Mount and Blade (very nice mounted combat, indy dev)

[Alluvian]

Check this out, support this guy/team.

http://www.taleworlds.com/mb_download.html

This seems like one of those 'guy in a garage' type games, but I have not read up on the history.  I have put about 4 hours into the free download and the gameplay is quite awesome.  It took me a lot to get used to it (lots of timing that changes with weapon selection) but once I did I have fallen in love with the combat model.

It is one of the only games i have played with fun lance, archery, and horseback archery combat.

The game itself is played in little combat maps with travel and such being done in overland fashion.  It sort of reminds me of morrowind mixed with heroes of might and magic but with better combat than both.  The depth isn't fully there yet, but as you level up and get a larger party/army the feel of the game does expand.

The free download is the full game, but does not let you advance past level 6.

Visuals:
Visually the game is sub par, but some of the animations are quite good, like the horses.  Games NEVER get horses right and this one finally did.  I hate watching the horses in WoW, EQ1 and 2, DAOC, etc....  These have several animations depending on speed, canter, gallop, walk, plus the turning looks right.  The game is also a whopping 30 some megs, so the textures are frankly AWFUL, but also are probably just work in progress.

Gameplay (combat)
Very fun once I got over the learning curve.

Block timing and swing timings are essential.  Shields can block any forward incoming attack, but the shield takes damage then and will break if hit too much.  Weapons can also block, but the timing is more critical.  There are 3 types of swings in the game, overhead, side to side, and jabbing.  A weapon can only block against one of these attack types at a time.  If you hit the block before the swing, you will randomly perform a block, giving them a 2/3 chance of hitting you.  You have to press the block AFTER the swing is started and then you will perform the correct blocking action.

You can hold attacks ready and release them by letting go of the button.  The benefit is that this makes the timing of blows easier.  The drawback is blocking is easier as well because the swing is already started, and you can't hide which swing you are going to make.  I find this method mainly useful for jousting where the timing is hard enough when held ready, and you can only make a jab with the lance anyway.  Other useful times are when you have a faster weapon than the enemy, then you can wait till they start to swing and hit them before they finish if you are fast enough.  Any hit will knock you out of a swing or readied attack, making blocking crucial, especially vs multiple targets and/or archers.

The archery is pretty nice as well.  When you hold down the attack button, you draw an arrow and prepare to fire.  The cone of fire starts out the size of the screen, but quickly converges to a smaller point (based on your archery skill)  At any point you can release the button and fire with the current cone of fire accuracy.  If you hold the bow too long, the cone will widen again to show fatigue.

Mounted combat can be done with archery, lances, and shield + weapon.  The arc that you can shoot in is behind, in front and to your left side.  The bows are too long to get them around to your right side, so combat positioning is critical.  Accuracy is MUCH lower on horseback and is also based on speed of the horse.  It gets better as you invest in mounted archery skill.

I love the jousting and run some missions/trade routes right away to afford a nice horse and lance.  It is a lot of fun jokeying for position among the armies and trying to fend off archers while luring combatants to lower their shields for the kill.  Or just blasting through the shield if they are stubborn.

Overland gameplay:
outside of combat you have pretty straightforward RPG experience advancement.  But you can also hire and manage large parties (at least up to 50 men if you concentrate on leadership skills).  These men will be there on the battlefield to fight with you.  There is a limit to about 10 or so on a screen at a time it seems.  As men fall, other reinforcements arrive until one side is wiped out.  Not all men that fall are dead, they are often just wounded or unconscious.  A night in the inn will fix most of these ailments.

The overland map is crude at this point and pretty much just consists of cookie cutter towns allied with two different warring nations.  You can pick either side or stay neutral.  If you pick a side you get rewarded for your successes against the enemy.

Quests given in town range from bandit killing, to restocking the armory, to protecting trade caravans, to town defense, to interrogation of enemies (have to capture instead of kill), probably others I have not seen yet.

You can get other named players to join your party as well.  They often have useful overland skills like spotting, or tracking, or abilities to heal your army.  They fight in combat as well, but the few I have gotten have not been that stellar in battle.

