Nords at beginning of the game suck so hard

[Androme]

Anyone else notice this? I'm playing on medium difficulity settings, and the Nords are extremely bad. At the very beginning of the game, they lost two castles to the Vaegirs, and Wercheg shortly thereafter. The Nords are supposedely the best culture for sieging castles and towns due to the incredible strength of their infantry with their large shields and throwing weapons, but despite this, they've in the two games I've started as a Nord, always been unable to retake castles and towns that the Vaegirs have taken from them at the very beginning of the game. I'm literally the only Lord with half a brain that manages to retake castles and towns on my own, and even then the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ Ragnar refuses to grant me the castles when I demand them be granted to me.

♥♥♥♥ it, I just defected and then asked to become a vassal of the Vaegirs.

[DeMo]

Nords are the easiest to take out in field since they lack horsemen, you will find the Swadians are one of the best balanced kingdoms and the best choice to join. Rhodoks are also a bad choice(no horsemen), and Khergits are pretty easy to clean out of castles since they are all about horses, though they can suck in field fighting cause they are fast and annoying. I wouldnt bother becoming a vassal until you got some renown, mostly from hunting sea raiders(leave their lair so they amass heavily and keep you entertained) and winning tournaments. Do that for a while and get you companions leveled high in respective skills that aid the whole party, then join the Swadians.

I beat the hell out of the game before the achievements so I know how annoying it is when the king grants other useless vassals the castles you take. Best to take them and move on, if they arent given to you let em be retaken, which isnt difficult and try to claim it again. Managed to amass 3 near castles and 1 town within safe distance of eachother doing this. Also once you own them its best to apply maxed soldiers to defend the walls along with soldiers that are of the faction you are fighting so they dont cause problems in your group. Allows you to continue to train new units and leaves your strongest units to keep the house clean XD.

[Xenothor]

It playes out differently evey time I play, but most often for me the Nords and the Rhodoks are the two factions that usually fair the best. Swadia or Vaegers are usually the factions that are first to go down in most of my playthroughs, although I've had a few games over the years where the Nords got ganked fast and early by the Vaegers, but thats not typical in my experience.

In the more than 600 hours that I've played, I have never once seen the Rhodoks get eliminated unless I was the one to do it.

I usually have the oposite problem in terms of being granted castles. I dislike castles,, and only ask for them with the hope of the king saying no so that I can rebel, and it ticks me off when he keeps giving me everything I ask for.

[Gorebane44]

same here heh. Nords tend to dominate most my games and vaegris swadia tend to get decimated first.

[DeMo]

guess it varies for everyone, yet i can agree that the Rhodoks are hard to finish off in sieges since they are all defense and crossbows. Never once had Swadia go down first, usually it is the Nords for me followed by the Vaegirs, the Khergits are just hard to take on in the field otherwise theres nothing special about them siege wise.

[cqqks]

Originally posted by Xenothor:

I usually have the oposite problem in terms of being granted castles. I dislike castles,, and only ask for them with the hope of the king saying no so that I can rebel, and it ticks me off when he keeps giving me everything I ask for.

Xenothor, Thank you for your help with my post.

You want to rebel?
Ask for the fief and when the king offers it to you, refuse it. Continue to refuse. He'll eventually tell you that you have too many fiefs and offer you some money. The rebellion post will pop-up and ask if you want to rebel. You'll not only get your Castle or town that you already own, you"ll also get the castle that you refused to take. Make sure you have plenty of troops to fight off what's coming next.

[Perbert]

In one of my play throughs, I cannot finish the game because the Rhodoks just do not die. I own the whole map, every city town and castle.. I started a rebeliion in Swadia and put lady Isolla of Suno on the throne. She keeps pissing lords off and they defect to Rhodoks, then thet defect back to Swadia, then back to Rhodoks. Maybe I should just rebel that might be fun.

I do not find that the Nords suck at least when I played. Swadia always gets hammered because they are in the middle. Rhodokas do seem the hardest for me to takeout because the crossbowman are very effective not just in sieges but in the open field. Khergits are easy for me because I always make a horse archer character and am very good at it and my army is always very mobile. Khergits are not very effective if you are fast and your army is fast. Horse archers suck at first but man they are the best latter on.

Reading this discusion shows how good this game is because it seems like no game is alike.

[Scrogdog]

Swadia usually takes it on the chin in my games too unless they don't get attacked by multiple entities at once right off the bat. If they get on a roll though... look out! :)

[fishhooks]

Originally posted by Xenothor:

It playes out differently evey time I play, but most often for me the Nords and the Rhodoks are the two factions that usually fair the best.

I'm going with this...I'm jsut finishing up my first time thru, and the exact opposite of what the OP said happened. The Nords came out like gang-busters and wiped out the Vaegirs within the first two months. Less than a year later, they had taken over half of Calradia, and showed no signs of stopping.

I gueess it can play out differently every time.

[cqqks]

Native, no mod's

Originally posted by Perbert:

In one of my play throughs, I cannot finish the game because the Rhodoks just do not die. I own the whole map, every city town and castle.. I started a rebeliion in Swadia and put lady Isolla of Suno on the throne. She keeps pissing lords off and they defect to Rhodoks, then thet defect back to Swadia, then back to Rhodoks. Maybe I should just rebel that might be fun.

Perbert, because you mentioned Lady Isolla of Suno, check out the post "last faction won't die". It's on the second page right now. Hopefully it'll gives you a heads up of what may lie before you.

[Perbert]

cqqks thanks for the tips. From what I read, I have to cheat. I do not like cheating because it ruins the game for me,but since my leige owns the entire map it will not ruin the game experience.

[Pear]

Swadians>Vaegirs>Sarranids=Nords=Rhodoks>Khergit

[Sir Roger Redstealer]

Originally posted by Office Assistant:

Swadians>Vaegirs>Sarranids=Nords=Rhodoks>Khergit

Its more like Swadians > Nords = Rhodoks = Sarranids > Vaegirs = Khergit

[Ghuds]

Swadia and the saltunate are usually the strongest in my games while everyone hops on the lets kill rhodocks bandwagon and they almost always die out first followed by the Khan by then the nords are picking on the veiger then swadia kills one of those first then saltun and swadia fight to the death in the games where i don't mess with anyone

[Kvltist]

huh? on all of my games ( i awlays play on hardest) they conquer alot. they captured kingdom of swadia and half vaegirs and parts of khergits witouth my help.... and in my most succesful games. they were the hardest faction to take out. exept the rhodoks. man they now sieges well.

[Kvltist]

Originally posted by Geebus:

Swadia and the saltunate are usually the strongest in my games while everyone hops on the lets kill rhodocks bandwagon and they almost always die out first followed by the Khan by then the nords are picking on the veiger then swadia kills one of those first then saltun and swadia fight to the death in the games where i don't mess with anyone

sarrainds strong!? whut they are the weakest in all of my games. and in actual battles with them. they are jokes. worst infantry (theres no talk about it, low health terrible armor even for theyre highest level sarraind guard) worst archers in my opinions with tiny bows that they shoot with fast. thus run out of arrows in no time and deal little damage. decent cavarly. but thats it. and theres desert bandits everywhere there. i cant go to the deserts with a 100 man strong army witouth getting atacked by 900 desert bandits (late game) and rhodoks weak? they are the strongest in all of my games. and in battles, best archers best infantry.