill itself did too! I loved the instant siege in warband when you had max engineering!

It does! Anything that affects siege engine construction also affects siege camp construction. The base value for daily siege construction is determined as the square root of the total number of healthy troops a side has. So if the attacking army has 1024 healthy troops, they will have a base manpower of 32 per day. The siege camp requires 32 construction points, so it will take exactly 1 day to construct. Siege towers require 16 points, so they would take half a day to construct. The engineer skill boosts your base construction by 0.1% per skill point, so having 100 engineering skill will boost your construction by 10% (equivalent to the Empire feat), 200 by 20%, etc.

Unless you mean to say it's too slow. That's probably just to give the defenders a chance to set up though.

Showing all this on the tooltip would probably be a good idea haha.

 

[Ananda_The_Destroyer]

It does! Anything that affects siege engine construction also affects siege camp construction. The base value for daily siege construction is determined as the square root of the total number of healthy troops a side has. So if the attacking army has 1024 healthy troops, they will have a base manpower of 32 per day. The siege camp requires 32 construction points, so it will take exactly 1 day to construct. Siege towers require 16 points, so they would take half a day to construct. The engineer skill boosts your base construction by 0.1% per skill point, so having 100 engineering skill will boost your construction by 10% (equivalent to the Empire feat), 200 by 20%, etc.

Unless you mean to say it's too slow. That's probably just to give the defenders a chance to set up though.

Showing all this on the tooltip would probably be a good idea haha.

That's so good to find out after well over a year of playing lol! Yeah I thought since the tool tip said siege engine it meant just that! Doesn't help that I've probably never got enough engineering to see more then +7% speed on my 200 man party building the camp! 7% of 5 days or so... hmmm

I wonder though, how many sieges would be left by the time the player got 300 skill?

 

[Agroplode]

Flesson19 is streaming an Intelligence build now with focus on Engineering, we might see an answer to this.

 

[Penn]

Sturgias new bonus: can sail small bodies of water/shores

???

 

[anoddhermit]

Sturgias new bonus: can sail small bodies of water/shores

???

This would actually be pretty awesome and fun to use without majorly impacting balance. I approve.

 

[thefirst1nvad3r]

In my playthroughs, I never really felt the presence of these bonuses, especially after the first hours of play.
For my thought, they are interesting on paper, but quite situational or not so useful when in the real game. I would like to see more concrete bonuses that really make difference in choosing one or another culture, eg a boost to experience in some skills or in the management system.