A small guide to playing the mod \ "Age of Tournaments \" (Mount Blade)

Why did I decide to write this essay?
I have been playing "Mount & Blade" for a long time, but yesterday I went through the game for the first time to its logical conclusion - only 1 faction remained and it is my state! Impressed by this event, I decided to summarize some of my observations.

Acknowledgments.
Sveige and ShamomahS for answering all the questions I asked, and sometimes very naive questions.

Who is this written for?
1) For beginners - perhaps at the very first acquaintance with the Warband mod - "Age of Tournaments", this will allow them not to get too big and keep their interest in the game longer.
2) For experts - I would like to discuss something with you and clarify for myself, but there is no suitable precedent.
3) For myself - perhaps when discussing this article, new ideas will arise and there will be a desire to go through it again - but with a different build.

Character
The main idea was this - to rock a great commander, capable of leading a large army over long distances.
To do this, I focused on the following skills:

Leadership. +5 to the unit for each unit is not bad, but +10 constant increase in morale is significantly more important.

As the game progresses, the hero will rise to fame and he will be able to lead more and more large detachments into battle. It is very important that they do not turn sour and do not scatter until they reach the enemy. I do not urge to drag 200 sabers on the map. 108 is enough. But the more free space in the detachment, the better - you will be able to form strong garizones from the liberated prisoners, double your forces in front of a powerful enemy militia and, without sacrificing morale and the number of units, transfer large detachments to the opposite end of the continent. In addition, the number of prisoners to lure away is increasing without the threat of demoralizing their army.

Trade. Many good soldiers - many high salaries. As in any game, money in Warband is an important and scarce resource.

The maintenance of prisoners - the slave trade in the game is a very lucrative form of earnings, with the correct formulation of the question, it gives a lot more money than ordinary trade.

Iron skin - as in any action RPG, the protagonist never has extra hit points.

A powerful blow - hooligans in cities, storming of fortress walls, mini-game in captured cities and castles - well, you can't do without damage.

Persuasion - having become the sovereign, the neighboring faction can be defeated almost at 0, without having fought a single battle. Each lord attracted to himself will weaken the enemy and strengthen his faction - this is obvious.



Start.
I chose the past - “my father was a nomad of the steppe”, in my childhood I was a “child of the steppes”, in my youth I was a “street vendor-peddler” - the future is the desire for wealth and fame. So, without lifting a finger, from the very first lvl with dexterity 8, we get a riding skill of 4, which allows you to ride a good armored horse that will survive in the midst of hand-to-hand combat and, in case of severe wounds, will always take it out of the heat of the battle to a safe place.
From the start we have:
Strength - 8
Dexterity - 8
Intelligence - 9
Charisma - 9
+ 4 points of characteristics, + 7 points of skills (the coveted riding is already 4) and absolutely small, except for the bow, skills (well, it's not scary, this is acquired - the army was on the left, the army was on the right: it's nice to wave a sword with a hangover :))
At the finish line, I was interested in leadership 10 (because of + 100 to morale, I repeat) - I brought Charisma to 27 and got 1 to leadership after reading the book "The Life of Aliksen the Great" and togrovlya 10 (1 - from the book "On the value of things") ...
Conviction - I brought it to 6. Why raise the intellect to 14, read the book "On Logic" - + 1 more to the intellect, and read the book "Rhetoric to Herennius" + 1 to conviction.
Conviction 6 was enough for me to reduce the number of King Yaroglek's supporters from 21 to 6 - I convinced six of them, and the rest - he chased nine out of frustration himself - and in the final he could not collect more than 800 sabers.
Agility - I didn't touch anything here. Let's be a clumsy bear.
Strength - we bring to 21 powerful blows 7 and iron skin 7 - is quite enough to be the first to climb the fortress wall and easily calm down the city hooligans in minigames.
The development of characteristics is as follows - up to 21 in turn we raise strength and charisma, then up to 27 charisma, then up to 14 intelligence, which will remain - into strength. If you are lucky enough to take 40 lvl - there will be a powerful blow and iron skin 8.
Skills - like described above. The package can be raised a little and a few points in training - at the end of the game is a very important skill.
Skills. I am not a fan of blocks, so my hero survived not by defense, but by the quick removal of the surrounding ill-wishers. We managed to swing the two-handed weapon under 300, crossbows - 225, pole-arm (very useful when you have few hits, the terrain is relatively flat and there are a lot of non-shooting pedestrian enemies around) - 147.
The line of construction of the battle is as follows - dismount (the penalty for the damage of the two-handed hammer disappears) - enter the midst of ill-wishers and punching blocks, mow as much as possible. When there are fewer hits, we go to the side, we take out the crossbow and continue to cause trouble to the enemy.

Armament - heavy war hammer, siege crossbow, 2 quivers with steel arrows. In the inventory for every fireman - a cavalry pike and a light crossbow - if it becomes necessary to shoot from a horse.
Equipment - everything is obvious here, I had a helmet of 61, noble plate armor (although noble vegirian and lighter, but I did not find it), noble steel greaves, noble scaly gloves. At first he carried a pavese on his back, but then he became convinced that in an open field it was of little use, and it is better to have more arrows on an assault.

