Need some good advice for a new player

[mnoel23]

Hi, I'm a new player, and I have to say, this game is definitely pretty interesting and fun.

So far I've played 3 single-player games, each time getting a bit further. However, I always inevitably end up in a situation where I get captured, lose all my troops, and then finally escape next to 8 Sea Raiders who can move quicker then me. The first two times I took in stride, but having it happen to me a third game is a little bit frustrating.

So - I've tried a game as a freelancer, and had a hard time building funds. I tried a game joining a faction and eventually becoming a Lord (And the jerk King gave me a fief that was in the MIDDLE of the enemy Nord's territory,) and did build up funds, but had a hard time going anywhere due to the masses of 100+ enemy armies patrolling the world.

So I was wondering what I'm doing wrong. Is there any solid advice that would help me at the start and middle of the game, and prevent a catastrophic destruction due to one lost battle?

-Edit-

Also, must-have standard mods. I've looked around, and everyone agrees that Diplomacy is absolutely needed. Any other base mods that don't completely revamp the vanilla game?

 

[Madae]

Get used to the combat. Eventually you'll get to the point where you can take on some fairly large armies with very few troops. Until your comfortable with the combat, you'll want to be wary. Choose a few skills that you want to excel in, and then some secondary one's to work on when you can't raise the others. I wouldn't recommend being a jack of all trades.

Until you have a fief to pay your troops, you shouldn't be running with too many or they'll suck up your funds quickly. Easiest way to make money, in my experience, without joining a faction would be to check the arena's in every city for tournaments. You can ask the arena master to tell you what towns are currently hosting one - then plan your route accordingly so you can make it to each one in time.

Unless your really good at the game, I would recommend playing with Realism turned off, so you can save before each encounter before trying it. This way, if you get caught, you can just reload and run away from them instead.

 

[mnoel23]

So low troop count at the start - got it. This was something I wasn't doing, as I was trying to build a large army as fast as possible.

And Realism off....I must be a masochist, because I really want to play on that mode, even though I know it's causing so much pain =/

 

[YENKO]

You're lucky, it took me three weeks of playing to properly learn the horseback fighting skill. Still, I think the easiest way is to go down the horse archer line: build STR and put points in Power Draw, power strike and later about 5 in Horse Archery. Get a good bow, 2 quivers of arrows a sturdy horse and a melee weapon for when your horse dies. Get a couple of Heroes in your party, they cannot die and are of great help throughout the game. For troops, get Nord infantry (best is Huscarl) and a good batch of ranged troops, maybe best would be the Rhodok Sharpshooters.Or Vaegir Marksmen if you dont like crossbows. In battle, use the F-keys and position your infantry in a line in front of your ranged troops and help your army pummeling the enemy. Later on you can charge the enemy with your mounted troops. Swadian Knights and Sarranid Mamelukes are great for cavalry. Trade is a very good source of income. there are quite a few trading guides for mount&blade . Later, when you level up some, and buy better armor and weapons you will be able to kill enemy armoes 3x 4x and bigger than your party and suffer minimal losses. Just dont rush and enjoy the game. Bandits, Sea raiders, looters etc are great for quickly earning loot and experience early on without the need to join some Ai faction. In my game it is day 700 and I am still solo, no faction affiliation.
And the best piece of advice would be: read this forum. There ae hundred of thousands posts explaining most of the game mechanics.

 

[Madae]

Yeah, I would recommend one or two companions, each with different skills. I usually have one with Surgery, Wound Treatment and such exclusively, and then placed low in the troop order so they rarely see combat, and then another with things like Training, Tactics, but placed high in priority and a little more combat oriented to help in fights. Leader skills and weapon skills are really what you would want to concentrate on for your character, as you can get companions to fill your weak spots.

Horse Archery is fun and deadly when you get used to it, but I would recommend just going straight sword and board (horse archery has a pretty high learning curve). Get a nice 1hand and a good shield, raise your strength so you can excel in melee combat and wear heavier armor, and then progressively upgrade as you can. The character I have setup this way can almost run into a group of 20 people by himself, take all the hits with no damage, and kill every one of them. He's nasty.

 

[Nessa]

I usually start by riding to different towns and doing the tournaments for money. On my way to each tournament I'll pick up lots of recruits, you can also pick up companions in the taverns and mercenaries if you desire, I tend not to bother though, too pricey. The tournaments are good because you'll learn to fight better, (save before ;D) and you'll make 3980 denars per tournament for max betting, although it's reduced everytime you win there. Fight some of the crappy smaller bandits and work your way up, training up troops. I'd recommend getting lots of Swadian recruits and training them to become knights. Get 20 knights and you're virtually unstoppable if you fight with them. From there it's only up.

