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[EnigmaticHat]

One thing I've found works except against calvalry is to tell my archers to "hold this position" at a good spot, then take about 3 steps back and tell the infantry to do the same thing.  Then when the enemy gets close, I tell the infantry to either charge, or advance 10 paces.  Usually they'll flawlessly step through the archers lines.

Its all about how close you want to cut it.  Archers do their most damage in the moments right before the two armies meet, but you also don't want them to get charged.  I've lost a decent number of crossbowman because I flubbed ordering the infantry to advance ten paces.

[Descan]

Right now I'm focusing on a strength character, 24 strength (Because in Silverstag, the highest str-requiring armour is 24) and putting the rest into int and agility.

It's... REALLY great in sieges. I have this Balanced Knight Sword or something, that I can use with a shield on horseback and two-hand on the ground. One-hit kills most everyone, even lords (at least if I'm at speed on a horse) Add in the ability that gives you health regeneration for each kill, and it's almost imbalanced (I can still get over-whelmed though)

In terms of orders, I just keep my archers on a hill, the infantry a few paces in front of them, and tell them to hold fire until the enemy is in the valley of the hill. Especially if it's a lord fight, they might not actually move from there and stay in formation, soaking up tonnes of bolts. By that time, the enemy has spent all their arrows firing from a distance. (In Silverstag, there doesn't seem to be much cavalry, which is nice, when you get used to it. I haven't had more than 5 cav units on a fight, and most of those are companions)

As for Right to Rule and Opinion, 100 RTR is the maximum, so I guess 40 is good. If you want to send out your companions, make sure you do it in the right order (I think the Right to Rule wiki page has them) or else you'll get some companions refusing to go because you send out the person they "hate as emissary" already. You get 3 each, so if you have 9 or 10 companions (I think that's the max you can get of people who don't dislike other people in the party) that's 30 RtR right there. In Silverstag, I think importing/exporting companions is a little glitched, as I've had two people who in one game I fucked up and sent the person they hated, and then imported them into the next game, and they still go "Uh, yeah, right, I heard you wanna be king..." Hell, they even went into the whole "That bitch be cray-cray and so are you for supporting them!" in that game when I sent their hatemissary, even though they were already in the "Fuck you" mode.

As for opinion, 20 or 25 is usually what you need to get lords to start allowing you to visit their women (as a man-lord) and to start supporting you for marshal or to get fiefs.

And finally, to get people to follow you for sieges and such, you have two methods. One is to become marshal, in which case you talk to a lord and start a campaign, which should net you about 4 or 5 lords (if they start wandering ,which they might, just talk to them and say "I have a task for you: Follow me, you dumbass" and they should go "Yeah sure".

The other method is to get REALLY GOOD with them. I've never managed to get up in relations to the point where they'd follow you, they'd still say "I don't think that's proper, maybe you should follow me".

Finally, the factions are programmed so that they won't get wiped out without player intervention. I.e. the ai won't take the last castles of a faction unless you, as the player, lead the effort and take those castles yourself.

[scrdest]

Oh yeah - a particularly cold, calculating trick for expanding your posessions - let enemies take over the fiefs you desire, actively leading your kingdom's lords away if necessary, then just recapture the fief while it's still garrisoned by five guys with bent pitchforks and request it for yourself. Repeat as necessary.

Also, don't worry that much about the fiefs - if you work on your Persuasion and have decent relations with lords, you can talk them into joining you.

[Cheedows]

Before you start founding your own kingdom, I would probably recommend to first make the Nords in political instability, and to also keep an eye out for good opportunities for your first castle. If you can, try to get the Nords to take Grunwalder Castle or if you don't mind pissing off the Rhodoks just take it. Seriously one of the best castles for a defensive siege, it will make your life a lot easier if you are facing down armies of 500+ angry screaming nords.

[BFEL]

As for the "what character do you make" question, I usually get the strength level needed for the best armor/weapons and then start throwing everything into intelligence, because seriously, fuck everything that isn't intelligence

[Cheedows]

As for the "what character do you make" question, I usually get the strength level needed for the best armor/weapons and then start throwing everything into intelligence, because seriously, fuck everything that isn't intelligence

Truer words have never been said.

[scrdest]

I disagree heavily. Charisma is the way to go - nearly all the INT-based skills are Party Skills - meaning you can use your companions for all the INT skills, preferably two companions per each skill you want so that you get that MASSIVE synergy bonus to the effective level.

Strength and Agility are nice, and you shouldn't neglect them completely, but they are used for combat, primarily - and most of combat will be handled by your troops.

