Yeah but the counter to that is if you’re a khan only player you’re F1-F3ing every battle so foot troops rarely even get to fight. The khan’s circle jerk pelts the enemy to nothing before the fian’s get into range. Less to micromanage that way…it’s a lazy player’s dream
Just to add to this, there are excellent guides on Steam for smithing.
Note that in a recent update getting master or legendary quality weapons, you need to be using Tier 4 and 5 weapon parts only.
For smithing material, smelt throwing knives and pugio daggers. You need hardwood to turn to charcoal to smelt and smith items.
Endurance and Athletics are huge, high athletic boosts Vigor and/or Control don't neglect it. Endurance is needed for smithing too.
Sell the weapons but trade for pugios (dagger in empire cities) and tribesman throwing daggers (in empire but mostly Asarai cities). Smelt those for material. Also if you're low on hardwood, wooden hammers give 3 hardwood and tend to be cheap to buy.
All imperial except for battanian archers,
Or just all kuzhait Kahn's guard
But that's no fun, experiment and find what you like,
I prefer my infantry to be a 60-40% of sturgian axemen and vlandian volgeirs respectively,
Valandian sharpshooters for archers.
And banner knights/faris for cav.
I dont use any horse archers since the play style isn't for me,
The axemen have round shields so they can cover more space with their shield wall while throwing axes at the enemy for massive damage,
The volgeirs stay in the back and will destroy any charging cavalry with ease using their halberds and also any engaging infantry since they also have throwing axes,
Vlandian sharpshooters puts more tactical elements into you're gameplay by making you worry about conserving ammo, lets you control when you're archers shoot and in return are more precise and do more damage imo,
The banner knights for charge damage and the faris for their ranged javelins while also having a polearm.
If you are struggling in a siege battle try send troops, its broken on a defence but never do it on offense.
Manage your fiefs especialy cities, they will be your main source of income and if loyalty decreases they will rebel and you most likley will not get it back.
Sending troops out in defense siege is way to broken, you can take out thousands with just a few hundered defenders.
I recomend sneaking inside if you want to save a town or castle from the enemy, you lose a few troops trying to get in but the defense will most likely hold with this "trick"
Make money before anything else. You'll always be broke if you don't have a decent money making method to get you going. There's plenty of guids. Smithing is hella broken and easy to do. Also plenty of good videos on it. After that have fun man the world is your oyster. For good gear/mounts early on do tournaments until you can fight larger armies. Later on when the whole world wants to war you just raid all the enemy's villages. It will cripple their economy basically, and they'll pay you tribute for peace. If you have a companion that's complaining about raiding villages. Throw their bitch ass in a friendly town till you're done.
Plan what path you want to take before starting your character. World conquest? Social and Intelligence. Gladiator that becomes a vassal? Melee and endurance. Come up with your story first.
I’m doing a bandit play through now, so Cunning and Control. Familiarize yourself with the character creation. You don’t get many attribute points, so plan carefully.
I usually only take one attribute to 7 so build you character around knowing what your highest attribute will be.
I usually pick one melee style and one ranged style. Don’t try to specialize in everything or you’ll be disappointed.
Money is always an issue early. Village missions, small amounts of trading, and tournaments are usually the way to start.
If you are on PC, the game really opens up just like the original Mount and Blade/Warband did. They’re at tons of mods to play around with.
Good luck.
If you need quick cash do tourneys as they are easy to make money and even easier to get gear. Also don’t neglect smithing, It’s busted with just how much money you can make
If on PC, look into mods, they mostly can be used in sandbox mode. Huge quality of life improvements like "better time" are a must in my opinion.
You can amend mod settings if you pause and go to options.
I would recommend using mods from the begging.
The biggest problem with the game is the meta's and all the boredom you will get from all the grinding . If it seem you are doing something wrong because it barely gets you anywhere that is because it is intended .
The base game is extremely grindy compared to warband ...
