Staying Alive in the Field

Here are some tips for staying alive while around and about during a war (whether or not you have an army with you.)

If you are campaigning with an army the best thing, of course, is to run all your combat in one contiguous on-line session. You can't be surprised easily that way. If you are being relentlessly hounded by many or superior forces, you can disband your army and go outside the keep of an inactive fief until the heat is off. Of course, this is often not possible because it's time consuming and expensive (because you are online all the time). Thus if you must log off with your army then open to discovery and attack while you are not on line, consider the following measures.

If you have a largish army you can place it outside the "hot" area and set it to retreat and hope for the best. Good chance of losing men but a decent chance that you won't be defeated to the point of capture.

However, you don't always have a large army and the enemy often does, so another option, and the one that often works, is to disband your army and move to the nearest inactive fief. When you are alone outside the keep of an inactive fief, the enemy has real problems getting his hands on you. Generally, the two ways of capturing you are by seizure and kidnap. By being outside the keep of an inactive fief you render seizure, the easiest of the two methods, impossible. The other option, kidnapping, is difficult, as it requires the use of an NPC who is both skilled in kidnap AND has a high loyalty, AND speaks the language of the fief you are in. The best kidnapper in the world is useless with a low loyalty or the "wrong" language. This combo of high loyalty and kidnap skill is hard to find, particularly from the comparatively small pool of NPC's who don't speak French or English. You can possibly take advantage of this fact by choosing an inactive fief that speaks a non-French/English language like (D)utch, (B)asque, (C)eltic, (G)erman, (H)ispanic or (I)talian. Plan ahead and know where these fiefs are and use this trick if possible/practical. It also helps if your intrinsics (Management, Leadership, Guile, Stature, Protection , Endurance and Attack) are high. The higher they are, the harder to kidnap you.

Another thing that will increase your security is to have a minimum of NPC's with you. Each time you move, the game must update your new position and the positions of all with you. The more NPC's, the longer the move takes. The longer the move takes, the easier for the enemy to do nasty things to you. And DON'T take your wife with you into combat. She is the maker of heirs and heirs are your future in the game. She could be captured and killed (it has happened). She could be captured and ransomed (expensive). She could catch the plague (it will happen). Keep the dear lady safe at home.