Complete Rhodok Faction Overview 

rhodok strategy in a nutshell: If i cant have calvary *NOBODY CAN*

I remember trying to take a castle from them. Jesus it was d-day.

I don't like playing for them, but I hate playing against them. Those castle sieges ended up being just a long giant block of red battle messages thanks to the sharpshooters up on the ramparts.

It's kinda weird. Every time I played M&B, the Rhodok faction was getting shit on from everyone. But now, when I finally decided to start a new game and joined the Rhodoks, they became extremely offensive without me even involved in battles. In few days they out of nowhere overrun Swadia, with only Dirim left

The fact that the Rhodoks don't have any cavalry makes sense. they live in a very mountainous region with little flatland. This land is also quite defensible in the first place. So not only do they not really need cavalry, as they would almost always be on the defensive, they really couldn't even use it

Rhodoks stole my heart first time I ever played M&B. Honestly though, in the field, using the terrain to your advantage can still make all the difference against cav.

You better not be a MANHUNTER

Always been my favourite faction. I don’t know why, they are almost never the biggest but at the same time they Almost never fall because of their immense castles and amazing defensive sign troops

I joined them simply because the king offered me a village for vassalation. I honestly had no idea the ranged units were so powerful

Rhobloks

Full Sharpshooter army :P Totaly viable. T5 crosbowmen that double up as T4 infantry

I love playing Rhodoks. I often make up my entire army of just their troops, and lack of cavalry never became a problem due to how dumb the enemy AI is. What I usually do is have more than half of my army as sharpshooters, with rest filled with heroes and sergeants. You plant them on a hill right on a spawn. All the cavalry I ever need is me :) You need a tanky horse, one of those heavy chargers with 50+ armor. A nice big shield with 3-4 points in shield skill, and another one on your back(optional, but good against armies with lots of archers). You charge ahead towards enemy and start harassing them. 9 times out of 10 instead of marching towards your army they idiotically start trying to chase you. Which isn't an easy feat, considering by the end game you are like an armored train. Keep looping around an open area in front of your sharpshooters, giving them nice target practice. Don't forget to kill an enemy or two here and there, skimming around edges of enemy pack so they keep following you. Due to this even hordes of Swadian knights were never an issue, since most of them don't even make it to my front line. Once enemies are close, there's usually not much left of them. Let your sergeants charge in, and mop up the sorry leftovers of what used to be an army.

I love the rhodoks... They're so good in the meele. I can basically use the same strat and win. Sergeants in the front and sharps in behind them. Plus, they pay for themselves.

Rhodoks were actually the first faction I ever played in the original M&B, and they were the first I used in Warband. Now I'm more of a Vaegir boy, but occasionally I'll dip down and pick me up some Rhodok recruits to try to get me some Sharpshooters! Mix it up! Mercenaries next! :D

My favourite kingdom. I love their army. Some time ago I've just conquered Calradia with Rhodoks in my game, and Graveth always gives many lands to you. I ended up with 13 cities, a few castles and around 20 villages. The final war was against Vaegirs. It was only me and Graveth with army of 1500+ soldiers taking their remaining castles one by one. Rest of lords left Calradia before.

one problem with Rhodoks and that vanilla mount and blade warband lack proper formation control and the ability to brace polearms which meant rhodoks line which meant to stop cavalry is far too thin to be effective

I remember my swadian game we were on a campaign we had 700 soldiers vs 1400 Rhodok on the like 110 difficulty we took out like 1200 but our 700 got virtually wiped out we still took veluca when the war ended

Ah, bucket helmets and tower shields yes plz!

I as a Rhodok main... It only takes 45 Sergeants and 45 Sharpshooters to conquer al Calradia...

I made a character for each faction. For the Rhodok play through I played as Lady Natalia. (Queen Natalia for late game because I am now the Queen of the lands) I used a ton of RD.Sergeants and RD.Sharpshooters but as for Calvary I used sword sisters. I also had 2 other troop types. One was Guardians which would follow and protect me as we go into battle and Peasants… I don’t normally like have tier 1 troops with me so I call them all peasants. Lol my other character names are Lord ThunderCock as a proud Swadian man. HighKhan Bojack is my Khergit person. Ali Salad is my Sarranid person. I don’t have a Nord or Vaegris character sadly.

