Mount & Blade: Warband: FAQ

|                              Table of Contents                             |

move around in this FAQ. Include the leading zeroes to narrow Find results. If
a section code has a trailing letter, include that. Trailing letters only mean
the section was added after the numbering system was finalized.

B. Mount & Blade: Warband mechanics....................................(00003)
	  b. Attributes, Skills, & Proficiencies.......................(00006)
	  e. Your Character - Renown, Honour, and other Abstractions...(00009)
	  b. Training, Experience, & Promotion.........................(00012)
	  c. Maintenance, Morale, and other Numbers....................(00013)
	  b. Damage & Other Important Calculations.....................(00016)
	  c. Starting & Finishing Battles..............................(00017)
	  a. Benefits of a Spouse......................................(00019)
	  b. Finding and Attracting a Potential Spouse.................(00020)
	  d. Claimants and Rebellions..................................(0033a)
	  d. Pillaging, Prisoners, and Combat..........................(00047)

|                             Before We Begin                        (00001) |

   -------o--------\                       Introduction                      |
Welcome to my FAQ for Mount & Blade: Warband, and thank you for reading it.

Before we begin, it would be best if I explained how I'm going to do things

* When the FAQ mentions "you", that means, well, you. As in the person reading
this document. Should be obvious, but clarity is important.

* "This FAQ", "the FAQ", "this document", and "the document" all refer to the
collection of words you are currently reading. Again, should be obvious.

* I expect you to know the basics of the game: How to move, how to navigate
menus, how to interact with party members, buy/sell items, and so on. If you
have not played the game before, do the tutorial. It will show you the basics
you need to understand to use this FAQ.

* The letters "MBW" will be short for Mount & Blade Warband, as will "this
game" or "the game". "M&B: Warband" and "M&B:W" will also be short for
Mount & Blade: Warband.

* Likewise, PC will stand for Player Character, or the person you, the player,
directly control. NPC will stand for Non-Player Character, meaning other
people with names and faces that you do NOT control.

* In general, when a term is followed by a short sequence of letters in
parentheses, that will be the abbreviation for that term going forward. For
example: " Strength (Str), Agility (Agi) " - Strength is specified to be
abbreviated 'Str' in this case, and Agility is abbreviated Agi.

* None of these are absolute rules, mainly because I'm only human and thus I
make mistakes.

|                    Mount & Blade: Warband mechanics                (00003) |

    [MBW] Basics (00005)
Each and every character in MBW has his/her own attributes, skills, and
proficiencies. Combined, these numbers reflect a character's abilities to
accomplish tasks in the world of MBW (combat is also heavily impacted by one's
equipment, though). There's also the important derived value of Hit Points
(HP), which is equal to 35 + S + 2I, where S = Strength attribute and
I = Iron Flesh skill. A character with 0 HP is killed or knocked unconscious.
Lords, your character, and heroes are always knocked unconscious instead of
being killed.

Related to all these things is Experience and Level. Like in most RPGs, the
characters of MBW have experience points and levels. Once a character reaches
certain experience thresholds, they advance in level. Each level grants an
additional attribute point, an additional skill point, and some additional
proficiency points.

This section will contain an explanation of the various things you can do with
your character, in addition to some basic advice as to how each thing is 
valuable to you. The game contains explicit explanations of how each skill
impacts your character at the character screen.

Since listing stats for all the soldiers and heroes isn't really feasible due
to GameFAQs's format requirements, I've put together a Google Documents
spreadsheet containing most of the recruitable soldiers and all of the
recruitable heroes. It can be found at the following link:

You will need to be careful when copying it, as the link itself is too long
for GameFAQs format requirements, as was thus broken up into two lines. I will
be copying this link to relevant sections for ease of access, but the only
explanation of how to read it will be here:

Spreadsheet reading guide

To save space, the spreadsheets makes use of many abbreviations.

*Faction units do not have their faction name as a prefix. They are listed
under a heading of their faction name in bold, however. So a Nord Archer is
listed as "Archer" under the bolded "Nords" heading.

*As stated before, Strength is Str, Agility is Agi, Intelligence is Int, and
Charisma is Cha.

*I. Flesh is Iron Flesh; PS is Power Strike; PT is Power Throw; PD is Power 
Draw; WM is Weapon Master; Sh is Shield; Ath is Athletics; Rdg is Riding; HAr
is Horse Archery; Loot is Looting; Trk is Tracking; Tac is Tactics; Wound is
Wound Treatment; Surg is Surgery; and Eng is Engineering. The rest are either
spelled out or should be obvious.

*The number-letter prefixes in parentheses, such as (3A), indicate the unit's
position on the promotion tree. Numbers indicate the level, and letters
indicate the branch. Let Swadia's unit tree serve as an example:

	                        (1) Recruit
	                        (2) Militia
	                             /    \
	              (3A) Skirmisher   (3B)Footman------------------------------\
					        |            |                   |
				  (4A) Crossbowman  (4C)Infantry     (4D)Man At Arms
                            |            |                   |
	              (5A) Sharpshooter (5C)Sergeant     (5D)  Knight
So, without a letter, promotion is linear. A branching uses the next two
available letters. Linear promotion after branching maintains the same letter
as the previous level.

*Vet. is short for Veteran; Tr. is short for trained; HA is Horse Archer; d
is short for denars.

    [MBW] Attributes, Skills, & Proficiencies (00006)
Attributes reflect a character's basic physical and mental aptitudes. 
Attributes consist of Strength (Str), Agility (Agi), Intelligence(Int), and 
Charisma (Cha). Each attribute "governs" a set of skills - a skill can not 
rise above 1/3 (one third) of the total of the attribute that governs it 
(this resitriction only applies to your characters and heroes that he/she

Skills reflect the ability to complete a specialized task, such as following
tracks left by other parties, using bows, trading, and so on.

