D'Shar Principalities

[Peasant]

Is it just me or are they awful in sieges when attacking? I was sieging knudarr castle with my fellow lords and the khan himself. We outnumbered them and the castle didn't even have a lord. If i sent the non-archer troops up the walls, they would die in seconds. So i put the archers on the small hill and let them shoot the fierdsvain from the walls. Even then, huntsmen were shooting my veteran archers like sheep.

What is the secret to them? How am i supposed to take enemy castles/cities? Maybe i should try getting peace and switching to an easier opponent?

 

[noosers]

D´Shar is the weakest faction of them all, and thus, most difficult to play. Unless you can lead a horde of Scorpion Assassaines or Blademasters up the ramparts don´t even think about sieging. Their troops are too weak. Their archers are useless. Their spearmen lousy. Their cavalry a waste. You should play this faction once you got some experience with PoP and know how to do things successfully.

 

[Peasant]

What have i done! Oh god! On second thought, i saved the king of ravenstern from death once. They're at war with the fierdsvain too, so i'll just join them instead. Thanks for the info, i was wondering why my archers were hitting the rocks instead of brigands.

 

[Gallieaon]

They look the coolest though, so props for the uniform I guess. I always thought they look so deadly but I rarely go near them since I hate deserts (lived in one for three years and Oh My God never again!) so I'll take your word that they suck. What was the thinking behind them then if they have nothing special? I mean in native they'd be the only horse archers but almost everyone has those here so it sort of flumps their advantage. Was it that they swing faster or run faster? Because unfortunately the game mechanics don't quiet make that a sizable difference for the AI.

Ravenstern=archers
Feirdsvain=footmen
Sarleon=cavalry
Empire=???
D'shar=fast troops?
Pendor=kick ass king of them all (may-hap a bit biased on my part)

Of course I'm sure there's more subtle differences, like if you rated every ones troops from 1 to 5 you might find that some teams are more balanced between say footmen and archers where as another is more extreme in only one category. For example: Footmen=3 Archers=4 Horses=1 (made up of course, not really based on any team) Things like that.

 

[Peasant]

Recently defended windholm with my mighty PENDOR troops against the bahadur khan. That damn dirty traitor declared war on me right outside my city, which was defended by 44 units. Outlaws, ravenstern man-at-arms etc, wardens and many more mixed troops. Now i come storming in with my manly 80 troops. several elite troops, a band of mid-tier troops and a some peasants/refugees/recruits. 343 D'Shar vs. 124 of my troops. The real threat in the battle were their maiden cavalry, fierdsvain and scorpion assassins. Sure, they managed to get inside my walls when a clumsy peasant decided to leave his post of manhandling the incoming sand people.

I won the battle, with only 25 casualties on my side, and 30-something of my trusty guards in windholm. Yes, they seem to suck at sieges. (at least when attacking, don't know about defending.) Forgot to mention, that it was the first battle when they retreated, oh well.

 

[Gallieaon]

Defending they seemed formidable to me.

 

[Ãbyss]

Solid as a wall of paper bags yes.

~Ãbyss

 

[etoManiak]

Dhars are a waste of biomaterial at sieges)

Two days ago I defended a castle besieged by a bunch of their lords and the king-like khan. It was 700+ souls on their side (only the khan had a 300+ army). My army was as usual 20 NPC-s + little me and 1 or 2 archers of some sort, whom I left in the castle . At battle size 100 (most of the siege It was only me + Sigismund and Roland due to the enemy battle advantage) none of my NPC-s even got wounded). After they lost over 400 their best troops on the ladder to hell and fled, I went outside and ripped the rest of their combined army.

On the other hand, for my epically outnumbered army, in open field they can cause serious problems, if there are over 100 riders/horsemen/windriders.  So I try to provoke them to sieges or village looting (If someone doesn't know the trick - the enemy attacked while looting a village has no horses) or drag one of my lords behind me.

 

[hgghg4]

DShar I use as meatshields....

 

[Gallieaon]

It also depends on the settings. You can't justly say so and so sucks on 1/4 damage. It has to be on full normal for you to gauge justly. Somehow fighting three against 700 without taking damage seems impossible (in fact from experience I know that it is) with full damage on. I actually wonder how much negative perception there is on certain units because people don't play them to their fullest. I personally feel more like the cheated then the cheater if the enemy isn't allowed to show me their true worth. Lets take that into consideration I guess.

 

[etoManiak]

I'm playing on 1/2 for me and full damage for NPC-s. Anyway there is no 1/4 setting for them at all)

For me its not a surprise, that my lvl~40 guys (Roland is 45) packed in lordly noldor rune armor resist a horde of sorry ass dshars, most of whom dont even have a shield (not mentioning that at sieges they climb up the wall and stop there, thus I hit them in the legs, where they can put a shield only if they drop it). Its always 1 strike - 1 death for them.

The only trick I used
- tacking away the NPC-s javelins, so they wont stare down from the wall and get headshots.
- when a bunch of tough guys climb together - I just hold my shield up and do nothing. All the enemy blows target my shield and not the NPC-s, who do there dirty job while I am protecting their ass. 
-and the most important one :

隐藏

Use the Force, Luke!

 

[noosers]

Dhars are a waste of biomaterial at sieges
(If someone doesn't know the trick - the enemy attacked while looting a village has no horses)

Depends on their army composition. Quite some D´Shar units are useable but the AI hasn´t got access to them. As their high tier are as deadly as everyone elses. But their mid-tier troopers are so sucky it´s a shame - the combination of leightweight armor and one-handed spears with shields is a killing guarantee as the current combat system can´t handle spears properly.

The trick to lure annoying horsearchers into village raids or sieges is just fun and works both ways. You´re getting  chased by 5000 screaming D´Shar windriders? Just run to the next village and start looting it. Immediately, the horde will jump you but spawn without horsies. You just chop them and their leather/brass armor to hell and beyond. Works with every faction, just beware. There´s plenty of cavalry units who are as deadly booted than mounted, the bige exception there are the Pendor Knights who spawn with a lance only.

 

[hgghg4]

but the pendor knights can be trained into the most powerful units in the game....so its a good offset...

 

[Ichon]

D'Shar are an interesting faction. They can defeat most factions in the open field in a long battle with minimal losses if you play right and defending during sieges do fine.

The difficulty is besieging with them when you don't have enough high tier troops. Of course in many towns and castles that is the same with any faction depending on ladder and wall placement. Although attacking a town with lots of Assassins is interesting as their knives can actually take out archers on the walls faster than just about any other unit I know. Only problem is they run out of knives really quickly and retreating becomes necessary. Personally I always mix factions anyway and with 80 troops vassaled to D'Shar I'd probably have 30 Windriders, 20 Assassins, 20 heavy infantry of best I can get easily(empire or fiersdvain probably) and 10 trainees. A more specific mix if I already own a castle or have a village with manor and can store troops outside my main army.

 

[angus og of clan donald]

the D'shar usaly rape the empire in open feild but cant defend against them in seiges to save them selfs

 

[akuthia]

i'm currently working on taking my second dshar city, they always manage to hit me if i'm trying to smack them from the ground with my bow, but not the rest of my army heh

 

[hgghg4]

its called a shield!

 

[Ãbyss]

WTF is a shield?

~Ãbyss

 

[hgghg4]

i have no idea... i never use this thing called a shield...

 

[TimotheusTJB]

Since we're being sarcastic ill just jump into the conversation and say this: It's a magical round object designed to stop arrows from piercing your body.