[Mount&Blade] Tips, Tactics & Strategy Guide (Version 960)

**roy34543** · July 09, 2008, 08:56 AM

This post is currently reserved for making a guide. I may be on this on and off so its a work in progress

For older versions click below for the guide by Sheep-Goats see the discussion here

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Legal stuff.. If neccasary
This can be unliterally quoted used abused or misquoted and without any recognition at any time. Basically do whatever the hell you want with it. (Except selling it for money somehow...Thats a no-no!)

A guide to Mount and blade version .960

Table of Contents
1.0 Character Creation
1.1 Melee Characters
1.2 Ranged Characters
1.2.1 Foot ranged Characters
1.2.2 Horse Ranged Characters
1.2.3 Throwing Weapon Characters?
1.3 Profit-based Characters
1.4 Leadership Based characters

2.0 Starting out
2.1 What locations do i go to? What kind are there?
2.2 What are all those moving things on the map?
2.3 Is there a "more difficult" or more "easy" faction?
2.4 What to do in the start when you are hard pressed for cash.
2.5 I Leveled up! What to put my stats in?

3 Combat.
3.1 Melee character with 1 handed weapon and shield mounted
3.2 Above (dismounted)
3.3 Melee character with 2 handed weapon mounted
3.4 Above (dismounted)
3.5 Ranged with bow mounted
3.6 ranged with bow (dismounted)
3.7 Ranged with throwing weapon mounted
3.8 What? You actually want to do this? Above(Dismounted)

4. Advanced Gameplay
4.1 Quests (warning, I may not know all the quests in the game myself, Inform me if you see
some I missed)
4.2 Getting a fief and making it better
4.3 Rebellion Time!
5 Modifications
5.1 Partial list (not all reviewed, Rest reviewed)
5.2 Curtain of Fire

FAQ (I know this tends to be tacked onto guides later ,but i will add it quickly because theres a lot of questions)

1.0 Character creation :

Character creation is an important aspect of the game, it can define what your character can do overall in the start of the game and provides a important base for later on.
How is character creation done? what is it based on? What are the various ways of doing it?
I will attempt to explore this here, However the most basic way of understanding character creation is that early choices affect what stats you gain and what early items you gain

For the sake of saving time and space I will simply provide the link to the fine website im using.

http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Mount%2...acter_creation

It details what these choices give you. I think its important to note that this will be the basis of this part of the guide, you can skim through it if you wish but you do not have to because i will do all the work for you

1.1 Melee character

It isnt hard to understand, its the fine art of poking stuff with a sharp object. But what is neccasary for this "awesome" proffesion? Why in this game an awful lot of power strike, Ironflesh and weapons master skills!
This naturally means high strength and agility.
Sooo. What to pick? How to balance it out?
Now all these are done on the assumption you picked a male character, For me it simplifys things at the moment. females can have slightly different choices

So first pick "your father was a veteran warrior" This gives you some renown, a nice shield and most importantly some decent strength and agility stats and some good fighting/leadership skills too

Early life pick a page at a noblemens court, it gives you STR and charisma
but more importantly the only choice for power strike

For adult pick squire. The list is long why to pick it. Just do if you take a melee character. tis what you should pick!

For reason for adventuring pick "Personal revenge" for some strength and power strike

Now the remaining point choice is yours, I suggest investing 1 point in charisma , 2 points in int , and 1 point in strength . Then put 3 points in ironflesh, 1 in trainer 1 in persuasion and one in prisoner management.

1.2 Ranged Characters

Of course, Not much better right? your hitting them with sharp objects, But from further away. Well anyway there are various choices for this and all require different stats. but lets start off with

1.2.1 Foot ranged character

This is your simple bowan , hes gonna snipe from afar. The choices you need to make are not very varied on this one either. Just follow what i say! You mostly need strength again for power draw and agility for athletics.

Pick your father was a Hunter for some nice str and agility and some power draw and athletics and some other stuff bonuses

Pick your early life as a steppe child, this will give you horse archery you wont use but the overall stats are better for your character then the alternatives

pick a gamer poacher for adulthood, it has some good stuff. but most importantly a bow

Pick wanderlust for the reason you went adventuring for agility

There you have it, an archer character! Sink 3 points into strength and 1 into agility, and top up your power draw and athletics (so you can run away from looters quickly and shoot them effectively)

1.2.2 Horse Ranged Character

Pretty similar and pretty simple. Similar to the above in principle but add horse archery and riding.

Pick your father was a steppe nomad for bonuses to your archery and horse archery attributes/skills.

Pick your early life was a steppe child for similar bonuses

Pick your adulthood as a smelly game poacher (you lead a wierd life) and
go for wanderlust again

there you have it! a horse archery character add 2 points to agility, 1 to int and 1 to strength sink 2 points into trainer 1 into power draw 2 into horse archery and 1 into prisoner management

1.2.3 Throwing weapons character

Wierd and unorthodox choice .. Your going to need to have something to back up this choice.. However if you pick it heres what you need. Remember you need power throw for this choice and athletics is good

Pick your father was a theif to gain a throwing weapon bonus and throwing knives. and power throw

Pick a steppe child because you oddly get power throw and strength from it

Pick a squire because that has throwing and theres no better alternative

and pick wanderlust for agility

Sink all four points into strength. Then put your 2 skill points into throwing and 2 skill points into athletics

1.3 Profit based characters

So you want to get rich without entering a fight?And when you do getting more out of it? These little options are specifically for you traders!

Your father was a travelling merchent for nice intellectual and charismatic boosts and trading bonuses

Then pick a shop assistant for inventory management and trading and int and charisma

Then pick a goods peddler for all the good stuff it gives you

then pick the loss of a loved one for charisma, your going to rely on hired hands for everything so sink your points into charisma! put 1 point into trade 3 into leadership 2 into persuasion and 2 into trainer
Well you get a wierd character that throws stuff that could be otherwise used to axe peoples heads in at close range... Waste of money but your choice. (only realistically speaking, In the game the axes dont cost you anything to recharge after you get them)

1.4 Leadership based Character
A leadership based character is one based quite simply on leadership, It is to manipulate the minds of men into following you on a whim . The main reasons you need this is of course to hide the rhodoks epic fail by recruiting millions of them. Otherwise, Why is it neccasary?

Pick you father was an imrpoverished noble for some Charisma and int bonuses
and +100 renown as well and some other nice stuff

Pick a page at a noblemans court at early life for extra charisma and Str, But mostly for the charisma

Pick a troubadour for adulthood( yes i know this is by far the most embarrasing choice) For the extra charisma

Then say you left for the loss of a loved one

Now you have a character that can lead ... Men at the start of the game.(pick these stats first) put 3 more points in charisma, and one in int. Put 2 points in trainer 2 points in leadership 1 point in tactics and 1 point in prisoner management.

You may realize all the above choices for all the characters reflect an entire lack of the mostly int stats.
Well these are actually more for personal choice later in the game, Persuasion and trainer are useful, But you need to decide if they take precedence over your great axe doing 70 damage. Most party members can fill in the gap on a lot of int skills and i highly suggest making them do so . Ill cover characters

2.0 Starting Out.

Starting out in Mount and blade is a heiniously difficult task, You have no men with you and weak weapons and almost no money too!
Despite this difficulty its possible to rise up to be better then your foes!

