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Mount & Blade Warband: Strategies

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2024-06-14 10:10:10

Part 1: Open Fields/level Terrain

READ MY OTHER GUIDE ABOUT THE FACTIONS OF CALRADIA BEFORE READING ABOUT STRATEGIES

Open fields... a cavalryman's dream. A skirmisher's shared dream; to hit hard and run fast with no hills to slow them down. This brings us to our first strategy. Quite an open-ended one as well (no pun intended).

How is it open-ended? Well, the fact of the matter is that it really depends on who you're fighting. Chances are if you're on a flat plain you're either in the Khergit, Sarranid, or Vaegir territories. All 3 have quite the cavalry fetish. So, we begin with formations for your poor infantry and archers, who are at the mercy of your horseback enemy. Place your infantry in front of your archers (obviously)... keep them as close together as possible, allowing enough space for your archers/crossbowmen to take aim without the AI being terrified of hitting the lineman in front of it. This will allow the infantry to take the brunt of the force and be close enough to turn around and aid the archers if the cavalry begin trying to skirt around your line and hit the archers. If you have cavalry, congratulations! You have the key to winning a decisive victory on this field. Do everything I've just suggested, but you and your cavalrymen should move away near one of the sides of the map, several paces ahead of your lines, but not too far. When you think the enemy forces are about 10 seconds from impact with your line, tell your cavalry (and yourself!) to charge, because when a force of cavalry (or any force) is locked with a shield wall, it is when they are most prone to flanking, which is what cavalry was made to do.

Now, I believed I put "Weapons" in the tags on this guide. This is because your weapons are also key to your success and survival.

The #1 rule: ALWAYS have a shield, regardless of what your playstyle is. Shields are universal for any situation, and as such you should always have one. I believe that the Huscarl's Thick Round Shield is the best you can buy, sacrificing the steel shield's extra durability for a much larger coverage area, blocking pretty much everything for quite a long time.

Ok, now specifically on an open field. If you're a good shot, I would recommend keeping a bow handy to pick off your enemies who always make a beeline for the nearest unit of yours; easy pickings. I'd also use a bastard (hand-and-a-half) sword, to allow use of a shield or to switch to two-handed if you feel that is necessary.

Part 2: Hilly/mountainous Terrain

My personal favorite natural phenomenon, hilly or mountainous terrain makes the lives of those us that play defensively (myself included). Cavalry has lost quite a bit of its punch on this terrain. I'd still suggest keeping some around to counter other cavalry though, just not too many. 10 good cavalrymen or less should be good enough. For your ground-bound troops, place your ranged units on top of a hill, and put some thick and heavy infantry in the front (I'd suggest Nord Huscarls for this, they are particularly fit for this terrain). Another key point is that you should NEVER move too far to get to a point you think is more strategically sound that the one you spawn near. Only do this if you honestly feel you've spawned in a poor strategic area. Moving too far away from your spawn will oftentimes result in your enemies reaching you (assuming they have cavalry, which all but two factions do have) before your troops can reach that area line up in formation, resulting in a magnanimous scattering of troops that is not at all in your favor. If this does unfortunately happen to you, I suggest telling your cavalry to charge to distract them while you try to gather your troops into some makeshift formation.

On to the weaponry!

I'd suggest using a one-handed weapon, preferably sword or axe, because most of the fighting will be done in close quarters with little cavalry involvement. And of course, a shield. Remember rule #1. Also, a bow (crossbow or throwing weapons if that's your style, you'll have the extra time to reload the crossbow and the height advantage makes throwing weapons a breeze to hit with). It's quite a sight to see Nord Huscarls throw their axes into the approaching enemy line and watch a dozen people fall dead. Pretty funny. If you don't want to use a horse (entirely up to you), join your infantry in the main line, or try and shield your archers.

Part 3: Castle Sieges

I'm going to separate this into two parts. First part is pretty long, other part is pretty short.

