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Western RPG
Wide Open Sandbox
Mount and Blade
File:Mount and Blade logo smaller.jpg
Mount&Blade is an indie Strategy Game with tactical action and RPG Elements, developed by TaleWorlds Entertainment and published by Paradox Interactive. It is a sandbox-style game, set in the medieval-ish land of Calradia, where you begin with a lame horse, a rusty sword, a bent crossbow, and some tattered rags, and are then expected to impress a king of your choice and conquer the world for him (or whatever else you feel like, really). You can hire mercenaries, train them, trade between cities, fight bandits, and even become a vassal to a lord and be granted a village, castle, or town.
The combat uses a physics engine that determines the speed of a swing, relative to the target, and gives a percentage bonus (or penalty) to the damage of the attack based on its relative speed.
An Updated Rerelease called Warband came out in April 2010, featuring a significantly improved combat model, a revamped single-player campaign with more in-depth political system, new items and locations, and probably the most called-for feature, multiplayer. Released in late 2009 in Eastern Europe and May 2011 in North America and the rest of Europe was With Fire and Sword, effectively a mod for Warband developed by the Ukrainian group Si Ch Studio and Russian Snowberry Connection (former Snowberry Connection). It adds early guns, a historical (fiction) setting, improves town-management and gives more options than just "put a single ladder with room for 1 guy up the wall" in sieges as well as a storyline to follow. On April 19th, 2012 an updated version of the popular mod Mount & Musket was released as official DLC for Warband titled Napoleonic Wars, which takes place, where else, during the Napoleonic Wars. A proper sequel with a full engine overhaul is also in the early stages.
The original game features the following tropes:
Acceptable Breaks From Reality: It might not be very historically correct to have Vikings fighting Mongolian horse archers, but boy is it fun.
The Alleged Steed: The one you start with, usually.
Anachronism Stew: As far as all the medieval weapons and armour go, they are portrayed very accurately, including their proper names. The only exception to this rule would be that they come from slightly different time periods of The Middle Ages).
With the usual exception of the bastard sword, which is a misnomer historians applied to hand-and-a-half longswords. Correctly, all western swords with a two-handed hilt are longswords, with the one-handed base form being considered an arming sword or a short sword.
An Axe to Grind: Axes have a bonus against shields and throwing axes are one of the signature weapons of Nord Huscarls.
An Entrepreneur Is You: Trading goods is one way to make money, and Warband allows investing in personal enterprises.
Annoying Arrows: Played straight except for headshots, usually. Though there's still sometimes the amusing sight of one of the tougher units charging on with an arrow sticking out of his eye.
Rarer when full damage is enabled; two arrows are usually lethal unless their target is wearing plate armor.
Arbitrary Headcount Limit: Averted, the limit is based on skills and renown. It's still strangely specific, but at least it's based on something.
Armor Is Useless: Averted, though with cheaper armor at lower levels you might think this is the case.
Army of Thieves and Whores : The various bandits (particularly the Looters and Mountain Bandits), the deserters... and theoretically even you and your own party - if you decide to play as a bunch of bad guys.
Artificial Stupidity: Enemy and ally AI is lacking. Riding close by enemies attempting to reach your archers will cause them to either drop their own bows and pull out melee weapons, or turn around and leave their back unshielded, letting your own archers nail them.
Ascended Extra: The Khergits were a type of bandit until an update turned them into a proper faction.
Authority Equals Asskicking: A common occurence with the faction lords, who after all lead armies as part of their job description. Specific levels of asskickery vary between individuals, but most can outfight their own elite troops. If you see someone with distinctive armor riding around the battlefield scything down your troops with an actual scythe, it's probably a lord.
Automaton Horses: Horses are basically treated like any other equippable item, never tire, never panic, and are perfectly willing to run headlong into obstacles like walls or trees at full speed unless steered clear by the player. They can be injured in battle, though, and have a chance of becoming lame or dying when they run out of Hit Points. They also have their own AI while not being ridden and will bolt off if hit.
Badass Army: Any force composed of top-level units. They will make hay out of a lord's army.
BFS: Obviously, the two-handed swords, but a few weapons used to be way oversized.
Straddling the line between this and Blade on a Stick, the Shortened Military Scythe is a scytherblade facing upawards
Being Good Sucks: The benefits of having a high honor are dubious at best. You have to turn down often needed rewards for quests, release valuable prisoners, skip lucrative quests, refrain from beating down on the peasantry, and make enemies of the "dishonorable" nobles across the realm. All to make friends with some "honorable" ones. And prior to Warband, it didn't even properly do that.
Honour does have one benefit, namely becoming marshal. If your honour is high enough, a lot of lords will like you enough to vote for you to become marshal without you having had to bother doing a million quests for them, saving you time that can be used to make the money you're missing out on from dishonourable acts by battling, which also trains your men and keeps morale high. The dishonourable lords never go below -3 relation with you no matter how high your honour is either, you need to do other things to make anyone hate you more than that.
Being Evil Sucks: Partially averted, partially played straight. It's easy and profitable to do "dishonorable" missions, such as assassinations, kidnappings, and starting wars, with little consequences aside from ticking off the victims. However, dishonorable acts such as pillaging villages or kicking around the local peasantry will draw the ire of the local Lord, who can usually (At least early-on in the game) kick your tail pretty soundly.
In Warband, you also have to take into account the opinion of your companions: many come from the peasantry and aren't too fond of watching their kind get murdered and looted, especially as they are supposed to take part in the pillaging.
Blade on a Stick: Spears are best used only against cavalry, and most other polearms are best used only by cavalry.
Black Cloak: Whenever you sneak into an enemy controlled city, you wear one of these, along with a staff and throwing knives.
Boom! Headshot!: Doable with every ranged weapon in the game for double damage.
Bow and Sword In Accord: Commonly used by NPCs and the default setup of the player. Useful as there will be situations where getting into melee or standing off at range is inadvisable or even suicidal. NPC archers and crossbowmen always carry melee weapons and sometimes shields, and the highest level ranged attackers can be used as middling infantry in a pinch.
Cast of Snowflakes: The face generator allows an impressive array of variations, and the game makes good use of it. In addition, soldiers of the same type will have slightly different equipment, differentiating them further.
Chainmail Bikini: Averted, armor looks similar on women as it does to men. However, in training fields and arena melees, men wear knee-length trousers and women wear bikinis.
Choice Of Four Weapons: You have four weapon/shield slots to do everything you need done.
Contemptible Cover: The reception to the cover's use of not-Aragorn (dubbed "Frodogorn" by the fanbase) and the general blandness of it was ... less than enthusiastic.
Uncanny Valley: Frodogorn is not an actor, but rather a render.
Which becomes very obvious when you look at his face in high-res.
Critical Existence Failure: Characters become bloodier as they take damage, but their performance is unaffected.
Dangerous Deserter: In spades. From a technical point of view, they are very similar to regular groups of bandits, but are often far more numerous and better equipped. They can be a Demonic Spiders style threat early in the game, but become less intimidating after the player levels up considerably and creates his party. Still, large groups of advanced troops (40 nords warriors in full mail armor for instance) remain a threat for a pretty long time.
Disc One Nuke: A character with the "Lady in Waiting" background starts with one of the best horses (and the 2nd fastest, losing by only one point of speed) at the cost of a hit to other starting equipment (that is very poor for everyone and will be replaced after your first battle anyways). The Easter Egg "Strange" equipment in Rivacheg and Tihr (and Jelkala, but it is technically inaccessible without edit mode) is pretty handy if you find it early.
Disney Death: Neither the player character, the NPCs, nor any of the lords can be killed in battle - they're only knocked unconscious and taken prisoner, and either are ransomed or escape. Your hirelings can be killed, but even then you can learn a surgery skill granting a chance that a soldier who would've been killed will be merely knocked unconscious instead.
Deliberate Values Dissonance: Calradia is a sexist land (though it is only briefly touched on before Warband) where even the lords that have been established through dialogue as being just and honorable have no qualms with raiding caravans, burning and plundering villages and attacking helpless traveling farmers, provided they belong to an enemy faction.
The Steppe Bandits more so than the actual Khergit lords themselves, as they're always hostile.
Department of Redundancy Department: You can find a Ragged Ragged Outfit.
Occasionally one may come across a "Strong Strong Bow"
Drill Sergeant Nasty: Lezalit. Ymira points it out if you have both of them in your army.
Dronejam: Your own soldiers can and will get in your way in a fight: sieges and the start of battle are the most blatant.
Drop the Hammer: In Warband, the Rhodok's array of hammers. They also deal a ridiculous amount of damage and ignore shields completely making them quite popular in multiplayer siege battles for clearing besiegers off ladders or holding of a tide of attackers pouring forth from a siege tower.
Hammers also explicitly ignore a certain degree of armor, and the more armor you're wearing, the more armor it ignores. So wearing a full set of extremely expensive plate that even archers have difficulty penetrating means that hammers will do considerably more damage to you than other weapons.
Dude, Where's My Respect?: Mostly averted, in that lords will stop asking you to deliver letters for them once you're rich, powerful and famous. Generally. Also averted in the tournaments where, if you defeat enough opponents, you can stay in the game even if you lose.