2.1 What locations do i go to? What kind are there?

There are largely 3 kinds of locations in Mount and blade of note, a 1 of minor note
The major ones are the Castle, Village and Town. The minor one is the training fields

Castles are largely built to have huge stores of men in them, What they do is watch over the villages. If you capture a castle you capture a village or several with it.
Most castles in the game have a unique layout, Some are harder to capture then others and some are easier, but almost all are different. Generally a castle will have its lord in it doing ..something.. Probably excersizing those rights of his. Very popular stuff in medieval times. Not much else to do for fun
You can go to these lords and ask for quests, early on this is good as an extra little bit of cash wont hurt, And even doing the messenger quests gives a bit of money. Eventually you will build up to the better quests. You can also rest in castles for a health regenaration boost and to avoid bandits killing you if theyre following you.

Villages are less easy to explain, Theyre full to the brim with villagers, There are many things you can do with them. The most important is recruiting. Recruiting will bring you the extra early men you need. Frankly most of them are not fit to swing a sword but thats ok because they will either A:get better fast B: DIE AN ATROCIOUSLY PAINFUL DEATH ! And im sure they know what they prefer. Villages also have quests in them. If you ride into the village and ask the village elder if he has any quests for you he may give you one. I will give a more in-depths explanation of quests at a later date. You can also take a hostile action against villages, You can force them to give you supplies which gives you a small amount of food, steal their cattle which you can then take for a quest or simply kill for beef. Or loot and burn the village. The last will almost always elicit a response of 60-200 farmers and peasent women rising in arms against your tyranny. Fortunatly ive solod them all before with a tempered bastard sword. Looting and burning will give you a ridicolously good amount of goods and a fair amount of cash. However be warned the faction you are attacking does not look kindly upon peoples burnings its villages and will reduce its relations with you. Also the lord who owns the village will have a special place of hatred for you in his heart. Technically speaking you can also buy stuff from a village, But i think people like to burn.

Heres a village elder

Cities are probably the longest of all with the most features, They tend to have a powerful lord or several in them and a lady too. Theyre Trade magents and theyre the most prosporous regions in the area.
They always have the castle to go on to talk to the lord with, Quests in cities tend to be more varied and fun. Finding a merchent the lord doesnt like and headshotting an axe into his face before he can even tell you he doesnt like you ranks up there highly. Every city is full of streets .In them you can find a guildmaster. An individual who gives you quests on behalf of the city. They generally involved moving livestock or items around but can also be more interesting

A guildmaster, Nothing special

. Also in every city there is a tavern, a tavern has several patrons. These include the traveler, Who can tell you where the claimants (Covered later) are , Where companions you lost are and take a ridicolous price for this information he should have given for free. I mean who seriously wants to pay 30 denars to know where DESHAVI is?
Also there can be the ransom broker. Who after repeatedly boasting at length how he can know how fine each individual slave is, Gives you 50 denars even if theyre peasent women or swadian knights.
There can also be companions, Other "heroes" as it were that help you on your quest to do whatever. You can choose what skills to give to them when they level up and choose their equipment, they also tend to be stronger then most soldiers by default. They have varying functions, Such as being good traders , Engineers, Trainers or a pain in the ass.
You see some Companions just dont get along together. To see a list of who likes what consult this list, But to make it short for everyone who doesnt like loading times

http://forums.taleworlds.net/index.p...c,36781.0.html

Suggested Config (1)
Artmimenner
Deshavi
Marnid
Ymira
Bunduk
Katrin
Nizar

"Old School" Config (2)
Artmimenner
Borcha
Marnid
Lezalit
Rolf
Matheld
Nizar
Katrin
-This one has lower skill numbers in a couple spots and spreads out the coverage of skills (rather than having A medic, you have two, etc.), but more people get along with each other in this one, which will be a pleasant change from the bickering.

Artimenner is the real problem, since he's the only Engineer. If you opt to handle engineering yourself, then Jeremus can be your medic.

Jeremus Config (3)
Jeremus
Bunduk
Deshavi
Klethi
Ymira
Alayen
Firentis
Baheshtur

Illl go more deeply onto their effects later perhaps.

Taverns also provide a spot for mercenaries, Theyre soldiers for a steep price, However theyre some of the best in all calradia. Mercanary cavalry and Hired blades are arguably the best at their respective job in the entire game. However they are indeed expensive. Mercanary cavalry cost 40 denars per week each!
There is also the odd book merchant looking to sell his wares. He will sell books that increase stats. Most of these while considering their use have a fair price, Still cost a ludicrously high amount. At the start of the game as such do not consider getting any, although you may have a random book if you picked to be a university student.

A queer sort of tavern, Like every other tavern

Cities also each boast an arena where fighting is held. In every city there is a constant melee with 40 people, Where they each fight each other. while most of the champion fighters, sensible as they are, Stay until the near-end of the melee to join in. There are bonuses for joining and killing others
3 opponents killed =2 denars
6 opponents killed= 5 denars
10 opponents kiled= 15 denars
20 opponents killed= 30 denars
Last man standing= 100 denars
These dont stack. So the last man standing bonus is "just" 100 denars, Number of opponents killed not included You can get several weapons here such as a 1 handed sword and shield, 2 handed sword, Bow and staff (god i hate the staff)

Im serious.. Pray you dont get the staff!

Sometimes though, there are tournaments. There are elimination knockout rounds where you can win a lot of money betting on yourself. This is reduced as you win more and more but initially its a lot
You can get a Two handed sword and horse, A 1 handed weapon and shield, A bow , a horse and lance or a horse and bow in tournaments, As just getting a bow tends to screw melee characters i suggest you begin to pray you do not recieve it.
I believe there are several layours for the matches, but they basically haev 64 people in them and 6 tiers. There can be anything between 2-4 different teams "yellow" "blue " "red" and "green" , Red is the most well-dressed if i may say so. So it goes first round is 64, then 32 then 16 then 8 then 4 then 2
If you lose on one of the first rounds, you may be allowed to pass onto the next round by the master of ceremonies if you knocked unconcious enough other people to merit it. However after that elimination is total game over.
In reward you will get 200 denars no-strings-attached and 20 free renown along with the profits of any bets you made

An atypical tournament fight, You are dressed in different armor and given a random weapon

If you go to the marketplace you see all the merchents you need on a list, Arms, Amor, Horse and goods merchant. You can also "asses the local prices" and if you have a high trade skill may find a good item to buy here and to sell somewhere else for a hefty profit.

Training fields should get a small mention, You can train "weapons" with them. If you train a ranged weapon all ranged units will get a small bonus to XP if you do well, And if you spar with someone else all melee units (every unit?) will get a small XP bonus.If you do the horse-track with no ranged weapon melee horsemen get a XP bonus, if you do it. Likewise with the horse archery track. The more opponents you spar with the higher the XP boost units get. You could theoretically raise a recruit to a knight if you wanted to through the training field, but it would be a pain to do so . The rest entirely focus on breaking clay pots. In the archery ones remember that shift will give you a zoom so you can see where the arrows go more clearly, and remember you have to aim above the pots due to gravity. Also in the melee horseman thing remember that the angle of your camera directly affects what way the blades swings to (Lower, Higher) so try and keep your camera leveled at the center for easy breaking!

2.2 What are all those moving things on the map?

The moving things are all parties interacting with the world.
Mount and blade uses a Living world model, That is characters interact without you being in the vicinity or with your help.
The main things moving across the map, Apart from your party of course are various parties. The major ones are Bandits, Lords , and Caravans Lesser ones are Manhunters, Peasents and Quest-related characters .

