Everyone here is talking about how they're getting all these qualis gems... I barely get any unique spawns at all. Maybe one has spawned over a course of more than 100 days (dread legion), with one more being alive (Zulkar).
Also, sieging D'Shar is... incredibly painful. Pretty much every single one of their units is at the very least decent at range and most of their units are also good at melee. A force of D'shar Desert hunters and Warriors can hold off an attack by elite KO and top tier troops with a very positive K ratio... Counter-intuitively, they are at their weakest in an open field, where the heavier cav of other factions can crush them.
You may "talk" too...
Jokes aside, they're rare, even if you'll be asking large groups of lords during campaigns and feasts. Maybe you need to constantly run after everything to ask, maybe you need to be lucky, I don't know, but don't expect to be knee deep in QG just because you've read something on forums.
You can always doubt what other people wrote. But you can also ask yourself: "Have I done everything I could in order to maximize my rumor gains?" If not, then don't expect a lot of spawns indeed. So:
- During character creation, have you chosen an option that gives you a Rumor Interval of 4?
- Do you regularly ask for rumors from every castle senechal, militia patrol, lord, king, tavernkeeper, ransom broker and traveller during your travels? By regularly, I mean EACH TIME you meet one...
- Do you make little detours during your travels to enter into the towns' and castles' castle hall to speak to senechals? (that are somewhat in your way to your current destination)
- Whenever you see a non-hostile marshall force nearby, do you speak to all the lords there?
- Whenever you see a feast going on in a nearby castle-hall, do you enter it to speak to all the lords & king there? (plus the senechal)
By doing the above, I always had a unique spawn to look for, with maybe just a couple of days' exception, when I killed them faster than they spawned in. I'm on day 325 now, and defeated a whole lot of unique spawns. It's hard to call it luck-based, when the spawning is fluent across 300 days... But there are more question to think about:
- Do you pay attention to keep your prisoner management skill always at the allowed cap?
- Do you travel to the spawning areas of unique spawns (see down below) within 5 days after their spawning to ensure that nobody kills that given spawn without you joining in the battle?
- And do you look for opportunities like luring into another unique spawn/minor faction army, marshall forces, feasting lords, etc. until you get strong enough to solo the tougher spawns?
Considering proofs, I always tried to provide screenshots when I was speaking about my results:
I can't present the full arsenal of unique spawns who spawned in with these screenshots, as I always aimed to kill them as fast as possible from the beginning. I got 12-14 minor factions & unique spawns on the map at the pinnacle of events (11 spawn on the 1st screenshot btw!), when I couldn't take them down as fast as now (see 2nd screenshot). About the 2nd screenshot, I had 0 armies on the map ~10 days before, when I managed to beat all spawns on the map for a short time (for the prisoners and renown). And it surely didn't take long for some more armies spawning in.
Some more unique spawn hunting that I didn't forgot to screenshot:
That's Warlord Zulkar, a Jatu Army, and K'Juda the Ravager from the top to the bottom. Brought them all the way to Cez to help me fight the Dread Legion . Then, near Ethos, I used a D'Shar marshall force to take on Zulkar and K'Juda at the same time
Sadly, I didn't notice in time that you can't capture Ithilrandir with the presence of another unique spawn hired as a mercenary company (Sheik Shalavan). It's stupid, as I wasn't trying to use Ithilrandir to cheese the battle against another spawn. It was the other way around: we were taking down a Noldor lord, which is hard, regardless of our number's advantage.
Kodan Ironsword, the Griffonsword Company, Oswald the Fleur and Alaric von Brouhaha were always top priority to take down, as their parties are usually defeated in a matter of 1-2 days after they spawned in. That's why you can't see them on previous screenshots. I had each of the three former Adventurer companies spawning in multiple times.
That's all the screenshots I could find in my library I play for myself, so I don't make a lot of screenshots...