Dummied Out: Firearms and things that were in earlier releases but patched out.
They can be brought back by changing a single value in the module.ini file[1].
Dungeon Town: Occasionally coming to a town you will find that there's a group of bandits in it, causing you to have to liberate the town.
Easter Egg: There's samurai equipment hidden around in hard to spot chests.
Easy Logistics: Averted like hell. Troops will become unhappy and eventually desert if they don't have anything to eat. Overworld map speed is brought down by excess weight from loot. The latter can be addressed by keeping extra horses in your inventory that are used as load animals, but having too many horses will negate this effect, allegedly because larger amounts of horses are harder to control.
Elective Monarchy: Rhodoks.
Endless Game: There is no set victory condition. Unless you select the retirement option (or your save is corrupted), there isn't even a way for the game to end as losing a battle won't kill you, though there still are situations where it's better just to reload or start a new game. It's not until With Fire and Sword that the player character can actually die.
Enemy Exchange Program: Villages that changed ownership still produce troops of the faction they originally belonged to, even when that faction no longer exists. When a faction is defeated and its lords disperse, they also retain and are able to recruit troops of their original faction even in service of their new masters.
Evil Uncle: King Harlaus of Swadia and King Yaroglek of Vaegir, according to their claimants' stories.
The Exile: Endicting a lord from your faction of treason is the only reliable way to put said lord out of play permanently. Other kings can also order exiles for their own lords, but these just join a different faction (hopefully yours) instead.
Exposed to the Elements: People wear the same things they always wear even in snow and desert areas.
Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Every faction is one.
Kingdom of Swadia - Holy Roman Empire, Kingdom of France.
Kingdom of Rhodoks - Kingdom of Spain, City States of Italy, Papal States, Confederacy of Switzerland, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Kingdom of Scotland.
Kingdom of Nords - Kingdom of Denmark, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Norway, Viking Tribes, Scotireland.
Kingdom of Vaegirs - Empire of Bulgaria, Grand Duchy of Moscow, Novgorod Republic, Kievan Rus.
Khergit Khanate - Mongol Empire, the Huns.
Sarranid Sultanate - Umayyad Caliphate, Sassanid Persia, Mamluk Sultanate.
Flynning : Brutally averted. The battles are full of realistically rough and hard-hitting swings, stabs and parries.
Foe-Tossing Charge: With a sufficiently heavy horse, a high Riding skill, and relatively flat terrain, you can simply ride through a throng of enemies instead of around them.
Friendly Enemy: If you're in the habit of letting enemy commanders go after battles, you could very well discover that you're on better terms with your enemies than with your allies.
Friendly Fireproof: Played straight for melee weapons, averted for ranged weapons.
Strangely, averted for all weapons by default in Warband's multiplayer. Since multiplayer is more arcade-like than singleplayer, it's strange this relatively hardcore option would be only available there. Confusingly, many server admins will kick you for accidentally killing your teammates, which raises the question why they don't disable that option if it upsets them so much.
Game Breaking Bug: Putting points into your shield skill allows you to raise your shield faster and also increases its coverage (making it 'larger'). But it does this for all shields, yours as well as those carried by other characters. Especially annoying for archer characters, who need to be able to reliably shoot around enemy shields.
You may also want to avoid the 'lend companion' requests that lords sometimes make if you have a rebellion in progress. These requests can include the claimant, and if the rebellion then ends while the claimant is away, the whole structure of the faction breaks down.
Also in the claimant quests is that if someone other than the rebels finishes off the original faction, the ending is bugged.
Game Favored Gender: Goes both ways in different games. In the original, starting as female will give you better skill-point options. In Warband, female characters need far higher reputations to become lords and don't recieve a fief with it - which is severely detrimental when becoming a lord is required to access the later game.
Geo Effects: Montainous battlefields allow for lots of this. Cavalry units cannot charge up a slope, and ranged units, obviously, cannot shoot through hills. A sound tactic against mostly cavalry armies is to station your troops on the peak of a slope, or behind a river.
Game Mod: Many, from historical (Mongolia, ancient Greece, The Wild West, 1200s Europe, WWII China, the Russian Civil War) to fantasy (Lord of the Rings, A Song of Ice and Fire), to the gang-filled streets of Glasgow or even some original new scenarios expanding the Calradian setting of the vanilla version (from The Low Middle Ages to the far future of Next Sunday AD).
With Fire and Sword is a non-free mod, which changes the setting to the Khmelnitsky War as described in Polish historical epic Ogniem i Mieczem (the wars with Cossacks, Tatars and Sweden in the second half of 17th century), with storyline based on the novel Black Mace by Alex Trubnikov.
Gratuitous German: Not the original game, but the sheer amount of Game Mods that attempt to add Germany-based factions or units into the game and fail at properly utilizing German spelling and grammar is astounding.
Gray and Grey Morality: No single character in the game is entirely good, at least not by modern moral standards.
This even extends to all your companions. Knight in Shining Armor and scholar characters are honorable, but very prejudiced against commoners and foreigners, while commoner characters tend to have rather loose morals when it comes to things like contracts or personal property, and professional soldiers are all Blood Knights.
Grid Inventory: And everything takes up one slot regardless of its size or weight.
Guns Are Useless: Averted in With Fire And Sword, where guns are extremely powerful: the gun you start the game with will kill most bandit-type enemies in one shot, and getting hit by a gun with your starting armor can easily kill you. The drawback is that they take a very long time to load, even with simple pistol weapons, and if you're on foot, that's a very bad thing (on a horse, you can at least continue to dodge effectively).
Hard Head: NPCs and redshirts saved by the surgery skill are knocked unconscious and make a full recovery withing a few hours (days at most) with no lasting effects, even if they got a spear to the gut or an arrow through the eye.
Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Sword Sisters have what seems to be a 50/50 chance of going into battle without a helmet (the better off to show their flowing hair, presumably). Along with various recruited bandits and Khergit Lancers, they are the only unit type to do so. This makes them predictably vulnerable to arrows to the head.
Hitbox Dissonance: Shields are immaterial unless the block key is held down, lots of minor discrepancies as well.
Sort of fixed in Warband, non-blocking shields will still block arrows, but not the ones that are instant death headshots, the ones that make you buy the shield in the first place.
Presumably because if the shield where protecting your head, how would you see?
Hit Points: Everyone has em, though sometimes in a very odd way. My horse seems to have a spear through its head, why is it still running around?
Your horse probably has great defence stats and can probably have a lot more spears sticking out before it dies.
Shields also have hitpoints, after they are exhausted they will break (they are fixed after the battle, but move down a notch on the quality scale).
Honor Before Reason: The Rhodoks claimant Lord Kastor of Veluca himself admits that King Graveth is a hero for saving the council from a raiding party, but claims he shouldn't be king because he violated the law against bringing weapons to the council meeting.
Of course, he might well have organized said raid himself...
It also doesn't help Graveth that he approached the defenseless council armed, told them of the war party, and then told them he wouldn't save them unless they made him king immediately. At least, according to Kastor...
Horny Vikings: Averted
Horse Archer: Most Khergit troops. Building a player character into one is difficult but rewarding.
Hydra Problem: Disney Death combined with destroying a faction will become this. When all of a faction's fiefs have been conquered, said faction will be deemed extinct. When this happens, ALL the lords of that faction, excluding the king, will just join a different faction. Considering that for 85% of the game your Right-to-Rule (a hidden stat that dictates how likely you are to recruit lords to your cause) will be well below that of the remaining monarchs, this eventually leads to battles against +15 lords at the same time once enough factions have been defeated.
Hyperspace Arsenal: Attempted aversion, as you can only ever carry at most four weapons on your person. Doesn't quite work, though, since you can still stroll around and fight without any impediment with four pikes (or other such unwieldy items), one in your hands, another glued to your back and the other two presumably tucked neatly up your butt.
Implausible Fencing Powers: Because spears wielded one handed can only thrust, a player armed with a short sword can parry entire groups of spearman's attack by holding block and keeping their back to a wall (or constantly moving back).
The Siege maps in Multiplayer take this to extremes with Rhodock Warhammers/Swadian Greatswords instantly killing attackers as they swarm up ladders, or rushing through a fallen sally port only for 2-3 defenders waiting patiently to slay them.
Impoverished Patrician: One background choice. It grants you with a banner and slight fame boost (which affects max army size).
In Universe Game Clock: There's an internal game clock, though it only takes a few minutes for a day to pass. Not so much in battle, where time doesn't change no matter how long you fight.
Inevitable Tournament: Sort of. The fighting tournaments in the large cities aren't mandatory, but placing bets on yourself and then winning goes a long way towards paying your Redshirt Army's salary.
Invisible Wall: All over the place and still characters can occasionally clip through scenery into places they're not supposed to be.
Most ridiculously in some of the cities, where there are Insurmountable Waist High Broomsticks.
Invulnerable Civilians: Except if you defend yourself when they revolt.
It's Always Spring: Even though the game does have an internal calendar that tracks the days and months going by, seasons never change.
Karma Houdini: Roughly every rival lord battling with you. They will come over and fight you with clearly inferior units to your own, just in advantage on numbers, to have their troops slaughtered en masse, but they almost always avoid capture. The player, on the contrary, is always captured if he's defeated.
