Achievement Breakdown: (21)
Story Related: (7)
Side Quests: (1)
Character: (3)
Collectibles: (4)
Slay: (3)
Miscellaneous: (3)

With Fire & Sword will require us to beat the game 5 different times with all 5 Nations in the game. This is extremely tedious, but there are a few exploits we can use to shorten this to be as efficient as possible. The beginning Sequences are crucial, as the more time you put into developing your Character, the faster you can blow through the Nation Victories without having to back fill every single time.

There is a very important feature we can exploit in this game which is the ability to Export & Import our Character. In the Character Menu, if you click on Statistics, we will have the option to Export/Import our Character. Exporting your Character will “save them to the With Fire & Sword cloud” & Export their Level, Skills, & Thaler. Equipment or Renown does not Export. Then if you start a New Game, name your new Character the exact same letter for letter name as your Exported Character & click Import to transfer everything into a brand New Game. This is exceptionally useful & will be our bread & butter for blasting through 5 playthroughs without wasting time remaking a new Character every time. It will get faster & faster the more we do this!

There are no Achievements associated with Difficulty so feel free to reduce damage taken to yourself & allies to its lowest setting. Turning up the Combat AI can make the game a lot more interesting, but that’s of course up to personal preference. Battle Size is also important to consider. Since this is an older game, you can probably maximize this, however it has in-game draw backs early on. In early game, your Party Size is much smaller than the enemies typically. Maxing out the Battle Size means the enemy can field their full force against your small Army. To be able to take on larger Armies early, keep the Battle Size reduced to your maximum Party Size & slowly increase it as your Character levels up.

Save very often & make multiple Hard Saves to revert back to in case a campaign with a Nation goes poorly or a Quest glitches out. This game is a real labor of love & will be a very long 100%; having to restart the entire game due to bad Saving would be the worst.

A Nation will only be eliminated when all of its Cities/Castles are taken & all of their Lords have been defeated in battle. Lords will not be able to respawn if all of their holdings have been captured. You do not have to defeat all of roaming Scouts or Foragers to eliminate a Nation, however, these Parties only spawn from holdings… or Lord’s Party’s. This is essential for tracking Lord’s down. After all the Nations holdings are taken, you must manually scour the World Map to locate the remaining Lords of that Nation. This can be VERY tedious; if you spot any Foragers or Scouts, it will mean that a Lord is somewhere in the general vicinity spawning them so keep your eyes peeled.

I have spent many in game months looking for the final Lords of a Nation. Search areas you do not normally travel or along the fringes of the World Map. They do not always stay within their start out territories. I once found the final Muscovite Tsardom Lord way down in the Southeast corner of the map in Swedish Territory.

Until we are ready, do not do anything with Caravans until you have a lot of money to not void the Wheeler Dealer Achievement. This Achievement requires us to make 3000 Thaler in profit off our first Trade Caravan! So, if you mess around with them & do not get this much profit it will void the Achievement for your playthrough. This will all be covered in the guide so do not worry.

Build your Character however you like but prioritize Strength first. Getting your Strength to 30 is key to be able to blast through the game as we will be having to take on thousands of Units over the course of the game. Some very important Skills to acquire for your Character are: Power Strike, Persuasion, Leadership, Trainer, & Engineering. Of course, the majority of Skills are good to have; these are some essential ones to make the game easier. We will have Companions dedicated to the other Skills like Surgery or Trade. Make a point of getting 12 Intelligence so that we can read every Book in the game. When we Export/Import our Character, we can re-read Books over again every playthrough to really capitalize on free Skill Points.

When it comes to Equipment, the Weapons & Armor we can commission from Weapon or Armor Masters in Cities are the best in the game. If you own that City, the costs of these commissions are significantly lower. The best Armor in the game is the Black Armor for chest protection, & the Armet for head protection. Boots & Gauntlets need to be purchased from Marketplaces. As for Weaponry, that boils down to personal preference. I use Broadswords & Pistols so I went with the Handcrafted Broadsword (or Masterworks if I can find them) & the Double-Barrelled Dutch Pistol. Commissioning gear is very expensive & won’t be realistic until we control many settlements to derive a lot of Thaler.

