New to Warband, have multiple questions

[androsh]

Hey all. I used to play the M&B beta, and I guess I forgot about the game, and recently went back to it, only to realize there's an entirely new version out there, Warband. I played the demo, and after reaching level 8 I went ahead and bought the whole thing 

I've a couple questions, and if you nice forum folks could answer them... I'd appreciate it a lot 

1 - If I have a skill like Surgery, and I have a named NPC with the same skill, do they stack?

2 - What things make my followers lose/gain morale?

3 - Is there a point in having multiple types of food with me? What about things like grain?

4 - How can I increase my movement speed on the map?

5 - What's a good way to use formations and commands for my troops? I mean, I know how to issue the commands, but I can't figure out good ways to position my cavalry, infantry, etc.

6 - Other than fighting bandits, looting towns, and doing quests, is there another way to make money?

 

[Kleidophoros]

1. no
2.
3. more morale
4. horses in inventory, more cavalry in party, no prisoners, less stuff in inventory
5. try using hills and rivers to break cavalry charges etc
6. trade. buy iron from vaegirs, sell to khergits, but spice from khergits sell to nords etc.

 

[androsh]

1. no
2.
3. more morale
4. horses in inventory, more cavalry in party, no prisoners, less stuff in inventory
5. try using hills and rivers to break cavalry charges etc
6. trade. buy iron from vaegirs, sell to khergits, but spice from khergits sell to nords etc.

That was fast! Thanks for the swift reply.

3 - That answer doesn't make sense? 
4 - Good to know
5 - Good call
6 - How did I forget? Thank you

 

[CptStanky]

Food variety give more morale than a huge stack of one type of food.

 

[Zues]

I'll have a go here..

1. AFAIK, party skills do not stack. Therefore, if you have a surgery of 1, and you get Jeremus to join your party, his +3 will overwrite your 1. The only skill that seems to stack is trainer.

2. If you do deeds that the companion deems unacceptable IE. Losing a lot of troops in a battle, looting a village etc, some members might get angry at you, while others might applaud you. In addition, not all companions get along. If you get a companion that others don't like, they are likely to leave your party.

3. Multiple types of food will give you a moral bonus if there is enough variety.

4. Movement speed is based on the moral of your troops, the type of troops (cavalry will move quicker than infantry), the number of troops (smaller armies will move faster than large ones) and by the pathfinding skill.

5. I like to stick infantry on the back sides of hills when able. This causes enemy cavalry to slow down to a crawl allowing your infantry to mob them. For archers, I like to line them up just in front of my infantry and tell them to hold fire until the enemy gets closer. Then I let them pepper them at close range so they are less likely to miss, and cause more casualties to the enemy.

6. If you can get Marnid or your own trade skill high enough, trading is a very good way to make money. Be sure to find the two best spots for the goods you are taking if you have a large amount of it, because there is a good chance the town will not have enough denares in the stores to give to you if you only want cold hard cash.

Hope that helped

 

[Lord Rich]

1. It depends on the skill as to whether they stack or not, if you hover over the skill type in the character window it will tell you whether its a party, personal or leader skill.

For party it gives the highest skill value given by you or your companions.

For personal it stacks them, most personal skills dont have any application on the map though and are stuff like iron skin or power strike. The trainer skill is a personal skill and does stack I believe however so if you give all your companions a high training skill it should give you more experience overall.

A leader skill is only taken from the leader of a party, namely you, so giving your companions leadership skills wont help at all (unless you make them vassals when youre king of course).

2. Quite a lot of stuff effects morale, you can see a breakdown in the morale report in-game. The recent events item can be effected by people joining or leaving the party, winning battles etc...

5. It depends on the structure of your army of course, classical military structure is to have infantry in the centre and to flank with cavalry.

Dont make the mistake of always putting your archers/xbows right behind your infantry, they need a clear line of sight to fire so make sure they get it, even if you need to put them at the front. Then move infantry forwards if the enemy get too close.

When facing cavalry attack against your infantry dont spread the infatry out, use the commands to draw them together into a tight ball. Enemy cavalry will get cut down quite quick that way as they get stuck against all the infantry and cant move. Quite often in the game I find the enemy spawns reinforcements with lots of cav so I quickly select all my men and tell them to hold a position while telling them to stay close together, works a treat.

Theres honestly a lot of tactics you can use that work, experiment and have fun

 

[Yoshi Murasaki]

I have to correct the incorrect answers you got.

Party skills DO STACK.

If you take Deshavi and she has 3 Pathfinding, and you have 2 Pathfinding, it will stack like this:  3+1 = 4 Pathfinding.

However, if you have higher party skill than your companion, I don't see stacking at least in Warband. Not sure if this is how it's supposed to be, since this link is a bit misleading on that:
http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Mount%26Blade/Skills



So, for example:

1. Your companion has 3 Pathfinding and you have 2 = TOTAL 4
2. Your companion has 2 and you have 3 = TOTAL 3
3. Your companion has 3 and you have 3 = TOTAL 4

A bit weird. If someone can check #2 in original game it would be nice.

 

[androsh]

Holy crap, that's a load of replies  And they seem very good, too . Thank you, thank you

Tactics - I suppose I'll have to re-think my battles now that there's so many things I can do. Good micro for hotkeys seems ideal, too.