Proficiencies reflect the ability to use a certain type of weapon - one
handed weapons (small swords, small axes, small hammers), two handed weapons
(mauls, greatswords, heavy axes), polearms (spears, lances), crossbows,
draw bows (bows with strings, such as the longbow), and throwing weapons.
Attribute bonuses are explained below, and improving a skill obviously makes
a character better at it (the game provides explicit explanations for most
skills, so there's little need to repeat them ehre). Increasing proficiencies
provides greater ability to use a weapon. While I'm not entirely certain,
higher procifiencies seem to mostly be related to higher weapon speeds. I
also know without doubt that higher proficiencies for missile weapons do
lead to improved precision (that is, if you take the same shot multiple
times, there will be less spread amongst your shots - it's up to you to
properly aim your shots, however).

Strength governs Iron Flesh, Power Strike, Power Throw, and Power Draw. 
Each point of Strength also grants a character an additional Hit Point. 
Strength directly governs the ability to use heavy armor, crossbows, and 
melee weapons. Each of these will explicitly state exactly how much Str 
is needed to use it. Some lighter armor and weapons will not have any Str
requirement. Since Str governs Power Throw and Power Draw, it also 
indirectly governs what throwing weapons and hand-drawn bows (not crossbows)
a character can use. Each of these items will also explicitly state how much
Power Draw/Throw is necessary to use it. All bows require at least 1 Power
Draw, but some throwing weapons have no requirement.

A character with high strength will be allowed to do more damage, wear
better armor, use better weapons, will have more HP, and can get even more HP
by investing in the Iron Flesh skill. Thus, you will want your character to
have decent Str, as in addition to leading your army, you will almost
certainly be its most experienced and best equipped soldier. Your army will
also automatically lose any battle in which you are knocked out, so don't
neglect Str. The Power skills each impact a different weapon type (Strike for
all melee weapons, Draw for bows, Throw for thrown weapons; crossbows derive
their power from mechanically stored tension and thus have no corresponding
skill), and it's very difficult to specialize in more than one. However, you
should generously pour points into the weapon type you do use, as the Power
skills can give tremendous damage bonuses when developed (80-140%, depending
upon weapon type).

Agility governs Weapon Master, Shield, Athletics, Riding, Horse Archery, and
Looting. Each point of Agility also grants a character another five weapon
proficiency points to spend.

A character with high agility will generally increase their weapon proficiency
ratings more easily, with investment in Weapon Master. However, the best skill
that Agility governs is Shield. Shields are great for defense, and higher
Shield skill improves everything about a shield - coverage, speed, and its
durability. If you intend to ride a horse, which you should, you will want at
least 12 Agility, so you can ride a Charger, which is the best horse for direct
combat. The fastest horse, the Courser, only requires 2 Riding, but more Riging
skill also means you move more quickly on horseback, so at least 4 Riding will
be useful anyway. Your Athletics needs will depend upon your playstyle. Even
mounted characters will still be on foot during sieges, so Athletics can be
useful for exposing yourself to fewer missile attacks, but your skill points
are likely better spent elsewhere. If your character is going to be on foot,
then you'll get a lot of value from Athletics. As stated, Weapon Master allows
you to put more proficiency points into your weapon proficiencies. However,
you can also increase your proficiencies by using the related weapon, so it's
a bit of a waste of skill points to increase Weapon Master. If you plan on
doing any horse archery, you'll need to pour points into the related skill.
Otherwise, don't put any in. Looting is somewhat useful, but don't waste your
personal character's points on it - leave that to your Hero characters.

Intelligence governs Trainer, Tracking, Tactics, Pathfinding, Spotting, Wound
Treatment, Surgery, First Aid, Engineering, Inventory Management, and 
Persuasion. Each point also gives a character an extra skill point, 
which is fortunate because Int governs many important skills.

These skills all have their uses, but only Persuasion and Inventory Management
are Leader skills  (meaning the game will only use your skill in it for the
relevant checks). Trainer is very useful, and every party should have someone
with high Trainer skill, as it will result in your soldiers more rapidly
advancing in rank, making your army inherently more effective. Tracking is
useful for several different quests, as well as during warfare in general.
Tactics changes a parameter for battle called battle advantage, which seems
to impact morale, but might also or instead impact each side's skill at arms.
Pathfinding increases your party's speed on the map, and you should have a 
hero who focuses heavily on maximizing it. Wound Treatment, Surgery, and 
First Aid will all keep your army healthy, which is essential. You will want
one character who specializes in these three skills to act as party doctor,
and another person who puts some skill into them to act as a backup doctor
when the primary one is injured. Each skill point in Engineering will make
your siege engines build more quickly (I believe it's 1 hour less per point
for ladders and 6 hours less per point for siege towers), which will give
enemy forces less time to send relief units to the site of your siege, making
Engineering a very valuable skill to have. Persuasion is most useful for a
character who is trying to recruit lords to their cause - be it your own
kingdom or the cause of the Claimant you support. Inventory Management lets
your party carry more items, which boils down to letting you claim more loot
while holding your food supplies stable, allowing you to earn more money from
battles/pillaging. Lesser benefits include being able to carry alternate
equipment and being able to transport more goods for sale.

Intelligence governs too many vital skills for one or even three characters
to handle. So, you'll likely want pretty much every hero in your party to
focus on at least one Int-governed skill. Some characters start with decent
(3-4) values in certain skills, and thus make great specialists for those

Charisma governs Prisoner Management, Leadership, and Trade. Each point of
Cha also increases your maximum party size by one. Leadership and Prisoner
Management are both Leader skills.

Prisoner Management allows you take five more prisoners per point (at 0
skill, you can not take any prisoners). Taking prisoners is useful for some
quests, and is also a pretty good way to add income to your fights - and if
you can capture a lord attached to a faction, you can make anywhere from
1,000 to 4,000 denars by selling them back to their faction (Kings will
typically yield 6,500 to 10,000 denars, but are difficult to capture). You
will want at least 1 skill point in Prisoner Management to facilitate quests
and ransom. Leadership is the most important skill in the game for anyone
looking to build an army. Each point increases max party size by 5, increases
party morale (which boosts map movement speed as well), and lowers wages paid
to troops. These are three very useful effects, and you will want to get them
many times over as you advance in level. Trade reduces the "trade penalty,"
which allows you to pay less for items and sell them for more. It's waste of
skill points to increase your own Trade skill. If you want to pay less/sell
for more, get a hero to boost their Trade skill. Since Trade is governed by
Charisma, however, it will be difficult to raise it very high without giving
up more useful attributes and skills, so it's best to just find a hero with
high Trade skill and dedicate them to it - or even just rely on their starting
Trade skill.

