Mount & Blade with Fire & Sword

[Art Blade]

Hey guys, about time I introduced you to this game. :-D

Basically it is an open world game that takes place roughly around the wider area of Russia, Poland, Sweden and so forth and starts in the year 1655. There are several games out around Mount & Blade; this one is a stand-alone and introduces firearms and explosives.

Now this is a game without scripted events! Everything is random and your choice. There won't be a single mission that you can't escape. If you fail a mission you'll get a notification and perhaps a sanction but the game goes on. You won't have to go back to the last checkpoint, there are none!  :-D

The game combines real time strategy, role playing, trading and 1st/3rd person (change between those as you like) combat which again can be a duel, a fight between you and a handful opponents, and battles which again can be offence or defence (depending on whether you are the attacker or being attacked) and those battles are either fought on the battlefield with one or more armies on either side (depending on whether or not there are allied armies involved) or the battle is related to a siege which means attack or defend a fortress or a town.

You start out as a nobody wanting to become a somebody. It is entirely up to you what you're going to be.

God damn it, I believe you can dive into it and start a new virtual life, it is so deep and at the same time so captivating  :-X Essentially you start indeed a new life as a nobody with just a few coins in your pockets and shabby gear.

There are five big parties who fight among themselves but not with everyone at the same time. Like, the Crimean Khanate is at war with the Muscovite Tsardom as well as with the Cossack Hetmanate. The Cossacks are at war with The Crimeans and the Polish Commonwealth. The Kingdom of Sweden is only at war with the Muscovites and so forth. Sometimes you get a message (full screen announcement to click away) that two parties are now at war or at peace.

And you.. are neutral and smack in the middle of all that bullshit. The five big boys will leave you alone but.. there are Looters (packs of criminals) and Deserters (packs of ex-military) and Tartar Raiders (wild bunch of Tartars) and so on, they will actually pose a threat when they come across you. You can't die but if you don't have friends who drag you away to safety, you end up in prison as a hostage and that can actually take a long time until they let you go (hey.. reminds me of the time before FC2 was released, that's what your friends were supposed to do -- here you may have real friends who are called companions or you may have just some loyal troops who save you) -- and now, you want to start making money. :-D

How you start is your own choice. Actually, everything is your choice. If you take on a job, you can either do it or f@#k it up or just walk over to the guy who gave it to you and tell him to shove it up his arse. Not exactly good for good relations but hey, you still may :-D You can start trading between villages, towns and fortresses. Doesn't matter whom they belong to as you're neutral. Unless you mess with "the wrong guys"  :-()

Eventually you'll have an army.. which could be just a bunch of idiots but it could just as well be, eventually, an army of 200+ elite troops comprised of infantry, marksmen and cavalry -- you can even rename or create up to 10 different units that you can order individually :) Now.. you can guess it.. this game is anything you want it to be except perhaps a sports car racing game :-() You can just trade or rob caravans, go after looters or challenge an army.. hey, you can even besiege towns and fortresses.

You can't just take a town and keep it as long as you're not part of one of those five big parties but I believe you could start your own kingdom (not sure whether or not it is possible with this game but Warband was a M&B stand-alone that allowed you to do just that) maybe once you joined and split up with one of those parties. I decided to join the Crimean guys, small party and in the very South of the map, the dark green colour. Now I am a noble and lord of a few fiefs.  :-()

SOUNDS INTERESTING, DOESN'T IT?!  :-()

I have to say this game is far deeper than you'd guess by a somewhat cheapish looking game. It actually is far better than I had hoped. I'm actually enjoying it tremendously  :-()

I had at least an idea as to what it is about, generally speaking, thanks to quite a few YT vids that I had watched before buying it but the learning curve is somewhat steep. I decided to help myself with a little initial funding and soon with a little boost of "spare points" to be added to my character's skill tree. There is only one savegame per character and that character can be ex- and imported. It is a simple .txt file that can be edited easily. After doing that, I had a rather formidable start as I was free to experiment without having to worry too much. Also, I started the game on easy difficulty.