What are they for? That is entirely to your discretion. You can kill some of them, Help them, threaten them or use them to your advantage.

Bandits are the main neutral enemies of the game, They come in several brands. They are Sea Raider, Steppe bandits, Mountain bandits, Forest bandits, Looters and deserters. the forest and looter variety ask for 1030 gold to leave you alone. Sea raiders just want to drink from your skull.

Sea raiders are most likely the toughest in the game, They have a bad of tricks up their sleeve, are armored well, and can stand most assaults with ease. They have big shields too. Theyre sometimes called pretty overpowered. They usually have great axes and a few throwing weapons on them and sometimes a bow.

On the Map

On the field, Note the varying degrees of armor

Steppe bandits are like the khergits, Theyre mostly horse archers basically. Prepare for long chases as you try and corner every last excessively running one. They have inferior gear but they dont come in small amounts and the khergits horseback advantage is neutralized because they have it to if you face them. Bowmen are efficient at taking them down

On the field, Theyre hard to see but look closely and theyre there

Mountain bandits are a mixed lot, They can be on horses or not and can have bows or not. Theyre a pretty mixed bag overall. Theyre not too great and can be taken down by a decent party.
On the map

On the field on a horse

on the field on foot

Foerst bandits are armed with bows... Strong bows! Appraoching them with neither a horse not shield is a bad idea. They can also be quite tough in melee. Theyre not the hardest bandits but they can be a pain, Especially if they all focus on you
On the map

On the field

Looters are the worst unit in the gamer, They can barely even pathetically stand up to farmers. They have basically rags for armor and will throw rocks at you. If theyre lucky they have a falchion or axe to use against you but most dont. They are extremely easy to kill and are a good source of slaves at the start of the game. It is a mockery they ask for 1030 denars to leave you alone.

Looters on the map

Looters on the field, Getting pwned. Yes Ymira has a glaive.. It looks cool!

Deserters are not just mixed, In fact they can be any unit in the game. Theyre not plain "deserters" but are in fact a mixed unit group of any unit in the game! Be careful with the appearence too, The first can be a looter but the rest could be Swadian knights! Check the unit list before engaging them. If you find them though, They can be bribed off for 150 denars (usually)

Deserters on the map, Note it shows that they are khergit skirmishers in fact

Deserters on the field

Lords are not very complex, They are basically characters like you allied to an AI faction, They own a fief and control an army. They move from place to place , Sometimes they stay in their castles and sometimes they move out to go on campaign and enter a war, usually to siege somewhere for a few days before gaining nothing and leaving.
They can give you tasks, Or you can ask them how the war is going or where a lord within their faction is. Their responses will generally be based on your recent victories, defeats , your honor and renown etc. They represent their respective faction and any attacks on them will mar your relationship with the faction they belong to.

A lord(preferably imagine that being said in a whimsical british accent)

Caravans are basically moving trade goods, Theyre heavily defended too, They often have mercanaries such as caravan guards (usually lots of caravan guards in fact) and maybe mercanary crossbowmen and hired blades.
You can attack them of course for their precious goods(usually just a few trade goods like linen), This will reduce your relationship with the faction they come from. You can also offer to help them reach their destination for a price, and you can take a toll from them (will reduce relationship again) for passing in your terratory. Caravans are significant for determining prosperity of cities, Few caravans means very low prosperity . If no caravans reach a city it will become progressively poorer. if more reach it it will become richer. Try not to attack them if theyre heading towards your fiefs... Remember that if you save a caravan after its battling with an enemy, you get extra relationship with the faction its from!

The average caravan

Manhunters are rare to see, But when you do you should know theyre hunting parties looking for personal wealth and glory by taking the law into their own hands and killing bandits. They actually wont do anything. If you manage to recruit one they have an interesting tier, But for the most part theyre not very useful. You may happen to stumble upon one and join the battle on their side against bandits

Peasent groups are like caravans , but smaller and less impressive. They take their goods by hand to other villages . They also affect the prosperity of villages so keep them safe by killing bandits that could attack them near your fief. Since theyre only about 9 peasents they tend to get slaughtered if bandits find them

Here is an average group of peasents.

Quest characters will have Light-blue names. they appear only during quests. I will cover the kinds of quests later. but just know they exist. If you see a guy with a light blue name you probably have to follow and kill him. or if its a caravan escort them.

2.3 Is there a "more difficult" or easier faction?
In this section I shall cover the various factions. First of all to the question above, Yes the Khergits rock and the rhodoks couldnt beat a fly, Now onto the non-biased view !

There are 5 (arguably 6?) factions in the game. They are the Rhodoks, Swadians, Veagrs, Nords and Khergits. They all have their strengths and weaknesses.

The Rhodoks are as of version .960 considered the worst faction in the game by many people, their spearman are weak and they have no horseman. Their crossbowmen are ok but theyre not excellent, That is theyre not enough to compensate for their other weaknesses. Their lords generally have more men then the other factions. This is mostly true of their king, Who can sometimes have 500 men in his party from the start of the game. Their recruit unit is also one of the worst tier 1 untis in the game further increasing their difficulty. However their cities are rich and have fewer bandits then the other factions usually.
Difficulty: Hard, Theyre weak and have no horseman.

Their troop tree can be found here
http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Mount%26Blade/Rhodoks

Swadians are a easier faction. They have the strongest cavalry in the game and strong infantry and crossbowme. Their penalty for this however is a long troop tree with a lot of hard XP neccasary to upgrade units. Their cities are also in the exact middle of the map, this is both an advantage and disadvantage as it allows you to move to any other factions cities quickly and efficiently, But it also allows enemies to attack you from all direction. Their cities seem to host tournaments more often then the other factions but that may simply be my misperception.
Difficulty: Medium or easy. It can vary depending on the amount of enemies they make, But generally they have few enemies which can actually result in the game being very boring.

Their troop tree can be found here
http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Mount%26Blade/Swadians

Veagrs are a mixed faction i havent played often. On the one hand their archers are probably the strongest. But they also have strong cavalry and infantry. Like the swadians they have no real disadvantage other then the length of time it takes to upgrade the unit tree. The swadians technically have stronger knights but the veagirs have a good sort as well. Their positioning allows khergits only to attack from a chokepoint(doesnt really affect battles) and they have decent cities
Difficulty: Medium, They have good troops and a balanced tree. and theyre quite often at war with one or two factions.

Their troop tree can be found here
http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Mount%26Blade/Vaegirs

Nords are a faction to play that can require a bit of strategy . They are entirely infantry based and only have ranged units as a secondary feature, that means theyre mostly melee based and they can have a hard time against ranged units. Many players prefer to put them on a hill so they get a bonus and cavalry cant charge against them. Remembering that F1 means "stay here" is important for this faction at times because they can get cut up if they all seperate. They have good armor and usually a throwing weapon or bow. Their cities are up north and theyre usually in some sort of dispute against the khergits oddly enough, which are far away from them. Their troop tree is one sided, There is only advancing from recruit to huscarl but the units in between are quite good as well. That can take a very long time so you can be vulnerable initially, as they only find ranged weapons at footmen level. Their cities are not very special in any sense.
Difficulty: Medium-easy, Despite their lack of a varied troop tree, theyre units are exceptionally strong! because of their sheilds they can usually deal with enemy arrows as well. Theyre a relatively easy faction to play against anything because while arrows are finite, Axes are forever and they have a few bows as well

Their troop tree can be found here
http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Mount%26Blade/Nords

Khergits are the horse faction. Even their tribesman have a chance of a horse greatly increases their power early on. They have a short tree with easily upgraded units that increases their power as well. Both of their top-tier units can get bows. They also have a position in the corner of the map. Their Horse-archer capacity and Every-unit-has-a-horse mentaltiy makes theme extremely strong, as horses tend to mean an extra 100 hitpoints or more in melee. Theyre one weakness is sieges where they dont have a horse, In sieges their lack of armor becomes apparant and they get cut down easily.
Difficulty:easy They have very good tier 1 untis that are better then most, and they have easily upgradable units that are strong. The only problem is that fighting other khergit and khergit like enemies is a multiplied pain. Sieges only come later in the game, But you tend to be the deciding force in them one way or another.

