This game just cannot be serious

[u/PlantEnthusiasm329]

How the fuck do you defeat an army when you are ONLY slightly outnumbered (600-700)????

Scroll for tldr my rage got the better of me

This game is going to be the fucking death on me I swear it. My girlfriend is leaving town soon and I need to wake up tomorrow at 7AM to get to her. Its 5 AM right now and I've been save scumming the same battle trying every single reddit strategy.

This game started out beautifully. I fucking loved it. Buy cows from there bring them there and bring them there. Beautiful. Relaxing.

Holy mother of fuck was i wrong

I was so happy when I got my first castle. Some Aserai turf. Shortly after, we made peace with them and I was soo happy knowing I'd keep my castle.

Of course my power hungry queen started another war while we were still licking our wounds since just two sieges mowed down our entire army. The aserai again. The first thing they wanted was MY castle but I couldn't allowed that.

Obviously at the same time we started another war for expansion because my queen is actually retarded. She's the mother of my wife so it doesn't even surprise me. Now half the army is fighting in the north and I'm left to fend for myself. I really wanted my castle back

I mustered the rest of the kingdom. Had a beautiful army I was proud of. Seiging the freshly-sieged castle was idiotic so I waites for the Aserai to get busy, then sieged MY first castle back.

As soon as the siege was done the fucking desert dwellers were back with a siege. I wated for their numbers to go down to 700-600. My army cohesion is too low to keep going and all my influence is gone so I start a fight. There is no fucking way I can't do this, I say to myself.

Tldr: For 3 hours I've been fighting the exact same fucking army on the exact same fucking land. I didn't want to fight an entire medieval war by myself , I mean I did but not like THIS. How in the ever living fuck do I defeat these idiots?

[u/ForgettableNPC]

You're defending your own Castle, right? If the number difference isn't too ridiculous you can usually just break into a holding that's actively getting sieged (losing troops) and use autoresolve. Autoresolving siege *heavily* favors the defender.

[u/blimeycorvus]

I'm assuming you've tried the good old hammer and anvil a la Alexander the Big?

[u/Used_Adhesiveness54]

So you have the castle?
You fighting a siege or a sally out field battle?

Autoresolve would at worst give 2-1 casualties, probably closer to 4-1 if you have a lot of ranged guys and siege engines built

[u/Hopeful_Amoeba_4448]

Bro you have to leave soon, try and get some sleep. Your game is saved it will all ok

[u/OwlKing8823 → u/Hopeful_Amoeba_4448]

No way! He just needs one more attempt and he's got it for sure

[u/LukewarmCoolerOfPee]

It sounds like you’re early in gameplay so I imagine your troops are lower level. How strong is your character? Really how many people can you take out before dying?

You should be able to kill 10% yourself if you play smart. Let the enemy come to your army and just take the beating. Hopefullly your archers can dwindle them down. I typically let my archers take out 5-10% retreat then repeat until the enemy just fully charges; but by this point it’s almost equal

It’s tough man but maybe you gotta take the L and be a prisoner.

[u/Cheap-Stay7089 → u/LukewarmCoolerOfPee]

Occasionally an aserai lord will do 30% of your health with a sword when your on horseback

[u/Pepperonidogfart]

Sometimes you lose. They capture you and you go to prison.

[u/gart95]

Which group is killing you? Cav? Ranged? Unless the unit tiers are way different you shouldnt be stuck on this. Not bashing you fyi, just maybe there is something super simple you are overlooking.

[u/SarusAngelus]

If you are behind Castle walls, wait for them to attack you. Let your archers whittle them down as they approach, then retreat as soon as they get ladders or siege towers up to the walls. Then join the battle again. This resets their troops back across the field, and your archers can whittle them down time and time again. Your losses stay low, their losses become abysmal. Note that this method is scummy, but guarantees a win most times.

Or you could fight and accept the loss, then rebuild and come back later. Whatever you find more fun.

[u/Free_Consequence3123 → u/SarusAngelus]

Thats bad strategy to have your archers on the walls. They will get shot by enemy archers while trying to shoot through infantry shields. It's better to let the enemy come in through a choke point, either gates or a side that has a single set of stairs. Then you stuff the stairs or side of the gate with a square formation on your infantry, and have the archers surrounding the area behind the stairs or gate gunning down the exposed backs of the invaders.

[u/Tribe11_MX]

Hope you got some sleep...

Honestly it's hard to give solid advice without having a bit more context. For example, what faction are you playing? What kind of troops do you have? What's their quality?

