Can you play Mount & Blade without cheating?

filmoret

For some reason I cannot play this game very long without cheating.  Bad part is I play the game on easiest settings.  I see this game as very limited if you do not cheat.  Imagine trying to fight against 300 troops on normal.  I don't think that is even possible.

Asheram

I hope you are refering to the single player part.

Hariken

Yeah the single player part is really hard because you always run into huge armies in the beginning of all the M&B games. And Fire & Sword is worse because of the guns. The npc's never miss from long range. 

Mouloxtos85

 Mount and Blade Warband is one of my favorite games ever and I have invested a tremendous amount of time playing it without ever cheating. Same thing applies with the follow ups like , Fire and Sword and Viking Invasion and other countless mods I have played.
 I really can't understand why you would face huge armies at the beginning. This game needs patience. Build an army and gather your companions. As your army numbers and quality, grows you can eventually defeat larger armies , since 50% or more of the killings on each battle is made by you and not your troops.

Bloodaxes

You are supposed to have an army too not solo 300 enemies...

filmoret

I been playing and I cannot see this happening without cheating.  It would take literally 100 hours of gameplay to get a sizeable army of about 100 troops.  Then you would literally have to cheeze fight captures of castles.  I saw some guy do it on normal settings he just sat back and cheezed it with archers and crossbow snipes.  I think the game is 100x more fun when you cheat because otherwise you are always scrounging for money and troops.

Bloodaxes

Once you gain some ranks and go sieges and/or fight other factions you gain a lot of money.

From ransoms from having the lords as prisoners and selling loot from battles it's quite fast. If you still require money, selling prisoners or doing tournaments it's quite easy money.

That is if you're playing warband I don't know about the newer ones.

Sovrath

filmoret said:

I been playing and I cannot see this happening without cheating.  It would take literally 100 hours of gameplay to get a sizeable army of about 100 troops.  Then you would literally have to cheeze fight captures of castles.  I saw some guy do it on normal settings he just sat back and cheezed it with archers and crossbow snipes.  I think the game is 100x more fun when you cheat because otherwise you are always scrounging for money and troops.

Perhaps what the issue is, is that in order for you to enjoy it the way you want to you have to cheat. If you enjoyed the game with "patience" which is what Mouloxtos was suggesting, you wouldn't have to cheat.

In order to enjoy the game without cheating you might have to have a paradigm shift in your thinking.

Cleffy

Honestly, if you play defensively and are not afraid to tactically retreat you shouldn't need to cheat. You just have to remember, this mirrors realistic combat so using 40 bowman typically can take out 3~4 enemy troops each. Pikemen are nice to have in order to deal with mounted units. When you can get bigger armies, its good to have some horsemen to squish the weaker units quickly. Also you can make up for quantity with quality. People in shirts generally are 1 hittable verse those in full plate that are like tanks.

You can also typically clad yourself in so much armor that you are difficult to take out.

That and the AI isn't too smart.
Only real problems I had is having something like 80 troops, and a king with his generals walks through with 2000 troops.

Darkalloy

I keep cheats on myself. I don't tend to use then unless something goes wonky AkA using them like debug commands. Like getting stuck in a siege ladder and as a result blocking my troops from going up the ladder. All the while the enemy pounding away at my troops and not being able to retreat as I'm too close.

That or when I get a save file messed up and need to "remake" my character as close as I can get to the original.

Bloodaxes

Last time I used cheats on warband was to take those tournament throwing practise lances as for myself in the game.

So many lances and in single player you can level up quite easily once you master the combat to get more damage since they deal very little.

Aethaeryn

I never cheat and have not had too many issues it is just a slow progression.  The only way I have maybe cheated is by running around with a very small army competing in all tournaments to build up cash and 
combat skills.

Just stick close to towns and slowly build up your army.  stick near friendly troops etc.  Or cheat maybe

vadio123

if you cheat this  game you just waste wonderfull magic around this game or any game 
but give self start i guess is fine , like you want skips first 10 levels go on ... 

YashaX

I never cheat, and I enjoy the no save mode (I forget what its called now, but basically its a mode where you can't reload to try again if things go badly for you). 

I am not sure what you mean about fighting against 300 troops- just make a big army yourself, or a smaller army of fully upgraded heavy cavalry. 

filmoret said:

I been playing and I cannot see this happening without cheating.  It would take literally 100 hours of gameplay to get a sizeable army of about 100 troops.  Then you would literally have to cheeze fight captures of castles.  I saw some guy do it on normal settings he just sat back and cheezed it with archers and crossbow snipes.  I think the game is 100x more fun when you cheat because otherwise you are always scrounging for money and troops.

