Ethik Mantis said:
The thing is, i was very tired of having to do all the work, i couldn't for an entire month stop fighting the enemy off our borders, because if i did the Nordic empire would just fall appart, and aside from that, by the time i rebelled, the nords only had about 4 of the original lords, which means that sh*t was very unstable and our lords were always shifting factions.
Was the same with me. Don't worry, I'm not branding you a traitor to Ragnar or anything, he can be much too aggressive for the good of the kingdom, and led us into a ton of stupid wars early on by overestimating our capacity to fight everyone at once. We probably only held on because the other factions started concentrating on each other after we were nearly pushed into the sea. Half my fellow Jarls are Khergits now, and I think I am a racist in Warband because I don't like seeing them at our feasts.
Don't like seeing Swadians there either though. I guess I'm just an all-round bigot, which is fine for a Nord.
But the "resolve a dispute" quests do seem to work, and we have an Old Guard of Jarls (Aedin, who's my father-in-law, Harald who is the best Marshall, Knuddar, me and a few others) who are all very powerful now, with large armies, very loyal to Ragnar, and close friends with each other. Helping to get quarrelsome and pitiless Jarls kicked out of the faction early on can help too. Make sure your friends get plenty of fiefs.
Northcott said:
How has fighting the Rhodoks fared for you?
I'm on default difficulty, so not playing it too difficult, but so far they are the only faction who give me real trouble on the battlefield and in sieges. Those piercing damage crossbows mean I get deaths instead of injuries, and they are never stupid enough to charge into my traps, as the Khergits always do. Instead, they seem to set up killzones for my troops - not fair! That's supposed to be
my job!
I do try to use terrain as much as possible, but they are sneaky, and seem to use it too. Cresting a hill into a wall of bolts is no fun. Both their infantry
and their crossbowmen are quite tough in melee. They don't really do a lot of damage, but they can hold us back long enough for other crossbowmen to get more kills (which they do).
I think the Nords probably are the biggest threat to the Rhodoks, but they are also the biggest threat to us, and I just hate losing good men. When we have armies of similar size, they are the only people I would ever consider running from, because I know four or so huscarls might actually die. I respect them. Next time I'll join them.