How are you playing your game?

[Argeus the Paladin]

^ Interesting, though extremely impractical.

Max riding requires 30 AGI, and since there's no book that actually grants free riding there's no way around this. Assuming that you pump everything into AGI and nothing else, there's no way you can get there earlier than level 18-20-ish, and that's while having a dangerously low level of STR, to speak nothing of INT and CHA.

 

[Mkhedari]

^ Interesting, though extremely impractical.

Max riding requires 30 AGI, and since there's no book that actually grants free riding there's no way around this. Assuming that you pump everything into AGI and nothing else, there's no way you can get there earlier than level 18-20-ish, and that's while having a dangerously low level of STR, to speak nothing of INT and CHA.

It is impractical.  Then again, exp. usually caps at around level 34 or so, so there's still room to improve the other areas.  My ridiculously high speed on horseback will add massive power to my blows, making me especially deadly with a Balanced Long Awlpike, and lots of Horse Archery and high archery proficiency will keep me deadly at range while being too fast to catch.

I managed a game in which I had 10 Athletics, though, and that wasn't too bad.  Of course, I was little more than a somewhat fast footman with a smallish warband, but I just wanted to see how fast I could get and have some fun doing it.  I hardly ever play to conquer Calradia, but rather, I experiment with different playstyles like heavy knight, heavy horse archer, Nord quasi-huscarl, merchant, Mamluk, Korean horseman, and so on.  Owning a lot of land and leading a lot of troops isn't really the goal.

 

[Ludial]

^^ wait till you end up in the sights of Rhodok veteran crossbowmen, Khergit veteran archers and vaegir marksmen  Hell, even Nord veteran archers will kick your scrawny ass. believe me, I've tried something very similar to what you're describing and pretty much the only way not to get hurt and captured like that (barring godlike reflexes and insane luck) is to actually avoid fighting altogether.

Personally, I favor chars who are good all around commanders - high INT and CHAR, with some points in combat skills, so I can lead a functional army and do something in combat (and boy, do I do something in combat with my meagre Power Strike of 3  )

 

[Ash Plissken]

I'm still on my first playthrough, which was started as a male noble on all the easiest settings (was apparently the default in the demo, when I started the game), and I'm playing it as a boring old honorable guy who eventually became king of his own faction, which now occupies the northern 2/3 of the continent and is at peace with the remaining 3 factions.

Now that I have a better idea of how things work, next time I think I will try it as a female commoner in the Diplomacy mod with realistic saving and slightly higher difficulty settings, but probably still honorable.  I might even try to conquer the whole continent without getting married.

 

[Baguette Eater]

Always focusing on Strenght then Agi, I can easily compensate for the lack of troops.

Rolling in plate on a charger with a long arming sword, a heavy lance and a knightly heather shield, never gets old.

 

[Ludial]

Always focusing on Strenght then Agi, I can easily compensate for the lack of troops.

Rolling in plate on a charger with a long arming sword, a heavy lance and a knightly heather shield, never gets old.

so you're saying yo've never been a victim of LanceSurprise or Arrowstom? Wait till they happen to ya 
One man army is a ridiculous and absolutely unrealistic concept. Unless you play on low difficulty.

 

[Baguette Eater]

Troops are keeping me from being shot, and I don't fight like an idiot, so I am fine, really.

In case of archers I simply tie them up in melee, while my knights crush the rest.

 

[Ludial]

Troops are keeping me from being shot, and I don't fight like an idiot, so I am fine, really.

In case of archers I simply tie them up in melee, while my knights crush the rest.

Cool. For a moment there I thought you actually played the whole one man army ****. My hat off to you 

 

[Baguette Eater]

Well I usually avoird recruiting anything till I get my charger and my armor, renown stacks up pretty quickly that way.

 

[Ludial]

Well I usually avoird recruiting anything till I get my charger and my armor, renown stacks up pretty quickly that way.

yeah, good approach. Though unfortunately it only works for chars that are geared towards being killers themselves. My dude can ride nothing more special than a hunter/courser.

 

[Baguette Eater]

Yeah, that's a *****, first thing I get is a lance and then ditch my starter crossbow, then hunt 10 men Sea Raiders party.

