Do you ever take party skills for yourself?

[SAUS]

This is sort of in response to my other post here: http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,311733.0.html

It seems that everyone makes someone else the doctor all the time. I think there are huge advantages to taking the party skills for yourself. The main one is the bonus you get for being the party leader with the skill. If you don't know how it works, it is simple:
At skill level 2, you get a +1 bonus to the party skill
At skill level 5, you get a +2 bonus to the party skill
At skill level 8, you get a +3 bonus to the party skill
At skill level 10, you get a +4 bonus to the party skill

This bonus applies even if you don't have the highest level of that skill within the party. So, for example, you can have Alayen with 6 engineer while you have 5, and the total will be 8 (+2 bonus from you on top of his 6). It also means you can have party skill at level 14 (basically) when you have 30 intelligence. This is absolutely amazing for skills like tactics and surgery.

On top of all that, you can avoid making your companions have all the party skills (this makes your party more robust if you happen to lose them - perhaps by being captured by an enemy lord) and, instead, you can focus on making them powerful fighting troops. It's pretty awesome to have 8 identical warriors that can become much more powerful than regular troops, wear whatever equipment you want them to, and never die.

 

[fragonard]

Yes, it's a good way to play. See this thread for an exhaustive examination of plus and minus.
http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,289920.0.html

 

[Ivan Khan]

Normally I like to get '2' in all the party skills. Gives a +1 bonus and if my designated expert goes down or is off someplace then my character is the backup.

A couple of times I have built up one or two skills:

Surgery at '10' makes your troops almost immortal, add 1st Aid at 10 and it makes siege defense easy.

Never got my trade guy to '10', got tired of that game.

Pathfinding at '10' is my favorite, you can run down or run away from anyone or anything.

Looting, tracking, tactics, wound treatment & engineer I have tested at '10' but never found them worthwhile.

 

[Phalnax811]

Currently I have Ymira in my squad as medic but I've been making myself specialize in surgery since I can control myself dying more than I can control the AI doing something stupid.  Although I'm not immune to stupid charges.

Other than that I usually just chuck in some training, inventory, 3-4 prisoner management and of course 8 or 9 leadership for dat party size.

 

[SAUS]

Normally I like to get '2' in all the party skills. Gives a +1 bonus and if my designated expert goes down or is off someplace then my character is the backup.

A couple of times I have built up one or two skills:

Surgery at '10' makes your troops almost immortal, add 1st Aid at 10 and it makes siege defense easy.

Never got my trade guy to '10', got tired of that game.

Pathfinding at '10' is my favorite, you can run down or run away from anyone or anything.

Looting, tracking, tactics, wound treatment & engineer I have tested at '10' but never found them worthwhile.

I especially find surgery to be powerful. Along with my immortal companions, my army casualties is usually only about 20% of the people who actually died to non-blunt weapons. I can have my whole party fall in battle and still be running around with a power army. I tend to not use first aid as much, but I have had it high once. It is really good, as you say, for those times where you will battle often. I usually just get wound treatment high up there because it is also pretty good for similar purposes (frequent fighting, though the time should be further apart to abuse wound treatment over first aid).

I am surprised that you didn't find tactics to be useful. I play on max difficulty settings (148% difficulty and on native), and the difference in numbers on the battlefield is insane. I fought King Ragnar one time where he had 800 soldiers (he only had 2 lords in his faction, so almost all the fiefs belonged to him), and even though I was outnumbered about 5+:1, the battle advantage was at -2. After the first wave (King Ragnar now wounded), the enemy tactics disappears, and the battle advantage spiked up to around 2 or 3. Now I outnumbered him on the battlefield even though I only had about 30% of the troops his army had. Since mine were all knights, I crushed his army like nothing. Due to the 10 surgery, I don't think I even lost a single knight lol.

 

[Occam]

I rarely take more than 2 in any party skills, and even most of those I don't put any points in.
Typically I'll take 2 in pathfinding and maybe 2 in spotting but that's just really for the very beginning of the game when I am hunting bandits before I have my scout leveled up.
I put 2 in training of course, and 2 in prisoners. Other than that I make one medic, one scout, and one engineer/tactician, and the rest combat companions.

Sometimes I'll level up my charisma and put points in leadership but more often I just concentrate on my fighting skills.

