Mid Game Slump

[MountainBladesMan]

What are you supposed to do for the mid-game where your party is between 100 and 200 dudes and you don't have access to Order Knights? Mobs of virgin-hunters and bandits are unrewarding while most lords and unique spawns are too strong for you. How do you quickly get into the 200s?

 

[Sarin]

Get enterprises in every town and go for quality troops. If you made your character and party right, by now you should be able to train Adventurers quite easily, and have enough Training skill within party to slowly train up Hero Adventurers. Mix in various high level troops from other sources, and you'll have party good enough to handle weaker unique spawns like Kodan or Heinrych, or lords if you joined any faction. Keep building up your renown and character by picking some daring fights and winning tournaments.

If you have really small party, you can get a lot of renown by soloing stuff. Certain parties, while seemingly intimidating, can actually be quite possible to solo, if you know the tactics. Pack a good, decently fast but not entirely weak horse-leather draped horse served me well IIRC in those stages-good lance, long slashing melee weapon, couple of shields and in inventory, ranged weapon and ammo to switch instead of shields when necessary. Vanskerries are quite easy to solo as long as they didn't recruit crossbowmen or ranged cavalry from prisoners-just run around to exhaust their throwing weapons, use the melee weapon to dehorse that bit of cavalry they have, and then it's lance time. Similar method can be used on Knights of the Dawn parties.

It is possible to solo even Alaric this way, but it might take a few hours.

 

[sher]

Most problems come from forming large party too early and getting stuck in earning renown too slow. Form party only for faction wars and disband most of it when in peace. Do not preserve troops except for exceptional like HA and noldors.

 

[thermocline]

How much renown per fight do you guys aim for? I generally get around 20-30 per fight against lords. Do you do more than that?

 

[MountainBladesMan]

Get enterprises in every town and go for quality troops. If you made your character and party right, by now you should be able to train Adventurers quite easily, and have enough Training skill within party to slowly train up Hero Adventurers. Mix in various high level troops from other sources, and you'll have party good enough to handle weaker unique spawns like Kodan or Heinrych, or lords if you joined any faction. Keep building up your renown and character by picking some daring fights and winning tournaments.

If you have really small party, you can get a lot of renown by soloing stuff. Certain parties, while seemingly intimidating, can actually be quite possible to solo, if you know the tactics. Pack a good, decently fast but not entirely weak horse-leather draped horse served me well IIRC in those stages-good lance, long slashing melee weapon, couple of shields and in inventory, ranged weapon and ammo to switch instead of shields when necessary. Vanskerries are quite easy to solo as long as they didn't recruit crossbowmen or ranged cavalry from prisoners-just run around to exhaust their throwing weapons, use the melee weapon to dehorse that bit of cavalry they have, and then it's lance time. Similar method can be used on Knights of the Dawn parties.

It is possible to solo even Alaric this way, but it might take a few hours.

What would you say are quality troops that aren't tied to a faction or Order? I use Pendor troops but them in addition to my Adventurer cavalry cannot by any means take on a Unqiue Spawn with 300 dudes.

 

[NoPants]

I think I was getting up to 55 renown for a pack of Vanskerries with myself, Ansen and Leslie (who both died immediately each battle). I just did the "circle on horse until throwing weapons are expended" method, then killed them with bow/lance. That got me over 200 before I'd even noticed (with 7 leadership).

I'm on my first "full damage" playthrough, and I found that I couldn't solo any unique spawns until much later. My first kill was Kodan and I had ~30 Rangers of the Clarion Call, ~50 Larian Sentinels, ~50 EACs and 40 miscellaneous rabble.

Any reason you don't want faction or order troops? Joining a KO and doing bounty quests is a good way to get gear, xp and quality troops in the mid game.

 

[MountainBladesMan]

I think I was getting up to 55 renown for a pack of Vanskerries with myself, Ansen and Leslie (who both died immediately each battle). I just did the "circle on horse until throwing weapons are expended" method, then killed them with bow/lance. That got me over 200 before I'd even noticed (with 7 leadership).

I'm on my first "full damage" playthrough, and I found that I couldn't solo any unique spawns until much later. My first kill was Kodan and I had ~30 Rangers of the Clarion Call, ~50 Larian Sentinels, ~50 EACs and 40 miscellaneous rabble.

Any reason you don't want faction or order troops? Joining a KO and doing bounty quests is a good way to get gear, xp and quality troops in the mid game.

I don't want faction troops mostly for RP purposes; I like starting out as a mercenary company made out of young nobles and adventurers. Then when I found the Knight of the Griffon I like to imagine those castoff young nobles becoming my first knights.

As for joining a Knighthood Order I don't want to join one for the same reason above. I always RP as the last heir of the old Pendor kings who was raised by a Griffon knight in secret and who inherited their armor after leaving for Pendor. First thing I do is teleport around towns looking for Griffon plate to keep in my inventory until I can use it.

I wish there was some way to secretly found the Griffons; perhaps some quest where you find the ruins of an old keep and decide to build up the place and afterward you get your own secret castle that doesn't flag you as an independent kingdom while still giving you access to a KO and a place to garrison troops and lock away prisoners. 

 

[ttl]

Kite QG spawns into faction armies. Or other spawns. This gives you QGs, which is the most important resource. (Not so important if you forego CKO)

Hunt small parties with a small party. This gives you money and renown, which are second.

Fighting other lords (faction wars) gives you honor and relations, which are third.

Being a lord (with a walled fief) allows you to get started with your CKO, and a garrison with which to switch between a full war party and a small hunting party. If you are forgoing the CKO, staying a mercenary for a long time can be quite beneficial.

Holding a walled fief allows you to found Griffons as well, the KO quest line is worthwhile in several aspects. (You need two walled fiefs to have Griffons and CKO, and of course you can Griffon-theme the CKO if you wish).

Postponing on holding a walled fief until you are king makes it a lot harder, but certainly doable with time. Then you won't have a CKO for when it matters. You could try helping eliminate a faction as mercenary, and then take their last fief(s) as independent. Then you will be starting your kingdom with ~500 troops, with limited ability to recruit. Whereas the usual buildup will see perhaps a couple thousand troops, with a good supply of noble recruits in reserve. And those recruits will go for CKO, whereas you will be stuck with a "normal" KO.

 

[placenik]

I usually solo first 100 days at least. Solo meaning no companions, no party, no nothing. Hunt for tournaments and killable parties, bow and lance being your main weapon. And don't forget to join ANY lord fights on winning side, relations increase is cool.

On QG: When you solo you swim in $. After 10.000+ renown and decent leadership, Unique spawn shortcut is- go to town with Ransom Broker, buy yourself ~500 mercenaries (optionally approach to any lords that will join fray) and autoresolve. Dismiss mercenaries, take QG.