Sweet Realistic Medieval Combat (Mount and Blade)

There's some sweet mods at taleworlds: the Storymod (adds a bunch of new stuff (enemies, weapons, a faction) and a great plot), and the Priates mod, where you sail around in a ship in the caribbean and attack the ships or England, France, or Spain, and engage in stupendous ship-to-ship combat. I highly recommend checking them out.

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(a) does weaponmastery only affect whether you can put points into a weapon skill? (Given my weaponmastery level, I can't put points into my archery anymore, but it still rises with kills).

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Yes. It doesn't, to my knowledge, affect how fast you gain new weapon points from battle, just if you are able to add the ones youget from leveling up.

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(b) what do weapon skills do exactly? Do they help you hit? Or do more damage when you hit? Or what? i.e. how much is due to my skill as a human player and how much to my character's stats?

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The higher the points are, the faster you swing and the more damage you do, and the more accurate you are with ranged weapons.

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Although I find it alarming how quickly they can die against weak opponents in the "autoresolve" period if you get knocked unconscience. Same for Swadian xbows - they die in droves in the "auto-resolve" thingy.

"Upon entering the field against 3 river pirates, every single of your knights charged off a cliff. Onto spikes. Covered in poison. With the Asian Bird Flu. They are thoroughly dead."

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True that. Or perhaps "The pirates use shaman magic to compell the horses to throw their riders and then trample their bodies." I know I get mad when I lose a knight fighting 3 river pirates.

Crazed Rabbit

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Originally Posted by Crazed Rabbit

The higher the points are, the faster you swing and the more damage you do, and the more accurate you are with ranged weapons.

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I think you get higher accuracy for ranged weapons(and can hold a bow centered for a longer time) and increased speed for ranged and melee, in melee, increased speed means you swing your weapon faster thus getting a higher speed bonus added to your damage, but it doesn´t increase damage directly, afaik.

I'm waiting for the next version of the "End Days" or whatever LOTR mod. Sounds awesome, but the latest doesn't work with .731 seamlessly.

The LOTR mod should be out soon-how soon, I'm not sure. A week or two at most I'd guess. Right now its only compatible with .711.

Also, it appears a member at Taleworlds has released a tool allowing people to import new models with animation support-aka, new armors! Unfortunately, we can't add new animations yet, but this opens a lot of doors:
http://www.modelsource65.com/files/o...etaScreen7.JPG
This armor was made by RR_Raptor65, who's making a Roman add-on mod.

Crazed Rabbit

RR_Raptor65 should be glad none of the historians from here come spam his forum with historical faults.

From what I can see he should add a pair of shoes/sandals with a greave on the left leg and no stockings. And he's missing a belt if not mistaken. (And the lorica segmenta was used for what? 30 years?)

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Originally Posted by aw89

(And the lorica segmenta was used for what? 30 years?)

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More like 200 years... From Teutoberger Wald to the end of Septimus Severus' rule (he is the last to have made stelas with it). It isn't unlikely it was used for yet some time in a lesser degree, like hamata had been.

I only missed by 170 years...

After some pause I picked up .731 yesterday.
Haven't seen much yet as I'm starting a new character
but the weather is absolutely amazing. Fog, Rain, Snow etc.
Can't wait for the Samurai mod to be finished. :2thumbsup:

Any more changes I need to be aware of?

Seiges are rudimentarily implemented.

And I highly recommend the Last Days Mod. Essentially a Lord of the Rings total conversion, it features some incredible scripting, and it adds a depth that M&B lacks in the story department (for now).

Plus, LOTR r0x0rs. N00b. :idea2:

I realized that the inflation is really high in Zendar,
at least since the last time I visited. And selling items yeilds almost nothing.

I've seen the siege screenshots and look forward to play them but I had to start from scratch again. An aspect I really like about this game, since you can be a good player but when you start a new character your abilities are limited by the character's.

That is because you either don't have skills in trading, or don't have Marnid with you.

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Originally Posted by Kraxis

That is because you either don't have skills in trading, or don't have Marnid with you.

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Both are true.
I'm level 3 hunter and own 150 dinaris.
I'm aware that I suffer huge trading penalties, only they seem bigger than in the last version I played. I only just upped my prisoner skills to take Borcha for 50 dinaris, the 150 for Marnid's padded cloth I can't spare atm.

Is there any way to determine the loot you get or is it completely random?

For example I shot ten Khergits off their horses. All horses lived.
Did I have a horse in the loot? No, only steppe caps. :wall:

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Originally Posted by R'as al Ghul

Is there any way to determine the loot you get or is it completely random?

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As far as I know it's completely random...

:balloon2:

No way to affect loot as far as I know, just certain groups drop things occasionally others dont


BTW the Pirates mod is very entertaining, but a wee bit easy after you get yourself and your heroes equipped with armor and repeating rifles. You guys should check it out, its better than the LOTR mod in every way except there appears to be no sort of end game, no goal really, so it ends up being like the regular version in that aspect.

I liked the LOTR mod and was looking forward to an all out multi-war, but the game kept crashing and when my hero buddy leveled each time his stats would reset back to what they were when I got him, so I eventually jumped ship. May have had something to do also with my quick leveling due to the arena in that version giving uber xp early on and lots of cash. You just pick jousting and choose the weapon you have points in and u can win each time. IT lets you customize the arenas pretty much, The 6v6v6v6 arena fights were an absolute hoot


Maybe I'll try LOTR again on next update

Musta been a problem with the Arenamod incoporation. In fact, most of the hastily-renamed Zendar stuff seems buggy. The rest is not so bad, about as buggy as plain M&B.

I think I'll try the Norman mod next, it looks good as well...

I love this game. :2thumbsup:

I play it like a madman. I finished the demo 3 times already. And in my last campaign, I've been the most succesful. Hunter, I have 75 for my archery skills.

Anybody want a headshot? ~D

As for units and party, I have a cracked nordic shield stolen from bandits, leather armour and mail cap(+4 armour) and boots(+2 leg armour). I have a bow, bolts and rusty sword.
I have about 900 denars.

As for the party, me only, for now. :book:

Buying a license tommorrow or this week. I love it. :2thumbsup:

Get a party. 1-5 and F1-F5 is your friend. Just try to keep all your people in the same faction so you dont lose as many slots with soldier upgrades, although every now and then you run into something you cant refuse, like picking up 30 refugee prisoners which will upgrade to 30 sword sisters.