As mentioned earlier, some skills are personal, some are party, and some are
leader. Personal skills are related to each character individually, and each
character must raise their own personal skills to benefit from them. Party
skills use the highest value held by any conscious (<33% HP) hero or by the
PC (regardless of HP). Also note that the PC's skill in a party skill will
provide a bonus to any party skill if the PC has ranks in that skill. 

This is a largely meaningless thing, since you won't want to waste your PC's
precious skill points on small, inefficient bonuses. However, a single skill
point will provide a +1 bonus, which is the only level at which this feature
is remotely useful. I'd ignore it entirely, though.

	[MBW] NPCs (00007)
There are several kinds of NPCs: Kings, who each lead a faction (some have 
other names like Sultan, but are functionally equivalent); Claimants, who each
want to lead a faction; Ladies, who are sisters/daughters/mothers/wives to
lords; Lords, who directly manage parts of a kingdom; Towns, which do many
things; and villages, which provide recruits and sell some supplies. Info on
all of these things can be found in Notes tab from the main screen. When you
visit a town/village, you can see its relation with you. When you speak to a
person, you can mouse over their portrait to see your relation with them.

Strong relations with kings and lords will result in them giving you more
quests, and more important ones, and make them more open to romance with a
female PC. Positive relations with ladies will open up the option to use the
lady to influence lords in their faction. However, this is expensive and does
not provide serious changes to relations - helping a lord by accomplishing a
quest he gives you is far more useful. Male PCs will be able to dedicate
tournament victories to ladies and discuss poetry with them to bump their
relations into marriage range.

Claimants are a special type of NPC, and can be very useful when utilized
properly. There is one claimant for each kingdom in the game. You can find a
claimant by speaking with the 'Traveler' NPC in a tavern. Once you follow the
traveler's information and speak with a claimant, you will have a chance to
offer your assistance to the claimant, if your renown is high enough. The
minimum renown requirement is fairly low (no higher than 250, as far as I can
tell), but you will want much more renown than that (more on renown in a later
section) before you begin the claimant's quest. Once you agree to be a
claimant's champion, you will be part of their pseudo-faction, and leave any
other factions. If you are taking your current faction's claimant's quest,
you will take all cities, castles, and villages you own with you. To complete
a claimant's quest, you will have to defeat the faction they wish to control.

Stronger relations with towns may impact the prices of goods purchased there,
but I am not certain. Either way, it is quite difficult to change your
relations with a town for better or worse. Collecting full taxes from them is
the main way to hurt relations, doing quests for the town's guildmaster is the
main way to improve relations. You can also spend 1000 denars to buy many
rounds of drinks for the entire town, but this gives a mere +1 to relations
and isn't really worth the cost. Improving relations with villagers is
accomplished by completing quests for their elder. The main benefit is that
they will provide you with more recruits more often - a great benefit indeed.
However, you won't really need too many villages to recruit from, and even
those at 0 will still provide a decent stream of recruits, so don't go
overboard on helping villages - aside from improving recruiting prospects, it
doesn't provide many other benefits, as village quests pay VERY poorly.

You can locate any town or village by clicking on the Notes tab, then clicking
on Locations, selecting the location you desire from the list on the right
hand side, and then clicking 'Show On Map' on the top of the screen. 

If you go to characters instead, you will be able to find an NPC's last known
location. However, you can update their last known location by speaking to any
other lord or lady in their faction and asking this lord/lady where the person
you wish to find is. This will not totally pinpoint their location, and they
will usually be on the move, but it is still very useful for locating people,
as otherwise you're stuck wandering around at random until you bump into them.

If you wish to locate a Claimant, you must go to the tavern in a town and
speak with a 'Traveler' NPC (they are not always present in taverns) and pay
them 30 denars for the location of a Claimant. Claimants usually stick to one
town for 3-10 days, then instantly transport to another one. Claimants can
always be found in the castle section of the town they occupy, and will never
be in a town controlled by they faction they wish to seize control of.

	[MBW] Heroes (00008)
MBW contains nearly two dozen 'heroes' that the player can potentially recruit
to join their party. A hero is an NPC with a name and unique 3D model that can
join the party and act, in some ways, as another leader. The main exception is
that they can not use leader skills - that PC must use those skills. Any skill
listed as a 'party skill' can be used by either the PC or heroes, and this is
where heroes are most useful. There are far too many skills, and most of them
are useful in some way, for one character to handle. However, for each party
skill, the game will use the highest score amongst the PC and able bodied
(that is, currently >33% HP) heroes for a given skill's various functions.

Heroes can be recruited in taverns for anywhere from 0 to 500 denars. They
will tell you a brief backstory when spoken to, and then ask if they can join
your party. There's no upfront way to tell what a hero's stats are, so I've
compiled this information in a Google docs spreadsheet. The link will be
repeated below:

To change a hero's equipment or manage their level ups, click on the party tab
and then choose the hero in question and speak with them. These options, along
with some others, will be available.

These other options are much more strategic ones. Sending out a hero to
convince people that you would make a good king will gain you "right to rule,"
which is only useful if you intend to form your own faction. The option about
sending them to speak with contacts they have in a region will send the hero
out for a few days to gather information on how much discontent there is in
the faction that rules the hero's contact location. This function is useful
for claimant quests, primarily.

