Author: Simulacrum  <nub>    70.238.206.176 Use this link if you want to link to this message and its entire thread of discussion. Post a Msg
Date: 7/23/2010 10:55:09 PM
Subject: In response to Necro's request

While I don't wish to interpose myself between you and muppet in your failing peace talks, I do wish to provide you with my important Warband blog thoughts. So here, in its entirety, is the Warband blogging I did in the thread in question. I don't have any new updates at this time, but the final post below is particularly important because it sets out my agenda as a responsible, caring warlord.

Thread begins:


I now officially have so many fiefs that I can't remember what or where they are. I'm a tycoon. I need a staff to keep up with this.

One reason the Sarranid Sultan keeps granting me fiefs is that my renown is through the roof. I have three times more renown than any of the regular marshals (the Sultan keeps trying to get me to be the marshal, but I refuse -- the marshalship is different than it was in M&B; I don't care for it).

The other reason is that our faction has had a staggering number of defections. I can't believe how many of our emirs have defected to other factions. When a lord (or emir in the case of the Sarranids) defects, the king (sultan) must award his confiscated property to one of the remaining loyal lords. So I'm getting offers without doing anything. Because of my renown, if I besiege a castle or town by myself, I automatically get first shot at it.

The defection issue complicates things even further. If the faction's lord population is dwindling, the marshal is more reluctant to start campaigns, even defensive ones. This means that other factions are whittling away at our properties. If villages go, so do recruitment opportunities. If recruitment is down, lords are more likely to have puny armies.

So clearly it was time for me to act. I went on a rampage, thinning out the armies of two enemy factions and besieging anything that looked weak enough to take. Now our fiefs extend to ridiculous boundaries, and we're getting a trickle of emirs back into the fold.

I guess I should start doing more politics and whatnot, but I think I've missed the window for breaking with my faction and starting my own. If I were to do that now, the only faction I could initiate war with would be the Swadians. Everyone else has gotten too powerful. I shudder at the prospect of having them all at my doorstep. Also, I have invested nothing in my companions' Persuasion skill, which would be required if I want other factions to recognize me as a legitimate monarch (you send companions out on diplomatic missions to announce that you are starting your faction and request recognition).

So it's a mess. I should probably start a new character and do it right.


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My plan to acquire properties for the faction did not have lasting results. We are now down to thirteen emirs, including the sultan and myself. That's terrible. A normal lord population is twenty. The Swadians have well over twenty-fife, and their fief holdings are pathetic. The Nords, who have practically nothing, are at nearly thirty, I think.

I don't understand this. Why would you stay with a losing team? I was serious when I took my oath of fealty, so I don't plan to go anywhere -- at least until there's absolutely no point in staying. But the other lords switch factions very cavalierly. If that is the case, why aren't they going where the property is?

Anyway, the Nords are about to be wiped out, so maybe we'll get some of their jarls.


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Maybe . . . maybe the enemy lords don't like me.

No, that's not it. I have more friends in enemy factions than in my own.



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The only thing that makes any sense is that the AI lords are engaging in real politics at the periodical feasts. I can do this if I want to -- attend or give a feast -- where deals are brokered and much schmoozing, marriage wooing, and political skulduggery transpire. Are the AI lords doing this? That is, are they making political arrangements to defect on the basis of future gain? If so, they didn't take me into account.

The problem with this theory is that the defections started happening as my renown went way up. This leads me to wonder whether my Right to Rule (a score mechanic that positions you on a list of people who have the "stuff" to start their own factions) is driving away lords who have no hope of acquiring power as long as I'm in the faction. But this doesn't make sense because Right to Rule is only useful if you try to get other kings to acknowledge you as monarch material (it's rather like an infant nation seeking recognition from foreign powers).

So I am baffled. Maybe the AI is broken.


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Maybe they're defecting because I'm being offered property that they want. That's conceivable. I think the AI is capable of this, especially since it's an incredibly dumb reason to leave a powerful faction. This is almost certainly the reason. The AI isn't brilliant; it's just as stupid as I imagine.



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A big problem in Warband is that the other lords in your faction are slackers. Take Emir Munihir, for instance. This guy has considerable renown, so he often gets picked to be marshal. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to have any training skills. Like the other lords, he shows up with trash troops like footmen and skirmishers. He also does a terrible job of garrisoning his town.

These guys have no work ethic. I'm able to take on parties that are seven times larger than mine and am regularly outnumbered five to one -- no problem -- minimal losses. I suppose I should crank up the Campaign AI difficulty, but I don't think that will make much difference.

I am successful because I work at being a warlord. I work at it all the time. While the other emirs are at their castles smoking their hookahs or whatever, I'm out chasing bandits and training troops. While they run around with starving, easily routed armies, I make sure that my party morale is always high. I do everything for my army. I give and give and work and work. For I am a river . . . to my people.