Mount and Blade - Who are you?

[Mordekaien]

In Warband, I played Vaegir vassal, and was generally badass- proved that by destroying the Khergits all by myself.

In Fire & Sword, I play as a freeroaming mercenary, doing what I can to survive with an army of Cossack riders.
I tried to go with a trader once, and it was fun, just go around, sell high, buy low, avoid the bandits.

Damn, now I wanna play the game again!

 

[Mordekaien]

I played the first one. I started the game, someone kidnapped me or something, and then I quit. Never went back.

But I really need to. Im sure I can get into it, im pretty good and figuring stuff out in games, I just lacked the motivation back then. This thread has given me that motivation though.

Get Warband if you can, that is supposed to be the best one, I only have Warband and it is awesome so I can easily believe that it is the best out of the three.

Do you know which one is the easiest to get into? Like I said, its not like I am helpless when it comes to games that are a little rough around the edges, but playing the most polished one might help me get into the series better.

I found Warband to be the easier, because there aren't sodding muskets that can kill you in one shot, and the game is much more epic than with Fire and Sword.
In Warband you can actually mow down guy pretty good by yourself alone, while in F&S it's a little trickier.
(on the other hand, I like the feel of F&S much more than Warband)

 

[romanator0]

In Warband my character is a nordic warlord that has money problems that never seem to affect her.

 

[Dandark]

I played the first one. I started the game, someone kidnapped me or something, and then I quit. Never went back.

But I really need to. Im sure I can get into it, im pretty good and figuring stuff out in games, I just lacked the motivation back then. This thread has given me that motivation though.

Get Warband if you can, that is supposed to be the best one, I only have Warband and it is awesome so I can easily believe that it is the best out of the three.

Do you know which one is the easiest to get into? Like I said, its not like I am helpless when it comes to games that are a little rough around the edges, but playing the most polished one might help me get into the series better.

I have only played Warband but I found that really easy to get into. I will try give some advice to help you get into it, this is pretty much what I did.
Start the game with your background being warriorish so you have high stats. One handed weapon and a shield can work pretty well or two handed, you probably shouldn't start off with polearms or bows.
Do the training mission at the start, the one where you go free the merchants brother from bandits and then take down the corrupt captain. After that travel about a bit doing jobs either for the guildmasters or for one of the kingdoms.

To learn combat try the arena, I made a lot of money here early on and it gives you lots of free practice, you use wooden weapons so you don't need to worry about dying or losing troops and since weapons and armour don't factor into it, you can get lots of free practice with a variety of weapons.
If you happen across a tournament then that can make you a lot of money and make you known but they can be difficult to win at first.

Finally I would advice starting in the kingdom of Rhodoks(Green guys) for a first playthrough, I started there and found it easier. Whatever you do, don't start off in the kindom of Vaegars or Nords since they have problems with Sea raiders who are tough to deal with early on.

 

[Hateren47]

I usually play horse archer with 2 sets of arrows and a long 2 handed axe or sword. But that's not important. What's more important is that this thread brought me by taleworlds website [http://www.taleworlds.com/] where I see an announcement for "Mount Blade - Napoleonic Wars", and thus I ask the Escapist forums, why haven't you brought this to my attention before? This is very relevant to my interests.

Yes, Taleworlds has another ported mod stand-alone expansion for Warband in the pipeline.


Looks pretty good but I'm not a fan of guns and muskets in my M&B. Still waiting for M&B 2 but I might buy this when it goes on 66% off sale on Steam. To support the cause and all. I'm not paying full price for Polished Landscapes + Battle Size Changer + Musket Mod though.

Edit:

I'm using the Last days of the Third Age mod for the original Mount and Blade and I am a Dunedain Ranger! If you haven't tried this mod I HIGHLY recommend it, completely awesome!

http://mountandblade.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=3569

Also this! It's amazing what they have done with the original M&B there.

Edit 2:
This was released 2 days before the April Trolls Day so let's see how this plays out.

 

[mirage202]

I played the first one. I started the game, someone kidnapped me or something, and then I quit. Never went back.

But I really need to. Im sure I can get into it, im pretty good and figuring stuff out in games, I just lacked the motivation back then. This thread has given me that motivation though.

Not everyone will agree, but I think most of us would say, skip the original, and go straight to Warband. Cant remember exactly why, its just better.

 

[Lil_Rimmy]

Warband is basically an upgraded Mount and Blade... because, well, it is. But that doesn't mean its bad! Hell no! It's awesome! But when I say upgraded, it is literally Mount and Blade's map with new areas, factions, things to do, units etc. So if you are buying Mount and Blade, get Warband...

or....

Muskets? I love F&S just because it makes sieges, multiplayer and battle lines so much more fun with muskets. Believe me, play a siege battle with 100 other players and you will get shot soooo many times running to the walls, only to scale the walls, slaughter the defenders and open the gates, letting your cavalry charge in. Then, when your soldiers are chopping the enemy up, the marksmen take the walls and turn the walls against the defenders. There is nothing more awesome than shooting through a slit in the wall as the enemy rushes your castle, and then fighting him off the walls with Fire and Sword!