Each hero has one other hero they like, two other heroes they dislike, and a
variable amount of things they don't like. Many of the things heroes dislike
should be avoided anyway, such as retreating, heavy casualties, running out of
food, and failing quests. Some heroes dislike raiding villages/caravans, but
as long as you do these things sparingly and keep other morale factors high,
you should be fine. If you fail to maintain a decent morale level, a hero may
decide to leave the party. If they do, they will take all of their equipment
with them. However, they can be easily located by speaking to a 'Traveler' NPC
in a tavern and paying a small fee (30 denars). The hero will be eager to
rejoin the party, but bear in mind that if conditions have not changed, they
will be eager to leave once more. You might also simply run into a hero at
random without needing to ask the Traveler where the hero is.
	[MBW] Your Character (00009)
Your character, the PC, is the leader of an army. Or perhaps a merchant. Or
maybe a tax collector. But probably the leader of an army, as bandits
necessitate moving around with some manner of armed guard. As the leader, your
PC is the only person whose Leader skill values are used by the game. Other
consquences of being the leader:

* You control the party's finances.

* You decide where to go and what to do or not do.

* If you are defeated in a battle (overall), you will always be captured. This
will cause your army to be dispersed, some of your posessions to be taken, and
you to be dragged about for a while (usually 2-10 days) while you wait for a
chance to escape from your captors. Once you do, you will be alone and will
have to relocate your heroes, rebuy any missing goods, and rebuild your army.

* If you fall in battle, that phase will end. Fall too many times and your
party will instantly lose, no matter how great of an advantage you had.

To edit your character's equipment loadout, go to the Inventory tab. To edit
or see your character's stats, go to the Character tab.

   -------o--------\                           Armies                        |
	[MBW] Recruitment (00011)
There are three main ways to recruit soldiers: By going to villages and asking
for recruits, by freeing prisoners from other parties, and by hiring

The primary source of your troops will likely be villages. They will almost
always supply the basic 'Recruit' unit (sometimes a Tribesman). Each recruit
will cost 10 denars to hire and join with no experience whatsoever. To recruit
in this way, simply travel to a village and select the recruit option. It will
be the top option if you can recruit at the village. If you have a negative
relation with the village, you will not be able to recruit there. A strong
relationship with the village will result in more recruits more often. I have,
on occasion, seen a village offer recruits from tiers besides the basic tier,
but this is rare and I have not been able to pin down any reason that it has
happened, and I might just be remembering incorrectly, so consider this notion
a baseless rumor.

To free prisoners, you must either defeat an enemy party in the field or
capture an enemy castle/town. These troops can be anything from the mighty
Swadian Knight or Sarranid Mamluke to lowly peasant women and farmers. Since
you freed them from a life of imprisonment, they will cost nothing to add to
your party. Liberation is the only way to recruit certain troops, the most
notable of which are women, who can eventually promote to the fairly powerful
Sword Sister class. Manhunters, whose entire promotion chain uses blunt
weapons the facilitate prisoner capture, can also only be recruited by

To hire mercenaries, go to taverns are look for armed men. Mercenaries will
require a hiring fee scaled to the number and type of mercenaries you are

You can also recruit prisoners. To do so, click on the Camp tab, select take
an action, and then choose recruit prisoners. Warning: This action is usually
not very successful, and will put a serious penalty on morale. Recruited
prisoners are also a thankless lot, and will often run away at the next night

All of the faction soldiers, and most others besides largely useless bandits,
are summarized in my MBW spreadsheet.
	[MBW] Training, Experience, & Promotion (00012)
Heroes and soldiers can both gain experience to level up or promote. There are
two primary ways that soldiers and heroes gain experience: success in combat
and by training. Soldiers gain experience for their kills/knockouts in battle,
and the party gets an experience bonus after each battle based on its size.
Training can be done in two ways: The Trainer skill and training fields. Each
hero (and the PC) with the trainer skill will provide an experience bonus for
training each day to each party member on a level lower than themselves. This
bonus is scaled based on the Trainer skill user's rank in the Trainer skill.
Trainer skill ranks provide a great way to keep your force constantly getting
better. As elite units die, your Trainers will be training new troops to
replace losses as long as you provide them with raw recruits. This creates a
steady stream of good troops so long as you provide recruits as input (and
make sure the wages are paid!) for the system. Training fields can be used to
hold sparring matches and other types of training, but all of them are quite
tedious, and consume lots of in-game and real-world time - too much to be
worthwhile for their meager experience gains.

When units are ready to promote, you will be notified with a message in the
message line. Go to the party tab, and troops ready for promotion will have a
plus symbol (  +  ) after their names. Click on the troop to bring up the
promotion choices. Promotions cost denars, and the specific amount is based on
the level being promoted to. Heroes ready to level up will also have a plus
symbol, but you'll have to ask them about their skills to handle their level
	[MBW] Maintenance, Morale, and other Numbers (00013)  

There are several factors that go into party maintenance: Morale, wages, and

Morale is provided with a succinct number that you can find in the
Reports tab by selecting View Party Morale Report. The report will explain
all facets of morale. Base morale does not change, Leadership is directly
related to the PC's Leadership skill rank, the party size penalty increases
as party size increases. These three factors can not be easily managed - Base
does not change, leveling can not be done easily, and a smaller party may
have higher morale, but is less able to fight large battles and absorb
casualties. So, the primary ways to prop up morale are food variety and
recent events. Each food item will spell out how much morale it provides and
how many units it has left, so managing that is a simple matter	of stopping
at villages often enough and having enough cash and space. Note that extra
units of food will only last longer, not provide stacking morale bonuses, so
you must balance the extra weight they give with the longer time between
shopping trips. I usually snap up low unit items like Honey and Butter because
Sausages, Fish, Dried Meat, Grain, and Bread can be easily found at almost
any village (Fish may require a trip to the more coastal Nord villages). The
food types are summarized in the table below.

|       Food       |  Morale |  Weight | Units |
| Beef*            |    7    |   20    |   50  |    * Beef, Chicken, and Pork
| Bread            |    8    |   30    |   50  |      will go rotten after a 
| Butter           |    4    |    6    |   30  |      few days. Once rotten,
| Cabbage          |    2    |   15    |   50  |      they will provide no
| Cheese           |    5    |    6    |   30  |      morale bonus and should
| Chicken*         |    8    |   10    |   50  |      be thrown out.
| Dried Meat       |    5    |   15    |   50  |
| Fruit            |    4    |   20    |   50  |    ** Olives and Grapes have
| Grain            |    2    |   30    |   50  |       such a high weight due
| Grapes           |    3    |   40**  |   10  |       to their status as
| Honey            |    6    |    5    |   30  |       goods. Each can be used
| Olives           |    1    |   40**  |   10  |       in production and trade
| Pork*            |    6    |   15    |   50  |       and are thus too heavy
| Sausages         |    5    |   10    |   40  |       and have too few units
| Smoked Fish      |    4    |   15    |   50  |       to make viable food for