As a final word, it might be useful to know the general spawning areas for unique spawns, so that you'll have some locations to start the search if the tavernkeepers can't say anything useful. From what I could notice and gather so far:
- Dread Legion - Spawns near Cez and usually moves towards Janos or Ethos
- Three Seers - Spawns between Avendor and Mistmire Castle, and moves towards Marleons for the most part
- Eyegrim the Devourer - spawns somewhere between Avendor and Sarleon
- Ithilrandir and Aeldarian - in the Noldor forest area
- Warlord Zulkar and K'Juda the Ravager - in the Jatu steppes area
- Wolfbode the Slayer - spawns around Poinsbruk
- Syla Uzas - spawns near Ethos
- Burilgi the Usurper - spawns near Torbah and moves into the large desert area in the south
- Sheik Shalavan - spawns in the triangle of Ishkoman-Singal-Torbah and moves towards Rela Keep (Baccus Empire territory)
- Holy Inquisitor Rasmus Devatica - spawns near Torbah
- Sir Boris the Raven - spawns near Ravenstern
- Alaric von Brouhaha - spawns in the triangle of Sarleon-Marleons-Avendor
- Kodan Ironsword - spawns near Knudarr Castle. Once he spawns in, make sure you go to Knudarr Castle asap, as he usually gets defeated in a matter of a few days (since he has a rather small party size amongst other spawns)
- Oswald de Fleur - spawns in the area between Ravenstern and Javiksholm
- Meregan Kierlic (the Griffonsword Company) - spawns near Shapeshte (village)
- Verante Kruus (the Renegade Witch Hunt) - spawns between Poinsbruk and the borders of the Jatu Steppes
- Obrist Heynrich - he has multiple spawning points iirc (sadly): #1 between Javiksholm and Valonbray, #2 around Cez, #3 between Rane and Poinsbruk. Although #1 seems to be the most frequent in 3.9
- Sebastokrator Kaspax - spawns between Cez and Almerra Castle
- Rufio Vincente de Villaviciosia - spawns near Ishkoman
If one of the above spawns gets hired by a king, then you obviously need to search for the king
Some minor details about spawn location
Alaric spawns east of Valonbray.
Eyegrim has multiple spawn points, one is near savador castle and he can spawn near kelredan castle.
Oswald spawns at mobray castle.
Griffonsword company spawns at saffrongate.
Rufio has at least 2 spawn locations as I have seen him near windholm shortly after he spawned.
Wolfbode has 2 spawn points one near poinsbruk and another west of ravenstern(i think its castle fenbray).
Sebastokrator has a few spawn points as I encountered him near poinsbruk and another time near ravenstern.
Some minor details about spawn location
Alaric spawns east of Valonbray.
Eyegrim has multiple spawn points, one is near savador castle and he can spawn near kelredan castle.
Oswald spawns at mobray castle.
Griffonsword company spawns at saffrongate.
Rufio has at least 2 spawn locations as I have seen him near windholm shortly after he spawned.
Wolfbode has 2 spawn points one near poinsbruk and another west of ravenstern(i think its castle fenbray).
Sebastokrator has a few spawn points as I encountered him near poinsbruk and another time near ravenstern.
Thanks for the info, very much appreciated! The more sighting reports, the better. Sadly, I have no idea which unique spawns has how many spawning locations :/ And I couldn't always get to those unique spawns that early, so they probably got lured away. As such, I couldn't specify more some of the areas...
I have had Verante Kruus appear in Empire lands near Buvran and also in D'Shar lands between Torbah and Shadi Shahid. Both were within two days of spawning so they're approximations.
I have had Verante Kruus appear in Empire lands near Buvran and also in D'Shar lands between Torbah and Shadi Shahid. Both were within two days of spawning so they're approximations.
Oh yeah, I now remember that once I got the Renegade Witch Hunt defeated within a matter of 2 days near Maras Castle. After all of this, it would be very nice if @Konrad or someone who knows what's written in the code could tell us all the possible spawning locations for each unique spawn
Henyrich, Sebastokrator, Verante and rufio don't have rumours but the rest do.
Focus on lords and militia patrols as I find these are the ones that actually cause uniques to spawn.