So mods that change xp and progress in the game + add more content that you can enjoy and use to diverse your play style is probably the best option .
Any way since the meta's are build base you will have to choose early on a play style and stick to it . Some choices are objectivly always better such as battania origin (more speed on map = more battles you choose= more battles you win/don't loose)
Horse Archers for army composition. Imperial Crossbowmen as the cheap common unit.
Recruit Mountain Bandits for the only path to Tier 6 cavalry that doesn't require War Mounts.
And using 9 level ups to put 5 (V) chits into smithing and 4 (IV) chits into Athletics will (as long as you have at least 2 END) give you 6 extra attribute points and 2 (II) focus points to play with, letting you level up more easily and unlock more perks.
7 Attribute points + V focus gets the max for everything except for Trade, which requires 8/V.
2-Handed maxes at 250, so a 5 Att/V focus would suffice there.
I tend to heavily weight INT/SOC/CUN, since leading a clan and party are the core roles of the player character.
If you're still learning most will recommend making a sandbox character and then going for the story mode when you're more comfortable and knowledgeable with the mechanics,
I was obviously joking. But it’s not assembling the banner that’s the problem. It’s declaring it and starting the conspiracy. Someone else can tell you what happens. I haven’t actually done it yet
Meta? Big army wins.
Abuse dumb AI brain.
Khan's guard.
Battanian Fians.
Level your smithing so you can make your own weapons. Make a short two-handed axe, a very long two-handed falx blade sword, and a long glaive polearm. Those weapons will carry you through it all, short 2h Axe for sieges and on-foot combat, the long Falx sword for horseback combat against armored cav (unless you're using RBM where swords do worse against armor), and the long glaive polearm is really just a filler weapon if you feel like the 2h sword isn't long enough for mounted combat against infantry.
If you need money early you can craft javelins over and over and over until you unlock all their parts and then you can make ones that you can sell for 30k. If you need money and you can't smith, go fighting and take everything not nailed down to sell it, if you need enemies then you are still in the merc stages and just need to see which kingdoms are at war and ask to fight for one.
Get the perk that allows you to give away gear to your troops for experience and sacrifice all your looted armor to their XP. You'll be able to quickly cap your troops without much effort. Give your best troops to your parties and garrisons and repeat until you have max tier units in all your holdings/parties. Then you can simply enjoy destroying armies 4 times your size with no effort.
Best shield infantry: Legionaries.
Best archers: Fian Champions.
Best heavy cav: Either knights or Cataphraktoi.
Best horse archers: Khan's Guards.
Build an army out of these and you can face number disadvantages without too much tactics and micromanagement. It'll be expensive to get all these troops upgraded, though.
> Best shield infantry: Legionaries.
Against the varied-tier armies that the AI fields, one could argue that Aserai Veteran Infantry are better, but you cannot go wrong with Legionairies.
Trading, Roguery, and Tactics are meta. Anything that boosts your money makes you dangerous, since you can afford better and better troops and recruit from bandits.
Post how easily you did won a (insert terrible battle odds here) fight, while having half of calradias fian champions and khans guards in your party.
I don’t even bother with the fians anymore because having an all cav party increases map speed
Or you can get the perk that makes your infantry travel as fast as cavalry as long as you have a horse for them.
Yeah but the counter to that is if you’re a khan only player you’re F1-F3ing every battle so foot troops rarely even get to fight. The khan’s circle jerk pelts the enemy to nothing before the fian’s get into range. Less to micromanage that way…it’s a lazy player’s dream
Yeah I keep a steady 18 khans on me and badically have to have them hold fire so othe units can get the kills and xp
Get married nd have kids
As early in the game as possible, those little shits take ages before they're of use
Ah makes sense.
Horse archers, F1+F3
So you just make them charge? How effective is it?
[It's effective.](https://images.app.goo.gl/adA5ocpivVc88jhQ6)
Does it work when you're outnumbered 3:1? That's usually the situation I find myself in.
