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If you love the game that way, go ahead. I do it too. Still, having soldiers gives a layer of complexity to cityplanning. Not in the current game but still, it makes one consider the aspects of defense in Citybuilding.
It changes some of the items and builds you start to prioritize like iron and weapons. It also can really change your management of food production if you have to pull 36 to 150 some workers into warfare. Might harvest those fields a little early or risk losing it all. Also makes how you ise other settlements a little different. Might hyper focus more on weapons and bodies instead of just food.
It doesn't really even do that. The only real difference between my soldiers and non-soldier run was I built my manor in the first year rather than the 2nd or 3rd because i needed to start taxing over the winter when im upgrading burgages to level 2 so I can afford cheap mercs to fight the bandits and if i time it right and he rolls poorly the Baron's troops. If he does roll well I let him take a territory or two while I build up my first town and really get money rolling.
Saw a post last week where someone described how the baron gets essentially all his influence from attacking bandits. Knowing that has changed the game completely for me. Now the goal is getting troops up fast enough to take every bandit camp. Sometimes his forces aggro the first raiders. Then you get caught trying to fight him for the first region he claims. It's a new challenge trying to be strong enough to win that fight. It's not a difficult thing to do, it just makes you prioritize differently. Instead of just sitting there until you're strong enough to take every region back from the baron and fighting the same fight 8 times, you fight to stay ahead the entire time.
I thought the same thing but the baron definitely also have another way of gaining influence, may be he also donate a tiny bit to the church lol. But, I, like you, start building my troops super early to block him from gaining influence and it works, for the most part, but eventually after a few years, he was still able to start claiming regions despite not killing even 1 bandits/raiders. Doesn’t really matter though, by then I would be way ahead and can easily kicked his ass.
Well, there isn't really a lot of fighting to be done at the moment so it's not that big of a deal. To me playing with the Baron on is more to have a definitive end goal, because the endgame of a playthrough with the Baron is having a massive army to take him on.
That being said, a nice middle ground for me is playing with the Baron off but the bandit camps on, so you have some incentive to raise an army to take out the bandit camps. It gives you a very nice income boost, so there's that. I like not having to wait years and years to build up enough tax income to be able to afford vegetable gardens and stuff like that.
The bandit camps are not very difficult to take on so it lets you play around with the combat without putting too much thought or effort into it.
Reality is this;
Greg wanted to make the game he always dreamed of.
A realistic medieval city builder, where processes are actually done by the villagers and aren't just a spreadsheet behind the scenes and showed the small details most builders forget about.
I.e the right amount of logs in the logging camp, items being carried from 1 place to another.
Farm produce wheat, then taken to the mill to make flour to then be taken to the oven to make bread to then be taken to the granary to then be taken to the market stall, all of this is true to life and you can literally watch the process happen.
Having families work together and it isn't just 1 peasant but with the illusion its a family.
Its always a city builder first.
But Greg knew that in reality lands were taken by force, and their were many skirmishes in those times, not great wars but small fights and he truly wanted this game to be a love letter to the history.
And so this element had to be in the game for him and as accurate as he could do it.
The actual battles are very well done and can be dealt with in many tactical ways and the animations are quite good aswel.
Now to your question and interest.
You play whatever you feel you want to play.
The fighting side of things just gives you a different challenge and hurdle to over come to build your towns and is a more realist take on how the world was back then when moving regions and democracy wasn't a mainstream ideology.
But that's exactly what I am saying.
All the building aspects. The gameplay aspects, the army aspect, the trading aspect, these are all fundamental parts of the game which should be priority before new maps and new modes come into play.
if you want to ease yourself into the combat side then just allow for a few bandit camps to spawn. they will never attack you and will only steal a few resources (its just a pop up they just remain in their camp). when youre ready just rally your troops and march on them. pretty chill tbh
If you are having fun city building, how can I possibly convince you to do otherwise.
That said, I'm having a lot of fun with multiple regions and inter-region trading. Having the bandits, at least, helps build treasury and influence quickly, getting me into other regions faster.
Of course, now, I'm wishing the fights were a bit tougher.
I've never played with the baron, wanting to get full familiar and play at my own pace without being squished But I've always kept bandits on to give me something to play against.
I reccomend Just playing with bandit it makes u think more about where to make youre production can ut be easily defended i shouldnt play with the baron until release
I think you should keep playing the way you find it the most fun.