Their troop tree can be found here
http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Mount%26Blade/Khergits

It is arguable that there is a 6th neutral faction, all the bandits and such. Here is a troop tree of all the "other' units
http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Mount%26Blade/Neutral

2.4 What to do in the start when you are hard-pressed for cash.
What you should do in the start should be dictated by quests and the stats you took. If you took a character with high trading, dont wait! Just go over into a city and "asses prices" and then make a profit , Try and get the nearer cities as you dont want to be attacked by bandits on the way.
If you didnt take a character with high trading, Then you should probably kill looters, or take up quests. There are many quests but just do whatever they give you to build up wealth. Try and take prisoners. To take a prisoner use a blunt weapon and smash the enemys head in. You can then sell them at a random tavern where you can find a ransom broker. You can also enter the arena and try and win, this will net you some early cash. If you find a tournament enter it bet on yourself and pray you win.

2.5 I leveled up! What to put my points in?
Here ill try and put a definition for the stats in the game. Remember that skills governed by a attribute means that you need the skill in question to be 1/3rd of the attribute. For example if i had 10 ironflesh i would need 30 strength.
Attributes.
Strength! The basis of a one-man army! This attribute adds 1 health point every time you add to it , It also governs the skills of Ironflesh power-strike power-throw and power-draw. If you are planning on creating a chracter then can kill 40 footmen in a row then this is the stat you need! Strength also icnreases the base damage of weapons a little, but not greatly.

Agiltiy! What you need to move fast! This is a requirement for all characters that require quick movement. It adds 5 weapon points and increases weapon speed by 0.5%. The stat is both a good alternative to massive health and to repeated fighting. It governs Sheild, Athletics , Weapon master, riding and horse archery. Basically these are the skills you need to survive longer with a bit of skill instead of brute strength. It is basically a requirement for riding the best horses in the game , You should get at least 12 agility for the riding skill! getting it to 30 is very interesting, with athletics 10 if you dont put on metal armor then you can move quickly. You can slash with a two handed sword, Move back and slash again.. It also makes you fire faster which is essential. If you want to be a horse archer you should get 6 horse archery skill which lowers the accuracy penalties to the minimum (damage is still increased if you put more in it).

Intellegence! Almost all the stats here are useful support stats!Getting intellegence means adding an extra skill point to your arsenal. The majority of skills are governed by this trait, However one thing that should be noted is that most of the skills can be acquired by other party members. So it is up to you to decide if you want to delegate the skills to your party members or keep them for yourself. There are however benefits to having it yourself as you can get trainer inventory management and persuasion which can all be situationally useful and are exclusively personal. Intellegence governs trainer,tracking, pathfinding , spotting, inventory management, wound treatment, surgery, first aid, engineering and persuasion. (a lot huh) But i repeat , with the exception of trainer, inventory management and persuasion they are party skills that can be given to other party members and you should try to do so! Having a lot of intellegence tends to be underwhelming for the most part until extremely high levels as the main use is to add to persuasion overall which is used for several things i will cover later. However if you put points into agility and strength at the same time at high levels (35+) it will pay off far better then having a very small amount of intellegence only as you get extra skill points to put into everything.

Charisma! The trait that governs the amount of men you can have with you and trading. Indeed it governs the least skills. However it is by the merit of itself the most useful as it adds one man you can lead for every point you put in it. The good side of charisma? You can lead more men and they can steamroll everything for you and you can just remain lazy. The bad side? Renown does the same thing. A mere 15 renown will put an extra man in your party. Charisma governs Leadership , prisoner management and trading. The only attribute that i dont have to go into the game to double-check about. While trading is an interesting trait to get money with, I find money to be only a minor concern late in the game and only something you have to struggle for in the start. Rememebr however that trading is a part skill, so you dont have to get it yourself but can get marnid to do your work.

This i probably should have explained earlier. But if you were puzzled fear not because here i am to explain.
There are several skill types in the mount and blade world, Leader skills, that affect purely you the leader of the party. Giving them to other party members will have no affect. Personal skills that affect the person they are given to solely, and party skills that affect the party using the person with the highest level of skill in said skill It does not stack. That said character development is nothing flashy in mount and blade A recent feature seems to be that enough of a party skill in one character will reinforce the skill of the character with the highest skill. . There are exactly 24 skills to choose from so theres plenty of variation in characters. Here is a list

Ironflesh, This skill adds 2 health to your character. This is mildly useful but not really great. Im sure if you pump 10 points in it and have 30 strength (which you would, If you pumped 10 points into it) which would be a great boon. With heavy armor you could even survive being lanced. However the skill is fairly useless in the long term. Governed by strength of coruse

Power strike: This skill adds 8% melee damage to you. Nothing to laugh at! Some weapons require a bit of power strike to wield. I would highly suggest getting points into this trait quickly if you are not a hardcore ranged character, Even if your not a pure melee one either. Its governed by strength too.

Power throw : Ok honestly i was joking earlier. Noone actually has a throwing character build. But if you have one this is the thing to pick. adds 10% damage to thrown weapons and you need 1 point in it to use some. With 10 in this skill you will be instantly killing enemies when you throw a knife into their head...Not bad! Besides anyone can testify that sticking an axe inside an enemy lords head is as satisfying as the game gets.

Power draw :The mandatory skills for bows. You not only need points in it to use the better bows (up to 4) but there will be negative accuracy effects until you have 3 more points in it then the requirement of the bow. (so 7 points if it needed 4 to be used) it automatically increases damage by 12% for every point over the requirement of the bow up to a maximum of four, maxing it out at 48%. so far i do not understand why its neccasary to get the skill above 8 points. Its way too good to miss for bow characters though so pick it up when you can until its at 8 (war bow has a requirement of 4 power draw and its the best bow)

Weapon master: This skill allows you to put proficiency points into the weapons. Sounds good right? well.. Most consider it fairly worthless. Not only do you have to put huge points to increasing a proficiency by one at very high levels, You can also get proficiency simply by using the weapon and its not maxed out anywhere if you do. However if you have nowhere else to put a skill give it a shot.

Sheild: Well Sheidls got nerfed recently. The really weak ones can break fairly easily. But lets be honest here, Unless your getting couched dont expect it to. most shields have over 400 health and you can get one with 800. This skill is kind of worthless unless your economising on shields which would be strange . however it fits with the move-fast theme , After all youd want a light shield thats not very heavy. This stat reduces shield damage by 8%. It also increases their coverage and speed marginally which is probably the best part.

Athletics: Want to move fast? This is the skill that does it. It allows you to move at sometimes bizzare speeds if you have little to no armor on. It can be used creatively. Ill just leave it to your imagination

Riding: The horsey skill. This increases both your speed on a horse and the horses you can use. The best horses take 4 riding skill so you may consider that its best to leave it at that. However the more you put in the faster you ride.

