IN-GAME TIPS EDITED V 1.4.5 tutorial

Starting as an Adventurer:

- ) First of all, you should start thinking about your future own faction since the first in-game day. It means that since the first day you should take care of gaining honour and rising relation with lords.

- to rise your honour, it is particularly effective the "save villages" missions . When you find a village infested by bandits, if you can defeat them, always do it (and refuse presents after that). Also to release captured lords may be good (above all if you don't own a town with dungeons where to close them, they are likely to run away).

- to rise the relationship points with a lord there are some tips that many newby players may not know. For example that lords have their own temper which influences their reactions to many things. There are righteous lords who have their relation set to 1/3 of your honour value up until you meet them. So if I meet a righteous lord for the first time when my honour is 3, I see his relation with me set on 1 point, if I meet him for the first time when my honour is 60, I will find he has already 20 relation point with me. The sense is: focus on few lords at the beginning of the game, asking quest and talking and chatting just to those, to leave other potential righteous lords to rise their relation with you as your honour grows up. Just to explain it, to have a relation over 20 let all the lords available to the option of talking with you in private to recruit them once you become ruler.

-) The levelling up of your companions and of yourself is very important. Here too you must remember that your goal is to rule the world (I hope you are ambitious folks), so choose the attributes you want to increase thinking about that. You are a general, a ruler in the future, so you can not waste all your points in strenght, power strike and similar. My suggestion is at the beginning to rise strength, agility and intelligence until reaching maybe 15,12,12. Pathfind must be the first thing to increase (I personally would not waste anything in riding and archery as in Sparta it is better to fight as a hoplite). Then concentrate yourself only on charisma until you reach at least 24 (it means 8 leadership which if you buy the nobles' ring from the merchant may be risen to 9). Leadership il very important not only for the party size bonus that it gives, but above all for the moral bonus it also gives. Once you are a ruler with a couple of major poleis, high renown and high leadership, you will reach easely 1000 party size. And it will be useful when you have your old faction against you. To keep that army you need two things: high morale and a lot of food. For the first thing, the main solution is Leadership. For food, it is important the new skill called foraging. It reduces the consume of food, it is linked to agility and it is a party skill. So I suggest to rise one of your companion focused only on agility, to make him reach very high level of foraging for when you rebel (8-9 level)

-) When you start the game you are weak, poor and miserable. Able to do nothing apart to be beaten by bandits... Isn't it true? Well, the first mistake I see people do in that situation is to go to villages, to recruit villagers and to try to fight bandits, losing 90% of the times. In my opinion the best option at the very beginning of the game is:

- if you don't want to enlist in a lord's army (and I agree because it is more hardcore this way), you should recruit the few men you can from the major poleis in the normal recruitment slot (let's say you can have 6-7 of them), then you may look for the grey Stratiotai (generic patrols) and help them to hunt bandits. just join them while they are fighting with good odds (in the battle you will control also their troops). If you see a smal bandit party running away from them, you can reach it, talk and let it go. This way it will stop for a moment making the patrol reach it faster. After a week there will be also factions' colored patrols and this thing will be even easier to do. At this point your goal should just be to reach 2000 money, which is what you need to go to a AOR polis and to recruit local soldiers. With these 20 well armoured hoplites you can start hunting small bandits by yourself. Collect money and recruit other hoplites in other AOR towns (since the refill rate is weekly). Once you reach 60-80 hoplites, you can start enjoying killing bandits, and also join a faction at war as mercenary (and it will end your economic struggle). During all this period I described, it is wise if you recruited also some base recruits who become ranged units. for example Delian league has good archers at level 2 (but you should check the troop trees in the report screen to choose what is better in the area where you play). Also remember how much money you can get if you win a tournament! About trading, you will see it very profitable buying in some places some things and selling them elsewhere (up to you to search and find what and where).

- if you want to enlist in a lord army, you should definitely choose the right lord. The best attribute a lord may have to enlist in is: to be of a faction at war, to own a major polis close to the action and not too faraway from the enemy (but not too close either) and the ideal would be if he is the marshal too. For example the lord of Tegea or Mantinea for the Saprtans or the lord of Maratona or Amphissa for Athenians. Once you are enlisted (freelancer mod) you should just care about the loot and the experience you get. In my opinion it is not worth to stay too long enlisted also because in the upgrading path you will not get the best armours of the game because they are mainly AOR hoplites reserved, and in the loots you should find something good soon. Let's say until you collect 10000 money for example or 3-4 weeks. Never desert and never rebel!

-) Once you are vassal and you have your own major polis, if you still plan to rule the world, here come some useful tips:

- increas as much you can the relation with the villages connected to your town (you can see them in the note menu), don't spend any effort\money on the villages the ruler gave you. That is because once you rebel, your fief and its villages will come with you.

