How do you defend yourself in this game?

[Doom Sayer]

Mercenaries just get massacred. How do i not get crushed by small groups of bandits? I spend hours grinding and lost it in 2 minutes. Why are mercs in the game?

[Doom Sayer]

flyingscot1066 の投稿を引用：

Doom Sayer の投稿を引用：

The highway men throw lances/javelines or whatever into my head from horseback and one hit kill me. it takes like two-3 shots with arrows to kill looters with headshots. No number of ♥♥♥♥ units help if they die so quickly. In Warband any merc will outclass most bandits outside sea raiders and Tundra bandits. Its like in Warband they are armored professional soldiers and the bandits are bandits. I 100% warband twice and I cant even go to point a to point b in bannerlord.

One of the problems is you are using sub-par troops to fight advanced level opponents.
Highwaymen are the top tier of Mountain Bandits that you will find in the wild. Only one that's supposedly any better is a Mountain Bandit Boss, but I'd put my money on the Highwayman.
They are easily the equivalent of Vlandian Light Cavalry, plus they have javelins, which hurt a lot.
Brigands are almost as tough. They are essentially Highwaymen without horses.
Hillmen are pushovers. They are like Looters who go topless.

The thing about bandits, is they are cowards. If you have a decent sized party, they will leave you alone. At the start of the game, you have enough cash to either hire 2-3 halfway decent mercenaries from a Tavern, or you can go to villages and towns and hire 20 tier 1 troops, which is your starting party size limit, and plenty enough that no group of fewer than 25 bandits will mess with you.

Sounds like you're going for the tavern mercenaries, of which you can only afford 3 or 4, which makes you a tempting target.

Start a new game, use your starting cash to hire some cannon fodder (and enough chow to feed them), and chase down a few packs of 7-10 Looters instead. You will lose a few men, but they are easily replaceable. Once you get your guys to about tier 3, the losses will decrease sharply, and you can take on larger groups.

I thought the lords in warband were ♥♥♥♥ at protecting their lands it seems its even worse here.

[lar unuruur]

oh and to get first cash, if you on campaign, get right away down to poros, sell both your melee weapons(from civilian tab too) and buy all hogs and sheep you can for got money and butcher them(tab with knife under animal row) and sell all meat and hides. 3000+ k should be yours now. buy normal riding horse.

[Core]

Pick the right units. Sword sisters are pretty bad for example.
"Small elite" band is not a very good tactic in bannerlord. It is good to have fodder.
Pick your opponents well, alt-mousehover shows enemy party composition.
On the bottom right, there's an arrow, click it to extend status bar, see what affects your speed and morale: those two are crucial.
Mod the game with decent AI etc. Vanilla is literally junk and will leave you frustrated.

[RJboxer]

lar unuruur の投稿を引用：

oh and to get first cash, if you on campaign, get right away down to poros, sell both your melee weapons(from civilian tab too) and buy all hogs and sheep you can for got money and butcher them(tab with knife under animal row) and sell all meat and hides. 3000+ k should be yours now. buy normal riding horse.

this is a good tip. Someone said it a couple days ago (buy the sheep and butcher em).

This really makes game easier at first. (so expect the devs to read it and nerf it soon. I'm not kidding).

But for as long as you can buy those sheep close to poros, butcher them.. and sell the meat and hides. This is DEFINITELY the best way I've heard of (or used) to get denars fast when u first start out..

+1

[flyingscot1066]

RJboxer の投稿を引用：

lar unuruur の投稿を引用：

oh and to get first cash, if you on campaign, get right away down to poros, sell both your melee weapons(from civilian tab too) and buy all hogs and sheep you can for got money and butcher them(tab with knife under animal row) and sell all meat and hides. 3000+ k should be yours now. buy normal riding horse.

this is a good tip. Someone said it a couple days ago (buy the sheep and butcher em).

This really makes game easier at first. (so expect the devs to read it and nerf it soon. I'm not kidding).

But for as long as you can buy those sheep close to poros, butcher them.. and sell the meat and hides. This is DEFINITELY the best way I've heard of (or used) to get denars fast when u first start out..

+1

Sheep at Tevea, hogs at Zestea, (Will have to sell your gear to afford both if you are trying to do it in one trip) butcher and sell at Poros. Both of those villages are bound to Poros. so it will also have those same animals in stock, usually. Buy up that stock and take it to Zeonica. Sell the ones you can make a profit on, butcher the rest. You can go back to Sagora and do the same thing, selling at Lycaron, then swing north to Varagos and Amycon, unloading at Amytatis. Should put several thousand coin in your pocket.