Horse archery: This skill increases your horse archery goodness. Unless you have 6 in this skill you will be plagued by horrendous accuracy and damage penalties when trying to ride. putting it to 10 means you have only tiny reductions of damage when you fire from horseback which makes it very efficient. Of course anyone whos tried doing this will find firing from horseback is tough.. You cant fire from the left side.

Looting: pretty self explanatory. More loot! This is a party skill which means you can give it to anyone. I highly suggest raising it to 10 if you can , that means 100% more loot because its 10% more loot per point! It also governs your skill in stealing cattle, the higher your skill the more accurate your prediction of the number of cattle and the more you steal.

Trainer: This skill is either underrated or forgotten sometimes, Trust me this skill is awesome. One of the best in the game. At low levels the amount you train is negligible. But at high levels you can train huge amounts of men from recruits to knights in just under 10 days. I think on my level 28 character i can alone train 15 or so khergit tribesman into lancers in just 3 days with the 8 skill i have. Do not underrate this skill! Put points into it whenever you dont know what to do with a skill point! Every bit counts! This is in fact a personal skill. So its the only one that "stacks" if you give it to every party member they will all train units!

Tracking: An interesting skill. It can tell you where there are tracks. Then how old they are. Then who made them. But its not so useful. Make one of your lackeys get a high skill in it as its a party skill. (if your wondering how tracks look go back to the bandit pictures and look at the color coded dots, Thats tracking) Its only useful generally when you have to track a character who moves out of your sight of vision. Its also good for chasing caravans and such

Tactics: Complex skill. it basically governs battle advantage Every two points extra battle advantage. Battle advantage is basically i can put more men on the field then you can. Several things affect battle advantage like the size of an enemys force (If they have 500 men and you have 50, Even if you set the amount of men on the field to be 24 they will still have a gigantic battle advantage over you) and tactics. High tactics is essential to small-party strategies (if you want to be more of a trader then fighter) . battle advantage is shown at the start of the battle. So for example if you have overall 50 men on the field. Then its equally divided into 25-25 at first. But if you have 10 tactics you get 5 battle advantage which means it turns into 20-30 in favour of you. Tactics also decides how many "mini-rounds" there are in a battle and how many men you have to leave behind if you want to sacrifice men to run away from an enemy.
Rolf is the guy to give tactics to. dont bother with it yourself.

Pathfinding: The only skill that affects your speed on the battle map. it increases your speed on it by 3% for every level you put in. Its a party skill so pass it off to someone else

Spotting: This increases your sight by 10% for every point you put in it. While most people put a "guide character/companion" with ths pathfinding and tracking, some prefer to only pick spotting or tracking. Well tracking is superior for certain quests .. So pick only that if you have to. However spotting allows you to run away from a threat before it comes near you... But i wager by the time you have 6-10 spotting which makes a difference it doesnt matter much anymore.

Inventory management: This skill increases your inventory size by 6 for every point in it. Good for traders and people who sell tons of loot. But remember that even if you max it it wont change the fact you move very slowly if you have a lot of items on you

Wound treatment: Parties heal 20% faster per point. While this is great because it means you get health faster, your companions get health faster and wounded soldiers and lame horses get healed faster, Its also not really that great a skill most of the time because its better to usually get off to a city to lick your wounds. But its better then most other skill sso go for it with a healer (jeremus is the best) Yep its a party skill. Remember that when you start sieging its time to seriously consider this skill as you repeatedly assault and cant move or reinforcements arrive to help the enemy.

Surgery: 4% chance that a "dead' soldier will come back merely as wounded for each point. This is an awesome skill and will certainly help preserve life in your party. When you have some 40-50 Swadian knights with you this is a great help if they may die. Party skill again

First aid: Every mini-round of battle your heroes regain 5% of their hitpoints. At a high level its certainly impressive and works well with tactics. It is practically neccasary in sieges where you tend to have phases of battle inside them

Engineering: Well its a party skill. To be honest its among the most useless really. Building things in villages and castles seems to me to be in its infancy and not very useful. However if you wish to do it then this makes it cheaper and shorter. It also reduces time needed to build a siege tower/ladders

Persuasion: This skill is new, and it seems they tried hard to make it useful without making it overpowered.
There are a few new quests now that involve persuasion, Generally you haggle with someone over a price and it rolls a dice. If you persuade well the price goes down . If you do it badly it goes up. It is also neccasary if you want to do a rebellion. If you rebel then there is a higher chance that other lords will join you if you have high persuasion

Prisoner management: This skill increases the amount of prisoners you can hold by 5. Remember to take a prisoner you need to land the final blow with a blunt weapon (mostly maces, staffs , rocks are the only ranged blunt weapon) I believe you should have at least 2 points in this skill as some quests require you to have 6 types of a certain prisoner. .

Leadership: Every point you put in increases the men you can have by 5. Which is very nice by the way. It doesnt need much commentary as leadership is mostly required depending on your playstyle. Remember that high leadership bolsters morale (you dont want low morale) which is the only reason not to rely fully on renown

Trade: Best way to buy cheaper and sell higher. It can also help you asses prices so that the game helps you figure out wheres the best places to sell thing you buy at the city you are in. This is a party skill so give it to marnid whos the best trader

3.0 Combat
There are a few types of damage in this game, Piercing cutting and blunt. Piercing damage does what it sounds like, it "pierces" through armor. it gets a 50% armor ignoring bonus. Cutting does not ignore any armor, But most weapons with cutting have significantly higher overall damage. Blunt damage also pierces through armor a little i believe, but not sure how much. Its main use is to knock enemies unconcious so you can sell them as prisoners. Swords tend to have a bit of piercing and cutting damage to make them "balanced" Axes tend to have only cutting, Polearms have piercing damage (As if most of them needed it anyway They one shot if you couch them)but a few have cutting damage mixed in, Arrows are almost exclusively piercing, Maces are blunt damage, throwing weapons are all divided, Rocks are blunt (only ranged blunt weapon in the game) javelins/jarids are piercing and axes are cutting

Note that these rules do not apply in the arena or training as what you "use" is wooden. But the effect tends to be roughly the same.

3.1 melee character with One handed weapon and shield on horseback
The "fundamental" early style fighting, Great protection against arrows and the ability to quickly switch to a horse archer, Or lancer and weapons thrower, Or between a two handed weapon and throwing weapon! Basically very versatile , Most "newbies" should have this setup.

Tricky to get that screenshot actually, You know you have one hand on the control and one on the mouse blocking... Dont expect to get stupidly huge power with this setup, You can technically switch to a 2 handed weapon after you get close to the enemy, But if theyre ranged troops most likely there will still be a few firing at you so its risky.

3.2 above (dismounted)
Not a very fundemental difference except its far harder for no gain. I highly suggest against this setup. You can team it up with a bow or a 2 handed weapon again, But a lance is a bad idea. Try and move back when the enemy strikes, You need high athletics for this to work properly.

Unlike with a 2 hander, Your decreasing your flexibility and your power, dont do it unless neccasary.

3.3 Melee character with 2 handed weapon mounted

Soooo. This is true power! Some of the strongest weapons in the game are two handed.. The problem? your vulnerable to arrows and until your proficiency is very high this isnt going to pay off (1 shot everyone before they attack you) It can be paired with a bow, Throwing weapons and lance or a one handed sword and shield, There are also alternating two-handed/one handed weapons(bastard sword) that depend on if you equip a shield or not, Value these highly as they allow you to carry a bow to battle and enjoy arrow protection. Watch out however, their damage is drastically decreased if you have a shield on.

