What am I doing wrong?

[edbzoso]

Played Vanilla, no challenge on high difficulty.  Trying Floris, new toon, 16 companions, 55 total troops mostly low level vs 30 mountain bandits on easiest damage to me and mine and poor combat settings, get absolutely slaughtered.  Every single mountain bandit has a crossbow with a laser sight and unlimited ammo.  Not fun.

Accept mountain bandit hideout quest, easiet damage, poor combat AI, me and my few guys have to fight like 50 of the aforementioned ninja bandits, last about 3 minutes.  WTF?

 

[Windyplains]

The bandits fight like they're on PCP at the moment.  Thankfully many are seeking rehabilitation in a future patch.

 

[MilosM]

The bandits are a force to be reckoned with.But I find forest bandits to be more difficult to defeat than mountain bandits.While steppe bandits along with those black khergit horsemans are something that I am trying to avoid.

 

[Songyu]

The ranged bandits are really hard sometimes, especially in the beginning, after you get
enough cavalry only the larger groups mass of units can still be a problem.

Well, the tactic that worked for me so far is to have a lot of archers/crossbowmen, put them
on some high ground behind or around your spawn area (the bandits will always charge at you)
and use volley fire when the bandits are in range. That is one hell of an awesome feature,
each volley will kill almost everytime a few of them, looks awesome in the messages too!

Anyway, this will pretty much decimate them good enough while your infantry in front can block
their ranged fire. If you have cavalry, put them somewhere on the flanks, that almost always
breaks the bandits 'formation' (or at least they aren't just one bulk of units) and makes it
easier for your units to charge in after you pincushioned them. The best time for the charge is
the moment right before the bandits reach 'their range', meaning they always seem to stop at
a certain distant from your front line (except for their infantry of course).

For the steppe or desert bandits, try to use shieldwall with your infantry (pre battle orders!)
and let them run into it, then charge with them or cavalry. All the while archer behind firing
(thank god they can't teamkill ). Still early one it is just easier to simply avoid those groups for
the time being.

For the bandit lairs, they are really hard sometimes. Try to keep your guys close, going from one
spawnpoint to another or send them to each spawn, clearing one at a time. If you use ranged
yourself, try to pick the rear enemies while your guys battle the near ones. If your guys get
spread out, get them together again, otherwise the newly spawned units just gonna pick them
up one by one.

Otherwise there is always a little luck involved with some of the hideouts. For example the
sea raider ones are easier when most of their first wave spawns on the furthest ship/cave then
the ones nearer to your entry point.

Well, hope that helped a little.

 

[edbzoso]

Thanks for the tactics help, but you need to train up your recruits before you can do that, and you can't train up your recruits when they get slaughtered en masse by anything but looters.  If they only thing I can do for years is attack looters, then, to me, the mod seems completely broken.  Can't do bandit hideout quests, have to run like hell from any of the many bandit groups you see, can't help farmers with bandits in their town, etc etc.  Broken.  I look forward to the patch but I am very disappointed I can't play now since vanilla is boring and this is the only other mod I was really interested in. 

 

[azxcvbnm321]

Large bands of forest bandits and bandits in general are harder than the same number of enemies in AI lord groups due to their bows and mid-tier levels.  Most Lords have a lot of lower level infantry troops.

I was also surprised when my army of 500 (200 in my own group, 300 with 2 other friendly lords) got decimated by 700 forest bandits.  The bows in this mod are unbalanced due to their 99 accuracy and high damage, but mostly the 99 accuracy.  That should be fixed soon. 

I find that the best way to deal with bandits is with a army of mostly or all heavy cavalry.  You need to close range and engage them in melee combat so they don't use their bows.  An archer battle won't work unless you have decent archers which start at tier 3.  Infantry will be slaughtered, they can't run up to the bandits fast enough and always get distracted by lone enemies.  Calvary is really your only hope. 

I would also suggest you look at Prophecy of Pendor if you're looking for a good mod that's more difficult than vanilla.  It'll keep you entertained far far longer throughout the game vs. vanilla.

 

[Torgard]

The bows in this mod are unbalanced due to their 99 accuracy and high damage, but mostly the 99 accuracy.  That should be fixed soon. 

I tend to agree. I changed the ranged weapon damage back to native values and 90 acc in my game of 2.5 and I can beat all kinds of bandits (apart Black khergits lol) just fine, so the ranged weapons definately are a big factor, they are too good in 2.5 in general imho.

In autocalc battles the bandits still seem to fare better then they should be apart from that.

 

[hieronymos]

There are 2 main ways to train your recruits to higher levels: battle experience, and Trainer skill. In the early game rely heavily upon your companions because they do not die. Even if they get totally thrashed, a few days in a tavern will heal them back to 100% health. Develop their Trainer skill as a priority, as the skill stacks party-wide. With the full 17 (now 23) companions with max Trainer skill, you can train up high-tier armies in just days.

Archer-equiped bandit types are vulnerable to cavalry, which can swoop in quickly to hammer and then rout mere footmen. Up until the late-game I lean heavily upon hammer-armed cavalry--Vaegirs, Sarranids, and Sword Sisters all have a line of hammer-armed cavalry + infantry. Hammers knock foes unconscious, so you can capture and ransom them for lots of money. Having a 100% mounted party in the early game is also almost essential to outrun larger bandit parties. Keep 6 horses/donkeys in your inventory to increase mobility, and 1-2 companions develop the Pathfinding skill (increases speed 3% per lvl).