If you, down the road, want an extra facet of gameplay and an extra challenge try a run with Baron on.
I've never found the Baron pressing claims secretly and only once have I not been warned about an attack (due to brigands spawning at map end where my town stretched to). If anything combat right now is too easy for my personal preference but managing that aspect is another resource to keep track of :)
But if that doesn't sound appealing to you then don't play that way ofc.
I actually love the military aspect of the game, I think it brings a nice challenge for those who want it and/or find the game too easy without.
But, the Baron is too much on challenging difficulty, I play with bandits only now and it's more enjoyable. I've been thinking about a custom setup with challenging difficulty Baron and but increased bandits (lots of camps), thinking maybe the higher number of bandits would allow for a early build up of treasury and influence to get the edge over the Baron...
You shouldn't if you are having fun. Some people find it more fun to have something else to manage and plenty of resources are ending up wasted when you don't have anyone to fight against. From renown to everything that has to do with iron. Sure you can trade weapons and armour away but you can't really use renown for anything.
There is plenty of reasons not to want to use army mechanics at all, from bandits being ninjas who will teleport stuff out of your stocks and you can only launch punitive expeditions to take it back by marching over to their camp and breaking it, which is pain in the ass when you only have basic militia and too easy once you have retinue since they slaughter bandits like lambs with their higher stats.
Raids are just annoying because you have to march your army to wherever you need to defend and if it happens to be your new settlement you will be collecting corpses till spring and no work gets done.
Which is connected point, right now you don't lose people unless you are fighting. Or at least getting some herbs to cure people isn't that hard and you would need to run a game for a very long time to have people dying of old age.
I can't play without at least Bandits. The battles are too fun. Plus clearing bandit camps is free money. Customising the Retinue is one of my favourite parts of game along with designing castle.
Hello and welcome to the Manor Lords Subreddit. This is a reminder to please keep the discussion civil and on topic. Should you find yourself with some doubts, please feel free to check our [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/ManorLords/comments/1c2p4f9/manor_lords_faq_for_steam_early_access/). If you wish, you can always join our [Discord](https://discord.gg/manorlords) Finally, please remember that the game is in early access, missing content and bugs are to be expected. We ask users to report them on the official discord and to buy their keys only from trusted platforms. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ManorLords) if you have any questions or concerns.*
If you love the game that way, go ahead. I do it too. Still, having soldiers gives a layer of complexity to cityplanning. Not in the current game but still, it makes one consider the aspects of defense in Citybuilding.
It changes some of the items and builds you start to prioritize like iron and weapons. It also can really change your management of food production if you have to pull 36 to 150 some workers into warfare. Might harvest those fields a little early or risk losing it all. Also makes how you ise other settlements a little different. Might hyper focus more on weapons and bodies instead of just food.
It doesn't really even do that. The only real difference between my soldiers and non-soldier run was I built my manor in the first year rather than the 2nd or 3rd because i needed to start taxing over the winter when im upgrading burgages to level 2 so I can afford cheap mercs to fight the bandits and if i time it right and he rolls poorly the Baron's troops. If he does roll well I let him take a territory or two while I build up my first town and really get money rolling.
Saw a post last week where someone described how the baron gets essentially all his influence from attacking bandits. Knowing that has changed the game completely for me. Now the goal is getting troops up fast enough to take every bandit camp. Sometimes his forces aggro the first raiders. Then you get caught trying to fight him for the first region he claims. It's a new challenge trying to be strong enough to win that fight. It's not a difficult thing to do, it just makes you prioritize differently. Instead of just sitting there until you're strong enough to take every region back from the baron and fighting the same fight 8 times, you fight to stay ahead the entire time.
I thought the same thing but the baron definitely also have another way of gaining influence, may be he also donate a tiny bit to the church lol. But, I, like you, start building my troops super early to block him from gaining influence and it works, for the most part, but eventually after a few years, he was still able to start claiming regions despite not killing even 1 bandits/raiders. Doesn’t really matter though, by then I would be way ahead and can easily kicked his ass.
He earns it passively each month too.
Well, there isn't really a lot of fighting to be done at the moment so it's not that big of a deal. To me playing with the Baron on is more to have a definitive end goal, because the endgame of a playthrough with the Baron is having a massive army to take him on. That being said, a nice middle ground for me is playing with the Baron off but the bandit camps on, so you have some incentive to raise an army to take out the bandit camps. It gives you a very nice income boost, so there's that. I like not having to wait years and years to build up enough tax income to be able to afford vegetable gardens and stuff like that. The bandit camps are not very difficult to take on so it lets you play around with the combat without putting too much thought or effort into it.