Hit and run tactics are neccasary, if your against a lone bowman just zigzag slightly and hope he misses.

3.4 Above (dismounted)
I love it dismounted. Cutting through the massive hordes of men is fun for everyone. Just because of that i have two screenshots!

Yeah they are that good! at 260 proficiency....
Anyway the same tactics apply, Just move back when the enemy strikes or get the weapon setup mentioned above.

3.5 Ranged character with a bow (mounted)

Archery is mostly intuition based, Its nto something i would take primarily either, Because unless your very good you will run out of arrows before killing all the enemies. Remember that pressing the shfit key when you fire helps. When you are mounted the best trick is to just stop when firing and then move back and fire again unless yoru fighting horsemen in which case get near them and fire . You wont get a perfect reticitle until at least 6 points in horse archery

Try and make sure not to waste arrows. Its easy to but theyre precious.

3.6 Above(dismounted)

Foot archery is far easier, You have to learn it by yourself again for the most part, but just make sure that you use shift to best determine where the arrow goes.

Yeah i know what your going to say.. Its the same picture right? Well you are pressing the shift key so it shouldnt matter.

3.7 ranged character with a throwing weapon(mounted)

Lets pretend for a moment were not mutually insane by suggesting this as a proper way to fight, but lets assume we are. At least your on a horse so you can retreat when you fail to kill enough men. Try and only throw only the enemy is trying to use a attack and holding the weapon, Then attack and stun them . High athletics is good to have. All the weapons technically have a bonus against shields, So you do more damage to them. Unfortunatly that it could easily take a good 4-5 good shots to break a weak shield.

Try to stay out of death .. For throwing to be any good you need constant headshots.. but hell noone can deny the satisfaction fo killing a peasent by sticking an javelin into his head.

3.8 What? You actually want to do this, Above(dismounted)

The title says it all. Your not only going to use throwing weapons but are going to do it in a situation where you will probably die? Not exactly smart.

Yeah it feels even better when you can see it properly on foot.. I think axes are even more awesome then javelins too.

Notice the health.. Its low isnt it? Its dangerous stuff to do this!

4.0 Advance gameplay
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FAQ
Q:Lances are worthless! Why are they in the game/ How do i couch my lance?
A: You have to not press the attack button at all! this is counter initiutive but just dont press the mouse at all in any way. Just point the lance at an enemy once you reach a high speed and it will hit without you needing to press the mouse

Q:How do i get a castle or village
A: The fastest way of doing this is by getting a king to give you a fief. If you did not sign up to become a mercenary captain of a faction then by 160 renown you will not only get offers for the fief, but you can actually request one. Note that this will be the poorest fief in the faction. Also relationship with a king will reduce the amount of renown you need by Relationship X 5 . So by 28 relationship you theoretically dont need any renown at all! You cannot join factions where your relationship is negative
Then if you become a lord of a faction you can capture additional towns and cities and ask they get added to you, This only happens on a common basis if the kind loves you and you have a ton of renown and captures a lot of previous cities for him. If you a capture a city and are unhappy at his decision to reward it to someone else you can go rebel.
You can also gain a city by just attacking it if your relationship is low enough with them. Or you can go with one of the claimants

4.0 Advanced Gameplay
Here ill go into the meat of the game, The stuff that youll be doing once youve got yourself settled in a little.

4.1 quests
Obviously theres going to be a lot of quests in this game to keep it interesting and structured. These quests are various but there are 4 groups from which most of your quests will come from. Lords, Guild masters, Ladies and village elders. They can range from tough to easy to a question of what to sacrifice.

Lords: Here you will get some basic missions and eventually harder missions. They will be where you go to most of the time. doing missions for them has the great added effect of increasing your relationship with them which is mostly important for either getting more (hard) quests or rebbelion time!

Deliver a message to another lord: Basic enough, Deliver a message to another lord. This lord can be from your faction or another faction. This increases your relationship when you get it and when you deliver it. 2 rep overall for the guy you did it for and 1 rep to the guy you gave it to. You get 30 gold as a reward fee

Recover debt from another lord: This quest is also fairly straightforward. Go to the lord and get the debt that varies from 3000, 3500 and 4000 denars. You get to keep 1/5 of what you get. The catch? You need to persuade the lord he should give it to you. There are 2 ways of doing this basically, either ask for the money by paying him a little "bribe" so he gets a bit of money back conviniently while clearing the debt, or appeal to your friendship with him which works if its above 10 with him and reduces it by 3. Both of these factors can be reduced by using "persuasion" the new stat, You can attempt to persuade him and a dice roll is made. If you score positive then the price of denars you need to pay goes down and eventually the relationship "cost" as well, if it gets to 0 you get the debt back for free. the negative side is the dice roll can go against you and you may end up having to pay more. also a lord may decide he is not interested in hearing your endless stream of babble and you will have to wait until tommorow before you can try persuasion again. Obviously higher persuasion skill increases your chances. To finish the quest go back to the guy who gave it to you once you have the debt.

Hunt down the murderer: You have to hunt down a guy whos murdered. He will stay in a village and hes called the "nervous man" just talk to him and he will become hostile. He appears only in daytime!. Basically just kill him an dhead back to the lord, who will give you 300 gold or if you refuse, a few honour points which i dont know the use of.

Collect taxes from a village/city: You have to go to a fief and collect taxes, this is easy. Just go to the village and press the "Collect taxes due to _" and it will start collecting. you get 1/5th of the money you get. Villages tend to be poorer then cities. The amount you get is based off your trade value so a high one nets you more money. the catch is they complain . you can reduce the taxes they pay by a half but the lord then only gives you 1/10 of the taxes. and like you less. If you keep going as you are they can "rise up" and try and attack you. its easy to beat them so i have yet to lose to them. But it reduces your relationship with the village . Just take the taxes back to the guy who theyre owed to. You can usually only get this quest when a lord is far away from his town or village.

Train a group of men: You basically get a group of lower tier units and have to train them to higher tier units through any means. The game actually doesnt distinguish so you can give any men you want, you can give him your 6 khergit lancers the second he gives you the quest if you want.

Catch the peasents running away: This is a bit of a tough quest to do sometimes and you need to be quick. 3 groups of peasents are running away from the lord and you have to catch them. You do this by telling them to go back to the village theyre from and go away from the town they are going to. You can also let them go to increase your relationship with the village they come from. The catch if when you talk to them they head back, but if you dont follow them every step of the way back theyre going to head back to the city and youll have to talk to them again. You get paid a bit for doing this quest and be warned that not getting all the peasent groups back will reduce your relatonship with the lord, even if he will pay you for them. The lord needs to be in a castle for you to get this quest.

Kill a merchant: The lord owes some money to a merchant whos blackmailing him, So he decided to send you to kill him. After you get the quest you just press tab and you will find yourself in an alley. Just murder the merchant and your done. Your relationship with the city goes down however. but with the lord it goes up! You will get this quest when the lrod is in a town

Kill a spy: This one is tricky too. Theres a spy and he has a master that the lord wants you to catch. The thing is he runs away very fast initially. The best way to do this quest is to have several points in tracking, The spy is going to be coloured in blue or his tracks will just show 1 person. just follow them but dont get too close to him or he will run back to the city! When you get the quest he blurs across the map and is going to be a bit far away from you. He is heading to a spot where he will meet someone else. The spy is named remarkable peasent and the master is name unremarkable peasent.. Just meet both of them and press F-11 which means use blunt weapons, because you need to get the guy alive! If you get only one you get less relationship with the lord but still get paid a bit. getting them both increases your relationship and pays out. Youll only get this quest when the lord is in a town.

