Unconventional character builds.

[Lord Doom]

I play on hardest settings and I'm an avid heavy armour guy. It definately helps being 1-shot torso killed.

 

[Knight of will]

I play on hardest settings and I'm an avid heavy armour guy. It definately helps being 1-shot torso killed.

play a foot soldier and see how many holes you get in your head

 

[Lord Doom]

I play on hardest settings and I'm an avid heavy armour guy. It definately helps being 1-shot torso killed.

play a foot soldier and see how many holes you get in your head

Foot soldiers are for the peasants....and the insane! I commend anyone playing foot for the challenge though.

I played a foot archer in orig M&B and never again:

* You need a larger army (I prefer small, fast moving)
* The above cuts your own, and your NPC's xp
* Battles are SLOW
* Main map travel slow
* Mount & Blade may as well be named "Blade". Eliminating riding eliminates most of the fun IMO....riding just rocks.

This is regarding single player campaign btw.

 

[Knight of will]

I play on hardest settings and I'm an avid heavy armour guy. It definately helps being 1-shot torso killed.

play a foot soldier and see how many holes you get in your head

Foot soldiers are for the peasants....and the insane! I commend anyone playing foot for the challenge though.

I played a foot archer in orig M&B and never again:

* You need a larger army (I prefer small, fast moving)
* The above cuts your own, and your NPC's xp
* Battles are SLOW
* Main map travel slow
* Mount & Blade may as well be named "Blade". Eliminating riding eliminates most of the fun IMO....riding just rocks.

This is regarding single player campaign btw.

Heh, thanks

tommorrow i plan to test to see if it is possible to kick a hussar to death

 

[Lord Doom]

Yeah, I think the original intent of the dev's was to have the grenades in as a little battlefield treat, something you could use if you were losing or if you wanted to quickly take out a number of troops. I don't think they wanted them to be used as if they were a pistol or rifle, and to spam them on enemy troops.

Of course, that's just my two cents, believe what you want to believe.

I missed this post earlier, but yeah I think your right. The fact is if they don't respwan, I doubt many players will bother with grenade throwing at all.

It's similar with the 'throwing' skill in M&B and WB - only hard core players choose it when they want a challenge or a specific build.

The limited range, accuracy and amount (per stack) of throwing weapons really blows.

It's a shame when a certain skill/weapon will go largely unused.

 

[Knight of will]

Yeah, I think the original intent of the dev's was to have the grenades in as a little battlefield treat, something you could use if you were losing or if you wanted to quickly take out a number of troops. I don't think they wanted them to be used as if they were a pistol or rifle, and to spam them on enemy troops.

Of course, that's just my two cents, believe what you want to believe.

I missed this post earlier, but yeah I think your right. The fact is if they don't respwan, I doubt many players will bother with grenade throwing at all.

It's similar with the 'throwing' skill in M&B and WB - only hard core players choose it when they want a challenge or a specific build.

The limited range, accuracy and amount (per stack) of throwing weapons really blows.

It's a shame when a certain skill/weapon will go largely unused.

large grenades are useful when defending during sieges. Can wipe out an entire ladder if you aim it right

 

[DefenderoftheCrown]

Yeah, people are getting hung up on the cost of buying grenades, but eventually, at least in my games, money ceases being an issue.  3,000 here and there is nothing once you're getting money from fiefs and kicking the enemies armies' arses left and right.  I found them VERY effective even with no investment into the stats.  My 52 speed horse could run circles around pikemen/musketeers.  Once they bunch up from getting wacked in the head a few times from my saber, I just threw large grenades in the middle of them.  BAM!  In one throw, like 15-20 men dead.  That's definately worth the meager amount of money invested. 