Keep the Reward: An option in quite a few quests. Though it only gets you honor, which is a mixed bag (Lords have a higher default disposition if your character has a similar honor score). [2]
Knight in Shining Armor: YOU, if you want. Though you'll find that shiny armor is quite expensive and makes you move at a snail's pace if you get de-horsed
Lady Macbeth: A female PC can become this to a noble as a way of gaining power.
Lazy Backup: Combine the fact that your side automatically loses if your character is knocked out with the fact that sieges are done in stages and losing at any stage ends the siege unsuccessfully, and you can get into some seriously weird situations where your guys retreat, dragging your unconscious body out of the castle, through the town, up the walls, and down the siege tower ramp, just because you got knocked out by literally the last defender in the last room of the castle. And then they dismantle the tower, so you have to build a new one.
Leaked Experience: Normal exp is granted for killing things yourself, and then battle exp is granted for being on the winning side. Battle exp is shared among all members of the army, even if they didn't actually appear on the battlefield. A viable strategy for leveling up troops that are yet too weak to survive actual combat.
Leeroy Jenkins: Your army's default battle behavior is full-on charge. Depending on the circumstances, this may not be the wisest strategy.
Left Justified Fantasy Map: Both averted and played straight. The compass says the sea is to the north, but the companion's little pieces of lore contradict the compass (which does nothing anyways) in terms of what is in what direction (they roundaboutly indicate the sea is in the west). The compass says the permanently snowy part of the map is to the east while the companion's references to direction put it in the north, so the companions are the more reasonable one.
Perhaps on this world the magnetic poles are perpendicular to the geographic poles.
Leitmotif: Every musical cue for the Khergits makes use of a single melody. The same for the Nords as well. The Swadian and Rhodok themes have more variation and subtlety and the Vaegirs seem to lack a motif altogether.
Loads and Loads of Characters: Your companions and the various lords and ladies of the five factions.
In numbers its 16 companions, 5 kings, 5 claimants to their thrones (with the only female AI fighter that is not a companion or Sword Sister), 20 lords in each of the five factions (make it 100) and a few ladies (who only stay in their castles and give missions but won't fight; about one for every three lords). All of them are named and have a few traits. Warband added another faction with another claimant and ruler, and added about 10 unmarried women to each faction for Male players to romance.
Low Fantasy: No magic, monsters or mythical beings to be seen - just regular medieval life in a fictional world with alternate Earth geography and fictional nations, that are very close to the historical ones they were based on...
Luck-Based Mission: The arena and tournament matches are this to an extent due to every participants' equipment being randomly assigned. It is possible for the player to be doomed to a loss at the beginning if he is assigned equipment he is not proficient with, or worse, a bow. (Though waiting until someone goes down or, if you're good enough, shooting them down first, before nicking their melee weapon can create an effective bow/melee combo.) Warband helped this a little bit, by allowing players to wield Throwing weapons in the melee and giving archers in the Arenas a tiny dagger.
At the beginning of the game, where you start is randomised, so you may have the misfortune of spawning right next to a party of mounted bandits.
Any quest that requires you to go outside a town and search for someone (bandits, thieves, particular enemy units to be taken prisoner), since you aren't guaranteed to actually find them.
Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: With skill, shields are capable of emitting arrow-stopping force fields.
Magic Pants : All undressed characters.
Magikarp Power: Ymira may seem completely useless, being level 1 and having nothing but a kitchen knife to defend herself. But, precisely because she's level 1 and has very few pre-assigned skill points, with patience she can be trained to be highly effective in any area the player chooses for her.
A horse archer PC doesn't really start to work too well until the mid 20s or so, but at that point it can solo entire armies.
Mook Chivalry: Entirely averted. Once de-horsed, infantry will frequently swarm you from all sides, sometimes so thickly you can't move. The only defense is to backpedal and hope your shield up until The Cavalry arrive to spread them out a bit.
Multiple Choice Past: How you choose your stats.
Multi Melee Master: Each weapon proficiency category covers several different types of weapons.
Mutually Exclusive Party Members: Each NPC companion has two others that they don't get along with, and will eventually make this known to you. If multiple members of the party are antagonistic and/or morale is low, some may eventually leave (take your stuff back before they do).
My Rules Are Not Your Rules: Every time you lose a battle, you get taken prisoner and dragged around for a while; however, whenever an NPC Lord loses, he gets away 80% of the time, and then he's nowhere to be seen.
When you're incapacitated in battle, your troops immediately retreat and lose morale, no matter how close you are to victory. However, enemy armies will happily continue fighting after their commander receives two arrows to the head and smashes into a tree.
While the player must recruit members of his party, AI lords and kings are instantly assigned troops as needed, even though they only occasionally stop at villages to recruit base troops. But at least this cheating goes both ways and also applies to lords allied with the player.
Lords get troops based on their fiefs. More fiefs means more troops. Kings, on the other hand, get troops based on the fact that they're kings. So if you manage to defeat a King's sizable personal force (200+ troops), then when they escape, they'll disappear for a few days and show up with their entire force replenished. Particularly devastating if you're trying to take the king's last city, and they keep respawning to smash into your forces.
Names to Run Away From Really Fast: You, if your army is sufficiently strong enough. Lords and even Kings will turn and run if they see you getting close (with their status listed as "Running Away from YOURNAME").
Nerf: Horse archer player characters can no longer access an infinite supply of arrows by running to and from their baggage thanks to a patch; you have the arrows you start with and any spares you left in your baggage train. This prevents players from simply picking off entire infantry armies on their lonesome at level one.
Also - couched lance damage - a form of attack that in the original M&B would allow a starting player with a half-way decent polearm to solo entire armor-clad armies was sadly remved from Warband.
Not removed from Warband, just made more difficult to achieve. The player has to manually aim the lance whereas aiming was automatic in the original.
No Arc in Archery: Averted. Arrows, bolts, and thrown weapons need to be properly aimed taking into account distance, relative speed and altitude, and weapon arcing. The game's log rates the shot's difficulty if you hit, based on these elements.
No Stat Atrophy: Averted, characters over a certain age start to lose stats when knocked out. The fan backlash and the speed with which a tweak was found that disables this feature demonstrate just why this trope is an acceptable break from reality.
Nominal Importance: Named NPCs are either kings/king claimants or "hero" characters like you: they are knocked out in battle instead of suffering perma-death like nameless NPCs and can be leveled up and equipped much the same way you are.
Non-Lethal KO: It's okay that your soldier just had a lance rammed through him by a horseman, thanks to your surgery skill he's only unconscious.
Obvious Beta: Justified. TaleWorlds started selling while it was a beta and used that money to fund the rest of the game's development.
Offscreen Teleportation: AI Lords will frequently recruit and fully train troops from nowhere, and for a few days after they've been released from capture, no one knows where they are, until they end up at a castle, often one all the way across the map from where they were, with a full complement of troops. One wonders how news travels so fast. Or how every AI Lord knows the location of every other AI Lord of his faction at any time.
Omnicidal Neutral: Conquering the entire map as a masterless warlord was the closest you could come to winning the game before Warband.
One-Handed Zweihander : Averted with two-handed weapons. Played with in the case of the bastard (hand and a half) sword, which can be wielded in one hand while on horseback, but is always wielded ambidextrously while on foot.
One-Man Army: The player character. While getting between more than one enemy is almost always death capture, it is quite effective to run ahead of your army and slaughter enemy troops by hit and run tactics (lightly armoured troops will normally die in one hit), often killing a platoon of enemies before they are in range of your men.
This is also sometimes a cause of the Artificial Stupidity, as sometimes the enemy stay in formation and wont dare to fight you until they meet the rest of your army.
Its quite possible to kite enemy armies on your own, on foot no less, in Warband provided they have no cavalry, projectiles or good polearms.
Peninsula of Power Leveling: The forest at the Rhodok\Swadian border (the "Woods of Ehlerdah") is infested with lots of bandits and deserters in terrain that often works against them (A hilly area against a primarily archer and mounted force when the AI can't understand to put its archers at the top of a hill). It is noted in-game by some companions as being thick with outlaws.
The mountainous region at the borders of the Vaegir and Swadian kingdoms also hosts entire droves of bandit bands. These Mountain Bandits are a little hardier though, and also one of the few highwaymen types that use light cavalry units in addition to infantry.
Sea Raiders, in Warband, are a large source of good equipment, money AND experience. To elaborate; each Sea Raider is worth about 130 experience points (quite a lot for M&B), they all have good equipment like mail armor, axes, bows, decent shields and helmets allowing the player can farm them for large amount of cash (or keep better items for himself). The downside is that Sea Raiders carry said decent armor and very damaging throwing weapons and some of them even long bows. Careful players can ride around them, dodging projectiles, until they all exhaust their ammo. And the best part: you can do this all by yourself, meaning only you get all the experience and more items can be found after the battle
Plot Armor: Any named character can only be captured, not killed. Only Kings (finish a rebellion quest) and Claimants (Fail a rebellion quest or by defeating the usurper's kingdom) can be removed from play permanently.
Power Equals Rarity: Loot will rarely contain items with the highest quality modifiers. Lordly armor and Champion horses are so expensive that even kings apparently can't afford to make much use of them.