Although, always join a server with the ladders that can be put up and kicked down, gates that can be opened and doors around the back of the castle. Believe me, F&S multiplayer is still kicking!

EDIT:

Also, muskets aren't really too much of a problem, hell, arrows are sometimes more of a problem. See, once a musket fires, it takes AGES to reload. In a battle on a flat-ish area, each side usually only gets one volly of musket rounds at any type of cavalry, and then once the muskets are getting chopped up, the infantry follow in, mopping everything up. The only time muskets get really annoying is in sieges, but in a REALLY long siege sometimes you can wait for their ammo to run out. The average amount of shots you will get is about 15, because that is the starting ammo and buying ammo costs a LOT. But, luckily, ammo refills after every battle, so its like buying an ammo pouch, because its how many bullets you can hold, not how many bullets you have.

 

[Malyc]

I'm using the Last days of the Third Age mod for the original Mount and Blade and I am a Dunedain Ranger! If you haven't tried this mod I HIGHLY recommend it, completely awesome!

http://mountandblade.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=3569

Thank you for the recommendation. That mod made me start playing the first one again.

 

[The Madman]

Just something about charging head-first into a line of enemy infantry with a heavy war horse and the most expensive armour money can buy. Tis... glorious!

Started a new campaign with the Brytenwalda mod about a month ago and been playing it on and off since. That mod is bloody hard! Playing as a bit of a 'noble mercenary', don't pillage villages or attack merchants, stick strictly to fighting bandits and other mercenary groups. Barely able to make enough to support a force of around 50ish men, sooner or later I'm going to *have* to take sides just to be able to afford to continue on my own, it's either that or resort to banditry myself.

The mod is amazing however, the sheer amount of detail that went into it is pretty amazing. I love all the era-authentic castles and forts as well.

 

[JoesshittyOs]

I got the demo for Warband, and I created the character "Depressed Chad"

Chad is depressed. I go around trolling for the kings' daughters only to get laughed at each time.

I also really suck at the game.

 

[Lil_Rimmy]

Haha! Chad gets rejected a fair bit eh?

Well, all I can say about the romances in Mount and Blade is don't fucking bother unless you are trying to get into a faction or something. I once romanced this lady, then her brother said I couldn't, so I said, "Fuck you!" beat him in a duel and continued to romance his sister without permission, which involved sneaking into her room every bloody night to sing her poems which I learnt from this bard, who was by that time a million are thanks to me.

Anyway, I marry her, and then guess what happens? She goes to my castle and says, "Oh my love, blah blah blah give me a few days to settle in." I give her a few days. A few months. A year. How fucking long does it take to settle in?!

And because she couldn't say anything else, I couldn't divorce, get her to move, get her to look after my money, get her to make me a sandwich, get her to work out a good tactic for eating cheese or get her to chop her self up, segment her body, stuff in into the kings pillow case and stick a note on it saying, "There's a warranty on this, right?"

 

[BathorysGraveland]

My favourite is portraying a Nordic warlord with his band of loyal huscarls and thanes and joining with the glorious King Ragnar in his great wars with the Rhodok's and the Vaegir's. It truly is an awesome feeling when your shield wall crashes against an enemies frontline infantry while some pagan black metal is playing in the background.

Also, for clarity, I haven't played With Fire and Sword. The time period doesn't interest me.

 

[Lil_Rimmy]

Yeah, the time period doesn't really interest me but the whole new mechanic with the muskets just can't be beaten. If only people had invented muskets earlier... To be honest, arrows just aren't as fun when it comes to ranged combat.

 

[Dandark]

So after reading this thread I just tried the Brytenwalda mod. Damn. That is awesome, if only I could get it to work without crashing constantly I would love this. I have wanted a game set in the Dark ages of Britain so much, ALL GLORY TO THE WELSH!!!!

 

[Rallus]

Most of my time playing Mount and Blade consists of me running around trying to get a few recruits to see off those looters and then end up being cornered by deserters and having to start from square 1 again. Only rarely do I get enough people to be unmolested, atleast until I join a faction.

 

[MrShowerHead]

Back in the original M&B I was part of the great Kingdom of Vaegirs. We dominated the Nords, I was promoted as the marshal and I formed a massive warparty and took over the final Nord city. Was glorious...

In Warband, I actually ended up joining the Nords, don't know why. Not that I regret doing it, we were in a long war against the Swadia. It's still hasn't ended, we are slowly winning it, we capture 1-2 castle in a week or two. My party is mostly made of infantry, Nord and Rhodoks archers.

So yeah, loving it so far

 

[Lethal Music]

Found this thread yesterday and immediately got myself Through Fire And Sword. I have just gotten started and haven't come very far (I'm taking the merchenary approach) but I already love it.
Also, I find the merchenary troops that you can hire in the taverns very effective. My current setup consists of lancers and pikeneers for the front and musketeers for the back, about 20 of each. Haven't lost any battles with this setup yet.