Thank you for this is a very informative and unbiased opinion which is rare with videos like this

Its the 3rd time damn it , make an overview of vaegirs.

Hi. Will you make Floris mod faction overview video with expanded troop tree in furure? It would be interesting for lot of fans i think.

lol Just yesterday i haf an army of 75 and about 50 were rhodok sergeants and sharpshooters and took 2 castles after i wanted to take more but an army of lords (swadian) came to confront Me with 349 men lol i best them and i had 2 sergeants killed

Very cool that you are able to make these vids so quickly, nice work keep it up

I'm playing as a Rhodok right now. I have a full army of sharpshooters, it's like having some machine guns. They are very good at taking castles. I think they are better than the swadian knights for this. Btw, the tactic is to run around with your hunter horse (medium resistance, medium speed) in order to make the enemy cavalry spin around like idiots.

They are a lot like the Italian City States of the Middle Ages. Excellent crossbows (reminiscent of Genoese Crossbowmen, strong spear militias, not much to boast about in Cavalry, typically reserved for the Nobility. Swadia is kind of like France or the Holy Roman Empire in how they tend to fight. Strong Heavy cavalry and Dismounted Knights. They often us maces which were especially popular among the Germans.

i was looking for this video 2 days ago, couldn't find it until now haha

I get all of my infantry from Nords, heavy horses from Swadia, Basically any mounted units from Sarranids, Anti-Cavalry and Archers from Rhodoks, and horse archers from the sarranids and khergits. I just get all around units from Vaegirs

I once lost 100+ men in a siege against 24 troops, Rhodok sergeants and Sharpshooters, at Uxhall

In my playthrough, I’ve basically conquered all of rhodok territory as swadia, aside Jelkala and ibdeles castle. But, since recently, all factions declared war on swadia, the rhodoks managed to capture Uxhal.

i started a rebellion against the rhodoks and i cant seem too take any land from them....

Always combine rhodoks and swadians to recreate Vlandia

This is why before joining a kingdom i mix the army with swadia, nords and rodoks Feels pretty good

1:08 "ExCelLEnT CrOsSbOwMeN"

I like these videos but I also wish you would maybe talk some about the lords and towns of the factions. To give a bit more immersion to the videos and perhaps help a player whose playing as an honorable or dishonorable character figure out which factions he might find the most friends in.

Do Khergit and Vaegir, and then make non-faction troops review like mercenary, manhunter, or even bandits. And nice video btw.

I had a mix army of swadains and rhodoks. Rhodoks for defence and seiges Swadains for open battles. Reunited the other factions stood no chance and they fell to the might of the rhodain empire

They are my favorite 😍

Vaegyir knights on the open can shread them to pieces (long bardiches).

Imma start a playthrough soon where my entire army will be Rhodok and Nord Infantry + Archers. My plan would be to use them as a massed formation army that can break any Cavalry Attack. A benefit will be less money required to amass this army. As well I'm gonna max out on amount of troops I can have in my army early on (I believe it's Charisma Perk +Leadership Skill maxing).

The kingdom of Rhodoks has my favourite battle fields a full ranged army on a strategic hill 👌

Awesome vid! Vaegirs next!

farm nord bandits, buy all enterprises, raid and attack a faction, start own faction =win gg ez.