 

[Alex C]

I'm a big fan of high intelligence characters. Max Path finding makes it easier to escape in the early game, chase down lords in the midgame and reinforce sieges in the late game on top of just being plain convenient. Max surgery is also great for preserving your forces and as an Int character you can quite easily afford to pump Wound Treatment up to a 5 (effectively a 7) and together that can really help in siege defense against big mobs that are forced to attack repeatedly. Meanwhile I've found tactics to be surprisingly good when you have an effective 14--at that level many enemies are forced to fight you on even terms or better even if you're outnumbered. Really, the only thing I miss from Charisma builds is the morale bonus and Iron Flesh and Power Draw from Strength. I don't even miss Power Strike all that much given that 4 or 5 points is enough to deal big damage with a great long axe. On top of that handling most of the brainy duties it leaves me free to pump my companions up to 60+ hitpoints sooner rather than later.

 

[Ivan Khan]

I am surprised that you didn't find tactics to be useful. I play on max difficulty settings (148% difficulty and on native), and the difference in numbers on the battlefield is insane. I fought King Ragnar one time where he had 800 soldiers (he only had 2 lords in his faction, so almost all the fiefs belonged to him), and even though I was outnumbered about 5+:1, the battle advantage was at -2. After the first wave (King Ragnar now wounded), the enemy tactics disappears, and the battle advantage spiked up to around 2 or 3. Now I outnumbered him on the battlefield even though I only had about 30% of the troops his army had. Since mine were all knights, I crushed his army like nothing. Due to the 10 surgery, I don't think I even lost a single knight lol.

Tactics is useful, but it is not all that often I get caught in a 600 vs 100 battle. (I play max too) When I did do it was when I played all foot. It was much harder to maneuver then. There are just better places to put your points. Especially since by the time you get up to 10(+5) getting into a situation like that is much less likely. The way I play there are simply better places to put the points.

As for 1st aid and wound treatment I know what you mean. All the skills are a trade off, and you have to pick what is best for you. You rely on companions you need 1st aid. If you need your wounded knights back you want surgery and wound treatment.

 

[AWdeV]

engineer I have tested at '10' but never found them worthwhile.

Wouldn't it be good for those castles like uhhun and curin where you need a siege tower though? I have 2 (3) engineering and it would cost me 72 hours for a siege tower. Which is not good for a marshall because a lot can happen in three days.

 

[SAUS]

I am surprised that you didn't find tactics to be useful. I play on max difficulty settings (148% difficulty and on native), and the difference in numbers on the battlefield is insane. I fought King Ragnar one time where he had 800 soldiers (he only had 2 lords in his faction, so almost all the fiefs belonged to him), and even though I was outnumbered about 5+:1, the battle advantage was at -2. After the first wave (King Ragnar now wounded), the enemy tactics disappears, and the battle advantage spiked up to around 2 or 3. Now I outnumbered him on the battlefield even though I only had about 30% of the troops his army had. Since mine were all knights, I crushed his army like nothing. Due to the 10 surgery, I don't think I even lost a single knight lol.

Tactics is useful, but it is not all that often I get caught in a 600 vs 100 battle. (I play max too) When I did do it was when I played all foot. It was much harder to maneuver then. There are just better places to put your points. Especially since by the time you get up to 10(+5) getting into a situation like that is much less likely. The way I play there are simply better places to put the points.

As for 1st aid and wound treatment I know what you mean. All the skills are a trade off, and you have to pick what is best for you. You rely on companions you need 1st aid. If you need your wounded knights back you want surgery and wound treatment.

Hmm I wonder what you do differently than me. I find myself always getting into these battles When I start a war with a faction, I immediately hunt down their armies and take them out with my knights. Then they are stuck for a very long time rebuilding their armies and I run around capturing castles with my sharpshooters and/or huscarls. I only ever had to defend inside a castle once with my character that conquered Calradia. Since I look for their army as soon as possible, I am always fighting their king and martial when they are at full strength. I also forgo charisma on pretty much all of my characters, so my max party size tends to peek at 150 when it becomes harder to gain more renown. This causes me to be outnumbered quite badly very often, but the battles are made super easy by knights and tactics (and surgery and wound treatment).

 

[HenryUnderborn]

Party skills don't stack with other characters, highest skill takes the primary, I just set my party efficient commanders to a specialists unit and have them retreat. So you could be eating up a lot of points if you try and duplicate party skills. Unless you want them to have special skills as their own lords.