Raid and plunder villages then sell their stuff in city market. 100 troops doesn't take long to build up.

With castle sieges, its good if you can outfire them with archers (Rhodok crossbowmen are good) and have strong infantry (nords). For field battles Swadian heavy cavalry seems to decimate everything.

I am actually not very good at fighting myself in this game (and it hurts my wrist), I play it more like a real time strategy game and use my bow from horse back.

Deivos

Why would you need to cheat ant any point? Even if you're over your head in M&B you can technically cheese your way to victory in many battles against the AI by making them run into the border of the map and then club each one unconscious in a line.

The non-cheesy way would simply to be aware of the places you're traveling through, invest in some path-finding, tracking, and spotting early on so you can keep tab on what's near you and navigate around/away from the bigger threats, and work your way up the military/political ladder of some kingdom, building strength before striking out on your own, and/or using faction conflicts to your advantage as a neutral party for doing risky trades.

jaxome

So the game gets harder the longer you play, at the start you should be able to find bandits you can beat, you just need to grind the easy to kill ones who dont have guns for a bit, which is stupid easy cause you have a gun and a horse. After that you can start getting stuff and you will be surprised how quickly you can get up to speed and fight large battles. You have to live in the game for a long time before you get it though, from my experience at least. 

The problem with cheating is that your to strong to fast, the other nobles and bandits are not yet strong enough to fight back against you and it would make the game a walk through. That is just from my play style though, and some mods and crap let you start as a lord so you can get right to the fun stuff. Long story short I have been able to find mods/versions of the game that fits the play style I want when I play the game, so many mods and stuff for the game you can find ones with very different play styles and speed.

While I have never cheated I could easily understand why some players would and some people might need to in order to enjoy the game. Its like GTA in that regard in my brain lol sure you dont need to cheat to play the game if your playing seriously but it is nice to cheat and blow stuff up some times.

filmoret

My problem is I want to play a footsoldier.  He's in the middle of fighting using hand weapons.  I haven't found a good way to play this style without using cheats and playing the game on easiest settings.  The best way I found is send the troops in then rush in behind and hit some stuff hoping the archers don't mow me down first.  Playing a mercenary is the worse because you cannot controll where the army is going I find myself a lot of times hopping on a horse and running around to stay alive waiting for a next wave.  Playing on normal you die in like 4 hits there's literally no way to play a footsoldier/mele on  normal settings.  Which is why I guess a lot of players use the horse or play as an archer.

Kyleran

filmoret said:

My problem is I want to play a footsoldier.  He's in the middle of fighting using hand weapons.  I haven't found a good way to play this style without using cheats and playing the game on easiest settings.  The best way I found is send the troops in then rush in behind and hit some stuff hoping the archers don't mow me down first.  Playing a mercenary is the worse because you cannot controll where the army is going I find myself a lot of times hopping on a horse and running around to stay alive waiting for a next wave.  Playing on normal you die in like 4 hits there's literally no way to play a footsoldier/mele on  normal settings.  Which is why I guess a lot of players use the horse or play as an archer.

Mercs and foot soldiers, aren't those the troops usually sacrificed first in a battle?

I'm betting in most real wars Generals (those who lived long lives) rarely fought on the front lines, and when they did engage, horseback and chariots were the way to go. (along with a loyal guard to watch the boss's back)

But what's with this game? Posters talk here as if cheating is a menu built into the game, everyone seems to know all about it, even if they aren't doing it.

What sort of cheats are we talking about here since I have no idea?

Bloodaxes

Kyleran said:

filmoret said:

My problem is I want to play a footsoldier.  He's in the middle of fighting using hand weapons.  I haven't found a good way to play this style without using cheats and playing the game on easiest settings.  The best way I found is send the troops in then rush in behind and hit some stuff hoping the archers don't mow me down first.  Playing a mercenary is the worse because you cannot controll where the army is going I find myself a lot of times hopping on a horse and running around to stay alive waiting for a next wave.  Playing on normal you die in like 4 hits there's literally no way to play a footsoldier/mele on  normal settings.  Which is why I guess a lot of players use the horse or play as an archer.

Mercs and foot soldiers, aren't those the troops usually sacrificed first in a battle?

