I couldn't find any decent dark fantasy mods, but I heard that the game has a billion mods for it that are pretty great regardless.

Ooh, Warband is a great game, I've never been able to finish it because there's so many variations on how to run a character

If you like total conversion mods at all, I recommend Prophesy of Pendor, it's incredible, and really underlines how weak you're supposed to be at the start

I heard there is no ending, which is pretty cool - it's just a sandbox with stuff going on and your own narrative unfolding as the AI does its thing around you!

I'll check those out! So far I've been having a blast just playing the vanilla version I got.

Yeah Vanilla's fun too, I think I do have one mod that overhauls it but keeps it largely vanilla, just rebalancing some stuff. Khergits are somewhat shafted as they're terrible in seiges but since the 'point' of the game is you can mix and match it's not *really* a problem, but I do like to do thematic runs. With the flip side of this being the Rhodoks (Green bois) are also terribly weak overall until they start vomiting out Sergeants, which just wreck face in seiges on defence because crossbows fire slower and thus are still firing later in a seige when everyone's still on the ladder (and Sergeants don't just have polearms, removing Rhodok's crippling weakness of being absolutely out-damaged at dagger range by anything short of fists)

On a humorous note, you can save edit as the saves are held in notepad form iirc, and you can crank your Agility well beyond what's normally possible, allowing you to run faster than a horse, and because M&B uses velocity as a modifier, you can deliver bare-fisted punches that hit like a meteor and will OHKO knights in full plate. (Which is amusing as this doesn't work the same way with the Riding skill, horses seem to have a much lower sleep cap compared to just editing Agility to 600- you can do much more damage with your first than you can with a couched lance)

On a last note, there is a soft 'end'- it's really hard to reach, but because of how M&B handles bandit infestations and such, after a certain level (62 I believe it is) it jumps from having bandit infestations being ~1.2x the size of your character level, to having 2000+ to billions because of what I can only presume is overflowing values xD

That would explain some of the mods I've seen floating around if it's really that easy to mess with.

Thanks for the explanation though! I've played for a long time but I still feel like I haven't really learned the ins and outs of the game, what kingdoms produce what units, what to look out for, etc. It's all been a lot of fun learning it. The only thing that registers so far is that Nords seem to really suck, I don't even look at the number anymore when we fight, and Rhodoks should crossbow all day everyday if I've got any to upgrade.

The Nords are a little wonky, but their standout unit is Huscarls, which are un-fucking-paralelled for offensive seiging. Their archers, while nothing spectacular, can hold their own when attacked unlike pretty much every other archer, though.

Nords have the same weakness as Rhodok: basically no, if not literally no, cav to speak of, which is problematic especially with gently hilly terrain as lancers are the absolute bane of anything without a long pointy boi; but as mentioned they're best used for offensive infantry duty for seiges, and they do have the largest shields (Rhodok tower shields being narrower but taller) which goes a long way.
Nords: All about infantry, they're offensive but so so early on but turn into seige beasts lategame. Ironically they have some of the best archers, being able to fend off lesser non archer infantry is a boon. Absolutely zero cav beyond nobles, if even that.
Rhodok: As long as nothing gets past the spears, anti-cav as hell, and defensive as fucc. Cripplingly weak to anything inside spear blade range until your last infantry upgrade. Also lacks cav, and Sergeants still are somewhat vulnerable up close; not ideal on the attack for seiges but not the worst choice all the same. Tower shields don't work mounted (but will still function on your back, they're just at an angle which is why Huscarl shields tend to be better if you want to run dual shield or use a 2H on horseback)
Khergits: Excellent lancers, mounted bowmen, absolutely shite at everything else and quadruply shite in seiges
Swadians: Best heavy cav, cav fairs well dismounted, ironically lacking in spear units for anti-cav iirc, crossbowmen are meh
Vaegirs: Good light cav, heavy use of 2H means they do a lot of damage but conversely means their defense is terrible and they're hyper vulnerable to archers. On the plus side, they're cheap to field so good if you need a lot of bodies. (But having a front line of Rhodoks is best for absorbing archer fire because tower shields don't give a crap about arrows. Seriously go run around in a huge seige while holding one and having another on your back and unless you get absolutely blasted with javelins/throwing axes you'll come out looking like a fucking porcupine, I love them)

