Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

[ERYFKRAD]

Where does a fella get a fancy hat for his formal attire these days?

I think you're looking at most of the options already.

For weapons, there's a really good craftable two-handed sword that goes with civilian wear. I haven't played in a while, and maybe the new blocking system makes that sword a lot less useful, but man did that thing chop up guards during prison breaks.

What are the parts for that sword, if you would?

 

[Nathaniel3W]

ERYFKRAD

Fullered Long Warsword Blade
Bronze Falx Guard
Tapered Horn Grip
Fan Pommel

No mods or anything. Base damage is 120 cut. You can mess with blade length and stuff to get more damage, but it'll reduce your handling. You can get all the necessary crafting materials by smelting Pugios and Tribesman Throwing Daggers. I think this is from an older save game that didn't remember if a weapon got any bonuses when it was made. If TaleWorlds ever fixed that problem, then you can make a much better sword by trying over and over.

I gave all of my companions swords like this, and no one stands a chance against us. On solo prison-break missions I almost never have trouble cutting through the garrison. I haven't played since the AI started blocking everything.

 

[Cologno]

Got gifted a key for this and started playing. Is the combat supposed to be really "floaty"? It's like there's some sort of mouse acceleration going on. No vsync on and high settings, lowest settings, no difference.

 

[wwsd]

Haven't kept up with the development of Bannerlord, but I see it's -20% on Steam now, 40 eurobucks. Worth it? You can rate this post yes or no.

Ended up waiting half a year, then paying 30 bucks, then waiting another half year before finally installing and playing it. Looks nice but I still can't help but feel I paid 30 bucks for a graphics update. Even the soundtrack seems to be mostly remixes of Warband tunes.

 

[Zariusz]

 

[Bester]

Help me out here.

I'm supposed to start rebuilding the empire. Which means going solo and being very weak at first. Which means getting entrenched in TOUGHEST wars.
At the same time, they throw quests at me to stop some anti-imperial conspiracy bullshit, which means I can't complete them, because I'm on the front lines.
And at the same time they don't even give me enough time to raise children to have some competent help. All my kids are 2-5.

How is this even winnable and why such a rush on the empire quests?

I tried going solo, and got 4 wars declared on me at the same time. I started paying tribute to appease them, but my money only lasted me 2 months.
I'm reloading and thinking of what to do.

 

[deama]

I just installed the warhammer mod and played as a vampire.

 

[ArchAngel]

Help me out here.

I'm supposed to start rebuilding the empire. Which means going solo and being very weak at first. Which means getting entrenched in TOUGHEST wars.
At the same time, they throw quests at me to stop some anti-imperial conspiracy bullshit, which means I can't complete them, because I'm on the front lines.
And at the same time they don't even give me enough time to raise children to have some competent help. All my kids are 2-5.

How is this even winnable and why such a rush on the empire quests?

I tried going solo, and got 4 wars declared on me at the same time. I started paying tribute to appease them, but my money only lasted me 2 months.
I'm reloading and thinking of what to do.

Going your own kingdom is hard and needs preparation. You need to be very very rich before you try it (I am talking lots of millions, I usually tried to get 3 to 5 before declaring my own kingdom), you also want to be a merc for multiple kingdoms and always release lords you capture in battles because that ups your reputation with them by a lot (do same for merc groups). You want to level up your clan to 4 or 5 so you get lots of bonuses.

You need to have lots of good leaders for your other parties (max number is decided by your clan level), once you get your kingdom you can summon all them to your party and have your own doom stack. But that will not be enough. You will need to get other lords and their clans to join you, this is where releasing them comes in because high reputation plays a role here and you you will need to pay lots of money for them to join. You can also use that mass wealth to hire multiple mercenary groups to help you fight (but be careful if you give conquered castles or towns to mercs you lose it when they leave and they always leave).

In addition to that those quests are extra hard, above is just if you play Sandbox and go solo kingdom. What you need to know is that once you have your kingdom you do not need to have any castles or towns, all you need is some friendly factions where you can sell loot from battles so you do not run out of money. You can do all the quests and conquer later for example. Conquering is about looking at what factions are at war and then also going to war vs weaker faction and taking their castles or towns while they are already getting beaten.