Look for feasts so you can ask loads of them at once, same when you see a marshal stack.
Also if you are a vassal and your king hires one of the unique spawns you can attack them and only suffer -4 relations with the faction penalty, same as when you are unaligned.
Looks like you still don't get it. You're playing normally like it seems PoP meant to be played. If you want to become QG farmer and get dozens of gems you have to be running around and ask everyone "askable" all the time - no other way around. "Simply" asking large groups of lords occasionally will not do I can assure you and it's already annoying AF. I forced myself to do it since it was pretty weird game so to speed things up I had to do this. Usually I have no QG from noldor tournaments, this time first prize was QG, second Champion NSH and from 13 tournaments I've got 4 QG, but no spawns at all for a long time - that's games based on random for you. Wolfbode usually keeps coming all the time - but this time I saw him only twice which is simply astounding. So, don't get frustrated by numbers on forums and enjoy your game instead of running and clicking on everyone.
You can always doubt what other people wrote. But you can also ask yourself: "Have I done everything I could in order to maximize my rumor gains?" If not, then don't expect a lot of spawns indeed. So:
- During character creation, have you chosen an option that gives you a Rumor Interval of 4?
- Do you regularly ask for rumors from every castle senechal, militia patrol, lord, king, tavernkeeper, ransom broker and traveller during your travels? By regularly, I mean EACH TIME you meet one...
- Do you make little detours during your travels to enter into the towns' and castles' castle hall to speak to senechals? (that are somewhat in your way to your current destination)
- Whenever you see a non-hostile marshall force nearby, do you speak to all the lords there?
- Whenever you see a feast going on in a nearby castle-hall, do you enter it to speak to all the lords & king there? (plus the senechal)
By doing the above, I always had a unique spawn to look for, with maybe just a couple of days' exception, when I killed them faster than they spawned in. I'm on day 325 now, and defeated a whole lot of unique spawns. It's hard to call it luck-based, when the spawning is fluent across 300 days... But there are more question to think about:
- Do you pay attention to keep your prisoner management skill always at the allowed cap?
- Do you travel to the spawning areas of unique spawns (see down below) within 5 days after their spawning to ensure that nobody kills that given spawn without you joining in the battle?
- And do you look for opportunities like luring into another unique spawn/minor faction army, marshall forces, feasting lords, etc. until you get strong enough to solo the tougher spawns?
Considering proofs, I always tried to provide screenshots when I was speaking about my results:
I can't present the full arsenal of unique spawns who spawned in with these screenshots, as I always aimed to kill them as fast as possible from the beginning. I got 12-14 minor factions & unique spawns on the map at the pinnacle of events (11 spawn on the 1st screenshot btw!), when I couldn't take them down as fast as now (see 2nd screenshot). About the 2nd screenshot, I had 0 armies on the map ~10 days before, when I managed to beat all spawns on the map for a short time (for the prisoners and renown). And it surely didn't take long for some more armies spawning in.
Some more unique spawn hunting that I didn't forgot to screenshot:
That's Warlord Zulkar, a Jatu Army, and K'Juda the Ravager from the top to the bottom. Brought them all the way to Cez to help me fight the Dread Legion . Then, near Ethos, I used a D'Shar marshall force to take on Zulkar and K'Juda at the same time
Sadly, I didn't notice in time that you can't capture Ithilrandir with the presence of another unique spawn hired as a mercenary company (Sheik Shalavan). It's stupid, as I wasn't trying to use Ithilrandir to cheese the battle against another spawn. It was the other way around: we were taking down a Noldor lord, which is hard, regardless of our number's advantage.
Kodan Ironsword, the Griffonsword Company, Oswald the Fleur and Alaric von Brouhaha were always top priority to take down, as their parties are usually defeated in a matter of 1-2 days after they spawned in. That's why you can't see them on previous screenshots. I had each of the three former Adventurer companies spawning in multiple times.
That's all the screenshots I could find in my library I play for myself, so I don't make a lot of screenshots...