Charisma, meanwhile, supports Leadership skill - reducing wages and increasing your party size, meaning you can support more people doing STR, AGI and INT-related things for you. And your character is thoroughly unique in his usage of this skill, meaning you cannot have anybody else do it.

As a caveat, Training skill is the only INT skill you DEFINITELY want to put points in at any given stage of the game - because a) it is incredibly useful to be able to bring your twenty recruits to twenty killing machines kicking ass and taking names in three days, and b) because unlike the rest, it is CUMULATIVE - every single party member who has the skill contributes to the XP pool. And to boot you, being the leader, usually have the highest level and thus affect the most troops.

[EnigmaticHat]

To add to the above, party size is the single biggest factor that effects the theoretical max strength of your warband.  You can have 800 garrisoned troops and an income of 3000 denars per month, but if your max party size is 60 you're still going to struggle to beat a 120 party size lord.

I mean if you load up with Swadian knights or Huscarls in a siege or something, you'll still win.  But you'd have won harder with a high party size.

[Farce]

When I first started I think I dumped a lot of my points into Int, because I like brainy character flavor and all them skills are really hype.  The thing is, though, that leaves you weak in the actually fighty bits which are the meat of the game, and you can offload those delicious Int skills to companions - have Jeremus do the healing, and whatnot.  Not to mention the Leader skills, which are all exclusively usable by you, and unable to be offloaded to your NPC homies.

So yeah, I usually level my Str/Cha/Agi instead, occasionally putting points into Int for more skill points when I've got too many skills to level.  Iron Flesh and usually Power Something, Riding and maybe Horse Archery if I wanna be the horse archer (which is usually), Leadership, 1 or 2 in Prisoner Management, Inventory Management, Trainer, and maybe some into Pathfinding for when everybody's gotten rekt.

And yeah, as mentioned above, by vanilla mechanics (IIRC at least one mod I've played made Trainer highest-skill-only), Trainer xp is cumulative, so I make sure to bolster that along with the companion's relevant combat stats as hard as I can.  Get that shit, always and forever.  I slightly disagree on prioritizing Cha above the rest, but only because I usually don't play the high-level game - armies get too fat and expensive and I get too slow, and I prefer attacking directly rather than ordering my troops around.  Usually don't need to be that huge and scary, because I rarely ever get to the point where I'm fighting Lords and stuff.  As mentioned, though, dat Leadership is very important for your overall power level.

[Cheedows]

True, you can argue that. But party size can also be increased with renown, which can be easily grinded. Using your companions means that you are missing out on unkillable, monstrous custom killing machines and relying on your companions not getting shot in the face during a battle. If a battle goes awry, you can be potentially crippled for a week and lose your entire army. I can ensure my own welfare far better than that of an AI companion. Eh, different strategies are what make M&B a wonderful game.

[BFEL]

One reason I like Int so much is because it gives you extra skill points, having access to all the leadership skills in the world won't help if you can't fill out the levels with the actual points.

[scrdest]

True, you can argue that. But party size can also be increased with renown, which can be easily grinded. Using your companions means that you are missing out on unkillable, monstrous custom killing machines and relying on your companions not getting shot in the face during a battle. If a battle goes awry, you can be potentially crippled for a week and lose your entire army. I can ensure my own welfare far better than that of an AI companion. Eh, different strategies are what make M&B a wonderful game.

How do you grind your renown? Because AFAIK it's mostly fighting armies larger than your own, which... kinda goes against the entire point of the exercise.

Also, double companions per skill.

INT points, for me, are way too often just redundant and useless.

The unkillableness of companions is not much of a factor with my playstyle, because I tend to have absurd-level Surgery, effectively making 90% of my army unkillable, and I really hate micro-managing my companions upgrades and spending a zillion denars on making their gear not hoover anuses.

Plus, the losing your entire army aspect is fairly null and void if you can raise and train the whole army back into shape in a week.

[BFEL]

How do you grind your renown?

Obtain horse, obtain lance, garrison your entire army, lance looters in face.

[Farce]

Oh hey, I remember getting like 20 renown a fight when I tried soloing.  Rode circles around Sea Raiders, mostly avoiding their hurled crap, while trying to peg them through their shields with a bow.  That was fun, by which I mean a nightmare.

Doable at a fairly low level with scavenged gear, though!  At least, IIRC.  I think I had my damage at the default 1/4 at that point, however.  (I play at full damage to me and allies now, which is similarly nightmarish)

[Micro102]

pffffffffft, try soloing ~50 khergits. Lancers and bows galore. Of course normally you are going to die instantly, but that one time you pull it off, it feels soooooooooooooooo good. Especially if you were sick of and raging about being captured by them 10 times in a row.