Mount & Blade Warband Infantry Primer

[SPARTAN VI]

Wow, lots of changes in Warband. You can't kick in 1.011 right?

Also OP, then != than. Otherwise nice post. Will read again!

 

[Reapy]

I've always failed on then vs than, I don't think than is in my vocabulary.

Next time I update this I'll reread with an eye to my then/thans

 

[General_Hospital]

Nice guide Reaps. This should be required reading for anyone getting started in Warband. That being said, why are you giving away all of your secrets?! Or maybe this is just the tip of the iceberg, which begs the question: what secrets are you keeping to yourself?

 

[Cow]

This guide is so good that I actually beat Reapy one or two times. Of course, he murdered me all of the other times, but still.

 

[eric virgo]

You will swing into people and watch your weapon go through them, and when they attack you will not have as much time to manual block as you would at a lower ping. There seems to be less frames in the attack animation, and you seem to have much less time to get the block out then with a good ping.

sunova*****!!!!

Man, I almost pulled my hair off about this. I suck so hard in this multiplayer version of the game and I couldn't understand why! The ONLY case where I am able to land a blow succesfully, is when I attack about half a second before I even need to attack! If I do it later no matter what weapon I am using, I will get a face full of Long Axe!
It's even worse on horses: I approach my target and release my attack when it feels right (like sp MnB feels like) and the swing starts when I am right beside the target and I miss9 times out of 10. Sometimes I think to my self **** IT, I will attack as early as possible! It doesn't even look right but it increases my chances, especially when the enemy is preoccupied with something else.
Sometimes I don't even care about what my opponent does, since most enemies manage to hit me with huge polearms twice at the time I need to get my shield up or get my sword in position. I am not even kidding. The is no time to see how my enemy attacks to plan my defence, parry or block. Manual blocking? HA! That is IMPOSSIBLE SIR!
Most of the times I just try to attack as early as possible and hope that the enemy will accidentally walk into my weapon at the right time.

I am sad to say that I am only useful when I am fighting along other dudes. I try to sneak in, land a random blow and pray the universe works in my favor.

Now, I have managed to get a second place in a battle but it was all pure luck and no skill. In fact it was not luck at all. It was brain power. I have to use my environment and other people to survive. I am like a useless fighter that can't swing a sword for **** but I am pretty good at attacks of opportunity, having back to the wall, hiding in places where horses can't charge me etc. I am very roguelike!

I am not sure if my problem is ping related (I have a 2mbit internet connection that works fine with all other multiplayer games) but Warband bugs me to hell. I even tested another mouse to see If my buttons are at fault here.

Let's see how this goes.

 

[HTAPAWASO]

You will swing into people and watch your weapon go through them, and when they attack you will not have as much time to manual block as you would at a lower ping. There seems to be less frames in the attack animation, and you seem to have much less time to get the block out then with a good ping.

sunova*****!!!!

Man, I almost pulled my hair off about this. I suck so hard in this multiplayer version of the game and I couldn't understand why! The ONLY case where I am able to land a blow succesfully, is when I attack about half a second before I even need to attack! If I do it later no matter what weapon I am using, I will get a face full of Long Axe!
It's even worse on horses: I approach my target and release my attack when it feels right (like sp MnB feels like) and the swing starts when I am right beside the target and I miss9 times out of 10. Sometimes I think to my self **** IT, I will attack as early as possible! It doesn't even look right but it increases my chances, especially when the enemy is preoccupied with something else.
Sometimes I don't even care about what my opponent does, since most enemies manage to hit me with huge polearms twice at the time I need to get my shield up or get my sword in position. I am not even kidding. The is no time to see how my enemy attacks to plan my defence, parry or block. Manual blocking? HA! That is IMPOSSIBLE SIR!
Most of the times I just try to attack as early as possible and hope that the enemy will accidentally walk into my weapon at the right time.

I am sad to say that I am only useful when I am fighting along other dudes. I try to sneak in, land a random blow and pray the universe works in my favor.

Now, I have managed to get a second place in a battle but it was all pure luck and no skill. In fact it was not luck at all. It was brain power. I have to use my environment and other people to survive. I am like a useless fighter that can't swing a sword for **** but I am pretty good at attacks of opportunity, having back to the wall, hiding in places where horses can't charge me etc. I am very roguelike!