I used to make my party skills to class specific for my character . No I just focus on leader prisoner persuasion and take it up else where. Makes my char feel empty but... I usually reroll all the time anyway lol

 

[Ivan Khan]

I am surprised that you didn't find tactics to be useful...

Tactics is useful, but it is not all that often I get caught in a 600 vs 100 battle...

Hmm I wonder what you do differently than me. I find myself always getting into these battles When I start a war with a faction, I immediately hunt down their armies and take them out with my knights. Then they are stuck for a very long time rebuilding their armies and I run around capturing castles with my sharpshooters and/or huscarls. I only ever had to defend inside a castle once with my character that conquered Calradia. Since I look for their army as soon as possible, I am always fighting their king and martial when they are at full strength. I also forgo charisma on pretty much all of my characters, so my max party size tends to peek at 150 when it becomes harder to gain more renown. This causes me to be outnumbered quite badly very often, but the battles are made super easy by knights and tactics (and surgery and wound treatment).

I have played different ways. But, my favorite way is to wait for a faction to attack mine. This lets me build up reserves in strategic spots. I leave one town as bait, not too large a garrison but 20 or more Rhodok Sharpshooters in the garrison. Invariably this is where they will attack.

I scout to keep an eye on my most likely attacker. Once I see them moving I rush to get a few friends to reinforce my bait town. I tell others to scout just off the line of march. I try to pick off small groups of the enemy by going near the main group. If the group chasing me is large I try to lead them to my scouting friends nearby.

Eventually the main body of enemy will have besieged my town. I send more friends in to defend, and again will try to get some of them to chase me and then turn and pick them off.

All the time if need be I reinforce from a nearby town or castle where I stashed troops.

Once the main body has entered battle on the siege I jump in and defend. Normally with the best bow I can get and three bags of arrows. I stand off to the side and head shot enemies at the top of the ladder. When I run out of arrows I pick some up, or Find a crossbow. When I can't find any more or if needed I grab a mêlée weapon and go to the head of the ladder. I stand off to the side and bop them on the head. Normally they never make it more than a short distance from the head of the ladder. After a few waves, the siege and the enemy army is broken.

Then I hunt down the retreating army while telling friends to go besiege them or raid the villages of castles we may not take in the first wave. Normally I target all their towns. I normally only besiege a town or castle if it is strategically important to future conquests, and if there is one I take some friends if needed and go take it. If there is none, I scout for any remaining enemies and join my friends sieges to help conquer it.

Now, the faction is essentially destroyed. Normally I do not wipe them out. That will be easy enough to do later and they pose no threat to me, but help balance things with other factions. I often try to get the 'make peace' quest so I can end the war. If I cannot, it will end soon anyway.

What you I need for this strategy is good combat skills, high honor (makes lots of loyal friends, even of your enemies), pathfinding, training (need to train troops and your companions), first aid, and Leadership & persuasion to keep my companions happy. The rest of the skills I will leave to my companions past 2(+1), which I like to have in all skills.

I just love jumping into sieges. At low levels you can gain several levels in a single siege. Even at high levels you normally gain one. Rarely do I lose a significant number of men. I let my companions defend the head of the ramp/ladder, and spread archers out on the walls. 

 

[Ivan Khan]

engineer I have tested at '10' but never found them worthwhile.

Wouldn't it be good for those castles like uhhun and curin where you need a siege tower though? I have 2 (3) engineering and it would cost me 72 hours for a siege tower. Which is not good for a marshall because a lot can happen in three days.

I rarely besiege a town or castle with my character. Mind you I will build it up in Artimenier so my party engineering would never be less than '5', and will normally be '7' or '8'.

I will build intelligence in most of my companions so they can have training and one other intelligence skill. No party skill will be below '5' (looting & trade), with the intelligence ones normally reaching '6' to '8'.

Ymira is normally my medic, and the only companion who is intelligence first. She never gets in fights, and relies on party training level to level up. She is normally no more than one or at most two levels behind my highest level companion.

 

[SAUS]

@Ivan Khan
That is interesting. Do you find it takes a lot of time to conquer that way? Have you conquered all of Calradia with that strategy and how long did it take (in-game days)?

My strategy is quite a bit different. I put 0 points into charisma because I don't like it. My character starts with 3 leadership anyway (due to the starting options I select) and only has 7 charisma, so it would be 5 points just to get one more leadership. Instead, I just read the book and put 0 points into charisma stuff (leaving me with 4 leadership).