Then came the practical part. I had to fight a few battles, some of them lengthy, but with every battle I grew more experienced as a player learning how to move my army around the map which is a tad hectic at times. The battle usually is over before you can think up a strategy so it is an instant thing: see, decide, do. Within just a few seconds because the enemy will have started to charge already. :-()

I have six companions (supportive characters who can't die) but I had to kick a few other characters because those bastards develop friendships with some and hatred towards other characters and if you don't find the right people, you're running into problems within your own army. So.. I have five who are happy with everything and one who is "unhappy" about my choice of companions (hehehe) but else happy, too. There are I think twelve peeps out there, you can find them in taverns of towns (they're never in taverns of fortresses and villages don't have taverns) but those little fuckers keep travelling so I can't tell you where to find them, it is only by chance that you will. If you reject or dismiss one you will still be able to recruit him/her later again.

I decided to become a subject of the Crimean realm's boss and am flying my own banner now. Racking up renown and even honour (don't take the defeated army's boss hostage but let him walk away will earn you honour) I have transitioned from nobody into someone, a someone people even recognise. :-D

It is possible to change difficulty settings during the game and to import a character (needs to be the same name, like you can import a YourName.txt character file but in order to load a YourName-cheat.txt you need to rename your in-game character to YourName-cheat first) which may help you on your way getting to know the game.

Well.. that was just straight out of my mind, nothing special, just wanted to share that with you. :)

And of course share some tips and tricks and screenshots and all that. :-()

Maybe a little vid to get you started with how the action looks and also you'll see the "trading" menu (left side is the stuff you want, right side your own inventory) and a glimpse of the game map. Don't worry too much as to what the details are all about, just watch a few minutes.

Here the direct link to the right time, below the entire watch list -- have fun ;)

https://youtu.be/8yZK4iNT3I0?t=18m28s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yZK4iNT3I0&index=72&list=PLB6B433E25165EFBB

And here a few screenshots of my own :-D
[smg id=8597 type=preview align=center caption="MB WFAS 001"]
[smg id=8598 type=preview align=center caption="MB WFAS 002"]
[smg id=8599 type=preview align=center caption="MB WFAS 003"]
[smg id=8600 type=preview align=center caption="MB WFAS 004"]
[smg id=8601 type=preview align=center caption="MB WFAS 005"]
[smg id=8602 type=preview align=center caption="MB WFAS 006"]

[fragger]

I'm quite looking forward to checking this out. As most of you guys no doubt know, I'm big into strategy things, and this looks to be quite an innovative take on the genre. Art very kindly made me a pressie of it recently and I've had a very quick look at it, but I've been a bit tied up with other stuff (i.e. real life getting in the way) and have been concentrating my PC time on learning more about the Blender 3D modelling program. Upshot - I haven't been gaming much lately. I must admit, when I first looked at M&B my initial reaction was, "Geez, this game looks freaking OLD!" but even with the brief look into it that I had I could see it was quite unique and fresh. You should never judge a book by its cover.

Thanks for the game and for the info Art, I'll be having a go at this very soon. I'm up for something new :)

[Art Blade]

you're most welcome  ^-^

hehe, I like your comment never to judge a book by its cover. :-D I was equally put off by it at first glance but indeed, just as equally realised the potential.

As a matter of fact, the animations during battle are fantastic. Horses move like horses, riding is very intuitive, and it is impressive when you hear an arrow zipping by and at the time see one guy in front of you getting knocked off his horse with an arrow sticking out of his head. :-D If you shoot someone with a rifle or pistol point blank, he'll also get blown off his horse or knocked off his feet >:D

There are hundreds of items to equip yourself and your companions with. Countless different armours, helmets, boots, gauntlets, shields, firearms, swords, maces, lances, horses, you name it. They all got their own stats and may vary a little even within the same type. It's fun to check out loot after a battle or the next arms dealer for better gear. :) You may even find "lordly" or "masterpiece" type of gear, or get handmade stuff.. for an insane price, of course. :-()

At first you're likely to start with trading stuff as in buying some in a village and selling it in a fortress or town. Then you should take on small groups of Looters but avoid Tartar Raiders (they'll finish you off in a few minutes). You can, however, go after groups of Bandits, too. Better ask the elder of a village for jobs, they are likely to give you something you can do. Lords in towns or fortresses may ask you to take a somewhat riskier job. But that will pay off if you survive, you'll gain their favour.

