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[Zai]

I started playing Native Expansion, and it's quite fun. Very easy to quickly gather an army together. I'm currently focusing on raising Vaegir archers, with some mounted units thrown in.

[Aqizzar]

I hate Khergit veteran horse archers, and I don't just mean fighting against then, but using them in my army. They are nigh worthless, in my opinion. Sure, they might kill some guys riding around and shooting their arrows, but they take -forever-. Battles in which I am fighting alongside or against Khergit veteran horse archers take about twice as long to complete because they're running around like chickens with their heads cut off, plinking away at heavily armored troops with those weak ass bows.

To each his own. I find they're effective against infantry, and unlike the lancers don't do suicide charges against massed spearmen. With a good mix, they're a good support unit. As with all archers, you probably wouldn't want to compose your entire army out of them.

Eh, one of my main combat sources at my army-size is slaughtering 20+ bands of Sea Raiders out Nord way.  I have a roughly even mix of Nord warriors, Swadian cavalry, Vaegir shooters, and Khergit archers.  But especially when fighting footslogging Sea Raiders, it's a rare battle that I don't lose at least one Khergit (frequently the most experienced).  I know arrows aren't much use against armored infantry anyway, but they just have a really hard time fighting crowds.

Like most battle problems, it comes back to M&B's AI being rather dim.  They run straight at the enemy, plinking away from about 10 feet, and have no qualms against being mobbed, and have a very hard time just finding a route out when that happens.  It's somewhat compounded by the hotkey unit orders not distinguishing between melee cavalry and archer cavalry.  It'd be nice if I could order the Swadians to follow me close and the Khergits to circle the outside.  Yeah, I know there's probably a mod for that too, but I'm talking Native here.

BTW, anyone who got the Warbands beta - so what's it like anyway?  M&B with multiplayer?

[Ioric Kittencuddler]

Great when you aren't crippled by lag.  Multiplayer sieges are really cool.  You actually have to raise ladders and move siege ramps and towers as a player... because the bots are too retarded to do it apparently.  There are bots too.  They're not too bad at fighting and finding their way around but they can't open doors or gates or operate siege equipment.  They made couched lances nearly useless and made all the weapon swing anims slower.  Nords of Rhodoks get cavalry.

[olemars]

I've only tried the multiplayer beta (which is open for everyone with a valid serial key now). It's a bit like counterstrike with swords and horses. Nice variety of game modes, although some only makes sense if you have a lot of players, like siege.

It's not that different from the regular M&B battles, but there are some changes:
The most significant is probably how the attacks work. Sword swings are different, especially the forehand swing, and are a bit harder to do properly. Couched lance is only possible if you ride straight forwards (with small course deviations allowed).
A new faction has been added called the Sarranid, loosely based on historical Sassanid/persians, and there are heaps of new weapons. A particularly nasty one is the Rhodok cleaver.
Some extra graphical effects have been added, like DOF. There's also a HP gauge for the horse.
Siege ladders can be thrown down. No sign of working siege weapons unfortunately.

There are some negatives though. Network latency means you have to time attacks to hit sooner than against the computer, this is especially tricky on horseback. And the only way to be good seems to be to abuse the controls as most as possible. You'll see a lot of people jump-attacking people on horses or almost spinning around in circles. And for some reason everyone seems to be able to attack a lot faster than I can...


I can recommend a warband mp mod called Hunt, which pits a pack of werewolves against a gang of 18th century hunters armed with muskets and crossbows. It's got a really nice atmosphere and the maps are great.

Edit: Link to installer for Hunt 1.0: http://www.mbrepository.com/file.php?id=1721

[Ioric Kittencuddler]

Eh?  Where can I find this mod!?

[Darkone]

I've found Sword of Damocles to be pretty awesome thus far for single, as well as Prophecy of Pendor.
Both have some changes to the combat mechanics, by using different skill levels, etc etc. The elites archers in both of them really are elite

 I know the khergit-like refuge nation in SoD, the Zerrikanians, are fairly impressive: Lots of blunt weapons, and elite horse archers that are slower, but well armored and highly accurate. And the Villianese Duchy has expert longbowmen...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Soulwynd]

SoD is one of the best mods, yes. I like Wedding Dance better tho, which I recommend if you don't mind penis and tits all over.

[Ioric Kittencuddler]

What exactly does Wedding Dance have besides gratuitous cheesy nudity?

[moocowmoo]

If anyone's having problems with companions dying, I learned that getting them better horses (at the minimum a Heavy Hunter) increases their survival dramatically. I couldn't figure out why my best fighter kept dying until I saw him get dismounted and swarmed.

[Soulwynd]

What exactly does Wedding Dance have besides gratuitous cheesy nudity?

It has a story for a change. Actual jousts. Solve problems with duels. Marriage. Solo Dungeon-like missions. The factions are a little more characterized. Inquisition. And I'm sure there are other things I don't remember.

I like SoD better in terms of combat, but I go for WD for a more moody mod.

[chaoticag]

I still can't get it to run on my laptop though. Some sound problems are in the latest release.

[Tilla]

Just tried out SoD and having great fun BUT I keep crashing whenever I get a whole lot of freed prisoners and captured prisoners after a battle, once I recruit one too many (haven't counted) the thing just crashes to desktop. Sucks, especially after a good battle.

[Dr. Johbson]

Just tried out SoD and having great fun BUT I keep crashing whenever I get a whole lot of freed prisoners and captured prisoners after a battle, once I recruit one too many (haven't counted) the thing just crashes to desktop. Sucks, especially after a good battle.

Update to the newest version via the patch, even if you have the newest version currently. Fixed that exact same problem for me and many others.

[Tilla]

Just tried out SoD and having great fun BUT I keep crashing whenever I get a whole lot of freed prisoners and captured prisoners after a battle, once I recruit one too many (haven't counted) the thing just crashes to desktop. Sucks, especially after a good battle.

Update to the newest version via the patch, even if you have the newest version currently. Fixed that exact same problem for me and many others.

Weird, already had the patch but I'll try again I suppose

[Dr. Johbson]

Hmm, you might have had to start out with the newest version, and patch that afterwards, I don't remember the fix exaxctly, its been a while.

Did you start with an older version and patch it to the newest one, or did you start from the newest one too?