The game has pretty standard trade routes with hints from the merchants on where you can deliver certain goods to for profit.  This usually means the opposite side of the map.


This game has huge potential in my view.  It is sort of like a primative sid myers pirates with better combat, and less options at the current time.

You can register the game to support future development for $10-$15 or so and I probably will just because I like the promise of this game.  Fun mounted combat... it is such a no brainer, why do we never see it in games?

[Strazos]

I've been meaning to give this a try.

From the look of the screenshots, it appears that your clarity of sight gets fuzzy and thrown out of whack when you get hit upside the head. This is a feature more games need.

Oh yeah, and mounted combat that works.

[Tale]

I've been addicted to this for two weeks and have a level 33 character. The developers are a Turkish husband and wife team. It's worth reading the player-written quick & dirty manual so you know how to command your troops, etc. And how to eat a horse in emergencies :)

Random tips: Caravans are a great target for loot. After you bet on yourself in the tournaments for a bit, trading goods between cities can help you get started financially. Prisoner trains carry pre-levelled troops you can rescue and recruit. Recruiting and levelling peasant women is also a good idea. Morale is affected by what you feed your troops. If you get chased into a city by something that's too tough, rest at the inn for a while. Toughest opponents early are dark hunters/dark knights, enemy knights/men-at-arms, enemy crossbowmen and black kerghit riders. Don't neglect intelligence as a stat, because it gives you extra skill points. Smithys and the occasional merchant are where I found my best gear, but I looted my best horse.

I think I've found and bought/looted all the best gear now, but I won't list spoilers unless asked. You can get to the point where lower level enemies hit for 0 damage and you can easily one-shot enemy knights while mounted.

[Alluvian]

Yeah, I am going to have to register this to support these two.  Gotta let the devs know when they got something right.

[Otis]

Yeah, I bought this a couple of weeks ago after playing it for an evening; it's very barebones but quite fun. It's like Pirates! with much, much more enjoyable combat, and everything only stands to improve from the current beta state.

[Abel]

Tried this little gem too and it's basically "Pirates! goes Medieval", with cool fighting on horse-back instead of cool sea battles.

Still in this era of endless sequels and remakes a highly original game with excellent gameplay.

You should start to worry when mom-and-pop homemade indie games offer more originality and intuitive fun gameplay then proffesional teams with multi-million budgets can provide ...

Plz someone pump some money in this game  !!!

[schild]

You should start to worry when mom-and-pop homemade indie games offer more originality and intuitive fun gameplay then proffesional teams with multi-million budgets can provide ...

It's not, the idea of medieval combat has existed for 20 years. There's nothing "original" about the idea. That's not to say the implementation isn't original. Obviously it is if this many geeks at 'x' many websites are enjoying the shit out of the game. But it's not as original as let's say Katamari Damacy, Phantom Dust, or Raze's Hell. And those had multi-million dollar budgets. Give credit where it's due and all that.

Oh, and the "guy in the garage" type things have been what has worried big developers since the early 80s.

[Strazos]

In short: The content is not very original. The execution is.

[Evangolis]

In short: The content is not very original. The execution is.

I haven't installed the download yet, but I would point out that most current MMOs are Tolkienesque fantasies, and that Tolkien based his work on Northern European myth and language, which were codified from a host of stories that existed in oral tradition of unknown antiquity, so new content is not a common thing.

[Threash]

Charging through a group of enemy peasants while wearing full plate armor and dropping three of them with the first swing of your heavy great axe then two more on the other side with your second swing is better than sex.  No really, it is.

[Strazos]

In short: The content is not very original. The execution is.

I haven't installed the download yet, but I would point out that most current MMOs are Tolkienesque fantasies, and that Tolkien based his work on Northern European myth and language, which were codified from a host of stories that existed in oral tradition of unknown antiquity, so new content is not a common thing.

Stop it, you knew what I meant.

You do not want to play that game.

[Yoru]

Thanks to the ugly textures/tiny download size, I was able to slap this on my usb key and take it home for some gaming lovin' while my net service order is fermenting in some dark bureaucratic pit. It took me a while to get used to the controls, but once I get oriented, it was a real blast. I love charging back and forth through a melee, slicing down bandits and pirates like something out of a certain recent Ridley Scott film.

