I had lost quite a bit of my army do to a slew of attacks from both Steppe, Mountain, and Forest bandits. Two of which I started and goofed on, and the last which had chased us down.
So I'm riding back to town hoping to rest up and get my knights/men at arms back from unconsiencousness(sp?). On the way I notice a group of about 11/32 river bandits with what seemed like 2 knights, 8 men at arms, 12 crossbowmen, 8 militia,.. etc. I'm thinking sweet! I dive in to take care of them (they are easily outrunning us), when lo and behold a group of 12 Dark Knights 8 Dark Hunters takes them down. I'm thinking blast! These Knights had about 68 Swadian/Vaegirs as prisoners.
So I run to town, fill the remainder of my slots (up to 50) with peasants/militia. Go back looking for them.
They ran from me for what seemed like an hour (real time) several days game time, before eventuallly getting stuck at that mountain range that's north behind Veluca. I had everyone dismount, hold the spot, and we proceeded to slaughter them. I lost about 10-15 peasants in that fiasco, but gained an army of over 18 knights, 14 men at arms, 12 crossbowmen, and so on.
Those Knights are a very tough nut to crack.
I wonder what motivational speech my guy must have told the local town, to get all those peasants to rally to my cause...