Preferred/easiest way of fighting

[sheek]

So a lot of people seem to have completely different ways of fighting. How do you fight and what types of fighting (horseback sword/lance/melee/archery) do you find most difficult?

For me it goes:

1/ on foot with a sword and a shield. This is how I usually fight and how I kill the most enemies. I can take on about four bandits at a time like this. Usually have a few throwing weapons I'll aim at horses. I massacre horsemen pretty fast.

2/ on horse with a sword and shield. I usually use this when I'm getting my troops to do the fighting to get their XP up. I'll tell them to dismount and wait then ride around and find the enemy and distract half of them so they follow me so the troops don't have to fight all at once. I'll ride around and slash them up a bit but I don't usually kill very many because I pick a different target on each charge.

3/ on foot with a bow. I stay in the middle of my dismounted and defending troops and pick off people. Don't do very well even though I have a high archery skill. I usually end up switching to a sword and shield quite soon.

What I never use:

-bow and horse. It's impossible to aim (even with riding and archery skill) and I rarely kill more than two before I run out of arrows.

-horse and lance. The crappest weapon in the game. Sometimes I get lucky but most of the time I miss or do **** amount of damage, maximum ten when I'm doing 20-30 with a sword on foot and hitting every few seconds. I usually end up losing my horse like this.

I've never tried the crossbow or two handed swords except in touraments.

 

[slavetrader]

i have tried many styles and just recently started with unmounted crossbow. i find the easiest way of fighting is mounted with a DAMN big two-handed axe or sword. lancing is hard but i think it is the most satisfying way. i just took on a full party of dark hunters alone with my lance and shield. the key is to know when to use the lance. if things get too tight swap to your backup weapon (scimitar).

 

[Jonny2284]

-horse and lance. The crappest weapon in the game. Sometimes I get lucky but most of the time I miss or do **** amount of damage, maximum ten when I'm doing 20-30 with a sword on foot and hitting every few seconds. I usually end up losing my horse like this.

I've never tried the crossbow or two handed swords except in touraments.

The best way to use the lance is couch it on your opening charge, wade through the field with a sword or axe, ride out the other side, turn and repeat.

Personally I like to crossbow 'em down while my troops engage them, picking off any who get too close with the Falchion.

incidentally how did you get a crossbow in a tournament? I thought you only got bows and arrows there and never crossbows.

 

[zaleukos]

Horse and lance is actually the easiest way to fight once you have a coarser or hunter. Both the great and the tournament lance are long enough to make you immune to the annoying footmen with pointy sticks. I use this to level up until I can buy good armour and a good 2H weapon.

2H axe on horseback is neat. Especially against enemy cavalry. A 1H axe or sword works ok as well, but requires you to get up closer than I'd like.

Crossbow on foot is probably the easiest ranged weapon to use. Good stopping power and range, doesnt require power draw, and offers a much steadier aim than the bow.

There are two ways of fighting that I never got used to: Bow on horseback (probably because I never invested in horse archery) and a pointy pole arm on foot. Thrusting isnt my thing at all...

 

[Ilex]

Great lance is the way to go if one wants to go the safe route. Long weapon + shield = ultimate protection.

 

[sheek]

What's a great lance? What's the lance you get in the tournament?

Whoever asked: I haven't used the crossbow in the tournament. I haven't used it at all - sold it with my first character. I've only used the lance in the tournament

 

[Temujin]

I love to fight on horseback with my trusted Khergit bow and 2 stacks of bodkin arrows. and If I didn't finnish off all ennemies when I run ou of arrows, I take out my scimitar

(if you get your horse archery skill to level 6, aiming is pretty easy. and the better your archer proiffency (spelling?) gets, the easier it becomes to aim

 

[Shadow Reaper]

Horse Archery for me is best. And when I run out of my 75 arrows (3 large bags of whatever I can get my hands on) i wade in with my two-handed sword.

Great fun!

 

[sheek]

Horse Archery for me is best. And when I run out of my 75 arrows (3 large bags of whatever I can get my hands on) i wade in with my two-handed sword.