I expect I need to find better ways of making money than hacking pirate groups to pieces and then selling their newb junk given how much a decent weapon seems to cost.

The sound effects need some work - such as different effects for blunt and slicing damage. Still, I do love hearing 'Shiiiink. "Augh!"' :)

The two things I didn't like are the arena and the ally AI - it seems to be that if you're not charging around confusing the opponent AI, your allies are little better than fodder, which makes the arena an exercise in frustration - especially if you get stuck with a weapon that's hard to kill with, like a bow. (AI Bowmen can shoot almost perfectly straight every time; you cannot.) Outside of the arena, the upgraded allies are a bit better in that they don't instantly get cut down like toilet paper - instead they get cut down like construction paper.

My verdict is "lots of fun, could use some polish"; definitely an admirable achievement for a small indy team.

[Strazos]

I expect that it's a Work-In-Progress.

I'm going to try to fire this up either later today, or tomarrow.

From the sounds of it, I will become enarmored by the combat, and forgive all shortgivings.

[Viin]

I played this last night too (instead of getting on GW).. and it is pretty fun!

I've actually gotten pretty good with the bow, though shooting from horseback can be a bit tricky.

As for money, you could always use the cheat... I made character just for cheating that I used to buy the bestest best armor I could find, and bestest best weapon my guy could use for his level 2 skill level (but see my comment about equipment below). You can buy low/sell high to get some money, on the Blade N Mount forums there is a list of all the cities and what they sell low and buy high.

Remember to increase your Prisoner Management skill, this will let you take prisoners and sell them to the slaver for money. (Use a mace/hammer to knock them out).

One thing I really like about this game: equipment isn't everything! Even when equiped with the bestest best I still got owned when I got stuck between two pirates and couldn't get a hit in to clobber them, got stuck, and their buddies ganged up on me. The uber armor did help absorb a few blows but it certainly wasn't enough to live through 3-4 pirates beating on you.

I haven't actually gotten this to work yet, but apparently when using a lance while on horseback you can 'couch' your lance and do extra damage with the hit. This is what happens when you pickup speed and automatically lower your lance.. if you actually hit with it (left mouse button) you aren't using the extra damage it can give - but it's harder 'cause you have to aim with your horse.

The interface needs some work and the zones aren't very insipiring - but hey, that's not what makes the game fun..

[Murgos]

I haven't actually gotten this to work yet, but apparently when using a lance while on horseback you can 'couch' your lance and do extra damage with the hit. This is what happens when you pickup speed and automatically lower your lance.. if you actually hit with it (left mouse button) you aren't using the extra damage it can give - but it's harder 'cause you have to aim with your horse.

You just need to get your horse going fast enough.  Do a couple games in the arena and when it gives you a lance just trot your horse across the field and you will see it work.  You can ram through a knot of people with this very effectively.

Personally, I prefer hacking left and right with my sword and watching the kill messages come up.

The new elder scrolls game is supposed to have a more dynamic feeling combat, I'm guessing it's going to be somewhat similar to this although they said they didn't want to do mounted combat because it just turns into 'jousting' and while that seems to be true, it's damn fun so I have to hope they reconsider.

[Threash]

The two things I didn't like are the arena and the ally AI - it seems to be that if you're not charging around confusing the opponent AI, your allies are little better than fodder, which makes the arena an exercise in frustration - especially if you get stuck with a weapon that's hard to kill with, like a bow. (AI Bowmen can shoot almost perfectly straight every time; you cannot.) Outside of the arena, the upgraded allies are a bit better in that they don't instantly get cut down like toilet paper - instead they get cut down like construction paper.

My verdict is "lots of fun, could use some polish"; definitely an admirable achievement for a small indy team.

I've found using archers/crossbowmen and telling them to hold while i run around causing havok to work best, hardly any casualties and at higher levels those crossbowmen can cut down a small army fairly fast specially when massed together.  It does slow you down considerably over the world map though.

[Yoru]

You just need to get your horse going fast enough.  Do a couple games in the arena and when it gives you a lance just trot your horse across the field and you will see it work.  You can ram through a knot of people with this very effectively.