Here's some more questions, while I have your interest:

7 - Does it matter in what order I have my units in the party menu? I'm assuming the top ones will be first in formation.

8 - Should I invest in the Training skill? Or does that depend on my character build? (ie a leader-type).

 

[DanAngleland]

8 - Should I invest in the Training skill? Or does that depend on my character build? (ie a leader-type).

It is good to have the trainer skill, you will automatically give experience to your troops at the end of each day. It is useful to have compnaions with trainer skill as well, because their skill adds onto yours in terms of the daily experience gained. It makes training up recruits quicker.

 

[Yoshi Murasaki]

7 - Does it matter in what order I have my units in the party menu? I'm assuming the top ones will be first in formation.

That, but more important: it's the order of appearing in battle.

Example: you are about to enter Bandit Hideout, or have low Battlesize. So 5 of the troops that will participate with you in the battle will be top 5 on the list.


As for Trainer skill, you can avoid it. Actually, if you're not going to invest in IQ I would avoid it. In some cases you can let your companions have it. Keep in mind that you will ONLY train those troops that are lower level than you (or companion). So it really depends, I use it sometimes and sometimes not.

 

[Zues]

I have to correct the incorrect answers you got.

Party skills DO STACK.

If you take Deshavi and she has 3 Pathfinding, and you have 2 Pathfinding, it will stack like this:  3+1 = 4 Pathfinding.

However, if you have higher party skill than your companion, I don't see stacking at least in Warband. Not sure if this is how it's supposed to be, since this link is a bit misleading on that:
http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Mount%26Blade/Skills



So, for example:

1. Your companion has 3 Pathfinding and you have 2 = TOTAL 4
2. Your companion has 2 and you have 3 = TOTAL 3
3. Your companion has 3 and you have 3 = TOTAL 4

A bit weird. If someone can check #2 in original game it would be nice.

Technically this is not stacking. If it were stacking, if you and your companion each had 3 in a skill, the party skill would be 6. If you have the same skills as your companion, you provide bonuses. As per the table on the wiki...

Points Bonus
0-1 pts (+0)
2-4         (+1)
5-7         (+2)
8-9         (+3)
10+         (+4)

So say you have Borcha, and his Spotting is at 4. You also have spotting, but it is only at 2. Therefore the party bonus would be 5, as you get a +1 bonus to it. If you and Borcha both had 8 in spotting, the party bonus would be 11.

 

[Yoshi Murasaki]

Exactly. That's why I posted a link so they can see better. I call that stacking (just not direct one), but am not going to debate semantics here.


As for Spotting 11, is it possible to have that? I mean, doesn't it cap at 10? So let's say I have Leadership 10 and read a book. I would not be able to have 11, or I would? I'm asking because when I did char export once, it didn't want to accept values higher than 10, but my memory could be wrong.

 

[Tuckles]

Example: you are about to enter Bandit Hideout, or have low Battlesize. So 5 of the troops that will participate with you in the battle will be top 5 on the list.

This isn't true by my experience. I had tier 2 troops on the top of the stack, about 3 of each, and about 4 tier 1 troops on the bottom. When attacking the hideout, I had more tier 1 troops in the battle than tier 2. The recruits were slaughtered by looters. It was pretty sad.

EDIT: Fixed quote fail.

 

[Zues]

I believe with bonuses you can get a skill past 10 or if you have a book.

 

[androsh]

So I'm back with more questions! Hopefully you helpful folks can assist me once more

- What happens if I tell my followers that I want to become King, and they leave to spread the word? What are the consequences? What should I do beforehand?

- Is there a point to having Ironflesh? Really, +2 hp doesn't sound like a lot, even at high skill levels. 

- How long will it take for my kingdom's leader to be released from captivity? Sanjar Khan has been prisoner of the Swadians for almost a month, and I've a quest to report to him

- Is it actually possible to play a character that's based on 2-handed weapons? How do you deal with archers?

- I've heard of "chamber locking" or something like that, an advanced combat move, but I'm not sure what it means? 

 

[Kleidophoros]

I am not playin SP yet so i am ot gonna answer questions about teh campaign.

- You take a shield with you to deal with archers. Switch to shield to close in on em and then switch to 2hander when you are near em.

- Its chamber blocking. You need to attack at the opposite direction of your enemy some 50 ms after the attacked you. If he is doing a left to right swing you need to do a right to left swing right after he releases his attack. Try it on bots.

 

[androsh]

I am not playin SP yet so i am ot gonna answer questions about teh campaign.

- You take a shield with you to deal with archers. Switch to shield to close in on em and then switch to 2hander when you are near em.

- Its chamber blocking. You need to attack at the opposite direction of your enemy some 50 ms after the attacked you. If he is doing a left to right swing you need to do a right to left swing right after he releases his attack. Try it on bots.

Cool, thanks for the replies

 

[Lachned]

Horses in my inventory make my party go faster?
How big is that impact?

 

[Ischenous]

I've found a good trade route that is quick is buy iron and sometimes tools at Rayvadin and sell at Wercheg, then buy salt and seel it at Rayvadin

 

[Kleidophoros]

Horses in my inventory make my party go faster?
How big is that impact?

Yes.
I don't know the exact formula but some 4-5 horses will give around 1 speed i suppose.