Purposefully Overpowered: Cavalry dominates most battles without conditions working against them (hills, sieges).
Warband's multiplayer sieges remove the siege from being a negative condition; circle round the whole castle and get all the ladders up on the wall or charge through the sally port and butcher anyone in the courtyard.
Nord Huscarls take a long time to train, but are by far the best infantry in the game, able to fight greater numbers and win with few if any losses.
Proud Warrior Race Guy: Several, notably Baheshtur and Matheld.
Purely Aesthetic Gender: Very slightly averted, in that gender will affect a player's initial stats. However, the female NPCs are oppressed, and the female player character is not (in gameplay anyways, escaping such is an option for motivations in the background questions at the start of the game).
Also there is a huge difference in captured female and male peasants. Male farmers will train up to become mercenaries like the ones commonly hired in taverns who are useful but expensive, while female peasants will become Sword Sisters, a rare but cheap and fairly powerful mounted unit.
Warband has a different method of courtship for each gender (males must woo a lady and convince her guardian to let the marriage take place), while females have to court roaming lords.
Quicksand Box: The period between early in the game (when you take on many modest-paying side-quests to amass wealth and gain favor of lords and factions) and late in the game (when you have an army large enough to take over the world or follow a claimant quest) when you basically have very little to do but fight bandits, level-grind, and expand your army up to 10, then to 20, then to 30, to 40, to 50... fight bandits, take all their stuff, sell it at the nearest castle town, repeat, until you have an army of 100 and can start to really do some interesting stuff.
Rape, Pillage and Burn: This can be done to villages, and the AI will do it to them frequently.
Pretext for War: One mission type is having noble to ask you to find reason to start a war.
Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The player can recruit troops from all the factions as well as mercenaries to create one big motley crew - and as he can recruit from his own prisoners and those he rescues from the enemy pretty much any unit can end up in the player's service, including bandits and raiders. The companions recruitable include everything from impoverished nobles to petty bandits, including a daughter fleeing from an arranged marriage with no fighting skills whatsoever.
Rain of Arrows: Basically what happens if you get enough archers (or crossbowmen), and one of the best tactics you can use if the map permits.
Practically the only way to win when defending in multiplayer sieges is to do this for as long as the timer goes, or until some idiot leaves a door open.
Rain of Blood: Get a guy in close combat for long enough and they will look like they took a dip in a crimson sea.
Ranged Emergency Weapon: Throwing knives require no skill in throwing to use and take up only one of your four weapon slots (opposed to the two taken up by a bow or crossbow and its ammo) but do poor damage. Their primary use is to give a sword/shield/lance user some range. Many infantry units have a chance at having proper throwing weapons at creation.
Recruiting the Criminal: You can get bandits and such into your party if you take them prisoner and then recruit them after dragging them around for a while to crush their morale.
Recurring Traveller: Tavern regulars.
Redshirt Army: Your soldiers, as well as the soldiers of every other lord.
However, if your soldiers somehow survive long enough to reach their maximum levels they can become the Men of Sherwood.
Retcon: A few things, like the black armor and the city of Zendar, got removed in later versions.
Royals Who Actually Do Something: Kings and lords actively participate in combat.
But as noted above, cannot be killed.
You'll still want to aim for them first when you can, they are almost unilaterally the best equipped enemies and so can deliver the most beatdown on your own troops. Mostly. They also have the highest skills, most especially Tactics, which can result in you being badly outmatched if you lack a good tactician of your own.
In the Warband standalone expansion, while the kings and lord can still do stuff, they'll mostly participate in feasts... unless they are your enemy - then they'll take their armies and go kick your ass.
Ryu and Ken: Swadia and Vaegir share a troop tree layout and wider range of units. Swadia has crossbowmen while the Vaegirs get bowmen, Swadia's cavalry and infantry is better armored but less damaging.
Save Scumming: Averted, you automatically fail most tasks that have a random component to them for a short amount of time after reloading a save. The game actually takes it farther than that: you will fail even if it's otherwise impossible to do so![3] You will discover this fact at the worst possible moment.
Set Swords to Stun: Practice weapons knock opponents out instead of killing them. Mounted sword users can deal non-lethal damage with a pommel strike.
Sex Sells: There's really no explanation for this promotional screenshot.
Simple Staff: One of the game's basic weapons.
Sinister Scythe: A realistic example with war scythes, with a shortened version for ease of use.
Sociopathic Hero: Klethi
Spiritual Successor: To Sid Meiers Pirates.
Spy Speak: One quest type involves identifying a friendly spy in this manner.
Stats Grinding: With weapon proficiency only (you get "free" points on each level up as well). Thankfully it increases rather fast with a decent weapons master skill, and one of the main purposes of arenas is to get this skill up to basic competency. One quirk is that mounted archers build proficiency stupidly quick, as the the increases are based on the supposed difficulty of a shot (How far the target is, how fast you are moveing, bonus for head shots), but fails to account for how easy it is to hit shoot as a large mob during a full gallop (which you should be doing) and have it hit someone.
Sticks to the Back: Most of the larger weapons.
Storming the Castle: The most common method of expanding your territory.
Combined with All Your Base Are Belong to Us is what makes multiplayer Siege games so awesome.
Suicidal Overconfidence: The combat AI will charge into any enemy. Even if COMPLETELY outmatched (IE: Peasants vs Knights) Averted on the overmap, though.
Some of the more hilarious parts of this are watching peasants gleefully charge fully-armored swordsmen one-after-another, with the swordsman 1-hit-killing each one. Or heavily-armored footmen trying in vain to chase down horse archers...
Finally averted in the Warband extension. Now, enemies will run when their morale is low and when they understand that the battle is lost. Small parties of bandits that you chased will still try to take their chance against large armies rather than just trying to bribe you, tough.
Super Not-Drowning Skills: There's a few spots where water reaches over your character's head (especially in earlier versions) without visibly inconveniencing him or her in any way.
Take Your Time: While all non-rebellion quests have a time limit, with the exception of orders given by your faction's marshal, they are all very generous (such as a month to deliver a letter somewhere a day and a half away at most)
Apparently even those were too restrictive to some players, as relatively few quests in the expansion have any limit.
The record being the wedding "mission", with a time limit of 360 days. Since a wedding require total peace, a feast, and the presence of both the brothered, her father, and you, all this time actually come in handy.
Ted Baxter: 'Baron' Rolf, Nizar.
The All-Seeing AI: Computer-controlled ranged troops see perfectly through fog, shooting at you long before you get close enough to see them. Fortunately the same applies to your hirelings.
Lost track of where the enemies are in battle? Just follow the AI! They know exactly where those last remaining horse archers are. They also know exactly when the final enemy is slain, even if it took place a distance away.
Or you can just open the minimap and see where everyone is.
The Atoner: Firentis.
The Lancer: Bunduk and several of the recruitable hero characters. Literally, since they can become lancers in the classical sense of the word, on horseback of course.
There Are No Tents: Averted. You have the option of setting up camp anywhere and anytime on the world map. While camping, you can still engage in some minor actions, like trying to persuade captured bandits to join your party, or reading books. The only downside is, that unlike cities, villages and castles, your camp won't protect you from wandering hordes of bandits (if they're passing by and bump into you).
Thriving Ghost Town: Very obvious when you choose to explore a town, castle, or village. Some of the villages look barely enough to house twenty people whereas you can be recruiting a half dozen volunteers from them every day.
Too Dumb to Live: The AI will always provide you with endless hilarities by following this trope.
Both sides during a multiplayer siege battle will treat a defender who repeatedly opens the sally port door this and will promptly ban the offender for their stupidity/poor sportsmanship. On certain servers such shenanigans might be rewarded with friendly arrows to the back.
Took a Level In Badass: Rescued peasant women can fight for your army and rise in rank until they become Sword Sisters, heavy cavalry sporting full plate armour.
Training the Peaceful Villagers: A possible quest for each village.
Trying to Catch Me Fighting Dirty: The arena is home to some of the dirtiest fighting imaginable. Everything from hitting someone over the head as they spar with someone else to two AI teaming up for a few minutes to go after the player or some other poor unfortunate can be expected. And you will be engaging in it aplenty too.
24-Hour Armor: No matter how high its encumbrance is.
Averted with NPC lords, who switch to civvies when resting in a castle or town.
Values Dissonance: Deliberately invoked. You're told up front that, as the game is heavily based on the Middle Ages, the most powerful people in Calradia tend to be of noble birth and male. Indeed, in the early stages of the games, most NPC's will treat a female character like a joke. Of course, there's really no penalty for playing as a girl, and in fact there are several achievements that require you to accomplish certain impressive feats with a female character.
Vendor Trash: A byproduct of the looting system. Firstly, you can only get things that your opponents wield (Looters will not magically yield plate armor, for example). Secondly, the quality and quantity of loot is determined by your Looting skill (which serves no other purpose). Thirdly, the more troops and companions you have the less loot you get. The net result is that post-battle looting tends to yield dangerously subpar equipment only fit for selling off. You have a much better chance of finding high quality items by using that money to go shopping.
Velvet Revolution: High persuade and relations with a kingdom's lords will allow you to convert most lords to your side during a rebellion, leaving you only the capital and current ruler to attack.