In order to get anywhere regarding your social position, you should look out for smaller battles and join in so you get some renown points. But you can't just join any battle.. you need to be in either a good or bad standing, not neutral. In good standing means you can help a lord, in bad standing you can fight him. To get that type of good or bad standing, you need to ask the mayor of a town, the elder of a village or the lord of a city or fortress to do a job or a special mission for them. That will earn you a better relation to the person who gave that job to you. If you keep doing that for a while, they might invite you to join up with them. You can just as well refuse and stay independent but joining one of those major forces will grant you protection and later on it may even lead to your first fief. If you manage to besiege a fortress with success AND if you're part of one of those major forces, their leader might allow you to keep it or he'll instead give you some money. Keep doing stuff like that for your monarch's empire and eventually you'll be rewarded with your own fief(s).

The advantage of being lord of a fortress is the garrison in it, you can stash away excessive troops and even "breed" troops of your own (they produce troops). Before you can do that, you should just grab whatever troops you encounter and hire them.

Here you can see my current army I'm running around with. Note that during battle, you won't get all of your troops at once. If a battle is comprised of big armies, you'll have to fight the battle in several steps. Unless you get captured, you'll fight portions of the enemy until he's done with. You'll find yourself leading troops that are selected by the game in descending order from your army, see the pic, right hand side: the first one will always be the player, then you can shift forces up or down. In my case, there are my companions first so they keep gathering experience (they can't die anyway) and then I usually put a group of cannon fodder (newbies, recruits and so on) so they either survive and gain experience and eventually level up (to experienced or veteran and finally elite) or they croak and need to be replaced. I like to keep my better ranks at the end of the list so they will only come in and mop up the enemy if the first groups got wasted. :-D
[smg id=8603 type=preview align=center caption="MB WFAS 007"]

[Binnatics]

Looks interesting indeed, and yes... old :-D

I'm not in the mood right now to jump in such a huge 'second-life-like' game right now since GTA Online is still eating most of my free time and I don't want more of that s#!t right now. If I start to play another game it will probably an easy going non-development game to blow off some steam.
But I'm looking forward to your discoveries in this freshly designed game ;)

[Art Blade]

FC2 is older ;) This is from 2011.

Here's a typical head-on battle situation. 78 of my battle-tested hard-hitting men vs 22 Looters, lol. How it starts to how it ends, showing a tactical menu with a battle map to the right where you can use your mouse to click on it if you want. You can tell your troops where to go and what to do like that or you run around with them. While playing in 1st/3rd person, pressing F1 and holding it will bring out a flag hovering in front of you and you can "aim" it at a position where you want your men to go when you release F1. Or you use that map. Here I didn't do anything, I just watched the battle on the map. They always charge on their own when the game starts the battle. The round symbols over their heads show my colour (banner) which actually is two swords and a crown above them. Units you're currently commanding (in this case cavalry) are showing the banner with a green luminous circle around it.

Usually there would not only be cavalry but also marksmen and infantry to choose from but I prefer pure cavalry when on patrol. In this case, mercenary marksmen on horses still show up as marksmen by default but I assigned them to my cavalry to make it easy to command. Like that, I could address them with just a very simple speech: "Listen everyone, there's the enemy. I don't want to be late for tea, so be quick about it. Now go kill 'em." >:D It was in fact a matter of say, one minute or so. Big battles might take a bit longer ^-^

My real infantry and marksmen (without horses) are sitting in their garrisons in my fortresses to protect those from intruders :-()

[smg id=8604 type=preview align=center caption="MB WFAS battle 1 01"]
[smg id=8605 type=preview align=center caption="MB WFAS battle 1 02"]
[smg id=8606 type=preview align=center caption="MB WFAS battle 1 03"]
[smg id=8607 type=preview align=center caption="MB WFAS battle 1 04"]
[smg id=8608 type=preview align=center caption="MB WFAS battle 1 05"]
[smg id=8609 type=preview align=center caption="MB WFAS battle 1 06"]