- Litterally fill your major polis' garrison with Aor hoplites, archers, cretan archers, rhodian mercenaries and just with the high level troops that villages with good relation can provide (that is why you must reach the 99 relation with those). Before rebelling, it is wise to have collected something like 300.000, 400.000 money and a garrison in your major polis of at least 4000 men. (if you also have a castle, which is more difficult to defend, I don't think you should reinforce very much, because you are probably going to lose it. If your old faction comes to siege it or a newly conquered fief, sometimes it is better not to try to defend it (only your capital must be defended to the death, the rest it is easier to conquer again after). That is because enemy factions may gather huge armies in sieges, you could face even 6000-8000 men in a siege. Usually after they got their conquer they disband the army. The point for you must be to fight as many lords separately as you can, taking them always prisoners and letting them rot in the dungeons. Never accept the ransom (unless you like some lord very much.... I never capture Brasidas, I just can't.... he was so great!). You will lose a lot of honour, and this is another reason because you need to collect a lot of it during all your campaign. When I rebel, I usually have 100-200 honour to spend. If you rebelled to Sparta.... well, I suggest to take it to the extreme consequences because if you got to capture many lords of them, it would not be wise to accept a peace treaty, releasing all of them, to be at war with them again in 30 days. Don't go around with too many men, usually 500, 600 would let you run away if needed. Always keep well armoured units in your army (just 20 recruits to make ranged units of them if you want and at the bottom of your party list). Try to recruit as many lords as you can (also from the surrounding factions). Persuasion is a skill which must be at least at level 4 by now. If the lord is a righteous one you may choose the most righteous reply, for all the rest the promise of land is the best choice. Here I would say "Don't give fiefs to your companions" but I can understand that it may be too hard for many of you (even if it must be years by now that I don't give fiefs to my two companions in Warband). In my campaign I started as adventurer, I became a general of Athens, fighting a lot against Sparta, I rebelled and I begun the dominion of Megara. I accepted peace with Athens which was being defeated by Sparta and I was immediately attacked by Sparta (the superpower in the mod as in the History at that time), I recruited many vassals fighing so many battles, I took on my side many vassals of Sparta with their cities. Now Megara rules the Peloponnese and it is the super power of the mod.... once you are a superpower, nobody declares wars on you and you declare wars on who you want....ahhhh that is life!!!

Starting as a ruler:

-) this is a different situation. At the start you have a lot of money 10000 or 20000. Don't waste them in troops or other things apart some food. The first two weeks are of low or negative budget for your major polis and that money is there to pay that loss. The money you get from a major polis depends a lot on its prosperity (a lot means that with 100% prosperity, a normal major polis gives all over 20000-30000 money, depending also on the ongoing wars and if the poleis that city trade with is owned by the enemy or not).

- If you chose to be the ruler of a faction at peace, you should spend the first 3-4 weeks at least holding feasts, patrolling around your city with 80-90 men to make sure villagers and caravans dont' get attacked by bandits (every party of villagers or caravan which reaches the city will increase prosperity of a bit, every villager or caravan which get attacked, will decrease prosperity of a good deal). Also do your villages' elder quests and your guild master quests (sometimes you should also include other cities' guildmaster quests). The composition of the army you use to patrol should be mainly made of hoplites with some ranged units and if you want, a 10% of recruits that you should put down to the bottom in your party list.

- If you chose the ruler of a faction at war (Sparta or Athens), what said about the money at the beginning is still true, but instead of doing quests or giving feasts, you should wait a day or two, maybe hunting bandits and then assemble the army and ride enemy's villages (better to choose 2-3 villages of cities that you are not planning to conquer at least in the first part of the game, but also not too faraway from where your interest are, because you may need to defend your land. Keep looting those villages when restored, not to ruin relation with too many villages). This way you are raiding villages with all your army as bodyguards, plus you are giving time to faraway lords to reach you (and you are also making a good loot). Don't go to siege things at the moment. The best strategy is to destroy the enemy's army, hitting where the odds are good. Where to fight depends on if you have good ranged units, cavalry or infantry. The player with a good infantry and good archers may win huge battles with starting negative odds too (you can also reire from the battle when your archers ended the arrows... but it would be a bit like cheating). In any case these are my battle tips:

Battle tips:

-) A good composition of the army is the secret for a likely victory on the battlefield. It depends very much on which faction you are playing, because there are some units very good for some factions, which should be included in a massive way in your army. In general terms, Hoplites are the core of the army so around the 70% should be made by it. Recruit them mainly from The AOR poleis of your faction (to keep some immersion) 25% archers (there are good mercenary ranged units if your faction does not have strong ones) and 5% cavalry (it really depends on the faction you chose, anyway at least 15 units must be taken otherwise better not to take anything at all). Cavalry must be used to kill the ranged units after the two phalanxes started fighting, moving Cavalry on a side or on the back. It is also useful to chase defeated enemies (it was used like this in the reality at that time).

