how far in to the story before henry can fight...

[Delaborga]

training with bernard does NOTHING early on. my warfare gets stuck at lvl 6 and i dont want to ''grind for 5-6 hours trying to level the skills up slowly, is there another point in the story where henry starts progressing as well OUTSIDE the training with bernard ''grind'' early on he cant even kill 2 bandits trying to find ginger without getting killed in 3 hits. even if your sword skills is 12 and your warfare is 8

[Biggs]

skill issue

[Biggs]

henry can fight from day 1, it is up to player skill to compensate for low stats,
but even high stats wont win with attitude like yours

[Delaborga]

Originally posted by Biggs:

henry can fight from day 1, it is up to player skill to compensate for low stats,
but even high stats wont win with attitude like yours

nah not true, its clunky as HECK early on, its not a skill issue, every enemy will block your attack most of the time and your stamina is awful

[Biggs]

Originally posted by Delaborga:

Originally posted by Biggs:

henry can fight from day 1, it is up to player skill to compensate for low stats,
but even high stats wont win with attitude like yours

nah not true, its clunky as HECK early on, its not a skill issue, every enemy will block your attack most of the time and your stamina is awful

then do training with bernard or on low level npcs, EZ

[Delaborga]

Originally posted by Biggs:

Originally posted by Delaborga:

nah not true, its clunky as HECK early on, its not a skill issue, every enemy will block your attack most of the time and your stamina is awful

then do training with bernard or on low level npcs, EZ

i literally trained with him for 3 hours IRL and i got the hang of the stuff but vs bandits 2v1 i get 3 shotted.... and stamina is depleted near instantly

[ΆΡΗΣ]

can't I leave hans to the cumans I don't care for him, trying to survive here

[Gardien]

Try to get a better armour and to be sneaky, it helped for me^^

[Burkieman]

You never get to duel like Bron in Game Of Thrones. KCD's auto soft lock on mechanic ruins everything. Combat is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ trash.

[BAD *Man]

the main issue is the combat focus on the one guy ... also maybe in KCD2 .
it sucks .. there was a mod to release the mouse to have a better advantage in 1 vs x fights
but the mod seems not to be online anymore ...

[Losk Osmanthus 路渐秋凉]

Ignore those attitude talks, they won't bother to understand the problem at hand.

Assume you have absolutely no skill like me, you can share this following methods.

Divide Combat into following stages :
1. Engagement
2. Trade blows
3. Melee

1. Engagement

Engagement is all about preparation and tactics. No skill is involved, at all. Henry can win without any skills, but you do need a level head and fair judgement of the situation.

You check the surrounding area, is there any outpost for long range weapon? Especially where you can hit opponent (doesn't matter how atrocious your hit rate is) but your opponent can't hit you.

Put it frankly, AI and pathfinding system is generally weak in all games. In this game, any uneven terrain would be your advantage -- Simple because Henry can JUMP. You stand behind obstacles and taunt your enemies. Long range weapons give you absolute advantage if terrain is in your favor.

I'd say Henry can't effectively hunt (break even considering the cost of arrow) until he has archery 5. Therefore, if you don't mind cheese your enemies with the good ol wagon and archery, get archery 5 would be enough --- or just buy a bowman's brew. Make sure to bring enough arrowheads.

Second way to control engagement is to control your speed. aka, "do you have control when to break off the engagement?" Well, if you are fast, then you are winning. Enemies will chase you across three streets you say? Then lure them all the way into city guards.

To be safe against unexpected encounter in completely remote area against unknown enemies, you must maintain Henry's speed be above 22+ so he can run away whenever things turns unfavorable, you don't need marathon or sprinter perks. If enemies have dogs, kill dogs first. Or just don't engage.

All those above need ZZEEERROO skills, you don't even need attitude to win!

2. Trade blows
Let's say you decided to engage enemies in melee. The first judgement you need to observe is that, can you trade effectively?

There are two resources : Stamina and Health.

Health is simple to manage, because you can see enemies' health bar. If you find that you can land one hit one out of ten swing like me, while enemies can land one out of five. Then trade on health is unwise. Otherwise just keep swinging. No Skill Is Needed. Your armor is thicker, your health bar is thicker, you trade blows. You go for immediate counter attack after every enemy chain attack -- note that you can't effectively counter in between enemies chain attack. There isn't a combo breaker as far as I know.