 

[Skarl]

I personally maxed the grenade skill back when they respawned after the battle, which i took a quick move to exploit it b4 they change it (saw it coming, it was obvious) and afterwards i still find it useful, when you have less than a 100 troops vs 1000 odd in defense of a town, 2 stacks of small grenade's packing enough pounch to knock out most low-mid tier troops in a nice big bang is helpful, doing that 14 times and you got ur self a good way through battle on your own if you aim them right

 

[Lord Doom]

Probably so, I don't know because I use a bow, 2x arrows and lance when defending.

But I still think they've nerfed them too much to justify spending points gren throw. If they repsawned the same as arrows/ammo it'd be ok. At least then you could use 1 salvo at the start of each major field battle.

Another big difference between this and previous games is that players are pretty much forced to have 'some' skill in firearms. Sneaking into cities and certain plot lines depend on it.

Unfortunately you can't hone the rarely-used skills in an arena or training field. In M&B/WB I'd get throwing and crossbows to min 100 simply from tourneys. That way you could pick up any weapon and use it somewhat effectively.

 

[Lord Doom]

I personally maxed the grenade skill back when they respawned after the battle, which i took a quick move to exploit it b4 they change it (saw it coming, it was obvious) and afterwards i still find it useful, when you have less than a 100 troops vs 1000 odd in defense of a town, 2 stacks of small grenade's packing enough pounch to knock out most low-mid tier troops in a nice big bang is helpful, doing that 14 times and you got ur self a good way through battle on your own if you aim them right

I did the same, but the question is would you still max out grenades in your next game? I definitely wouldn't, much prefer to spend the points elsewhere.

 

[TheGrim]

The only problem is that the dev's designed the game sorta AROUND the guns. Because of that, if you design a mounted/unmounted character with high skill in firearms, you can almost always win battles, as you will be able to one shot pretty much any enemy with good accuracy. A muonted/unmounted melee character is gonna have some major trouble until they get good armor, as they can easily get one shotted by enemy musketeers. That's my nitpick with the game, anyways.

 

[Lord Doom]

I agree. Your posts make a lot of sense man, it a bit like "with fire & fire" 

Or at least early game till you can afford good armour as you said. Perhaps enemy firearms shouldn't appear at all until char level 10 or so. Early fights riding slow mules,  cheap armour and almost no weapon skill is very frustrating.

 

[TheGrim]

I agree. Your posts make a lot of sense man, it a bit like "with fire & fire" 

Or at least early game till you can afford good armour as you said. Perhaps enemy firearms shouldn't appear at all until char level 10 or so. Early fights riding slow mules,  cheap armour and almost no weapon skill is very frustrating.

Yeah, when I first played, I tried to do a melee build. I ran into a group of bandits with about 4 recruits with me. It was a battle about 5-12. I figured, if this was anything like Warband, I wouldn't need to use my Carbine, so I immediately rushed towards them with my sword. I was immediately shot off my horse.

So I tried again, a little bit later on. Even when I had more men, I was insta-killed.

I made a different character, focused on guns. Putting all of my points into Shooting on Horseback and Firearms. I have not lost a single fight, even when it was 12-40, with the odds not in my favor. With a firearms build, you can just ride around, shoot your carbine/musket, get a kill, reload, continue to ride, shoot, get a kill, repeat until the end of the battle.

I don't know about restricting enemies from guns until level 10, but instead maybe having it so that not every group of looters/bandits had guns, at least until level 6 or 7, when you actually would stand a chance.

 

[Lord Doom]

Early game was always hard in both M&B games, but at least you could take several ranged attacks (arrows) before meeting your God. Now it's one bullet. Maybe characters should start equipped with a cuirass or pikemans armour?  At least then you can withstand more than one torso hit in early game.

A bit off topic but a plus for the new patch, horses can now take a little more punishment. Replacing spirited thoroughbreds every 3rd battle was becoming annoying. Historically did they still use horse armour in the infancy of firearms? I'm guessing they did, or at least until firearms became the norm.

 

[TheGrim]

Early game was always hard in both M&B games, but at least you could take several ranged attacks (arrows) before meeting your God. Now it's one bullet. Maybe characters should start equipped with a cuirass or pikemans armour?  At least then you can withstand more than one torso hit in early game.