If you have one of each and every food item, your party will get +70 morale.
However, since Olives and Grapes are too heavy and fresh meat rots too quickly
the realistic cap will be +45 morale. This is still a very significant bonus,
as the highest morale value possible is +99. Morale is important because it
plays a major role in determining map speed, and high map speed is key to use
of strategic moves to control battles.
	[MBW] Controls (00015)

The tutorial will explain most of the controls, and your preferred difficulty
will dictate most of the specifics. Instead, I'll mention that you can look up
some very useful commands in the controls menu, or by pressing Backspace in
a battle. Backspace will also bring up a radar that will show you where all
living units, enemy, ally, and your own, are. Enemy units will be red, allied
and your own units will be color coded based on their type (cavalry, infantry,
or missile). Backspace also brings up a variety of army controls, such as
blunt weapons only (for taking prisoners).
	[MBW] Damage & Other Important Calculations (00016)
Damage is based primarily on three factors: speed advantage, damage type, and
enemy armor levels.

Speed advantage is fairly simple: The faster your "closing speed" when you
strike an enemy, the greater the bonus. This bonus will be listed for each
attack that lands, even if it is blocked, so you can quickly train yourself.

By "closing speed," I mean the difference between your speed and the enemy's.
If you and your opponent are both charging at each other on horseback, any
blow either of you land will get a sizeable speed advantage bonus. If you are
chasing someone running away from you, your speed bonus will be lessened.

There are three types of damage: Cutting (c), Blunt (b), and Piercing (p).
Weapons will list what type of damage they do, with what type of attack (some
weapons do cutting damage on a swing and piercing damage on a thrust, for 
example). Blunt damage does not, to my knowledge, do anything special except
for its ability to cause any unit finished with blunt damage to be knocked out
instead of killed, allowing you to take them prisoner after the battle.
Cutting damage does nothing special at all. Piercing damage, however, will
ignore a portion of a target's armor, making piercing weapons more suitable
for heavily armored foes. Weapons will list what type of damage they do after
the number listing for how much they do (such as 40c or 27p - 40 cutting and
27 piercing damage, respectively).

Cutting damage is typically the highest in terms of base damage, and are thus
very effective for taking out archers and lightly armored foes. Blunt damage
is exclusively for taking prisoners. Piercing damage is typically not as high
in base damage as cutting, but is effective against heavily armored foes, like
knights, sergeants, or mamlukes.
	[MBW] Starting & Finishing Battles (00017)
Generally, to start a battle, you must approach or be approached by an enemy.
This can be a faction you are at war with, bandits, or an enemy settlement.
If you are being approached, bandits will give you the chance to pay some
denars for passage instead of always forcing the fight. If you are friends
with an enemy lord, you may be able to convince him to not fight you. If you
do wish to fight someone, the option will usually mention there being no other
option or something of that sort. It will be obvious which option will lead
directly to combat. To siege a castle or town, look for the option to build
ladders or a siege tower, then select it. Once the siege engine is built, you
can choose to fight.

For each battle, you have the option of leading your men, sending them to
fight without you, or retreating (or not attacking if you are a besieger). In
general, you should lead your men to battle, as the simulation (send them to
fight without you) will not be kind to them - if you have the difficulty on
anything less than maximum, this will not impact events, so you may suffer
casualties on levels you're not really used to. Retreating is very costly, and
even if successful it doesn't usually work too well - you will go back to the
world map and the group you just retreated from will be close to you and will
start pursuing once again - if you couldn't outrun them before, you likely
won't be able to after retreating.
   -------o--------\                          Romance                        |

	[MBW] Benefits of a Spouse (00019)
Note: I have not had a female character marry a male, so all of this info will
pertain only to a male PC marrying a female NPC.

Your wife has several practical uses in MBW. She can come up with ways for you
to "improve your standing" in the realm - generally by helping to resolve a
conflict between two lords within your kingdom. She can also store items for
you, and host feasts.
	[MBW] Finding and Attracting a Potential Spouse (00020)
To find a spouse as a male, you need to visit castles/castles within towns and
speak to women. Ask them to know more about them, and if they do not mention a
husband, they are a potential spouse. For female PCs seeking a male spouse,
find a male and speak to him and ask him about cementing an alliance with his
house. If he mentions an available male, you can speak with that man.

To attract a male NPC, simply complete quests for him. Get his relation to
more than 10, and he should be receptive to a marriage proposal.

To attract a female NPC, learn poems from wandering poets (called bards,
ashiks, or such, and found in town taverns) and discuss them with the lady in
question. You may also dedicate tournament victories to her. Once you get a
lady to >25 relation, she will be plenty willing to marry you. She may have a
male relative who might object. You can choose to run off an elope with her,
or take the time to win him over. Once his relation is at 10-15+, he will be
willing to let you marry his sister/daughter.
	[MBW] Getting Married (00021)
Once you have taken care of buttering up the requisite individuals, you may
formally propose to your spouse. To do so, speak to them and mention it. If
they accept, simply wait for a feast, then attend it and marry them. Female
NPCs will show up at any feast in the faction they are a member of. If you are
seeking a male NPC, simply follow him around and wait for a feast in the
	[MBW] How to Use Your Spouse (00022)
To use your female spouse, you will (to my knowledge) need a castle or town
for her to hang out in. Once she establishes a home base, she will stay there
unless the settlement is captured by another faction, at which she will move.
Once you locate your wife, you can simply talk to her to bring up the options.

