Noble Troop Availability

[Phalnax811]

Is it me or just RNG but it seems like the noble troops (i.e. Vlandian Squires/Gallants) are pretty rare? Too rare in my opinion.

I traveled all of Vlandia and only found 1 village that had them to recruit. There were other Powerful Notables but they offered other troops instead.

I've really only stayed in the early game, just exploring and sandboxing it up but it would be nice if you could recruit Noble Troops from Towns and/or castles too.

(I might be having a brain fart, not sure if they're actually called Noble Troops or not)

 

[Lord Irontoe]

There's a mod that adds icons to the settlement banners so you can see from a distance if there are potential noble troops, available quests or tournaments. https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/429

The villages with noble recruits won't have them every time you visit though. I'm not sure how they actually generate the nobles, but they seem to have regular recruits half the time.

 

[Owen Wulfson]

For one Khuzait run, I tried recruiting their noble units but was barely able to find any. I think I got 8 in total before I gave up. It seems random as to who can get them and when, which means that bothering with such units is normally not worth it for larger army compositions.

The way units level is in blocks - if you have 50 basic recruits then every time they make a kill, in tactics or real-time battle, the whole group gets experience. If you start leveling each recruit individually, then in tactic battles those higher tier units will get more kills. It's thus easier to throw those 50 peasants at looter parties in tactics until they are ready to all level. Rinse and repeat until you have an entire high tier army in 1/4 the time it would take to get there if you had leveled each unit one at a time. Thus, the game rewards having large blocks of single unit sets rather than small groups of them in your army. I imagine this will change somewhat if Taleworlds makes looters a bit more lethal, but it would still be worth it just to get large amounts of basic recruits to at least Tier 2.

Meaning, the inability to reliably acquire noble youths severely hampers your ability to make them a cohesive part of your army. Save for the Battanian youths, this means that almost no noble unit in the game is worth the hassle.

 

[Beau Vine]

What's your local rep? Was there any stretch of war-free period for that region?

At 20+ I find them pretty consistently at the moment. Sidenote - I've had a similarly noble-rich streak before, and at a stage when I had 0-6 rep with most nobles there (first steppe horse run), so this might be dependant on how often they're snatched by other lords instead, as long as you have access to 2nd spot troops. It was a stage when trading goods prices were close to defaul.

But In calmer period I find them in spots 2-3, whereas if that village is pruned of recruits often - all 5 spots can be populated by recruit troops.

IF my assumptions are correct, you'd find them more often in countries that are not at war (annoying to check ATM), or villages that are out of the way compared to where the fight is.

 

[hruza]

They are rare, but then they should be. You shouldn't be able to create army out of them. You also need to improve relations with notables to unlock more. Only some, if any will offer them in slot one. if you find somebody that you know offers them, try to rise relations with him.

Also in my experience what troops are being offered is bit random. Slots doesn't seems to be fixed. So one day you may be able to recruit from the same slot unit X and another day something else.

Btw, if you want large amounts of "noble" line troops, rise your leadership and there is the perk that allows you to upgrade bandits in to high tier noble troops. It's bit gamebreaking however if you abuse it too much.

 

[hruza]

The way units level is in blocks - if you have 50 basic recruits then every time they make a kill, in tactics or real-time battle, the whole group gets experience. If you start leveling each recruit individually, then in tactic battles those higher tier units will get more kills. It's thus easier to throw those 50 peasants at looter parties in tactics until they are ready to all level. Rinse and repeat until you have an entire high tier army in 1/4 the time it would take to get there if you had leveled each unit one at a time. Thus, the game rewards having large blocks of single unit sets rather than small groups of them in your army. I imagine this will change somewhat if Taleworlds makes looters a bit more lethal, but it would still be worth it just to get large amounts of basic recruits to at least Tier 2.

