As alluded to in the title, this mod can be a bit brutal if you get into a bad spot. The brainybot AI and new animations are designed to make fighting incredibly challenging for players - but fair as well. This mod doesn't rely on enemies with a thousand hit points or enchanted weapons that do a thousand damage to make bots tough. Instead it is their ability to block, feint, kick, hold, chamber, their speed, and of course their equipment, which affect the skill of enemies you will face in this mod. Regular troops can be overcome without too much difficulty. A very experienced player should have no trouble hanging with higher-tier troops. But you would be wise to watch out for elite units, and lords and kings can fight as well as players - and probably better than many.



There have also been some changes to the way damages are calculated. Armour is now much more effective against cutting weapons. If your opponent is wearing mail, cuts from a sword will do little to harm him, though the bashing of the sword itself can still do some damage. Thrusting yields better results, but you still can't pierce chainmail. Enemies in plate armour will be almost impervious to cutting attacks and most arrows. Instead, picks and hammers, maces, polearms, crossbows, lances, these are used for killing men in armor. Each faction has a huge variety of troops, which are designed to work together in different ways. Fighting just one faction, there is a huge dynamic in the types of troops you will face. The wealth and holdings of lords as well as the region they come from will affect what types of troops they have. As well, each and every castle and town has its own local troop, which can be recruited by the fief's owner(if they're the right faction) or bought by the player in the "Manage this castle/town" menu option. These units are usually highly specialised, but can be very devastating if employed effectively. This means that fighting many lords is much more difficult than fighting just one, even a very powerful one. Pair this with the improved bot AI, and the player should now have difficulty defeating larger forces the way one can in Native. King's parties too are much stronger, large and full of the most elite units. If you want to play this game on full difficulty, you should be prepared to die - often.