I first seen M&B listed on Steam last week. This has been the best game deal ever, very addicting game, it's a lot of fun to play. I've started two games and both have been very different experiences.
My current game was rather unexpectedly surprising.... I kept mainly to being neutral and running around trading from time to time, and began hunting down both mountain bandits and sea raiders. amassing 230+ of (renown? cant remember) at level 12, I finally asked a Nord Castle Lord if I could do a task (my first in this game) The King suddenly sent me a message and granted me a fief to join him. My band of travellers included a pure nord cavalry group of 16 (+4NPCs). With fief, I buckled down and expanded my unit to 33 cavalry (all much 25th lvl). I decided to voluntarily help out in the Nord war against the Swad's. I joined a huge lopsided battle (Swad's were kickin butt) and rescued 3 Nord Lords from capture, (and meanwhile incurring a fellow Nord lords wrath by voting for another Lord for Marshall) now I'm building up my village... wee-fun, now I'm lvl 17.
My other game was a struggle with being captured right off the bat, by raiders, and then playing the arena (until I was level 15, lol).
I guess being the first game I played I was more reclusive from my experience in being enslaved.
The battles are always different, a little of this and that, really mixes it up, enjoyed my first siege experience last night too.
The one thing that perhaps I would like to see, and I don't think its really a big deal, however experience with the game helps... is actually identifying who is who on the battlefield. I was wondering if big RED letters over the enemy would work, but at the same time, it seems it would take-away from what an actual chaotic battle looks like.
However sometimes its irritating finding the last enemy, however the AI's seem to have no problem... I end up following the crowd like an outdoor public shinny-hockey game. lol, if anyone has experienced that, its like the trail of guys locked onto the puck slapping away.... everyone go here (hack, hack, hack...) everyone go there (hack, hack, hack...).
Great game so far, can't wait to see how things further improve with the updates.
Thanks for the FAQ! it helped explain a lot!
Edit: BTW playing on an olde Athlon 64 3200+ processor 2.0Ghz with 2 gig 3200 DDR and ATI 1600pro card, everything on Native max-army size and highest settings, works great!
