Wanderer
Recruit
I've heard arguments that Marnid and Borcha just seem to take up room in your army.
I guess that's true if you're not sinking a decent amount into leadership, but there are good ways to use them, even if they suck for fighting compared to say, 8 knights.
However, in just about any case, you can have them join your army briefly with just a little time in setup to do wonders for your troops.
I've come up with a rather nasty little way to make a disgusting little army.
Started as merchant, traded some to get some fast horses and get Marnid and Borcha. Pump their training to max for their int out of the gates.
My character is maxing leadership, with training skill as high as I can get it(trade skill doesn't hurt either since I'm set on Iron Man and occassionally get a jarid to the head). I've got very little in combat skills, but me, my lance, and my courser (and the occassional arrow) do battle altering amounts of damage anyway.
Within three days, almost an entire pack of peasants go up two levels by night training alone, costing what, 18 gold to do it safely at a tavern?
Training is a personal skill, they combine between all the heros. Neat huh? You also get a little bit off it, but not enough to matter.
So, with my 57 footmen (typically from two cities), I go looking for a brawl. With a surgery 4 on Marnid, I keep a decent chunk of the people who fall over, and a third to half level to Men at arms. One more fight, I've got 1/4 knight, 1/4 man at arms, 1/4 footmen... and 1/4 dead, but they don't count anymore.
Rinse, repeat.
I can rebuild an army from scratch in almost 5 days with almost no work, and a quick brawl or two against forest/mountain bandits, and I can replace footmen extremely quickly just wandering around with the main army doing the fighting.
Now, for me, this works well, I don't need to dump the boys very often, since my leadership is high. For the battlers, I could see this being even more important. Example: You max all your combat stats, ignoring the others (except leadership). Now, you need fast money? Grab Marnid and his pumped to hell trade skill. You need to train troops in a hurry and only have 5 slots? Dump the last knight, he's useless alone anyway, grab yourself 30 peasants, and train 'em for two or three days with Marnid and Borcha's training skills. Then send them off to the Four Ways Inn until you need 'em again.
Let them become the skills you don't want to bother with.
I guess that's true if you're not sinking a decent amount into leadership, but there are good ways to use them, even if they suck for fighting compared to say, 8 knights.
However, in just about any case, you can have them join your army briefly with just a little time in setup to do wonders for your troops.
I've come up with a rather nasty little way to make a disgusting little army.
Started as merchant, traded some to get some fast horses and get Marnid and Borcha. Pump their training to max for their int out of the gates.
My character is maxing leadership, with training skill as high as I can get it(trade skill doesn't hurt either since I'm set on Iron Man and occassionally get a jarid to the head). I've got very little in combat skills, but me, my lance, and my courser (and the occassional arrow) do battle altering amounts of damage anyway.
Within three days, almost an entire pack of peasants go up two levels by night training alone, costing what, 18 gold to do it safely at a tavern?
Training is a personal skill, they combine between all the heros. Neat huh? You also get a little bit off it, but not enough to matter.
So, with my 57 footmen (typically from two cities), I go looking for a brawl. With a surgery 4 on Marnid, I keep a decent chunk of the people who fall over, and a third to half level to Men at arms. One more fight, I've got 1/4 knight, 1/4 man at arms, 1/4 footmen... and 1/4 dead, but they don't count anymore.
Rinse, repeat.
I can rebuild an army from scratch in almost 5 days with almost no work, and a quick brawl or two against forest/mountain bandits, and I can replace footmen extremely quickly just wandering around with the main army doing the fighting.
Now, for me, this works well, I don't need to dump the boys very often, since my leadership is high. For the battlers, I could see this being even more important. Example: You max all your combat stats, ignoring the others (except leadership). Now, you need fast money? Grab Marnid and his pumped to hell trade skill. You need to train troops in a hurry and only have 5 slots? Dump the last knight, he's useless alone anyway, grab yourself 30 peasants, and train 'em for two or three days with Marnid and Borcha's training skills. Then send them off to the Four Ways Inn until you need 'em again.
Let them become the skills you don't want to bother with.
