Brytenwalda Guide for Warband.

Brytenwalda Campaign Progression

Rightly or wrongly, I'm going to divide Brytenwalda's campaign progression up into distinct phases. These phases simply pertain to how I approach my campaigns; Brytenwalda can be played in many ways and there is no correct way to play Warband in general. Play as a Bard if you're a wuss; no one is going to call you names. Please note that I always refuse to enter into the vassal phase; I'm uninterested in doing another King's dirty work.

Thus, the four phases are:

• Scavenger phase [1.1]
• Warlord phase [1.2]
• Kingdom-founding phase [1.3]
• Conqueror or Unifier of Britannia

This is the classic "Conan" approach to Warband: begin as lone-wolf rogue, become warlord and then become warrior-King or -Queen.

In order to get in the mood, we listen to this medieval composition (begin at 1:00):

Never gets old.

[1.1]

Scavenger

This phase is about getting on our feet before we get a new asshole ripped for us. It's the hardest phase for new players because we are poor, of low level and control a weak Company.

• Initial Phase. The first thing to do is recruit 10 or so combat units from the villages. Any will do; beggars can't be choosers. Once we have them, we can start hunting the weaker roaming bandit mobs such as Theows. Loot their corpses and sell off the captured to Ransom Brokers which can be randomly found in town mead halls. Build wealth to about 10,000 scills and start looking for Heroes to recruit, also randomly found in town mead halls. Maintain an army of 20. If you can solo battles, go for it. The Renown will grow faster and so will your build.

• Scotland. Get your ass to the Scottish Highlands once Theows get boring. Why? It's just so much easier to train up there without dena and frankish raiders hot on your heels and mad as hell. There are Unrights Gangs and Bands of Murderers and Robbers (Morths) to skirmish with instead, which are much easier to take out while being a big step up from Theows. Find their lairs, stalk their surroundings and build wealth to about 50,000 scills. Maintain an elite army of 30 or so. By elite, I'm talking about top-tier mercs and veteran infantry of any kind. Or denas/franks. Anything tanky, damaging and athletic.

Build fame in the form of Renown and Reputation/Honor. Gather your Hero Company, and venture forth...

Stay light, stay solid and stay mobile.
Do not destroy bandit lairs or landings. Such strongholds will respawn, but it takes ages. Let those bandit forces get big and nasty. Once they're ripe, bulldoze them to reap massive experience point, renown and material rewards.

[1.2]

Warlord

The second phase is the Warlord phase. In this phase, we have built up considerable strength and have many options available to us. We're heavy hitters, we're at the top of our game, and the world is our oyster.

Onuist, the Pict Hero, should be A DESTROYER by now with 30 Strength. Per battle, he should be able to murder 20 denas by himself wielding the My Wife heavy two handed axe:

The Warlord phase is the best phase for those who like roaming about, murdering massive mobs. We are not burdened by politics or Kingdom management. We're strong, we're scary and we're a threat to the established factions. Which is why some factions may solicit our services. Refuse to get onboard with them as a vassal.

We can get to this point in about a month.

Head back to south and southeast England (East Engla/Cantaware) and start taking out dena and frankish raiders with heavy two handed axes. Capture them and then recruit them. You want an army of these. Head on over to southern Ireland and take out Scoti and Outlaws when the dena/franks dry up. Then head back when they've remobilized. Do laps, rinse repeat. This is all about wealth accumulation, itemization up-tiering and power progression. Look for Lordly items.

Heroes will power-level at this point if we've equipped them properly for damage + staying power on the battlefield. Focus-build them. Generalists suck.

Build a wagon, build a lair, and recruit a few Mercenary Captains if you find them; they are your "Lords" for now. Free the prisoners as you slay denas/franks and garrison your lair with them or give them to your merc captains. Recruit Caravan Masters for +Trade.

The wagon:

Note that the wagon loots everything it can after the battle. I suggest just taking the first few expensive items and letting it take the rest. Then have it go and sell the garbage off.

Safe: Get the wagon full of garbage to a town -- right next to it. Assign a TRADER Hero (e.g, Aleifr) to oversee the wagon. Assign the wagon to trade with the town. Send the wagon on a trade run. It will sell off its garbage at that town and return to the Company.

• Warlord Lair. Lairs are basically makeshift castles which lack the defense of castles. There are no disadvantages to having a lair other than the initial 20,000 scill outlay.

The advantages of building a lair are as follows:

◦ Garrisoning. Lairs allows us to store our troops and prisoners. It is very convenient to be able to recompose our Company at any time, depending on which force we are fighting and which troops we want to train.

Companions/Heroes cannot be garrisoned. The game recomends not to garrison enemy Lords, as it's too easy for them to escape.

◦ Staff. We can hire staff for our lair:

All staff dwell in the Hall.