 

[Ludial]

Yeah, that's a *****, first thing I get is a lance and then ditch my starter crossbow, then hunt 10 men Sea Raiders party.

meh, nothing wrong with a hunting crossbow. just takes some guile (and a good deal of patience  ). especially if you're gonna use a crossbow later. For a bunch of reasons I can never fight without a ranged weapon. turning your enemies into minced pork is all fine and dandy, but shooting **** up is like an addiction for me 

 

[Baguette Eater]

The thing is, the coast is generally flat, good for lancing and sea raiders tend to have shields and short spears easily out ranged by the heavy lance.

 

[Ludial]

The thing is, the coast is generally flat, good for lancing and sea raiders tend to have shields and short spears easily out ranged by the heavy lance.

so what do you do when the raiders wander off in the forested areas closer to Wercheg? Them cliffs are a *****.

 

[Baguette Eater]

Avoid them, or swap terrain with tab till I find the most suitable terrain.  If that fails, lead them to flatter places.

 

[Gwerneow]

I like being out of place equipmentwise.  Well mostly I like being the lone mounted troop in my party as a horse archer, this means that all other horses on the battelfield are enemy targets.  It also eliminates the cases where an ally horsemen gets in my line of fire at the last second.

Sort of this. I've given horses to my companions, though. That way there's no way for me to lose any "cavalry" in charges.

 

[Mkhedari]

Well, my messenger campaign didn't work out, but I started a new campaign as a ridiculously strong guy.  Character Creation is your friend when it comes to getting off to a good start.  I quickly got 30 STR and then focused on INT to get higher skills.  I now have 10 Ironflesh, 9 Power Strike, and 10 Power Throw.  Almost every attack is an instant kill, and with 85 hit points and plate armor, I'm incredibly tough, too.  I'm a pretty awful leader, but I don't care; it's fun being an invincible champion every once in a while.

 

[cycloolephin]

I've been playing several games where I'm just a one man army; I obviously play on low difficulty. But I've always loved just destroying an entire army all by myself. Currently I'm about 30 days in on a super-knight. Pretty decent equipment, around level 12 so far. I've been raiding Swadian caravans and peasants, helping the other factions to destroy those fools Unfortunately all Swadian war parties still have 70+ men, so I'll have to wait for a battle to get a chance to kill some real soldiers.

 

[Drake Koeth]

Right now I'm playing as a Khergit vassal, and just finished helping the Khergits conquer the Sarannids. My plan is to trade for ownership of many of the castles and a city or two in Sarranid lands, and eventually create my own kingdom there in the top corner of the map with the Khergits as a buffer.

-Drake

 

[iksanlegolas]

im playing as a commoner, i worked as a merc for the Kingdom of Swadia


my earliest strategy was getting a balanced men of Swadian infantry first (cause i dont have the enough money to pay cavalry recruits (upgraded) nor to recruit cavalry mercs.) i have 13 swadian man at the early time of 4 swadian militia,7 swadian footman and 2 swadian crossbowman. i attacked as many forest bandits as many as i could to equip the hot ones of the loot,,and sell the un-needed ones.
ive done this thing for a long time until i was rich, i have 11.000 denars,,,i bought a Heraldic mail,,a rusty war cleaver with 42 cut!(sexy),mail mittens, reinforced segmented helm, a Crossbow with large bag of bolts. after that my wealth was not more than 4.000 denars at that time,and after that i recruit new NPC's such as Artimmener,Bunduk,Matheld. and ive decided to build a force,,,ive loot a view sea raiders,,sole they're items,sell the captured ones, and ive got this new amount of money of 7.300 denars,and i build a force after all after that,,ive recruited and upgraded many men till i have got 52 men of 17 swadian infantry,8 knights,12 rhodok trained spearmen and 9 sharpshooters while freeing and recruiting 6 manhunters, ive never got the idea to recruit mercenary's after that, anyway,their expensive,horrofying wages,and if they die,,,well their not coming back where they came from so i have a full comliment of trained men. and to let you know,,,that's all, now im in this part so im not famous yet...at the mean time i have 6.346 denars,,297 renown,ill let you know if i already finished my game and ill tell you the rest of what's to come