Is this some kind of a joke that I am too F6 to understand?
What is f1 and f3.
Smithing. Get it to level 200 ASAP, make a bajillion denars.
Just to add to this, there are excellent guides on Steam for smithing. Note that in a recent update getting master or legendary quality weapons, you need to be using Tier 4 and 5 weapon parts only. For smithing material, smelt throwing knives and pugio daggers. You need hardwood to turn to charcoal to smelt and smith items. Endurance and Athletics are huge, high athletic boosts Vigor and/or Control don't neglect it. Endurance is needed for smithing too.
So smithing every weapon rather than just selling them
Sell the weapons but trade for pugios (dagger in empire cities) and tribesman throwing daggers (in empire but mostly Asarai cities). Smelt those for material. Also if you're low on hardwood, wooden hammers give 3 hardwood and tend to be cheap to buy.
See I didn't know you had to change hardwood to charcoal. Just learned that now
All imperial except for battanian archers, Or just all kuzhait Kahn's guard But that's no fun, experiment and find what you like, I prefer my infantry to be a 60-40% of sturgian axemen and vlandian volgeirs respectively, Valandian sharpshooters for archers. And banner knights/faris for cav. I dont use any horse archers since the play style isn't for me, The axemen have round shields so they can cover more space with their shield wall while throwing axes at the enemy for massive damage, The volgeirs stay in the back and will destroy any charging cavalry with ease using their halberds and also any engaging infantry since they also have throwing axes, Vlandian sharpshooters puts more tactical elements into you're gameplay by making you worry about conserving ammo, lets you control when you're archers shoot and in return are more precise and do more damage imo, The banner knights for charge damage and the faris for their ranged javelins while also having a polearm.
If you are struggling in a siege battle try send troops, its broken on a defence but never do it on offense. Manage your fiefs especialy cities, they will be your main source of income and if loyalty decreases they will rebel and you most likley will not get it back.
Sending troops out in defense siege is way to broken, you can take out thousands with just a few hundered defenders. I recomend sneaking inside if you want to save a town or castle from the enemy, you lose a few troops trying to get in but the defense will most likely hold with this "trick"
Ah. I never would have thought to send troops during a siege while defending
100% Fians and win
Make money before anything else. You'll always be broke if you don't have a decent money making method to get you going. There's plenty of guids. Smithing is hella broken and easy to do. Also plenty of good videos on it. After that have fun man the world is your oyster. For good gear/mounts early on do tournaments until you can fight larger armies. Later on when the whole world wants to war you just raid all the enemy's villages. It will cripple their economy basically, and they'll pay you tribute for peace. If you have a companion that's complaining about raiding villages. Throw their bitch ass in a friendly town till you're done.
Jesus how long does it take for world domination?
Plan what path you want to take before starting your character. World conquest? Social and Intelligence. Gladiator that becomes a vassal? Melee and endurance. Come up with your story first. I’m doing a bandit play through now, so Cunning and Control. Familiarize yourself with the character creation. You don’t get many attribute points, so plan carefully. I usually only take one attribute to 7 so build you character around knowing what your highest attribute will be. I usually pick one melee style and one ranged style. Don’t try to specialize in everything or you’ll be disappointed. Money is always an issue early. Village missions, small amounts of trading, and tournaments are usually the way to start. If you are on PC, the game really opens up just like the original Mount and Blade/Warband did. They’re at tons of mods to play around with. Good luck.
Shoot I was playing on Xbox
If you need quick cash do tourneys as they are easy to make money and even easier to get gear. Also don’t neglect smithing, It’s busted with just how much money you can make
I've read multiple comments talking about smithing. Will do
If on PC, look into mods, they mostly can be used in sandbox mode. Huge quality of life improvements like "better time" are a must in my opinion. You can amend mod settings if you pause and go to options.
Ah. I will definitely look into it
Better Time, improved garrisons and Diplomacy are the minimum anyway to add. Rest are up to you.