Some good advice so far, hope it helps you. 

 

[mnoel23]

So, I tried this out, and I'm rather liking the tournament champion with a small warband idea.

For one, I'm rich! (By my standards.) I could even afford to spare 4000 on some Vaegir armour. I'm also like the reputation I have - every Lord I meet comments on my battle-prowess.

I had some bad luck on the first few tournaments though. After betting all my money, I made it to the final round, only to be outfitted with a bow and a knife against a Sword and Board opponent on a horse. Some Lord must have been pulling some strings to get that match-up.

Now I intend to continue farming tournaments and bandits until my small band of troops are trained to their final form, and then perhaps join the Vaegir faction.

 

[TheKommissar]

I recommend the Floris Mod Pack

http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,137590.0.html

It's a combo of a bunch of different mods including diplomacy and just tweaks the basic game to be more enjoyable for the player rather than trying to turn everything upside down and have something completely new.

 

[Madae]

So, I tried this out, and I'm rather liking the tournament champion with a small warband idea.

For one, I'm rich! (By my standards.) I could even afford to spare 4000 on some Vaegir armour. I'm also like the reputation I have - every Lord I meet comments on my battle-prowess.

I had some bad luck on the first few tournaments though. After betting all my money, I made it to the final round, only to be outfitted with a bow and a knife against a Sword and Board opponent on a horse. Some Lord must have been pulling some strings to get that match-up.

Now I intend to continue farming tournaments and bandits until my small band of troops are trained to their final form, and then perhaps join the Vaegir faction.

Each faction that hosts a tournament has a specific set of weapons that they'll make you use during the tournament. Khergits, for instance, typically outfit you with ranged weapons. Something to be aware of, since if you don't train ranged weapons, it can be a pain getting stuck with a weapon you're not very skilled with. Some others - Nords will typically make you fight on foot and give you axes/shields, and Swadia likes Jousting with polearms.

Another way to make good money and experience is to find bandit hideouts. Go talk to the faction's lord that deals with that (it's always the same lord for each faction) and he'll give you a mission to get rid of the hideout. Reward is usually 3000 gold, or thereabouts, and various loot from the bandits - some of which can be pretty good. They'll drop some trade goods every once in awhile, like silk or iron, and that can sell well depending on where you go.

 

[. Fearless .]

Firstly, an unorthodox tip from me:

Save your game before entering into tournaments.

Also, I would stay away from Forest Bandits, Tundra Bandits, Steppe Bandits, Desert Bandits and most importantly, Sea Raiders until I got stronger. The only easy bandit groups are Looters and Mountain Bandits as they don't have horses or strong ranged capabilities. If you haven't found out, these different bandit groups usually wander around areas tied to the different kingdoms' original positions.

Kingdom of Swadia - Forest Bandits
Kingdom of Nords - Sea Raiders
Kingdom of Vaegirs - Tundra Bandits / Sea Raiders
Khergit Khanate - Steppe Bandits
Sarranid Sultanate - Desert Bandits
Kingdom of Rhodoks - Mountain Bandits

For a start, I recommend getting yourself strong cavalry units like Swadian Knights or Sarranid Mamlukes. Their mobility and toughness really help increase your party's survivability and also offensive capabilities. In order to get these units, train up Swadian Recruits or Sarranid Recruits and once they have options for upgrade, pick the one with a horse and continue from there.

Hope I helped.

 

[mnoel23]

Well, I won enough on tournaments to be around 10k, and I've joined the Sarranids. (Was planning on Veagirs, but I found a Lady that's sorta half-decent looking on the Sarranid side, so I joined them to try to get approval from her father >_> )

I was provided with a fief close to the center of the Sarranid lands, which was a bonus. It's well protected, and is providing just enough each week to support my forces. There were a few months of tedius boredom as I hunted bandits and tried to scavenge missions for reputation, when finally my King declared war on the Swadians, and we attacked and took over one of their capital cities. First siege I've ever succeeded, so everything is looking good this game.

My force is mainly comprised of Veigar Knights, and they're practically invincible to my eyes. I can't even imagine what the Swadian Knight's must be like. =)

 

[Madae]

My force is mainly comprised of Veigar Knights, and they're practically invincible to my eyes. I can't even imagine what the Swadian Knight's must be like. =)

Then they would be invincible x10 Sarranids have comparable heavy cavalry though - almost on par, if not equal, to Swadian Knights. They might actually be a bit better since I don't remember them switching to any lances - knights can get dumb sometimes and try to melee up close with a polearm.