I always have my seargeants on follow me mode so they level up quicker (borcha and mad). If I'm outnumbered on cavalry I order cav dismount, and the horses can be used as shields, and also used as obstqcles to block and stifle incoming cav attacks.

In games vs lots opf missles if u dont have a huge cavalry army to flank and charge them, its imperitive to use the follow me order and move your army behind a hill until you can figure out which way to engage.

My leader toon has a huge,e xpensive army and uses the heroes as tanks, but he is a squishy with an xbow who gets pwned if he gets taken off his horse. Its fun but its expensive.

On the other hand, my tank toon uses the heroes for tactics, scout and medic skill upgrades and can typically take out an entire army of footmen by himself. In fact, knocking me off my horse is the worse thing the enmy can do because now they got a 2-handed axe with ironskin 7 and pwer strikme 7 to deal with, along with 200+ points in 2 handed. Lances are cool to, especially since you can be going slow and still take dudes out with couching, so running in a circle at 1/4 speed is a good way to take out anyone unlucky enough to be on the outer fringe of the mob. If I get in trouble i call out for a quick follow me or charge and the boys come running. Once you start rolling with a team you wont get as many points and xp as a ranged guy, but as a melee guy you will get a couple thousand xp per mission just from all your kills

The best hold formation I use is everyone-hold/archers-follow(move them up to front) archers/hold-then repeat and put the footmen behind them with your cavalry either held on an extreme flank or in the rear. Cavalry will run out to engage on their own when the enemy closes near, so dont worry they wont stand in the back and let your foot soldiers get trampled.


With some points in athletics you can effectively run backwards with a long range weapon and swipe them as they move in. My best yet was getting taken off the horse while lancing guys, falling into a mob, calling for my backup, but by the time the backup arrived i had already killed all 12 with my war axe. Had 2 health left, and had I lost that one I would have lost my army since it was already round three of the battle and I only had 3 guys left unwounded and alive.

Around level 25 it gets boring with the regular game. Theres really nothing left to do but experiment and fight huge battles, but all the enemy armies behave roughly the same and send theor troops in the same order each time, so its kinda easy even with normal damage and good AI

I recommend to all checking out the 1066 Norman Invasion Mod over at the M&B forums. A good, fun mod. No fancy tricks, but it's enjoyable.

I will transcribe an exciting battle, defeat, then quick rebuild of my army from prisoners sometime in the future, when I'm less lazy than I am right now.

Crazed Rabbit

lol I just completed the "hunt down river pirates" quest, and my reward was...100 xp :laugh4: of course I levelled up 6 times while killing all the pirates. Had a lot of fun soloing them. I did the 5/6 man groups on foot put that gets tricky, a couple misses and you're gone. Have archery 150 and horse archery 4 now, it's getting easy. Think I'll start a little army and try fighting on foot again.

I finally bought a license!!!! :2thumbsup:

Level 10 for me.

What's your best shot difficulty?
I got a 7.9, being a horse archer, inflicting 38 damage and shooting the other horse archer down. Tournament in Zendar. ~:)

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Originally Posted by Major Robert Dump

F1-F5 is your friend.

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Wow, didn't know that. So you can finally give seperate orders?
Have to try that. I made it to lvl 20 without, though.

I have archery over 220 and 1-handed at 140, polearms at 160.
I can't decide to favour one weapon. Lancing is too much fun
and against swadian knights and dark knights the best thing to do.
Those nobleman quests are quite nice. Got 3500XP from one.

Has anybody captured a castle yet? If so, how many troops do you need
when at lvl 20? What kind of troops? I guess mainly ranged?

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Originally Posted by edyzmedieval

I finally bought a license!!!! :2thumbsup:

Level 10 for me.

What's your best shot difficulty?
I got a 7.9, being a horse archer, inflicting 38 damage and shooting the other horse archer down. Tournament in Zendar. ~:)

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Best shot? I think it was 11.something. Headshot on a man on the other side of the map walking just below the crestline of a mountain, only head visible. Got three of those in that battle. Felt pretty good right then.

I think the best possible is 13.something or 14.something. Haven't gotten there yet, but I have seen screenshots of them.

the f orders can be tricky, make sure you give "everyone" orders first, then start with the individuals, then if you get into trouble and must use the "charge command" to get help to you be sure and hit "everyone" first because otherwise only the last units you gave orders to will charge.

Also, be careful chasing units to their reinforcemtn point if they are crossbowmen, because the new spawn will come out on top of the cliff if your man are piled at the spawn point, so you will get 7 crossbowmen who can shoot your men to pieces while you cant reach them. I did notice that if one of the guys in the ledge get hit with an arrow he will fall into the mob, but good luck getting your troops to shoot at them since they will be packed to tight on the edge of the map to spread out and get clear shots. I lost a lot of expensive units in one fight before i realized what was happening, although I suppose if you have archer or xbow skills high and quick enough you could also snipe them out before they do serious damage to your units


You guys are missing out on a lot of fun if you arent using the heroes, get them as early as possible, you need around 300 gold for a padded cloth for the tavern dude, and 100 or 50 for borcha in rivacheg, try to get them on the first day so you can level them up. the best way to level them is to get them out there killing with you

some of them have skills that are higher than what they should have based on their attribute, like the guy with trade-3 only has 6 charisma, so before you could get him to trade 4 you would need to level him 6 more times, which is a waste since he would be better suited for something else. Personally I like to make borcha my tank/scout and make madrid my tank/medic..surgery and first aid and wound treatment make a world of difference in keeping your army alive, having them regen quicker, and giving you and your heroes extra point regen in between missions on long battles. Also, remember intelligence attreibute adds an extra skills point, so put some in both guys so you can get them up to speed on iron skin and riding and power strike. Borcha also makes a good cav archer, but he never seemed to get kills as one

BTW: my favorite unit in the game by far is the seargent, an elite foot soldier on both factions you get by following the infantry tree. They pwn all cavalry and wear heavy armor, great units

Infantry Seargeants are great. I agree.
Imo the Swadian Knights are better than the Vaegir because of their lack of lances. If you can park your Swadians on a hill or other area, even water, they can't be charged by the lances, giving them a supreme advantage. Same goes for those Khergits. Against the Khergits I find it best to force a clash between my Knights and them to force a melee as soon as possible while I chase the horse archers.
I do use Borcha and Marnid. Both of them are heavily armoured on war horses. The're equipped with throwing axes and decent melee weapons. If you give them bows, they'll try to shoot the whole time whereas a bag of axes is spent pretty quickly.