Video Game Cruelty Potential: Want to level up your allies, but have a battle they aren't going to win on their own? Dismount enemy cavalry and knock down infantry by trampling them to make them easy pickings for your men.
Or massacre helpless villagers, loot their homes and steal their cattle.
Video Game Cruelty Punishment: Sure, you can raid villages, shake down peasants, and cut down farmers for easy money. But it can and WILL draw attention from, at the very least, the local Nobles. And early in the game, a noble with several dozen of the best troops in the game at his side will be more than you can handle! Even later in the game, raiding villages enough will have entire kingdoms ready to attack you on sight!
It also takes a while, during which you're helpless, the village is constantly reporting your location to any friendly lord within range, and enemy lords can and will form parties to kick your ass.
Villages are also the most common source of recruits. If you make them all hate you and then get your army wiped out...
Violation of Common Sense: Jumping down onto the spikes around a castle wall will result in less damage than avoiding the spikes (assuming you don't get stuck in the object).
Openning the maingates or the sally port in multiplayer sieges is pretty much this, its generally a foregone conclusion on the Mahdaar Castle map that if the sally port is breached before the final minute, the defenders will lose as the attacker's spawn is right outside it and the besieging side will just keep sending cavalry through in a constant stampede.
Wallet of Holding
We Buy Anything: Any shop in town will buy any item. So will villages, for that matter (though they usually don't have a lot of money). And book merchants.
We Cannot Go on Without You: The battle ends as soon as you are knocked out, no matter how close you are to victory. This doesn't mean you lose, but your men will retreat and lose morale. While you can send your men in to fight without you, this is something you should NEVER do as they are much less effective when unled (an army that can inflict a 10-1 casualty rate on the enemy in a proper battle can easily suffer a 2-1 casualty rate if you use autoresolve for the same battle).
The Wiki Rule: The Mount and Blade Wiki probably isn't actually your premier source for M&B information. The M&B page is one of the most popular sections of StrategyWiki though, despite being fairly incomplete.
Wimp Fight: If two AI in the arena spawn with bows next to each other, they will proceed to punch eachother for minimal damage until one is KO or (more likely) someone kicks both their asses.
Wizard Needs Food Badly: A lack of food causes morale penalties and eventually desertion.
You All Meet in An Inn: Companions are acquired in taverns.
You Will Be Spared: If you let lords go free, they may give you the quick and painless variety.
In addition to the above, Warband also features:
American Kirby Is Hardcore: An inverted example. The American and European boxarts depict roughly the same scene, but the American boxart has a bunch of bright light added and has a clear sky, with expressions indicating it is set during preparation for battle and is drawn slightly more "realistically". The European art is much darker and stylized, set during battle and has an overcast sky. Rating differences are likely behind this (The ESRB rating is Teen, while the PEGI rating is 16+).
Artificial Difficulty: Whereas the original M&B was fairly sensible in this respect, WB has situations where you're arbitrarily denied reinforcements or the use of some of your weapons.
Cosmetic Award: The Steam version of WB now has 74 achievements.
Cycle of Hurting: An especially outrageous case of this occurs when the player finds himself in a besieged city that has no hope of defending itself. It is impossible to leave the city by stealth or to surrender, the only options available on the city screen are to join the battle or send the troops in on their own. And due to the fact that the developers though it was a good idea to not allow the player to access the main menu during battle, the only thing you can do is throw all your troops in vain at the enemy and then let the enemy knock you out as well. Only after being defeated and captured are you allowed to load a prior saved game.
Or you can simply Ctrl+Alt+Delete, and end the game process, and then reload.
Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Arrows fired from horseback while moving now actually pick up momentum in the direction of the horse's movement, forcing veteran horse archer players to unlearn what they have learned.
Diminishing Returns for Balance: The more Renown a character has, the more difficult it is to increase it further.
Even worse, the higher Renown is, the less meaning it has. The biggest reason to increase Renown (to increase your party size) slows as Renown increases, such that you'll eventually need a hundred points to increase party size by one.
Game Favored Gender: While the starting stats still favor females, the politics system favors males and up front tells you at character creation that non-noble non-males are the equivalent of a Self-Imposed Challenge.
Hitbox Dissonance: The shield bug is gone, but is replaced with a forcefield that blocks projectiles as if the shield was up even when it's not.
Left Justified Fantasy Map : Since the Warband expansion retconned the geography, the game now plays this trope straight to some extent : The sea covers both the north and the west (though the cold area is still to the east).
Mook Maker: Bandit parties are now spawned by bandit hideouts, which can be assaulted to temporarily clear an area of banditry.
Leaving hideouts alone is a singularly terrible idea: bandits spawn from the hideout based on your party size, and at regular intervals, so that if you leave the area alone for too long, you'll have a dozen groups of 40+ bandits that, when they see you, will gang up on you, resulting in 400+ bandits attacking you!
Obvious Beta: Played completely straight with the expansion, down to debugging info and messages in the vein of "this feature is not yet implemented" being shown in the 'final' version. To their credit, though, TW have been cranking out patches at an impressive rate.
Perpetual Beta: Two years and a standalone expansion pack later, the developers are still fighting critical issues in the singleplayer campaign.
Purely Aesthetic Gender: Averted. Women have pretty much the same stats and gain experience at the same rate as men, but the new political system is heavily geared towards males and women have a pretty hard time climbing the social ladder.
Women actually get Renown faster, though, so building a continent conquering army as a woman is actually easier. Males have better chances when they join a faction instead of making their own.
Retcon: Calradian geography went through yet another complete overhaul, and all the NPCs act as if the new faction had always been there.
Ryu and Ken: The Sarranids have the same troop tree layout as the original 2 factions. Their lighter cavalry and possibility of any unit having a horse make them a Sakura type.
Shout-Out: Several achievement names reference Monty Python and The Holy Grail.
If you happen to get into a bar brawl, drawing a bow in the tavern will result in the tavern keeper shouting "No shooting, no shooting!"
Suicidal Overconfidence: Enemies can now actually flee the battle, but they'll still try to fight against impossible odds first until they get their noses bloodied.
Updated Rerelease: Despite being initially marketed as a stand-alone expansion (and lately even as a full sequel), the game is more of a further development of M&B, albeit with significant improvements in many areas.
In addition to the above, With Fire And Sword provides examples of the following tropes:
Call That a Formation: Units can be arranged to 1-4 deep lines. Suprisingly, Units tend to remain and/or reform the formation unless told to charge.
Cartoon Bomb: Grenades introduced in this version of the game look like this. Justified as these kinds of bombs were the first and only available explosives in the time period the game is roughly based.
Gender Bender: Putting female clothing on your male character will cause him to sprout breasts.
The Musketeer: Avaible as a unit as well as player charater. With some training, your companions also.
Obvious Beta: Continuing a TaleWorlds tradition, the initial release sees bugs and absurdities abound and key features missing. It's a little better presented than Warband's initial release was was but it's still clearly incomplete.
Poles With Poleaxes: Polish Hussars in all their glory.
Shout-Out: The Three Musketeers are mentioned by an NPC. Also, one of the books you can buy (the one handling the power of the state) was written by a certain Armand-Jean du Plessis, duc de Richelieu.
Tsarist Russia: Recently reformed with Romavos in power now.
↑ display_wp_firearms, if you were wondering
↑ i.e., high honor is bad when talking to someone with low honor
↑ For example, if you use the third-party tool TweakMB to give yourself a 100% chance of success, or make it so you always recruit at least one person from villages, you will still fail/find no recruits, respectively


Here's an overview of a standard Build And Capture Task Sequence. As you can see I've added Microsoft Deployment Toolkit to SCCM to get support for language packs in the image.
Download the task-sequence here. Rename it to .xml afterwards and import it into SCCM.
1. First you will need a hotfix in your CM-Client package-folder. Download KB2509007. Run it on your SCCM-server, it will create a package for you with the unextracted files from the CAB in <server>\SMS_CEN\CLIENT\I386\HOTFIX\KB2509007. Make sure that this is the same path as the package source catalog for your SCCM client in your Task Sequence.
Unless you apply this patch, the Task-Sequence will hang on "Installing Updates 1%" for 30 minutes and then time-out and fail.
3. Make sure that you have SMSSLP=<your SLP Site System> as a parameter to your CM-Client. In a Workgroup that's the only way to find the CM-server unless you're using WINS. And we're not using that anymore, right? I did of course write Workgroup because Sysprep doesn't work if your machine is in a domain. We'll also add the Management Point for good measure.
4. In "Site Settings" -> Site Mode Check "Allow HTTP Communication for roaming and site assignment".
5. Rebuild your Boot Image. I really don't know why you have to do this after you changed the "Allow HTTP-Communication for…". I can only assume that somehow that setting needs to be propagated to the boot image although I would think that that's something the client would ask the MP for… I can tell you though that unless you rebuild your image you'll be stuck waiting 30 minutes for the "Installing Updates" window to crash. If you're booting from an ISO (VMWare/Virtual Box and similar) just create the new image as usual from Task Sequences -> Create Task Sequence Media. I'm using a boot image since I'm building my Base Image on a virtual machine which is more or less how you should do it since you avoid getting lots of unneccesary drivers in your Base Image. Since I'm building on a virtual machine I'm unsure if you need to do anything with the regular x64/x86 boot-images that come with CM (or the MDT-boot image that comes with MDT). Please send feedback if you've tried this!