[PZ]

Dang it, AB!  Now you've added yet another game to my list of games I need to play!  \:/

[Binnatics]

I've been thinking about thisone, while preparing pizzas in fact :-D

A few questions; What type of game mode will you start in? Like, is it you, in FP mode, looking around in the badlands? Or is it a menu where you decide what to do with your first coins?
How much percent of your total gameplay you spend in free roam, being you in either FP or 3RD person mode?

And looking at this battle, I see horse ears at the start. As in you being part of that crew of horse powered soldiers. When the battle really starts, I see menus and the rest of the warriors far away. Can you actually join the battle and chop off some heads yourself? And what will your soldiers do then? Do they follow you and charge on anything that comes near?

Can you fast-travel somehow? or are you just there where your eye on the battlefield is?

What I'm trying to figure out is, what is the basis of the game? Since there's so many modes involved in it, RPG, strategy, FP(S), menus with statistics, I wonder what is it that you will always come back to?

[Art Blade]

lol PZ  stop playing FC2, then :-()

A few questions; What type of game mode will you start in? Like, is it you, in FP mode, looking around in the badlands? Or is it a menu where you decide what to do with your first coins?
How much percent of your total gameplay you spend in free roam, being you in either FP or 3RD person mode?

You can seamlessly change back and forth between 1st and 3rd person. Yes, (after customising the face of your character, which you may adjust at ANY TIME during the game as often as you want) you start in 1st/3rd person in the middle of a 3D world. No menu. Free roam is a type of map view. You see the outlines of towns and you see trees and so on when you're zoomed in and something like a map when zoomed out. You click on the map and watch your mini-avatar run towards the destination you just clicked on. It would be enemies you're chasing or locations you want to visit (for trading etc) which may be towns or fortresses. It is possible to walk around in those. So essentially, there is nothing but free roam. Unless you're trading or fighting. How much of either one is up to you.

And looking at this battle, I see horse ears at the start. As in you being part of that crew of horse powered soldiers. When the battle really starts, I see menus and the rest of the warriors far away. Can you actually join the battle and chop off some heads yourself? And what will your soldiers do then? Do they follow you and charge on anything that comes near?

You are part of that crew. You're actually riding a horse or walking on foot, you may dismount if you came by horse or mount a random horse some enemy left behind when he died. :-D Again, 1st/3rd person swapping between those whenever you like.

When the battle starts, you don't see menus. I activated one to show you that you can do that as well. The rest of the warriors far away because they either ran away or are coming at you. Your own guys instantly start to charge unless you tell them otherwise.

You can sit back and watch your guys do the job for you (if they're really that much better than the enemy) or participate as a warrior. Or as a general, from a hilltop, directing the troops tactically. That would be you deciding whether to participate or instead gallop up that hill so you can tell your guys where to go and then you may as well rush back down again and participate.. how you organise your battle is up to you. And failure is an option.  :-D

If you participate, your soldiers will still do what you ordered them to until you give different orders. You can order them to follow you or to just charge, there are countless combinations of actions they can be ordered to do. If they charged and you run into them, you can actually cause them to get stuck in a horse traffic jam if you're in their way :-D And sorry, no chopping off heads. But you will see a lot of blood :-D

Can you fast-travel somehow? or are you just there where your eye on the battlefield is?

You can't fast travel. You'll have to travel across the map but you can speed up time. It is dangerous because you can't see enemies approaching that are bigger than you, at least it is almost impossible to "break" in time to avoid contact. If you bump into an enemy army, then you get a dialogue as in fight or don't fight. "Don't" usually means that you'll have to pay a nice sum of money to get away.. so usually you fight..

What I'm trying to figure out is, what is the basis of the game? Since there's so many modes involved in it, RPG, strategy, FP(S), menus with statistics, I wonder what is it that you will always come back to?

