Enemy Mercenary Swordmaster

[Sarissofoi]

So my Irregulars accepted a contract for delivery.
Thanks to my rep and haggling skills they offer me almost 1400 coins.
Not bad and easy money.
but...
Somebody have another idea.
Guess who?
Some bunch of hired swords were envy of my band.
So they coma and bring friends.
Hedge Knight wasn't a much a problem but enemy Swordmaster.
Armored with solid helm and 150 mail not only he dodge for like 10 turns(after I killed all his 16 companions) against my whole band but also he kills two my soldiers.
What was funny?
He was clearly made as fully dodge tank with Return Favor(and he stun even guys who try get him with a pikes). What a guy.
Seriously.
I am angry and amazed.

So that its the power of Riposte Dodge Tank.
Average chance to hit this guy was 5-8%. He must have like 70 or more defence.
And it was at night so shooting him was no real option.

Good fight.

Anyone else have some experience with mercenary fights?

[Lampros]

I had tons, including the one with both Hedge Knight and Swordmaster. I had no problem with a Swordmaster. My hybrid crossbowman literally one-shot him. It was a ROFLMAO encounter.

Edit: With these encounters, the issue is enemy crossbowmen, and not much else for me. But the crossbowmen can one shot my Swordmasters or low HP characters, too.

[Sarissofoi]

It was night fight.
And yes enemy xbow are dangerous.

[Lampros]

I just saw your edit: If it's night, I would've used out-number. The melees of mercenary enemies just don't bother me at all. But their crossbowmen terrify me.

[Sarissofoi]

Yeah I did. He end dead.
My band is mid level 6-8 with average 150 mail armor. So they were better armed and in bigger numbers.
Fun fight.

[Knight Marius]

Yeah I has plenty of such encounters with the recent update.

[Jubeithar]

Merc and bounty hunter battles are definately the more 'fun' battles in this game at the moment, they got decent & strong gear but they are beateable even if your armor is weaker (unless you get unlucky and meet them early on when you still got leather).

But i haven't met a 'swordmaster' or a 'hedge knight' during a merc battle... they were all mercs for me and i have done a few of those now. Are they like the 'leaders'?

edit: the delivery quest can also sometimes trigger a 'cursed package' event that when you get curious and open it, you are attacked by undead (lost souls, skeleton guards, skeletons and fallen heroes). But the nasty bit is, they are all placed very close to your soldiers, sometimes even next to you. Bloody mess when a lost soul gets to work :|

[MerlinCross]

How do you get these fights to pop. Well I mean haven't really ticked off any employers yet

[Jubeithar]

Originally posted by MerlinCross:

How do you get these fights to pop. Well I mean haven't really ticked off any employers yet

i'd say it's random but in my experience, delivery quests that provide a large sum of gold usually means a merc band will come to attack you through an event(you can also give them the package if you are too scared or wounded).

Bounty hunter battles usually happen when you are on a 'kill bandit lair' quest and you encounter through an event a 'infamous' bandit leader that once you kill him and take his head, you get bounty hunters shortly after. But you can avoid that fight if you so wish by giving them the head. If you keep the head and win, you get double the gold reward from the original quest (not sure if you even get gold if you do give the head though)

[Mhorhe]

You get your initial gold even if you give up the head. Since your initial contract is aside from the lucky break of getting a known outlaw. I had bagged one in a great fight but the company was banged up bad, when the bounty hunters showed up I didn't want to risk it. Got the gold fine at the end.

Yes I also got a Swordmaster, about 5% chance to hit him, also at night. Quite annoying. Fast Adaptation helped a lil bit, and some nets helped more, but yeah, pretty cool fun fight.

[Lampros]

Originally posted by Mhorhe:

You get your initial gold even if you give up the head. Since your initial contract is aside from the lucky break of getting a known outlaw. I had bagged one in a great fight but the company was banged up bad, when the bounty hunters showed up I didn't want to risk it. Got the gold fine at the end.

Yes I also got a Swordmaster, about 5% chance to hit him, also at night. Quite annoying. Fast Adaptation helped a lil bit, and some nets helped more, but yeah, pretty cool fun fight.

How high level were our melees, and what was their Melee Skill? 5 percent to hit chance is really low - even against Swordmasters.

[Sarissofoi]

My 82 Melee skill Swordmaster(still low level) have 8% against him with normal sword attack.
Do the math.

[Lampros]

Originally posted by Sarissofoi:

My 82 Melee skill Swordmaster(still low level) have 8% against him with normal sword attack.
Do the math.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

Now I understand how enemies feel when they try to hit us sometimes ;)

[Jubeithar]

Well i should have been quiet.... i met a merc group with a swordmaster and to be honest, it wasn't the swordmaster but the mercs thereselves gave me more trouble this time arround. Crossbow merc managed to oneshot my 2h merc on turn one... headshot >.> must have did like 65+ damage through a 150 armor helmet >.> . then the polearm mercs chewed my mercs good aswel lost a few but i did manage in the end. Have those mercs been buffed recently? I didn't had it that tough on my earlier experiences.

i took care of the swordmaster with ranged weapons and he died quiet easily, although like sarissofoi mentioned attacking him in melee was close to impossible, you get a EXTREEMLY low hit chance. Even my own swordmaster had difficulties.

[Lampros]

Originally posted by Jubeithar:

Crossbow merc managed to oneshot my 2h merc on turn one... headshot >.> must have did like 65+ damage through a 150 armor helmet >.> .

This is a constant danger. You should always have 230+ helmet ASAP, except on your archers maybe (they are too far back usually for crossbowmen to target).

[Jubeithar]

Originally posted by Lampros:

Originally posted by Jubeithar:

Crossbow merc managed to oneshot my 2h merc on turn one... headshot >.> must have did like 65+ damage through a 150 armor helmet >.> .

This is a constant danger. You should always have 230+ helmet ASAP, except on your archers maybe (they are too far back usually for crossbowmen to target).

Well, it just caught me by surprised, same merc had a xbow shot to the head from a bandit marksmen once and lived. /shrug, best roll of the dice for the merc i suppose. But i'm in a midgame position with mail hauberks in my current campaign.