Mount & Blade: Warband - 11/20 hours

The name of the game may be "Mount & Blade," but I'm discovering that I am skilled with neither. In theory, the way the game's combat system works is that when you move the mouse in a certain direction and click the right button, you swing in that direction. Similarly, if you click the left mouse button, you block in the direction the mouse is moving. A skilled player, therefor, is able to read the AI opponent's movements and parry its strikes while exploit holes in its defense. A less skilled player might, hypothetically, flail about like an idiot, striking and blocking purely by accident.

And, of course, in real life, horses were an immense boon on the field of battle, giving a skilled rider both the advantage of height and improved mobility, while often being fearsome weapons in their own right. It might just be that someone who was not so good at the video game would find that being up high makes it harder to hit with both sword and bow, and trying to connect with a blow at speed is basically a crapshoot. He might also bitterly regret that the Champion Courser he won from a band of deserter is a prestigious and powerful mount that he has no ability to exploit effectively.

I'm just saying.

It's a shame though, because I feel like my lack of skill is the primary obstacle in the rise of the dispossessed noblewoman, Honoria, back to her rightful place as a member of the gentry. She is currently working as a mercenary for the king of Swadia, and that has more or less solved her money problems, but while her rag-tag group of outcasts (seriously, I'm averaging about 60 troops, with about 10-11 different troop types) wins more battles than it loses, her prestige and reputation rises slowly, and she is still a long ways away from claiming a castle of her own. I'm guessing that if I could actually slay more than three enemies per battle (my personal record), I would be able to speed things up a bit.

I'm hoping this is a problem I can solve with grinding. Maybe if I get to be a high enough level, I'll be able to compensate for my lack of skill with outrageous stats. Or perhaps, with enough practice, I'll actually become a warrior worthy of being the main character in a game (I never thought I'd miss the ridiculous balancing of Dynasty Warriors as much as I do now - if I'd been playing Lu Bu this whole time, I'd probably have all of Caldaria in the palm of my hand).