In the Mount & Blade games, you are able to collect Companions who are unique NPCs that we can level up & equip with Weapons & Armor. They cannot die & will only be knocked unconscious in battle. Though there are 16 Companions, we will only be able to have 6-8 of them at a time. Certain NPCs like or dislike one another; if Companions dislike each other it will give them Morale penalties & may end up causing them to leave your Party. This can be circumvented by reloading Saves or balancing a Companion’s Dislikes with other Companions that they do Like; do not be afraid to experiment. My go to Companions are: Bakhyt (Melee Fighter), Karlsson (Melee Fighter), Nogoi (Horse Archer), Sarabun (Primary Healer), Oksana (Secondary Healer, Scout), & Ingri (Trade).

To help you efficiently plan your Companion build check out the Mount & Blade Fandom Wiki. It will give you a list of all 16 Companions & tell who they Like, who they Dislike, conditions for leaving your Party, & their favored Skills. I highly recommend building your Companion list ahead of time as trial & error can be infuriating when you realize your two best Companions are not compatible with one another.
https://mountandblade.fandom.com/wiki/Heroes_(With_Fire_%26_Sword)

For those interested, here is an organized list of all the Achievements/Secret Achievements. This is how I derive my Achievement Breakdowns & the first reference I create before I begin my 100% journeys.
https://steamoss.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2806270594

*Guide contains major spoilers.

1. Campaign Arc: Character Development
2. Achievements: 4/21
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Balancing your Character Skills is the key to success; in early game we will want combat-based Skills like Power Strike. Do not waste Skill Points on Iron Skin, an extra 2 HP is very marginal & could be spent on other Skills for a way greater return. I would focus on getting Strength to 30, then Intelligence, then splitting Points into Agility & Charisma unless there are very specific Skills you want leveled. In late game, we will need at least 5 in Engineering for the Knock Knock Achievement.

My early game Character build consists of: Power Strike, Shooting From Horseback, Trainer, & Pathfinding. Remember, if you rule the battlefield, you rule the world… As great as Bows are, you will want to focus on getting those 100 Firearm kills & 50 Grenade kills first. After we unlock the Achievements associated with that, any Weapon type is free game.

Quest – Tutorial: Cringe through the Tutorial & speak with Jaques de Clermont. When we begin the game fully, we will have Neutral Relations with all 5 Nations. For the initial portion of the game, stay Neutral & do not deliberately become Hostile with any Nation. We want to build up our Character, Party, & Thaler as strong as possible. This will save us a lot of back tracking when we reload our Save to complete one of the Victories & for Exporting our Character later.

If possible though, become Allies with all 5 Nations. Complete Quests from Lords or Village Elders to build up our funds. Whatever you do, do not “Send A Caravan” at all when talking to a City Mayor. We must save Caravans for when we have a lot of money to throw around. The Wheeler Dealer Achievement is missable if we do not make 3000 Thaler in profit off our first Caravan.


Achievement #1 – Lets Take This Outside!: Get in a bar fight.
Make your way to any City & enter the Tavern. Once inside, look for the Pub Visitor NPC. If they are not there, travel to a different City until you find one. Speak with them & tell them “My fists are itching for a fight…”. Bet some Thaler & engage in a Bar Fight. The Achievement will unlock as soon as you enter the Battlefield; you do not have to win the fight.

Note that this must be done before we acquire too much Renown or else all Pub Visitors will refuse to fight us, voiding the Achievement!


Achievement #2 – Na Zdorovie!: Buy drinks for everyone at a bar.
When you accumulate 1000 Thaler in change, go to a Tavern & speak with the Tavern Keeper. Tell them “You would like to buy every man who enters tonight a jar of your best wine.” & we will unlock the Achievement. This can be done at any point in the game.

If you want the Achievement but do not want to lose 1000 Thaler, simply make a Save beforehand & reload after you get the Achievement.


Achievement #3 – Hunker Down: Build a Wagon Fort from the Camp Menu.
This can be done at any time while out in the World Map. Simply select the Camp Menu at the bottom left corner of the screen & select “Build a Wagon Fort” & the Achievement will unlock.