A bit off topic but a plus for the new patch, horses can now take a little more punishment. Replacing spirited thoroughbreds every 3rd battle was becoming annoying. Historically did they still use horse armour in the infancy of firearms? I'm guessing they did, or at least until firearms became the norm.

Yeah, with guns now, it seems that enemies hit your horse more often that they hit you, and it's usually a one-hit as well. It seems only the very highest tier horses can stand more than one or two shots, and they cost thousands upon thousands of thalers to buy.

 

[DefenderoftheCrown]

If you run in circles around enemies with guns, they usually cannot hit you.  I have been playing the early game by earning 5-10 rep each battle by being a one man army and just circling enemies and slicing off their faces with my saber.  I can do this alone with enemies up to about 15 men, and much more than that if it's just looters.  Just never run straight towards gunners.

 

[Saiko Kila]

A bit off topic but a plus for the new patch, horses can now take a little more punishment. Replacing spirited thoroughbreds every 3rd battle was becoming annoying. Historically did they still use horse armour in the infancy of firearms? I'm guessing they did, or at least until firearms became the norm.

Yes, there was horse armor in use during the time depicted in the game. For example hussars had their horses equipped with "breast plate", which was intended to deflect pikes, unless the pikemen were lucky (or very accurate). But in my experience, which is limited to the last patch, horses are rather fragile. I use heavy thoroughbreds, and recently had to purchase a third one, because others are lame in the inventory. I've even lost one horse (troop horse, not thoroughbred) during one battle near village [when battling close to the village, the battlefield can be placed in that village, but enemies will be dismounted for some reason] so 200 cossacsks were aiming at my horses. I was losing my horse during every stage, and in the last one I had it no more - it was killed for good. Also I frequently lose up to three horses per battle, especially against Swedes, who just don't die. I feel like horses are weaker than in Warband. If they were even weaker before the patch, I can see why they've changed that.

On a side note, when fighting against heavier armored enemies (like the Swedes), I started to place accurate-but-non-lethal shoots with my double-barrelled pistol, and Firearms at 300. Since I carry only 18 bullets, I think that a lance is a better investment now, because the lance always kill when placed accurately, and it is not necessary to slow down for aiming.

 

[Thunderbird Anthares]

just to put in my 2 cents for review...
i had more or less the same experiences (except i usually never lose a horse), firearms are the prime and once you get the double-barreled pistol,you`re The Reaper himself, so i usually go with a broadsword,pistol/carbine and 2 bullets... they basically never hit me or the horse if i circle them fast enough and not too close... once it turns into a furball i grab a sword and whack them from behind
however,during sieges,the "oldschool" approach seems the best
once i got my very own handmade gear - black armor etc, the best way to win a siege attack for me is to grab a 2-hander,climb up and start mowing them down like wheat on a harvest... doesnt work exactly bad in defense either
then its like getting Power Armor in Fallout... most hits do 0 damage and my own attacks are lethal,despite the fact that my 2-h skill sucks compared to 1-h or firearms

 

[DefenderoftheCrown]

With my current build, I have 4 points in riding to get fast horse, and am pumping the rest into grenade throwing, power strike, and iron flesh.  I wanted a role play a grenadier style warrior. 

 

[TheGrim]

With my current build, I have 4 points in riding to get fast horse, and am pumping the rest into grenade throwing, power strike, and iron flesh.  I wanted a role play a grenadier style warrior.

You're gonna want to be careful with that, then, because the role of grenadier is a difficult and pricey one, but an extremely devastating one. The grenades will cost you tons if you are constantly fighting, but if you use them right, you can blow holes in walls of infantry, you can wipe out hordes of invaders on sieges, you can blow away enemies and win unfair fights, etc.

Put a couple points into trade if you are making a grenadier. That should help you build up a nice amount of thalers for your grenades!