Personally, I prefer hacking left and right with my sword and watching the kill messages come up.

My preference is also for the hack-left-and-right style; "warrider damage" is your best friend - I've managed to get 250% normal damage by slicing folks at high speed. I gave the lance a shot in the arena and found it to basically be a big slow thrust-only sword.

Another weird bit is that you can't get 'inside' the range of the lance like you could in reality. Even if you're standing next to the lancer, he can still poke you with the tip of his lance and do major damage. I generally resorted to beating the shit out of the lancer's horse and then laughing at him while he tried to run around on foot and be effective with his oversized pokey-stick.

The new elder scrolls game is supposed to have a more dynamic feeling combat, I'm guessing it's going to be somewhat similar to this although they said they didn't want to do mounted combat because it just turns into 'jousting' and while that seems to be true, it's damn fun so I have to hope they reconsider.

If TES4 has this style of combat along with the bits that the earlier TES games did well, it will own my soul for months. There hasn't been a really good action-melee system on the PC since Oni (that I'm aware of) and Oni had other issues.

I've found using archers/crossbowmen and telling them to hold while i run around causing havok to work best, hardly any casualties and at higher levels those crossbowmen can cut down a small army fairly fast specially when massed together. It does slow you down considerably over the world map though.

That's a good idea, I'll have to give it a try tonight. I haven't explored much of the map, really, so I've yet to come across a place to recruit bowmen.

[Der Helm]

As far as I know so far, almost any peasant / footman upgrades to some kind of arches sooner or later. You would just need lots of them.

[Strazos]

Well, I played it for a bit last night.

I really liked the combat system, though it could be a bit harsh sometimes. Taking on a mounted lancer in the arena while I was stuck on foot with a bow was practically Game Over. Trying the same with a melee weapon wasn't much better; it was Intimidating (which it would be IRL). Also, no amount of skill is going to overcome mass numbers, which is new to me.

Unfortunately, the rest of the game needs some polish, which I expected.

Now I just need to find a way to quickly scrape money together so I can have ~11 henchmen and do missions.

[Yoru]

Turns out product activation requires either a webbrowser or an active internet connection. Joke's on me. 

I tried making a trading character last night and found that doing the suggested trade runs all over the map will make you decent coin relatively fast. It also led to some entertaining bandit battles...

Well, I played it for a bit last night.

I really liked the combat system, though it could be a bit harsh sometimes. Taking on a mounted lancer in the arena while I was stuck on foot with a bow was practically Game Over. Trying the same with a melee weapon wasn't much better; it was Intimidating (which it would be IRL). Also, no amount of skill is going to overcome mass numbers, which is new to me.

Unfortunately, the rest of the game needs some polish, which I expected.

Now I just need to find a way to quickly scrape money together so I can have ~11 henchmen and do missions.

If you have a sword with some reach (longsword, broadsword, etc.) and a decent horse, non-arena battles can be turned into an exercise in skill, luck and patience. I massacred a group of 13 steppe raiders just by my lonesome with a broadsword, the noobler armor and the noobler horse. The terrain was a mostly-flat grassland without too many obstructions, so I rode around in a wide circle, which kept the AI units scattered around inside the circle. First, I chased the horsed units until I cut their steeds down, at which point the rider joined the gigantic ineffectual pack of footsoldiers. Then I just slowly wore down the big pack over the course of half an hour, riding in circles and slashing at whatever sucker happened to be on the edge of the pack.

As long as you've got better maneuverability than the enemy, you can pick which of the giant mass you can fight, and the AI isn't too tough one-on-one. Just be really careful not to get set upon by more than 2 units at a time.

As soon as the battle concluded, I instantly shot to level 6 and the game kicked me out. :(

Lancers are difficult to defend against with a shield, but if you have a two-handed weapon, you can easily parry the lance since it only has one vector of attack (front/thrust). Unhorsing them first makes them far easier to kill. Getting issued a bow in the arena is tantamount to a death sentence, though - especially if you don't also get a horse.

As far as I know so far, almost any peasant / footman upgrades to some kind of arches sooner or later. You would just need lots of them.

