First foray into blood and steel

[Lancefighter]

So last night i started a game running this mod - seems to be rather interesting, focusing a good deal more on the party than the player.. I havent yet done incredibly much, but theres a few questions I have.

First thing would have to be the investments in cities. It seems that both the ironworks and dyeworks supposedly make around the same amount... but it doesnt seem to matter, because the entire system is abstracted.. which is my question - what modifies the amount made? my finances sheet shows between x and y.. but its usually a good deal closer to the lower one of the two.

second - the troop .. line system seems very different. I understand the reasonings behind it, but there are a few things i cant quite get. An example - I spent a few days trying to find rhodok spearmen to man my bullet-soak line.. it seems that there are either hardly any to be found, or them in abundance! At a later date, i picked up 60 of them from a single village.. I noticed a training grounds improvement in the villages, but when i tried building it it only goes for the faction, not the specific type

Third, the various guns
On this topic, the higher tier rifle is /too/ accurate once your proficiency is above 250, the reticule begins to bend in on itself. this seems to be counterproductive when it comes to aiming..
Soldiers in the field who are reloading a rifle also tend to stand still as if they are reloading a crossbow.. not sure what can be done about this though
Since im working with the rhodoks for the moment; Is there a reason to use the pistoleers instead of crossbow men? they seem more expensive, and not as good in the final tier (sharpshooters are incredibly good at what they do >.>) I suppose the single benefit is that their shield is equipped and used all the time.. but even then, not sure how much of an effect that has in the end

And well, the whole crossbow vs rifle thing - is there a reason to use a crossbow instead of a rifle, especially considering that rifles can be used on horseback?

Right.. er im sure theres more things I could think of, but really i think i need to start a new char to try some different things >.>

 

[Flandy]

You'll get used to the troop system.  It's different but allows for higher numbers to be recruited, eventually 100 a whack from towns/castles.  The training facilities are meant so once you conquer some far off settlement you can still recruit your troops of choice.

The gun vs crossbow thing...I'm not too sure since I don't use much of either, except I believe guns have less fall off from their shots making long shots a bit easier.

 

[Lancefighter]

That is true - I somehow manage to make difficulty 6+ shots incredibly easily.. headshooted some poor guy across the map for a dif 14.4
but my sharpshooters seem to have no problem at all shooting halfway across the map and hitting fairly often... er.. well, I also have tons of them i guess.

edit :
i dont have incredibly much experience recruiting other nations, but it seems rhodok cav units are INCREDIBLY expensive to recruit... this is by design i assume?

 

[xenoargh]

it seems rhodok cav units are INCREDIBLY expensive to recruit... this is by design i assume?

When you see them, you'll know why

 

[Steffenximus]

Rhodok has tough cavalry. Don't worry, the swadian cav is roughly as expensive as they. Both of them have uber armors and chargers, making them lethal. Worth every denari.

When you're trying to recruit, a random type of 4 or 5 totally possible (per nation) is chosen. For instance, Swadians have Mace-men, Swordsmen, Crossbowmen, Cavalry and Halberdiers if i'm not mistaken. Just search more villages for what you want and you'll be ok.

There is a rifle very powerful at range - i think it's Jezzali or something, it has 100 dmg and 100 acc. Try that if you wish, it's certainly faster in reload than cannons. Don't judge the crossbow as being inferior, it reloads much faster than rifles.

Overall, the bows have the best dmg/sec, followed by crossbows, rifles and cannons. While the dmg/round is inverse. All of them are effective vs heavy armors. Choose your weapon according to your style, if you defend vs a siege, a bow/crossbow is much better.

 

[Tumetsu]

I think crossbow isn't so good for the player because you can't use it when mounted. For the troops, I in fact prefer crossbows because they fire faster and are tougher in melee.

In siege defense, any ranged weapon with area attack is great.

 

[Czar9797]

I think crossbow isn't so good for the player because you can't use it when mounted. For the troops, I in fact prefer crossbows because they fire faster and are tougher in melee.

In siege defense, any ranged weapon with area attack is great.

Merc. Cannoneers.

 

[Tumetsu]

Or Rocketeers 

 

[Steffenximus]

I tried using cannons with area attack, i saw i barely do splash dmg to bandits. Overall i can do much more dmg with bow, since i can fire 7 arrows at 20-30 average dmg while i shot once.

 

[Tumetsu]

I don't particularly like to use cannons myself because of the slowness.
Have you tried Dragons? Area attack and relatively fast reload in the same weapon. Very handy in mid-ranges.

 

[Lancefighter]

crossbows reload significantly faster than then jezzali? thats good to know, and makes it slightly more useful in a siege, but the ability to use the rifle on horseback id think makes it considerably more useful in the field.