FIRST TIME IN A CASTLE SIEGE, OFFENSIVE

If this is your first time in a castle siege, I would first of all look back at my other guide talking about the pros and cons of each faction in Warband. I'll post a link here after the guide is up and I can switch away from the page. You probably have the same two questions I had when I was in my first siege:

How many men do I need?

It all depends on the amount of people in the castle you are attacking. If it's your standard-fare fortress and not a town, 30 top-tier troops (in this I mean troops that are upgraded to their highest point) can do the job in a castle with 200 people, believe it or not. I HIGHLY SUGGEST you have very high level troops upon doing this though, and in fact I encourage you to go quality-over-quantity any day of the week. It's better to have 10 Nord Huscarls than 100 Nord Recruits.

What type of men do I need?

Nord Huscarls, simply put, are a must. Their hardy fighting style and gigantic shields not only provide cover for your other troops, but they can take a whole lot more punishment than any other standard-fare shield given to any other unit in the game. Use these as your front line. You also will need archers (ok, not NEED, but I highly recommend it). I'd say that a good ration for infantry to archers would be 2 parts infantry, 1 part archers. I.E. if you have 100 men, 67 of them should be infantry, 33 of them should be archers. Cavalry is very iffy. Once again, if you read my guide on the factions of Calradia, you would know to NEVER, EVER, EVVVVVVER BRING KHERGITS TO A SIEGE. I explain why in my other guide. Just don't do it. However, Swadian Knights and Sarranid Mamelukes are entirely optional, and I'd say you can use them to replace infantry if you find yourself on a shortage, or just as a surplus of troops, but don't bring too many, simply because their shields don't last too long in a castle siege. Note: there are no horses in a siege fight. Absolutely no one will be on a mount.

Strategy

There are two ways of approaching this. Just let the AI charge, you'll find it to actually work to an extent even with so few against so many, just make sure your archers aren't in the lead and that they never get locked in the fighting.

Here's the actual strategic approach:

As soon as the battle commences, tell everyone to follow you. Place your archers as few paces behind your infantry to allow them to shoot yet stay behind the cover of the infantry's shields. They will probably still get hit, but rarely, and very few deaths will occur. If you have cavalry, put them in with the infantry to help shield the archers and be pincushions, keeping in mind their shields will break sooner than that of infantry. What's the point of this? To make the enemy waste arrows and other projectiles, and let your archers pick off a decent few of them. You will have few, if any, casualties, and the enemy will have at least a dozen if you do this right, and very few/no arrows. Keep in mind that after this your archers will likely not have many, if any, arrows left, so keep them away from the fighting as much as possible, but send them in if need be. I suggest telling your men to charge as soon as you hear the first shield break (assuming all of your men are the same tier) because chances are the other's shields will break soon enough too. The initial charge will be much smoother with no pesky arrows whisking away into your lungs and vital arteries. Note: if the next wave of enemies respawn with more archers, they will have full ammunition. This may inflict casualties on your flanks if you're locked in a shield wall along the castle wall.

Weapons

Keep a ranged weapon to help pick off people in the initial holdout, and ideally a quick and hard-hitting one-handed weapon and a good shield. (For this I suggest a balanced saber, balanced bastard sword, or a high quality iron axe. The iron axe is pretty ideal because they are fast, do good damage, and can bust down enemy shields, which is quite helpful). But it all depends on your playstyle.

FIRST TIME IN A CASTLE SIEGE, DEFENSIVE

Everything I've stated above rings true for this as well, so this part will be much shorter, I promise. The key thing to do is to tell your infantry to hold the area right at the landing point of the ladder(s) or siege tower. If there are two, I suggest putting cavalry at one and infantry at another. Let your archers wail at them at their own will. Guard that ladder with your life, because if it is lost you're in big trouble. I suggest the same weapon choice as stated previously, but you can switch that bastard sword to two-handed and swing away at people climbing up the ladder for maximum effect and hilarity.

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=132820138

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