I must say, for a rather dull game with minimum plot it's very engaging.
I have two characters as of now: a learned merchant, who discovered taking part in war is really bad for business (landed horse-less in a desert, surrounded by raiders; joined the Swadians, surrounded by enemies at the time) and a blond haired warrior with a strong sword-arm, fighting for the Vaegris cause (and cursing Khergit mounted bowmen; fighting against the Nords was much less frustrating).
I'm also pondering making a warlord called Piast or Ziemowit or even Mieszko and making him a Swadian king... except he would be black
I haven't tried the multiplayer yet; I guess I should read online about it first. I haven't tried any mods either.
Consider this thread a Mount & Blade general.
Kerghets are actually easy to fight: Get some lots of melee calvalry, and a lance. The main thing to remember is 'don't chase the horse archers'. They are faster than you, and think it is funny. Target ones being chased by others by cutting off their path and trying to couch them at a right angle. And killing the horse is almost as good as killing the rider.
If they chase you, make sharp low speed turns while slashing to the side. Lancers with faceless horses are a joke.
Edit: If you must fight them with ground forces, don;t chase them. Make them come to you. If your infantry chase them, they will just die tired and surrounded.
Edit: If you must fight them with ground forces, don;t chase them. Make them come to you. If your infantry chase them, they will just die tired and surrounded.
Yup, figured that one out while having only Sarradian recruits against desert raiders. It's funny how it is quite easy to win with small losses despite great number disadvantage as long as you're concious.
Buut things changed: Vaegirs made a treaty with Khergits and my contract timed out. Meanwhile Swadians started a war with Rhodoks. Since half my troops are Swadians (mostly heavy cavalry; the rest are mostly Vaegir bowmen) I've joined them at the first opportunity.
I feared those pikemen at first, but it turned out they have more crossbowmen than pikemen. Not a single battle (and hardly any men) lost since joining that war
As of now I have 12.
I've sworn loyalty to the king of Swadia, but I'm not favored by him. Swadian nobles on the other hand are mostly pleased by my actions and often support me.
I still mostly have heavy cavalry, but I've added a few infantrymen recently. I now command 96 troops.
And I look like this:
Aside from that, the game can be ruthlessly brutal in its realisim at times. Trying to setup your own kingdom can be very difficult unless you get very, very good at winning fights where you are outnumbered 10 to 1 with few casualties as a single empire can easily bring all their lords down on any of your holding with little notice, and it takes you much longer to get high level troops than rival nations.
I enjoy the game, but I honestly could not imagine ever playing it to the 'end'.
It is interesting, but the world is so... stagnant. You have alot of freedom in what you choose to do, but really so little choice in what you actually can do. Interaction with the NPCs is basically a joke, noone has any personality, the romance subplot is dull and ultimatley on rewarding... the world lacks life, and everything moves at an infuriating slow pace. Building one building in a town you own could easily take 8 or more hours of real life time for no real benifit to account for the cost in time and effort.
Aside from that, the game can be ruthlessly brutal in its realisim at times. Trying to setup your own kingdom can be very difficult unless you get very, very good at winning fights where you are outnumbered 10 to 1 with few casualties as a single empire can easily bring all their lords down on any of your holding with little notice, and it takes you much longer to get high level troops than rival nations.
I enjoy the game, but I honestly could not imagine ever playing it to the 'end'.
Yup, I'd love to see a mod that gives the NPCs personalities. It'd be fun if Count X was very keen on dueling while Prince Y would run away unless he got at least twice the troops (and still be a lousy leader).
I thought 100 troops would be enough to get a pretender to take the throne... but that seems about half the force needed to take a single castle. So yeah, it's a great timesink, but to actually rule all of Calradia? No life.
@Jesse: it's one of those "love it or hate it" games... and it's butt-ugly, if you care about this ;P
Try a demo version first.
Which brings me to... I've first tried a demo of this game in 2006. It was helluva different (only two nations, the Swadians and the Vaegirs with Khergit as independent raiders; no villages; simpler trade affairs, etc.) and I can't think of any reason why did they have to scrap all of it's music! Not that the current soundtrack is bad, but just check out these beauts. They feature a common theme tune for goodness sake! I love me some leitmotifs in game music.