	[MBW] Weapons (00024)
Without mining into the game's data files, I can't feasibly display all of the
weapons in the game. Plus, it's not like you can just get whatever weapons you
want at will anyway. So, I will summarize and explain what each attribute

Bows and Crossbows do not have a line indicating that they are such. However,
all of them will say either "bow" or "crossbow" in their names. Melee and
thrown weapons will have a line of blue text near their mouse over info box
that will indicate how they can be used. Many thrown weapons can be switched
between modes using the x key. This allows you to save your last throwing
weapons as a melee weapon.

Weight is just that, an item's weight. Equipping higher weight items will
decrease a character's speed.

Damage indicates how much damage a weapon does. Damage is explained more
thoroughly above, but part of the explanation will be repeated here.

27 piercing damage, respectively).

knights, sergeants, or mamlukes.

Speed is how quickly a weapon strikes or is drawn (in case of ranged weapons).
Higher speed numbers mean a weapon strikes/is drawn more quickly.

Reach indicates how far away from the character the weapon can strike. True
ranged weapons (throwing, crossbows, and bows) do not have a range attribute.
	[MBW] Armor (00025)
There are two types of armor: Shields and armor.


Weight: Same as with weapons, more equipment weight slows you down. 

: How much health a shield has. Once its health hits zero, a
shield will break and be useless for the remainder of the battle. It will be
fully repaired at the end of the battle, so you needn't buy another.

Resistance: How much damage a shield ignores. Shields do not reduce damage in
any other way, so high resistance is key to a shield surviving. High
resistance shields typically have resistance greater than 12. Very high
resistance shields have resistance greater than 18.

Size: How much of the user's body the shield covers. Circular shields have one
number indicating the diameter of the shield. Higher is better.

Speed: How quickly the shield's user can raise it to protect him/herself. Once
again, higher speed is better.


Weight: Same as always, more weight slows you down. 

Armor: More is better. 
	[MBW] Horses (00026)
The stats of all the horses I have ever encountered are in the spreadsheet.
	[MBW] Food (00027)
Food is used to boost an army's morale. The various types of food are listed
in the table below. This table is a duplicate of the table in Section 13.
|       Food       |  Morale |  Weight | Units |
| Dried Meat       |    5    |   15    |   50  |
	[MBW] Goods (00028)
Goods are items that can be used purely in production enterprises or trade.
These items can be purchased from the goods merchant in cities or from
villages. Using the Trade skill by choosing "Assess the local prices" in a
town, you can find out what goods will sell best where.
	[MBW] Books (00029)
There is a total of ten books in MBW, split into two basic types. Seven of the
books can be read for a permanent boost of a single skill point (which skill
is increased depends upon the specific book), and the other three books give a
+1 bonus to one of the PC's skill as long as the book is in your inventory.
Books that provide a bonus when held in the inventory will list what skill
they boost. To read one of the other seven books, select the Camp tab and then
select Take An Action. Over time, you will read the book if your Int score is
high enough. The Int restrictions are, in practice, not much of hindrance, as
you'll want more than 12 Int by the time you can afford books anyway (books
will cost anywhere from 2900 denars to ~9000 denars, depending upon the book
and party Trade skill).

Books can be purchased from book vendors, who will sometimes appear in town
taverns. There are two book vendors with different inventories. The two have
the exact same appearance, so you'll have to get a little lucky to acquire all
ten books.

The ten books are summarized in the table below.

|               Title                |           Skill Boosted           |
| De Re Militari                     |              Tactics              |
| Rhetorica ad Herennium             |             Persuasion            |
| The Life of Alixenus the Great     |             Leadership            |
| On The Art of Fighting With Swords |            Weapon Master          |
| Methods of Mechanical Theorems     |              Engineer             |
| Essays on Logic                    |            Intelligence**         |
| A Treatise on the Value of Things  |               Trade               |
| Manual of Arms*                    |              Trainer              |
| The Book of Healing*               |           Wound Treatment         |
| The Great Book of Surgery*         |              Surgery              |

* These three books provide bonuses while held in the inventory.
** This book boosts the Intelligence attribute. Intelligence is not a skill.

   -------o--------\                         Factions                        |
There are six factions in MBW: The Kingdom of Swadia, the Kingdom of Rhodoks,
The Kingdom of Nords, The Kingdom of Vaegirs, The Sarranid Sultanate, and The
Khergit Khanate.
    [MBW] Joining a Faction (00031)
In order to join a faction you need 160 renown. This figure is reduced by 5
renown for every 1 point of  positive relationship you have with the king of
the faction. One way to join a faction is simply by offering a king to join,
if you have enough renown this will work. The other way is to parlay work as
a mercenary into lordship. To become a mercenary for a faction, you only need
to have a decent size army and ask a king/lord for quests. Then, once you are
a mercenary, follow orders, assist the kingdom in battles (which will also
boost your renown), and wait for an offer.

Once you actually join a faction, you will be given a single village as your
fiedom - and it's usually one with low prosperity, which usually means it has
been raided recently.
	[MBW] Life as a Lord (00032)

As a lord, you will be allowed to own fiefs. You will receive a single fief
when you join a faction (a village, to be specific). Life as a lord is quite
simple unless there's a war going (which there usually is). Aside from war
duties, you don't really owe much to your faction. You automatically collect
your taxes and duties, and automatically pay out salaries. You can do quests
for your king and other lords, but that's optional. However, it does lead to
better relations with them, which can be useful, and some quests pay well.

For war, your main duty is to show up when summoned by the marshal. Your
faction's marshal will, at points during wartime, summon the lords of the
realm in an effort to build a concerted offensive. You will get a quest to
report to the marshal with a minimum number of troops (it's rarely a high
number - you'll need more than that many to prove even remotely useful, and to
protect yourself), and be told where the marshal is. You'll usually have about
4 days to get there, which is enough time if you move out immediately and if
the marshal doesn't move too far. If you fail to report once, the consequences
won't be severe, but continued derelection of duty will hurt relations and
could potentially result in being expelled from the faction.

