Tactical decisions..

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Kullervo

Sergeant
Hola. Playing PoP 2.0 like the rest of you and I feel stumped, I overthink things too much. Leading to these questions.

1. I've hit about 50 troops which are all mid-high level and I'm not sure how to fight or what to do(Been mostly killing Jatu, Snake Cult and Renegades)I'm thinking of becoming a vassal but I'm not sure who it would be best to serve. I dont see myself taking a town/castle yet since some of them are Garrisoned with 200 odd troops. How is it even possible to get that many troops myself?

2. If you had to guess where do you think would be the best place to set up a Kingdom in PoP?
I'm thinking the castle at the far west of rav. Mystron or whatever it's called.
 
After some time playing you should get a lot of renown which=more troops. High charisma and leadership skill are basicly what you need.
To take a castle or a town you usually need a good archer force (enough archers to cover your infantry going up the ladder). You are expected to figure out what works out best for you. I personaly get a lot of archers and use a bow or xbow and gather my troops in a position where they can't be hit (at leat not that often), take out the most dangerous/annoying enemy archers and then reposition my troops so they have clear line of fire and let them take out the remaining enemies and just before everyone runs out of arrows/bolts I order charge (or if there are still too many enemies retreat and repeat the process).
 
1 - Leadership, charisma and renown all play a role in party size increasing.  If you can, fight larger parties than your own (not recommended against knights).  This will slowly boost your party size due to the renown increases.  However, even with those increased, I wouldn't expect to match your enemies numbers.
      -My favorite tactic when fighting a superior defensive force is to attack with only a few high-end troops.  The defenders will likely sally forth to attack, so I can fight them in the open.  If I can win that engagement, their garrison will generally be reduced by 20-40%.  Then I can attack the castle with larger numbers.  Of course it helps to have recruitment options nearby (or a garrison, making this not as good a First Castle tactic), and a lot of heavy infantry to handle the sally and withstand arrows for the final attack.
                      -This tactic is riskier when the castle requires a siege tower, particularly in PoP.
      -You can always just to do the classic "wait until someone has just taken the castle, lowering its garrison, then let them patrol out of range" maneuver.  Again, not easy if the castle requires a siege tower.

2 - I prefer starting in the corner of the territory of a nation that has other multiple enemies.  Divide and conquer from the inside, so long as they are fighting a war on the outside.

 
I don't know why, but I almost always start with shieldstorm castle.  I just like it.

A good choice for taking with an archer force is Ansen Lodge.  Flat, open ground, lots of crenelations, you can basically sweep the walls clean.

-Misguided
 
Yep, I'm at that pre-castle plateau myself.
Got decent gear, 60+troops, all the companions kitted out pretty good, knights and mid to high tier archers.
Winning battles against anything up to 150 troops.
But every enemy castle I look at has 200+ garrisons and usually a 150+ lord party.
I guess I'll just have to swallow the fact that a lot of my troops are going to die, and get on with it.
 
tommyboy said:
Yep, I'm at that pre-castle plateau myself.
Got decent gear, 60+troops, all the companions kitted out pretty good, knights and mid to high tier archers.
Winning battles against anything up to 150 troops.
But every enemy castle I look at has 200+ garrisons and usually a 150+ lord party.
I guess I'll just have to swallow the fact that a lot of my troops are going to die, and get on with it.
Just wait till the lord goes on vacation, it happens often enough. They are a bunch of lazy so and so's
 
tommyboy said:
Yep, I'm at that pre-castle plateau myself.
Got decent gear, 60+troops, all the companions kitted out pretty good, knights and mid to high tier archers.
Winning battles against anything up to 150 troops.
But every enemy castle I look at has 200+ garrisons and usually a 150+ lord party.
I guess I'll just have to swallow the fact that a lot of my troops are going to die, and get on with it.

Keep in mind, if you've got a companion with high surgery you won't necessarily lose as many as you think.  If you don't have anyone with a relatively high surgery skill, might I recommend you get one ASAP :!:  PoP 2.0 is bad enough, if for nothing else...do it for the fodder...damnit man, give those farmers and peasant women a chance  :shock:  MEDIC!
 
I tend to level ansen and make him my healer.  He doesn't conflict with half the knight companions, and starting at level one gives me tons of options with him.  (Leslie too, although she usually becomes my engineer.)

-Misguided
 
tommyboy said:
Yep, I'm at that pre-castle plateau myself.
Got decent gear, 60+troops, all the companions kitted out pretty good, knights and mid to high tier archers.
Winning battles against anything up to 150 troops.
But every enemy castle I look at has 200+ garrisons and usually a 150+ lord party.
I guess I'll just have to swallow the fact that a lot of my troops are going to die, and get on with it.

I'll crosspost what I did earlier tonight: Keep an eye on which towns and castles are under siege. If the new faction succeeds, snap it up while they still have a very small garrison.
 