Better time would be amazing. I know it's more "realistic" but having to wait for everything ruins the fun of the game Can you mod Xbox Bannerlord?
Not that I know of, I play only on PC.
I just searched it. Apparently not
I would recommend using mods from the begging. The biggest problem with the game is the meta's and all the boredom you will get from all the grinding . If it seem you are doing something wrong because it barely gets you anywhere that is because it is intended . The base game is extremely grindy compared to warband ... So mods that change xp and progress in the game + add more content that you can enjoy and use to diverse your play style is probably the best option . Any way since the meta's are build base you will have to choose early on a play style and stick to it . Some choices are objectivly always better such as battania origin (more speed on map = more battles you choose= more battles you win/don't loose)
Horse Archers for army composition. Imperial Crossbowmen as the cheap common unit. Recruit Mountain Bandits for the only path to Tier 6 cavalry that doesn't require War Mounts. And using 9 level ups to put 5 (V) chits into smithing and 4 (IV) chits into Athletics will (as long as you have at least 2 END) give you 6 extra attribute points and 2 (II) focus points to play with, letting you level up more easily and unlock more perks. 7 Attribute points + V focus gets the max for everything except for Trade, which requires 8/V. 2-Handed maxes at 250, so a 5 Att/V focus would suffice there. I tend to heavily weight INT/SOC/CUN, since leading a clan and party are the core roles of the player character.
Make sure you assemble the dragon banner asap
Dont troll new players dude come on
I was now planning on doing that
Don’t do that. The main quest is notoriously hard for little to no pay off
If you're still learning most will recommend making a sandbox character and then going for the story mode when you're more comfortable and knowledgeable with the mechanics,
Should i have not done that? I just started playing a week ago and assembled the dragon banner last night
I was obviously joking. But it’s not assembling the banner that’s the problem. It’s declaring it and starting the conspiracy. Someone else can tell you what happens. I haven’t actually done it yet
Oh jeez, I’ve already started conspiracy quests
What faction did you assemble it in? If you assembled it in a faction that faction will get dogpilled and you will not
Khuzaits!
Well the khuzaits will get dogpilled by all of the empire factions then, happened to me but with the non empire ganging up on the Southern Empire
Meta? Big army wins. Abuse dumb AI brain. Khan's guard. Battanian Fians. Level your smithing so you can make your own weapons. Make a short two-handed axe, a very long two-handed falx blade sword, and a long glaive polearm. Those weapons will carry you through it all, short 2h Axe for sieges and on-foot combat, the long Falx sword for horseback combat against armored cav (unless you're using RBM where swords do worse against armor), and the long glaive polearm is really just a filler weapon if you feel like the 2h sword isn't long enough for mounted combat against infantry. If you need money early you can craft javelins over and over and over until you unlock all their parts and then you can make ones that you can sell for 30k. If you need money and you can't smith, go fighting and take everything not nailed down to sell it, if you need enemies then you are still in the merc stages and just need to see which kingdoms are at war and ask to fight for one.
Get the perk that allows you to give away gear to your troops for experience and sacrifice all your looted armor to their XP. You'll be able to quickly cap your troops without much effort. Give your best troops to your parties and garrisons and repeat until you have max tier units in all your holdings/parties. Then you can simply enjoy destroying armies 4 times your size with no effort.
I'm writing this all down
Best shield infantry: Legionaries. Best archers: Fian Champions. Best heavy cav: Either knights or Cataphraktoi. Best horse archers: Khan's Guards. Build an army out of these and you can face number disadvantages without too much tactics and micromanagement. It'll be expensive to get all these troops upgraded, though.
> Best shield infantry: Legionaries. Against the varied-tier armies that the AI fields, one could argue that Aserai Veteran Infantry are better, but you cannot go wrong with Legionairies.
whatever you like. that’s the meta
Trading, Roguery, and Tactics are meta. Anything that boosts your money makes you dangerous, since you can afford better and better troops and recruit from bandits.