You'll want to join the faction's army anyway, as it's a good opportunity. The
army of the realm will usually go after big targets like towns, and if you're
smart, you can use this for your own gain. Once your fellow lords assemble
around a target, click on the town/castle, besiege it, and once you can,
attack the settlement. If victorious, you will be credited with the victory,
as you led the assault. If you are credited with a successful siege and ask
for the settlement, you have a higher chance of receiving it when the king
decides to award it to someone - and even if you don't get it, the king will
at least send a small reward of ~900 denars to compensate you partially.
However, since you had the other lords for backup, you will minimize your own
force's losses - if the settlement has enough prisoners, you may actually be
able gain troops as a result of a successful siege.
	[MBW] Being Marshal (00033)
Marshals are selected by the king, with advice from the lords (in the form of
an informal election between two candidates). If you are picked to become
marshal, you will be able to summon or dismiss the lords. You can combine this
ability with the strategy above to take select targets. Generally, you should
focus on towns when using the marshal's powers, as towns typically have
garrisons of 300 to 400 troops (plus more if an enemy lord is in the town),
making them extremely difficult to take without help.

To utilize the powers of the marshal, speak with an allied lord or with one of
your heroes, and select the option to send out a message to the lords of the
realm, then choose which option you desire.

	[MBW] Claimants & Rebellions (0033a)

The six claimants in M&B: Warband are summarized in the table below.

|  Faction  |         Claimant           |
| Swadia    | Lady Isolla of Suno        |
| Rhodoks   | Lord Kastor of Veluca      |
| Vaegirs   | Prince Valdym the Bastard  |
| Nords     | Lethwin Farseeker          |
| Sarranid  | Arwa the Pearled One       |
| Khergits  | Dustum Khan                |

To defeat a faction in civil war, you don't have to fight them all. Before
you fight any lords from a faction at all, you should speak with them and try
to convince them to join your side. There are several factors at play when
trying to convince a lord to rebel against his king: your personal relations,
his relations with his king, the argument you give him for your claimant's
claim to the throne, your Persuasion skill, and the consistency of your
argument (if you tell everyone what they want to hear, they'll catch on and
no one will believe you). You won't be able to convince everyone to join
your rebellion, but you should focus your efforts on taking a faction's
town owners over to your side, as towns are the most difficult places to
siege (town owners can be found in the Locations tab or by visiting the town
in question).

Once you have convinced as many lords as you wish to join your rebellion, you
proceed with the bloody war part (there's no avoiding it, you're no Gandhi).
I said "as many lords as you wish" because there's a reason to limit how many
lords you bring over before the war is over - while the rebellion is going
on, you have the future king's/queen's ear, and they will almost always (if
not always, full stop) agree to award fiefdoms to whomever you suggest,
including you. This can allow you to acquire a substantial amount of property,
vastly more than you usually acquire, and with significantly less risk to you
and your personal army.

Completing a rebellion is quite similar to eliminating a faction: You must
capture (or convince) all their towns (or town owners) and castles (or castle
owners), and then they will eventually lose - and it usually helps to defeat
the king in battle at some point (capturing him is especially useful).

   -------o--------\                      Your Own Faction                   |
Note: I have never formed my own faction, so I don't know much about this
	[MBW] Forming (00035)
Forming your own faction is deceptively simple: You must simply be unattached
to any current faction, and then successfully siege a town or castle.

I believe you can also use the rebel faction formed by a failed rebellion as
your own, but the regular method is easier.
	[MBW] Managing (00036)
It's important to have lots of Right To Rule when going the road of having
your own faction. The primary way to increase your Right To Rule is to send
your heroes out to campaign for you. To do this, talk to them, then talk about
your desire to be King/Queen of Calradia.

As King/Queen of your own faction, you will have some extra duties. You will
decide who gets what fiefdoms. Giving a fief to a lord will increase your
relations with that lord, but damage them with all others - so it's a wise
idea to keep the number of lords you have in your faction under control.
	[MBW] Defense & Diplomacy (00037)   
Other factions should be able to declare war on yours, but aside from simply
attack them, I don't know of any way to declare war on another faction. I am
somewhat certain that you can try to declare peace with another faction by
directly approaching their leader and inquiring about peace - but they could
simply reject your offer and choose instead to conquer you if they think they
|                             Gameplay Advice                        (00038) |

   -------o--------\                   Your Character                        |
	[MBW] Design/Builds (00040)

There are two basic builds for a PC, in my view: Heavy Cavalry and Horse
Archer. The Heavy Cavalry build uses the best armor available, and either a
one or two handed weapon. The one handed build would have a shield. The Horse
Archer build focuses more on speed and missile attacks, and generally avoids
prolonged melees.

Neither build is going to be like an MMO build, since you have a lot more
control of your circumstances in MBW. Consider these more like guidelines than
true builds.

Heavy Cavalry Build

You'll want to find the best armor you can, first of all. Ideally, you'll have
Plate armor, but a Coat of Plates or Scale Mail will also work. This armor
will be extremely expensive, so you'll need to work your way up to it. You'll
want strong gloves, boots, and a Great Helm or Winged Great Helm, as well.
Gloves are a little weird, since the adjectives like "reinforced" give the
same bonuses no matter what piece of armor they're on - +3 armor isn't a major
difference for chest pieces that can easily give 30-55 armor, but for gloves
that give 2-8 armor, good leather gloves can outdo normal metal gloves.

This build will require a decent investment into Str (you won't be clear until
you hit 15, really) to use all its heavy gear and get more Iron Flesh and
Power Strike. You will also want at least 12 Agi so you can get 4 Riding,
allowing you to ride Chargers. Your desired Int will depend upon how many 
skills you delegate to heroes. You should still focus on Cha on some level, as
it governs the essential Leadership skill.

With this build, you will be the closest thing to a modern piece of armor on
the battlefield. Use this to your advantage: Charge into enemy formations and
start swinging.

