how do I get a strong army?

[enkidu]

I'm on day 17 now, and my character is lvl 7. I have borcha and the other guy, but whenever I hire some mercenaries my group gets jumped by much superior forces. There arent any more river pirates, all the towns have been pretty much sucked dry of mercs to hire( they all died under my command) and theres nobody left that I can fight against and win. After my forces die and I try to hang on, I get an arrow for 40 damage in my eye, or a couched lance and its all over.

I tried restarting the game and building up an army from the beginning, but the game is telling me that my party cant level up because I'm not high enough lvl?

Since any time I lose a battle all my men get killed, I guess I need to play through the game without ever losing a battle? I can handle soloing my way through the river pirates, but cant solo beyond that

I read the FAQ, but it didnt tell me how not to suck.

 

[Stonewall382]

Absolutely agreed. In my opinion, the level requirement doesn't make any sense (you already have the charisma and leadership abilities, why should your level matter?), and should be removed. My character's about lvl 9ish, a few days further into the game, and is having the same problems.

 

[DaLagga]

First, welcome to the forums! And no, you don't suck The game just takes a bit of getting used to. First, i'd suggest you complete the training, then practice it for a while. At least until you can win...3 battles or so without taking a hit. Then practice in the arena for a while. Also, note that while in the arena, you can issue orders to your troops like you can in a real battle, so use this as practice as well. The river pirates spawn near the tree south of zendar on the west side of the river(ocean = south). If you still have trouble, you can always turn the difficulty down in the options. Try setting damage to 1/2 or 1/4 for now, but keep the AI at good. Also, you can't upgrade troops beyond your level +5. Knights for instance are level 24, so you must be level 19 to train knights. Goodluck!

 

[Narcissus]

Welcome to the forums, Enkidu.

My advice would be to do the training missions and then do a few tournaments. Some you will lose and some you will win, yet the experience that you gain there is invaluable (your exp. not your characters, although that is valuable also). We all sucked when we first started (and some people, like me ... still do ).

The level requirement for hiring troops is a fairly new feature and hasn't had all of the bugs and/or balance issues worked out of it yet.

The lack of hirable troops is a new bug/glitch that Armagan hasn't been able to fix yet ... although I'm fairly sure that will be one of his top priorities when he gets done moving and back to work on M&B.

EDIT: Sorry for repeating a lot of what DaLagga said ... he posted while I was writing my reply.

Hope that helps,

Narcissus

 

[Mage246]

Get a shield! You can block arrows and lance with a shield...

 

[Lobos]

Make sure you talk to the constable so you get a cheap wood shield, pretty useful when fighting multiple oponents as you can block all their attacks just by keeping it up.

Try to get all your soldiers to stick together, either using the follow me or the hold this position command, only use charge when there are few enemies left or your sure you can win.

As soon as you can, get a half-decent horse, at least a steppe horse.

Unlike other RPGs which rely solely on Character skills, equipment, and some strategy, this RPG relies heavily on your own skills, your ability to time attacks and blocks just right, and your own perception of the battlefield.

So, just keep practicing, before long you'll be able to solo war_parties, or have a huge army of your own.

The level limit on your troops is there so that you a lowly squire, merchant, monk or hunter (at least at the beginning) won't be able to command powerful knights, seems kinda unrealistic that some peasant with no noble status or money can command an army of knights...

Oh, and yes the game is REALLY tough at the beginning while you use cheap weapons and are accompanied by weak peasants. You'll get some pretty hard knocks, but should be able to get thru it.

Its a hard knock life for us (knights).

 

[Mage246]

Also, early on having a good skill level at one of the ranged weapons is a MUST. If you don't want to be an archer for the rest of the game, choose crossbow or throwing, since these offer higher early damage as well as being easier to hit with (throwing weapons up close and crossbows at medium range especially). Later on you may get high enough in one of your melee skills to switch over to that entirely, but until then you will get beaten fairly regularly up close due to mobs of enemy troops that are usually as fast/faster than you in the beginning.

 

[enkidu]

thanks for the advice guys. I did the tourneys and knew about shields and bows allready, it was just keeping a party alive when all I can find are green recruits and all I could find to fight against were too powerful (and fast) I was able to build up a few troops by having them stand ground where they entered battle and soloing groups of river pirates, plus was able to sell most of them to the slaver this way. Now I've got a few decent fighters with me and a few more training.

 

[Kelpo]

Absolutely agreed. In my opinion, the level requirement doesn't make any sense (you already have the charisma and leadership abilities, why should your level matter?), and should be removed. My character's about lvl 9ish, a few days further into the game, and is having the same problems.

