Swordmaster wiped my company

[icemelon]

Hi there!!!

Since the things were getting worse, I attacked another mercenary company, you know, more contracts for me, and a nice loot from their corpses… All went well. 12 of my men, vs 10 of theirs. My soldiers were doing good, till the point that I had my 12 men, vs the swordmaster and two marksman.

OMFG!!! From where did that swordmaster come??? I missed every and each one of my arrows and bolts. Well, I said, I’ll do better on close combat. But again, this son of a thousand dogs just flew throug my forces, undamaged, killing everyone in my frontline. After that, my second line feared in panic and run away.

So, the angel of death visited me, and killed 9 of my men. Alone. What kind of John Wick was he?

Is that normal?

[le_souriceau]

Sometimes this mercs groups will have 2 swordmasters at once (+1 hedge knight and several snipers with overall size 20+). Balancing is completly unfair nowdays. But I hope this is some kind of beta problems and will be redone in final game (as promised).

[Kuroi_Kaze]

Yep, it’s normal, Hedge Knight from mercenary company also slaughtered 9 of my brothers. On day 60, as I remember =D

[icemelon]

Well, I see it’s not only a problem of mine. Thanks guys for answering :D

[Mike]

I agree that end-game human teams can be a major pain. That being said I may be able to help a bit by sharing a build & tactic that I’ve found works really well against mercs & noble forces.

(TLDR concerning swordmasters: slow them down with dogs, nets & spearwall, eliminate other enemies, surround SM with shieldwalled tanks and hack them to pieces with 2-handers from 2nd line. Swords don’t fare well against dedicated defensive bros if you play smart)

Three basic parts of the method: defensive play, ranged combat superiority & patience. “Zeroth rule” is a well-equipped and leveled team (reasonably high fatigue number obligatory), but you know that already.

The team: 6 front line “tanks” (heavy armor, shields, defensive perks), 3 rangers (War Bows & Longaxes, Bow Mastery, Crippling Strikes & Fearsome obligatory) 1 sergeant (Crossbow & Longaxe, Rally to keep everyone at Confident), 2 flankers (clad in heaviest armor, using Crossbows & 2-handers).

The tactic is quite simple: as soon as the battle starts you fall back to an advantageous position (preferably high ground, if you are heavily outnumbered go as far as the edge of the map to prevent encirclement) and stay there (shieldwall up to prevent losses from enemy fire), letting the enemy come to you and keeping them at distance (spearwall) while eliminating targets of priority with heavy volume of bolts & arrows. You only engage in melee when you’ve got numbers and morale (the sergeant keeps Confident up at all times) at your side.

First order of business: enemy rangers. With Bow Mastery (and hopefully high ground) you are guaranteed to outrange them. Thanks to your tactical retreat they most likely broke formation and are no longer hidden behind a tight wall of shields. As soon as those are dead your second line is safe and you can drop shieldwall on your tanks.

Next are 2-handers who are easy pickings without shields while posing considerable threat. Enemy standard bearer is a priority to start breaking morale. Crossbows come extra handy here, especially goblin Impalers (to further disrupt enemy formation). If you have some expendable dogs they are a great distraction, I’ve had one mutt dodge 6 blows in a row and taking 2 more before dying, which bought me enough time to nail 2 enemies.

Now you’re down to toughest nuts, enemy “tanks”. I like to keep my spearwall up and bash away those that get through while peppering them with missiles (remember to give your archers extra quivers). Keep some nets & javelins in your bags to add that extra “ye mother is a wench” to the mix. If they’re not escaping yet they’re bound to break soon (remember you have Fearsome on your rangers) at which point you can literally just let the dogs loose at them and break out the popco… I mean meat jerky.

There it is. Not foolproof of course (bolts to the head happen), but if you have enough armor to weather a rare blow and fatigue to keep the defenses up you’re going to be OK, mostly by virtue of enemy not being able to overwhelm you with numbers. Hope it helps!

[icemelon]

Thanks Mike!!! I really apreciate your post mate. Very well explained, and in detail. Don’t have words to say thank ya! :D

I never, NEVER used nets, I thought were useless. Now I look at them with other eyes.

[Namespace]

Swordmasters are crazy strong in enemy hands, once again though in player hands not that great. You see an enemy swordmaster surrounded by 6 guys annihilate them. Don’t make the mistake and try that yourself :P.
Edit: I’m talking about the background here. Duelists can be very strong but Swordmasters get old and then you can pretty much just throw them away.

As for tactics/strategies: Nets and polearms will save the day. If you have a guy with really high melee defense, engage him with shieldwall. If you can spare a second guy he should be forced to use riposte which brings him down to one attack per round and should give you enough time to deal with the rest before you focus him down with poles. Don’t waste your time and fatigue trying to kill him when he is not surrounded and/or caught in a net.
#1 rule is to ignore him when he does riposte, just put shieldwall up and wait your turn.

Generally, nets are great. Catch a hedge knight and dagger him. Throw it on a bandit leader and his overwhelm is disabled (and they get easier to overwhelm). They can also be used to keep the enemy from running (if fleeing) to give you more time to surround them and dagger their armor.
Or simply to have the enemy waste their AP to break free – e.g. enemy hedge knight with named 2h-axe that can probably oneshot most of your guys with a lucky headshot.
Also heard they work well against goblins. I’m not sure if they can be used against orc warriors and warlords.

[Author]

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