There'll be lots of references to download.microsoft.com before that with error messages. That's ok, that happens during the Windows-installation phase. The important thing is that the Windows WSUS-client finds your Software Update Point during the Install Updates-phase.
6. After the task sequence step "Setup Windows and ConfigMgr" you could normally run the built in task sequence step "Install Software Updates". BUT as soon as you insert anything else before that, software updates will find no updates. Zero. Nil. Nada. As in my example above, you can't apply software updates for IE9 before IE9 is installed and hence you need to install it before scanning for updates. Which will make the scanning for updates fail since it won't find any new updates. So… enter the workaround script that I modified a little but comes from here! The script sets the registry values to your WSUS-server/SoftwareUpdatePoint and then it triggers a rescan.
' COMMENT: Sets registry keys to the WSUS/SUP-server and initiates a WSUS-rescan locally.
' Needed for Build And Capture image creation.
Download the entire script here. Remember to change .txt to .vbs and insert your SUP/WSUS Servername into the script.
THEN you can run the normal tasksequence step "Install Software Updates" afterwards. And you will actually need to run it a few times since many updates require a reboot before WSUS can apply even more patches. Note that I'm addressing port 8531 in my script since my SUP is on my SCCM server. If you're running your SUP on a different server than your SCCM you may be using port 80.
That's it! I can't believe it took me a week to find that out… I hope this guide might help some other poor souls out there in the future.
Create a Software Update Package that you advertise to the same collection that your Build and Capture Task Sequence is advertised to.
Check that the computers IP that you're building the image is in a boundary assigned to your site server.
That the Software Update Package you've made actually is on a distribution point!
Install Software Updates Offline is for injecting updates into an existing image. Not for Build and Capture.
Microsoft doesn't recommend you to build the image, join the domain, install patches, leave the domain and to the capture. You'll get lots of GPOs messing with your base image and other traces from having joined the domain.
I can't express how much I apreciate it when a professional takes the time to write down an all-embracing "how-to", including all the details he found during many hours of researches.
We're using SCCM 2007 for OS-Deployment since 2 years already and I stopped to count the attemps and the hours I already wasted to research and investigate in this toppic. Just a week ago I tried again to assign the most recent updates to our gold-image since it was the time to update it anyway with some other contents. I was googeling about 4 days went through 20+ blogs and found almost 80% of the hints you provide in your summary as well, but it still did not work for us, probably because we are working in a "worst case environment for SCCM" (native mode, WINS disabled…). Finally I guess that the last missing thing in our environment was the "Allow HTTP Communication for roaming and site assignment" as well as the "Trigger Scan for Updates" step".
Thanks to you, everything works fine now and I can celebrate the birth of our first "UpToDate-Gold-Image".
Glad to hear Rudolf! Congrats on the new image!
Many thanks for taking the time to post this. I'm hoping you can offer a little advice.
I'm running SCCM 2007r3 in mixed mode, with WSUS installed on the same server but as a standalone WSUS (not integrated with SCCM). Should I be able to get your method to work?
Failed to retrieve 'PolicyRule' from SUM policy.
The system cannot find the file specified. (Error: 80070002; Source: Windows). The operating system reported error 2147942402: The system cannot find the file specified.
I wasn't really expecting it to work because there is another part of the process that I haven't worked out yet. At the end of your guide you say "create a Software Update Package that you advertise to the same collection that your Build and Capture Task Sequence is advertised to." I haven't done this yet because I'm not sure what it means but I'm guessing that it refers to installs of WSUS that are integrated into SCCM.
Also, I created a package containing the vbs script and specified this package in the scan for updates TS step. Is this the correct way to reference the script?
Any ideas would be most gratefully received!


text:
29 Nov 2019, by Amanda in ACN BENEFACTORS, ACN International, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Eastern Europe, Pastoral aid, Pastoral care, Pastoral work, Religious formation
Project of the Week—Bosnia
Support for the youth pastoral centre in Sarajevo
By ACN International, Adapted by ACN Canada
Published online – November 29, 2019
Catholics are a minority in Bosnia and Herzegovina—now at a bare 14% of the population, and falling. This decline began during the Bosnian War (1992 to 1995) when half the Catholic population was expelled or forced to emigrate from the country. And with every new year, many continue their exodus as the future looks dim, owing to the discrimination they face when seeking employment, in attending schools and in regular social life. Catholic bishops have been complaining for years that Catholic Croat families who would otherwise be willing to return are not receiving the support they are entitled to. At the same time, a growing Islamization of the society is very noticeable, with the building of numerous new mosques.
The Catholic Church continues to work hard for a better future, through its reconciliation work, its schools and its charitable work, all of which are open to people of all ethnic groups. At the same time, the Church strives to offer steady employment opportunities that will provide families with some prospect for the future. One beautiful example of reconciliation work is the John Paul II Youth Centre in Sarajevo, offering a range of initiatives for promoting interfaith and interdenominational dialogue.
Spiritual Retreats, Pilgrimages and Interfaith Dialogue
Each year thousands of young people benefit from a broad range of programs offered by the centre. Their enthusiasm remains as they return with great energy to their own parishes to work with a renewed faith for a better future. The centre also offers employment, with 10 full-time positions and 10 part-time positions, providing these men and women with a steady income and a future for their families. An additional 300 volunteers help out as needed. Training in leadership is available along with courses in spiritual exercises for confirmation candidates, volunteers, altar servers and other types of youth groups. An ecumenical program is in place for young people of different faiths to learn about shared responsibility and how to create a better future in the society in which they live. Those attending come not only from the archdiocese of Sarajevo (Vrhbosna) itself, but from all over the country.
Other big events are have been organized, such as a large youth pilgrimage in May to the Shrine of Our Lady in Kondzilo, which was attended again this year by well over 3,000 young people. A music festival, with modern Christian music, and a young people's Way of the Cross procession giving hundreds of youth from individual parishes the opportunity to gather together in shared faith.
ACN recognizes the valuable work done by this youth centre named for the great Pope, Saint John Paul II. The Saint who held such great affection for young people, established the very first World Youth Days during his pontificate. This year we are helping once again, with a promised contribution of $37,500.
Are you inspired by this project? To give and make another similar project a success – click above and select: Project of the Week.
TAGS: ACN, ACN International, Aid to the Church in Need, Aid to the Church in Need Canada, Bosnia, Pastoral care, pastoral charity, Pastoral Project, Pontifical Charity, Saint John Paul II, Sarajevo, Shrine of Our Lady in Kondzilo

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Constitutional process and human rights
Author:editor
Prepared by Vsevolod Rechytskyi, a constitutional expert of Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, a representative of Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union (UHHRU) and Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group (KHPG) in the Constitutional Commission.
Semantic content of the constitutional process in Ukraine in 2015 was provided with legislative activity of the Constitutional Commission of Ukraine established with the Decree of the President of Ukraine "On the Constitutional Commission" No. 119/2015, dated March 3, 2015. The Constitutional Commission was established consisting of the Head of the Commission (V. Groysman), two Deputy Heads (V. Butkevych, V. Musiyaka), the Secretary (O. Filatov) and a few tens of members of the Constitutional Commission, which participated in its work on a voluntary basis. Personal composition of the Constitutional Commission was approved by the President of Ukraine. In the framework of the Constitutional Commission were formed the following three working groups: 1) on the rights, freedoms and duties of the person and of the citizen; 2) on the decentralization issues; 3) on the issues of justice and adjacent legal institutions.
Approximately till the middle of July 2015 the working groups made progress in development of draft laws about amending the Constitution of Ukraine two of which connected with the local government reform (decentralization) and amendments in the justice system of Ukraine were were supported by a majority of votes of the Constitutional Commission and delivered to the President of Ukraine, who acts as a subject of legislative initiative, and later were introduced by the President to the Parliament[1].
The both draft laws about amending the Constitution were previously reviewed by the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe and received a fair amount of remarks, a large part of which was not taken into consideration.[2] Also the draft law about amending the Constitution in the sphere of justice was criticized by the human rights activists[3].
The Working Group on rights, freedoms and duties of man and citizen
Formally, the work of the Group was started in the second half of May and formally finished on 15 of July 2015, having 36 protocol sessions in two months. After this date the project document was officially closed for amendments and additions. Without exception, all Working Group meetings were recorded on digital media. In the presence of foreign experts all sessions (debate, critical speeches etc.) have been translated in English in synchronous mode.
In addition, the Working Group was assisted by the international observers: Arutyunyan Armen Shurayevich, Robert Boer, Vlasyuk Iryna Valentynivna, Alan Delcamp, Christos Jakomopulos, Kozlov Andriy Georgiyovich, Piskun Oleksandr Illych, Hanna Sukhotska, Hannes Schreiber.
The Working Group was led by V. Boutkevych. The most active members of the Working Group were V. Boutkevych, O. Volkov, A. Meleshevych, V. Rechitskiy, M. Buromenskiy, O. Martselyak, V. Kravchuk. No more than 2-3 sessions of the group were attended by such members as S. Golovatiy, M. Kozyubra, V. Nimchenko. V. Yushchenko, O. Syroyid, N. Kuznetsova, V. Vasilenko were never present. Instead there has been the active participation of public representatives (Natalia Petrova should be especially distinguished), Council of Churches of Ukraine and youth activists.
