So the archers are raining down arrows as the enemy infantry crosses an open field towards you. When combat starts, your troops attack (or wait, or follow you) as commanded, on their own.

ThereвЂ™s not much time to issue orders with enemy knights charging at you. I wish there was a pause feature, so I could issues orders to set up my units more effectively (i.e., like ordering the cavalry to a flanking position at the start of combat). And you can pre-set some orders before the battle begins with some Mods. But they are more than enough in the speed of combat. There are a limited variety of orders to give, in a couple different categories. Then I tell everybody to вЂFire at WillвЂ™ (Poor Will. I tend to look for a hill, set my archers atop it and tell them to вЂHold This SpotвЂ™ and put the infantry and cavalry in front of them. Your band and the enemy are often relatively distant and you get to issue orders to each of your unit types. The battlefield is determined by the terrain on the map: could be desert, forest, frozen tundra, whatever. If you do, pick your fights VERY carefully. If you are defeated, you can lose your current band and have to start over. You canвЂ™t just quit and reload: no do-overs. If you decide on the latter, if something bad happens, youвЂ™re stuck with it. Usually, youвЂ™re looking for trouble and you fight.ДЄt game start, you can choose to allow quitting without saving, or to require saving before quitting. If they are hostile, you can choose to fight, pay them off or surrender. On the map, you can choose whether to encounter other units or try to avoid them (they may chase you down, though). And I have over 300 more soldiers garrisoned in cities and castles I control, some of which I can draw upon to change the makeup of my band. IвЂ™m not sure what the maximum band size is, but IвЂ™m at 249 in one of my current games (it went way up from just over 100 when I started my own Faction). You start out solo and begin recruiting with the first quest. Throughout the game, you are building up your band with cavalry, infantry and/or archers. Now itвЂ™s time to look at the shiny parts of the game: selecting, fighting with and leading your band of warriors to conquer your foes! Troop Combat If so, youвЂ™ve got an idea of what the game is about and got a taste of the combat portion. Okay вЂ“ hopefully you read Part One of my look at Mount and Blade/Warband.

Mount and blade warband orders