When my party starts to push over 100 soldiers, it is not enough to just give them lots of food to make them happy. Instead, I must either garrison them, take out a small force, or continually rampage through enemy lords to keep them happy. This is why I will always hunt down enemy lords. If there are not many left or I can't find any, I will switch to an army suited for taking castles and their morale will stay up as I defeat castles. In the worst cases, I have to ditch my army in one of my castles and run around with just my companions for a while.

I take a few towns for myself. Usually around 4. I don't take any villages or castles. I try to make sure I get towns that are decently spread out so that I can change my army easily from all parts of the map. I make sure to stock up all my castles with recruits during peace so that I will have easy access to recruits without paying the full wages of high tier troops. 10 training on my character and 6 training on all my companions makes them upgrade very quickly.

For my character, I get 15 strength and agility and then 30 points into intelligence. Then I only put points into strength. By the time I conquered Calradia, I was level 42 with 25 strength, 15 agility, and 30 intelligence (still 7 charisma). I need training, wound treatment and/or first aid (I choose wound treatment - I think it might be better for attacking castles than first aid, which is better for defending them), surgery (immortal soldiers are good), and tactics (running 150 soldiers against 800+ all the time). Other than that, I need at least 5 riding, decent level of shield, and then the rest of the points can go into power strike and iron flesh. I also maxed out weapon master and athletics (5, since I have 15 agility). My character is basically a powerful fighter that generates nearly-immortal soldiers. I save even more skill points by using a crossbow which only requires strength points.

As for experience gain, I agree that defending castles gives a ton. I just stand off to the side with a 2-handed sword and spam vertical swings (this seems to be what everyone does - it's effective). However, you can gain a ton of experience while attacking castles as well. I managed to kill over 100 Rhodok sergeants by myself because I took the time to snipe off all their sharpshooters. You can just stand in areas where they can't attack you (due to hold position orders) and shoot at them. You can also do similar things with a long weapon at the top of the ladder. You can just do vertical swings from just outside their reach.

I conquered Calradia in 1450 days using this strategy. I think it could have been faster, but I spent a lot of time questing in the earlier game (necessary to some extent, but probably did more than I needed to).

 

[Ivan Khan]

@SAUS

That is interesting. Do you find it takes a lot of time to conquer that way? Have you conquered all of Calradia with that strategy and how long did it take (in-game days)?

My fastest has been about 400 days in a faction. And, about 700 for my own kingdom. My own kingdom was extended by the problems of dealing with vassals. I have never taken me more than two years.

I start out gathering companions and doing quests. Then it is bandit time. By the time I have all my companions in decent gear from looting bandits I get an offer to join a faction. I normally I join the first one to ask. At that point my army will be just my companions and the manhunters I have rescued. I will be about level 24, with my companions all level 15-17.

Once I start a campaign I move really quick. Normally about a week of game time to destroy their army and take all their towns. Most of my time is spent waiting for a faction to attack. Though this time is well spent preparing. Early they tend to attack before I am ready. Late in the game it takes longer for them to attack, but normally it is less than a month.


My strategy is quite a bit different. I put 0 points into charisma ... For my character, I get 15 strength and agility and then 30 points into intelligence. Then I only put points into strength. By the time I conquered Calradia, I was level 42 with 25 strength, 15 agility, and 30 intelligence (still 7 charisma)...

I started playing that way, but now build charisma up to at lest 12 early, and then get the book to raise leadership to at least '5'. This allows me to keep all the companions if I build persuasion up to at least '5' too. Lately I have been trying to get it higher, but 18 strength is the minimum to use my favorite bow, 12 agility is minimal for an armored horse, and intelligence is important; so it is tough to find any extra to put into charisma. I think the highest I have every gotten my character was level 41.  I go agility to 12 first, strength to 12 next, then intelligence to 12 (usually the book gets me one of these), next charisma to 12, then strength to 18. after level 20 it is a tough choice where to put things.


When my party starts to push over 100 soldiers, it is not enough to just give them lots of food to make them happy. Instead, I must either garrison them, take out a small force ...

A for size of the army renown is really more important. And, I avoid big armies unless I am moving troops or taking a large host to a siege. Speed is more important. Most of my battles are with an all cavalry army of less than 100. All 16 companions (15 horse archers and one medic), around 60 heavy cavalry (Knights, Mamelukes,  Slaver Chiefs, Lancers) and 20 horse archers. I like Khergit Horsemen as my horse archers as they have some melee skill and always have bows. I find that having a few horse archers makes any battle easier.