- in the camp menu you can choose an option about where to put the player in the formation. If you choose 1 (infantry), once you give the order to follow you to your infantry in phalanx formation, they will stay exactly at your left (in ancient Greece the first position in the right was the position of the commander) and they will keep in line with you. That means that if you turn your character to one direction, all the phalanx will turn keeping itself in line with you. Using this feature is of immense importance once the player wants to use some kind of tactics, as to try to expose the back of the enemy formation to the group of archers you previously deployed somewhere (the enemy phalanx will try to face your phalanx if it is close enough)... you could also attract the enemy formation in a sort of trap, with two formations of ranged units (you assigned to group 4 and 5 for example) on both flanks of enemy.... lots of possible scenarios. Just remember that at this point to watch around, you should keep pressed the “\“ command not to turn all the army. In ancient Greece, Cavalry was mainly used to attack light infantry and ranged units and to chase defeated enemies. This mod tries to reproduce that aspect, so cavalry is not like in other mods of warband.This mod is mainly Greek factions oriented and at that time greek generals were on foot with their men.
I strongly raccomend not to play on horseback unless you play as a Persian, Makedonian, Thracian or Thessalian (if you play as these factions' rulers, you will already get the horse and the riding skills for it on purpose).

- When you meet the enemy, choose the first option to fight ("start battle in formation"). This way your army will be placed already in formation on the battlefield. In the same screen where you see the movement choice (F2), you are able to customize how your army should be displayed in every battle (related to your position). For example, if you want the cavalry to stay 50 meters behind you, you should move the cavalry where you want and then press F7 in that screen, to memorize that position, and you can do it for all the 9 possible groups in which you can divide your army. If you give the “Follow me” order, to all the units, selecting them pressing 0 (zero) they will move with you keeping each group that position you gave and memorized. This order is very useful to get close to where the enemy is (it often takes a hill and waits in defensive formation)

- I always give some extra command at the beginning: 2 times the stand closer to infantry, 2 times the loose formation to archers and the mount command to cavalry not to let them dismount. Then I usually give to everybody (0 button) the hold fire order to save arrows and the follow me order, to get closer to the enemy. Then I move the cavalry to some place faraway on the right or on the left, out of the sight of the enemy. I keep advancing with my army (which follows in the way I had memorized, usually archers ahead in front of me). When I see the enemy at the slinger shooting distance, i place my archers (I usually divide them in 2-3 groups as slingers, archers and cretan archers) faraway on the sides of the enemy, but keeping them at the same distance of my infantry (if the enemy has a good cavalry, as the delian league, I keep them closer to me on both sides). As I advance with my phalnx, I move my ranged units more clearly on both sides of the enemy . They all are still holding fire and are being hit by enemy's archers. At this point a I strongly advance to face enemy's infantry, we get close, than I start going backward, always facing the enemy, without turning because the phalanx will keep in line with me and if I turn I can make a disaster. The enemy follows me facing my formation and I order everyone to open fire, trying to expose the enemy back as much as possible. I move the cavalry close to the enemies' archers whatching out not to make them cross the infantry formation. When they are close to reach the point I gave, I change that order in Charge!. They will deal with archers and with the enemy cavalry who is attacking my ranged units (only on one side!).

When the enemy's reinforcement comes, I just follow the enemy's infantry going to meet it, once my arrows start hitting on shields, I stop the fire and so on.

Once the moment to attack comes, when my archers finished their projectiles, I usually send them to the closest border of the map, using the backspace map, and then I give them the order to retreat. Once they totally disappeared in the backspace map, I give their groups the order to follow me (in case there are other archers in my future reinforcements).

The attack with my infantry is usually like this. They follow me on my left side (as it was in the ancient Greece) until we are quite close, than I press the hold button (f1) on the enemy formation. They will attack it keeping their phalanx formation. If we need to disengage the enemy, I give the follow me order and I move backward, trying to stay always on the right edge of my formation. When only enemies archers are left I give the charge order, and that is all.

EDITED SPARTA 1.4

With the new version horse archers cavalry and horsemen throwing javelins behave in a much more realistic way both for AI and for the player. When they charge, they go around the enemy ( if infantry) trying to hit the side not protected by the shield. Or they try to hit other cavalry. Once they ended ammunition the charge old way, but from every side, accomplishing the object of creating confusion among the enemy phalanx.

Using them agains mainly infantry factions is priceless (the custom troops tree can make the player recruit Hippodromai very easily).