It is all of the above. And it depends on how you want to play it. Too much open world, too much freedom of choice? It's not easy finding your way if you're used to UBIshit (not YOU but generally speaking) Here you can actually do what you want.

I think you should watch a bit of it on YT. Most of the questions you asked could be answered by watching the YT clip I recommended in my first post. It gives you a good idea of what the battle and map and so on look like. :)

[Art Blade]

Here a mix of map view and 3D world you travel around in. You see a town (as opposed to village) and a few mounted units. The numbers you see, e.g. 150+38, give you a quick info of how many soldiers (150) and how many prisoners (38) that unit is comprised of. Mouse over it and you'll get more info, like which faction the unit belongs to and who its commander is (if it's an army) and even what type of troops (like, Swedish Reiter) and how many of those. You can pause the game at any moment to check the map and examine those units and so on, then you'd click somewhere and you'd be travelling again. :)

[smg id=8610 type=preview align=center caption="MB WFAS 008"]

[Binnatics]

Thanx for the info Art :)

You know I'm not really a youtube game watcher, and I know you're more than happy to explain it, so I figured I'd ask :-D

But since the core of this game still remained a bit vague to me I decided to watch some of it anyway. It's a strange concept. It is as if you're in the action, while you're spectating.

The concept reminds me a bit of Dungeons and Dragons. The original boardgame I mean. I still think it's not really my thing, but it is intriguing me in a way :)

Kudo for the effort explaining this game here mate ;) :-X

[Art Blade]

thank you. :)

[Art Blade]

The biggest political success (except for becoming Marshal of the Crimean Khanate) is to eliminate an enemy as in eliminate their entire nation. How? Take all of their towns and fortresses and take down the stray armies. >:D

[smg id=8621 type=preview align=center caption="MB WFAS nation eliminated"]

My biggest success regarding personal riches so far is to besiege and then take Moscow for the Crimean Khanate. And finally the Khan made me lord of Moscow.  :-X :)

It was tough because the resistance was incredible and the first time I took it I wanted to keep it but the Khan said no, gave me 1200 thalers and Moscow to someone else. I was a tad irritated. Literally seconds after that message another message popped up that the Muscovite Tsardom had taken Moscow from the Crimean Khanate. So I raided it again and took it again. This time it belonged to no one (takes some time to get a message from the Khan) but was still ours when I noticed it had already been besieged again, by a handful of foragers! As there was no defence and no lord, the small garrison had to keep up with the intruders and I rushed into town and participated in the battle for Moscow, defending it against a small horde of criminals. So that is how it changed hands so quickly the first time, a bunch of scouts took the town  ??? Not this time. I had to fend off a few attacks and decided to patrol the area, chasing down scouts and foragers and whatnot and finally I received the message from the Khan that he gave it to me. I had worked my armour off for that  :-D It is a rich town. Now I have accumulated quite a few big fiefs  :)

[smg id=8611 type=preview align=center caption="MB WFAS taking Moscow 01"]
[smg id=8612 type=preview align=center caption="MB WFAS taking Moscow 02"]
[smg id=8613 type=preview align=center caption="MB WFAS taking Moscow 03"]
[smg id=8614 type=preview align=center caption="MB WFAS taking Moscow 04"]
[smg id=8617 type=preview align=center caption="MB WFAS taking Moscow 05"]
[smg id=8618 type=preview align=center caption="MB WFAS taking Moscow 06"]
[smg id=8616 type=preview align=center caption="MB WFAS taking Moscow 07"]
[smg id=8619 type=preview align=center caption="MB WFAS taking Moscow 08"]
[smg id=8615 type=preview align=center caption="MB WFAS taking Moscow 09"]
[smg id=8620 type=preview align=center caption="MB WFAS taking Moscow 10"]

[Art Blade]

Oops. I had to shift around some pics and manually change the numbers in the captions of the Moscow series so it made chronological sense again :-()

[fragger]

Good w@&k, Sir Art :) :-X I'm still a lowly vagabond slogging around Peasantsville at the moment :-()

But I've just started to get into this a bit, it's quite refreshingly unique. There's a lot to get to grips with, one of those games that looks very basic and ordinary, and maybe even dull at first, until you start scratching at the surface and discovering more layers. Then more... and more... and more...