And you were lucky with your fief. I had one given to me once and it was right on the border of Khergit and Rhodok, who they just happened to be at war with constantly. lol.

 

[LBaeldeth]

My force is mainly comprised of Veigar Knights, and they're practically invincible to my eyes. I can't even imagine what the Swadian Knight's must be like. =)

Then they would be invincible x10

Yeah, Vaegir knights are only the second best cavalry, with Sarranids and Swadians tied at first. Still quite powerful, mind.

There's one thing no-one has mentioned here, and that's improving your economic situation by establishing businesses in the cities. If you get your reputation in a town above zero (so it can be as simple as spending 1000 denars to buy a round at the tavern, or you can do a job for the guildmaster) you can talk to the guildmaster and set up a business. There are varying types at varying prices. Generally speaking, the more expensive it is to set up, the greater the returns, but some businesses are more profitable in some locations than others. Once a business is set up, it will provide you with a steady weekly income (barring some freak market fluctuation).

The exception to the above is the "weavery and dyeworks", which produces Velvet. In every single city other than Jelkala (which is where the NPCs make velvet) this will provide you with a guaranteed 500-600 denars every week. On the downside, it costs 10,000 to establish.

The only other thing to note about businesses is if you are at war with a faction, you receive no income from businesses based in cities they own.

The business strategy requires a lot of initial cash at the layout, but once you've got a few going the money starts rolling in, making it easier to set up more. With a little merchant empire stretching across Calradia you can potentially clear 10,000 denars a week. Let me tell you, it makes financing armies much easier.

 

[mnoel23]

Then I shall set up a business empire! I tried trading for a while, but I would end up selling more then the city could pay me, and eventually I did a loop back to cities I had already hit, and they still lacked funds from before =/

Probably should have made a bigger loop.

 

[LBaeldeth]

Trade is a good idea to combine with the merchant empire, actually, because it can be extremely lucrative and let you set up those businesses faster.  And be warned, it can take quite a while to get them all set up due to the cost.  It's very much a long-term plan!

 

[rlilewis]

Personally I think at the start its all about getting the A team together - ie companions and don't even think about joining a faction until you get both yourself and your team up to the high levels. I love them because not only do they fight for you but you can level them as you see fit and use them to cover your weaker aspects. For instance I really hate having to drop points into boring skills like surgery/engineering/trainer but those and others like it can be really useful so you get your companions to get those skills instead.

I would definitely recommend getting Lezalit (sp?) who specialises in training. Get him the bare minimum for power strike 3 then just pump intelligence and max training, surgery and wound treatment and anything else you want (first aid!) because you will have a ton of points. I normally get the following characters who all work together well in the A team:

Bashetur (can't spell his name)
Rolf
Lezalit
Nizar
Matheld
Klethi

You will be much happier when you have a bunch of high level companions with high trainer skill so you can quickly turn a horde of raw recruits into high level soldiers in a matter of days with almost no effort.

As for a money maker you can take iron from Curaw and take it north to Rivacheg for a killing plus you can fight the raiders that are up there on the way. Normally they will have a ton of iron in Curaw but sometimes you have to wait a few days for it to spawn.

Lastly get the module system and learn how to mod since there are a whole bunch of things that annoy me in M&B that after a bit of practice you can edit out. For example the tournemant when you get a lance and they get a sword. That can all be changed once you know how.

 

[Charlie Brooker]

I've started spending the first 60 odd days just running around getting companions and doing tournaments, rescue prisoner quests and bandit hideout quests. Then start setting up enterprises and training some recruits. :3

 

[mnoel23]

I had one moment where I was in possession of a castle town for 2 months. (Uxhakt or some-such name, captured it from the Swalians)

But alas, I lost it, and when it was recaptured my Sultan took it for himself. I was getting a nice amount from it as well. 12k or so.

 

[Madae]

Yup, prices for fiefs are as follows, from least amount of money to most; castles -> villages -> towns. You don't want to take all towns and villages though, as you'll want a few castles in the mix. The more villages and towns you have, the higher your tax inefficiency is, and the greater the loss of profits. Castles basically "police" your fiefs, and make sure you get the right amount from taxes (and they do provide some of their own).

I have 3 towns; Veluca, Salen and Praven, 4 villages and 2 castles. I clear about 10k a week with expenses from my army factored in, but I lose about 2-3k because of inefficiency.

When you feel you're up to the task, you should try a rebel faction quest to help a claimant. As you capture land, they'll defer to you who should get it (until the faction they're rebelling against is eliminated). It's a great way to cement yourself as a powerful lord.

 

[mnoel23]

I currently own Suno, and castle in the near area, as well as a village far up in the Sultan stating lands. The war against Swadia is going well.