Alternately, you could waste a lot of food/time/skill points using the training skill, which gives a little bit of experience to all your units every day. I've yet to give the "people's army" style of play a try, but I think it would make an interesting experiment if combined with the merchant template.

[Strazos]

One thing I found out: the n00b horses cannot go quickly enough for you to couch your lance.

[Alluvian]

For easy money, trot over to the salt mines.  You can buy salt there for about 50 gold.  Then trot back to the newbie town and sell it for about 200 gold.  Lots of easy money early on.  Once you do that once then you can start buying tools in the newby town and taking them up to tulga, grabbing salt on the way back at the mines and heading back and forth.

Other routes are more lucrative, but this one does not require much starting cash.  spices, furs and linens can be REAL money makers on the right routes, but they take a sizable investment.

Once you start killing the bigger groups you will get weapon and armor drops from them worth thousands of gold.

at the VERY beginning, save the game, and bet on yourself in the arena on the 2 vs 2 matches.  The 3 vs 3 can be done as well, but at the start 3 vs 3 is harder to win for the inexperienced.  When I started I would bet on the 2 vs 2 which I could win unless I got shafted as a foot archer.  And I used the 3 vs 3 to practice my skills until I started consistently winning those.

As far as your characters acting like morons, get the tactics skill.  I the AI actually stops sucking once you get 2-3 in tactics.  I usually work on healing and combat for myself and then get the guy in the starting town to join up and train him in tactics, pathfinding (overland speed boosts are GOOD), and tracking.  I just leave him in the back of my force and use him for overland abilityes.

Revvyak or one of those R towns lets you take a prisoner from the court's castle as well.  that guy can join up with you if you set him free and he has real good spot and tracking skills to start with.

My personal preference is the fastest horse I can afford, great lance, and beefy shield.  The great lance has less damage than some others but it has AWESOME range.  No one EVER gets the drop on me in a joust, I am only in danger when I stop moving.

I also find if dismounted, good timing lets me take out a mounted rider by using my shield and my range advantage.  Multiple opponents will just mow me down off my horse though, but that is what all the armor on my fancy "spirited charger" is for.  I LOVE just running over footmen.  Good pony!

[Xuri]

at the VERY beginning, save the game, and bet on yourself in the arena on the 2 vs 2 matches.  The 3 vs 3 can be done as well, but at the start 3 vs 3 is harder to win for the inexperienced.  When I started I would bet on the 2 vs 2 which I could win unless I got shafted as a foot archer.  And I used the 3 vs 3 to practice my skills until I started consistently winning those.

Strange. I found the 3 vs 3 matches easier than the 2 vs 2 matches for some reason. Perhaps because it ensured that there were other targets than me for a while, giving me time to shoot with the bow or get into position with sword/lance, or something. *shrug*

[Strazos]

Most gratifying moment?

Head shot as a foot archer to an oncoming charging lancer.

It was about time I pulled that off, the AI in the arena picked me off way too many times in similar situations.

[Yoru]

As far as your characters acting like morons, get the tactics skill.  I the AI actually stops sucking once you get 2-3 in tactics.  I usually work on healing and combat for myself and then get the guy in the starting town to join up and train him in tactics, pathfinding (overland speed boosts are GOOD), and tracking.  I just leave him in the back of my force and use him for overland abilityes.

Good idea; I've been trying to go in that direction, but whatsisface levels so agonizingly slowly that I've started taking a few of them myself. I'm hoping I can recruit another "hero" (named unit) soon enough to temporarily alleviate the problem.

As for money, if you sign up with one of the two sides, they'll issue you minimissions. The "supply" missions pay out ungodly sums; one of the ones I got last night was "bring me 4 nomad armors", which can be easily obtained for 500 gold a pop at the shops or for free if you slaughter steppe raiders/black khergit raiders. It paid out around 12,000 gold. Needless to say, I'm now rolling in around 50k gold and my gold worries are essentially over. :-D

My personal preference is the fastest horse I can afford, great lance, and beefy shield.  The great lance has less damage than some others but it has AWESOME range.  No one EVER gets the drop on me in a joust, I am only in danger when I stop moving.