I am not sure if my problem is ping related (I have a 2mbit internet connection that works fine with all other multiplayer games) but Warband bugs me to hell. I even tested another mouse to see If my buttons are at fault here.

Let's see how this goes.

The speed of your connection matters much less than how close you are to the server.

You can see your ping when you join, or in-game by pressing tab... what is it? If it's above 80 or so it starts to get difficult, above 200 it's crazy.


If you just got into MP, get used to losing for a bit. Takes a while to get the hang of it, a lot has changed since SP.

 

[eric virgo]

Ι am not sure... If i remember correctly it is about 150?
maybe less maybe more.

I have the same ping in COD4 but it doesn't affect gameplay that much, since you run like the devil and you can cure your wounds using the technique of "hiding behind this wall for two seconds".
In MnB every millisecond counts. Reflexes are top priority I guess and it makes the game impossible to play, at least at it's current state.

Last night I had witnesses too. There was a dude fighting some other dude (and some of my dudes watched me play) and I sneaked behind the first dude and got my weapon ready, I came into range released the button and witnessed the following obscenity: The dude turned around pulled his weapon back and hacked me straight away.
All my friends were like "DUDE! THAT'S CHEATING" and i was like "dudes relax, MnB dudes don't cheat!"

It's like you know...


... dude!!!?...

 

[General_Hospital]

Eric, ping plays a huge role in all aspects of Warband MP. With a ping over 100, manual block becomes difficult and you will miss a great deal of thrusts and overheads. I would recommend going 1 handed weapon with shield if your ping is over 100. At around 150 ping, archery and throwing weapons become difficult because you can't anticipate where the opponent is going with all the lag. Lancing and swords on horseback also become ineffective at around 150 ping.

 

[HTAPAWASO]

Ι am not sure... If i remember correctly it is about 150?
maybe less maybe more.

I have the same ping in COD4 but it doesn't affect gameplay that much, since you run like the devil and you can cure your wounds using the technique of "hiding behind this wall for two seconds".
In MnB every millisecond counts. Reflexes are top priority I guess and it makes the game impossible to play, at least at it's current state.

Last night I had witnesses too. There was a dude fighting some other dude (and some of my dudes watched me play) and I sneaked behind the first dude and got my weapon ready, I came into range released the button and witnessed the following obscenity: The dude turned around pulled his weapon back and hacked me straight away.
All my friends were like "DUDE! THAT'S CHEATING" and i was like "dudes relax, MnB dudes don't cheat!"

It's like you know...


... dude!!!?...

150 is pretty bad.

As GH said, 1h and shield is probably your best bet.

Are there no servers that give you less ping?

 

[Reapy]

GH hit the nail on the head there with his ping break down.  I think m&b's ping report is somewhat lower then what you would see in another game. If I recall correctly with LAN games my ping generally around 10, and only lower then say 7 when I am the server. I sort of doubt the low 20 ping report I get in m&b, and like you said, a 150 ping is still generally good in most other games.

But in m&b a 150 ping is like a 250+ ping in another game. Right now if you want a better ping you are sort of SOL if you don't live near where any of the servers are hosted. In release though there will be dedicated server software so if you have other m&b players near you there will def be some low ping places to play.

 

[eric virgo]

Τhank god!

Thanks guys. I'll have to wait then.
For the record I am in Greece and I get five servers when I refresh. I think one time I saw six but I am not sure.

 

[aljazo]

dude nice job on basics, real bread and butter  , just dissapointed on ur fighting tips cuz i enjoy killing noobs that jump when i fire 

keep up the good work, sir, and we'll meet again on the battlefield 

 

[CryptoCactus]

Τhank god!

Thanks guys. I'll have to wait then.
For the record I am in Greece and I get five servers when I refresh. I think one time I saw six but I am not sure.

If you mean literally refresh, as in click the "Refresh" button, don't do that. It's screwy at the moment (or it has been for a while, I assume it still is). Always click "Start Search" instead.

If you're already doing that... then never mind. :p

 

[gypsydevil]

Thanks tons, great info

 

[Phalanx300]

Nice, too bad Pikes don't have an couched ability though. It would allow to make Pikeblocks with big numbers. Did anyone try to make an Pikeblock yet in Warband?

 

[Quilbo]

Omg, thanks for this, read it while downloading.

thanks!