Going your own kingdom is actually most fun way to play. You need to conquer one Castle to be able to declare your kingdom and then leave it for others to conquer as you do not need it. Then you can create your fun doom stack where you always keep your other parties with you, give your other parties your leveled up troops and you take all newbies so you control how to level them up. And in all battles you get to control all 1000+ troops from your doom stack and can beat enemy AI often even in 1vs2 battles once your learn a few tricks.

 

[Bester]

you also want to be a merc for multiple kingdoms and always release lords you capture in battles because that ups your reputation with them by a lot (do same for merc groups)

Elaborate please. Just release them into the wild?
Currently I just drive them to the nearest ally and donate the prisoners to their dungeon, which ups my rep with them. Did you mean something else?

You need to have lots of good leaders for your other parties

Uh, I didn't want to have other parties, because that's additional management I imagine? I never even tried other parties.
I have my brother and his son, and they're quartermaster and engineer. I don't have anyone else talented enough for anything else.
Should I do it anyway? Do they have to be relatives or is that not necessary?

You will need to get other lords and their clans to join you

I tried, but they're never at home. They're always in a war somewhere, and they don't want to switch allegiance during war. I never managed to catch a single one who'd be even willing to discuss it.
Also, how much reputation do we need for a dude to switch sides?

You can also use that mass wealth to hire multiple mercenary groups

I never even knew such thing existed. Where do you hire them?

What you need to know is that once you have your kingdom you do not need to have any castles or towns

Actually, I have like 6 towns to myself already. When I leave my faction, this'll be mine.
Should I have not even tried doing that, because original owners will all declare wars for this towns?

I'm not even sure what triggers wars. I just had 4 declarations of war out of nowhere. It's not like I had bad reputation with them.

nd in all battles you get to control all 1000+ troops from your doom stack

How would you even pay for upkeep when you have no towns to generate wealth?
Constant war economy, constant fighting and looting?

 

[ArchAngel]

you also want to be a merc for multiple kingdoms and always release lords you capture in battles because that ups your reputation with them by a lot (do same for merc groups)

Elaborate please. Just release them into the wild?
Currently I just drive them to the nearest ally and donate the prisoners to their dungeon, which ups my rep with them. Did you mean something else?

You need to have lots of good leaders for your other parties

Uh, I didn't want to have other parties, because that's additional management I imagine? I never even tried other parties.
I have my brother and his son, and they're quartermaster and engineer. I don't have anyone else talented enough for anything else.
Should I do it anyway? Do they have to be relatives or is that not necessary?

You will need to get other lords and their clans to join you

I tried, but they're never at home. They're always in a war somewhere, and they don't want to switch allegiance during war. I never managed to catch a single one who'd be even willing to discuss it.
Also, how much reputation do we need for a dude to switch sides?

You can also use that mass wealth to hire multiple mercenary groups

I never even knew such thing existed. Where do you hire them?

What you need to know is that once you have your kingdom you do not need to have any castles or towns

Actually, I have like 6 towns to myself already. When I leave my faction, this'll be mine.
Should I have not even tried doing that, because original owners will all declare wars for this towns?

I'm not even sure what triggers wars. I just had 4 declarations of war out of nowhere. It's not like I had bad reputation with them.

nd in all battles you get to control all 1000+ troops from your doom stack

How would you even pay for upkeep when you have no towns to generate wealth?
Constant war economy, constant fighting and looting?

After battle if you release lords you get Charm xp and a lot of rep with that lord. If you want you can do that only with clan leaders as they are ones that later need to decide to join your kingdom.