Achievement #4 – Dress Up: Customise your Mercenaries' equipment using the Mercenary Camp.
Build up your Character & your Party; search Taverns for Companions & begin equipping them with better Equipment. For the most part, you will be relying on Mercenary Camps to supply yourself with decent Units until you are strong enough to recruit captured Units from Lords. Go to any Mercenary Camp on the World Map & recruit some Mercenaries. If you just want the Achievement, purchase a single Mercenary Unit. Then, speak with the Captain & equip that Unit with any piece of new Equipment & the Achievement will unlock.

If you want the Achievement but do not want to lose Thaler, simply make a Save beforehand & reload after you get the Achievement.

1. Campaign Arc: Mercenary Captain
2. Achievements: 8/21
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At your comfort level (obviously the higher Level you are/more Units you have the easier it’ll be) join a Nation as a Mercenary force or as a Vassal. To start, we will be focusing on the Crimean Khanate & the Kingdom of Sweden’s Victories since they have no Storylines we have to worry about. We are able to complete both of their Victories on single playthrough as well if you play your cards right. We can join one Nation & conquer the majority of the World Map, make a Hard Save to reload back to, earn one Victory then reload to switch Nations to get the other. This relies on keeping positive Relations with the Khanate & Sweden as long as possible. It is much easier doing the Crimean Khanate first then Sweden as you will have to reconquer the settlements taken by your first chosen Nation.

Joining a Nation can be done by speaking directly to the Nation Leader or by receiving the Quest randomly from a Lord; this will instantly make your Relations mimic that Nations. Becoming a Mercenary or Vassal will fast lane us to harder battles, better gear, more Thaler, & more experience. But be warned, we have to serve as a Mercenary for a whopping 90 days before we can cancel our contract! Before choosing either Nation, make a Hard Save! Aside from having a point to reload back to if this does not pan out, we will also have a record of when we joined the Nation, so we know how many days have passed since we were signed on.

Be warned! Unlike Mount & Blade – Warband, when our contract expires, our Relations will not return to what they were previously & remain the same. This means if you have -80 Relations with a Nation, this will remain even after you no longer have your contract! This is the number one reason why we cannot unlock all Achievements in a single playthrough.

After we join the Crimean Khanate, try collecting pieces of Velvet when stopping in at Cities or Castles. We need 10 pieces in our Inventory at the same time for the Velvet Commander Achievement. This will also greatly help us when we attempt the Wheeler Dealer Achievement as well.


Achievement #5 – Lock Stock & 3 Smoking Barrels: Using any Firearm; kill 100 enemies.
If you have been using a Firearm since the beginning of the game, you may unlock this Achievement at some point serving as a Mercenary or Vassal. Try popping off 1-2 kills per battle to slowly chip away at the Achievement.

After we unlock this, feel free to switch over to Bows & start leveling the Power Draw Skill if that is your preference.


Achievement #6 – Summer Fest: Complete the Summer Feast Quest found in any Village on the eastern side of the map.
This Achievement is misleading as the Village does not have to be found in the East. Go to any Village during late May to early July & speak to the Village Elders. It is not guaranteed to show up, so travel around & keep asking until you are offered it; I recieved this Quest from the Swedish Village Pilve. Once we accept the Quest, we need to gather ingredients for the feast. We have 30 days to complete this Quest.

What we need is: 5 Ale Barrels, 5 Grapes, 1 Wine Jug, 1 Vodka Bottle, & 1 box of Shag. As well, they call it “Ale” in the Quest but the actual Food Item we need to purchase is called Beer. Remember to over purchase Beer, Wine, & especially Grapes. Your Party will consume these Items over time & will deplete your stores if you do not have enough in your Inventory. The Vodka & Shag are Commodities that do not count as Consumables.

Beer is the easiest to find & can more or less be found in any Castle or City. Some examples for Beer are Warsaw, Minsk, Slusk, Lublin, or Lviv… but basically, anywhere.
Wine is the second easiest & can be found all over as well like in Smolensk, Poltava, Minsk, Perekop, Kara, or Korsan.

