[NOTE: for those looking for the map, the link is at the bottom of the article…]

I’m still quite impressed with this game – esp. due to the fact that it was a “garage project” made by a man and his wife in Turkey of all places!  Anyways, here’s some specifics that I’ve found useful to know when playing the game:

Best Units:

• Sarranid: Mamluke Calvary
• Swadian: Knight Calvary
• Khergit: Veteran Horse Archer Calvary
• Vaegir: Marksman Infantry
• Nord: Huscarl Infantry
• Rhodok: Sergeant Infantry

So, using the tactic of being independent throughout all of the early game, I’ve been trying to recruit and train up at least 10 of each of the above units, eventually up to 20 of each (when Leadership/Renown permits)  before I take on my first castle siege.

Noble Companions (and proficiencies)

• Alayen: 1H weapons, Thrown Weapons (needs training to use – but has highest potential here), Strength 11 (all others start at 9), Riding 3 (all others start at 2)
• Baheshtur: Archery, 1H Weapons, Power Draw 3 (all others start at 0), Horse Archery 3 (all others start at 0), Intelligence 12
• Firentis: 2H Weapons, Thrown Weapons, Athletics 3 (big whoop – makes him run faster), Agility 12.
• Lezalit: 2H Weapons, Thrown Weapons, Archery, Trainer 4(! makes all your units advance faster), Intelligence 11.
• Matheld: Polearms, Archery, as the only female noble companion – if you’re playing a male character, you have the chance to make her your queen without ruffling too many feathers.
• Rolf:  2H weapons, Polearms, 1H Weapons, Rolf and Baheshtur like each other, so that makes for some interesting conversations…

The best part about having all of these noble companions is:

1. They all get along
2. You can give them a fief without incurring the wrath of other factions/lords since they are nobles.  Although I’m not sure how that works with Matheld, there’s been whispering that since she’s a woman, it may cause a ripple when granting her a fief

With this companion make-up, you can also safely recruit the commoner Artimenner since he likes Lezalit and none of the other nobles dislike him.  He’s not a very strong warrior type, but he does have Engineering 4, which is great for building siege engines.  His strongest weapon skills are 2H (97), and crossbow (93) – anything below 100 is sub-standard, so just sayin’ he ain’t a great warrior type…

The other day I took my first castle, with one of my non-configured characters (i.e. I didn’t have the best army units, nor fully trained companions), but I had over 110 troops and it wasn’t too hard. It took a bit longer than I expected, and I lost more troops than I’d like, but it went ok.  I took Asugan Castle because I was already in good standing with the Sarranids, who were at war with the Vaegirs (who rightfully own Asugan).  Afterwards, of course, I had a constant stream of Vaegir armies trying to sack the town that came with the castle – they never attempted to siege my castle though, so I guess that was good.  They were pretty weak, and after destroying all of the initial groups, the subsequent groups were much less trained. But it was still a pretty constant stream of hostile Vaegirs incoming, and not having a nearby city to sell off the spoils and restock items was annoying. 

So then I took the next castle in their territory(Distar), hoping to weaken them further, and hoping to establish one of my nobles in their own castle to build up their own army so they could help me defend my lands.  But almost as soon as I handed over the castle to Matheld, she went out warring with a small band of soldiers and got herself captured – what a loon 😛 hehe.

I think I should have build up a considerably stronger army (~160+ well trained soldiers) and instead of hitting castles, I should have tried to take the city of Tulga. And then gone after the nearby castles (Asugan & Distar).  This would’ve given me a strong base of operations, including trade routes with Ahmerrad in Sarran and Halmar (which had earlier been taken from the Vaegirs by the Rhodoks).  Of course, at the time I didn’t know that, because I didn’t have this (very cool) Calradia: Warband map. 

So, now I’m in the process of re-working my army and preparing for an assault on Tulga.  I’ll keep you posted on how that goes.  In the mean time, I hope y’all have a great Thanksgiving – Enjoy!