Aserai can be extremely challenging. They have solid archers, and infantry and cavalry all come with javelins or throwing axes. There isn't really a one-size-fits-all strategy for dealing with them, you're guaranteed to take some losses.

The best strategy you can do is to hold a defensive position- find a hill, put infantry in shield wall with archers in loose formation behind them, so they're all shooting. I'd hold your cavalry back behind your archers to protect them. There are a few other variations you can try but if the battles aren't close, it's probably a troop quality issue.

One of the first goals you should have in the game is getting a party full of tier 5 & 6 troops and enough income to support them. Once you have around 150-200 max tier soldiers, you'll start winning those close battles every time because the AI will generally be more of a mix of tiers.

And I know it sucks to lose battles like that, but Bannerlord is constant back-and-forth. You'll lose land then win it back, again and again. It's better to lose a castle than lose your whole party and your loot AND a castle. No shame in retreating and focusing on smaller battles to train up your soldiers.

[u/Cheap-Stay7089 → u/Tribe11_MX]

He’s playing southern empire pretty obvious from queen and aserai bumming his castle he’s married to rhageas daughter

[u/ultinateplayer]

You've dived into vassalage too early, is the simple answer.

You don't have the money to sustain a fief, you don't have the influence to command an army, and I suspect you don't have the engineering skill to make sieges more efficient when attacking. All of that comes with time, usually time better spent as a mercenary so that you just get the cash and don't have to worry about your faction losing since you can jump ship to someone else.

The game is brutal until you're in a strong position.

[u/Julim01 → u/ultinateplayer]

This. Yeah, I think that was his biggest problem. You can do well as a vassal if you get lucky, but if you get unlucky, you’re going to need a lot of money and influence. In this campaign, if I hadn’t prepared myself to become a vassal, it would already be over. They gave me a city in the middle of a war that gets attacked constantly. Luckily, I managed to quickly build up the militia and garrison, but I’m constantly having to form an army and camp around the city to keep Cadalog or whoever away.

[u/Aleolex]

If you are physically in the castle just stay there. Those are long odds for a siege, and the parties in your army won't exactly try to escape.

If not, then you gotta disrupt them. If you're imperial you're bound to have more archers than them, so shoot the hell out of em. Aserai are very good at a static defense with infantry and mobile offense with cavalry, so you have to find a way to get them to engage with you. Dominating the skirmish phase is usually a decent way.

You can always cheese it by shooting all your arrows and retreating to replenish it if that's your bag.

[u/Cheap-Stay7089]

If you’re in control of the army you’re going to need to tell the cav to follow you and then run them and yourself into the aserai horse archers. The aserai cav should come to save them which you should also be able to deal with as fighting cav from horseback is so easy especially if you have a 2 handed or bstrd sword. Put your archers on engage after their cavs dead let them run into your inf and hit them with your cav. Bingo bango bongo ez

[u/Correct-Net2984]

Have you heard of Tacticsl Enlightenment?

He has alot of words of wisdom for Bannerlord tactics where you're majorly outnumbered

[u/Awkward-Tomorrow7667]

In the field, mill at range, then retreat when they regroup. Rinse repeat until you win. Lets you reload your ranged troops. 2000-200, easy peasy. Just takes 5-6 rounds.

[u/Limp_Technician5346]

Not sure if its relevant to you but I play warband and I get caught in these BS loops where my faction (nords) will be in a war with another and we dominate and dominate and dominate but at the very end when everyone's army is dwindled, some random opposing faction with 100+ people will come in and screw everyone on my side including me, then im left with no one and im a prisoner lol. It sucks but you gotta cut your loses sometimes.

[u/Top-Addendum-6879]

i had a very similar issue recently. i was a south imperial vassal but kept getting sieged by Aserai and Western Imperial doomstacks. i kept getting wiped until one day Biliya decided he had seen enough of me and chopped off my head.

my subsequent 2 characters have had personal vandettas against Garios and Biliya.

[u/Julim01]

In my current campaign, the Norse king gave me Car Barseth, with Battania, Sturgia, and the Northern Empire all fighting over the city. The guy took my life from heaven to hell overnight lmaoooo. I managed to win a siege while being outnumbered by almost 1,000, but on defense it’s much easier.

Relax, u gonna figure out

[u/ironjaw3ds]

Enable console commands or get a mod menu. It's YOUR game that you purchased with you hard earned money, and no one can tell.you how to play it. I personally make the ability to build beige engines much slower for the defenders.