Word. Hard cash should matter when hiring/upgrading mercenaries and military rank when hiring/upgrading Swadian & Vaegir troops. Leadership should increase morale and provide some sort of an idea of how many troops are you able to lead. Your level shouldn't matter at all.

 

[Acanthoid]

Just add my two cents.. if you are on day 17 and only level 7 there has to be something wrong in what you do...
And if there are no river pirates spawning that may be because the two river pirate groups are still wondering on the map somewhere. And more will spawn when they are dealt with... Atleast that is how i see it.

 

[jrawlings]

I agree with the above... level 7 on day 17. We need to fix that. Early in the game, I wouldn't focus on building an army. Because what happened to you is all too common. You need to get your own levels up instead. To do that, focus on completing the merchant's quests. Take an army with you that is sufficient to get the escort caravan quests, but no more. The key early on is speed on the world map. You want to be faster than everyone else because everyone else will own you. Also, a GREAT way to get good equipment and good battle experience is to jump in battles that are already in progress. Look for ones in which the side you join (the side in green, not red) is already at an advantage. When the battle starts, bite off only what you can chew and focus on staying alive. You'll get some good experience for your character AND you may get an item or two that is really good.

 

[Hansundfranz]

I would not start building an army until you are lvl15 and have at least 3 leadership.

To avoid fighting alone at best simly join fights that are already in progresss

 

[Janus]

EDIT: meh, nothing to see here.

 

[Verus]

when you form your army you have to keep in mind there peasants or watchmen/townguard at the beginning, so you have to carefully pick your enemy to which you can solo (or not solo if you M & B), when you win the battle the XP gets shared out, so while you do this your peasants grow in rank to be leveled up, and that "Cant upgrade.." thing, try grinding your level up in the Arena or on small partys. when i got to level 20 i could train vaegir peasants all the way to knight, and neut peasants to hired blade.
EDIT: oh yeah, and get a good shield as the guy above me said, blocks arrows, swords, axes and reduces couched lance dammage. my shield (self made using the U.O.E reduces couched lance to nothing >.>)

 

[Lobos]

(Sry, off topic)

Janus, I was under the impression that AI party size was affected by level, not party size?

 

[Lav]

Level 7 on day 17 is a good progress... I'm level 2 merchant on day 26 right now and doing pretty well.

(Of course, I have a reason for that - I still haven't paid for the game so my primary goal is not to reach level 6 for as long as I can ).

Oh, and I have 4 men-at-arms and 2 vaegir horsemen in my army in addition to two NPC's (got rid of 6 swadian crossbowmen and 4 vaegir veterans as they were slowing me down). Overall, my party is strong enough to win a battle with a 5-6 dark hunters/knights or 10-12 steppe bandits without taking permanent losses (a few wounded don't count).

 

[Janus]

Janus, I was under the impression that AI party size was affected by level, not party size?

Know what, you're right. I just double-checked and your party size doesn't seem to affect enemy party sizes. Coulda sworn that at a higher level (25-30ish) when I lost most of my men that the number of enemies spawned was suddenly significantly less..... must have been trippin.

 

[Evangolis]

I use an alternate low level strategy. I start out doing the training and then the Arena until I get to level 4. Then I run a few trade runs to work up cash (I generally start as a trader). I keep my loads as light as possible, to keep my overland speed above 8.5, which will let me outrun just about everything. Using the cash, I hire Marnid and Borcha, mainly to raise their non-combat Party Skills (Trade for Marnid, add 2 of the medical skills, tracking and pathfinding for Borcha). I also raise my inventory skill, and buy up a dozen or so horses, which allows me to carry full inventories with little or no overland speed reduction.

At some point in all this, I hire 10-12 troops and run a caravan mission, so that the merchant will start offering all the missions. Then I dismiss the troops, and run the transport and kidnapped girl missions for XP. I also jump into even or better battles against bandits, for XP and loot. Once I am in the 16-17 level range, I start running up a mounted army of knights (I build melee PCs, concentrating on polearms and two-handers)

At this point I generally have a mobile force that can run any mission, and carry loot and goods at high speed.

 

[Mr_PeaCH]

I also raise my inventory skill, and buy up a dozen or so horses, which allows me to carry full inventories with little or no overland speed reduction.

Something I stumbled onto that might be of use to you. You don't need to keep spare horses in your personal inventory to boost your map speed, you will enjoy the same benefit if the extra horses are in Marnid or Borcha's inventory. (The only caveat is if it's a horse that you may eventually want back you'll need to pay them for it; otherwise only give them sumpters, etc.)

 

[Epicurus]

Something I stumbled onto that might be of use to you. You don't need to keep spare horses in your personal inventory to boost your map speed, you will enjoy the same benefit if the extra horses are in Marnid or Borcha's inventory. \

and so useful, at that. A million thanks!