The shock cavalry gets a new role in fighting ranged cavalry, so to have contingents of cavalry and ranged cavalry has become a possible good choice for the player, I suggest to put them in two different divisions.

Extra tips for sieges-freelancer:

The player has a big impact on the faction he supports. If the player is not that experienced, that impact may be negative, but it is still there.
For example, the decision of the player to join a siege, has the effect to make the same siege end immediately (in the siege battle he is going to play). If left to itself, the AI would have time enough to gather the army to interrupt the attack on the town and to break the siege. An ai major polis siege attack may last several in-game days. If the player join the fight, he should be aware of what he is doing. If the odds are negative or he is not sure about how the siege map will let him use his troops in the fight, maybe it is better for his supported faction that the player go to drink a beer in a tavern instead of messing up things.

The same concept works for freelancing: sometimes your lord join a fight with very negative odds. He is doing because he sees friendly allies nearby, but in the actual battle they can’t help. At this point the best choice for the player could be to seek a brave and fast death (even twice if he was full health) and to retreat from the battle. The goal should be to let the lord fight himself, with his remaining troops while the player “is too wounded to fight”. This way your lord may receive allies reinforces or even run away.
In the sieges it may be a similar situation, where you must let the ai have time to react and not to make your party lose the town straight away. So, while freelancer, sometimes the player is better to be wounded for awhile.

Siege battles on different map should be fought using different tactics. Here I just suggest some actions that may be used, but your tactic is up to you:
First, it is wise to have special corps of ranged units in a team number different from the usual 2. These ranged units should be not common troops in your faction’s troop tree as you should be the only one to have them. I personally prefer to assign team 4 to Cretan Archers and team 6 to Persian Archers.
Talking exclusively about defending a polis in a siege battle:
Sometimes a polis has too many ranged units. The few hoplites show themselves ineffective to stop enemies at their gathering point. In some situations like this one you must get rid of all these ranged units. If the totality of troops is yours, the best idea is not to fill towns and your army with ranged units, there should be a small amount of generic team 2 and also a small amount (20-30 for team) of your special corps ranged units.
If in any case you start a battle with too many team 2 ranged units, if you have time, because there is no real emergency in act, go around for your ranged troops selecting groups by “/“ (nearby troops) and order them to charge and to hold fire. They will go to die in melee battle. Prefer in this actions the ranged units not using a bow (as they are more effective in sieges).
If you see enemies breaking your infantry and you are in emergency, just select the whole team 2 and send them to die (charge and hold fire command).
The point for you is to place the special ranged corps 4 and 6 in the best position as they will be your archers. All the rest your infantry. Often while a mass of hoplite hold the enemy in a narrow space, your archers kill the enemy in a massive way.
Place your 4-6 corps as soon the battle start, sometimes you must first make them hold the fire so that they move fast. Fo example, in the port major polis, I act like this:
At the Battle Start, team 6 hold position in the place behind the vases. Team 4 hold your fire and follow me. Then I run to the building where you can reach the roof and usually at the end of the ladder, I give the order to hold position on the roof. Then I jump from the ladder letting the team 4 keeping climbing it. For that purpose they are still holding fire.
If I see enemies having reached the front line of my infantry, i give the charge command to the infantry. Meanwhile I am reaching my position, which is close to team 6. Running there if I find some archers during the way I select them by”/“ being careful not to pick up my special corps troops so be far away from them before pressing the nearby soldiers, and send them to melee fight (charge and hold fire).
Once I reached the vases with plants, if the team 4 has at least 4-5 men on the roof, I order them to open the fire. If my infantry has gone down in fighting, I call them back in the same point where the road has a descent.
To give the charge order to infantry and to cal them back when needed is very important in all the sieges!
If I notice there are too many ranged troops in my army and too few hoplites (I can check the battle map pressing backspace to see how many archers are spread in the battle) i clean up the table sending the whole team 2 to fight holding fire.

In this siege map I was able with 1500 men to fight 7000 Peloponnesian league enemies, for example.
But what the player does in the fight, apart from giving orders? Well, for sieges, I suggest you to use javelins. Before entering a siege battle, in my inventory I replace the xiphos (no needed because no breaking spears in siege battles) with two packs of javelins.
During siege battles you can go to hit a bit with your spear, but only if you know what you are doing, as the player must not die or everything will be lost.

EDITED SPARTA 1.4.5

With this new version, the player may fight siege battles as one of his men once he is wounded (if he has men in his party who are fighing the battle when he is knocked out and if he is not freelancing).

This way long siege battles are much more entertaining and he may risk more in the melee fighting. On the other side realism is decreased, but it is possible to disable that feature in the camp menu options.