Shag is a bit more unique & can usually be found in Chernigov, Perevaslav, Minsk, or Perekop.

Vodka can be found in Moscow, Pskov, & luckily for me randomly appeared in Azaq-kale.

Lastly, Grapes can be found in the South West like in Berestye Fortress, Lublin, or Vilna. I found 10 stacks of Grapes in Vilna!

This is not an exhaustive list of the locations for the above Goods. These Cities don’t exclusively have the Goods we need & some can be found in any City. Some of it is chance based on what spawns in the Merchants Inventories at the time; which is good in case you are Hostile with certain Nations.

With all the Items purchased, return to the Village you got the Quest from & turn them all in to complete the Quest & unlock the Achievement.


Achievement #7 – Velvet Commander: Keep 10 bundles of Velvet in your Inventory.
As we progress through the game, be sure to slowly chip away at this Achievement. Whenever you see Velvet below 1000 Thaler try purchasing it. Note that this does take up Inventory space & will begin to limit how much Food or loot we can carry. Consider investing a Skill Point or two into Inventory Management. Khanate settlements are the most likely to have Velvet in stock.

These 10 Velvet will be crucial for the Wheeler Dealer Achievement so hold onto them.


Achievement #8 – Bomberman: Kill 50 enemies with Grenades.
Bombs are an irritating Weapon to get kills for as they are a none respawn-able Throwing Weapon, meaning once you use them, they are gone. They are also expensive; the weakest Bomb type, the Small Bomb, costs 1600 Thaler.

Kills carry over across Saves, meaning if you kill a bunch of enemies during a siege, reload, & kill them all again they will count as separate kills towards the Achievement. When you have spare Thaler & are knowingly going to man or assist in a defense, purchase 3-4 Grenades & make a Save just before entering the siege. That way, you use the minimum amount of Thaler needed & can quickly get this Achievement done & out of the way.

1. Campaign Arc: Caravan Master
2. Achievements: 11/21
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After 90 days has expired, a notification will pop up asking us if we want to renew the Mercenary Contract for a month or walk away. As pre-warned, when we leave the Nation, our Relations will not revert as they were before joining… which sucks! If you joined the Kingdom of Sweden or the Crimean Khanate, you can keep your Save going & renew your Contract or ideally become a Vassal if you are not already. If you served the Polish Commonwealth, Muscovite Tsardom, or the Cossack Hetmanate you will probably want to Export your Character & create a new Save as their associated Storylines might be voided by joining them early.

When Exporting your Character, sell everything in your Inventory, your own Equipment, & all of your Companions Equipment so we Import in with as much Thaler as possible!

If you are not already, become a Vassal of the Crimean Khanate so we can start chipping away at taking over the World Map while we work towards the Merchant related Achievements. Keep your eye on Swedish Relations; if they or the Crimeans declare war on one another, reload your game. There is a lot of randomness involved & we can prolong their conflict for quite a while if we are on top of it. Ideally, you can prolong conflict until it is only Sweden & the Crimean Khanate standing for the easiest time. Then we will make a Hard Save, to reload to after beating the game as the Crimeans so we can then reconquer the World Map as Sweden.


Achievement #9 – Wheeler Dealer: Earn 3,000 Thaler in profit from a single Caravan Trade.
At long last we will now get into becoming a Merchant. Before we can start, we need to purchase an additional 10 Velvet on top of the 10 we previously purchased for the Velvet Commander Achievement. It is a bit convoluted; we need 20 Velvet to sell to the same City so that it has 20 Velvet in its Inventory so that we can then create a Great Velvet Caravan. Caravans are purchased from a Mayor by what is available at the City’s market. No City will naturally have 20 Velvet in its Inventory, so we have to stimulate it manually. Velvet is most easily found in Crimean Khanate Cities. Tour around the Crimean Khanate for a week or two stopping in at their Cities or Castles. It will take a few days for Cities to restock their Inventories.

