Sweet Realistic Medieval Combat (Mount and Blade)

[White_eyes:D]

I just use my Swadian Knights to run them down. If the cavalry charge is halted by a group of Rhodoks, my knights are dead. I issue a Follow Me order to prevent this. Archers are virtually worthless against Rhodoks, since even the lowest scum have board shields.

Try facing the Rhodocks in a castle and you will see why, Rhodocks is a strong faction.(If your the defenseive type)

Example:I just finished being in a war with the Khergit faction and won some pretty big battles....of course, I never used any of own men unless, I had to by telling them to "hold position" at the edge of the map.(The other Lords used there men for the grinder)

After peace was declared....I went nuts waiting for another war. Finally, Swadia declared war on Rhodocks and we marched on one of there castles....it was a Slaughter. 700 vs. 95 Rhodocks didn't seem like much....but on that one battle alone,
(before I was wounded) so many arrows hit us from all directions that we lost over 50 guys before they even reached the ladder

Fighting them in the field is simple...taking there castles is HARD.

[Kekvit Irae]

Try facing the Rhodocks in a castle and you will see why, Rhodocks is a strong faction.(If your the defenseive type)

I have. One castle siege and 75% of my troops dead, I decided it wasn't worth it. If there's one thing that Rhodoks are good at, it's castle defense. Just as Khergits can tear you a new one on the field, but have such pathetic armor and infantry that they fall easily in siege defense.

[Madoushi]

Well, I finally caved and bought the game, and am in the terrible starting phase where even common Looters can be hard to run down.

I tried the MP, and it was pretty neat, although I got discouraged pretty fast when I had 1 kill to 45 deaths. Without a horse, you're just in big trouble, and it wouldn't let me buy a horse, so yeah.

The new map, faction and merchant quests are pretty neat. As I'm still just starting, and basically just running around with a dozen Vaegir Recruits, I can't speak on any of the other new plot features like marriage or feasts.

Before I knew how to couch my lance in M&B, I found combat a nightmare. Not even that it was hard, but more that it took forever, since the enemy could rarely hit me, and I could rarely hit them. Countless times I'd thrust with my lance, watch the tip pass right through a head or shoulder or torso, but deal no damage because it didn't hit the hitbox.
I don't mind things like auto-couch or a wider mounter sword radius, because for me they make up for the fact I have to play using a 2D monitor. If they wanted to balance combat, formations would have gone a longer way, IMO.

I'm sure I'll enjoy the game more when I have a few months worth of game-time under my belt. I really hate the starting phases, though, so for now I'm just trying to grind it out.

[Kekvit Irae]

Well, I finally caved and bought the game, and am in the terrible starting phase where even common Looters can be hard to run down.

I tried the MP, and it was pretty neat, although I got discouraged pretty fast when I had 1 kill to 45 deaths. Without a horse, you're just in big trouble, and it wouldn't let me buy a horse, so yeah.

The new map, faction and merchant quests are pretty neat. As I'm still just starting, and basically just running around with a dozen Vaegir Recruits, I can't speak on any of the other new plot features like marriage or feasts.

Before I knew how to couch my lance in M&B, I found combat a nightmare. Not even that it was hard, but more that it took forever, since the enemy could rarely hit me, and I could rarely hit them. Countless times I'd thrust with my lance, watch the tip pass right through a head or shoulder or torso, but deal no damage because it didn't hit the hitbox.
I don't mind things like auto-couch or a wider mounter sword radius, because for me they make up for the fact I have to play using a 2D monitor. If they wanted to balance combat, formations would have gone a longer way, IMO.

I'm sure I'll enjoy the game more when I have a few months worth of game-time under my belt. I really hate the starting phases, though, so for now I'm just trying to grind it out.

You'll eventually get used to manually thrusting with a lance. I find it's easier to charge a little to the left of a target. If you charge head on, then more than likely your horse will hit the enemy before your lance does. The game does calculate the momentum of a thrust, which is nice, so hitting an enemy mid-thrust will do more damage then having your lance fully extended. Another tip I can offer is to aim low. Aiming straight on will result in a miss 95% of the time, whereas aiming for center mass will net you good results.

And the early part does suck, but that's what Recruits are there for. Recruit a good number of Recruits, charge headlong into a group of enemies, distract them until the Recruits can catch up, then lance the enemies in the back while they are busy fighting someone else. If a Recruit dies, no biggy, just hire more. And a maxing out your Surgery goes a LONG way in preserving your troops. I find it's easier to increase STR and CHA to about 9 or 12, then pumping everything into INT. Not only do you get an extra skill point per INT point, but your Surgery maximum increases every 3 INT. I'm currently at 6 Surgery which helps greatly if things go badly.

[Major Robert Dump]

I like to play on hard setting. But I hate starting a new character. So here is what I do:

Put diff on easy. Buy about 15 recruits. Go from village to village forcing them to give you supplies that you will immediately sell as you go from town to town, because you are going from town to town checking the tavern for the book merchant. Buy every book that adds a skill (not the +1 while in inventory crap). Logic is most important, as it gives u an intelligence point which gives u an extra skill point. Trade, weapons master, tactics, engineer are good, too, but the secondmost important is the life of alexander because it adds to leadership...which means you can control better parties without having to necessarily dump points in charisma early on.

If you want hit some tournaments up too for weapons xp and a few levels, but this takes longer than stealing from villages and doesnt pay as well.

By the time you find the book merchant, go camp somewhere in a secluded corner....read all your books semi-afk.....then go sell them and sell everything else you have.

Export character.

Start new game, import character.

Wash rinse repeat, I suggest at least 5 times.

Now start your real game of the hardest setting, with some skill points banked and a couple levels ahead of the curve. Much more fun, imo, especially if you play no-save realistic.

[Crandaeolon]

I prefer to just edit the exported character file or, heaven forbid, use cheats! To be honest, M&B campaign mode is rather grindy. Doing it once should be enough.

[Vuk]

I prefer to just edit the exported character file or, heaven forbid, use cheats! To be honest, M&B campaign mode is rather grindy. Doing it once should be enough.

Or you can play the VFGR mod and it will take you a few months to conquer the campaign, and doing it again will be fun all over again.