blainedeyoung 说:
I've had the same thought. Like I said, I'm just starting with the expanded troop tree, but it looks like that stayed the same, Rhodoks, both spearmen and crossbowmen, are the best for both taking and defending castles and cities. Why take anybody else? Well, there are only so many Rhodok villages, and sometimes you're at war with the Rhodoks.
As far as the expanded tree goes, Rhodok crossbowmen don't become decent until tier 5, where Floris comes handy training them past it. Even at A4 Balliestierre they have hard times fighting Forest Bandits (Weakest in my opinion) due to their equipment being sub-par, I mean come on 48p Light Crossbows? Lol However they make a huge jump in both weaponry, armour and skills at Tier 5 and beyond, and I can honestly say running around with a army of 300-ish A5+ really destroys castle garrisons.
Now I know what you mean about there being only so many. Working for the Rhodok's before making your own faction and getting one or two villages to as high as possible means you still are able to recruit with them even during war times. Villages with low relation that you don't want to make even worse will be a problem. Sometimes if you need it, force recruition is there, but that digs you a bigger hole if you want to recruit from them later normally. There is also the recruiting from towns/castles that with a barracks build will even get you Tier 7 units every now and then.
blainedeyoung 说:
If I try to do it quick, it will completely destroy my wallet, but that's not really what I'm worried about. I'm worried about him getting on Alayen and Klethi's nerves.
Lol I'm sorry I didn't mean like "Oh man gotta get floris by day 20!" Or something. xD I just meant if you manage to get your hands on 25k or something, think about recruiting him. He isn't a necessity per say, but maybe getting him earlier can net him 1 or maybe 2 levels before you make him into a lord. I too don't get him very early either, I think in my latest game once I joined a faction and started raiding villages for very steady income I got him, and that's atleast day 75-100+
blainedeyoung 说:
I've heard that you can keep a group stable as long as everyone has one person they like as well (at most) one person they dislike, but I've never tried it. It's just too hard to test these things. The relationships progress over time, and I always wonder if there'll be some unforeseen consequence later on (like I have a companion who's angry about another companion, then I fail a quest and that makes them angry. Now are they going to want to leave whereas they wouldn't have just from failing the quest?).
It always just struck me as easier and surer to go with a group where there are no conflicts, and I really thought 8 companions was enough. Now I've got 11. Do I really need 12? If I make an exception for Floris, should I just scrap my party plan and draw one up where everyone has one like and one dislike? How many could I get 16? Would I regret it because they'd get too much loot? How would that change the skill distribution that I have in mind?
I'm exactly with you on that one, my party consists of people who enjoy raiding villages but don't hate each other at the same time. In the end it's quite small but I'll never hear complaints.
If you really don't want to fit him in it's perfectly fine, I can see where you're coming from with just hiring him to become a lord. Since doing all this work for one companion is a bit crazy. As far as the loot problem goes, having someone as your designated Looter helps you get roughly the same ammount, and for skill distribution should be roughly the same if you can fit the older companions in. For me personally it usually goes like this when I hire my core 3 companions: Get str to 10 first so they can use the 64p xbow and decent armour, pump int with one being my tracker, one being my medic, and one being my engineer/tactics all of them keeping Trainer a secondary priority. Soon after I get a 4th who I get to 10 str, pump agi for Looting. The other companions I will either train into being lords (Not very often) or just do the 10 str and pump int for trainer and persuasion (Since I'll use these guys as my emisaries). In the end while Floris may not have the exact skill/stat progression that I would like him to have, he starts off at 29 and that gives me more than enough reason to hire him, as the rest of my companions were below 10 when I hire them.