I've got the heather shield (strongest one I've found so far), a spirited courser (well, until he got crippled and downgraded to a regular courser; stats are 10/10/11 now instead of 11/11/11) and my trusty watered-steel scimitar. At low speed, the damn thing incurs 30-40 damage and at a gallop I've hit 90+ damage in one blow. Nothing that I've encountered so far (including the Dark Knights) can take 90 damage and walk away. It has reach issues, but with the horse I find that range isn't so much of a problem - just sideswipe and slice their head off.

The other nice thing is, because it's a speedy weapon, I can take a crowd of 2-3 on foot without too many issues.

I also find if dismounted, good timing lets me take out a mounted rider by using my shield and my range advantage.  Multiple opponents will just mow me down off my horse though, but that is what all the armor on my fancy "spirited charger" is for.  I LOVE just running over footmen.  Good pony!

I picked up a Khergit bow and some bodkin arrows off one of the wandering groups; I find that, if you get unhorsed, it's easiest to kill any mounted opponents' horses first, provided you don't get bum-rushed by footmen. But yeah, running over people 4tw. I've been eyeing the riding-4 warhorses and wondering how much the 1-2 point speed loss would hurt in exchange for an insanely high charge stat.

[Hoax]

God listening to stat chatter makes me all tingly *sigh* its been two weeks without a good night of gaming...

[Pococurante]

Apologies in advance for the overlap with earlier comments.  This is just flow of consciousness, but I spent some time this weekend mastering mounted combat and building up my band of merry men & femme.  For an early beta this game is amazingly playable and fun.  Yesterday I finally went ahead and bought a license for $11 - it's cheap and I like to encourage independents who do good work.
 
It's beta so there's not a whole lot of depth of course but the authors have set a good framework to build on.  There's a fair amount of character customization (head structure only) when you start off, more than one really needs for a single-player game but more than for WoW.  I'd say offhand it's basically going to be like Diablo I - really just a way to have some quick and heart-pounding fun with moderate character development.  But this is not fantasy but rather historical so I find it more immersive.  And the authors (when they're not trying to raise money!) are currently putting all their effort into modding tools so people can create their own worlds.
 
The drawbacks are what one would expect in an indie beta: the graphics (THE most $$$ dev't part of today's game) are crude at best, the towns woefully incomplete (though you can see where they are going / it's just a matter of map-building), and the quests simplistic.  But I didn't encounter a single bug - amazing!  In combat the graphics are just fine and the climate/weather is still eye-catching enough.
 
The pluses are of course mounted combat.  It's a blast! I've never seen a game where horses are so realistic.  I don't mean the underlying polygon models - there's a few ugly corners etc.  But the textures and most of all character animations are just awesome.  As you ride in combat your horse is looking around itself and watching your current opponent.  Whose horse is watching you as you chase it!  One tactic is simply riding footed fighters down.  The better trained horses are fighters in their own right.
 
Note: wounding/death of people and horses is graphic, just like the real thing.  Small children need not watch you... ;-)
 
Even better is controlling the horse - just like the real thing.  Jerk them around too much and they get confused, balking and even rearing up as they cuss you out in neighs and whinnies.  This also happens when friendlies get in the way or you try to ride through your own troop.  As I first started learning I tended to "joust" too much - I've since learned actual techniques.  When I lead my troops in battle (always! screw suto-combat) I get personally involved to disrupt their attack formations and buy time for my troops to mob them, then lead off the other mounted fighters until my guys are ready for them.  You can issue basic commands though I tend to give them their own head unless I get cornered (um... "FOLLOW ME! FOLLOW ME! AIEE!")
 
I've been trying to master "simple" mounted melee with sword and shield. The first few hours there was a lot of swearing and smacking the monitor... ;-)  I'm still mastering sideswipes at full gallop (disturblingly satisfying!) but my horsemanship is enough that I don't get mobbed by the footsoldiers as much. (mobbing is bad!)  Mounted archery is extremely tough and even when I dismount it's quite difficult - as it should be.  Once I get those two areas down I'm going to focus on mounted lance.
 
