This is the part of Warband that I am quickly beginning to loathe. He let’s me know that I can work for the Khanate as a mercenary, and after I’ve done some work for them they’ll consider letting me be a full fledged member. He also lets me know that the Khanate’s admiral is in the field and looking for willing men to help him with a task. I meet one of the petty lords in Tulga’s main castle and swear my fealty to the Khanate. I’ve decided to align myself with the Kherig Khanate, mostly because that’s the region where my game started and mostly because I happened to be close to Tulga when I decided to get serious about beating this game. As much as it hurts me to say it, Ash Tray will have to try his hand at adventuring once more. I’ve spent a lot of time and energy focusing on winning this game as a merchant, only the points I’ve gained from being rich are almost immediately cancelled out by the points I’ve already lost. Aside from saving that merchant’s brother, I haven’t aligned myself to any faction, or done any quests. I’ve also not been the friendliest person in Calradia. 700 points may not seem like a lot, but I’m already 100 in the hole for days passed in game. After the dust settles and the fighting is done, I want to hang my hat up Sam Malone style. With all the fluctuation in scoring it will take a lot of time to retire as a noble, so I’ve decided to set my my sights on a realistic target: Certain actions such as making friends and controlling towns earns points, while days spent and battles lost will garner negative points. There are several ways to earn points, and a lot of ways to lose them too.

Warband counts every action you take in Calradia and assigns it a point value. Considering I bought the game for under 5 dollars, I’d say I got my money’s worth. I don’t want to spend any more time on Warband than I have to, I’ve already plunged almost 20 hours into it. While there is a certain appeal to being one of the more influential leaders in a fictional world, I have a list to complete and eventually games to buy.

There are 10 possible outcomes for Ash Tray once I decide to retire, ranging from being a beggar or a thief, all the way up to being an established noble within one of the factions of Calradia. So I’ve finally decided to take a gander at the win conditions and scoring for Mount and Blade Warband.

Mount and blade warband retire