 

[Marc999]

Thanks very much for the guide.  It has helped tremendously. 

I purchased the game 4 yrs. ago, yet haven't played M&B in over a year.  I just started Warband a couple days ago and found myself vastly outclassed by experienced players who are adept at the art of blocking/chambering/feinting/kick to the groin-overhead kill move.  Actually I haven't ever played a more difficult game.  I found myself swinging and/or blocking the wrong direction 1/2 the time.  The reaction time required to block attacks, especially of the bastard sword is insane, at least for me.  I feel like a grandpa with my too late reaction times.  Thankfully I did see myself improving slightly in dueling servers, where I am slowly starting to get the hang of circling my opponent for a left-to-right swing which I seem to favor.  I also gained insight from spectating some great players and tried loading my attack swing first, before engaging a hammer or similar slower weapon.  Sometimes I could connect first before his swing landed its knockdown blow.

At this stage I'm more comfortable with board/sword vs. 2 handed swords to bide some time and maybe land a blow or two before the shield breaks. I also have had ok success with using the war spear, unless it's a 2-handed sword opponent, then he blocks and closes the distance and shaboom, the end.  I think the key is recognizing what the opponent is wielding in terms of length/speed and try to adjust tactics accordingly.  Anyways it's a fun game, thanks for the tips.

Marc

Oh, 1 question:  My ping is ~54-70 depending on server.  Yet, sometimes there is a freeze for a couple seconds, which has led to my death on quite a few occasions.  Any tips on how to deal with this?  In-game resolution is 800x600, no shadows,no grass, some other settings disabled, performance @ 107%.
PC is Windows XP sp 3, P4 2.4ghz, 2gb pc2700 ram, nvidia 7800gs agp.  It's not game breaking by any means, but any advice would be great.

 

[Reapy]

Hrm not sure what would cause the freeze up, could be something else running on your system? It seems like the biggest load that happens in game is when people are in close swinging at you (or most likely time to see a FPS drop at least). Your system seems like it should be able to handle m&b just fine.

When I started I was in the same boat as you, I hadn't played the original for a while, and even though I did I didn't even understand the concept of block directions or anything like that, I always just rode around my horse killing things and died in .2 seconds when I fell off the horse.

It all seems overwhelming and fast at first, and you'll hit points when you feel confident blocking, but then run into someone who still makes you feel like you are slow. The tutorial of blocking without a shield is hugely helpful here as you can go in and practice seeing the animations and training your reaction time to it. Also, there are many people here that will spend a few minutes with you practicing your blocks by attacking you and holding the attack until the proper block is set (or if you have a friend to practice with you can both do this).

Once you figure out manual blocking, you'll run into a person who fights you really close, and the animations will look all wrong, and you'll be horrible at blocking again...until you figure out blocking up close...then you'll have a fight on a slope, and it'll look all wrong again...then you'll bump into a guy who does lots of turning around and they'll look weird from behind, then someone will come by on horseback and it'll be different there too

Only 4 attack directions but man it can really mess with your head.

But otherwise timing and many other things will come to you over time the more you play, like anything practice makes perfect. The biggest tip is to make sure you don't get upset about dieing, as you can learn a lot from it. Some of the most valuable lessons I've learned have come from dieing 50 times in a row or more trying out something to see if it will work.

Good luck, hope you stick with it!

 

[Sarejo]

Location Damage
Depending where you hit an opponent with a weapon (arrows/thrown weapons especially) you will do more damage. Hits to the head do the most, hits to the body are in the middle, and hits to the legs the least. Generally in melee it is hard to aim up or down, and the effect is not as great for melee 'headshots' as arrows,  but if you are running up behind someone for a back stab, it helps to aim high.

I disagree a bit here.

Against people that wear no head armor, which are pretty abundant, aiming for the head is a must, specially if they have good body armor. For example, Vaegirs that due to the lack of variety of helmets often go with the lamellar vest and no head armor. You can try to swing up, and you will be able to slash the face of your enemy. Or, you can use as many overhead attacks as you can.

 

[Reapy]

So maybe better wording there. The more I play the more I find it easier to hit the head area if I'm thinking about it, but when I started I didn't have the motor control to aim for the face. I'll put a note in there about helmet-less people and overhead's etc. Thank you