Mount and Blade v1.003 Released!

[JPhillips]

Wow.

[Groundhog]

Gives me a reason to fire this game up again.

[MrBug708]

Holy

Crap

[gi]

I'll be happy when/if it's done

[gstelmack]

I was getting bored with my band ripping through even much larger enemy armies with very little damage, except for town / castle assaults which I don't do much, so I finally went in and set damage to myself and friends to normal from 1/4 and 1/2. Wow, does that make a HUGE difference in play. I have to be much more tactical now, and watch letting my calvary get mixed up with infantry unless supported. Have to do a lot more of letting the enemy get close to my infanty / archer line, THEN charge in with the calvary. And I can't be nearly as careless. Lots more tactics and thinking involved in the fights, and much harder to develop a dominating army as I keep losing knights at roughly the same rate I'm developing them.

And castle / town assaults are truly murder. We finally took Sargoth (the Nords are now down to just Tihr) but I lost over half my men doing it in addition to heavy allied casualties. And it took two assaults when I got knocked out in the first one.

You need to really work hard to stay alive as your soldiers take much heavier casualties when you're not in the fight to manage them.

[gi]

Going to try that and see the challenge difference, was getting bored at the lower difficulty. Probably have to min/max my character more too.

[hukarez]

Just picked this up off of Steam for $15 or so! Totally new at this, so I'm still trying to figure out what to do and how to go about doing it. Is there a Wiki or some sort to start off on this?

[scooter]

I don't have the game, but I used this for the demo:

Mount&Blade StrategyWiki, the free strategy guide and walkthrough wiki

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by hukarez

Just picked this up off of Steam for $15 or so! Totally new at this, so I'm still trying to figure out what to do and how to go about doing it. Is there a Wiki or some sort to start off on this?

The Taleworlds (developer) forum has a set of FAQs and a "Start Here" forum with lots of good basic info beyond what you'll find us discussing above. It's helped me with a few things beyond the basics (like which NPCs get along with each other and so what the best groupings are to collect).

[hukarez]

Most excellent! Thanks for pointing me in the right direction, fellas!

[gstelmack]

Mount&Blade Warband Now Open to Everyone with a Valid Serial - Paradox Interactive Forums

Warband hits open beta for those who own a copy.

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

Mount&Blade Warband Now Open to Everyone with a Valid Serial - Paradox Interactive Forums

Warband hits open beta for those who own a copy.

Thanks for posting this. I have had just about zero free time the past week or so but I found 30 mins to play this last night. Holy crap, multiplayer M&B is a LOT of fun.

There are a couple of different modes but I was playing one mode (can't recall the name) where it's like a big battle, you respawn after 5 seconds and it's the first team to tally 200 kills. The worst thing about the single player game is the poor AI, so playing against other humans makes this an entirely new game. There is at least one new civ in the game too, a Sultanate.

[Blade6119]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

Thanks for posting this. I have had just about zero free time the past week or so but I found 30 mins to play this last night. Holy crap, multiplayer M&B is a LOT of fun.

There are a couple of different modes but I was playing one mode (can't recall the name) where it's like a big battle, you respawn after 5 seconds and it's the first team to tally 200 kills. The worst thing about the single player game is the poor AI, so playing against other humans makes this an entirely new game. There is at least one new civ in the game too, a Sultanate.

I played this for almost 2 hours this morning and it was a blast. The difficulty level with humans is dramatically higher then the game, and it made me quickly adapt and improve to survive let alone succeed. The cavalry tactics of single player are not nearly as effective here, as humans are smart enough to cut your horse down quickly. Really adds a whole new dimension to the game

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by Blade6119

I played this for almost 2 hours this morning and it was a blast. The difficulty level with humans is dramatically higher then the game, and it made me quickly adapt and improve to survive let alone succeed. The cavalry tactics of single player are not nearly as effective here, as humans are smart enough to cut your horse down quickly. Really adds a whole new dimension to the game

Played it again for 20 mins last night (seriously, lack of spare time at the moment sucks ass). Initial impressions are that the Khergit are over-powered, especially on maps with a lot of open ground, but I guess that's realistic. We played Khergit vs Rhodock in an open plain, and it was a massacre, we (Rhodock) didn't win a single game. Khergit mounted archers are more accurate than the other races unmounted archer troops.

Having said that, this game is very, very good.

[Blade6119]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

Played it again for 20 mins last night (seriously, lack of spare time at the moment sucks ass). Initial impressions are that the Khergit are over-powered, especially on maps with a lot of open ground, but I guess that's realistic. We played Khergit vs Rhodock in an open plain, and it was a massacre, we (Rhodock) didn't win a single game. Khergit mounted archers are more accurate than the other races unmounted archer troops.

Having said that, this game is very, very good.

I agree on the open plains maps factions like Khergit and Swadia are stronger due to their knights, but on maps like the town with a bunch of small corridors or the one with 2 large hills right next to each other i have found the rhodoks and nords stronger. So its balances out in my mind from the limited time I have spent.

[thesloppy]

So, after all the glowing talk about the multi-player demo, I downloaded it a couple days ago, and keep planning to trying it out, but while it was downloading I also grabbed a couple mods. I still haven't had the chance to try the multi-player, cuz I got COMPLETELY sucked in by 1866, the western mod:

1866: a Mount and Blade Western

As you might expect from the name and description, firearms have been added, widely expanded, and are now the main focus of combat, and it works surprisingly well. There are single shot pistols, shotguns, carbines, revolvers, revolving rifles, as well as new (but more traditional) melee weapons, and bows and arrows...oh yeah, and DYNAMITE (I've got a companion named 'the clown', who just rides around tossing bundles of dynamite at people. AWESOME)! The map is split between American, Mexican, Comanche, and Apache territory, with a scattering of independent outlaw and lawman 'tribes' that also control smaller properties (in the form of banks, hotels, and ranches) associated with the larger towns. All the terrain has been redone, in a western style, and you can have massive shootouts in the middle of deep canyons, on bridges, on Indian reservations, and they look great and are a little more tactically challenging, as well. Historical names and places....I was picking Apache scout off the top of a mesa with General Custer earlier today.

I highly recommend.

[Antmeister]

So...how many people purchased Warband? For the past week, I have been playing this game way too much and for those that have pre-purchased Warband, how does it compare to the previous version?

[gstelmack]

Purchased? I MISSED THE ANNOUNCEMENT !?!?!?!

Sigh, and I just bought Just Cause 2. Going to have to figure this one out.

[gstelmack]

Okay, so it's a prepurchase and will actually be available tomorrow. Phew, didn't miss anything yet. I will be buying soon one way or another.

[Antmeister]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

Okay, so it's a prepurchase and will actually be available tomorrow. Phew, didn't miss anything yet. I will be buying soon one way or another.

LOL! Yeah, today is the last day to preorder it. Sorry about that.

[Antmeister]

Uh....well it looks like it is available now from Direct2Drive.

[Antmeister]

And the developers are selling it directly from their site:
Mount & Blade: Warband

[MrBug708]

Only 5 days til the download is complete!

[Blade6119]

Originally Posted by Antmeister

So...how many people purchased Warband? For the past week, I have been playing this game way too much and for those that have pre-purchased Warband, how does it compare to the previous version?

I played in the Beta for a loong time and the single player for me would not be worth the price of a new game. Many changes are ultimately minor or cosmetic, with the only big feature sticking out to me being able to take over your own faction and make your companions vassals. The multiplayer is a blast, but I have grown tired of the limited variability existing at present. Its great fun for awhile, but since their are so few maps they grow repetitive quickly. Honestly, its worth 30 dollars for the multiplayer, but just barely.