Playable for Beginners?

[Towerbooks3192]

Love warband and mods closer to the native game.

This fits the bill, however its too brutal and I end up coughing up gold everytime a horde of mercs and bandits chasing me.

Any advice for beginners?

One more thing, are the trade routes unchanged? I mean as far as I have seen buying iron in curaw, spice and salt in Tulga, Silk in Reyvadin are still profitable.

I am hoping this mod gets fixed. I loved Pendor and Floris but I had trouble with trading (dont want to fight until I have a good gear since I usually make a merchant)

 

[krisslanza]

In my experience NE basically requires you to find a way to get enough money to hire some powerful mercenaries from taverns, then you can afford to fight the warbands. Until then though, you're basically out of luck. For getting money I hear tournaments are a good idea. Probably forget about getting any troops until you can win enough to just hire some high-level mercs, then you have a decent chance of winning without having to kite everything to death very carefully and slowly.

NE is a fun mod and all, and this is all my opinion, it just feels like too much fake difficulty. Instead of being kind of rough, and going harder, it just throws you into a sea of sharks that eat your face off right at the get-go. The warbands would be much more manageable in the early game if they were maybe 10 troops at best.

 

[Towerbooks3192]

I know its fun. I think they made trade easier, I mean prices dont decrease much when supply increases. The only thing I hate about tournaments is when I get a lance and javelins. As with bows, I could knife all the other competitors.

Its a great mod and I love it. Its as close to native as possible with great tweaks.

Just a question, The mercs cost a fortune, but could they hold up against the bandits?

Heck my most favorite moment with this mod is when I changed into first person I got head shot by a javelin.

 

[krisslanza]

I know its fun. I think they made trade easier, I mean prices dont decrease much when supply increases. The only thing I hate about tournaments is when I get a lance and javelins. As with bows, I could knife all the other competitors.

Its a great mod and I love it. Its as close to native as possible with great tweaks.

Just a question, The mercs cost a fortune, but could they hold up against the bandits?

Heck my most favorite moment with this mod is when I changed into first person I got head shot by a javelin.

The trading might be because of the latest patch, looking it over, they did some tweaking of it since trading got broken a few patches ago. It might be the mod, not positive.

In my experience the mercs will. Recruiting peasants seems like a waste of time for awhile because you can't easily level them up in combat - at least not without going in with like, 30 or 40 and having almost all of them die and slowly level up the ones that survive.

 

[Towerbooks3192]

I am not sure if it was in this or floris mod but its either of the two. I tried to get trainer to 4 and I remember my troops gets experience each day but in here it doesnt.

I felt its impossible to level peasants into battle hardened vets if trainer doesnt work. I am not sure if they changed the mechanic of how trainer works like I do need to train them and not just ride around and they get daily experience or it boosts the daily experience the troops are getting?

 

[Gulluoglu]

Pretty sure trainer works the same way it always has, it's just not a huge xp bonus at lower skill levels.

 

[krisslanza]

I am not sure if it was in this or floris mod but its either of the two. I tried to get trainer to 4 and I remember my troops gets experience each day but in here it doesnt.

I felt its impossible to level peasants into battle hardened vets if trainer doesnt work. I am not sure if they changed the mechanic of how trainer works like I do need to train them and not just ride around and they get daily experience or it boosts the daily experience the troops are getting?

Did you turn Brutality mode on? That incurs a -4 penalty to Trainer so you need at least level 5 in it for it do anything.

 

[Towerbooks3192]

Brutality? how the heck do I deactivate/activate that one? I think it is probably on by default since I didnt turn anything on/off

 

[krisslanza]

Brutality? how the heck do I deactivate/activate that one? I think it is probably on by default since I didnt turn anything on/off

Once turned on, its on forever. You have to remake the character and tell it to not turn Brutality mode on, and then not turn it on in the Camp menu when you're under level three.

 

[Parfa]

The best thing to do is to hire some mercs from useless sold items in your beginning inventory. With that you can start attacking small parties and upgrading your little party. I found it extremely easy to gain power with Swadia, their top cavalry smokes any army taking limited to no casualties, pretty overpowered.

 

[Rojen]

I find that having a companion based solely on pathfinding, spotting, tracking skills, and one on surgery, first aid and wound treatment helps a lot, troops die less and its much easier to avoid parties if you need to

 

[HunterAlpha1]

I find that having a companion based solely on pathfinding, spotting, tracking skills, and one on surgery, first aid and wound treatment helps a lot, troops die less and its much easier to avoid parties if you need to

yeah, only the companion with the highest level in a party skill(or yourself) is counted.  however, having a secondary NPC with a high level in that skill will provide a bonus to the NPC with the highest skill level.

for example, Deshavi has lvl6 pathfinding, and Nizar has lvl3.  he will give a bonus to Deshavi's pathfinding i think at a ratio of 1/3(every three points in Nizar's pathfinding skill gives a 1 point bonus to Deshavi's). 

so it's still good to have more than one companion with a high level in any given skill.  you especially want multiple Doctor companions because if your only surgeon gets KO'ed your troops will start dieing like flies.