[RJboxer]

flyingscot1066 の投稿を引用：

RJboxer の投稿を引用：

this is a good tip. Someone said it a couple days ago (buy the sheep and butcher em).

This really makes game easier at first. (so expect the devs to read it and nerf it soon. I'm not kidding).

But for as long as you can buy those sheep close to poros, butcher them.. and sell the meat and hides. This is DEFINITELY the best way I've heard of (or used) to get denars fast when u first start out..

+1

Sheep at Tevea, hogs at Zestea, (Will have to sell your gear to afford both if you are trying to do it in one trip) butcher and sell at Poros. Both of those villages are bound to Poros. so it will also have those same animals in stock, usually. Buy up that stock and take it to Zeonica. Sell the ones you can make a profit on, butcher the rest. You can go back to Sagora and do the same thing, selling at Lycaron, then swing north to Varagos and Amycon, unloading at Amytatis. Should put several thousand coin in your pocket.

I just did this this morning.. new campaign.

bought all the sheep at tevea.. turned around.. walked to poros. Speed 3.

I have been in game 12 seconds.. Did not take Detours.

8 looters ran behind me.. grabbed me lol..

No bow.. not in mood to try to fight them with no armor.. and my scrub sword..

so I paid them off.

161 denars. lol.

Not bad.

I sold all the stuff.. went to the other sheep town, did same thing..

Sold it.

Then started going to towns.. and discovered something I wasnt expecting.

you can do it early game in MANY towns. they already have the sheep.. for 50- 60 denars each. No need to herd them.. Buy em all. cut em up.. sell each meat for 40.. each hide for 30-40.. Profit lol

Went up to 7k. then went out and got me some troops.

Regardless, I like this way (buying sheep day 1) better than other strats I've tried.

thanks to all who recommend it.

[flyingscot1066]

RJboxer の投稿を引用：

flyingscot1066 の投稿を引用：

Sheep at Tevea, hogs at Zestea, (Will have to sell your gear to afford both if you are trying to do it in one trip) butcher and sell at Poros. Both of those villages are bound to Poros. so it will also have those same animals in stock, usually. Buy up that stock and take it to Zeonica. Sell the ones you can make a profit on, butcher the rest. You can go back to Sagora and do the same thing, selling at Lycaron, then swing north to Varagos and Amycon, unloading at Amytatis. Should put several thousand coin in your pocket.

I just did this this morning.. new campaign.

bought all the sheep at tevea.. turned around.. walked to poros. Speed 3.

I have been in game 12 seconds.. Did not take Detours.

8 looters ran behind me.. grabbed me lol..

No bow.. not in mood to try to fight them with no armor.. and my scrub sword..

so I paid them off.

161 denars. lol.

Not bad.

I sold all the stuff.. went to the other sheep town, did same thing..

Sold it.

Then started going to towns.. and discovered something I wasnt expecting.

you can do it early game in MANY towns. they already have the sheep.. for 50- 60 denars each. No need to herd them.. Buy em all. cut em up.. sell each meat for 40.. each hide for 30-40.. Profit lol

Went up to 7k. then went out and got me some troops.

Regardless, I like this way (buying sheep day 1) better than other strats I've tried.

thanks to all who recommend it.

Don't forget the Hogs. 30 dinars each, same meat and hides as sheep. Also I meant to say to buy the sheep and hogs at the towns too. Sorry I omitted that.

[katzenkrimis]

Doom Sayer の投稿を引用：

Mercenaries just get massacred.

How do i not get crushed by small groups of bandits?

This game is really easy if you are patient enough to slowly build a proper army, use combined arms, and learn your hot keys.

Shields and archers down the middle. Flanking, with charging and ranged cavalry.

Once you ace this game it becomes a bore. But you really need to learn your hot keys to bark the right instructions.

Keep things balanced. Don't use mercs. Pick a faction and use their best units.

Shields.
Archers.
Cavalry (Melee).
Cavalry (Ranged).