I finally got Borcha for 50 denars.... :book: :2thumbsup:

He's a good fellow, but gets killed kinda easily. I gave him a Stubborn Sumpter Horse and an Iron Staff.

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Originally Posted by edyzmedieval

I finally got Borcha for 50 denars.... :book: :2thumbsup:

He's a good fellow, but gets killed kinda easily. I gave him a Stubborn Sumpter Horse and an Iron Staff.

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Yes he does and Marnid is no better. Get them a decent horse each and they'll last longer. Give them a spear as well and they may actually kill someone.

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Originally Posted by edyzmedieval

I finally bought a license!!!! :2thumbsup:

Level 10 for me.

What's your best shot difficulty?
I got a 7.9, being a horse archer, inflicting 38 damage and shooting the other horse archer down. Tournament in Zendar. ~:)

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I got 10.1 on a random shot at a group of bandits.


Just fought a nice battle, my 24 swadia militia/footman/peasants vs 20 swadian deserters. I charged through the line of crossbowmen on my charger, killing 2 with my lance and knocking 4 others over. They all turned to follow me. I circled and charged through again from the side with similar results. By this time they were scattered all over and my foot troops charged in and massacred them without a single loss ~D


I also enjoyed taking the Culmarr castle (level 11). Took me 4 battles . The first two I ran down into the moat on the left and used my bow to kill the guys on the wall that I could see. After two battles they were down to 2 knights and 11 crossbowmen. This time I charged up the ramp with my footman infantry and men at arms. They killed about 8 crossbowmen and then refused to go off the ramp and onto the wall so the other crossbowmen just shot all of them :embarassed: Last battle I charged up myself and took out the remaining 4 guys. I imagine the archer castle will be harder.

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Originally Posted by edyzmedieval

I finally bought a license!!!! :2thumbsup:

Level 10 for me.

What's your best shot difficulty?
I got a 7.9, being a horse archer, inflicting 38 damage and shooting the other horse archer down. Tournament in Zendar. ~:)

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It's over 16 iirc - i just shot randomly in the direction of the enemy at the start of the round and i got a guy behind a hill :)

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Originally Posted by sapi

It's over 16 iirc - i just shot randomly in the direction of the enemy at the start of the round and i got a guy behind a hill :)

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Hard to believe since it is hardcoded to 13 or 14.

I think the highest is 14.4.

Crazed Rabbit

for those of you who havent played Last Days mod (a kinda loose LOTR mod) kepp in mind that:

It's a very long campaign with actual win conditions, and if u play as orc you will have to fight the other orc host if you defeat the humies

Also, the arena in this mod has many more options, including 1v1 where u can pick your own weapons (ie-jousting, you have a joust round then go to 1v1 ground fight, if u lose the joust round u do less damage( and all sorts of other arena fights that get you mad xp and fat rewards. The all-out-war-trigger is set to player level though, so be advised if u stay in the starting town and do arena/save/arena/save until level 8 the moment u leave town the war will start even if it is only day 2. I still like it though, its a great way to level and make lots of cash, and if u are going to be a tank/fighter character then you should be ablke to hang in 4v4 teams of 6 matches, which pay 300 gold and 300 xp for a win, just save save save so you dont lose money and can redo infintatley ( i always get pwned as an archer because u dont get any other weapons, and when melee guys get to you u are screwed). Also in these matches make sure and use "hold position" command to keep your men consolidated, but be advised that you will need to bum rush any remaining archers on opposing teams (hop on a horse if any are around, there usually are) because they will eat your team up.

I'm now on day 52 int his campaign as orcs and the gondor and rohan keep repleneshing, but i am trying to play cautiously as mordor and make the isengards do their fair share of work so they dont gank me when we kill the humans. there really is no way around maxing 3 stats and leaving one low, and making your seargent your tools (ie surgery, tactics ets) but they can get wounded and die if you are not careful. Seems like anything past 18 strenght is a waste, and if your not going to be functional leader forgoe intel altogether and put points in agil for riding and speed (heavy armor needs at least 5 athletics or u get pwned in foot melee) and put the rest inleadership. Also in this mod you can use infamy points to abort missions or give allied armies orders on the world map

Its looking like im gonna lose this one, but next time ill know better than to level up to 8 on day one and start the war lol, i shoulda leveled up my seargents instead and forewent the duels until the war started

How can I play multiplayer?
I can't find the button. :dizzy2:

I have the license.

Um...there is no multiplayer. Sorry.

Crazed Rabbit
P.S. Don't bother suggesting it over at the taleworld forums. We won't get it for M&B1, maybe for M&B2.

Ahahahahaha check out the mount&blade forums. One of the best April fools jokes I've seen.

Although the google romance thing was pretty good too.

Give Marnid etc a big two handed axe and some armour. No horse. Then they get kills.

yeah, im starting to regret giving my heroes horses in the regular game and in the mods (some of the mods you get more than 2 heroes)

The allied cavalry AI is idiotic, the only saving grace is cavalry in charges so they run down mobs, otherwise they ALWAYS and I mean ALWAYS run right into a group they cant charge through or hit a guy with a spear. Chargers at least can knock down people on slow gallop. You need riding 4 to get to charger, so Borcha is the only one who will get to use the chargerm and putting the others on horses gets them KOd quick,

But if you must, make them spearmen and lancers, for the sake of range and one hit kills, putting a hero on a saddle horse and giving him a sword is comical, and he will never get kills

I have a huge sword. Chipped Sword of War, inflicts up to 80 damage. I always kill pirates from a single blow....

The only bad thing about it: I had 7 Horsemen and 2 Caravan Masters, along with Marnid and Borcha, and I entered the fight between a Vaegir War Party(allies) against Swadian War Party. I only got out with M,B and 1 horseman. :( :embarassed:

Hmm this game looks exciting. Can someone write a general 'short' overview about it, please? You know, what can you achieve in game and if their is MP or not..