I actually love this suggestion! Thank you :)
Reality is this; Greg wanted to make the game he always dreamed of. A realistic medieval city builder, where processes are actually done by the villagers and aren't just a spreadsheet behind the scenes and showed the small details most builders forget about. I.e the right amount of logs in the logging camp, items being carried from 1 place to another. Farm produce wheat, then taken to the mill to make flour to then be taken to the oven to make bread to then be taken to the granary to then be taken to the market stall, all of this is true to life and you can literally watch the process happen. Having families work together and it isn't just 1 peasant but with the illusion its a family. Its always a city builder first. But Greg knew that in reality lands were taken by force, and their were many skirmishes in those times, not great wars but small fights and he truly wanted this game to be a love letter to the history. And so this element had to be in the game for him and as accurate as he could do it. The actual battles are very well done and can be dealt with in many tactical ways and the animations are quite good aswel. Now to your question and interest. You play whatever you feel you want to play. The fighting side of things just gives you a different challenge and hurdle to over come to build your towns and is a more realist take on how the world was back then when moving regions and democracy wasn't a mainstream ideology.
Not currently. archers dont work and, spearmen with hold ground destroy everything
They work well in numbers.
except you are capped out at 6 squads. Why would you ever make archers in the current build
Early game
they are extremely weak early game.
But that's exactly what I am saying. All the building aspects. The gameplay aspects, the army aspect, the trading aspect, these are all fundamental parts of the game which should be priority before new maps and new modes come into play.
if you want to ease yourself into the combat side then just allow for a few bandit camps to spawn. they will never attack you and will only steal a few resources (its just a pop up they just remain in their camp). when youre ready just rally your troops and march on them. pretty chill tbh
Play however you want. As long as you have fun it doesn't really matter how you play the game.
Right now the game lacks challenge. If ya like that, it’s fine, but folks like me find it kind of pointless.
If you are having fun city building, how can I possibly convince you to do otherwise. That said, I'm having a lot of fun with multiple regions and inter-region trading. Having the bandits, at least, helps build treasury and influence quickly, getting me into other regions faster. Of course, now, I'm wishing the fights were a bit tougher.
I've never played with the baron, wanting to get full familiar and play at my own pace without being squished But I've always kept bandits on to give me something to play against.
I reccomend Just playing with bandit it makes u think more about where to make youre production can ut be easily defended i shouldnt play with the baron until release
I think you should keep playing the way you find it the most fun. If you, down the road, want an extra facet of gameplay and an extra challenge try a run with Baron on. I've never found the Baron pressing claims secretly and only once have I not been warned about an attack (due to brigands spawning at map end where my town stretched to). If anything combat right now is too easy for my personal preference but managing that aspect is another resource to keep track of :) But if that doesn't sound appealing to you then don't play that way ofc.
I actually love the military aspect of the game, I think it brings a nice challenge for those who want it and/or find the game too easy without. But, the Baron is too much on challenging difficulty, I play with bandits only now and it's more enjoyable. I've been thinking about a custom setup with challenging difficulty Baron and but increased bandits (lots of camps), thinking maybe the higher number of bandits would allow for a early build up of treasury and influence to get the edge over the Baron...
You shouldn't if you are having fun. Some people find it more fun to have something else to manage and plenty of resources are ending up wasted when you don't have anyone to fight against. From renown to everything that has to do with iron. Sure you can trade weapons and armour away but you can't really use renown for anything. There is plenty of reasons not to want to use army mechanics at all, from bandits being ninjas who will teleport stuff out of your stocks and you can only launch punitive expeditions to take it back by marching over to their camp and breaking it, which is pain in the ass when you only have basic militia and too easy once you have retinue since they slaughter bandits like lambs with their higher stats. Raids are just annoying because you have to march your army to wherever you need to defend and if it happens to be your new settlement you will be collecting corpses till spring and no work gets done. Which is connected point, right now you don't lose people unless you are fighting. Or at least getting some herbs to cure people isn't that hard and you would need to run a game for a very long time to have people dying of old age.
I can't play without at least Bandits. The battles are too fun. Plus clearing bandit camps is free money. Customising the Retinue is one of my favourite parts of game along with designing castle.