That's bit misleading. Leveling troops by batches does not speed up process at all, because every soldier receives XP. When you upgrade just one soldier, he will begin receiving XP for the next level. And XP needed to level one soldiers is fixed. What leveling by batches does is it helps to speed up time needed to level that whole group to the next level. But it won't make that whole group level faster overall. Exception is the last level, because when you upgrade one soldier to max level, he will stop receiving XP, so you may want to level whole batch.

Moreover when you level somebody, he is more likely to survive. If you loose soldier that is at last level 2, you will loose all the XP you needed for his upgrade.

So it's not as clear cut as people suggest. Personally I am leveling recruits in batches, because it helps get them to the next level where they are becoming somehow effective in battle faster. And if I loose some of them, no big deal since they did not gain any experience yet (unless you loose whole bunch of them short before leveling whole group). But after first level, it's really situational and depends on what you want to achieve.

 

[Owen Wulfson]

Consider that higher tier units get more kills, which detracts from the the exp of lesser army tiers. Looters in auto-resolve battles don't kill anyone (it's a bit of an exploit atm), meaning that every looter party is a resounding exp gain for the whole army. However, if you have a cadre of top level units they will get kills and no exp - resulting in a loss. They will in fact get so many kills that it drags out how many looter bands you need to kill to ensure your lower tier units are fully upgraded.

Let's say that Taleworlds makes it so looters do kill in auto battles, then the tactic would just change. Throw basic Tier 1 Recruits in autoresolve against looters and once a large enough portion levels up then upgrade them and do real-time battles with looters. Even in battle, individual units do not get exp - rather the group does, contributing to the level-up of the next unit.

 

[hruza]

Looters in auto-resolve battles don't kill anyone (it's a bit of an exploit atm)

Not anymore, they fixed it in the last patch. Now you will get casualties in autoresolve bandits too.

 

[Owen Wulfson]

Alright, about time they got around to it. Again, as I re-stated above, the tactics now change. It will be better with ranged unit blocks like that crossbow army I was planning since they can destroy looter groups long before any casualties are taken even at the lower tier range.

 

[Beau Vine]

Moreover when you level somebody, he is more likely to survive. If you loose soldier that is at last level 2, you will loose all the XP you needed for his upgrade.

I just leave some margin of error for Sea Rider scenarios - from what I've seen the specific upgradeable soldier will never die as far as roster is concerned, if non-upgradable sacrifice is at hand.
And then if a huge battle or a siege is afoot, I presume you want to have the batch upgraded. One possible exception for Mamelukes before a siege in early game, but I just never sell horses and always buy all the horses, so the starter horses I consider as no-cost, and will gladly take the armour and shield bump there.

 

[NWCtim]

Noble line troops are easier to find when the village isn't getting recruited out of regularly. I think the way it works is that empty recruitment slots periodically get filled with tier 1 recruits, then if those recruits sit there long enough, they will upgrade to a tier 2 unit, then a tier 3 and so on. Some notables will turn those tier 1 units into noble line tier 2 units (since the noble line has no tier 1 units), so once you figure out which notables produce noble units, you still have to wait for the initial batch of tier 1 recruits to be upgraded into tier 2 nobles (and hope that no one else comes along to grab them first).

This does (potentially unnecessarily) add to their rarity, along with the randomness of having enough notables of a single culture producing noble units to begin with.

 

[Maximum997]

There is a mod for Warband. And there reqruitmant system was awesome.

There was 3 types of recruits
1) Pesant from villages and towns. You can upgrade them only to a decent warriors with kinda ok armor
2) Professinal warriors from castles. You can recruit them from castles, but owner should be your friend
3) Elite warriors(noble havy cav). You can reqruit them only from your own castle as a lord.

It was really good becouse
1) Balance the players army. It was almost impossible to get full elite army
2) Relashionship with lords does something.
3) You have real reason to get more castles. They didnt give you any profit, but you still want them.

 

[hruza]

I just leave some margin of error for Sea Rider scenarios - from what I've seen the specific upgradeable soldier will never die as far as roster is concerned, if non-upgradable sacrifice is at hand.