Horse Archer Build

For this build, you'll first want a Courser (the fastest horse; it's purely
white in coat color). Then, you should look for light but effective armor,
like Sarranid equipment - you want to minimize weight without compromising
protection too much. Gloves and helmets don't weigh very much, so you can
just go full armor on those pieces. You'll want to get the absolute best bow
you can acquire, and go for Large Bags of Khergit Arrows - 2 bags and a bow
will use up 3 of your four weapon slots. I recommend a melee weapon in your
final slot, as you won't be able to, or need to, avoid melee combat forever.

This build requires a most balanced spread between Str and Agi. More Agi means
more Riding, which means faster riding speed, and more Horse Archery, which
will increase your archery precision from horseback. while more Str lets you
boost Power Draw more, which means you can do more damage.

With this build, you should use your horse to evade clusters of enemy while 
firing off shots or picking off those that leave the group by slowing down and
lining up a more accurate shot. You will be able to shoot at attackers while
defending on a siege, but when attacking during a siege, you should leave the
initial breaching to heavier troops.
	[MBW] Leveling (00041)
This is about leveling up quickly.

There are two ways to level up quickly: Killing lots of enemies in battle and
doing quests. Some quests can give thousands of experience points, but so can
killing a dozen or so enemies in a battle. However, you need to give your army
time to rest and heal, so once you beat up enough bandits to tire out your
troops, find a lord and take on a quest. Don't bother with village quests, as
they pay poorly and often take a lot of time, and town quests aren't much
	[MBW] Using Heroes (00042)
You can have a maximum of 10 other heroes in your party. Each should be able
to take on 2-4 skills, depending upon how much you want to improve their
combat skills. Since you'll be focusing on your own combat prowess and keeping
your Leadership skill high, heroes will need to fill in the gaps. You will
most certainly want to have heroes with high skill in Wound Treatment, First
Aid, and Surgery - in fact, there's one hero who is perfect for these skills.
If you happen upon Jeremus, recruit him, and focus him purely on those three
skills (and one other Int skill of your choice, as you'll have room for it).
Bump him down to the bottom of the party list so he's the last to engage in
battle. This will make him much more available to keep your army fit to fight.
Pathfinding is the next most important skill. The rest of the skills are more
up to your own judgment, but with enough heroes, you won't really have to make
many, if any, sacrifices. Keep searching those taverns for heroes.

   -------o--------\                    Making Money                         |
	[MBW] Tournaments (00044)

You can make money by betting on tournaments - betting on yourself, to be
specific. In order to collect on the bets, you must win the tournament. You
can place a 100 denar bet on yourself for each of the seven rounds of the
tournament. The basic tactic for winning a tournament varies depending upon
the weapons you get, but keep in mind that each town always gives the same
suite of weapons for tournaments, so you can avoid tournaments at towns that
give you weapons you dislike. In general, look for people engaged in melee
with another combatant, and the attack them from behind, and you'll do well
in tournaments.
	[MBW] Production Enterprises (00045)

You can build one production enterprise in each town. To do so, you must speak
to the town's guild master, who can usually be found in a fairly central part
of the town and is generally an older-looking male. In general, the more 
expensive a production enterprise is, the more money it will produce, but the
guild master will also provide estimates of the enterprise's profitability
for you. The profits from your production enterprises will be delivered to
you automatically at the end of each week, when revenues and expenses are
	[MBW] Fiefs (00046)

You can make money from your fiefs. It's a simple matter of being awarded them
by the king. Conquering them yourself helps, but if you have too many fiefs,
you will be less likely to be awarded new ones. If you run your own faction,
you can control who is awarded a fief.
	[MBW] Pillaging, Prisoners, & Combat (00047)

You can pillage by going to a village and choosing to take a hostile action.
This will lower your relationship with that village and net you a fair amount
of goods, which can then be sold or used as desired.

Prisoners can be sold to traveling ransom brokers, who show up in taverns at
random. The higher a prisoner's tier level, the more they sell for. Also, in
Tihr, you can find Ramun the Slave Trader, who will pay 50 denars for any

Winning a battle nets you some random weapons and armor. Generally, you'll
want to pick on Sea Raiders, as they have the most valuable equipment that
doesn't require a war to get.
   -------o--------\                  Warfare and Combat                     |

	[MBW] Building an army (00049)

You'll want a sizeable amount of heavy units like Knights/Mamlukes in your
army (the units that become these will work, as well). Archers/Crossbowmen
are most useful on siege defense. Infantry can also work in place of heavy
cavalry, but the absolute strongest units tend to be the heavy cavalry. The
easiest way to train soldiers is to have someone skilled in the Trainer skill,
or even have multiple people skilled in it (the bonuses stack).

	[MBW] Strategy (00050)

In general, you'll want to have high party speed to make use of strateic
moves. MBW isn't that complicated, but you can still make use of strategy to
control battles. The main thing you can do is divide your enemies by leading
them around until they're sufficiently separated to allow for smaller battles.
	[MBW] Tactics (00051)

When in a battle, you can hit delete/backspace to bring up a minimap and a
list of commands. You can also look in the controls to see what commands you
can issue with keystrokes. This is useful for when you want to use only blunt
weapons to take prisoners for war profiteering or missions.
|                                  FAQ Stuff                         (FQ000) |

   -------o--------\              Frequently Asked Questions                 |
	To ask a question about this FAQ, see the contact section.
	I'll need questions before I can answer them!
   -------o--------\                   Version History                       |
Version 0.10 - (01 Oct  2010) - Skeleton Complete
Version 0.70 - (07 Dec  2010) - Sections 01-42 completed for 1.00
Version 1.00 - (11 Feb  2011) - All sections complete enough to call it 1.00
   -------o--------\                    Contact/Legal                        |
Generic license.	
You are free:
to share – to copy, distribute and transmit this work
to remix – to adapt this work
Under the following conditions:
author or licensor: Credit me as either Jeffrey McGaffigan or BlueYoshi579 

include a name for me to credit you as in the section below. Be sure to have
do that.

My e-mail: faqiynx AT gmail DOT com
   -------o--------\                    Credits/Thanks                       |
SBAllen, for maintaining GameFAQs.

CJayC, for creating GameFAQs.

A I e x, for being a great FAQ writer.

TaleWorlds, for making this game.

You, for reading this FAQ.