Great fun!

What do you protect yourself with? If the enemy has any missile troops you're going to take a lot of damage without a shield.

 

[Ingolifs]

My beserker guy specializes in foot combat. His gear depends on what he's fighting at the time, but if it's against veterans or bandits or pirates, i have a scimitar and shield, a heavy great axe and a balanced SOW.

I lead my troops to the front of the battle, fall to the side circle around and jump back into the battle wielding my axe like a maniac, claiming a life on every swing.

What i proably hate most is trying to lance people on a slow horse. Even a standard charger is too slow for me.

 

[popotam]

The best defence is attack - you jst shoot at archers first... and while you are riding horse at high speed you are hard to hit...

 

[Temujin]

What do you protect yourself with? If the enemy has any missile troops you're going to take a lot of damage without a shield.

it's not a question directed towards me, but i'd like to answer it annyway sorry for that


speed is my protection, I ride round,and sometimes through the battle, and usually pick out the ranged units first. It's true that ocasionally some do get some hits on you and at that point you are in trouble. but I don't think carrying a shield at the expence of extra arrows is worth it.

my armor scale armor protects me well enough.

 

[Ingolifs]

Scale armour? you don't want to be wearing that. It has all of the weight of a chain mail hauberk, but none of the protection.

 

[Temujin]

but it's cheap

and it suits my steppe cap so nice, I'll compare it's weight with the mail hauberk and then the defence. (I don't want to be a heavyweight soldier)

then I'll see how well the mail hauberk suits my steppe horse khergit bow and steppe cap. if it suits nice I'll use that one

 

[Qwertyest]

Yeah, but the weight of your armour doesn't matter if you're a horseback archer.

 

[Temujin]

yeah but I like to roleplay, and besides sometimes I feel like unmounting my horse, standing still with my scimitar in my hand, and fight annyone foolish enough to come challenge me

 

[Lancer]

yeah but I like to roleplay, and besides sometimes I feel like unmounting my horse, standing still with my scimitar in my hand, and fight annyone foolish enough to come challenge me

I enjoy roleplaying as well, just doing the most expedient, efficient thing soon looses it's appeal for me.

I've experimented with many tactics using several characters, there's a surprising amount of diversity possible. Horse archer/light cavalry is fun, as is a heavy infantry killing machine. I tried a light infantry skirimsher/spearman recently - it was much more difficult and not as fun but the challenge and the necessity of using the enviroment to your advantage was enjoyable.

My favourite is probably my original character, heavy cavalry/lancer. I use both a tourney lance and a great lance depending on the situation, with a longsword and shield as a backup. This works in most situations, but when badly out numbered or injured and the terrain is right, I've taken to ordering my troops to dismount and fighting on foot with a War Sword and crossbow, very effective in the right conditions. And taking on heavy cavalry on foot is both challenging and enjoyable.

Lancer

 

[Peregrine]

I generally fight with sword and bow on horseback. Sure, the accuracy penalties hurt, but I can usually shoot up the foot soldiers nicely before I run out of arrows, especially if I park my horse, shoot, and move on. (But there's also a lot to be said for feeling like a Warrior Of Legend!! when you score killing shots on the run. ) And in my last several games (still playing under the 6-level restriction, mind...), I've consistently ended up with a nomad sabre for my sword. Not only is it a fine weapon for my purposes (especially the watered-steel one I've found twice now), it feels right for a light cavalryman.

 

[Temujin]

yeah that's a good tactic, and it's fun to watch how they come close to you ready to strike, and to just walk a bit further to shoot them in the head. ah the despair that those soldiers must feel.....

so rewarding

 

[sheek]

You know when I have a mounted archer in the tournaments what I do is kill the mounted guys horses as soon as possible. Then I ride up to the guys get them in a bunch ride to one side of the arena and dismount. Shoot until they get really close, mount and ride to the other side.

It's boring but it's the only way I can win.

Does any one else do this?

You still get the horses for speed which IMO is all they're good for.