I'm starting to realise why the graphics are kept relatively simple. If the game had super-duper, top-notch graphics, it would bog down to a crawl once you start getting into big battles (like what you see in some of Art's screenies above). In order to be able to depict scores of units at once and still keep the game playable - as well as having to continually update a mountain of internal data and stats - things have to be kept fairly simple graphically. The game's not about graphical splendour, it's about - well, everything else. Having said that, it is still actually quite nice to look at when you're at "ground level", the detail is still rich enough to look good and the control has a positive feel to it.

It's not all blades and poleaxes. There are early flintlock-type firearms too. You have to be judicious with your use of them though and remember that once you fire a shot, it takes a minute to get the next one together. No automatics, magazines, or mass-produced ammo in these days :-() These are also pre-rifling smoothbore days, meaning firearms have a short range and a low muzzle velocity, so you have to get close to an enemy to use a firearm or it'll have no effect. Going into a battle, you can use a firearm to knock one initial enemy down, but you better be ready to get a blade out immediately or you'll be getting all hacked up while you're reloading. Skirmishing with a small group of bandits on foot is easy - you can shoot one, then spur your horse to a gallop and ride around them out of reach while you reload - them ride in close, shoot another bandit, rinse and repeat until they're all dead or the survivors give you up as a bad job and run away. You can mount and dismount your horse, but you can also be knocked off it - or your horse can actually be killed under you, so you must look after it.

What genre would the game belong to? It's a bit of everything really.

What I'm trying to figure out is, what is the basis of the game? Since there's so many modes involved in it, RPG, strategy, FP(S), menus with statistics, I wonder what is it that you will always come back to?

If I had to give it one single genre definition, I'd actually call it a simulation. A far as I can tell, there's not really any "winning" of the game - it's more a case of trying to build up your power, wealth and prestige, and trying to retain it as long for as you can. It'll just go on for as long as you want, and there will always be situations developing. As in historical medieval reality, as much as you might like to just kick back and rest on your laurels, your neighboring power-brokers and others won't let you - sooner or later you'll be compelled to take some sort of action or you'll risk losing land, power, and even troops, who might get bored and start deserting if you don't keep them occupied with tasks. That's if you want power, of course - if you want to just goof off around the countryside picking fights, doing odd jobs and trading stuff for money to live on, you can. It's extremely open-ended, possibly one of the most open-ended, open-world, open-anythings I've ever come across, very organic and evolutionary. What you become is what you make of yourself.

NO cutscenes, NO scripting, NO linearity, and NO acid trips :-() And you can rest assured that no two games of this will ever be anything alike.

It's quite a remarkable thing these days, to come across a game that truly is a bit different.

[Art Blade]

excellent read, fragger :-X :)

I completely agree with all of what you said :) Interesting that you call it a sim. I had never thought of it that way before you said that but it makes sense. A sim with a very nice post-medieval GUI :-D

You can go into any town or fortress and visit the local tavern. Once there, keep your eyes peeled for "pub visitors" I believe they're called. No merchant, no mercenary, no book seller, no ransom broker, no slave trader (sell your prisoners to the latter two) all of those exist, though. The common pub visitor can be interacted with. You should for shits and giggles provoke him (I once had a dialogue option that let me make fun of his ugly face) and you'll find yourself an opportunity for a proper duel. It could be with wooden sticks or swords or some such. I gave that guy's face a proper w@&k-over with a club. :-D He didn't quite survive it though, relation to the town went -3 down..  ??? They don't like bar bullies, apparently  :-D

Or once I went to a random fortress where I just payed a visit to its lord (once you hailed the guard and went into town or into the fortress, you'd see that option to the top of the menu, "go to the fortress," in case you wanted to see the local lord) and to my surprise there was a woman present. I tried the dialogue but usually they don't know you well enough to allow any options. Except once, she needed a champion. I had to duel some bloke who lived across the map. It was a duel with sword and pistol. I killed him. When I went back to her, I refused to take any payment, honour is enough, but still she gave me money on top of the honour points I gained.  ^-^

When you join up with a faction (I got offered a job for three months as a mercenary -- after a short while I was allowed to pick my own banner, yay!  :) ) their marshal can summon you. Usually it's like, "bring at least 8 men and accompany me until I tell you otherwise," literally a call to arms. I followed him together with perhaps five more lords so we had seven armies and together we besieged a fortress and took it :) What a battle. One fellow lord said after the battle, "I shall always remember the assault on Bryansk Fortress. Songs are sung about such battles!" It was tough, alright.

