How am I supposed to level up my army when everyone runs away from me?

[Rikashey]

Everytime I get to about 50+ men my unit on the map is much slower than the bandits and raiders and they even up running away from me. 95% of the time the get away.

My army isn't strong or large enough to start taking on Kingdom armies.

What am I supposed to do to level up?

[Ral-Jiktar]

Larger armies move more slowly. You can carry horses in your inventory to speed yourself up. Try spending a few points in Pathfinding, beter yet, look for an NPC named Borcha, he will help you travel much faster.

[Sohei]

Deshavi also makes a good scout.

[lionhart]

Pathfinding, pathfinding, pathfinding.

Party size, party morale, inventory weight, and number of mounted troops vs footsoldiers all have an effect too, but pathfinding is the most important.

In the meantime, sign up as a mercenary with one of the kingdoms and join in on their battles. Just be sure to stay well away from Khergit territory if your kingdom goes to war with them.

[Muppie]

Put skill points into trainer. This will allow your army to get XP without going into battle.

[Eric]

Originally posted by Muppie:

Put skill points into trainer. This will allow your army to get XP without going into battle.

Originally posted by lionhart:

Pathfinding, pathfinding, pathfinding.

Party size, party morale, inventory weight, and number of mounted troops vs footsoldiers all have an effect too, but pathfinding is the most important.

All of this is important.

[Asphe]

Originally posted by Rikashey:

Everytime I get to about 50+ men my unit on the map is much slower than the bandits and raiders and they even up running away from me. 95% of the time the get away.

My army isn't strong or large enough to start taking on Kingdom armies.

What am I supposed to do to level up?

Why chase them? If they are running away from you... start disbanding troops. It's usually better to have smaller numbers of elite troops than larger numbers of peasants (unless you're letting the AI resolve battles).

Get everyone on horses. This means recruiting knights and/or horse archers.

Stay small. At around 200+ party size, you're at the point where you can't catch anything worthwhile while bigger threats can catch you. Best to just keep your party to yourself, companions and that's it. Stick the rest of the army in garrison until you need them for a siege.

Up to around 80+ party size, having one horse per 5 inventory items tends to cancel out the negative effect of those items.

-----

Note, the game doesn't consider 'weight' per se. It goes by 'number of inventory items'. So 6 bunches of grapes can slow you down as much as 6 sacks of grain (and horses also count as inventory items... that's why a completely empty inventory lets you go faster than an inventory full of horses).

[Rikashey]

Originally posted by Asphe:

Originally posted by Rikashey:

Everytime I get to about 50+ men my unit on the map is much slower than the bandits and raiders and they even up running away from me. 95% of the time the get away.

My army isn't strong or large enough to start taking on Kingdom armies.

What am I supposed to do to level up?

Why chase them? If they are running away from you... start disbanding troops. It's usually better to have smaller numbers of elite troops than larger numbers of peasants (unless you're letting the AI resolve battles).

Get everyone on horses. This means recruiting knights and/or horse archers.

Stay small. At around 200+ party size, you're at the point where you can't catch anything worthwhile while bigger threats can catch you. Best to just keep your party to yourself, companions and that's it. Stick the rest of the army in garrison until you need them for a siege.

Up to around 80+ party size, having one horse per 5 inventory items tends to cancel out the negative effect of those items.

-----

Note, the game doesn't consider 'weight' per se. It goes by 'number of inventory items'. So 6 bunches of grapes can slow you down as much as 6 sacks of grain (and horses also count as inventory items... that's why a completely empty inventory lets you go faster than an inventory full of horses).

How do you garrison?

[Yeast]

also download floris :3

[lionhart]

Originally posted by Asphe:

Note, the game doesn't consider 'weight' per se. It goes by 'number of inventory items'. So 6 bunches of grapes can slow you down as much as 6 sacks of grain (and horses also count as inventory items... that's why a completely empty inventory lets you go faster than an inventory full of horses).

Are you sure about that? I've noticed that an inventory full of trade goods slows me down way more than an inventory full of weapons.

[lionhart]

Originally posted by Rikashey:

How do you garrison?

You need to have a castle or a town, but you can't get one unless you become a vassal (or start your own kingdom).

[Rikashey]

Originally posted by lionhart:

Originally posted by Rikashey:

How do you garrison?

You need to have a castle or a town, but you can't get one unless you become a vassal (or start your own kingdom).

To become a vassal I need to help a Kingdom, right?

To have my own kingdom I need to have a castle or town?

[Thril]

Originally posted by lionhart:

Are you sure about that? I've noticed that an inventory full of trade goods slows me down way more than an inventory full of weapons.

Heavy trade goods definitely slow you down more than other inventory items.

One trick for catching up with bandits is to camp near their base, then when they get close follow them and hit "ctrl+space" to speed up time. I've found that if you start out close enough to them it will often put you in combat even if you haven't quite reached them yet.

[Red Bat]

There are loads of things that could slow down or speed up your travel speed, but if you have such a large army, then bandits aren't usually worth bothering with anymore (except in Floris). At that point I'd try accepting a mercenary contract and getting into some field battles with faction troops.

[lionhart]

Originally posted by Rikashey:

To become a vassal I need to help a Kingdom, right?

To have my own kingdom I need to have a castle or town?

To become a vassal, you just need to get your renown up to around 200, then go to any king and ask him to accept you as a vassal.

If you take a castle or town on your own, without being a vassal, you will automatically start your own kingdom. Be warned though, this is a difficult path for a new player. You would be better off playing as a vassal for a while.

[Valkyrie]

Also, at fifty men you can forgo bandits and start fighting caravans. Join a kingdom as a mercenary and hunt the caravans of their enemies. And like everyone else said, as many mounted men as you can possibly manage, get a companions pathfinding as high as possible. Also get spotting on one person, medical skills on another, and any INT based companion, crank their trainer skill as high as possible. If you want more advice, feel free to add me. I've logged almost 600 hours on this bloody game.