That's not what I meant. What I meant is that if you loose soldier that is more then level 1, you will loose all the XP that you have already invested in to upgrading him.

 

[Tuco]

Noble line troops are easier to find when the village isn't getting recruited out of regularly. I think the way it works is that empty recruitment slots periodically get filled with tier 1 recruits, then if those recruits sit there long enough, they will upgrade to a tier 2 unit, then a tier 3 and so on. Some notables will turn those tier 1 units into noble line tier 2 units (since the noble line has no tier 1 units), so once you figure out which notables produce noble units, you still have to wait for the initial batch of tier 1 recruits to be upgraded into tier 2 nobles (and hope that no one else comes along to grab them first).

This does (potentially unnecessarily) add to their rarity, along with the randomness of having enough notables of a single culture producing noble units to begin with.

Anyone able to corroborate this? Trying to decide whether it's better to recruit all a noble-generating notable's troops or if I should let them sit.

Also anyone know if the prosperity of a village impacts the quality of troops they produce for recruitment?

 

[MakinTorf]

i started the game now the third time, because in the beginning the domination of one faction and second, because i executed lords and the relationship to some villages also decreased a lot.

now i just began and wanted to find some battanian fians. in the early stage i got none. even the khuzait nobles were really rare. i got only 2.

so now is my guess that you get nobles easier and faster, if the slots get all clear and reproduce the recruits. as more as they have to reproduce, the more chance the villages have to produce nobles.

tomorrow i will recruit every soldier and release them if my party is to big. i will see how it works and will share my experience with this tactic

 

[MakinTorf]

ok, nope there is no difference when you recruit everyone.

its just totally random imo

 

[hruza]

ok, nope there is no difference when you recruit everyone.

its just totally random imo

Noble line troops are offered only by some notables. It might or might not be tied to "influence" rating of the notable, as I saw noble troops been offered only by the very influential notables. If it is tied to the influence, then certain notables might start offer noble troops over time and some other might stop.

In any case, if you want to recruit more noble troops, check which notables offer them, write it down and then try to raise relations with them to unlock more slots.

Or raise your leadership and get Disciplinarian perk. It will let you upgrade bandits in to noble troops. Forest bandits for example upgrade to Batanian noble line.

 

[Arzak]

Most of the highborn that fight for me have been freed from opposing armies.

Sure wish I had that Disiplinarian perk, hate to see one get away.

 

[MakinTorf]

i want to be independent and only a mercenary, so i cant get influence or get my leadership high. only with high morale, whats about 70+ morale
yeah to boost relationship was also my plan.

 

[Senkaze]

Noble troops is not RNG though
On the way i'm playing, i find out that the noble troops will spawn at the village which in stable stage for along time and has attest has 1 powerful influential npc there.

So by make sure your village is stable, not being raid, clear the looter and bandit around the village (prevent them looting travelling farmer). Also improve the power of npc (to powerful - 200+)l by complete quest (and keep the village safe). then soon or later that village will spawn noble troops
There is also possible the keep the village not stave (by selling them a lot of food when see the in ruined stage) and mining village also archive this faster (since iron and silver is high value)

For example, during my play through, at the begin in can find some noble troops spawn weekly and at some rich village round Jaculan and Galen and Vostrum. But since the Vlandia keep expand to the east the west coast area become infest with sea aider and there village is ruined, spawn nothing but normal recruit. While the village around Vostrum being ping pong between 3 faction and keep being raided. Funny enough Battania village around Pen Cannoc and Marunath spawn a lot of noble recruit since the Battania fall very early, it become center of Vlandia make it has a lot lord patrolling around, and since the village always in stable condition since then, there is a lot of powerful npc there . I get more than 200 Fian for just trading and clear hideout the quest round there. After i get my first town Epicrotea (capture them from north empire also they last town), i keep the area around it clean as possible, also since war front between 3 faction (i'm random neutral clan there) , there are a lot of lord patrol around it. Gradually all village become stable and spawn the noble recruit.