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Originally Posted by x-dANGEr

Hmm this game looks exciting. Can someone write a general 'short' overview about it, please? You know, what can you achieve in game and if their is MP or not..

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OK, no MP. What the game is all about, IMO, is the combat. Melee combat is very like Oblivion - left click to hit, right click to block. But somehow it feels smoother, more solid and more "real" - in Oblivion, enemies seem to jump around more, so it feels more twitch-like. Ranged combat is more direct than Oblivion - you don't have to aim high, just aim directly at the target - but again has a very satisfying feel. A big addition of MB over Oblivion is the mounted combat, which is exhilarating but tricky to master. Again, it feels real - a couched lance impact is lethal, but hard to pull off and if you are brought to a halt in a bunch of enemies, you are going down. Perhaps the only negative to the combat, IMO, is that it is easy to get swamped by enemies. Even 2 to 1, and you are in trouble, as the blows rain down endlessly and you can't recover. Maybe this is realistic, but I think it is overdone and a very skilful fighter should be able to take on a few less skilled opponents.

Who do you fight against? It ranges from a few ill equipped thugs up to a great variety of challenge. The ultimate might be 40 Black knights and dark riders, who are lethal knights in full plate. There are hun-type horse archers who will pepper you. There are crossbowmen who will decimate your horse. There are even Viking-type sea raiders who are equally handy with javelins+bows, and with great axes. It is very nicely done.

The main hook to the game is slowly building up your character, your equipment and also your band of fighters. Experience comes from kills and fairly basic quests - often escorting caravans, sometimes rescuing damsels etc. You can join a war, which makes half the neutrals hostile but opens up more quests. There is a nice variety of equipment - the ultimate is knight-type armour, but the game designer is Turkish and eastern equipment (scimitars, composite bows etc) is well represented. I confess that by the time I have got full plate and a decent war party, I tend to give up on the game. But a few months later, there will be an update and I get into it again, going from level 1 to level 20 or whatever.

I highly recommend it. I haven't seen first person pre-gunpowder combat done better.

It is a top little game, no doubt. Try the LotR mods for kicks and giggles - it is more advanced campaign-wise than M&B itself! I do believe you do the ranged combat a diservice though - you do have to aim up with bows at long range (though not crossbows really) and have to lead your target, so its not just point and click.

I think the reason combat feels better than Oblivion is the third-person viewpoint and the fact that it is slower yet more lethal. In Oblivion you and your opponent jump-around nose-to-nose basically beating each other to death, in M&B a few hits are all that is needed. Oh and not all the opponents are of the same quality stat or equipment wise which adds to the tactical challenge as well as the actual combat. Love the hit sound-effects too! Both games systems suffer when the fighting is two or more on one though.

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Originally Posted by Slyspy

you do have to aim up with bows at long range ...

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Strange - I don't think I aim up and I always use a bow. And I often hit at very long ranges - maybe I'm doing it subconsciously or I forgot? But regardless, it seems more subtle than Oblivion, which I have not quite grasped (especially when shooting up even a slight slope). You do have to lead though, it's true. I find that very hard to get right against skirmishing cavalry - I always assumed it would be easy for a foot archer to hit a horse archer, but MB makes me doubt that.

Don't get me wrong, I really like the MB archery - it's definitely not point and shoot. The fact that your aim starts to wobble if you wait more than a few seconds adds a nice tension to it. You get into a rhythm - draw, aim, release - that slowly gets more lethal and tense as the enemy closes.

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I think the reason combat feels better than Oblivion is the third-person viewpoint and the fact that it is slower yet more lethal.

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I think you've put your finger on it. Thanks.

I'm going to have to try the LOTR mod - I'm a real Tolkien fan.

Going back to x-dANGEr's original question - what can you achieve in the game? I guess the basic thing is you get the satisfaction of slowing growing from a lone hick with a bow (or whatever) into a plate-armoured captain with scores of highly trained fighters in your company. (Your men get upgraded with experience too). You also get to have scores of good scraps in the process.

The regular game drags on, as far as I know. I have two regular characters: a level 30 leader type, who fields a huge army and has tactics so high he starts with literally 24 soldiers in a fight. He uses a light xbow, which has crap damage, but its the only one you can reload on a horse and he stays on horse or gets pwned. (couldnt use bows cuz of no strength/powerdraw). higher level xbows need strenght too

My other guy is like level 28 and all melee/riding,

In both cases, nothing in the game can stand up to me, not even the armies with 100+ soldiers. As far as I know, this just goes on and on and on and there is no end game

The LOTR mod, however, actually has winning conditions and has removed some of the lame missions, so there are mostly only missions that give uber xp. And the armies you fight are better, whereas in the regular game armies of 100 will inevitably have 50% crappy militia types. also, there are better options in the arena, you can make lotsof xp and okay money up to about level 12-15, and after that the xp isnt so great but the money is uber. I like to lower AI damage to 1/4th, go to the area and make 15k or so in gold doing 6v6x4 arena fights (stick with jousting or 1v1 early on), then reset the damage and continue campaign.

Right now on the LOTR mod im low 20s, can place 300 gold bets in the arena, have eliminated one of the two main enemies, the other enemy is strong, and of course when me and my ally pwn him I will have to fight my ally. I have a good deal left in this campaign, should be fun and I'm in no hurry, and when I'm done I may try the other side as something else

Also, play with self-save when you first start. Auto save can ruin you because it wil save after every event, and since the game is soooooo buggy (especially the mods) I simply cant justify using autosaves because when I tried it, it stopped being "realistic" when I crashed and lost all the progress in a battle that took me 80 minutes. Also, lag can kill you sometimes in massive cavalry fights

Not sure what other mods have campaigns with end games. Pretty sure the pirates mod does not.

If I were any of you starting out, play with AI damage on 1/4 and get a good feel for the game then start a new character, specializing in one or two weapons if you will use a shield, or 3 weapons and no shield (my LOTR guy uses polearm, 2-handed,xbow, no shield ,<---i pay dearly for that sometimes, but its worth the variety) If you make your heroes utility guys (medical/tactics/scout) understand that it will take forever to develop those skills on them because they level slower than you, so think about their skills, and split the party skills up between the party

You can see party skills in the party menu on the left.

