I'm now 36 days into a "follow" mission given by my faction's marshal, which included 2 stops at castles for feasts, but so far he has done nothing else but patrol around his own isolated castle and village, while avoiding the entire end of the empire that was being overrun by enemies, at least until the factions finally declared peace 20 or so days into the mission. Meanwhile, my own village was looted twice, and I've had to stray away from the marshal briefly at least half a dozen times to replenish food supplies, because none of the villages in the area he's uselessly patrolling have food. I also had to disband over half my army (72 mostly mid and high level troops, now down to 35), because I can't afford to pay and feed that kind of force without a sufficient source of income (a looted village doesn't help, and one business investment won't come close to covering it). I'm in imminent danger of running out of both food and money in another week or so, unless I disband all but my Companions.
How long can a "follow" mission last? Does it end randomly, or is there a maximum time limit? Thanks to his fine leadership, we went from the verge of winning a war to losing a town and a castle without even putting up a fight over them, while half of the faction's armies were busy pacing back and forth near the distant edge of the map behind some moron. Now, all of the other lords have gone home, but I've still got that active "follow" mission. I could just wander off and fail the mission, but that seems like throwing away over a month of in-game time without even an XP reward for the time already wasted. I'm REALLY tempted to try to veer off, drive a bandit party into combat with the Marshal, join the battle, and then initiate a friendly-fire "accident".
[ After 2-1/2 tedious months (end of October to early January) of following the brainless idiot back and forth without any purpose, the faction finally declared war on another faction, and the Marshal went on the offensive and charged into the middle of half a dozen opposing armies. I stayed out of it (400+ Sarranids against roughly 90 troops for the Marshal, so my small band of 30 wouldn't have made much difference), the Marshal's army was crushed, and the follow mission finally ended. ]
How long can a "follow" mission last? Does it end randomly, or is there a maximum time limit? Thanks to his fine leadership, we went from the verge of winning a war to losing a town and a castle without even putting up a fight over them, while half of the faction's armies were busy pacing back and forth near the distant edge of the map behind some moron. Now, all of the other lords have gone home, but I've still got that active "follow" mission. I could just wander off and fail the mission, but that seems like throwing away over a month of in-game time without even an XP reward for the time already wasted. I'm REALLY tempted to try to veer off, drive a bandit party into combat with the Marshal, join the battle, and then initiate a friendly-fire "accident".
[ After 2-1/2 tedious months (end of October to early January) of following the brainless idiot back and forth without any purpose, the faction finally declared war on another faction, and the Marshal went on the offensive and charged into the middle of half a dozen opposing armies. I stayed out of it (400+ Sarranids against roughly 90 troops for the Marshal, so my small band of 30 wouldn't have made much difference), the Marshal's army was crushed, and the follow mission finally ended. ]