Bring a spys report: Do this one slowly! When you get the quest ask him how to recognize the spy, if he says "he" its a male and if "she" its a female. He also speaks the phrase you need to tell the spy! keep it in mind! When get to the city or village he talks of, you need to speak the phrase he gives you to every townsman/women in there until you get the right one who will reply with the proper counterphrase which isnt "huh, what kind of gibberish is that!". just get the report and get back to the lord. If you forgot the phrase you will just have to talk to every townsman in the city with every phrase. Sorry! You will usually get the quest only when a lord is in a town or castle.

Join the faction as a mercanary leader: This is pretty straightforward, "join" the faction as a mercanary group. Its a way of joining the faction but not becoming a lord. Its pretty straightforward, just join the campaign when there is one. it will give you a quest to join the marshal every once in a while in battle, Just check the quests log to see where the marshal is in fact, for this you get a higher relationship with the faction, lower with the respective factions they are at war with and you get a one-time payment and a weekly wage based on how many men you have and how good they are.

Quests while on campaign: While your on campaign the marshal may assign you a quest,Just talk to him to get it.

Scout the area: just get near the villages or castles or towns he talks of (you will see "scouted" on your log when you scout them} and gain a relationship point or two once you finish the quest.

bring cattle: This can be annoying if the characters move, Just bring the cattle close to them because theyre short of food. I suggest stealing it from a nearby village. if it gets too annoying consider enabling cheat and pressing Control +T for seeing the entire map.

Exchange the prisoners: This is a bit of an annoying quest, Refusing to do it will reduce your relationship with a lord. Basically just get a few of the prisoners he describes. Just capture the units of the enemy faction until you get what he wants.

Next ones arent on campaign.

Capture a enemy lord: They want to exchange lords as prisoners, so go to the enemy faction and defeat a lord in battle and hope you "capture" him and then bring him back. Do it quickly as he could escape if you wait too long

Start a war : This one is simple. Just find two caravans of the enemy faction, and destroy them to start a war. What you must make sure doesnt happen is getting caught, dont get defeated or battle or get caught in the dugneon of a city! Be warned that doing it will reduce your relationship with some lord who are peaceful and increase it with some that are warlike.

Incriminate a lord of another faction: This one is rare, and usually comes straight form the king.They will tell you to simply send off a certain soldier to hand over a message that incriminates a lord in a plot with your faction. What will basically happen is get near a city and tell a unit to send the message, who will promptly never come back. Then go to your lord and get the reward. I have no idea what actually happens to the lord.
It is usually the unit that takes the highest weekly wage that the lord chooses you to send. Oddly enough it can be mercenaries as well.

Lend companion : This is simple. A lord will ask for one of your companions for a week. Just give it to him and come back in a week to get him back

Lend surgeon. While not really a quest as such, a enemy lord may come to you in times of war and ask to get your companion with the highest surgery skill. Just send him off!

Take my wife to a city: This one is easy too, a lords wife joins your party and you have to take her to a city. Dont let someone kill you on the way!

Guild master: These quests represent the city that your talking to. There are only a few and most reward in a mediocre fashion, but some reward well.

Escort a caravan: This is basicly escorting a blue-named caravan to its destination, It will automatically follow you wherever you go. You can tell it to stop if you want. Just go near to the city the it asks to go to and then talk to it when your nearby to recieve your reward
I beleive failing it means you get slapped with a 1000 denar fine

Bring cattle to a city; Bring some fresh fine cattle to the city, escorting cattle is frustrating, as they move in the exact opposite position to where your standing (and even worse, probably far beyond your range of vision) and surprisingly quickly for cattle.
You can get cattle in villages by talking to the village elder and saying " i want to buy some goods" or you can steal them by taking a hostile action against the village. Getting cattle to merge is hell so try and get the lump amount you need.
The thing is being unsynchronised with their speed excruciatingly painful, if they move too quickly they will outrun you! if they move more slowly then you then you generally miscalculate and they move off to the edges of where you need them to go.
The only tip i have is use the space button, its the easiest way , trust me . Just get closer then use space. Closer then space. you get the idea i hope.
If you fail this you have to pay a 1000 denar fine. I almost suggest never getting it in the first place!

Bring goods to a certain inn: i know what your thinking, Sell or drink what they give you? sadly they are unique items that sell badly and cannot be drunk, By know youve probably guessed that its wine or ale they give you. The only downside to this quest is that it makes you very slow. To finish the quest just talk to the innkeeper in the inn of the town your assigned to bring it to.
Im not actually sure if you can fail this, But i guess if you can it brings a fine as well

Create peace between factions: This quest is about creating peace, or at least making sure that peace can come through. Sadly some nobles oppose peace for some reason and always veto the decision when it tries to get introduced. The city wants you to create a peace... For a whopping 12,000 denar reward.
How to do it? Recognize where these two lords are. The one on your faction is hardest to deal with, He will either require a loss of 30! relationship(and you have to be 50 with him for it to work), or 7000 denars into his pockets.. Works the same as the debt quest, you can try your luck to persuade him but its extremely hard and you should be wary of doing it until level 9 of persuasion. Even then it takes a long time. The fellow in the opposing faction isnt as demanding, he just needs 1500 denars and im unsure about how much relationship.
But theres another option, make sure both lords get captured. Getting yours captured would be a mere whim of chance, but go and get the other factions captured yourself! If you have to lure him out of a castle, then try looting and burning his village.
You then earn 12000 denars. Or if your insanity knows no bounds you can refuse the money and gain some honor.

Save a kidnapped girl: This quest will give you a ransom that the bandits are asking for to release the daughter of a rich merchant, and offer you a reward. The bounty and reward are based on the number and distance of the bandits. If you destroy the bandits yourself through a line of dailogue you can claim the ransom for yourself and the reward.

Ladies: This is tricky, they determine how often they give you quests based on your honor, Which is quite frustrating. as honor grows quite slowly..

Challenge a lord to a trail of arms : Well basically a lord is telling everyone this lady goes and has orgies with rampant sex with stableboys or some such. Which she is quite offended towards. And she wants you to go beat the crap out of him. Lords are actually quite well equipped so watch out for them! Simply challenging the lord to a trail of arms reduced your reputation with him by 20, a hefty penalty. It increases your honor and reputation with the lady i believe , who can then help you increase relationship with lords who look upon your unfavourably... probably like the one you just challenged

Get a imprisoned lord out of jail: Quite simple actually. Just go to the specified town and go to the jail (choose the "i found a purse belonging to you" option on the guard) and initiate a dialogue with the cunning plot of exchanging clothes. It is totally irrelevant if your character has a bushy beard and the other guy is bald because the guard used the money to buy beer. You get increased relationship with the lord and lady and a hefty sum of denars with little penalty, a excellent deal overall.

Village elder: This guy is caring for his village. doing quests for him often increases the prosperity of the village and your relationship with it which is damn nice if you can get it to higher levels.

Bring the village some cattle: I covered this annoying mechanic earlier, just bring them to the village. Youll have to buy or steal them .