I tried the LOTR mod as Gondor but did not get much joy. I spent 3 days wandering around looking for any enemies - the river bandits quest giver talks of goblins, but I never saw any. Then suddenly, I was running from mobs of 11 Mordor scouts or bandits. As I had only 45 gold, I had only 3 thugs and one ranger hero. I died. Not being able to start off as a hunter also hurt me. In the normal game, having a bow allowed me to defeat larger parties at low level.

What am I missing? Should I have earned money from the arena first?

In the LOTR mod you can choose specifically what weapon you use in the arena if you pick joust...its 2 part, one joust, if u get incapped you do less damage but u stillg et to fight melee in round 2, so pick whatever weapon you specialize in for that one.

In all the other arena fights the weapon is random excpet for the 1v1s, which dont pay nearly as well.

anyway, take the damage of AI down, make some money based on your build, and if you are going melee/tank build first then start doing the crazy arena fights around level 8, as they pay better. 6v6 fortified arena pays well, 8v8 arena pays better, and 6v6X4 pays the best, but you damn well better use your Fkeys in that one and stay in your corner (as in F!=hold position) then when all thats left is archers use F3 charge and take out the snipers. As a melee guy its always hardest when you end up with the bow, but you can still win with creative footwork. Also, save before and after each fight, especially after wins. If you lose reload, that way you can bet max each time

The "war" in the mod is based on level, not time, so if you stay in the arena until @ level 8 the war will start as soon as you leafe town. Early on, try to only join battles already in progress to level up. the orcs have stronger newb troops and more variety to choose from (their allies let them recruit) but the humans get better late troops and can use rangers.

ITs a tough mod, like I said, I'm on day 78 and still havent beat the humans, and when they go down I gotta beat my ally.

Read the FAQ in the forums

USe your influence points wisely. YOu dont just get influence from wins, but also from accomplsihing missions. Influence lets you give orders to allied armies, lets you buy stuff from the allied armories that is uber, lets you recruit better troops and, later in the game, you can recruit the kings themselves if yo have enough points. also, around level 24 you get a luetenenant, which with the other 2 heroes you get makes 3 heroes.

Dont let your heroes get killed. If they get wounded (talk to them to see if they are hurt) make sure and stay out of battle until you get healed (in the kings palace at your base, the guy by the door) or they sometimes heal after time. They will get killed if they are wounded and you go into a battle and lose

also, you will have to suck it upo and put some points in charisma so you can get a bigger army. one char point adds one to your max, one leader point adds 5 and a slot. Even as a tank or melee guy your gonna need more that 20 guys in your army, but remember when you beat an enemy you can recruit his hostages, so its often best to drop 5 crappy guys for one uber guy

I cant emphasize enough the F key commnads. Hold position will save your army often, and even better "follow" then move them to a defensive spot (like a river in a ravine if you are up against cavalry) and then put them on hold. Letting your troops run wild ends in disaster, even if they are all uber, because inevitably you will get 8 guys chasing one enemy, while 8 enemy ganks you.

If you are really having a hard time just keep the AI damage at 1/4 all the time. ITs more important to have fun, and it keeps you from getting one-hit killed by arrows and cavalry (it doesnt affect damage to your team, just you)

Early in the LOTR mod stay away from cavalry unless you have a cav killer build (like lancer and a heavy warhorse) but even then its dangerous if you get knocked off away from your team. I typically put all on hold position in a safe spot and try to scout ahead and take out whatever enemies I can...its good for xp and it helps your team by thinning the ranks. Once your heroes get decent skills, use "seargents charge" and try to anniahlate the incoming attacks, its quite fun and good for leveling your guys, especially if you wait ntil the enemy cav closes on your main army, then charge past them and go rape the enemies footmen and archers in the rear.

The AI is stupid, enemy cavalry always charges in ahead of the footmen, so use that to your advantage, especially on big maps, and the enemies always follow you if you run ahead of your army, so its easy to lead them away from your troops and get them to turn their backs so the troops can pelt them with arrows or use the "3" command to charge them while they have their backs to your army

If you are an archer you need to decide on a good melee weapon, because guys with shields will thwart you, especially cavalry with shields.

Amd dont do the river bandit quest. The reward is crap. You may also need to get priosner management to beat the capture missions, but you can use your influence to drop missions. I got 2 levels of PM early on, and now i dont even use it, its kind of a waste since you can make better money in the arena. The capture 6 guys missions (and the capture nobleman missions) really require a blunt weapon anyway, and all that is a pain in the butt. the best paying missions by far are the raider and kill host missions.

LOTR isnt a short one, ex[ect to be playing it a while, especially since enemies can regenerate back to strong after they are weakened. Also, if u play orcs only ask "hows the war going" at the castles, never at the camps because it causes a crash.

Havent played as humans yet, but I would expect the best stategy is to focus on the allied camps rather than the main enemies. Taking out the easterlings and corsair and dunlar will get a lot of enemies off the map.

Anybody read the in-game sound thread in the Suggestions section? They'll be adding in-game battle vocals. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by econ21

OK, no MP. What the game is all about, IMO, is the combat. Melee combat is very like Oblivion - left click to hit, right click to block. But somehow it feels smoother, more solid and more "real" - in Oblivion, enemies seem to jump around more, so it feels more twitch-like. Ranged combat is more direct than Oblivion - you don't have to aim high, just aim directly at the target - but again has a very satisfying feel. A big addition of MB over Oblivion is the mounted combat, which is exhilarating but tricky to master. Again, it feels real - a couched lance impact is lethal, but hard to pull off and if you are brought to a halt in a bunch of enemies, you are going down. Perhaps the only negative to the combat, IMO, is that it is easy to get swamped by enemies. Even 2 to 1, and you are in trouble, as the blows rain down endlessly and you can't recover. Maybe this is realistic, but I think it is overdone and a very skilful fighter should be able to take on a few less skilled opponents.

Who do you fight against? It ranges from a few ill equipped thugs up to a great variety of challenge. The ultimate might be 40 Black knights and dark riders, who are lethal knights in full plate. There are hun-type horse archers who will pepper you. There are crossbowmen who will decimate your horse. There are even Viking-type sea raiders who are equally handy with javelins+bows, and with great axes. It is very nicely done.

