How to Solo(With Own Party) Siege Towns/Castles - Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

How to Solo(With Only Our Own Party/120-140ish men)Siege Towns and Castles - Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord
In this video I show you guys some tips and tricks on how to go about getting your first town/castle on your own, without the help of anyone else.
This is all done in the hardest difficulty settings except for the map movement speed.
Best Companions Video - • Top 7 BEST Companions ...
Content Table
00:00 Intro
00:14 Companions Needed
01:37 Training Troops and Preparations
03:54 Winning Whilst Outnumbered
05:42 How to Assault Castle/Town Walls
07:44 Outro
08:00 Endscreen
Thank you guys for watching ! Hope this video was helpful.
▬ Socials ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
► Twitch: / totalwarks
#Bannerlord
#Besiege
#Castles

[@chasestoltz7570]

My current play through is a solo only playthrough and here's a couple things i've found to be helpful through it. 1: Make sure you're focusing on building up your stewardship from beginning of game (set yourself as quartermaster and get +9 food moral bonus), the party size increase is really important and its really easy and quick to build up. 2: Have someone in your party focused on medicine (i just used my character, but to be honest its a lot easier to recruit someone because leveling medicine is really annoying now). Having high medicine (in surgeon role) is a must for soloing a seige/kingdom, if you dont have it you will loose to many troops to be able to continue wars for any meaningful amount of time. 3: Make sure to level your companions early. Its easy to wait for the perfect companion to come along but id recommend buy a decent one and leveling it your self. Companions stats are really weird they are often maxed out learning capability wise, so its hard to level them. An easy way to get around this is to have them smith a really high level weapon (150 plus is the sweet spot imo). If they have no smithing skill it should level them around 40 levels of smithing, and almost instantly grant them a skill point so you can actually start specing them the way you want. Keep in mind that high level companions have their skill already assigned, so they may not be as useful as you think since they might have crap perks. Where as a lower level one youve raised up since the begging you can spec the exact way you want. 3: Focus your characters build to buff your troops. Most troop buffs are in the vigor, control, and endurance trees. The small percentages might seem like very little, but they make a big difference in your troops survivability vs the enemy. 4: Make sure to do as many of the easy quests as you can in the area you plan to recruit troops from. This is essential if you want to be able to get an army together quick enough to defend your lands and garrison you fiefs. 5: Do all the battle quests you can (in 1.5.5 they are the army of poachers quest (found in towns) and the extortion by deserters quest (found in villages)) This is a great way to level your troops, and if you dont ask for any money it increases relations by around 9. 6: Keep track of whats going on in the world constantly, best way to get your own castle/town is to go to war when a kingdom is weak from another conflict. When the game is within the first 400 days of in game time. Its is fairly easy to find towns with only 300 defenders. 7: Before going to war, max out your troops to their highest tier, and have a prisoner roster full of prisoners that are ready to be recruited. 8: Dont do simulated battle ever when you actually go to war, you will loose a lot more troops. 9: Before sieging a town/castle, fight as many lords as you can and take them as prisoners. Its really easy to win fights against around 100 troops, and not loosing any meaningful amount of troops. But if you siege and get attacked by a large army you will loose a lot of men. Right now the best way to take a town/castle is by getting 4 trebuchet (should be all you need) and destroying the walls. Ive done a couple different tests and destroying the walls by far had the highest amount of troops left at the end of the siege. You dont need to build any other siege equipment if you crack the walls. 10: Forming your own kingdom will give you a lot of troops through policies, so make sure you plan out when you want to enact them (you get 4 when founding, and its 100 influence each after that). At this point, you cant engage to heavily until you reach clan tier 5. At that point you should have a little under 400 men in your party alone, which is more than enough to take on a whole kingdom with just the support of your companion parties. 11: Press you advantage, and take a couple fiefs back to back. This makes it easier since you already have most lords as prisoners. You should ideally be able to take 3 or 4 castles/towns in your fist war if you planned properly and minimised troop losses. Hope this helps anyone who reads it. Got kinda tired of typing so i left quite a bit out but this should be some good points for starting.

[@Lex4122]

So much great Info. Thx a lot for taking your time to write all that down :)

[@ianedits2905]

Words exceeded . Please rewrite again

[@thesiixth7770]

Some things are different now with subsequent updates. I simulate a lot of battles against lords with lower troops and because of my surgeon and tactics level we have a really good chance of winning simulations which comes in really clutch when you just got knocked out in a siege and you yourself can’t fight but you do still have men who can . Simulating saved Garontor castle for me

[@Dr_Glockt0pus]

Thank you m'lord. Very helpful info for a first time player like me. I bought the Xbox version yesterday 😎

[@lauritsballing2629]

You can put sige artillery in reserve?! This is genuinely life changing my dude

[@TotalWarKS]

yep

[@PsychoFreedom]

its easy now XD

[@freedombro6502]

You always could lol

[@Travster93]

I figured that out the other day and it changed my sieges definitely. Makes solo siege wins almost guaranteed

[@derpyjunior6301]

Didn’t know that either

[@anotheruser676]

The mod your using 'Control Your Allies After Death' is a true game changer. No waiting for your witless troops to figure things out, you can still issue orders and mow down your foes.