[Ryuk]

You're extremely vulnerable before you get decent armor, especially to projectiles. You can bait the enemy into wasting their javelins. But for arrows that can be very tedious since they got like 30. I Don't even use a shield because i know how to dodge and predict the ai. The easiest way to cheese is playing horse archer. Get two stacks of arrows and a cheap fast horse. The desert horse is the best option. It's called something else now. Starts with an N. Now when it comes to your troops. Starting off you could grab some horse archers from Khuzait lands. Then just press f6 and watch them circle the enemy. That would be the easiest option. Otherwise you just have to deal with the fact your troops will die a lot if you're out numbered and they aren't upgraded. And hope that they just get wounded so they survive long enough to get upgraded. Pick on small groups of looters and bandits so that your troops can get experience without getting exterminated. Horses will increase your party speed for your infantry. Once you got like 20 to 30 decent troops things will start to snowball. You'll be winning every battle but you need money. Get a mercenary contract from any kingdom. You can kill looters anywhere on the map and you'll get paid for it. From there just roam around do tournaments for free gear, learn how to trade, take easy quests like bounty hunter or escort caravan, kill looters for free money and gear, smelt the cheap stuff and get into smithing. Smithing 2h swords is like printing money. Next thing you know you'll be the Top G of Calradia.

[John Savage]

Just marry a cataphract like Ira and either take her armor or let them solo the looters.

The Javelin throwing bandits are dangerous, I am assuming you play on bannerlord difficulty because that is the only way you could get one shot for about 150 damage unless you were riding at full speed without a helmet and got hit perfectly on the 2nd easiest difficult it might be possible.

Later on in the game you can get a character with high athletics and over 200 hit points and armor that will take about 50 damage off a normal hit even on realistic difficulty and perks that decrease ranged damage you recieve (bow 175 Skirmish phase master and throwing 125)

I play on bannerlord difficulty and I have an op character almost at level 40 now who has 8 vigor/ 8 endurance and you can use perks to get 10 vigor/10 endurance and 4 control and the rest of points are in int which is at level 5.

You can pretty much solo entire lord armies if you build your character to be combat oriented and they get so much exp killing everything themselves that my character is so high level now they have about 250 medicine, 210 scouting now and 225 steward and 50 engineering even though they started with 0 anything in intelligence. I made them do all the jobs themselves to get max exp but I trained the brother in steward early on and he has 315.

Early on the best you can do is try to get some 5hp perk, a decent helmet you can afford and a sturdy round shield (I would use a big shield) just hold it up until they run out of javelins and put your recruits in loose formation.

If you don't want to fight bandits just pay their 'protection fee' but honestly in my opinion its cheaper just to buy recruits who can also help you carry more things, I would never travel alone unless you are trying to get valor with a high level character or want to train borrowed troops or companions because you can't carry anything without slowing down and you might find some good quests but you usually need a certain amount of troops to do those. My character can have about 360 troops but when I am traveling from fief to fief to manage them or track down lords to recruit to kingdom I usually only bring 30-80 troops to move fast and I use recruits so they get trained.

[Morkonan]

Doom Sayer の投稿を引用：

Mercenaries just get massacred. How do i not get crushed by small groups of bandits? I spend hours grinding and lost it in 2 minutes. Why are mercs in the game?

IMO...

If you compare the game cycle to Warband, Warband reinforces a mid-early game trading loop and Bannerlord reinforces that much earlier.

Bannerlord doesn't really care about how uber the player is in the early game, Warband cares a bit more about that.

In Warband, there's an early introduction to massed combat that sets the stage for the player starting out hunting bandits.

Bannerlord does a little of that in the tutorial/quest with Bandit Chiefs (which is a mistake the way its weighted) but it's in a closed room, not in the wild, where one sees quite a different kind of curve.

So...

For a new player, what I suggest is Trading with a fast 20 unit limit and getting geared up, first, before one decides they'll clear the world of bandit/looter spam. And, this can be proven to be the correct, Best Choice, strategy by the number of threads that start just like yours... :)

As the player character, you want an upgraded horse, a shield, a spear, very basic armor, but be sure to include a decent helmet, and a melee weapon if you expect to be knocked off your horse... which you shouldn't allow to happen if you're just fighting Looters.

Get money. Trade. Get some melee units with shields. Get some kind of decent archer units. Level up on tiny Looter groups of 10 or so.

Stay speedy. If you can run from anything that's a real threat and still catch what you're preying on, that is what is best in life... in Bannerlord's early game. Level up your units, don't be afraid to throw away worthless units to preserve the lives, and exp, of real fighters. Stay speedy. Any party fast enough to chase you is something that should be afraid to catch you.

Players who think their forty unit group of T1 tavern drunks is going to breeze through twenty-something hardened Sea Bandits are not going to be happy when reality meets their dreams.

In Warband, the player could rapidly gain strength enough to go Sea Bandit hunting pretty early. In Bannerlord, that's difficult to do for a new player and a lot of veteran players are probably going to ride right by that early-game strategy, altogether. A Butterlord is probably not going to be hanging around hunting Sea Bandits and high-tier bandit spawn unless they have really good reason to do so.