Make a separate Hard Save of your game as we will be moving around a lot of Thaler. With 20 Velvet, go to a City that is close to another City that is or was owned by a different Nation. Sell all 20 to the Goods Merchant in the City (he will not have enough Thaler to pay it all out, so you’ll have to give most of it away). With the 20 Velvet in the City’s Inventory, speak with the Mayor & ask to send a Caravan. We will now have the option of purchasing a Velvet Caravan. Buy the Caravan & choose to send it to the City with the most return for Velvet. Then purchase a Great Caravan which will hold 20 pieces of Velvet. Lastly, we need to choose Caravan Guards, choose only 2 for the cheapest price; we will guard it ourselves. Your Caravan Guards wages comes out of your total profits!

When the Caravan is purchased, we will receive the Quest – Deliver Caravan. Escort the Caravan to the destination City & we should earn well over of 3000 Thaler, unlocking the Achievement. Do not Save after the Achievement & instead reload to that Hard Save we made earlier… we will be exploiting this moment for two more Achievements.

You must earn over 3000 Thaler in net profits. The amount that comes on screen after the Caravan enters the City is gross profits which is not necessarily how much money you actually earn. The wages of the Caravan Guards as well as the City’s 10% Tax, if they have one, will lower your net profits. With a Companion who had a Trade Skill of 4, my Great Caravan earned me 12,564 Thaler. The wages of the Caravan Guards was 200 Thaler & the City’s 10% Tax took 1256 Thaler which still put me well over 3000 Thaler.


Achievement #10 – Trader: You've made 100,000 Thaler from using Trade Caravans.
Though it isn’t mentioned in game, the Trader & Great Trader are cumulative Achievements. This means, if you reload your Save & send the same Caravan over & over again it will count towards these Achievements… & so we will.

On our separate Hard Save, accept the Quest – Deliver Caravan again & escort it to the prospective City. Just before the Caravan arrives, Save your game. When it does arrive, & we receive our profits, reload your Save & keep on letting the Caravan enter the City. Depending on your net profits, do this 6-10 times to unlock the Achievement.


Achievement #11 – Great Trader: You've made 1,000,000 Thaler from using Trade Caravans.
Identical to how we unlocked the Trader Achievement. Just keeping reloading & have your Caravan enter the prospective City. 1,000,000 Thaler is a lot; it took me 79 reloads with a profit of 12,564 Thaler to eventually unlock the Achievement. Be patient, & eventually the Achievement will unlock. It IS counting towards the Achievement. It can be helpful keeping a tally of how many times you have to enter the City; simply divide 1,000,000 by your gross profits (though because its gross profits not net profits, know you’ll need to do it for an extra trip or two).

When the Achievement finally does unlock, feel free to Save over your Main Save & keep the final Caravan’s profits to carry on with. We are done with being a Merchant…

52% Complete

1. Campaign Arc: Crimean Khanate, Kingdom of Sweden
2. Achievements: 16/21
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is now time to finally begin grinding out our Nation Victories. If you have not already, join the Crimean Khanate as a Vassal. As stated above, try not going to war with the Sweden for as long as possible since it is eventually inevitable. After conquering a good chunk of the World Map as one Nation with a fully equipped Character & Party, make a separate Hard Save we can reload back to so we can switch sides for the other Nation’s Achievement. Any time Sweden or the Crimean’s declare war on your Nation, reload your Save & delay as long as you can.

As we start raking in the Character Levels, do not forget we need to chip away at getting the Engineering Skill to 5.


Achievement #12 – Don't Die of Dysentery: Tend to your Army's illnesses, five times, by resting or feeding them.
If your Party is wounded without good medical Skills or low on Food, there is a random chance that you will receive an Ailment Quest where the Party comes down with a disease. To cure it, rest at a Tavern or just wait in a City/Castle & it will go away after a day or two, completing the Quest. We need to do this 5 times to unlock the Achievement. This can happen quite sporadically; I only got this Quest to appear naturally once early on in the game.

To quickly grind out this Achievement, make a Hard Save, then sell all of your Food. Then Camp outside of a City to pass time & your Party will slowly starve. After enough time one of these Ailment Quests will appear. Rest at the City to remove it, then reload your Save. Rinse & repeat to unlock the Achievement.