As a final word, it might be useful to know the general spawning areas for unique spawns, so that you'll have some locations to start the search if the tavernkeepers can't say anything useful. From what I could notice and gather so far:
- Dread Legion - Spawns near Cez and usually moves towards Janos or Ethos
- Three Seers - Spawns between Avendor and Mistmire Castle, and moves towards Marleons for the most part
- Eyegrim the Devourer - spawns somewhere between Avendor and Sarleon
- Ithilrandir and Aeldarian - in the Noldor forest area
- Warlord Zulkar and K'Juda the Ravager - in the Jatu steppes area
- Wolfbode the Slayer - spawns around Poinsbruk
- Syla Uzas - spawns near Ethos
- Burilgi the Usurper - spawns near Torbah and moves into the large desert area in the south
- Sheik Shalavan - spawns in the triangle of Ishkoman-Singal-Torbah and moves towards Rela Keep (Baccus Empire territory)
- Holy Inquisitor Rasmus Devatica - spawns near Torbah
- Sir Boris the Raven - spawns near Ravenstern
- Alaric von Brouhaha - spawns in the triangle of Sarleon-Marleons-Avendor
- Kodan Ironsword - spawns near Knudarr Castle. Once he spawns in, make sure you go to Knudarr Castle asap, as he usually gets defeated in a matter of a few days (since he has a rather small party size amongst other spawns)
- Oswald de Fleur - spawns in the area between Ravenstern and Javiksholm
- Meregan Kierlic (the Griffonsword Company) - spawns near Shapeshte (village)
- Verante Kruus (the Renegade Witch Hunt) - spawns between Poinsbruk and the borders of the Jatu Steppes
- Obrist Heynrich - he has multiple spawning points iirc (sadly): #1 between Javiksholm and Valonbray, #2 around Cez, #3 between Rane and Poinsbruk. Although #1 seems to be the most frequent in 3.9
- Sebastokrator Kaspax - spawns between Cez and Almerra Castle
- Rufio Vincente de Villaviciosia - spawns near Ishkoman
If one of the above spawns gets hired by a king, then you obviously need to search for the king
Man, is there any way to pin this or add it to the wikia? I just spent a lot of time last night trying unsuccessfully to figure out where Alaric spawns, wake up this morning and here it is where I would never have guessed!
Instead of memorizing useless stuff you can just CTRL-T next night after message about spawning to see where spawn has arrived. The moment you'll get there it'll be moved already so you'll have to search for it anyway, paying in taverns for information if you feel like it and so on. But you'll be freed of memorizing unnecessary information.
Why would anyone need as blue cabbage? You greedy, greedy people.
The chance for actually spawning anything on a rumor is something like 2%. Minor Faction armies have a hard cap - e.g. never more than 3 Jatu Armies at once on the map. And - you´d have to look it up yourself and dig into the past comments - I think dimly recall that MV capped the max amount of total unique armies as well - should be 13 armies max or something like that.
Apart from that you´ve got a 0,5% chance to trigger an unique/minor army spawn each payday or midnight - don´t remember which exactly - despite actual minor faction status.
Yesterday I learned, that if you engage a party in battle and someone join your side, they wouldn't take those prisoners to their armies. But, if you join the fight instead of initiating it, they would get those prisoners.
I like formations which give a better defense than charging men from native, I admitelly as early game require so much use of brain for avoid bandit warbands which include horsemen but playing as a female not seems so hard as in other mods and still very interesting compared to men. Upkeep is realistically compared to native, elite units and companions are expansive. Lords are active and engage between them and they not let player to get a castle or city fief. AI not is a issue for me as others, but tend to be agressive especially unique spawns, adventuring companions or knightly order patrols enemy to you. Faction balance is different from native but keep feel in some parts. Music is superb and awesome graphics
![[ptx]](/data/avatars/m/48/48782.jpg?1579545094){kind=avatar}
ratio... Counter-intuitively, they are at their weakest in an open field, where the heavier cav of other factions can crush them.