PoP is also a good mod because it makes crossbows a bit more relevant iirc, as in Vanilla I don't think the crossbow skill actually does diddily besides let you use seige crossbows, while in PoP it scales damage similar to bows, and there's more choices to be had (Vanilla crossbows being a low investment and easy to use ranged weapon to tack on to a character otherwise invested in cc, their only strategic use then being they shoot slower allowing them to keep firing for a longer period of time in a seige, and their higher shield damage, as opposed to bows which run out quick and are pretty shit defensively in a seige unless you're defending against vaegirs/khergits with few shields, they're really better for field battles in huge numbers and on the offensive for seiges, where they're mostly going to fire at shieldless archers so you want the higher RoF to let the AI fish for headshots (which is about all they can get given the ramparts. Being an archer is hazardous, I've eaten so many headshots it's not even funny)

But yeah it's a hella fun game for constantly tweaking your party, I just wish the command UI was much better, but hopefully Bannerlord fixes that (There is a radar screen UI you can use to order units but without an actual map it's really wonky, especially in hilly terrain where you really need an idea where hills are so you don't slow flanks to a crawl :( )

Both Nords and Rhodok have the disadvantage of slow party speeds due to infantry bloating really lowering your speed, with Nords being the second slowest (they have naturally high Athletics infantry which puts them faster than Rhodok infantry, who REALLY slow your down on the campaign map compared to other infantry.) Conversely, Khergit cav is good for bolstering campaign speed (and if you fight like me, keeping your lancers with you while throwing everyone else right at the front, barring the hilliest maps, you just long flank to the rear and demolish everything with lancers, so outside of thematic one-kingdom armies there's really no reason to not have these boys unless you're running around on foot and don't want to screw with trying to order them through the really, really bad UI, because otherwise they'll just rush head on into spears)

Wow! Thanks for all this info haha.

I've been trying to play smart, but the kind of character I have, I really don't have my company size any larger than 50. I suppose it's still kind of early and I don't have any ambitions besides trying to marry a lady and defend / improve this awful little village I was given. I usually have half Rhodok crossbowmen and half Sarranid mamelukes, and things work out alright most times.

Definitely eager to make a new character(s) and mess around with some other strategies with the info you have here.

I played with crossbows a little bit, but quickly ditched it for a two-handed weapon to use from horseback. Throwing axes are fun but seem like novelty items, or just for "style points" when you nail that last fleeing routed enemy.

Just got into the game a couple days ago but I've sunk an embarrassing amount of time into it. I heard about Bannerlord, and I'll definitely be keeping my eye on that! It's great to hear they made the army controlling aspects easier; I haven't even really bothered with it while playing Warband and I feel like an idiot for it. Everything I do is just sledgehammer force without much brain to it, haha. I think I've kept my horsemen from charging way ahead once or twice, but that was about it.

Throwing weapons are very hard to level, although once properly leveled, if you can hit things that aren't shields, they can absolutely wreck face! High ammo throwing weapons just tend to be weak (re: stones) and low ammo ones tend to be no more accurate and so it's difficult to get experience in. Even if you build your character from the start to be as good with throwing weapons as you can possibly be, it's rough going ;-; Best bet is to train them on foot (they take hideous mounted accuracy debuffs until trained well) against a few shieldless opponents unless you crank battle sizes down to small and bring along just a few guys to deal with shields/hold enemies up while you axe their shields apart and then fling an axe or javelin into their skull. There's something to be said of the damage a javelin on horseback can do however, though I do prefer to just go for couched lance damage (setting couching to manual mode is something I recommend, allows you to do couch even when going slower than optimal speeds, so you get some bonus in if you don't have the distance to accelerate and need to slap someone with some damage right away. First person REALLY helps me with couching accuracy, as does longer lances, although I personally like light lances both for their (I think) faster reset speeds, faster normal attack speeds (knight lances are uselessly slow) and they can be used as regular polearms (swinging) which knight lances cannot, meaning you don't necessarily need to bring along a sword when/if dismounted, and if you use a 2H normally, you can bring a 2H weapon, a throwing weapon, and still be able to have a lance for hoseback as well as a melee weapon with a shield if you need it (although it limits it to stab only when you have a shield actively equipped)