Okay, you might say this still need a little skills such as aim and what not, however, alternatively, pick up a reforged scythe or some polearm for 'easier' early game fighting. "Parry this". Distance for easy trade, 0 skill just stamina and distance. You just stab every time enemies want to get close, and they have to get close on you.

Stamina is a little harder to manage. Because enemy stamina bar is hidden. How do you trade stamina then? Well, you clinch. If you win a clinch, you follow up with a sprint and the quickest hit against the weakest armor enemies have -- Enemies with no helmet? go for the head. Enemies have no arm protections? Chop em off. Or you are a no brainer, just do a stab attack. Then immediately move back and watch your own stamina recharge in a good rate, do it again. Why does this win Henry the fight? Well, because enemies get exhausted so much so that they can't hold their shield after a while. You will notice they stagger a lot, and have a lot of opening. You will find yourself attack more frequently while enemies struggle to get back in their own pace. If your enemies keep stepping back, it means they want to put some distance between you for regrouping.

3. Melee

As for actual fighting on even foot, you have to know your own skill very well. If you admit that you suck balls, then get a shield like I do. In the game, Henry can start to fighting isolated peasants once he got hands on some cheap-o armor, because that makes him won't lose too quickly against enemy trade---they do clinch you as well after all. So the melee phase is more viable.

If you have a knuckle head and really like to stand your ground pretend to be a pro although you haven't git gud yet, I recommend warfare 8, save a perk for Furious. So at least you can improve the trade value against enemies blow to blow, as long as you don't lose too hard on melee. If your warfare is 8 already, but you can't beat your opponent. Time to run away like an Emu.

This is the part where you do need skills, you have to pay attention to enemies stance as well as yours. Then you can actually hit from an angle with better hit rate rather getting parried after parried into stun lock master strike unfairness.

Run, Away -- Zero skills is needed. I can beat Black Pete in the area two out of three rounds using basically just clinch, so can you.

[Valden21]

Originally posted by Delaborga:

Originally posted by Biggs:

then do training with bernard or on low level npcs, EZ

i literally trained with him for 3 hours IRL and i got the hang of the stuff but vs bandits 2v1 i get 3 shotted.... and stamina is depleted near instantly

Are you employing the lessons he taught you, like always being on the move, and controlling the space between you and your opponent? Those two lessons are key. Another good thing to do is to look for openings. If your opponent raises his weapon to attack, stab 'im. If he charges you, slash at him. If you don't see any opening, try forcing them with the clinch. If you're fighting a group with at least one archer, maneuver so that the melee guys are BETWEEN you and the archer.

Personally, I've found that if you're far enough in the story to have unlocked the Rattay Tourney, it's an INCREDIBLY valuable tool for improving your combat skills. Even if you lose (which you will, that first time), both you and Henry will get better, and repeats once every seven in-game days, so you haven't really lost anything. Well, except for 60 groschen, but you can make that up insanely fast, so it doesn't really count.

[Losk Osmanthus 路渐秋凉]

Originally posted by Valden21:

Personally, I've found that if you're far enough in the story to have unlocked the Rattay Tourney, it's an INCREDIBLY valuable tool for improving your combat skills.

Rattay Tourney doesn't need much story progress. I think it is unlocked right after Henry arrive at Rattay, but it doesn't hold every day rather every 5 days or so.

If Henry can beat black pete, one can safely say that Henry has graduated with a C-.

I keep losing to this Baliff from Sausa in my second tournament. Much to my disappointment, black pete didn't come for the second tournament.

[mgsdan24]

Use the bow on every enemy. Then strike with the sword. This way you can defeat every enemie faster.

[Bigfoot]

you only need to learn parry and master strike from Bernard

[Echolecter]

After your first training with Bernard you unlock a few basics. Before that you can use bows and go hunting to level up its damage and effectiveness. Once you've had your first training you can fight against anyone. Go out and explore, fight bandits and level up your skills. I never train in combat ring and have no problem with combat. Yes you still die once in a while but who cares. It's kind of funny that a lot of people don't care to look for other options.

There are so many way in this game to solve problems that are presented during quests, all it takes for players is to think and don't rush in trying to kill everyone. There is a reason why you can earn the achievement of not killing anyone, because you don't have to. With Ginger for instance you can go back to Bernard and ask for help, he or guard will kill them for you.

If you have issues when using swords that's probably because it isn't a good weapon in most situations. Get one of the axes or maces and will notice a huge difference against armored bandits, or Cuman captains. If your skill levels are high enough you can learn the master strike but you don't really need it to win during combat. Lesson one ... keep moving.