About the game world: it's a small "world", but again this is a beta so they're still focusing on getting the mechanics nailed.  You appear in the only village where you can walk around, not that there is much to see.  The main thing are the trainer and the tournament master.  You can attend a tourney anytime and bet on the teams (red or blue).  Some of the tourney fighters are named and you can learn basic combat techniques talking to them in the tavern.  One of those will join up with you - "heroes" are possible though I'm uneducated on their benefit.
 
Once you train up you'll want to fight in the tourneys.  You can bet on yourself but I found that to be a losing proposition. :-O  Once I got to level 3 I found I won fairly often as long as I only bet when the competition was 3x3 and I was on the red team.  And I wasn't mounted... ;-)  I'd probably do better now that I handle horses better.
 
My main mistake getting started was treating the game traditionally - e.g. it's all about developing my character.  It is, but not just personal combat.  You will increase your own combat skills initially just to build up your resources enough to start hiring troops.  But the real goal is you grooming yourself as a leader and building up that troop.  You have to plan stat allocation to meet your skillpoint goals - not surprisingly INT and CHA are key leadership/training skills, with STA and AGI mainly for your personal skills like horsemanship and fighting.  There are other types of skillpoints that give you amazing flexibility for any playstyle.
 
Playstyles... one can be a trader, bountyhunter, or take sides in the local war and become a war hero.  Practically speaking you'll be some combination of the first two since raiders roam the countryside, and of course being the third can make the first two problematical.  You can buy your way out of a confrontation with raiders and corrupt enemy patrols, and it is relatively cheap.  There is faction for all the flavors of NPC types for townies and raiders.  If you payoff the raiders they remember you and leave you alone at least for a day or two should you re-encounter them.  Carrying spare horses in your inventory speeds up your overland speed, good since of course caravans are particularly tasty raider-bait.
 
Troops have to be paid and fed, there is morale you must maintain so feed them well (meat works best and if you run out, well they eat spare horses too!) , and there are skills you learn to train/level them over time even without encounters.  These skills include prisoner management, useful since in addition to booty/horses on a win there's also a chance you can enslave some of the losers and they fight for you.  Supposedly one can equip your troops/prisoners but I haven't yet seen the control to do that.  Also if you free the prisoners there is a chance they will ask to join you - but I'm not going to risk that now that I have a squad of dark knights in thrall to me... ;-)  I didn't realize at first prisoners fought with me and was just selling them off to a salt mine nearby - that's still a fine approach if you want to leave room to enslave better fighters over time.
 
I do not think there is an end-game in this beta release.  Basically it becomes a simple matter of making sure you have positive cashflow and riding from one cool battle to the next.  Which is the best part of the game anyway.  It did not take me long to outfit myself to the max, and fortunately personal items are not as essential as in games like Diablo.  If I could only figure out how to outfit my troops...
 
Biggest drawback is that multi-player is way off in the future.  Money being tight for them there is no immediate plan for a Mac/*IX client.  They've got an excellent proof of concept though and the game is getting a lot of attention all over the gaming community.  Hopefully they'll find a publisher.

[Merusk]

Ok I can answer two of the things you were sure on, Pocourante.

One: Equipping Troops - Basic troops equip themselves as they upgrade.  They've got set stats and equipment, so a Swadain Crossboman on your side will always be the same as one on the opponent's side.  You can change-out the equipment on (and customize the stats of) the Hero units.  Just talk to them and say you want to trade, drag what you want to give them to their inventory and say "just pay what you can" when they say they don't have enough cash.


Two: Heroes.  Heros have two big advantages to them. One, you can chose how they level-up and pickup some party-wide skills you might not want to spend (or have the points to spend) on. When they level-up go to the party window and you allocate their points like you do for your own character.  For example, the horse thief you can pickup comes with some basic tracking and pathfinding skills that work so you don't have to spend them yourself. 

However, not all party skills work this way. I found inventory size was only affected by my own inventory management skill.  Most of them do seem to carry across, though.

The second advantage is wipeouts.  If you lose a battle your entire army is lost and you get to go through the retraining process again.  Well, heroes are the only units that survive these wipes and so you at least have a few additional party members with you as you wander to rebuild.