Lots of time a few days in? Sounds like a typical Warband experience!
All I really do for orders is either have infantry rush or stand in a line (some mods add in shield wall or other advanced stances, vanilla's AI are... lacking) and then flank with my cav, although trying to manage close in cav and lancers is annoying, at least with any sort of speed, so either I go with the lancer and have heavy cav wait and charge in after the lancers strike (and retreat) or I do the opposite- let the AI rush the lancers in and then take my heavy cav in alone (proximity is enough for them at that point)

And yeah, Leadership/Charisma values are critical if you want a larger party and it can really hold you back, especially if you acquire a castle with low values- even a party of 70 is a bit bad, because you need to garrison the castle and even 50 guys is low, and that leaves with you 20 trained guys needing to train up the other 50. Slow process- Training skill is another absolutely invaluable skill. No matter what sort of theme I'm going for I almost always get Training points as soon as I can (alongside First Aid and Surgery which are also core skills) because being able to eventually burn through the first rank or two in as little as a single night is a godsend. (Although there's always something to be said of flinging 50 meatshields to clog up elite units xD)

2H on horseback is very yes, you've all that momentum to make the heavier weapons hit hard, do mind the range numbers for weapons though, I'm sure you know that M&B simulates weapon sections (a polearm at knife range isn't going to do diddily, while getting a sword to hit at the extreme end will do the most damage) but it's important for hoseback that you actually have enough range to even hit the puny little footsloggers! I think reasonable ranges start at about 90ish, but 80s can work if you don't mind getting a little intimate and/or learning the swing (Tends to be the lower end of short swords and many blunt weapons, and blunt weapons KO instead of kill, which is great if you want to recruit prisoners (just mind the initial morale debuff and the fact that recruited prisoners have a high chance of deserting within 24h, but if they don't, they won't desert outside of normal circumstances thereafter, and anyone left after such a desertion will obey normal morale rules too)

http://mountandblade.wikia.com/wiki.....acter_creation
Should be up to date, I use this when planning out new characters, especially when I was trying out each weapon type to get a feel for them

Thanks for all the tips! I really appreciate it. I really should experiment more with the different weapons. Going into it, I didn't expect horseback to be such a crucial aspect to the game, so I figured I'd go for spears / glaives / bardiches like I always do - only to find that I don't really like how they handle during horseback. I found some kind of shortened bardiche I can swing with and not just thrust, and that's been serving me pretty well. Again, I never get into gigantic fights, not yet anyway, probably will end up making a new character for that with more ambition!

Keep in mind you can control the max battle size in the options, and I'm not sure what the default value is (only that the upper limit is a bit low once you really get into it, although getting mobbed by more than a few people while alone is basically guaranteed death)

Long polearms can be really fun as long as you can control the range, which is tricky because the thrust-only ones really only do good at max range and then drop off immediately. I think there's some uber long pikes in vanilla, not sure, but I know I've had fun poking people held up by my warband or allied units with 'em (but some disallow shields, and I'm awful at blocking without a shield XD)

Puncture IS the most flexible damage type after all, it's just tricky to get the most out of high puncture damage weapons but the rewards are nice (okay maybe spiked morningstars exist, but that's easy mode)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3AC0t5rE9A

YES

Thank you so much for this

You're welcome, it's rare such a good shitpost is relevant

the DBZ teleport sound always gets me, but the YOOOoooo really knocked it out of the park haha

I never knew what that sound effect was from but it's so common.

That guy actually made more videos of 1000 stat man:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBISe5sFkwI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm0CmX6pseQ

the Paper Planes part was so relatable, but both of these were also true gems through-and-through

My first ever DnD character was a half-orc who, like your character was incapable of talking like he didn't have a mouthful of tusk, because obviously he did.