Primary vs. secondary weapons and other noob questions

[somedude]

Welcome to the .org By the way.

Thanks. I have to say I'm impressed by how much depth there is in this game and at the same time annoyed by much reading I have to do. Total War? More like Total Read amirite?

I had a few more questions (an understatement):

1. The single most important question is did the current gold version of the game get enough of the bugs (no benefit for guild Journeyman trait, etc) or do I need to go for mod to get this? If a mod is more or less required for the game to work as advertised, which one should I go with, I have seen both Vanilla mod and Land to Conquer Gold mentioned. (the link to Vanilla on the downloads page is broken by the way)? I'm looking for more or less baseline Kingdoms gameplay with bug fixes.

2. How do you estimate distances in the game? Distances of 40, 60, etc seem to operate as triggers with regard to agent traits. 40 what? How do I know when I get there?

3. What is your preferred pre-gunpowder strategy for artillery in field battles? The trebuchet looks good on paper with its long range (285) but a lot of the posters don't seem to think much of trebuchets, citing their accuracy, and their useful limited to assaulting cities or defending cities from assault. The thing with accuracy is if you're targeting a large-ish army even you don't hit your target you're likely to hit something and therefore kill the other guys soldiers (which is the whole point right?). Surprisingly, a lot of people spoke highly of ballistae, which I'm sure must be great but a range (180) only slighter better than higher end archers. Mangonels (only available in Kingdoms) also seem pretty good (range 250, damage 65), they don't require a siege works, and their only apparent downside in that carry less ammo (10) they're harmless against walls.

4. Spy and assassin visibility, how does it happen: How are these units spotted and who is best at spotting? Are spies better at spotting spies/assassins than armies/settlements? Are assassins as good at spotting as spies/assassins or do spies have an edge here? Are watchtowers more likely to spot spies/assasins than armies/settlements?

5. Effects of spy/assassin visibility: Does spy/assassin visibility have have any effects besides just that the other faction knows that its there (and can be targeted)? Does it reduce the unit's chances of success for its own missions?

6. What is best way to thwart spying and assassination attempts? Does stacking a friendly spy with a army or settlement reduce the chance of success of a hostile spying and assassination attempts against that army/settlement?

7. What are the benefits of forts over just having an army in the field? Both block paths and both can be circumvented with sufficient time, so what is the difference? I suppose an army if confronted can only fight or slip away where as a fort has the additional option of digging in for a siege and without the economic penalties that come with one of your settlements being under siege? Is this all their is to forts? Do forts offer any free support to militia type units?

8. Does the Swordsmith's guild give a bonus to all non-mounted melee units or only sword units built in the settlement (not referring here to the factionwide bonus to cavalry for HQ)?

9. What is the significance to fighting at night? A night fighter will get a modest command bonus in a night battle, but what other effects are there as a result of a night battle?

[Darth Feather]

Thanks. I have to say I'm impressed by how much depth there is in this game and at the same time annoyed by much reading I have to do. Total War? More like Total Read amirite?

I had a few more questions (an understatement):

1. The single most important question is did the current gold version of the game get enough of the bugs (no benefit for guild Journeyman trait, etc) or do I need to go for mod to get this? If a mod is more or less required for the game to work as advertised, which one should I go with, I have seen both Vanilla mod and Land to Conquer Gold mentioned. (the link to Vanilla on the downloads page is broken by the way)? I'm looking for more or less baseline Kingdoms gameplay with bug fixes.

2. How do you estimate distances in the game? Distances of 40, 60, etc seem to operate as triggers with regard to agent traits. 40 what? How do I know when I get there?

3. What is your preferred pre-gunpowder strategy for artillery in field battles? The trebuchet looks good on paper with its long range (285) but a lot of the posters don't seem to think much of trebuchets, citing their accuracy, and their useful limited to assaulting cities or defending cities from assault. The thing with accuracy is if you're targeting a large-ish army even you don't hit your target you're likely to hit something and therefore kill the other guys soldiers (which is the whole point right?). Surprisingly, a lot of people spoke highly of ballistae, which I'm sure must be great but a range (180) only slighter better than higher end archers. Mangonels (only available in Kingdoms) also seem pretty good (range 250, damage 65), they don't require a siege works, and their only apparent downside in that carry less ammo (10) they're harmless against walls.

4. Spy and assassin visibility, how does it happen: How are these units spotted and who is best at spotting? Are spies better at spotting spies/assassins than armies/settlements? Are assassins as good at spotting as spies/assassins or do spies have an edge here? Are watchtowers more likely to spot spies/assasins than armies/settlements?

5. Effects of spy/assassin visibility: Does spy/assassin visibility have have any effects besides just that the other faction knows that its there (and can be targeted)? Does it reduce the unit's chances of success for its own missions?

6. What is best way to thwart spying and assassination attempts? Does stacking a friendly spy with a army or settlement reduce the chance of success of a hostile spying and assassination attempts against that army/settlement?

7. What are the benefits of forts over just having an army in the field? Both block paths and both can be circumvented with sufficient time, so what is the difference? I suppose an army if confronted can only fight or slip away where as a fort has the additional option of digging in for a siege and without the economic penalties that come with one of your settlements being under siege? Is this all their is to forts? Do forts offer any free support to militia type units?

8. Does the Swordsmith's guild give a bonus to all non-mounted melee units or only sword units built in the settlement (not referring here to the factionwide bonus to cavalry for HQ)?

9. What is the significance to fighting at night? A night fighter will get a modest command bonus in a night battle, but what other effects are there as a result of a night battle?

1. I actually never played those mods you stated. There is indeed some stuff to which doesn't work as it should, but I personally don't think it is such a problem. I barely use spies to open or spy inside settlements of the opponent, so I don't use the Journyman-trait (I also refuse Thieve guilds all the time, merchant and theologians guilds are way better IMO). The most stupid problem with kingdoms (1.4) is that all Faction heirs in the americas have zero loyalty. So make sure you are patched up to version 1.5. I did hear though that Vanillamod is very good.

2. IIRC it had something to do with squares. But I am not really a modder so I am not the best person to answer this.

3. I don't really use trebs. It takes ages before you get the correct siege factory and their accuract is bad. The only slightly usefull mode of trebuchets is the cow carcess (sp?). Catapults are great though. The ballista is good if you attack units. Its accuracy is quite good and it only takes a large town to build them. The reason why I don't use it is because they tend to hit the units in front of them, while catapults kill from behind your units. But the greatest for field battles are Magonels. I hate it if my opponent has it, but I love to use them myself. So IMO catapults and magonels are the way to go. But for assulting cities it is another case.

4. Spies can spot spies and assassins. the other units usually don't. I think spies have the edge over spotting other spies. I don't know wether watchtowers see them. I only deploy watchtowers at bridges or mountain passes.

5. I don't thinks so. The succes/faillure should still be the same.

6. Yes it greatly helps. If your spy is somewhat trained, he has like 75 percent -100 percent chance to infiltrate the enemy settlement. If the enemy has a spy (level 1) and you are spying with a spy level 10, your cahnces are not likely to raise above 50 percent, and are usually a lot lower.

7. That's all there is for the forts in Medieval. In kingdoms, you have the expensive 2500 florins forts. They give free upkeep to your three most expensive units and have stone walls and great towers.

8. I think it counts for all non-mounted melee units (I seem to remember I had once norse axemen with the sword upgrade)

9. The night attack denies the enemy their reinforcements if they don't have the night fighter ability. Suppose you are attacking a city of the enemy, and right behind the city are reinforcements with a general without the night fighter ability. If you attack the settlement at night, the enemy reinforcements can't come to help.

Hope this answers yout questions.