The Group worked in open way at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy with the representatives of the media, foreign observers, the representatives of human rights community, etc. The Working Group has also made a work visit to the western regions of Ukraine, where in Rivne, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv and Uzhgorod were held the round table discussions with the representatives of law universities, lawyers, representatives of the state executive bodies, court, prosecution, the lawyer union, the student community etc. Round table discussions were held in the working way of discussions and debates of the normative material produced by the Working Group that should be specially emphasized in view of the practice of simulating the socially useful activity that is common in Ukraine. Subsequently the participants of the discussions and meetings have sent by e-mail to the secretary of the Working Group O. Panteleeva a significant amount of additional materials and legislative texts. In general, both organizational and purely professional contribution to the activity of the Working Group from the part of its Chairman Professor Volodymyr Boutkevych is hard to overestimate. The personal performance, the transparency in the work and openness to criticism from the part of that person deserve the highest rating.
The aim of practical efforts of the Working Group
The purpose of processing of Chapter II of the current Constitution of Ukraine is to bring it in line with the more precise documents such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, European Convention for Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of 1950, The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union of 2000, relevant to the protection of human rights and liberties case-laws of ECHR, a number of recommendations of the Commission of Council of Europe "Democracy through Law" ("Venice Commission), " etc. As useful methodological developments of the past the Working Group has used such documents as "Final Proposal" of the Working Group on Human Rights of the Constitutional Assembly of Ukraine on making amendments to the Chapter II of the Constitution of Ukraine in 2013, "Preliminary proposals of the Working Group of the Constitutional Assembly in Ukraine of the rights, freedoms and duties of man and citizen" of 2013, preliminary written proposals of individual members of the Working Group and consultants such as V. Boutkevych, S. Golovatiy, M. Kozyubra, O. Martselyak, V. Nimchenko, O. Syroyid, V. Rechitskiy, A. Kozlov.
Structural Developments
In the agreement with all members of the Working Group professor V. Boutkevych has decided to change the title of Chapter II of the current Constitution of Ukraine from "Human and citizen's rights, freedoms and duties" to "Human Rights". Furthermore, by common agreement it was decided to form the structure of the revised Chapter II on human rights on the layout of human rights in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union of 2000. As a result, there was developed the following sequence (the titles are temporary and conditional) of the updated constitutional articles:
Article 21. Human dignity
Article 22. The right to the free development of personality
Article 23. The right to life
Article 24. Prohibition of torture
Article 25. Prohibition of slavery and forced labor
Article 26. The right to liberty and personal Inviolability
Article 27. The right to respect for private and family right
Article 28. The right to marriage
Article 29. The children's rights
Article 30. The freedom of thought, conscience and religion
Article 31. The freedom of expression
Article 32. The freedom of assembly and association
Article 33. The right to participate in managing the state affairs
Article 34. The right to education
Article 35. The right to property
Article 36. On cultural heritage
Article 37. The right to dwelling
Article 38. The right to the adequate standard of living
Article 39. On citizenship
Article 40. The right to asylum
Article 41. Equal constitutional rights and equality before the law
Article 42. Prohibition of discrimination
Article 43. Equal rights for women and men
Article 44. The right to social protection
Article 45. The right to professional activity and the right to work
Article 46. The right to strike
Article 47. The right to business
Article 48. The protection of consumer rights
Article 49. The right to health care
Article 50. The right to a safe environment
Article 51. The right to appeal
Article 52. The freedom of movement and residence
Article 53. The Inalienability and inviolability of human rights
Article 54. The right to a fair trial
Article 55. Presumption of innocence
Article 56. Non-execution of the criminal rulings and orders
Article 57. The right not to be re-sentenced
Article 58. Refusal to testify concerning themselves. The rights of the convicted persons.
Article 59. Compensation for damages at state expense
Article 60. The right to know his or her rights and duties
Article 61. Irreversibility in the time of laws
Article 62. The right to legal assistance
Article 63. The unlimited rights and freedoms
Article 64. The defense of the Fatherland
Article 65. The obligation of everyone not to cause harm
Article 66. The obligation to pay taxes
Article 67. Strict observance of the Constitution and laws
Article 68. Prohibition of abuse of law
The novels (the completely new articles) in this list were the articles about human dignity and the right to a fair trial. As regulatory proposals which were included as a necessary addition to the main text the representative from UHHRU and KhPG has formulated and proposed two new constitutional rights: the right to proper governance and the right to access to public information.
Specific textual changes
As for the specific textual changes, they are reduced mainly to the following. Article 21 of the current Constitution from the article about the equality of all people "in their dignity and rights" has turned into a big article consisting of three parts, each of which was devoted exclusively to human dignity. In particular, it referred to the impact of human dignity on the determination of the subjective constitutional rights, and that "each person has the right to recognition of its uniqueness, value and significance for itself and for society". This approach has reflected the well-known Hegelian idea of a constant struggle of every conscious individual for recognition and prestige.
To the Article 22 of the current Constitution was added a meaningful statement that legal persons also have basic rights laid out in Chapter II of the Constitution of Ukraine, unless it is contrary to the nature of the relevant right. In turn, Article 24 of the current Constitution prohibiting discrimination has been brought into fuller compliance with the European standards of understanding of the subjective rights. In the draft of the amendments it includes more specifically named features on which the restrictions are not permitted. Unfortunately, such features as gender identity, place of residence or sexual orientation were not reflected in the updated text of the regulations. These features are placed in an alternative version of the article on the prohibition of the discrimination and will be offered on behalf of the representative of UHHRU and KhPG as an official addition.
For the first time the Article 40 of the draft from the Working Group included the prohibition of collective expulsion of foreigners. In addition, the working group has introduced a statement that "no one may be expelled or extradited to a state in which the death penalty is not abolished or there is a real danger that a person may be subjected to torture or other kinds of the treatment or punishment that is inhuman or denigrates the human dignity".
The Working Group has formulated and introduced to the draft text the full right to freedom and personal inviolability. The total volume of this right has almost tripled. The changes have also occurred to the period provided by the Constitution for temporary arrest or detention of a person without a court sanction (from 72 to 48 hours). On the other hand, among the possible grounds for arrest or detention has appeared a new ground: "preventing the commission of terrorist acts on reasonable suspicion". Unfortunately, the prohibition of arrest (detention) on the neglect of duty has been reflected only in the alternative version of this article, proposed by the representative from KhPG and UHHRU. This model of the article later also joined the addition. Also in the addition was included a proposal to consolidate the individual's right to anonymity as a user of the Internet and other similar networks, provided that the person is not breaking the law.
The freedom of expression in the project of amendments was developed by the Working Group in an almost mirror accordance with Article 10 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of 1950. Thus the working group came to the conclusion about the necessity to remove from the list of possible sites for state licensing the cinema enterprises. On the other hand the Working Group has agreed by a majority of votes to add one more (compared to the ones consolidated in the current Constitution of Ukraine) ground for the imposition of lawful restrictions on the implementation of freedom of expression.
Unfortunately, at the same time the Working Group refused to consolidate in the draft text of the changes the statement from the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union of 2000, that freedom of expression in the fields of literature, art and science is free of constraints. This proposal found a place only in the additional (alternative) version of the article on freedom of speech, proposed by the representative of KhPG and UHHRU.
The freedom of thought, conscience and religion (Article 32 of the draft) was presented by the Working Group almost in the full compliance with the requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of 1950. On the other hand, the thesis of the current Constitution that everyone has the right "to profess or not to profess any religion" was not supported by the majority of the Working Group and consequently was not adequately reflected in the draft. Similarly, the Working Group has rejected the demand of the civic activists to add to the draft the norms about the right of military personnel (mostly privates) to refuse to participate in military worship, if it contradicts their personal beliefs. According to the Working Group, such right can be easily derived by systematic interpretation of the Chapter II of the Constitution on rights and freedoms. The statement proposed by the activists was later reflected in the draft of the amendments to the article on freedom of conscience from the representative of KhPG and UHHRU and was later included in the official addition.
As for the article on the freedom of assembly and association (Article 32 of the draft), it was enriched with the novel banning the formation of the parties that profess Nazi, fascist or communist ideology. In the wording of the representative of KhPG and UHHRU this requirement was formulated wider: "The formation of political parties and other public associations in Ukraine is free, except for those which in their programs or activities profess Nazi, fascist or communist ideology or any other totalitarian ideology that denies democracy or which in their activities do not follow the democratic principles".
Noticeably problematic for the Working Group was developing a new version of article on the right to peacefully enjoy their property (possessions). The Working Group has refused to add to their draft the norm that the forced seizure of property was possible only as an exception and its full compensation should not be at balance, but at market prices. Furthermore, the Working Group did not support the proposal of its member and a judge of the Supreme Court of Ukraine, O. Volkov, that the laws governing the forced seizure of property should be decided by no less than two thirds of the parliament of Ukraine. The members of the Working Group didn't want to limit the norm on the possibility of judicial confiscation of the property acquired not only illegally, but also legally, which was stipulated by the Constitution of Ukraine and its criminal law. As it is known, the laws of the Western European countries provide for the seizure of property only if those objects were acquired in illegal (criminal) way. Therefore such kind of proposal, including the aforementioned proposal of judge O. Volkov, ended up in the alternative version of the Article from the representative of KhPG and UHHRU and was classified as an official addition.