I havent tried cannons yet, I was going for a more accuracy weapon than a raw damage weapon..but it does seem like the handgun(plus a few letters?) is accurate enough to fit that bill. I will certainly be trying out those next..

 

[Flandy]

Cannons are really siege weapons, with the "green" ammo you can kill upwards of 10 people with one shot if you place it correctly (so it doesn't hit any shields and they are in a massive melee)

I actually usually save my shots with it on sieges for when the enemy is giving my guys losses at the top of the ladder or when my guys can't bust through the top of the ladder....a well placed shot on the dome of a Condo does the trick for him and those around him nicely

Bows I think are a bit underpowered...anything you're going to snipe is usually heavily armored and the bow just doesn't do a lot of damage, even for the speed...I'd rather take my time with a Jezzali or Siege Crossbow and fire one shot one kill instead of taking 10 arrows to try to drop the Condo in my archer line

 

[Lancefighter]

hm yes second character is focusing on cannons instead of rifles, and noticed a few oddities - for instance, you can knock out the people in the tavern... >.>

Also, is it more or less intended that you arent supposed to reload explosive rounds into a nest of bees?
And fun workaround for that, in a siege, when ammo is restocked every 2 minutes, it doesnt matter what ammo you had available when you loaded the gun, only what ammo the icon shows up as in the bottom right. So its entirely possible to carry a set of explosive and solid, and just only fire when the explosives are 'available'.. >.>
Works in the field, but Im not sure what the timer in the field is

Other than that, why is it that when I take a castle, its empty (and cant put troops in it mind you), however ANYONE ELSE takes a castle, it magically has 300 guys in it? Can this be 'fixed' somehow, by say, making all taken castles have 100-200 troops in them instead of just ones AI lords take?

 

[Steffenximus]

Bows I think are a bit underpowered...anything you're going to snipe is usually heavily armored and the bow just doesn't do a lot of damage, even for the speed...I'd rather take my time with a Jezzali or Siege Crossbow and fire one shot one kill instead of taking 10 arrows to try to drop the Condo in my archer line

An arrow from the weakest(fastest) bow does an average of 25 dmg to vaegir armor. 6 shots at 25 dmg per shot means 150 dmg while jezzali fires once, dealing only 50 average dmg to vaegir armor.

 

[Flandy]

Bows I think are a bit underpowered...anything you're going to snipe is usually heavily armored and the bow just doesn't do a lot of damage, even for the speed...I'd rather take my time with a Jezzali or Siege Crossbow and fire one shot one kill instead of taking 10 arrows to try to drop the Condo in my archer line

An arrow from the weakest(fastest) bow does an average of 25 dmg to vaegir armor. 6 shots at 25 dmg per shot means 150 dmg while jezzali fires once, dealing only 50 average dmg to vaegir armor.

Meaning you need 3-4 arrows to kill high tier troops with a bow.  The dps just doesn't impress me, I'd rather take the higher damage weapon and aim for the head.  Then again, like I said, I don't use ranged a lot except for sieges and even then there isn't a Vaegir in the game that doesn't fear my Inquisitor's Polehammer

I play on normal damage and honestly, archer armies don't frighten me in the least.  I have Gothic Plate/Milanese Gauntlets/Plate Boots/Flemish Helm for basically the heaviest armor in the game and when the nords comes at me with their hordes of longbowmen..I can ride around taking them out one by one with almost no risk.  That is why Xeno gave Khergits the new spear gun and nest of bees....prior to that they only had bows, they were pretty much a joke.

 

[Lancefighter]

I should mention that you can also choose to fire forever off a rifle and bullets... or fire some of the time off a bow and arrows.

My vaegir archers fire nowhere near as accurately as my rhodok sharpshooters did, but while they have arrows they fire them rather quickly. Of course, this means that the rest of the time, the sharpshooters are winning in dps because the bowmen were too busy standing around looking like pincushions. >.> Id imagine it is similar for riflemen vs archers

 

[Flandy]

I would say so...if you haven't run into Sarranids yet...you'll understand

 

[Lancefighter]

i tend to avoid taht part of the map really - closest i get is the khergit borders.. where i noticed they are using those bee nest things!
whos idea was it to give the AI a GIANT AREA OF EFFECT CANNON?! That rarely ever hits, but when it does.. 'you took 263 damage' >.>

 

[Flandy]

Haha honestly it's really the only thing that gives the Khergits any bite, aside from the occasional Lancer blindsiding you 

I still think Khergits need work, they do ok against Swadia, but they get destroyed by Vaegirs and Sarranids every game I play

 

[Lancefighter]

well really, autocalc battles have nothing to do with balance, autocalc is just a function of level..

Of course it did seem that vaegir units started a lot higher level than others, that might have something to do with it. Then again, they also start with plate armor....