I'd list equipping the hero as an advantage, since you'd think it would increase their potency somewhat.  So far in my experience this hasn't been the case.  My heros get KO'd in battle before most of my normal troops.  They just seem to be idiots whose main advantage is in the overland map.  I'd pick them up later if your charisma/ leadership is low (and therefore you have a limited number of unit 'stacks')


Also, a tip.  If you do wipe don't immedeatly pick up a full army of lowbie units and go wandering about the countryside looking to level them up.  The opposing forces seem to be dynamicly generated according to your party size & strength when they spawned.  Early on I was encountering 6-9 of the River Pirates, but when I had a full army, they increased to 12-20 units.  One bad encounter with a Swadain army of 54 to my 30, and large pirate armys are ripping my newly-recruited units another hole to breathe through.

[Pococurante]

Good info - thx!  Yeah I was thinking normal troops could be equipped.  Ah well.  I haven't experimented with heros simply because I hate to give up a slot for one person.  At minimum they should lead their own troops and we 'd simply stack.

Giving up a slot is why I do not take the rescue quests. I hope they rethink slots.  No way I'm sacrificing seasoned troops just to do a quest.  Though I was amused in one encounter to see the level 3 daughter was actually pretty effective with her dagger - no substitute for a squad though.

Until this game gets MP it will have a pretty limited distro.

[Arnold]

Well, I played it for a bit last night.

I really liked the combat system, though it could be a bit harsh sometimes. Taking on a mounted lancer in the arena while I was stuck on foot with a bow was practically Game Over. Trying the same with a melee weapon wasn't much better; it was Intimidating (which it would be IRL). Also, no amount of skill is going to overcome mass numbers, which is new to me.

Unfortunately, the rest of the game needs some polish, which I expected.

Now I just need to find a way to quickly scrape money together so I can have ~11 henchmen and do missions.

On foot, with a melee weapon, is very winnable against the AI lancer.  You just have to parry the lance attack, and then hit the horse as the lancer passes.  Eventually, you will take the horse out, and then you can fight the lancer on foot.

Lancers are WAY overpowered on foot, but they aren't too hard to beat.  IMO, lances are overpowered in many ways.  Just jabbing someone with that blunt tip, either from a standing (or trotting) horse, or on foot, does major damage and will destroy shields in no time.  Lances should only be doing that damage from a charge and should be doing virtually no damage from a standstill. 

[Arnold]

The drawbacks are what one would expect in an indie beta: the graphics (THE most $$$ dev't part of today's game) are crude at best

The gameplay is so good that I don't even notice this "drawback".  For years, I have said that developers concentrate too much on pretty pictures and not enough on gameplay.  This is an exception to the rule.

[WayAbvPar]

Just got started on this a couple of nights ago. Man, I am SO hooked. If/when they expand the world and gameplay options, this thing is a serious winner. I would likely pay full retail box price for it as is.

[Pococurante]

Have you checked out the player mods already available for it?  Very nice.

Last patch improved the graphics noticably.

[WayAbvPar]

No player mods yet. I want to explore the original game first, and then mess around. If they tacked on a storyline and some multiplayer action, this thing would kick unreal amounts of ass.

[Nija]

http://www.taleworlds.com/mb_download.html

0.700 is out!

# A lot of code has been re-written internally. Many things that were hard-coded into the engine are data driven now, so that both modders and us can work on those as needed.
# New Terrain types: snow and steppe.
# Terrain fits map position. Hilly near mountains, many trees in forests etc..
# New and improved weather model.
# Improvements to the face generator.
# Bastard sword can be wielded one-handed now.
# Hunting crossbow and light crossbow can be reloaded on horseback.
# Made melee combat AI more challenging.
# You can now store stuff in the chest in Zendar tavern.
# Added gloves item type and the corresponding slot in inventory window.
# An extra skill point is granted for every two points invested in intelligence now.
# An extra hit point is granted for every two points invested in strength now.
# You can no longer upgrade troops over five levels higher than your current level.
# Numerous bug fixes.
# Savegames are written in a seperate folder for every mod now.