Moral for me is a big problem, as if it drops my companions will want to leave. I regularly dump troops into garrison to raise moral. I carry every kind of food. Luckily the fast paced campaigns I run keep it high due to the constant battles. In between campaigns I normally only have my companions in my party.


I take a few towns for myself. Usually around 4. I don't take any villages or castles. I try to make sure I get towns that are decently spread out so that I can change my army easily from all parts of the map. I make sure to stock up all my castles with recruits during peace so that I will have easy access to recruits without paying the full wages of high tier troops. 10 training on my character and 6 training on all my companions makes them upgrade very quickly.

I do similar. Often a little less training in my companions, as they are fighters first. Most have at least '4'. Even so with all 16 in my party I can train to elite levels in one day per level. My breaks between campaigns are spent gathering recruits, training them and stashing them in the castles and towns closest to the next anticipated fight.

I too will only have 4 properties, often less. I normally take one out of the way castle to start from. Then, another castle near a central town (Halmar, Narra, Dhirim or Uxkhal). Then I conquer the central town. If I still have my original village that is normally where I stay if I am in a faction. If it is my own kingdom, I will normally give fifes away after they have served there purpose. Only the first central town I keep as my capital. 


As for experience gain, I agree that defending castles gives a ton... However, you can gain a ton of experience while attacking castles as well. I managed to kill over 100 Rhodok sergeants by myself because I took the time to snipe off all their sharpshooters...

Yes, taking towns and castles is good for experience too. Thing about defending is after you kill 100 in the first round they come back 2-3 more times. So, you can end up killing over 300 before the siege ends. In my experience it is also less likely your character takes a stray bolt or arrow in defense. Then you have 5-6 battles chasing down the retreating enemy.

 

[Filou]

engineer I have tested at '10' but never found them worthwhile.

Wouldn't it be good for those castles like uhhun and curin where you need a siege tower though? I have 2 (3) engineering and it would cost me 72 hours for a siege tower. Which is not good for a marshall because a lot can happen in three days.

10(+4) Engineer reduces siege tower construction down to 6h. I found it very powerful when alone in my faction.
If you're always waiting for vassals to catch-up while you build the siege equipment the gained time might not be worth it.


10(+4) First Aid is ridiculously strong as it gets you companions that are always at 80% of their health as long as you don't mess-up.
If you play on smaller battle size the impact is even bigger as your companion play a bigger part in the battles.

 

[Ivan Khan]

engineer I have tested at '10' but never found them worthwhile.

Wouldn't it be good for those castles like uhhun and curin where you need a siege tower though? I have 2 (3) engineering and it would cost me 72 hours for a siege tower. Which is not good for a marshall because a lot can happen in three days.

10(+4) Engineer reduces siege tower construction down to 6h. I found it very powerful when alone in my faction.
If you're always waiting for vassals to catch-up while you build the siege equipment the gained time might not be worth it.

10(+4) First Aid is ridiculously strong as it gets you companions that are always at 80% of their health as long as you don't mess-up.
If you play on smaller battle size the impact is even bigger as your companion play a bigger part in the battles.

To be a little more clear on why "I" think a skill is useful or not for your character to build:

Looting -- A powerful skill in getting you more and better loot, my problem is that by the time you get it up to the level where it really helps, loot is more of a hindrance than benefit. Yea, you will get the occasional balanced or masterwork item, but again by the time you start getting them you likely have enough to buy them. Also, as it is the only agility party skill.

Tracking -- Useful but it does not help as much at higher levels. It is nice to know that the trail is bandits but you get the time they passed and number at level '3', it is useful to give to a companion if they have points to spare, but that is about it.

Tactics -- Very useful when you are small and weak. Not so useful when you are in late game, unless you like taking on everyone by yourself. At +14 you increase your battle advantage by '7'. Say you give a companion '9' and have '2' yourself for a bonus +1, that gives you an advantage of '5'. Is '2' battle advantage points worth it? I do not think so, but it certainly is one you want to at least build up in a companion.

