Part 6

Learn how to recruit unique troops like women and Manhunters, manage party morale with food variety, and understand experience gain through combat and training in Mount & Blade: Warband.

Recruitment:

You can recruit prisoners by liberating them. This is the only way to get certain troops, such as women who can promote to Sword Sisters, and Manhunters who specialize in prisoner capture using blunt weapons. Hiring mercenaries involves finding armed men in taverns, with fees scaled to their number and type. To recruit prisoners directly, go to the Camp tab, select 'take an action,' and then 'recruit prisoners.' This is often unsuccessful and penalizes morale, with recruited prisoners prone to desertion.

Training and Experience:

Soldiers and heroes gain experience through combat success and training. Soldiers earn experience for their kills/knockouts, and the party receives a bonus after battles based on size. The Trainer skill provides a daily experience bonus to party members with a lower level than the Trainer skill user, scaled by the user's rank. Training fields offer sparring and other training methods, but are generally tedious and offer meager experience gains for the time invested.

Promotions:

When units are ready for promotion, a message will appear. In the party tab, troops ready for promotion will have a '+' symbol next to their names. Clicking on them reveals promotion choices, which cost denars based on the promotion level. Heroes ready to level up also display a '+' symbol; their level-ups are handled by asking them about their skills.

Maintenance and Morale:

Party maintenance involves morale, wages, and medicine. Morale is a number found in the Reports tab under 'View Party Morale Report.' Key factors influencing morale are base morale (unchanging), Leadership skill rank, and party size penalty. Primary ways to boost morale are food variety and recent events. Each food item indicates its morale bonus and remaining units. Balancing inventory weight with the need for frequent village stops is crucial. Extra units of food do not stack morale bonuses but last longer.

* Beef, Chicken, and Pork spoil after a few days, becoming useless. ** Olives and Grapes are heavy and have few units, making them impractical as army food but useful for production and trade.

Having one of each food item provides +70 morale, but due to spoilage and weight, a realistic cap is around +45 morale. High morale is crucial for map speed, which aids strategic control in battles.