Unpopular play style: Vengeful merc

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After having 3 playthroughs ruined by khuzaits. I decided to opt for a new play style-the vengeful merc.

In the past, I have always stuck to 1 kingdom only, become their vassal and carry on from there. I've played as Vlandian, Sturgian and Imperial vassals, climbed through the ranks, but everytime my faction was close to achieving domination, those damn khuzaits would stand on the other side of the map, sending endless waves and eventually overwhelming us. Although I have already developed battlefield strategies against those horse-****ers, my faction seems to peace out just when I was about to capture more khuzait territories, even though I've already captured more than 20 of their lords, everyone in the council just thought it would be a good idea to release all of those pests for peace. After the khuzaits have built up their strength, they eventually reclaimed their territories and the cycle continues, making the game not fun anymore.

To work around this, I have decided to take on the role of a vengeful mercenary. I would refrain myself from being tied down by one single faction, instead joining whatever faction that is currently at war with the khuzaits. So when my current faction decides to peace out, I'd join another faction the khuzaits are at war with. Everytime a captured a khuzait lord, I'd lock them up deep in well fortified towns, instead of ransoming them off. This play style has made me well hated by some of the khuzait lords. Everytime those horse riding pussies were about to defeat an entire army, me and my 120 elite troops would tip the balance of the battle, capturing and dismantling their military power.

So far, I have amassed 300k alone from selling loot and ransoming high tier troops. I have only 1 workshop and 1 single caravan, since I'm too busy fighting these ****ers. Khuzait territories have been divided by the northern, southern empire and the Sturgians. Their strength has never gone above 4000, as I patrol and help defeat massive khuzait armies. So to anyone who hates those cancerous khuzaits, better deal with them before they metastasize and spread. And remember to buy two handed polearms that can be swung around, such as glaives, voulges and war razors. These, although expensive, will make khuzait killing very easy. And make sure to keep your army composition balanced.
 
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Seems like a cool playstyle for me. It think roleplaying and having a specific target to work towards always helps making a game more fun. And Khuzaits really are cancer. ?
 
Are Khuzaits still dominating your campaigns? I find the map balancing really good since some patches ago, and Khuzaits are not a problem in any of my play thoughts, while they are still strong and able to defend their territory. They are pretty much balanced now in my view.
 
I dig this play style. I do the same against Khuzait and Vlandia. I'll also wait until they're in two wars and committed then as an independent clan I'll go and raid their villages, kill villagers, and snipe caravans. This forces the AI to send parties or armies after you they'd otherwise use for field battles and sieges and lets the other AI kingdoms penetrate into their territories.

+1 on slashing polearms (and two-handed axes) - the AI seems to get confused when you steer a formation of skirmisher cav into HAs and then they slowly break contact at a trot. You can butcher a formation of 70 HAs with half that of light cav/jav cav and then send in your HAs to decimate their weak infantry.
 
I once executed 35 of their lords in one go, never had a more satisfying moment in the game than that. Though they no more seem to form up 3 x 1000 armies at the same time, so... thank you Taleworlds?

Only thing I appreciate about these guys, they don't stand still in a fight and wait for me to come over like other factions. They send their HA up front, get them all killed and charge with the rest to get those killed as well. Very thoughtful.
 
I take Khuzaits down first if I playing as solo clan because I don't want to have to deal with 200 KG parties several years later. Plus by being at war I use thier villages as troop mart with forced recruit. What I used to do is beat them up and save 200k, then take chaikand and make peace, then repeat. One thing I did one game that was fun was after starting war with them and saving up money I instead went and attack Vlandia and took the furthest east town and made peace with vlandia, so I had my base as far away from Khuzaits as possible. They never tried to siege it. Later when I had the perks to hold them in party forever, I took them all prisoners and took a every single fief they had at my leisure, garrison each one with troops I force recruited from them. It was fun to finally let them go and make peace and see them like a swarm of insect attacking other factions but not me.
 
Are Khuzaits still dominating your campaigns? I find the map balancing really good since some patches ago, and Khuzaits are not a problem in any of my play thoughts, while they are still strong and able to defend their territory. They are pretty much balanced now in my view.
I wouldn't say they're dominating, we can thank the new patches for that. However, their armies are still a pain in the ass to deal with. They like to perform feigned retreats with their horse archers, luring your horsemen into their infantry. AI allies seem to not realize that they can use their superior archers to kill off any incoming horse archers and just charge straight into their infantry. This is annoying since my troops often made up 40-60% of all troops. I hope there's a way to order your cavalry to attack the enemies' horse archers specifically. It doesn't really sound that complex either. Yet if I order them to charge the incoming horse archers, some dip****s will go leeroy jenkins and solo charge 100+ infantry. I really wish ordering your troops to attack a specific class of your enemies' troops will be a thing, because once you cripple the khuzaits horse archers, they're just like any other army.
 
I dig this play style. I do the same against Khuzait and Vlandia. I'll also wait until they're in two wars and committed then as an independent clan I'll go and raid their villages, kill villagers, and snipe caravans. This forces the AI to send parties or armies after you they'd otherwise use for field battles and sieges and lets the other AI kingdoms penetrate into their territories.

+1 on slashing polearms (and two-handed axes) - the AI seems to get confused when you steer a formation of skirmisher cav into HAs and then they slowly break contact at a trot. You can butcher a formation of 70 HAs with half that of light cav/jav cav and then send in your HAs to decimate their weak infantry.
1 thing I might add is that polearms are better at kill khuzaits than any other weapon (including two-handed axes), not only do they have a longer reach, but they have 2 main advantages that axes don't, first is the chance to knock any mounted unit off their horse, which renders them useless until they find and get on another horse, this is a perk on the polearms skill tree and is fairly easy to get. Another advantage is the ability to carry a shield together with the polearm. This is important in protecting yourself against arrows and thrown projectiles, as well as enemy couched lances. Instead of switching to another weapon and equipping a shield then, you can quickly equip one when your wielding a two handed polearm. All in all, two handed polearms that can be swung around are the best khuzait killing weapons.
 
In my current game I eliminated all but 1 of the khuzait by day 161, leaving poor little Chagun the sole survivor and ruler.
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I'll be back later to take her head too once I'm ready to inherit the entire map myself and let rebels spawn all over :smile:
I think I check back before though and see what kind of ransom she'll fetch.
 
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