Don't spend money on gear until what you get from battle loot is no longer an upgrade. Don't forget pack animals, level up units as you can afford it, always with a mind on their wages. Don't hire mounted units until you can hire several at a time and can afford to pay for them and their needed upgrades. Archers are good, but low-tier usually archers suck and do crap all for you if your front-lines disappear in a hail of rocks because you forgot how important shields and decent armor were for them.

Don't pay those wandering out-of-work tavern bums a dime until you can afford to let them have a shot at your leftover loot to get them some armor, weapons, and to keep them safe long enough to level them up. Buy the broke hobos a horse, or something, but that's it. If you run into a really skilled wanderer in a Tavern that may be worth the pay they're asking... Why are you looking for Wanderers when you should be getting phat rich via loot and juicy trades? Hire some later, when you have something for them to do and are flush with early-game cash.

Boring? So is real life. But, the guys with the good jobs and the hot trophy-wife spend their youth doing their homework and mastering their lightsaber...

Later, as you begin your path towards true Butterlordness, you will take out groups of ten looters with your starting gear, maybe including a horse upgrade for QoL purposes. (Provided you know how to use the combat-Butterlord soldier's basic weapon, the almost-paint warhorse and a spear.)

[kebabsoup]

In this game equipment plays a big role in your survivability. And that applies to your troops as well.

Early game the best way to equip your character is to go from town to town and win the gear from tournaments. Enter the arena, talk to the bookie and you can ask him which towns nearby are hosting tournaments. Get yourself the canonical white tabard over mail haubert + full helm over laced coif + heavy warlord pauldrons and you'll be able to tank quite a few of those poop rocks that looters throw at you.

And take advantage of the fact that you will be going from town to town to do some trading and smithing. And pick up the wanderers you will want in your party to serve as quartermaster, scout, and surgeon. (The engineer can wait a bit) On the world map, keep your move speed high. Get yourself a flock of horsies, but not so many that you incur the herding penalty. Sell prisoners at the first opportunity, and don't be overburdened too much for too long. (a little bit is fine)

In battles, only engage if you have overwhelming forces. It's just not worth getting your guys killed over the few rags the bandits are wearing. All that coin and xp down the drain! Bandits hideouts on the other hand are pretty lucrative combined with quests, and can help level up your veteran troops and companions. For open battles, invest in cavalry and mounted archers if you can. Combined with infantry, they slap those early game bandits pretty hard. You just need to be smart about it, don't charge the cavalry first and then let the infantry catch up to them by the time all the cav gets slaughtered. Hammer and anvil, just like in Total War. But yeah early game I would prioritize shield infantry and cavalry over foot archers.

As for yourself, your role is more to act as a distraction on your horse to spread the enemy blobs around. This is not dynasty warriors, and don't underestimate pitchforks, remember it's one of those that almost got Geralt of Rivia killed. Just pick at the stray ones that have ventured outside of their blob.

[Baxxy.Nut]

there's this really cool part of the game where you can actually recruit your own troops

[Ermitaum]

Doom Sayer の投稿を引用：

Mercenaries just get massacred. How do i not get crushed by small groups of bandits? I spend hours grinding and lost it in 2 minutes. Why are mercs in the game?

Legolas army + Genghis Khan army. Can't go wrong with that.

[lar unuruur]

kebabsoup の投稿を引用：

In battles, only engage if you have overwhelming forces. It's just not worth getting your guys killed over the few rags the bandits are wearing. All that coin and xp down the drain! Bandits hideouts on the other hand are pretty lucrative combined with quests, and can help level up your veteran troops and companions.

no! if you wandering around with trash, then let them die in numbers. the more, the better, fk those weak troops and fk those low level upgrades. more they die, faster you level up your medicine or your companion medicine, sooner you level it up the better. do not even try to save your grinding meat soldiers. i will repeat, let them be injuried and die in big numbers early. money is trash worthy in this game, player will earn denars easy, but medicine xp is so far valuable. early game troops are expendables.

ps. also, the less equal battle in players favor, more influence/renown player gets. so, in the essence, every battle when player outnumbers enemy heavily is partly a wasted time.
i travel alone until i get to clan level 1 or even two. by the end of the year, my clan level is 3, i have kings/empress daugter as wife and pregnant and half or nearly million in pockets and brother is freed and also married to richest possible wife and she is pregnant too. that is how you level/start efficiently. if i not met these criteria, i deem my start as weak or even failure.
and nothing is hard from above.