Bring the village grain: They fell on hard times and need grain, just buy it from other villages or stores in cities and bring it back, being the nice guy you are.

Save the village from constantly invading bandits by training the peasents: This is not too hard, what you do is "train" the peasents by waiting a few hours and then having a mock-fight with staffs until 5-7 peasents are trained. The amount of peasents trained and how long it takes depends on your level and training skill. Once you have 5-7 a battle will begin with bandits (in which your party joins, Dont worry about losing if you have a big one) and everyone including the peasents rush them. If you win you are presented with what they are willing to give you from their storehouse. (you can refuse too, to increase your relationship with them)

Save the village from bandits living in it : Technically a related quest, Its about saving the village from bandits living in it terrorizing everyone. You can either get this quest from a peasent who ran away from the village or just stumbling upon the infested village. Just kill all the bandits and the peasents offer you the contents of their storehouse

4.2: Getting a fief and making it better

Q:How do i lower relationship with a faction so i can attack them?
A: Just attack their caravans or delvier demands to their lords. Soon enough your their enemy,

Q: How do i raise relationship with a faction?
A: easiest way is to become a mercenary captain for them at first, You can also save their caravans from attacks by bandits and help their lords. Several quests also add a small amount of relationship with the faction especially if you do them for the king. Later on you can help your own factions lords out in battles with anyone all the time which should increase it.

Q: Where can i find claimants?
A: Go to a tavern and find " a traveller" go through all their lines and you will have the option to ask them where a claimant is for 30 gold. The claimants move around quickly so dont go if it is a city very far away from you unless your really detmined to find them.

Q: I captures all the "original faction" stuff in a rebellion, however my faction is still not turned into the original faction itself
A: This is a bit of a bug. Make sure that every trace of the other faction has died off, Every caravan and peasent traveller. Once you have you may experience a bug in which inexplicably, You simply have to go and lose a battle with the claimant in your party. Its a bug i guess.

Q: what does renown do?
A: More Renown allows you to have more men in your party. It also affects other lords responses towards you (Ie your fame runs before you X) and you cannot have a fief or support a claimant until your renown is high enough (160 and 200 respectively) and some quests you can only get when your renown is high enough

Q: why would i want or need relationship with a village?
A: If your relationship with a village is high they give you high-tier units instead of low-tier ones. For example a khergit village which i have 15 relationship with could give me 10 khergit skirmishers instead of tribesmen

Q: What about towns
A: Im not actually sure. I assume they sell you stuff at lower prices.

Q: How can i increase city/village prosperity
A: Buy their stuff lots . Lots and lots. Make sure all the bandits around the village are dead . Also make sure every caravan and peasent from and into that village/city make their way in . Most cities have a default high prosperity or low prosperity so geting stuck with the bad ones is just plain bad luck, You can influence them only to a small extent.

Q: Lords?
A: If you have high relationship with a lord, It helps quite a bit if you initiate a rebellion, Also he is more inclined to follow you if he has high relationship with you and you have renown. Also if you become enemies with a lord who has high relationship with you if you tell him "But i dont want to fight" He may say "well..Um..uh i guess i owe you this once" and promptly drop his relationship with you a bit. Some quests only become available or become available more frequently if you have a high relationship with a lord. Also, If you count ladies in they will give gifts to other lords to raise relationship with them if you have high repuation with them.

Q: I gave my heroes a horse and crossbow and they dont use it?
A:Only light crossbows can be reloaded on horseback. So they cant reload the bow.

Q: Does having spare horses in your inventory really reduce penalties for carrying a ton of stuff?
A: Yes. To an extent it does.

Thank you turkeys!
Q:How do you read a book?
A:You have to click camp then choose the option above wait for a while and then click read a book and choose the book and thats it

Q: Where are screenshots saved?
A: It should tell you when you take the screenshot in white text.

Q: what does honor do?
A: If you have a lot of honor then some lords will have a large reputation increase with you once you reach a certain threshold, And ladies will only give you quests if you have increasingly high honor. More responses will be honor-based if you have a lot of it.

Thats all for now ill try and do more later, ill do more in depth quests and then maybe review some mods

**Turkeys!** · July 09, 2008, 10:17 AM

Great start! Can't wait for the rest of it

**Omar Nelson B.** · July 09, 2008, 01:45 PM

I would recomend adding a "leader" tye character and or a medical/stat based character. These would be interesting plays I would think.

**Admiral Nelson** · July 09, 2008, 03:23 PM

Great read, keep up the good work!

**roy34543** · July 09, 2008, 03:53 PM

Leader based character is interesting. I will work on that.
But a medical based charcter is in my eyes pointless because you can get jeremus to do all the work for you.

**Omar Nelson B.** · July 09, 2008, 05:37 PM

Originally Posted by roy34543

Leader based character is interesting. I will work on that.
But a medical based charcter is in my eyes pointless because you can get jeremus to do all the work for you.

Good point. In my head that sounded much better. I think what I was getting at was a sort of hybrid character. Example: Archer and support. So instead of mainly combat stats a person would invest most stats on the party. (Path finding, Inventory management, etc)

**roy34543** · July 09, 2008, 11:55 PM

I thought id bump this because i added pictures.
Anyone know a good photo-uploading site? i use photobucket but it seems to go super-slow for Mount and blade pictures.

**Theseus1234** · July 10, 2008, 12:22 AM

very veyr good! im now on my way to a vaegir EMPIRE

+rep and you might want to try imageshack

**Turkeys!** · July 10, 2008, 03:04 AM

Originally Posted by roy34543

I thought id bump this because i added pictures.
Anyone know a good photo-uploading site? i use photobucket but it seems to go super-slow for Mount and blade pictures.

Imageshack.

http://www.imageshack.us/

**portugal11** · July 10, 2008, 09:06 AM

how do u read books in the game?

**Turkeys!** · July 10, 2008, 09:24 AM

You have to click camp then choose the option above wait for a while and then click read a book and choose the book and thats it

.

**roy34543** · July 12, 2008, 02:30 AM

This guide is getting big. Im going to move to the next section soon. Thanks for the sticky!

**Armatus** · July 12, 2008, 09:47 AM

I figured you had more than enough info in here that's valuable to players. I thought of combining it with the older tactics guide, but I don't see a practical way of doing that. I like the fact you've added visuals, I for one hate pages of plain text

**roy34543** · July 12, 2008, 11:19 AM

I added a few more pictures.

**roy34543** · July 13, 2008, 09:45 PM

Its updated once again with combat. Rather short because there isnt that many tips to a hack-and-slash.

**Armatus** · July 14, 2008, 01:09 PM

Have you thought of making a pdf of this?

**roy34543** · July 16, 2008, 10:01 AM

No i havent, I dont know if the pictures would transfer easily.
Does anyone want to see anything else in particular for this guide? I have the basic outline of what to do next and after that im more or less done.

**Armatus** · July 16, 2008, 10:05 AM

The only suggestion I would make is format. There's a lot of BB code you can play with to make it fancy. Not required of course, but just a suggestion.

**Emperor Taizu** · July 16, 2008, 06:34 PM

Excellent work Roy!

+REP

**roy34543** · July 18, 2008, 07:39 AM

i just thought id say this guide is going to be delayed a bit because im getting Titan quest today and i feel im going to be very addicted to it for a while.

Thread: [Mount&Blade] Tips, Tactics & Strategy Guide (Version 960)

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[Mount&Blade] Tips, Tactics & Strategy Guide (Version 960)

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