Tactically, you'll need to become familiar with commands, and give them as soon as battle screen opens. Usually you want to get to the top of the nearest hill with your men [0,F1,F2]; and ensure you do so before the bandits are upon you. Then order your troops [0,F1,F1], so that infantry are up front [1,F2,F1], archers behind. When bandits come into range, your archers will start killing them. Eventually, most bandit types will stop at medium range, and start shooting at you; and will start causing you casualties. Thus, this a good time to order a massed charge [0,F1,F3]. Hit the survivors hard. If you take out enough of them, the survivors will break and run.  If you're a bit of a spaz on horseback; consider dismounting to fight on foot, with a good shield to keep arrows off. As long as some of your party is mounted, they can pursue your foes once they rout..so that none escape.

Start out with looters; then work your way up the food chain. Start with small groups, as larger groups that spawn in waves will require other tactics like re-concentrating your troops on the reinforcement wave(s) to achieve local superiority. Or you can camp out with your infantry on their spawn point [1,F1,F2], killing or routing each new wave as it appears; letting your cavalry [3,F1,F3] hunt down the rest.

If you're still getting your ass kicked, lower difficulty settings in Options tab: 1/4 damage to self, 3/4 damage to friends, poor combat AI, slowest combat speed--will all combine to make combat a lot easier. As you start getting hang of it, increase difficulty settings. 

Against mounted bandits different tactics are needed.

Check out this guide I just wrote for early-game Floris v2.5: http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,221859.0.html

 

[pretender]

Ranged bandits are easiest for me.
I play ranged myself
And my freelancers are also ranged.

In my style only black khergit guys are to fear mildly.

Ranged bandits are cannon fodder. I myself kill like 70 % of them.
My character has 350 efficiency in Archery. 10 power bow. And using 39p pattern bow with 3 damage arrows.
Carry 54 arrows and another 300 in inventory box.

Also alayen trained in similar way. He is my alternate commander.

So in short ranged bandits are very easy. 

PS difficulty is maxed

 

[Maxwell Hall]

when will this patch be released that fixes this ~? and will it be save game compatible?

 

[hieronymos]

Have found that once I've got a pretty large party (>300) of good troops, that even the largest bandit hordes scatter before me, allowing me to take them in smaller groups. Usually I'll only take one group at a time, running off to sell captives. No sense in letting bandit hides go to waste 

Frankly, I don't see anything wrong with the current bandit situation in v2.5, as it provides an endless source of challenge--and ransom income--for player in between military campaigns.

The only difficulty is in the Early game when more inexperienced players who don't know how to maximize mobility on campaign map (6 horses in inventory + 100% mounted party + pathfinder skill) can't avoid larger groups and get raped.

Perhaps making number+size of bandit group spawns scale to player level could be a solution that will satisfy both newer and more experienced players?

 

[Holty07]

Sorry to dig up a little old topic, but I didn't want to start a new one just for my post...
I'm having real difficulty in the early game. I'm getting beaten by the forest or mountain bandits way too much. I think that multiple play styles should be able to win against them. Instead you must use lots of cavalry to run or lots of soldiers. I am just hoping there is an easy way to nerf them? Losing all 30 blokes I had built up, to 20 odd rag tag men is really annoying.

 

[azxcvbnm321]

If it's early, then you're not going to build up your men very far.  If they're just tier 2 with a few tier 3, then they're not going to be able to stand up to forest bandits.  Decrease your difficulty and the damage for you and your allies.  Otherwise hunt looters and go after bandits you can beat. 

 

[Double A]

Strange as it sounds, Sea Raiders seem to be the easiest of the 6 regional bandits. So go after them (although they are still much more tough than looters). You probably should leave them alone if you fight on foot, as horses are much better at avoiding projectile spam.

 

[Cruentus]

Strange as it sounds, Sea Raiders seem to be the easiest of the 6 regional bandits. So go after them (although they are still much more tough than looters). You probably should leave them alone if you fight on foot, as horses are much better at avoiding projectile spam.

No way. Desert bandits are a way easier, at least for me Sea raiders can hack your infantry into pieces while spicking yourself with arrows. Anyway: With Slavedriver and their higher tier brothers it's easy to kill them all. No matter wether you fight against mountain, forest, steppes or desert bandits and even sea raiders.
Charge them from both flanks by using the split option and crush them all.

 

[Nimja1]

The bandits fight like they're on PCP at the moment.  Thankfully many are seeking rehabilitation in a future patch.

Lol every time I read this I seriously Bust out laughing. But seriously they REALLY need the rehab. Train the peasant quests are nigh impossible.

No really I jut re-read it again and had a good laugh.

 

[jbotski]

"Sweet! I just bought a ton of mercs! I'll bet I can take this group of bandits I far outnumber!"

OH GOD WHY

 

[Just Someone Weird]

forest ones eat me and 50 soldiers but I can kill 100 steppes with 10 companions easily.

 

[krisslanza]

In Floris I only fear mountain and forest bandits, due to the mentioned crossbow and bow storms... anything else isn't too bad. Not even the dreaded horse archers, oddly. Somehow they don't all seem to be using gatling bows that just mow your troops down like wheat.

It actually gets to the point if I find a huge stack of forest bandits, I just Ctrl + F4 them all to death.
... This does tend to break my log though.

 

[Thurak]

Had the same problem. Bought some ranged mercenaries, and a few merc infantry (with shields!!!). Problem solved. Take every peasant woman you can, camp defenders are cheap archers.

I don't think the bandits are too hard because hordes of fresh recruits can't beat them. That sound logical. Sure, it's hard to play the first levels, but hey, the bandits should beat same or bigger amounts of untrained recruits who not even have a shield.

Buy a few mercenaries to help your recruits. And choose only to fight battles against bandits where you can grab some prisoners.

Still hard to get enough recruits up to a decent level, but at least this way it is possible.

The trainer-thing is of course a good thing, but if we are talking about level 1-5 there is no way you can have enough trainer skill in your group to rely on that. Still go for it for the next levels and because it will always be useful, but it does not solve the problems of the very first few battles.