The main hook to the game is slowly building up your character, your equipment and also your band of fighters. Experience comes from kills and fairly basic quests - often escorting caravans, sometimes rescuing damsels etc. You can join a war, which makes half the neutrals hostile but opens up more quests. There is a nice variety of equipment - the ultimate is knight-type armour, but the game designer is Turkish and eastern equipment (scimitars, composite bows etc) is well represented. I confess that by the time I have got full plate and a decent war party, I tend to give up on the game. But a few months later, there will be an update and I get into it again, going from level 1 to level 20 or whatever.

I highly recommend it. I haven't seen first person pre-gunpowder combat done better.

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I DL-ed the demo and played the game for around 8 hours.. (It crashed a couple of times, though :no: ). Anyway, through that period whatever I tried, the word 'boring' kept flashing in my head. Their is no goal, no place to go to, nothing to do, no one to fight, what's the point? Stay at the Arena and keep fighting the guys in their? (Which will bore you by time, too, because you will use the same weapons..).

You can't do it in the demo, but one thing to do is find the biggest, baddest, enemies and kill them. Or make enough $$$ to buy Flaming Silver Armor (+10000 Def).

Or get one of the awesome mods. Which you can't in the demo. Many mods add story and reduce the lack of plot.

And the final version may have more plot.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by x-dANGEr

Anyway, through that period whatever I tried, the word 'boring' kept flashing in my head. Their is no goal, no place to go to, nothing to do, no one to fight, what's the point? Stay at the Arena and keep fighting the guys in their? (Which will bore you by time, too, because you will use the same weapons..).

---

Well, it's probably not for you.

But you did leave the starter town, yes? Talking to people in the starter town, you should get a quest to hunt down river pirates (and a free shield if you accept). I usually start with that. They are someone to fight - the easiest enemies.

To help me out, I head to the a nearby town (Rivacheg?), talk to the Count to pick up the horse thief, Borcha, who will soon join me. I also hire a few men from the tavern when I can afford it. I also keep a look out for padded armour so I can hire Marnid, who you can recruit in the starter town. Borcha and Marnid are the only two recruitable NPCs in the game and levelling them up adds a little to it.

The goal is to power up your party. You need money to buy decent weapons and to pay for the men you hire from the tavern. When you get enough men you can start to escort caravans from town to town. There are around a dozen towns, so there are places to go. But they are not exciting. There are also other quests you can do too, but they are also not exciting.

The whole point of the game is powering up you character and party so you can win combats. If you don't get a thrill from taking down your first gang of half a dozen river pirates and looting their stuff for some desperately needed gold, then it is probably not for you.

I don't like the arena, BTW. I do find that boring. I need the hook of upgrading my character and party - when I start max them out, I lose interest.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Major Robert Dump

If you are an archer you need to decide on a good melee weapon, because guys with shields will thwart you, especially cavalry with shields.

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Shields dont stop me- they just make it a little more difficult. When the enemy has shields, you have two options: 1)Aim for the legs. It'll take more arrows, but it does the trick, or 2)Wait to draw your bow until the enemy is almost on top of you. When they lower their shield to swing at you, just put an arrow in their face- point blank. They'll drop like a sack of potatoes. :skull:

But I do still agree with you, that an archer should be half decent with a melee weapon as a backup should the need arise.

The waiting trick is kinda exploit-like - the AI has no way to counter it. I hope they add a "push with shield" move that would knock down an opponent without exposing the shield-bearer...

And I've used the exploit, too. ~;p

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alexander the Pretty Good

The waiting trick is kinda exploit-like - the AI has no way to counter it. I hope they add a "push with shield" move that would knock down an opponent without exposing the shield-bearer...

And I've used the exploit, too. ~;p

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Meh, I think that'd make shields over-powered. It's just not reasonable to shoot apart a shield with arrows, so if you take aways a close-range split second of vulnerability you'd only be left with multiple foot and leg shots to try and stop a guy. Considering that anyone with a two-handed weapon can get decimated from any range, I think it would be pretty unbalanced to make shield users virtually invulnerable to arrows. They're still far better protected than any poor shlubs without shields as is.

I think they should allow shield-pushing, but also allow you to shoot whatever you see (i.e. Their face when they still have their shield up)-no more force fields around shields.

Crazed Rabbit

I am now on level 19 and I have:

-Marnid
-Borcha
-5 Vaegir Horseman
-1 Vaegir Knight
-3 Vaegir Veteran
-1 Caravan Master

I really like it now, plus I have a free slot for new guys. :2thumbsup:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by edyzmedieval

I really like it now, plus I have a free slot for new guys. :2thumbsup:

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Try to put 2 points into surgery. It keeps your guys alive.
You can also pick up rescued prisoners that roam around if you have enough free space or rescue some from steppe bandits.
When I get short of men I'll usually look out for groups with huge prisoner trains and recrute them over once I've beaten the enemy.
You can already try to storm Radoghir castle. I was surprised how easy it is.
If you're good with the bow, you only need 30 headshots. :wink:
After that you can station troops in it. The good thing is that when stationed in the castle you don't have to pay them.

I have to say that now, being ca lvl 27, I enjoy it the most to fight with lance, bal. nomad sabre and sword of war from horseback.
Pure cavalry fights against khergits or enemy knights are very intense.
Btw, I prefer the heavy warhorse over the vanilla charger. It has one point more agility and one less charge.
The spirited charger or heavy is just way too expensive.

The good Major has the best hint for the LotR mod - when starting out get a hero or two, horses to move fast and only join fights which are already in progress. You might do a little trading before the war starts for real (when you reach level six I think) so that you can improve your equipment, especially your horse.

Yeah I got frustrated with the slow start in the lotr mod too. Eventually imported my level 17 character. Much more fun, and the missions are still real challenging.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by R'as al Ghul

Try to put 2 points into surgery. It keeps your guys alive.
You can also pick up rescued prisoners that roam around if you have enough free space or rescue some from steppe bandits.
When I get short of men I'll usually look out for groups with huge prisoner trains and recrute them over once I've beaten the enemy.
You can already try to storm Radoghir castle. I was surprised how easy it is.
If you're good with the bow, you only need 30 headshots. :wink:
After that you can station troops in it. The good thing is that when stationed in the castle you don't have to pay them.