Hores can lift the morale of soldiers. We must choose between Pagan (Woden) priests or Christian Clerics. Donations can be given to either for a morale boost. I can see no other effects.

◦ Storage. Items may be stored in the chest, which is handy.

Note that lairs are maintained after Kingdom-founding. They can also be relocated at any time though it's going to cost another 20,000 scills.

• Salinae. Note the Salinae location in the map screencapped above. That is a salt mine. We can put our prisoners to work in there and station guards to watch over them as well, making sure they don't escape. However, I haven't been able to make it worth it. Also, it impacts morale and reputation. Overall, this mechanic seems like a useless distraction. Avoid.

[1.3]

Kingdom-Founding

It's wise to be famous before attacking a faction:

Recruits should be flocking to our banner and we don't even have one yet, begging to join our army. With high Honor, even nobles will seek us out. Bards will be writing songs about us. Some may seek to spread lies about us, too, but when we demand a duel to the death to defend our honor, they will flee: the one with the might is right.

In striving for Kingdom-founding, I like to go for massive impact. First, my 50 elites take out 600-strong Lord-headed armies, which is badass (I never burn villages or attack farmers and caravans; that is cowardly).

Then, I scope out the factions looking for weaknesses in castles and towns.

This culminates in:

• Siege Warfare. In Native Warband, we can besiege castles and towns with ease. I once took out an entire Native faction with one force of 50 Slaver Chiefs within a week. In Brytenwalda, sieges are expensive, multi-phased and drawn-out, with many variables at work. Casualties are imminent. Nearby villages may attack, siege equipment may get burned down, the plague may spread in our ranks and the enemy may stealthily attack our siege-camp in short but damaging bursts.

Planning a siege:

Preparing an assault:

The assault:

Hero performance/killcount:

Ciniod and Onuist are my big, tall, painted-face Pict-warriors. They wield heavy two handed axes, and are basically dena pirates on steroids.

The siege was... exhilarating. Better than any other siege I've gone through in Warband.

• Kingdom-founding. As in Native, once the initial castle or town has been successfully besieged, we may found our own Kingdom.

I took the town of Linnuis of the Lindisware Kingdom, which was on its last legs. Still, I had to take out 1,000 men to conquer it (this includes the King's 600-strong army on the battlefield), and that was an arduous, expensive affair.

Minister is appointed (must be a Hero):

Constable is appointed:

(Can recruit new troops and have troops trained not only in our town, but also in our lair.)

Chancellor is appointed:

Chamberlain is appointed:

And then a Banner is chosen:

(Builds of noble birth will already have a banner).

Domestic policy is tailored (or left until later):

Locations encompassed by the Kingdom, along with foreign relations:

I trimmed out foreign relations. It's basically just a long list of who we're at war and not at war with.

My Great Hall in Linnuis:

My crown:

Location of my first town, along with its villages:

You can see that Lindisware Kingdom still holds one castle (in green): Hyrne Ceaster. Since it was only lightly garrisoned, I decided to take it for myself as well, thereby eliminating Lindisware completely.

Linnuis was besieged three times almost immediately after taking it; first, by butthurt Lords of Lindisware; then, by allies of Lindisware (Pengwern):

Such impudence! I took my Heroes and elites out onto the field and owned them. These forces were only 150-strong; half-assed attempts, anyway.

Post-siege of the castle of Hyrne Ceaster, there was also a reprisal from those two factions, though it was much weaker.

The immediate object now is to protect the villages from butthurt Lords who will try to burn and pillage them. This is the cheap way Warband AI attempts to ruin our economy. They just go around burning down villages and killing peasants because they don't have the spine to face us en masse, whether that be on the battlefield or in our strongholds.

We can also sort of "buy" the villages' goodwill in a few ways, thereby increasing their productivity. Ditto for towns.

In towns, we can also shout everyone drinks at the mead hall, thereby increasing the towns disposition toward us.

It is best to take towns rather than castles as towns are more lucrative than castles in terms of return. However, since some castles possess excellent defense, they can be strategically important as well.

Another good way to make scills is selling back captured Lords:

cf. biggest buyback when I conquered Calradia:

Rents for the first week after taking Linnuis from Lindisware:

Through generosity (donations, quests), I've made the villages (both Pagan and Christian) cooperative. As a Christian, I have not yet begun converting the heathens. To do that, we can build a Christian monastery in the villages and towns.

Here is what I can build for my town:

Landlords and moneylenders in town:

Here is what I can build for my castle:

And here is what I can build for my villages:

More to come on this big subject. Including Conqueror phase. This is by far the longest phase, possibly taking several game-years and months of playtime.

Massive factional army encountered on the Brytenwalda overworld:

Next up: Defending a village!

Back to: Brytenwalda Guide (Part I) --- Warband Best Mods (Index) --- cRPG Blog (Master Index).