Ask around among the lords and see whose army is strongest or weakest, at war with the most factions, etc. Or fight with whoever has the style you like best, or against whoever has the loot you most want.
 
Pick your faction wisely - one at war with its neighbour is easy - if its at war with two its becoming really hard. I´ve had that once going for Ravenstern beeing at war with both Sarleon and Fierdsvain. All you do is fending off King and Marshall war parites. And if you notice, Fierdsvain Lords use to have significant more reknown than the other Lords and thus huge armies compared to their fellow nobles. So messing with them and someone else isn´t fun at all.

Less fun is, however if Ravenstern is at war with the Empire and D´Shar on the opposite map. Which it did annoyingly often in my last few testruns and - how could it be else - this game again.
 
noosers said:
Pick your faction wisely - one at war with its neighbour is easy - if its at war with two its becoming really hard. I´ve had that once going for Ravenstern beeing at war with both Sarleon and Fierdsvain. All you do is fending off King and Marshall war parites. And if you notice, Fierdsvain Lords use to have significant more reknown than the other Lords and thus huge armies compared to their fellow nobles. So messing with them and someone else isn´t fun at all.

Less fun is, however if Ravenstern is at war with the Empire and D´Shar on the opposite map. Which it did annoyingly often in my last few testruns and - how could it be else - this game again.

I feel with you... joinded Ravenstern while it is in war with Fierdsvain... one week later they are also in war with the D´Shar...
of course stupid AI was thinking it is a nice idea to attack D´Shar...of course they took the shortest way... outsch again^^.
 
Having chosen the harder path of resurrecting the old pendor kingdom ive have to seriously work the tactics. My advice for anyone considering this path is too try and maintain good relationships with every faction to start with. Without the back up of a friendly faction your small force can easily overrun, a problem thats all too often left me captured and dragged around.
Taking castles can often be made much easier if you have alot of archers. When attacking simply hold them all back and let them slaughter the men on the walls. When they run out of arrows just retreat, reseige, and repeat. Defender will very rarely attempt too leave the castle any you can usually take care of the one that do by yourself.

In terms of taking your first fief i found it very useful to take either shieldstorm, whitestag or valorshield castles and become very good friends with the noldor. Those ever helpful wood folk will neatly cover your back, patrol your borders and engage any lord silly enough to attempt a seige. Additionally they are always getting into fights which you can jump in on for some easy booty and honour.

In terms of companions you can't go past Diev Wodenssen for pinpoint defense and Kaverra with her manopener makes great cavalry once you teach her a bit and Sir Roland was my choice of knight simply for the fact that all 3 of these get on rather well. Also you'll nab yourself a very nice set of gold cobalt armour.

If your looking to upgrade some honour units ive found the better choices to be the Shadow Legion, silvermist rangers and knights of the dawn. Ebony Guantlets i didnt find all that great and the rangers of the clarion call dont seem the be the best shots on horseback.

Once you have your army it's a very big decision as to who your willing to fight. This will mostly depend on your choice of units. The cavalry focused should try the D'shar simply for their physical weakness/ lack of heavy armour cav. Infantry do well against the Sarleons and Archers can do well against the Empire if backed up with a few heavy infantry.

Hope this helps anyone.
 
W00P I did it. Took Shieldstorm Castle and then was attacked by 100 Empire Soldiers afterwards uggh. Its like all that work and its not over yet. I beat them though. I have helped the Noldor out in the past so they seemt o have took a shine to my borders attacking anyone stupid enough to get near.

I was'nt sure what culture to pick so I just choose Pendor. What about you guys?
 
I don't really see myself choosing anything but Pendor.  Most of the Knighthood Orders need Pendor troops.  And that's where the fun is!

Plus, what would my game be without Silvermist?  Hmmmmm?  Yeah, that's what I thought. :grin:

-Misguided
 
Trying to take my first castle now (BTW I'm new here but I've been lurking in the MnB forums for over 2 years now :p)

I'm doing the attack castle-clear with archers-retreat-repeat cycle and so far I've reduced the garrison from 300+ to about 150. Still not very confident to attack though (I'm doing this with 20 Rav Rangers, 10 Pendor Knights, 5 Ravenstern Knights and a bunch of wardens, Pendor squires at arms, etc).

Little tip: Since the morale of the party drops from doing this over and over, it's a good thing to lift the seige once in a while and bang on a couple of brigand parties running around to lift the mens' spirits. Then go back to the castle and do it all again 'til it falls. :smile:
 
Another tip, people often forget that they can talk to the castle commandant to make him give up.

When you got the troops in the castle shot down far enough this can avoid painful losses you would suffer from the meleefight of an ambush.

Specially when you try to take the first castle this is very helpfull.

 
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