I have to say that now, being ca lvl 27, I enjoy it the most to fight with lance, bal. nomad sabre and sword of war from horseback.
Pure cavalry fights against khergits or enemy knights are very intense.
Btw, I prefer the heavy warhorse over the vanilla charger. It has one point more agility and one less charge.
The spirited charger or heavy is just way too expensive.

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So far I have 1 point in surgery and first aid. Marnid and Borcha both have 1 at surgery. ~:)

I am good at the bow, but in intense fights, I don't use it. I'm not good at Horse Archery. :no: I just bought a lance. Works really well with the Heavy Warhorse. ~D

Level 19 for me so far. Progressing fast, and I am knight. I am supplying constantly the counts and especially King Yaroglek. ~D

Only the highest party stat counts, dont waste points in something someone else has unless you plan to raise their level higher

the three medic skills are great, especially being able to regen hitpoints during long missions, and the fast healing of the party on the world map lets you get back into the fray quicker

also, for you horse archers and folks who dont like the arch of the arrows:

horse archery is pointless when you have high archery weapon skills, high power draw and uber bows, so put in in something else because you will always be maxed on arhcery skills.

also, the arch is less when you get higher skills, PD and better bows

I have a longbow and bodkin arrows. 102 at archery skill for me. ~:)

I use the sword 90% of the times. Fast and decisive. :2thumbsup:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by edyzmedieval

So far I have 1 point in surgery and first aid. Marnid and Borcha both have 1 at surgery. ~:)

I am good at the bow, but in intense fights, I don't use it. I'm not good at Horse Archery. :no: I just bought a lance. Works really well with the Heavy Warhorse. ~D

Level 19 for me so far. Progressing fast, and I am knight. I am supplying constantly the counts and especially King Yaroglek. ~D

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Do not spread out your skills like that. You should have chosen one of you to have Surgery. Right now your troops only get the enefit of 1 point of Surgery. Effectively you have wasted two points.

I generally make Marnid the trader/healer, Borcha the tracker and myself as the tank. But of course now that I'm a hunter I have a few skills that overlap with Borcha.

I was luckly enough to get myself a clean warbow at level 9, but I haven't yet gotten the money for two large bags of bodkins, so I'm roaming around with a large and normal bag of barbed arrows.
I kill 70% with my bow and 15% each with my spear and onehanders (nordic sword and heavy spiked mace).

When I need some practice for my men I take on river pirates to train them. I weaken the pirates with an arrow each so a single hit from my men should kill them. Then I sit back and watch. Usually I lose a few men, but the others often level up. And when you only have one group (since Marnid and Borcha fills the others) it can be important to have good troops with you.

Ah damn. I thought they cumulated. ~:(

Anyways, many things happened for me. I now lost my Caravan Master in a battle, but I added 3 Vaegir Veteran and 2 Vaegir Footman.

I have:
-Marnid
-Borcha
-7 Vaegir Horseman
-2 Vaegir Knights
-4 Vaegir Veteran
-1 Vaegir Footman

And about 12000 denars. I am equipped like a tank. ~D

How do you weaken factions in the Last days? Just slaughter their troops?

Kill the hosts and the lesser hosts. In some cases, after you kill both the host may regenerate. I've had it happen twice: once when I got a "kill host" mission right after I killed the host and the lesser host, so it had to be a fresh spawn; the other time I think the lesser host just moved up and got promoted. Either way, you have to kill those guys and most likely more than once.

If you are having trouble because the hosts are too big go find a big allies army, talk to him, use your influence points to put him on follow, then go find the host again. Orderts last for one or two days, and you can also use hold and go-to. The guys on order will engage an enemy on their own.

(I'm on day 98, level 27, as morder, 2 of my 3 slave clans are weakened the 3rd is strong, isengard is strong, rohan is weakened and gondor is dead. The problem is that Isengard has seen little action while me and the boys have been all over, and ISengard has some armies 300 strong, whereas the biggest mordor army atm is 110. Looks like I may be doing some hit and runs)

On the really big fights use follow and take your men to a hill,river or best yet a river under a ledge or a river in a ravine, so you can gank the incoming cav.

Don't forget you can retreat after winning the first mission in the battle or if no enemies are near you on the battle map, so sometimes its best to kill what you can and cut your losses before he sends the good troops at you

Another thing to remember is that you get the dead enemies slaves as troops. So, its sometimes in your interest to let your allies lose fights so you can liberate them. And just to insure they lose the fight, you can join the first mission of the battle, nd after you win but before you leave map start executing troops you know are your allies (dont do any with same names as yours)....kinda funny, kill a bunch of your allies to weaken them so you can liberate them after they get captured. What an Orc I am

Quote:

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Originally Posted by x-dANGEr

I DL-ed the demo and played the game for around 8 hours.. (It crashed a couple of times, though :no: ). Anyway, through that period whatever I tried, the word 'boring' kept flashing in my head. Their is no goal, no place to go to, nothing to do, no one to fight, what's the point? Stay at the Arena and keep fighting the guys in their? (Which will bore you by time, too, because you will use the same weapons..).

---

I can sympathize up to a point. I played the game for maybe a couple of weeks and eventually bought the game. But I have to agree it is pretty pointless. You wander around, hooking up with caravans, bopping enemies and so on but the lack of a goal, the lack of detail in the world and the sameness of it all did eventually drive me away.

The game definitely has some great strengths though. There are real skills you can develop, and the graphics and gritty realism of the combat are IMO second to none for a game of this type. I mean, as others have pointed out, the combat system is way better than in the Elder Scrolls games for example. And to think this little game was developed by just one guy! Amazing.

Unlike a lot of other people who have played it though, I actually found the bigger battles and the group combat thing to be a bit of an anti-climax. I played the game solo for a long while, just me, my horse and my trusty crossbow, and I had terrific fun picking off large parties one by one and then bopping the last couple over the head with a club for the dough.

But when I started to get into party combat, somehow I just didn't enjoy it as much. The party combat is more chaotic, and there's less for you to do. Also I felt there were not enough different commands for controlling your party. That may have been fixed now, but there weren't many options, and thus not much in the way of tactics, at the time I was playing it. Also I found the terrain a little too extreme, which limited one's options somewhat.

