Just kite them, and shoot blindly into the crowd, and your archery/throwing/crossbow skill will quickly improve.
Now, if you're all decked out in a full suit of late game armor, their rocks will just bounce right off of you, doing 0 - 1 dmg per hit. These guys are who I would recommend going after whenever you can, as they're pretty easy targets for soloing, as their ranged weapons are very weak, they have no shields, and their melee weapons are mostly short ranged swords.
Types Of Bandits & How To Deal With Them Looters The charge weave can be ignored, however, if the enemy has no more ranged weapons, although it is very important when charging archers. Weaving consists of charging towards an idividual straggler, or the edge of the enemy formation, and subtly wiggling your horse during the charge to avoid missile fire (charge weave), weaving towards the enemy right as you make contact (Contact weave), and weaving out to better avoid their melee retaliation (escape weave), or the melee attacks of the other members of their formation. This one goes hand-in-hand with the former technique, as you'll need it when getting so close to their line, especially with spearmen. This is when you should strike, either with your ranged or melee weapon. You want to ride right past them, to the point where they almost get bushwacked by your horse's tail, right at the point where they raise their weapon and lower their shield. But the M&B AI are programed to hold up their shield at all times, until they're near an enemy, in which they will lower their shield and raise their weapon, preparing to strike, and at a closer range, they will actually attempt to strike with their weapon. Exposing Their FacesĪfter taking out the enemy archers, you'll find that you've now got to deal with a solid brick of shields. Charge, lure the infantry away, charge, rinse & repeat until all archers are wiped off the field. After this is done, charge the archers, 1 by 1, while strafing & wiggling as much as you can, and start to pick them off.
So here's how you do this: Kite the enemy in an uneven circle, luring them in a particular direction, until the enemy infantry is seperated from their archers. And since these guys are your #1 threat while soloing, you want to get them out of the way ASAP. Now, unlike the melee infantry that run at you in a straight line, archers, as long as you stay within their range, will just stand in one spot. Doing this is actually quite helpful even when you have an actual army, as it makes the enemy waste their very limited supply of throwing spears, saving many of your own men from dying right before the fight even starts. When the enemy still has their throwables, it's a very good idea to keep an aditional 40-70 meters away from the enemy, as the AI isn't very good at leading their shots, so almost all of their projectiles will be drunkenly flung onto the ground behind your horse. The actual process of kiting is actually pretty simple. Kiting is a very important part of soloing, and it's what you'll spend 90% of a battle doing. Remember to take out the enemy archers before using this thing, because you can't have your shield and bow out at the same time. This will allow you to kite the enemy, whilst still inflicting casualties on the enemy. You won't really need it too much, however, when the enemy's ranged attacking capabilities are neutralized. You should always have your shield facing the enemy archers, and only have it down when facing directly away from the enemy, attacking, couching, and when you have your ranged weapon out.
This one is much less important than having a horse, but crutial none-the-less. In short, a horse keeps you 10 steps ahead of the enemy, and you absolutely need it to survive as a solo. A horse allows you to get & stay out of tight situations, it allows you to swoop in at oppertune times, it allows you to kite the enemy, it allows you to chase down routers & stragglers, and many other things. This is, by far, the absolute most important part of fighting bandits solo. Soloing is a risky, tricky, thing to pull off in M&B:WB, but with this simple guide, you'll (probably) find yourself singlehandedly racking up more bandit corpses than you can count.ĭisclaimer: While the techniques in this guide are somewhat universal to most M&B Modules, this guide is directed towards the Native module, and some bits of information may not provide helpful in other modules & entries in the franchise.