[@TotalWarKS]

well it makes the game less difficult and more enjoyable for me, alternatively you can play more cautiously which I didnt because I knew i have this mod

[@queefedworm]

@@TotalWarKS I notice you can speed up the game while on the field, is it because your using control your allies or is it a separate mod? I lost this feature after getting new mods and don't remember where the function came from

[@TotalWarKS]

@@queefedworm yeah it is

[@Davonskevort]

I took my first city with 50 guys vs 400. you just got to use lots of archers and leave the battle before they get into melee combat. the goal is to have the town attack the army by looking small and week. Also you can cause rebellions by buying all the grain in a town until loyalty drops to under 25 and just wait for a revolt.

[@lilcruz5422]

"but it shouldn't really change anything" Proceeds to give out orders, breaking the balance of the game

[@TotalWarKS]

... I may have just done that

[@GalickGun]

Thank you so much dude. I never realized the retreat strategy. Helped me so much!

[@bigbean2587]

thanks man i never knew you can eserve seige units

[@mandu9520]

'try not to die, this whole plan depends on us staying alive'

[@TotalWarKS]

xD

[@vaclavlapcik6970]

guerilla tactics are deadly but effective

[@NicoCoeurDeLion]

This is amazing! Thank you I had no idea about the reserve. Also when you don’t build a tower and use ladders the troop rush to the walls and your archers can pick them off

[@rjjr3449]

Ive played the retreat cheese in a few builds. Alot of fun with an all horse archer army but gets boring. They do need to fix retreat mechanics. Ranged is like smithing in the game, makes everything easy mode. Heres a trick, use smithing to increase companion levels to 30 asap.

[@TotalWarKS]

i feel like smithing is straight up cheating, retreat is not as bad, i wouldnt use it if elite units can actually fight against low tier units even outnumbered, back in warband quality of troops matter more

[@rjjr3449]

@@TotalWarKS ranged plus retreat is a pretty bad cheese. A way to soften the cheese factor is to actually have your guys retreat the map before you do, so no esc/exit button. At least this way its a little more fair because you can lose units. Even so, horse archers plus any retreat is even worse than smithing. All you have to do is put them in follow.

[@rjjr3449]

@@TotalWarKS imma try an all heavy cavalry build. I dont see it working as well but itd be fun charging a full shield wall lol.

[@rjjr3449]

@@TotalWarKS as far as troop quality vs quantity, alot of it has to do with weapon collision. Thats how 5 peasants can kill a single elite melee without losing one, on a straight up melee of course.

[@Sercer25]

How do you level your companions to 30 with smithing? Getting stonewalled by the level/attribute/skill cap. Also, Ive been playing a 50/50 inf and cav build. Have my inf charge the front and smash them from behind with my cav. Doesnt always work but its pretty rewarding when it does.

[@tinyconspiracy9997]

Nice concise video tutorial. Most people don't realize the effort required to make an 8 minute video like this. Well done!

[@TotalWarKS]

thx bro :)

[@franciscorodriguez9714]

I know this vid is old, but I'm new to the game and on my first playthrough, I couldn't figure out what the hell was going on half the time. Your vids are the best I've seen, and your archer battle cheese strategy is literally a game changer. I figured that out when I was attacked by myself very very early in the game- that I could fire, retreat and whittle them down, but like a dummy, I did not even think I could do it in full battles. Thanks!

[@TotalWarKS]

im glad it helped !!!

[@coolcat1530]

"shouldn't change anything" - enters John Wick mode

[@michaeltomaszewski1534]

SO HELPFUL THANK YOU

[@andrewvice4065]

I've been running a family and companions run only, no standing army no recruiting troops, with death on in realistic... It's insane but learning to take feifs in a 10vs1000 is awesome currently at 0 companions left alive and 252 angry cousins fukers whooping all of the kingdom and owning over half the map.... Must add any troops gained are just garrisoned and not used in the army because without militia won't hold a single feifs, but zero battles have had a troop in them with me and I've loved it.

[@Lopsinho]

I have my 4 companions lead their own parties. Then I make an army and invite them. So I'm running around the map with 530 men that are all mine. Only issue is that their troops die easily and you need to refill them often. I am not sure if they upgrade their troops or not.

[@nickyliu8762]

The downside with the retreat option is, that you don't gain any renown, influence, troop experience, or loot from the fight. Only from the last battle, that you actually win. And you also don't regenerate any health lost until the battle is actually over. If you really need to even the odds, or need to keep casualties at a minimum, then this exploit is vital. At the siege battle, where I breached the walls first, I also tried using the siege onagers to take pot shots into the breach, while telling the troops to stay back, so they don't get shot, and then retreat when running out of ammunition. But that's incredibly tedious, since onagers' accuracy can be crazy. So I don't recommend this.