I love Rhodok veteran spearmen and my vaegir archers love them, too.

now this is my faction

Just picked up the game on ps4 and have been playing swadia and destroying. I really want to try a play through with the Rhodoks but they always get taken over by the Sarranids

I don't remember which mod it was but it was an awesome mod for enhancing native. There were more factions and apart from the kingdom of rodhoks there were four or five factions of rodhok noble houses and you could have an alternative start as the ear to the etrosq house. That was the first time I played with rodhoks and man, it was soooo epic. Because the noble houses were small you have less nobles to worry about and get to know them better and gain relationship with some of them. At first the roller is your father or some covering and you have to get prepared for the moment he dies (characters can die, and this man dies in one moment of the game) you earn respect and right to rule and fight the other noble houses and slowly make yours stronger. When you become the ruler you are still the leader of a noble house but you are not to op. So you make and break alliances and fight other houses. Rodhoks vs other rodhoks but each house with it's own units strengths and weaknesses. But the kingdom of rhodoks is sometimes more powerfully than the noble independent houses. So you unite All the houses and have the best unit of each house with their own banners and symbols and attack the rodhoks all together... Dan, best rodhok experience ever

For some reason I always forget about this faction

On my rhodok playthrough, I was doing a siege on a castle that belonged to the sarranids. 3 different armies came by that each had over 200 men rolled up on me. I only had 100 men, and I only lost 30. They lost close to 500 plus whatever dignity they had. I would've had the castle too but the rhodoks made peace

I'm still convinced I can defend any castle against 1000-2000 troops with 50 sharpshooters, 25 sarges, and a few Huscarls (or usualy my companions) to mix in some more shield focused troops to try and protect the sarges from enemy fire.

Couple of things. Rhodok Sergeants have one more advantage - their close melee weapons do not have any thrusting attacks, so they never get stuck at extremely close range doing the awkward stabbing attack - like weapons of Swadian Sergeants (except morning star). That being said - in open field, I think Swadian Sergeants are actually stronger - due to combination of slightly better armour reach on their weapons combined with higher skill. In defensive combat, however, they are unmatched. As for Rhodok Sharpshooters - their melee abilities are easy to overlook, but this makes them by far the most versatile top tier unit in the game. They are good in ranged combat, good in melee. Other top tier ranged units are extremely vulnerable against melee enemies, but not Rhodok Sharpshooters. They won't be simply massacred by low tier infantry. Probably the second best option are Sarranid Master Archers - also reasonably skilled in melee and well armoured but they lack shields, which is a huge hit to their survivability in melee range.

"The often carry sheilds witch help them against MISSILES".

Khergits next!

Vaegir Gang

lulz we are the best xxxDDD

imagine.... didnt have a horse to ride...... this massage brought to you by:sultan hakim

Glory. Honor. Victory. Rhodok.

I’m doing a rhodok playthrough and a trained crossbowman’s just saved our siege defense. I’m playing on normal difficulty so like a sneeze would kill me. Anyway a Swadian Sharpshooter shot at me and would have hit me in the head but the crossbow man in front of me reloaded in the exact moment and the shield protected my face, thus saving the siege as auto calc sucks ass

Fun Fact : They have cav unit in vanilla game. Rhodoks Scouts are avaiable in custom battels - they looks like merchant guards, but don't have shields, so are really weak.

Trying to take a rhodok castle is as hard as fighting the mongols in real life

Hell yeah, finally...oh yeah boi

I totally ignore taking cavalry in this game since it's easy

This is why I tend to only ever use rhodoks to hold castles and etc, their op as all get out when it comes to defensive strategy, the only real way to counter them is to use the nords infantry, the strongest infantry in the game, even then it’s still a very big challenge

I honestly believe that rhodok trained/veteran spearman not having one handed weapons was an oversight.

Vaegirs next!.

They are a pain for two handed people used to shrugging off attacks, first time I fought them I ignored their numbers and then I got stabbed in the face with a high damage spear weapon.

Do khergit khanate

*cries* Yes! Yes! Yeeeeaaaaahhhhhh!

My thought as a Sarranians: 'meh, no calvary infidels'

I appreciate this vid. I’m good as far as money goes, but staying alive has bean punishing for me. I need to find borcha for that map speed, and I’m used to having a nord army like my first play through. Rhodocks are almost polar apposite to the nords

"shield wall or a phalanx" How do you do for your units to make one or the other?