The Working Group has greatly expanded the edition of the individual right to business. As an important warranty of this right the Working Group has recorded a statement that "foreign investor is guaranteed the export of profit and invested capital". As a significant improvement of the situation with legal guarantees of entrepreneurship should be considered a novel of the Working Group, under which everyone has "the right to business without having to obtain the approval of the government and the local authorities, unless otherwise provided by law". On the other hand, the Working Group did not support the proposal of the representative of KhPG and UHHRU to consolidate in the draft of the article the statement that "the state supports and protects <…> the freedom of contract, guarantees the free movement of persons, goods, services and capital ". This novel (also supported by prominent representatives of the scientific community of Ukraine) joined the official addition as an alternative version of the third part of the article on the freedom of business.
Improving the right to strike, the members of the Working Group by a majority of votes of those present rejected the proposal of civic activists to add to the draft of changes the right of "every person" to strike (in fact, the right to an individual strike) and the right of workers to take part in solidarity strikes. They also did not support the activist's proposal for the legalization of strikes with the political reasons or demands. All these novels potentially possible and not devoid of significance have passed to the official addition. Meanwhile, Ukraine has long been in a situation when the strike is used by people to exercise the political pressure on the government. In such circumstances the Ukrainian political strike has become the alleged national substitute for the people's right to democratic uprising. In particular, the political nationwide strike was declared during the Orange Revolution by the candidate for President of Ukraine V. Yushchenko on behalf of the Committee for National Salvation.
Quite dramatic was the Working Group's development of a new edition of the constitutional right to education. The Working Group by a majority of those present has refused to add to the draft the norm that mandatory education should address only "incomplete secondary education" (9 years). Meanwhile the President of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine and former Education Minister of Ukraine V. Kremen at one time urged the Working Group on Human Rights of the Constitutional Assembly of Ukraine to make only the incomplete secondary education mandatory.
In addition, the Working Group has refused to add to its draft the norm that in Ukraine the academic freedom is recognized and guaranteed, which would be followed with the right of the universities to the organizational, material and financial autonomy. Strange as it may seem, but the prohibition of the possibility of imposing restrictions on the scope of the professional use of freedom of speech – literature, art and science was strongly opposed by none other than the Academy of Higher School of Ukraine. Such regulatory defined prohibition was outlined only in an alternative version of the draft of that article by the representative of KhPG and UHHRU and entered into the official addition.
As for the right to health care, in the project of the Working Group it became much more "modest" in comparison with the current Constitution of Ukraine. According to the draft of the amendments of the Working Group the free medical assistance from now on will be available only in emergency situations and in minimal scale. The rest of the possibilities should be absorbed by insurance medicine (public and private). Therefore the proposals from the representative of KhPG and UHHRU included the following (as the third part of the following article): "Anyone who needs the examination or treatment but is unable to pay its cost or purchase an insurance policy has the right to preferential credit or other assistance from the state or local authorities. The guaranteed minimum of free medical services received at expense of state or local authorities is established by law ".
In turn, the right to marry and found a family in the version proposed by the Working Group is no longer tied to the existing constitutional definition of marriage as the union of a woman and a man. Instead the Working Group has proposed and included in the draft the norm that "the right to marry and found a family is guaranteed by the law".
Most regrettably, the Working Group has refused to include in the text of its draft two new rights, proposed by the representative of KhPG and UHHRU: the right to proper governance and the right to access to the public information. Meanwhile, as it follows from the content of those rights, they are relevant, fully European in spirit and content and are required by the current population of Ukraine. Two planned editions of the rights (included in the addition) are as follows:
The right to proper governance:
"Everyone has the right to impartial, competent and fair hearing within a reasonable time by the state authorities, local bodies of self-government and other governmental bodies. The implementation of this right involves at least:
1) The right of everyone to be accepted by an authorized person or the relevant competent authority and to express their opinion on their own case, to provide the documents and give arguments in their favor;
2) The right of everyone to defend their vision of the current situation and provide the explanations before a competent authority makes the decisions that could lead to the consequences which are unfavorable or adverse to the person;
3) The right of everyone to have access to their business-related documents, materials or official correspondence subject to the legal requirements for the protection of classified information;
4) The duty of state authorities, local authorities and other government bodies to explain in detail the reasons and motives for the decisions taken or the acts of law.
Everyone has the right to file individual or collective appeals, to personally appeal to the state authorities, local self-government and other government entities that are obliged to consider the petitions and to provide a substantiated reply within a reasonable time.
Everyone has the right to compensation from the state or local authorities for material and moral damage inflicted by the unlawful decisions, action or inaction of state authorities, local self-governments, their officials and officers during the exercise of their powers".
The right to access to the public information.
"Everyone has the right to access to official documents and other information about the activities of state and local governments, other government entities. The implementation of this right provides an opportunity for filing an information request or obtaining the information in other ways, for the inquirer to choose.
The state authorities and local self-government bodies, their officials and officers and other government entities are obliged to provide the adequate data on their information requests and regularly publish the information about their activities.
The implementation of this right may be subject to the limitations which are provided by law and are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, protection of the reputation or rights of other persons, for preventing the disclosure of the classified information or for maintaining the impartiality of the court provided that harm from disclosure of such information outweighs the public interest in obtaining it".
Summing up, it should be noted that the Working Group has significantly approximated the conceptual apparatus – legal semantics and stylistics of the draft – to the European (and international) legal standards. At the same time it was surprisingly conservative if the situation should be measured on the scale of now existing general civilizational requirements. Indeed, as noted by community activists, in the project remained such ground for restrictions on implementing the rights and freedoms as the infamous argument of "morality". Overall, the Working Group did not dare to reduce in its draft of the Chapter II the number of grounds for possible restrictions on the implementation of human rights and freedoms that were provided by the European (international) legislation on human rights in the first half of the XX century. . We will know in the near future whether these draft constitutional amendments, developed under the direction of prominent specialist Volodymyr Butkevych, survive Ukraine's parliamentary procedure
Almost in the conclusion most of the Working Group decided to retain in the draft of amendments in the Chapter II the right of everyone "to a standard of living sufficient for himself or herself and his or her family" – this downright Fata Morgana of the national constitutionalism that at the same time showed the insuperability of the principle of economic redistribution in the conscience of the Ukrainian legal establishment. It seems that the adequate evaluation of this passion will be left to the descendants.
One way or another, but so far it can be stated that such indisputable values of organic constitutionalism as the right of the people to the democratic uprising; the right to arms to protect themselves and their families in case of mortal danger; the right to access to the public information; the freedom from the restrictions in the professional fields of literature, art and science; the academic freedom and autonomy of universities; the right to the proper governance; the right to political strike; the right to same-sex marriage; the right to freely accomplish their own destiny ended up outside of the constitutional drafting shell.
Should such a restrictive approach be considered strategic, far-reaching? It is hard to believe. Either way, human rights and freedoms are not artificially created by the "authorized" person; they grow up from the nature of thing. A serious Ukrainian pursuing in this direction can only be welcomed.
[1] Ref. the draft law about amending the Constitution of Ukraine (in the sphere of justice), dated November 25, 2015, http://w1.c1.rada.gov.ua/pls/zweb2/webproc4_1?pf3511=57209; The draft law about amending the Constitution of Ukraine (in the sphere of decentralization of power), dated June 1, 2015, http://w1.c1.rada.gov.ua/pls/zweb2/webproc4_1?pf3511=55812.
[2] Ref. Secretariat Memorandum on the compatibility of the Draft Law of Ukraine on amending the Constitution of Ukraine as to Justice as submitted by the President to the Verkhovna Rada on 25 November 2015 (CDL-REF(2015)047) with the Venice Commission's Opinion on the proposed amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine regarding the Judiciary as approved by the Constitutional Commission on 4 September 2015 (CDL-AD(2015)027) taken note of by the Venice Commission at its 105th Plenary Session (Venice, 18-19 December 2015), http://www.venice.coe.int/webforms/documents/?pdf=CDL-AD%282015%29043-e; Secretariat Memorandum on the Compatibility of the Draft Law on amending the Constitution of Ukraine as to Decentralization of Power as submitted by the Verkhovna Rada to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine on 16 July 2015 (CDL-REF(2015)035) with the Opinion on the Amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine regarding the Territorial Structure and Local Administration as proposed by the Working Group of the Constitutional Commission in June 2015 (CDL-AD(2015)028) taken note of by the Venice Commission at its 104th Plenary Session (Venice, 23-24 October 2015), http://www.venice.coe.int/webforms/documents/?pdf=CDL-AD%282015%29029-e.
[3] Ref. Position document of human rights activists in relation to implementation of constitutional reform in the sphere of the justice reforming, http://helsinki.org.ua/articles/pozytsijnyj-dokument-pravozahysnykiv-schodo-provedennya-konstytutsijnoji-reformy-u-chastyni-reformuvannya-pravosuddya/.
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