But I once got sent to find "five head of cattle" so he could keep the troops fed. When I arrived with seven (hey, why not surprise him with a surplus) he demanded not five but eight. I was short one cattle. The only way I knew to get cattle is by looting a village and burning it to the ground, then usually a herd of cattle will pop up and follow you as a "party"  -- since he said that he didn't care how I got them it was alright in my book to raid an enemy's village but later I learned that you could just as well go into the village and ask the elder that you want to buy supplies. Oops. He will have cattle on the menu  :-D Buy them and they will follow you. You can slaughter them on your way or just drive them ahead. It was a royal pain in the back but I delivered eight heads of cattle to the marshal  :-()

Well.. keep doing what you're told and you'll eventually be rewarded with a fief. Usually a crap village for starters. If you keep helping the other lords by joining battles on their side you'll become more and more liked and that might be a nice military and political career.

You'll also find people in taverns that want the thrown for themselves and you can join them to start a rebellion. They'll make you marshal but that is likely tough and those rebellion types are actually main story threads. You don't have to do them, as you can see looking at my example. I am a free lancer for a minority :-D

You can as well start a trading career sending caravans between towns and villages and so on. Just learn prices and protect your caravans..  ;)

Tip regarding trading: Here's a threshold when to buy or to sell.
By the way, if you have an army, you'll need food in your inventory.. they want to eat, too. Food is important to keep their morale up.

B = buy, S = sell (thanks, Zemalf :-X )

    POTTERY, MEAT, FISH: B < 40, S > 70
    LEATHERWORK, BUTTER: B < 100, S >130
    LINEN, CLOTH, WINE: B < 150, S > 200
    IRON, SALT: BUY < 150, SELL > 250
    POWDER: B < 300, S > 500
    OIL: B < 300, S > 400
    SPICE: B < 600, S > 800
    VELVET: B < 700, S > 900

[Art Blade]

Oh by the way, it's good to have friends in high places.  :-D They're all guys I helped during battles and even lords from a hostile party that I didn't take as prisoner after a battle (earns you honour and relation plus points with the one you set free, usually that is.. some hate you for letting them go without glory and without army lol)
[smg id=8622 type=preview align=center caption="MB WFAS friends list"]

[Binnatics]

Great Story about the battle for Moskow :-X :-()

[Art Blade]

cheers :)

I was just thinking, "why is it good to have friends in high places?" Because if you help fellow lords on your own account or help the enemy of your enemy without them having to ask, they are going to be supportive. It was because of that my name came up when the Khan wanted to have a new Marshal and because of those supporters I had a 10 vs 4 result in my favour. My friends made me Marshal  :) The Khan is a friend of mine, too, by the way -- I started my career by walking up to him and by repeatedly asking him for special missions and jobs. I thought it couldn't be wrong to show the boss some initiative and loyalty. It paid off quite handsomely :) Now I can call all the lords for a campaign and tell them what to do if I want. So far, I haven't called it in which means they can protect their own territories while I go on campaign with my companions and my own big party. They haven't asked for a new Marshal yet :-D