WE MADE IT BOIS

The biggest advantage of the Trained C are the shields, tell them to hold their fire until the enemy is in position. Unlike most other ranged troops who will slowly get picked away, they bring their shields out, the line doesn’t get picked off

Haha bolts raining down on the enemy go swoosh swoosh

Oh yeah yeah

Rhodok sergeant is L İ F E

VAEGIRS NEXT!!!plz

Nord huscarls + rhodok sharpshooters and you have a fortress only the mightiest armies can successful sige

Its hard to play them in a dedicated way, HOWEVER having crossbowmen, sargents and spearmen as a supplement to ur force is extremely helpful.

An overall issue with the game is the AI's use of any troops no matter the faction. No where is this more prevalent than in the Sarranids. The Zerg rush tactics the AI use completely negate all the advantages a missile focused mobile army offers. Now don't get me wrong I love the hell out of Warband (I've put damn near 700 hours into the game since 2013). But I hope the developers take some notes from moders when finishing bannerlord. Lastly, great vid and analysis! Those Rhodoks bois are fighting in a feudal Calradia with Renaissance battle tactics (minus cav). Cheers!

Fucking love Rhodoks. Sharpshooters are the backbone of my army with sergeants and spearman to hold the enemy back long enough for the Crossbowmen to slaughter, i have defeated armies roughly 5x larger than mine and still had over half my army fight capable. My sharpshooters have survived for many months though my infantry has turned over a few times in the same time period mostly due to seiges where i need to send my infantry on the offensive with little to no support from the crossbowmen though they do still SLAUGHTER the enemy. Somehow through shenanigans i was allied with the Rhodoks and the Rhodoks were at war with the veigers and by the time i had taken 2-4 of their castles i had captured like 7 of their lords and most of their armies were around 50ish men and they all flee from me. With minimal support from the other Rhodok lords (and some help from the khergit) they are down too 2 cities and a handfull of castles and towns and are soon to be demolished. As for cavilary ive been trying to get some swadian knights but i havnt really been focusing on that too much, mostly its me with a great long battle axe riding around cutting down their backline whilst kiting their troops so the crossbowmen can gun them down. For this you need to find and kill the enemy leader otherwise they will stay in formation.

Please do 100 rhodok sergeants vs 100 rhodok sharpshooters.

Resonant i have a quick question before i start playing Mount and Blade Warband Is there limited amount of soldiers you can get?

I certainly have my own kingdom, and I’ve cleared out the vigers and the kergits and the nords which is a surprise are almost gone, and for some weird reason the swadians who I don’t have a problem with decided to declare war on me, but then the rhodoks declared war on me and then the nords so I have no idea what is happening.

Rhodok:No you cant just stop 300 Man siege with your 50 horseman army on castle Me:Haha crossbow goes *headshots leader*

And they have the best wine.

20 swadknights, 30 huscarls and 10 trillion rhodok sharpshooters

Sawdwi and rhodck army is god tier

Not warband but og mount and blade from 2008: so today i became a marshall unexpectedly.. tried gathering lords to claim bback the fob castle in nord territory... Then.. they started attacking my castle.. I thought hah... Like theyre gonna be able to siege it with only 150 nord bois.. I was very confused when my bois didnt come to help defend against the siege.. no wonder they got scared.. though what i missed was a single 0. That one fuckin zere at the troop count of the attackers... Wtf howd they get 1500 troops together to attack me alone jeezus... Welp i lost a lotta decent troops.. my castle so yikes.

ah, the Road Ox

10 Minutes and 4 Advertisements????? DAMN!!!

Aahh yes... The Road Ox! Sound like a motard gang

Resonant,about Bannerlord,You said there would be some developments on 24 January, but you didn't say anything about it.why?

I have 40 mumlaks, 30 rohdok sharpshooters and 40 sergents

How do I invade the rhodoc's, their the last faction till I win the game but they are the masters of siege so how do I attck

It's so tilting that their arches use pavises wrong. They are supposed to lean backwards so it protecs them while reloading.

The best faction by a country mile

Rhodoks are like ewoks in star wars

Am I the only one who goes with an all rhodok army? I love rhodok sergeants