mid game gameplay issue, unplayable

[voronius]

So, i am rogue king doing very well. I have around 50 honor and 83 RtR, persuasion 5 (could be higher but i doubt it will help).
I had to capture lords to prevent them from coming back to siege the next day again.
Cause if you let them free they get together like 15-20 of them and make a 2.7-3.5k army every couple
of days. And they come back to siege me. And a battle vs 2.5k enemies takes so much (30 min. at least, a siege) unless you
wanna autocalc and lose. That's not an option. So i either put them in prison until they ask for peace
(and that's unlikely to happen too). Or i destroy the faction. Cause if i let them free i get such booring battles every 3-4 days
because somehow they magically restore troops (knights and all) in a couple of days. It's not difficult
it's boring and unplayable to let them free. Such battles are just boring not difficult. I place my troops where i want them by
the unit type and i go afk for like 30 min. Without CKO , just Hero Adventurers and regular trained units (ghazi stalker, singalian temptress, black heart
knights, ghazi marksmen, ravenstern rangers etc. , just trained units). Going afk from a game ... It's fun the first time and maybe the 2nd one too.
But then it's just borring.

But if i capture them and destroy the faction (before they escape ... so fast btw, with prison tower and PM 10)
none of them wants to join me. Now, the mod doesn't allow me to kill them either. Instead they go and join other
faction(s). This means that i'm stuck with like 15 lords while the final AI major faction will have around 100 lords in
the end game. Even without fiefs they can get like 150 troops each minimum. This means that i can be in a situation of facing 15K army
with like 4k. While still doable without autocalc it's not something i'm looking forward to cause it will take like 3h maybe
just for 1 battle. Imagine doing that a couple of times.
I think something it's missing from the game if you get in this situation.
A lord should not join other factions and receive no fief for it when i have fiefs that i have no vassals for. Castles and even towns.
This makes 0 sense how they keep existing without fiefs (wealth ? wages ? food ? shelter ?) and they prefer this option to joining me and having a fief.
Or i should be able to kill them. Or just make them dissapear like you do with kings.

Maybe i'm doing something wrong. I speak to them while captive and there's no recruitment option.
And when the faction is gone they already have titles like legatus and khan (while being in my prison still !), meaning they joined other factions.
How is that possible, they "signed up" for another faction while in my prison ? I should be able to keep them in prison until they break and join
me at least. Or kill them. Not let them go so that they come to attack me under another faction banner/name.
So if you don't destroy a faction you risk war on multiple fronts but if you do you're just making the other factions stronger boosting them with lords.
On high campaign difficulty 95% of the lords will join other factions when you destroy a faction.
And about keeping good relations with lords ... I'm pretty sure (not 100%) i lose relation when, after a faction declares war on me, i attack a lord
that comes to pillage a village of my faction or to siege a castle (so in other words i defend myself).

 

[Turean]

You simply need higher relations with lords in order to be able to capture them. 50 honor isn't all that high. If you get it to 300+ you should be able to recruit any upstanding/good-natured lord when you become independent and take them prisoner. Besides honor (and for less honorable lords) you can raise relations through quests, capturing and releasing them, and fighting alongside them all before you become independent. It's a good idea to spend some time as a mercenary with different kingdoms. The money is good and your faction relations reset when the contract runs out.

That's the thing about this mod. It's all about setting your long-term goals and thinking strategically about accomplishing them from day 1.

 

[voronius]

50 honor is not that high because they i have to keep them in prison to avoid booring hour long battles every 2 days.
You know ? I had like 150 or so. I can get indefinite amount from farming Noldors. But something is not right.
They recover troops too fast and they are to hard to convert and they escape too fast ... There's an unbalance issue.
Also, just thinking about doing another 3k vs 3k 1 hour long battle makes me wanna stop playing.
Say i didn't plan ahead about the lords and i know now for the next playthrough. The issue with army sizes still remains.
There are too many troops. One or 2 epic big battles are ok but 3k vs 3k is a weekly thing now and that takes half an hour if not
autocalc. Autocalc is so bad that fully geared companions with 350 prof on avg couldn't beat equal number (various troops)
red brotherhood so i had to go in and beat them myself.
This is from the wiki to convert a lord :
"15 + campaign difficulty (0 easy, 5 normal, 10 hard) + number of total centers (1 for castle or village, 2 for town) that the faction your recruited lord belongs to owns – your persuasion skill - number of total centers (1 for castle or village, 2 for town) that YOUR faction owns. "
And honor is not in it.
I have so many fiefs that i dunno ... The empire has just 5 castles left or so. I have Laria, Sarleon, Avendor, Janos, Cez and tons of castles (just from memory : calendain, seven cross, valorshield, whitestag, high cliff, savador, kennet, kelredan, knudar ?) and villages .
Probably i beat them too many times and took them captives so they now hate me. Cause they just escaped the next day.
I couldn't do anything like follow a unique cause the were back sieging my castles.
Also i can't just ignore the battles. I tried making Boadice marshal. And they started a feast while having war on two fronts.
So everyone was at the feast and no one was defending the towns. We were at war alread for like 1-2 weeks and they started
a feast. Makes you wonder how the AI is reasoning.
LE: i just recently got back to this mod after a couple of years, i do remember now that upon defeating a lord i used to check their personality and release
the ones with good personalities, to be able to recruit them later.

 

[lconracl]

On each lord's character page his wealth is listed. If lords has money, he will recover faster. Without gold it will take some time.
Autocalc - I don't think that NPCs has autocalc values. That is why companions only band may lose to weak enemy group.
By changing Campagin AI lords will have smaller armies, they will recover slower, garrisons will be smaller.
EDIT:
Just checked Rela Keep and siege tower is working fine. I just stand on it with my trusty bow until we reach walls.

 

[voronius]

@Iconracl Thank you for taking the time to reply you're very kind. I know you guys worked a lot on
the mod and we're just enjoying the mod. I think you did a great job with the mod. My opinion
is not so good about the base game ...too many issues because of poor/minimal AI. But that's another matter.
Sometimes i may sound angry or frustrated, it's directed at poor programming of the original game.
As a programmer myself i hate bugs or poor algorithms maybe because i imagine (long way to implementation)
better.Anyway, thank you for taking the time to answer. I couldn't imagine playing Warband without a mod and
this one and Blood and Steel (sadly dead) are my top 2 mods.

So upon defeating and capture a lord it says he admires my kingdom. No join option.
Next time i take him captive in my party and i speak with him from there. No join option.
I destroy his faction and capture him at the same time and it says he admires my kingdom still. And he still goes
to another faction when the faction is destroyed (gets the khan title). It seems impossible to recruit lords.
Shouldn't the text "admires" be an indication that he's ready to join ?
LE:
1. I started again and i'll report soon if it works, i'm havin some lords that should join if there's no bug.
2. About the big battles i think it's best to avoid them cause they realy get to be like 1h per 1k troops on each side, depending
on wethere tactics are used or not. The best thing is, if they happen, to do them on the field with CKO with Noldor horses or at least cavalry
only army. And just let them charge. Such thing should lead to the fastest outcome. But CKO gotta be strong and have Noldor horses to move fast
and avoid 2-3 h battle while still winning. I'm doing all my battles with just "charge" command. And it works great.
3. About Rela Keep, i retreated and did the siege again. This time the tower worked. Too bad for the loss (honor , renown, controversy). So it's random.
I have on vid, both times, 1st time not working then i retreat and set siege again and it works.