Officers:
Alayen is a combat officer, strength 30, 10 punch and iron skin.
Ymira is a combat officer, strength 30, 10 powerful strike and iron skin.
Baheshtur - Combat Officer, Strength 30, 10 Powerful Strike and Iron Skin.
Rolf is a Combat Officer, 30 Strength, 10 Power Strike, and Iron Skin.
Firentis - Combat Officer, 30 Strength, 10 Power Strike, and Iron Skin.
Jeremus - intellect 30, doctor + engineering.
Borcha - intelligence 30, tracker (all skills on the map) + tactics.
This is a variant of a consistent squad that complements the personal skills of the main player.

Plot development.
It is better to start in Smirholm - the staff is a very weak weapon, therefore it is easier to knock a bandit running along a long street in this city than in others from a crossbow. But this is not critical, 80 units of experience in our future, adventurous life does not really mean much.
You can develop up to level 6 quickly - while you put together a squad and train it a little - already 6.
Then there is an alternative - you can quickly raise lvl to 16 with little fame, or you can quickly increase fame, but slow down with lvl ups. How to proceed is up to you. If you want to quickly learn important skills, we choose the first path - we drive caravans, drive cattle, reconcile 2 states. There is not much money and the ringing of sabers, but lvl is growing by leaps and bounds and we meet 150 fame with a confident lvl 16.
If you choose the second path - 16 lvl will not be soon - they still beat hard on assaults, and in field battles the troops fight better than their commander (there will be no money for good armor, it is checked, we walk in selected rags). But then the glory is growing at an accelerated rate and by 9-10 lvl (with 150 fame) you will be gladly taken into the faction. If you do not choose a suzerain after 150, at 175 glory the program will automatically generate it. Moreover, he may not suit the player, but spoil the relationship with the sovereign out of the blue, so I recommend that you decide on the faction for 150 glory.
Also with the rank of marshal - you can wait for 1750 glory, or after 1500 you can drive up to the chief and ask about it.

Marriage.
In fact, the girl is very distracting - sometimes you have to go from the other end of the map, losing the pace of the game and the game rating.
I can advise the following - we select several feudal lords with the greatest influence and look for which of them has a daughter or sister of "the highest moral principles." In fact, our chosen one will turn out to be a bitch who will fold - 2 at the first call. We will fix this by reading 2 rhymes. But after 20 influence and without rebellion, she will agree to marriage and there will be no need to aimlessly cross the Calradia map for the sake of +1 to relations. A girl with the "character of an unbroken steppe horse" - her relative will not arrange a wedding before you start a rebellion. This was tested by me and my friends on 2 builds.

The game.
Playing as a faction, destroy 3 other factions. If you destroy more, then there will be large periods of peace and few prisoners in the cities, which in the final will create problems with the recruitment of garrisons for their defense. If you destroy less, the rest will often begin to pinch after the mutiny, you will have to deal with very strong militias, and sometimes an undesirable minus to morale will be created for certain units in the squad. Destroy should be primarily those whose warriors you like the most. If you want to finish with huskals - take out the Swedes (Sori, Northern Kingdom), like the Mamelukes - down with Sultan Hakim, etc.

The first castle. Well, first they will give us a village. Having joined the faction, I do not recommend rushing to the castle. Firstly, the detachment is still small and there is no surplus of units as such. Secondly, the castle will be given on the border and there may be problems with its defense. The hero still does not lead an army, there are no options for a marshal, and it is unlikely that he will be able to fight off 2,000 sabers on his own. Although, of course, an experienced player can :). Thirdly, by capturing and claiming the first lock for yourself, you will 100% get it empty. And if you show restraint and wait for an offer from the overlord, the castle will have a nice gift in the form of a half-trained garrison.
The first city. This is where I recommend persistence. You need to get 4 cities in different parts of the continent, where we will create 2-3 shock and 1 occupation army for the final of the game.

Shock army
Is an army for field battles and storms of castles and cities. It is desirable - a monolithic national composition to exclude the influence on morality during a showdown with one or another faction. I had 3 shock armies - the Swadi army - 170 knights, the Rhodock army - 130 sergeants and riflemen each, and the Nordic-Sarranid army - 150 Mamelukes and Huscarls each. Thus, having defeated opponents in one part of Calradia, there is no need to drag the richly nourished and money-consuming army at low speed across the entire game world. It is enough to put them in the nearest city, cross the continent with a group of GG + officers at a speed of 10, take another army and deliver a powerful and unexpected blow to the enemy in a completely different part of the world. Or in this way to calm down a castle that has fallen over to the enemy in the depths of the possessions of your faction.
The occupation army.
It is needed when the player already has his own state. The castle is captured, but there are no prisoners in it. This may well be the case if a faction has just made peace with another faction. In order not to weaken our striking fist, we plant a garrison of specially prepared units there. The candidates for the occupation army are all Rhodoks and Kergit Keshikten. These are the cheapest and fastest swinging highlighted units in the game. Keshikten are more expensive and weaker in defense, but they shoot (no arrows are needed) and are much more mobile when moving the garrison across the continent. Rodoks are cheaper and well protected, but you need to download 2 types of troops at once and move them around the map longer.

Friends.
There are several recommendations here.
1. We persuade only people loyal to us who react to valor and do not require additional quests and time for the growth of influence.
2. The more friends - the calmer on their territory in case of war, and the fewer the enemy's troops.
3. Do not overdo it with gifts. We give 1 pre-fortified castle and that's it. Dot. Nothing spoils relationships with friends like giving away elephants.

Have you read my article to these words and have not yet fallen asleep? Well, I am sincerely grateful to you. So our time with you was not wasted

PS If you play a game with patch 1.134 - it differs in many respects from what is written here. You can read about these differences here http://www.playground.ru/dox/mount_and_blade/7179/