Pathfinding -- Remember that bug that left the defeated lord raiding your villages by himself at crazy speed. At '14' pathfinding you can run him down with all 16 companions in tow. I love it because the bonus becomes more useful as your game progresses. I like to play with a speed advantage, to run down or run from parties. Max speed is '14' alone with riding maxed as well. More practical is an large all elite cavalry army able to move on the map at '6.9'. Difference for that army if you had '11' from a companion is it slows to '6.5'. Not huge difference but if your target is moving at '6.6' it is all the difference in the world!

Spotting -- It is very helpful, but more early than late. At max you can see parties from Suno & Praven  when you are between the two.  Question would be is it worth it to go from '11' which is a +1 and a companion at '10' to '14'?  I do not notice the difference. '11' is enough for me.

Wound Treatment -- Healing quickly is nice, but again it is one of those skills that is better early than late. In late game you can reinforce from castles or towns. Worth raising in a companion, but '14' is really not needed. If I need fresh troops it is faster to restock at a town rather than wait for them to heal even at '14'.

Surgery -- Basically makes your whole army like your companions, they can get knocked out but almost never die. I start raising it as soon as I take troops other than companions. The difference in kill vs wounded from a max companion and +1 bonus is 31% chance of death to 19%, that is significant. Definitely not a waste to take on surgery yourself.

First Aid -- Heals you and your companions. I would build this in more than just yourself. I had it at '14' in my intelligence build when a sneaky Vaegir Master Archer took me out with a head shot. No one else in the party had more than '3' so I came back with only 12 hit points. Difference between your character having '14' and a companion with '11' is 80% hit points returned vs 65%. Again, a significant difference. Just the caveat about the most important hit points are yours so you have to have a backup that stays out of the battle.

Engineer -- If you want to build towers quickly it is very helpful. I find at '14' you also build ladders instantly. The difference between a companion at '11' and your character at '14' is 45% vs 30% of normal build time. You also save on costs of buildings. It is another one of those skills that would be worth it early, but I am not so sure it is worth it in late game? With the time it takes to reinforce a captured castle or town, and prepare to besiege I never miss an extra day, so for me it is not worth building in my character.

Trade -- Trading penalty is pretty high, but I have always found it easy to make money and trade bores me to death. I do not see it worth building unless you want to role play as a trader. This is especially so, as you need charisma, which precluded building any other party skills.


Practically speaking if you do an intelligence build you can max out two skills by level '30'. First Aid, Surgery  & Pathfinding are the only skills that I think are wroth it.

 

[Osviux]

I get Surgery as it decreases death rate in my party. Also Path-Finding because speed is always good, also Trainer to produce higher tier troops faster, if I have enough points I get Engineering as well, because I use Rhodoks Sharpshooters for my army and it's easy to kill the defenders by just shooting them, so to do that I need to construct siege equipment before enemy reinforcements arrive.

 

[bakters]

You guys are underestimating Engineering.  It scales like crazy.  Engineering was the main reason I started playing INT builds.  You can compensate for lower Surgery or First Aid with a bit more careful gameplay, but it is not possible to compensate for the difference in siege tower building times. 

Below I quote my answer from here: http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,289920.msg7001564.html#msg7001564

Build:  Int builds are the most powerful builds in this game, but they require a bit of skill to use.  You play with weak combat stats, you play with low CHA and Leadership skill, but you have a lot of extra points. 
The way I do it.
1.  Several points into spotting to see bandit parties from afar.
2.  Several points into pathfinding, so I can run away with 10 prisoners from quick parties.
3.  I max wound treatment.
4.  I max other medical skills.
5.  I max Engineering.
6.  Then Pathfinding, Spotting and the rest goes into Trainer.

I remember that my strategy slightly changed when I was doing no-companions run, where I maxed Tactics at some point, but I don't exactly remember how it went. 

Anyway, what I do remember is that those skills work in synergy.  Having only some of them maxed will not work nearly as well as having all of them maxed.  For example maxed Surgery will ensure that a big portion of your army is wounded, so you need maxed Wound Treatment to heal them quickly.  High Engineering will let you attack many castles many times during one day, but then lots of your people are wounded, which again makes quick healing a necessity if you want to reap all the benefits of maxed Engineering.

Oh, I remembered that putting on a Plate Armor makes you surprisingly effective on foot, so actually you do not sacrifice all that much by going with INT focused build.  With Plate Armor if you backpedal while fighting a group, many hits you take will not "interrupt" you, because they don't deal enough damage so you can fight a group and win despite having very low AGI and quite low STR.

Good luck.