[@KingDanny9]

LOL at you losing in the end though.

[@MrPepperonikorv]

Are the Fire Onager better then trebuchet for taking down the walls?

[@TotalWarKS]

yes they shoot faster, i personally dont use trebuchet

[@rogerrogers8834]

So you died and lost everything, awesome guide bro

[@TotalWarKS]

🤣

[@sam7mann]

Best way is, join a kingdom as a vassal create a few parties so you can create an army without needing influence. Conquer the settlement you want and then leave the kingdom. After just pay for peace if they attack you for leaving the kingdom with the settlement. Or just give them some over priced javelins XD

[@keremhassoy9556]

Happy new year!

[@TotalWarKS]

happy new year friend :)

[@luisfelipe4797]

Nice :D

[@isaiah7512]

What about defending the castle after you’ve taken it? Especially solo when you won’t have too many troops

[@jackt4595]

Question is range units still broken,I only played the game in early access and I haven’t touch it since,but I remember range units were so broken you could solo almost any army

[@Ryzanify44]

That cheese strat sucks the fun out of playing hell no I’ll never do that

[@vaclavlapcik6970]

i hate whn i sieging with smaller army and then comes the big boyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

[@bengaming3649]

Oddly, I had totally forgot about this strategy (exploit). It is EXACTLY the same as was used in Warband.

[@angrykookaburra7404]

grinding looters.......the moment i hit clan tier 1 I forget they exist.

[@cameronhvass9549]

Whats the mod he uses to play as a unit after death?

[@unknownorigin7433]

To complete (a challenging endeavor) by oneself rather than with a partner or as part of a team: soloed the north face of Mt. Everest. [Italian, from Latin sōlus, ; see s(w)e- in Indo-European roots.]

[@infinitesalsa4422]

just a heads up u cant recruit t5+ prisoners t4 and under are fine tho also retreating is pretty scummy and just makes the game boring try chasing down enemy lords and chucking them in your dungeons so u dont get disturbed while sieging

[@100procent2]

On my map I have many powerful wariors but any with skills like medicine or engineering. And one more type is missing and this is already over 5th year in the game ,so it must be bad luck in generator 😂

[@urosjovanovic8625]

I have one question, can you help me? I just finished rebuilding my clan and i have 11.5k denars, and a garrison of 23 troops with one company, what i should do next? Thanks!

[@sanchopansa8041]

Surrender

[@RyetheBred]

This is super lame, he's just a retreat abuser.

[@TotalWarKS]

yes, you can kinda do it without retreat by kiting the AIs, but ur archers will run out of ammo which you will need to use retreat anyways unless u have any bright ideas to share

[@Yaybuttons898]

*laughs in guerilla tactics irl*

[@ronanvankessel6329]

@@TotalWarKS my idea is to build a bigger army

[@LordAbyssos]

@@TotalWarKS yes u can marry with a high lvl steward(quartermaster) woman this way u can add more troops,if u wanna keep only use ur party, also at lvl 4 kingdom u can create army with companions wich make this process way less painfull :P also trebuchets do alot more damage and have alot more damage..catapult allmost die with 1 hit from ballista. also wheres ur brother? hehe

[@bengaming3649]

@@TotalWarKS Use mods to correct the party size issue but I guess that is just as much a cheat/exploit and using the Retreat Strategy.

[@ankelaostheweird905]

I forgot cheese was a means of buttering your way out.

[@ArtystaKoneser]

When i give order retreat my troops don't want fall back Why? I play on ps5

[@TotalWarKS]

are u too close to the enemies ?

[@ArtystaKoneser]

@@TotalWarKS even when i start siege ;)

[@TotalWarKS]

@@ArtystaKoneser must be a bug, never happened to me hmmmmmm

[@Pendji]

Wanna know the fun part? Engineering wasn't implemented at this time. It did NOTHING.

[@artyomfromsib]

Good video. But that is not how you say "onagar"

[@thepastaman1]

How the fuck have they not fixed retreat cheesing?

[@dalmacietis]

Cheese.

[@johnc.delossantos6559]

You must be berserker

[@gutek5930]

We all knew how to siege... Tell us how to siege end keep it for more than 15min :D

[@CornG4397]

So annoying they don't let you rally clan members as starting you own kingdom is a pain. You forced to cheese and exploit the game at the moment so I might just cheat for this bit as spending 2 hours sieging one castle is boring lmao

[@kikisagitarius3009]

Soyboy playstyle, chad play it bannerlord difficulty

[@TotalWarKS]

the style that everyone plays... not chad

[@serainman]

only one tip to add: uninstall