PSA: Don't Pass on the Training Field

PSA not to skip the training field. Even if you're a seasoned M&B vet from prior games. Even if you have a bunch of Bannerlord playthroughs under your belt. The training fields still has great value.

It's not just there to help teach you 'the player' on how to swing a sword, block a strike, shoot, and control a horse. You 'the character' are also getting great XP for your actions there. Every hit on a sparring partner or target vase? Weapons XP. Every shot that hits its target? Ranged XP. Every training regime completed? A batch of bonus XP to your used weapon skills and used athletics/riding skill. Even just standing around doing nothing while the 2 sparring masters whack each other will earn you Tactics XP, so you can get some skill points in that too while you earn your weapons skill levels. The first training master is the best; he'll just stand there undefended while you whack him, giving you the most XP since weapon XP is tied to damage dealt.

You can grab a bunch of quick, easy, completely safe character levels, and train your weapons competencies up to at least the first perk no matter your backstory. Especially if your backstory did not lean into combat and focused on social, cunning and intellectual pursuits, spending some time in the training field can fill in those deficiencies. You can pick all nerd backgrounds, and in 15 minutes walk away from the training fields having all the 100 combat skill points you would have had if you picked combat backgrounds for every development point.

You can of course just skip it and go straight to a tourney to earn some weapon skill. But tourney enemies hit back, and if you go down you lose the prize and whatever you wagered. I find having at least the first perk of melee skills, the ones that improve your weapon handling skills, can be the difference between getting the drop on a tourney enemy every blow and them hitting you first, leading to your ultimate victory. Earning those perks in the training field is a safe way to skill up to make sure you win your first few tourneys, getting some decent gear to protect you in the next tourneys you join, helping you to steamroll your early start. Those 1st melee perks also give an entire tier worth of weapon skill points to your troops, taking the T1s you can hire from the surrounding villages and making them effectively T2s.

You could also go straight to the arena to practice your skills there too, and earn some coin at the same time. But you cannot train all the same skills there; there is no free Tactics XP at the arena, there is no Riding XP to be had at the arena (only in tourneys), and you don't get to pick which weapon skill you'll be learning (unless you loot a different weapon off a defeated enemy).

So if you're doing a new start, give the fields some of your time. Or at least start the game, go make yourself lunch while your brother speaks to you, and come back to see that your character has read the first few chapters of Sun Tzu's Art of War while you ate.

submitted by /u/Odd-Wheel5315
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