I recently have been watching a few Europa Universalis 1-4 games, Vicky 1 and 2, and Hearts of Iron one through three. Share here if you have played any Paradox game including those but not excluding others. I am thinking of buying a few games from there.
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Anybody play Paradox titles?
- Thread starter Kingpoleon
- Start date
Mount&Blade: Warband is awesome. Even more so with a few mods attached (myself, I've played Floris and A Clash of Kings, the latter being a full-blown Game of Thrones conversion).
Stay away from With Fire and Sword, though. It feels more like an unfinished mod to M&B than a standalone game, it has serious balance issues (essentially, the more powerful your faction becomes, the weaker it will be because of the ways how territories are captured and defended), and its early-game is rock hard and unforgiving. In Warband, you can take your trusty horse and a weapon of choice, and charge down any pack of marauding bandits. Early-game, where it's just you and your horse, you'll be able to beat small bandit parties because of the enormous advantage the horse gives you. In With Fire and Sword, the bandits have firearms, and they know how to aim them. Both you and your horse, and possibly your little party of soldiers, WILL be gunned down if you go for a direct charge. After your defeat, you'll lose both money and some gear, and possibly also your horse. Good luck recovering from that. Also, don't ever expect to survive a siege played legitimately, no matter how high-levelled you are, how good your gear is, and how low you've turned the difficulty. No matter if you're attacking or defending, that one stray bullet will find you, or you'll be overrun with enemies.
But back to Warband, it's awesome. Try out a couple mods too, once you've come to grips with the main game! If you wish to stay Native for the time being, my recommendation is to go for the Rhodoks. Their crossbowmen will overwhelm even an armoured cavalry charge (which you hopefully won't encounter early-game), and their Sergeants are the second-best infantry in the game, only beaten by the Nord Huscarls, which have an upkeep cost several times higher. Rhodoks will rule sieges too, where everybody is on foot (and the Rhodoks are specialized for foot combat). Once you've gotten some experience and a few hardened troops, you might also want to check out the areas near Rivacheg. Sea Raiders spawn there aplenty, and they provide lots of exp. and drop decent gear for you to sell. Beware, however, that they might put up a bit more fight than the average bandits.
Stay away from With Fire and Sword, though. It feels more like an unfinished mod to M&B than a standalone game, it has serious balance issues (essentially, the more powerful your faction becomes, the weaker it will be because of the ways how territories are captured and defended), and its early-game is rock hard and unforgiving. In Warband, you can take your trusty horse and a weapon of choice, and charge down any pack of marauding bandits. Early-game, where it's just you and your horse, you'll be able to beat small bandit parties because of the enormous advantage the horse gives you. In With Fire and Sword, the bandits have firearms, and they know how to aim them. Both you and your horse, and possibly your little party of soldiers, WILL be gunned down if you go for a direct charge. After your defeat, you'll lose both money and some gear, and possibly also your horse. Good luck recovering from that. Also, don't ever expect to survive a siege played legitimately, no matter how high-levelled you are, how good your gear is, and how low you've turned the difficulty. No matter if you're attacking or defending, that one stray bullet will find you, or you'll be overrun with enemies.
But back to Warband, it's awesome. Try out a couple mods too, once you've come to grips with the main game! If you wish to stay Native for the time being, my recommendation is to go for the Rhodoks. Their crossbowmen will overwhelm even an armoured cavalry charge (which you hopefully won't encounter early-game), and their Sergeants are the second-best infantry in the game, only beaten by the Nord Huscarls, which have an upkeep cost several times higher. Rhodoks will rule sieges too, where everybody is on foot (and the Rhodoks are specialized for foot combat). Once you've gotten some experience and a few hardened troops, you might also want to check out the areas near Rivacheg. Sea Raiders spawn there aplenty, and they provide lots of exp. and drop decent gear for you to sell. Beware, however, that they might put up a bit more fight than the average bandits.
Thanks for the tips!
I heard good things about couching polearms while riding a horse to basically super powerful and break shields just by running into enemies. Is that true?
Yes, but also a little tricky to pull off, and it has a cooldown period. And lances can be a little costly to get hold of.
However, few things are sweeter than ordering your host of Swadian Knights to charge, with yourself leading the attack, lance in hand. A little observation, a little careful aiming, and you can ride a little beside the main wedge, single out the opposing lord, and knock him out in a single blow with a couched lance. Then you get to hear the sound of your own armoured knights plowing into the enemy column behind you as you ride.
On the other hand, should you ever wind up in a tournament battle with both you and your sole opponent having mounted lances... well, then you get to see the less awesome side of lance combat. Unless you dismount and use your lance as a footman's pike to stop his charge, that is. Once his horse is knocked out, mount your own and ride him down. Or, as I did once, drop all weapons and punch/kick the guy 'till he falls over.
However, few things are sweeter than ordering your host of Swadian Knights to charge, with yourself leading the attack, lance in hand. A little observation, a little careful aiming, and you can ride a little beside the main wedge, single out the opposing lord, and knock him out in a single blow with a couched lance. Then you get to hear the sound of your own armoured knights plowing into the enemy column behind you as you ride.
On the other hand, should you ever wind up in a tournament battle with both you and your sole opponent having mounted lances... well, then you get to see the less awesome side of lance combat. Unless you dismount and use your lance as a footman's pike to stop his charge, that is. Once his horse is knocked out, mount your own and ride him down. Or, as I did once, drop all weapons and punch/kick the guy 'till he falls over.
That sounds..... Really awesome.
What?
Mount&Blade is full of potenially awesome moments. Like holding your ground at the top of a siege ladder alone, eventually winning the battle with a sliver of HP left and your character coloured red from head to heel. Or ordering your line of bowmen to hold fire until the enemy is close enough to spit on, then loose a wave of arrows that send them all tumbling, and watch their line break as the survivors turn to flee the battle. Or that first time when you manage to time an attack from horseback perfectly, swinging your axe into an enemy soldier just as you storm past him at full speed.
Or my personal favourite: stopping a lancer charge from an opposing lord by knocking him out, a maneuver I've managed to execute perfectly once or twice. The man, a Swadian lord, all armoured on a huge warhorse, came rushing towards me, and I was on foot. I managed to switch my two-handed blade for a throwing axe at the last second, then flung it and luckily hit him square in the forehead, just as he was about to run me through with his lance. He fell off the horse, unconscious, and I just barely managed to sidestep to avoid the horse. I then promptly got run down by another knight in his army, but survived and had to limp back to my bowmen in a rather indignified way, but at least I got that one moment of glory.