When you create other parties you do not control them directly, they do their own thing as part of the AI Kingdom or your Kingdom (and get captured if they do stupid stuff). If you are part of existing kingdom they spend most of their time as part of that Kingdom's army doing stupid attacks that AI loves to do. But you do pay for upkeep of their troops but they also do quests, do battles, trade, recruit and share profits with you if they have any. They also up your clan level faster as they accomplish missions. And they level up much faster as being party leader levels up many relevant skills as they get to do all the tasks on their own (Quartermaster, Medic and so on).
You can have multiple parties even if you are just a Merc but you cannot create armies in that case and cannot summon them to you. Creating armies made of your companion parties costs 0 influence and you can keep that army together basically forever (and you share your food with them).
You can hire companions with good quartermaster to be leaders for parties or find a good wife and let her lead her party and your brother starts with very good stats with that. In your own party you want to have as many roles filled by your character as that gives you lots of XP and levels you up fast. I usually just have a dedicated Scout and my main character does all other roles.

Easiest lords to get to switch are those that do not own any lands. More lands they have and it will be harder. Also you will need very good Charm skill and you want your reputation with clan and clan leader to be as close to 100 as you can get.

You hire mercs by finding them in the wild. If they are not part of a faction you are at war with you can just talk with their leader and ask them to join. They will say how much it will cost per day and that is it. They will stay with your for X days/weeks (you do not know exactly how long) and leave and you will need to rehire them again. Usually smart to keep leader of faction in your army as well so you can rehire them fast.

When you leave a Kingdom to create your own (or just leave) you can choose to keep towns or not. If you choose to keep towns that faction automatically declares war on you. If you leave with one town it is fairly easy and cheap to pay them for truce, with 6 that will not work. Others declared war because towns means nothing in the game, it is number of clans you got in your Kingdom. If you do not have clans to defend towns they are easy pickings, this is why they all declared war on you. You are that baby with a candy they want and you cannot stop them.

You make a huge bank before you start down the path of doing your kingdom, just like in RL. You can claim New York is your new kingdom but if you cannot buy out all the police and military to support your claim you are just a crazy man screaming on the street.
Easiest way to earn money legit is to sell gear you get by beating your opponents. You can also craft expensive shit and sell but that is boring to me so I never really did much with that or tried to find best crafts for that.
There might be some way also with workshops and caravans but I have never got workshops to produce any significant money and caravans take your limited companion slots that are used for leading parties and they are often killed by many factions at war with you so they waste the money you put into them.

 

[Bester]

Thanks for all that info, I started a new playthrough to use all this advice.

Others declared war because towns means nothing in the game, it is number of clans you got in your Kingdom. If you do not have clans to defend towns they are easy pickings, this is why they all declared war on you.

I wonder if border plays a role in it.
If my kingdom doesn't touch another kingdom on the map, is it less likely or even impossible that they declare a war on you?

Also, Sturgians with 3 towns keep declaring war on Vlandians with 15+ towns. I'm not sure the number of towns matter. They either dislike paying tribute or want to recover lost clay, or both.

 

[AgentFransis]

I think the Sturgian AI has it's aggro slider set to max. At least that's how it felt when I last played years ago. They would declare war on anything that moved even when they were already embroiled in multiple wars.

 

[ArchAngel]

Thanks for all that info, I started a new playthrough to use all this advice.

Others declared war because towns means nothing in the game, it is number of clans you got in your Kingdom. If you do not have clans to defend towns they are easy pickings, this is why they all declared war on you.

I wonder if border plays a role in it.
If my kingdom doesn't touch another kingdom on the map, is it less likely or even impossible that they declare a war on you?

Also, Sturgians with 3 towns keep declaring war on Vlandians with 15+ towns. I'm not sure the number of towns matter. They either dislike paying tribute or want to recover lost clay, or both.

Well maybe Vlandians were already at war and had a bunch of their lords captured.
Best way to win wars is to capture lords and keep them in your towns with high security or in your prisoner groups. Then you can take towns without interruptions. Easiest way to do that is to start sieges so enemies gather armies to come defend so you can capture a lot of them at once. When they come, break your siege preparation and take out their army. If needed you can release one of the lords from the army while chasing as they will often move forward and start a battle with enemy army and you can catch up and join. Also it is always smart to be either one attacking or joining ongoing battle as that is only way to retreat if things do not go well. Also if you see yourself not being able to escape stronger army do not be shy disbanding your army so you can move faster or even doing peace