I'm betting in most real wars Generals (those who lived long lives) rarely fought on the front lines, and when they did engage, horseback and chariots were the way to go. (along with a loyal guard to watch the boss's back)

But what's with this game? Posters talk here as if cheating is a menu built into the game, everyone seems to know all about it, even if they aren't doing it.

What sort of cheats are we talking about here since I have no idea?

Money, gear and level ups most probably.

Ps filmoret, I also prefer being a footman and I didn't have that problem. Equip a horse so you can be mobile, tell your troops to not advance, footman move two times forward and shield up while staying together while the archers move apart of eachother and hold fire. Once you start seeing your enemies you tell your archers to fire at will and keep your footman on hold until they come closer.

Horseman die too easily because they are dumb and go in the middle of the enemy units. I don't use them apart of horse archers because they are super annoying.

Also equip a shield like huscarl which has one of the best coverage from the medium shields and upgarde the shield level as it increases the coverage your shield protects while also lasting longer.

EpicJohnson

Here is a hint to train your combat skills early game, go to nearest capital and go fight in the tourney yards.

EpicJohnson

Kyleran said:

filmoret said:

My problem is I want to play a footsoldier.  He's in the middle of fighting using hand weapons.  I haven't found a good way to play this style without using cheats and playing the game on easiest settings.  The best way I found is send the troops in then rush in behind and hit some stuff hoping the archers don't mow me down first.  Playing a mercenary is the worse because you cannot controll where the army is going I find myself a lot of times hopping on a horse and running around to stay alive waiting for a next wave.  Playing on normal you die in like 4 hits there's literally no way to play a footsoldier/mele on  normal settings.  Which is why I guess a lot of players use the horse or play as an archer.

Mercs and foot soldiers, aren't those the troops usually sacrificed first in a battle?

I'm betting in most real wars Generals (those who lived long lives) rarely fought on the front lines, and when they did engage, horseback and chariots were the way to go. (along with a loyal guard to watch the boss's back)

But what's with this game? Posters talk here as if cheating is a menu built into the game, everyone seems to know all about it, even if they aren't doing it.

What sort of cheats are we talking about here since I have no idea?

"ctrl x" on the character screen for exp, on the inventory page for cash. each hit of key is 1000 exp or 1000 gold.

At around level 60 it starts to take a day or so to gain one level, Using a macro to rapidly press ctrl x.

filmoret

Kyleran said:

filmoret said:

My problem is I want to play a footsoldier.  He's in the middle of fighting using hand weapons.  I haven't found a good way to play this style without using cheats and playing the game on easiest settings.  The best way I found is send the troops in then rush in behind and hit some stuff hoping the archers don't mow me down first.  Playing a mercenary is the worse because you cannot controll where the army is going I find myself a lot of times hopping on a horse and running around to stay alive waiting for a next wave.  Playing on normal you die in like 4 hits there's literally no way to play a footsoldier/mele on  normal settings.  Which is why I guess a lot of players use the horse or play as an archer.

Mercs and foot soldiers, aren't those the troops usually sacrificed first in a battle?

I'm betting in most real wars Generals (those who lived long lives) rarely fought on the front lines, and when they did engage, horseback and chariots were the way to go. (along with a loyal guard to watch the boss's back)

But what's with this game? Posters talk here as if cheating is a menu built into the game, everyone seems to know all about it, even if they aren't doing it.

What sort of cheats are we talking about here since I have no idea?

Game is built to be run on mods.  So you can enable cheats in the options.  I find the full experience myself from cheating myself because I don't have to grind and mess around for a few hundred hours before I start capturing castles and the sort.  The biggest flaw of this game is difficulty and stupid AI.  You can literally cheeze your way to victory by taking advantage of the AI.  If you have not tried this game I suggest watch a few videos and see if you like this style of combat then jump in its freakin awesome.  Buy M&B warband, viking for the medieval and anything else for the colonial era.

Nebless

Kyleran said:

But what's with this game? Posters talk here as if cheating is a menu built into the game, everyone seems to know all about it, even if they aren't doing it. What sort of cheats are we talking about here since I have no idea?

Yes it's built into the game options menu.  As for what you can do with it:

Increase your money, XP, see all the units on the map, teleport anywhere on the map, refill your health and auto kill enemies.  Just minor stuff like that.  

Cleffy

I usually also play multi player. You die a lot in multi player. You also learn to maximize the block mechanics.

Squishydew

On higher difficulties you just swap your role to commander rather then another member of the army, get a big shield and hide from arrows