I eventually got into riding around with a spirited courser and couched lance, which restored the fun for a while, but somehow the party combat just didn't do it for me. I pretty much decided after a while to not play the game again until the developer finishes it and hopefully there is more story line and more detail to get involved in, but it all seems to be taking a very long time.

I must say though that talk of the LOTR mod on this thread has restored my interest a little. It sounds like someone has actually put together a mod that gives the game a purpose, which is probably the main drawback of the vanilla game. So I may go and download the mod in the next week or two and have another crack at it. But really, I'm inclined to wait until Armagan has finished the game before I pick up on it again.

How hard is it to create a mod for M&B? :book:

I just played through the Storymod (or one side of it). It's great fun, only adds 4 or 5 quests but they are good ones. The dungeon crawl was quite fun, I was surprised it worked with M&B.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by screwtype

I can sympathize up to a point. I played the game for maybe a couple of weeks and eventually bought the game. But I have to agree it is pretty pointless. You wander around, hooking up with caravans, bopping enemies and so on but the lack of a goal, the lack of detail in the world and the sameness of it all did eventually drive me away.

The game definitely has some great strengths though. There are real skills you can develop, and the graphics and gritty realism of the combat are IMO second to none for a game of this type. I mean, as others have pointed out, the combat system is way better than in the Elder Scrolls games for example. And to think this little game was developed by just one guy! Amazing.

Unlike a lot of other people who have played it though, I actually found the bigger battles and the group combat thing to be a bit of an anti-climax. I played the game solo for a long while, just me, my horse and my trusty crossbow, and I had terrific fun picking off large parties one by one and then bopping the last couple over the head with a club for the dough.

But when I started to get into party combat, somehow I just didn't enjoy it as much. The party combat is more chaotic, and there's less for you to do. Also I felt there were not enough different commands for controlling your party. That may have been fixed now, but there weren't many options, and thus not much in the way of tactics, at the time I was playing it. Also I found the terrain a little too extreme, which limited one's options somewhat.

I eventually got into riding around with a spirited courser and couched lance, which restored the fun for a while, but somehow the party combat just didn't do it for me. I pretty much decided after a while to not play the game again until the developer finishes it and hopefully there is more story line and more detail to get involved in, but it all seems to be taking a very long time.

I must say though that talk of the LOTR mod on this thread has restored my interest a little. It sounds like someone has actually put together a mod that gives the game a purpose, which is probably the main drawback of the vanilla game. So I may go and download the mod in the next week or two and have another crack at it. But really, I'm inclined to wait until Armagan has finished the game before I pick up on it again.

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Acutally, I have to dis-agree to the combat system point. I really think it's unstable, unreasonable and unefficent. Try fighting 3 persons at a time melee.. You will lose no matter what, no strategy in the fight, just the one who hits faster gets the best result.

Try fighting 3 people in the real world and see how you fare ~;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by x-dANGEr

Acutally, I have to dis-agree to the combat system point. I really think it's unstable, unreasonable and unefficent. Try fighting 3 persons at a time melee.. You will lose no matter what, no strategy in the fight, just the one who hits faster gets the best result.

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I fight three people all the time with a bastard sword and kill them, you just cant expect to do that at level 10 because the enemies have levels just like you do.

Ironskin+power strike+athletics

and, as like the previous poster said, try fighting 3 ppl in real life and see how you fare

Yeah... of course an inexperienced little punk can't beat up three guys.

But an experienced semi-knight can... just like if you have training in various martial arts to agreat degree.

At the end of my battles I usually dismount my Heavy Charger and engage the last few enemies on foot, just for kicks. I'm not a melee player right now, so my bastard sword is pretty slow and I'm not that fast. So three guys are a pretty good match. I really have to pull all the tricks (running around obstacles can really help).

In the 250s at level 28 I can swing a bastard sword as fast as NPC can swing a one-hander, and I have 7 in athletics so I can outpace them as well. I would imagine that a one-hander in the 250s would be sick fast

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Major Robert Dump

In the 250s at level 28 I can swing a bastard sword as fast as NPC can swing a one-hander, and I have 7 in athletics so I can outpace them as well. I would imagine that a one-hander in the 250s would be sick fast

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Scimitar and 250... Lightning. The guy is dead before you even realize you have cut him down.

Heavy Double Axe and 155. Man, the axe is very powerful but it has 2 big disadvantages:

-very heavy
-very short

So, I prefer the Longbow(+ Large bag of bodkin arrows) and a Sword of War. ~D

Version .750 out:

# Face generator has received an overhaul
# New Launch window
# A proper configuration window instead of the editing the configuration text.
# Automatic render buffer resizing. That means no more "out of static vertex buffer" error for mods (unless you really run out of physical video memory of course.
# Number of Party stacks is not limited anymore.
# Mouse smoothing. (A million thanks to the kind souls who suggested that!)
# Unarmed combat!
# Lots of NPC voices and voice effects!
# Some new sound effects
# Anisotropic texture filtering for sharper looking textures.
# All merchants and taverns have been furnished

Quote:

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Originally Posted by armagan

The new version should be -theoretically- compatible with old saves though it'll work much better if you start a new game.

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It also downloads at 8KB/sec :help:

Nevermind, found a mirror 160 KB/sec :2thumbsup:

Some of the other apparent features (not from armagan):

-fleeing horses/horses keep on running when rider falls of.. They can even run over you...
-the gun is removed from the Zendar chest
- New faces, beards, hair styles and so on
- Faces much more detailed
- punching and blocking
- grunts and owie sounds
-You can now raid caravans...and don't have to join a side
-samurai armor and weapons in the brf files...for mods?




https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...il/Dranton.jpg

Ho ho holy cow.

I know have just spent my next many weeks.

I have played a few hours of this version now, and I must say that it is cool when a you hear bandits/pirates say "I'm gonna break your legs painfully slow" prior to a battle. Or the grunts when you fight... It is just lovely.

And now all the taverns are finished... Some truly look cool.

Yes, the new sounds are really great. I especially like the horse sounds.

Only fought one battle, against some river pirates. I dismounted and was standing behind my horse using it as a shield against their rocks.

It decided it didn't like that and trotted off ~D

The new kergit armor looks fantastic. Also, having being able to have as many kinds of prisoners or troop types as you want is a blessing. I always thought having slots was weird.

Check this out:

https://img133.imageshack.us/img133/2846/wow5to.jpg