Fiefs can be quite lucrative. If you develop your fief by installing judges, priests, commanders, tax collectors and all that, erect schools, water supplies, a merchant guild, stables, armoury, barracks and all that, you'll get a secure environment for your serfs. Be a good liege and protect your people and your own territory. Thing is, you need a lot of capable troops to stuff your garrisons with, otherwise the enemy won't have a problem to successfully besiege your towns and fortresses. When they're gone, they're gone. Even if you take them back, they no longer belong to you but to your monarch (the Khan, in my case). As soon as you get a town or fortress, station your entire army inside and make a run for the nearest mercenary camp and buy a new small army, fight parties that have a lot of prisoners because you can recruit freed prisoners. If they're any good, you're in for a treat. Go for parties that have imprisoned Winged Hussars or Swedish Reiters, free them and hire them. They're top notch :)

[Art Blade]

Damn, I think I took the hardest path when deciding to join up with the Crimeans. They've got the weakest realm and the weakest armour and weapons. OK, it was enough against the Cossacks who are apparently slightly better yet somewhat equally crap regarding their gear.

Next in line are the Muscovites who are a tad tougher and better equipped. Well, I beat the Muscovites, too :-D
[smg id=8626 type=preview align=center caption="MB WFAS 2nd nation eliminated"]

The Poles are not at war with us (they're likely the second hardest nation) but the bloody Swedes are and man, they're armoured like tanks and have a lot of firepower. Kind of hard to get my Crimeans who are dressed in cloth and chain mail to beat the Swedes in their shiny thick armour. Or, our bows and sabers against their Miquelet Rifles and other fine firearms. Like a hamster trying to headbutt an anvil, who's going to win? I think the only way is quantity against quality. Flood them with hordes of Crimeans. I hope they breed fast enough to keep resupplying me  :-()

In other words, if you're new (like me) you should probably start off by joining up with the Swedes so you will have nice resources against ever weaker enemies. Right now, my Crimeans are working their butts off for every victory.

[Binnatics]

Maybe you should try the political approach.... see if you van get a foot between the door and convince them into some ally against the poles. Who knows they share some of their technology with you... which later can and will be used against them >:D

[Art Blade]

Hehe, I already tried that. Unfortunately it is beyond my power and I'm only being recognised as an enemy, a threat. I think only the Khan himself could manage that but if I remember correctly it was him who declared war on the Swedes :D I might try to find a way to convince the Poles to join our war against the Swedes, though  :-D

[Binnatics]

Ooooh... :-\\ politics

[Art Blade]

yep. That's why I have to beat it into them >:D

[Art Blade]

I just had a near-catastrophe in my game. I thought, hey, let's free those POW whom I had incarcerated when their nations/factions still existed and still were our enemies. I freed them without condition (I might have demanded a ransom) and they were very glad that I let them go. I got a lot of positive relation points from each of them and some honour points as well. Then I saved the game and fortunately (however, instead of before saving) I checked my standings regarding relation to the remaining nations. My Crimean Khanate, before freeing those guys, used to be at a solid +100 (maximum, loyalty) and had just now dropped to some 60+ which was only "friendly." The game automatically creates a backup of the last savegame so there are actually two. I reverted to the backup which wasn't far from when I freed those ex army commanders. Phew. Now they are "still" in my prison. :-D

By the way, if you take army commanders prisoners, don't refuse ransom offers (their nation usually offers a ransom after some time) because that will cost you one honour point. Take the money and done. At least you keep your honour and on top get paid. :-D However, it seems to be better to just let them go after a battle. That definitely will earn you honour and usually positive relation points towards them. Except some few hate you for letting them go, the shame, hehe :-() Defeating armies and, if you capture their commanders, letting them go will sometimes result in a funny relation. If you manage to keep doing that, you'll rack up enough positive relation points that they will become your friend. You have seen the friends list in prior screenshots, many of them are defeated commanders. If you meet them during war time again, you will get the option to pass a battle because they owe you but if you want a battle, they're sorry for not having been able to avoid fighting you -- not because they fear defeat but because you're friends. :) If you meet someone who hated it that you let him go, your relation will deteriorate even more on starting a battle with them (they are not sorry at all, they tell you that they want to humiliate you) and for me it is even funnier if I capture them again and let them go again. It pisses them off and I still get honour points 

[Binnatics]

Curious how you will get yourself to the position of world dominator, as that is apparently the thing you try to achieve and, seems to be the most reasonable outcome of a playthrough :-D