 

[original]

Yes I find that in the beginning, it is really difficult. Normally in the beginning I level by taking on looters with some villagers. But I can't in this mod because the bandits and warbands are at least 20+, and the villagers that I recruit will fall like wet noodles against them.

The only starting play seems to be to level your character as high as possible, along with companions. You'll need money to level up, either by doing quests for villages or to recruit mercenaries to fight those bandits.
Then, once you are level 11 or so, recruit villagers and use the trainer skill to train your villagers slowly. You should get nice crossbowmen this way who have cheap upkeep compared to the mercenaries. Then you should be strong enough to tackle the bandits.

For people who play with brutality on, where you get -4 to trainer skill, and 0 surgery skill, I have no idea how you do it.

 

[HunterAlpha1]

Yes I find that in the beginning, it is really difficult. Normally in the beginning I level by taking on looters with some villagers. But I can't in this mod because the bandits and warbands are at least 20+, and the villagers that I recruit will fall like wet noodles against them.

The only starting play seems to be to level your character as high as possible, along with companions. You'll need money to level up, either by doing quests for villages or to recruit mercenaries to fight those bandits.
Then, once you are level 11 or so, recruit villagers and use the trainer skill to train your villagers slowly. You should get nice crossbowmen this way who have cheap upkeep compared to the mercenaries. Then you should be strong enough to tackle the bandits.

For people who play with brutality on, where you get -4 to trainer skill, and 0 surgery skill, I have no idea how you do it.

Spoiler

they cheat

 

[brzi]

I started playing in swadia, recruited ~25 villagers (if i recruited more i would be too slow and the merc warbands would catch me easily), trained them to proselytes on the training field and attacked some forrest bandits (they attacked me, actually). Since proselytes have crosbows and forrest bandits have no ranged weapons and no shields it's easy as long as the bandits don't reach my troops. A forrest bandit is worth 156 exp, btw.

The first time i played i made the mistake of upgrading proselytes to infantry - infantries have no ranged weapons and they are weaker than forrest bandits so they got owned. On my second try i only upgraded half of my proselytes to infantry. The other half i didn't upgrade because i needed some troops with ranged weapons. When the infantry half was upgraded to pages (cavalry) i upgraded the proselytes to infantry and then to pages (and squires and senior squires).

An army of 50 senior squires can easily take on the merc warbands and sea raiders and they produce great loot. Btw, I'm playing at ~115% difficulty.

 

[Temudzhin]

Just started playing this mod (24 days in-game) and I'm already rolling in cash and have 60 people in my party.

At first I didn't hire anyone. Alone, you are much faster than any warband so all you have to do is keep an eye out and avoid them. I travelled the cities, asked in arenas where the next tournament is being held (and avoided Khergite cities since their tournaments usually require high archery skills and that takes time; Swadian tournaments are also a pain in the behind because they are mostly jousting matches and the last fight one-on-one is usually frustrating). Before I went on a tournament spree I spent a few days training my sword skills in melees. After that, betting on yourself for minor cash gets lots more cash.

The armor you get at the beginning is good enough as it is. I only bought a helmet and a better horse, I think. Bought the best weapons I could, just in case I have some bandits to take care of.

After 5 tournaments or so I was ready to hire some men. So I raided all the taverns in the area, took some levies from farms for a nice mixed party, then took the Merchant's quest which was too easy at this point, then started taking quests from lords and such.

The only thing that disappoints me at this moment is trade. Compared to the winnings in tournaments, trade is simply not worth the effort. I remember getting rich in Vanilla from trading spices but I haven't dared going to Khergite territory just yet.

Question #1: is the profit from trading dependant on my trade skill?
Question #2: if I am taken by bandits, do I lose my equipment and cash or just my equipment?

 

[Argeus the Paladin]

Nobody remembers the age-old, tried-and-true "Solo shieldless, horseless, bowless, polearmless Scarred Bandits with your starting crossbow?" starting-out method for NE? This is... unexpected. 

 

[gabriot]

I don't know about you guys but after playing PoP and Brytenwalda this mod seems like easy mode in comparison.  I like the difficulty balance in this mod, it's not overboard ****ing ridiculous like the former 2 mods, but still presents a challenge.

 

[soulmata]

Nobody remembers the age-old, tried-and-true "Solo shieldless, horseless, bowless, polearmless Scarred Bandits with your starting crossbow?" starting-out method for NE? This is... unexpected. 

They've got missile weapons now, and a small chance to have a horse.

 

[aaron70]

Training ground for me
Never use tournaments...hate them.

I tend to start a brewery whenever I can