Achievement #13 – City Planner: Build three Upgrades in a single Town/Castle you control.
This will come naturally after you have joined any Nation as a Vassal & are being granted Fiefs. When you are granted a Village, Castle, or City we will be able to purchase Upgrades for various amounts of Thaler. Upgrades include Buildings as well as much cheaper Specialists that you can hire. After you have hired/built three Upgrades in the same Fief, the Achievement will unlock.
Note that you can easily unlock this by buying any Upgrade in a Fief that already has 3+ Upgrades. As soon as your Upgrade is unlocked, & there is 3+ Upgrades already present in that Fief, the Achievement will unlock.


Achievement #14 – Knock Knock: Successfully blow a hole in a Castle/Town wall before a siege.
When you have an Engineering Skill of 5+, go siege any City or Castle & there will be an option to demolish the walls using explosives. If you do not have a high enough Skill, it will tell you are unable to do so. If you do, it will give you an hour count & let you begin the work. Note that sometimes, you will plant the explosives & wait the number of hours but it will say the walls could not be blown up. Simply reload your Save & try again; there is a random chance the explosion fails no matter what your Engineering Skill.

Set the explosives & commence the assault. When it notifies you that the wall has been partially destroyed, enter the Battlefield & the Achievement will unlock. Being able to do this makes sieges much easier!

As of now, that is all of our non-Story Related Achievements. Now it is the time-consuming process of conquering all four Nations as the Crimean Khanate. For the most part, your allies will not be a lot of help & you will basically be doing 100% of the leg work conquering the World Map Castle by Castle. It is very tedious, but you will be getting insane experience by the end of all of it. If we are Exporting/Importing our Character across 5 playthroughs… we are going to be pretty godly. It will definitely get faster & faster as we go; this first playthrough & probably the second will be our longest runs…


Achievement #15 – Return of the Horde: Join the Crimean Khanate & eliminate all other Factions.
Story Related. This Achievement will unlock after the Cossack Hetmanate, Muscovite Tsardom, Polish Commonwealth, & the Kingdom of Sweden have been eliminated. Remember that a Nation will only be defeated after all of its settlements are taken & its Lords defeated in battle.

When a Nation only has one to two Lords left with not that many Units, the Lords will hold position wherever they find safety. Asking Ally Lords how many enemy Lords of a Nation there are will not work as they are not counted as fighting forces. Your Ally will simply say that they have 0 remaining, which is false. Searching for Lords is very tedious; always be on the lookout for that Nations Foragers or Scouts & search those areas until you find the hidden Lord that is spawning them.

Be sure after this Victory, to go into your Character Screen – Statistics & select Export Character. Remember the name of your Character as well…

It took me 391 Days to complete the Crimean Victory; this included all the preamble of Character Development & the Miscellaneous Achievements, however. I ended this playthrough at Level 33 & 11,368 enemies were killed personally in the making of this Victory…

With the Crimean Khanate out of the way, we now can move on to the Kingdom of Sweden. Quickly collect your final Taxes from your Fiefs, sell your Companions & your own equipment, & Export your Character. Ideally, you can reload a previous Save if you have been on top of it or, restart your game. Regardless of what you choose, immediately go into your Character Screen – Statistics & select Import. If your Character name is the same as your previously Exported Character, your Level, Skills, & even your Thaler will transfer over.


Achievement #16 – Swedish Scourge: Join the Kingdom of Sweden & eliminate all other Factions.
Story Related. Identical premise as our Crimean Khanate Campaign. If you were fortunate enough to have a strategic Save to reload back to from the Crimean Khanate Campaign this will make things much faster. By this point, you should be strong enough to single handily conquer the entire World Map. Excuse yourself from service of the Khanate by speaking with Khan Islam Giray before the Khanate can declare on Sweden or vice versa. Then track down a Swedish Lord or King Carl Gustaf himself & pledge your service to them as a Vassal. Now turn around & begin reconquering the World Map as Sweden. Before you leave the service of the Khanate, you may consider going to all your Cities & Castles to disband your Garrisons… otherwise you will have to come back & fight them…

Eliminate the other 4 Nations & hunt down their pesky Lords to unlock their Victory Achievement. Once again sell off all of your equipment & be sure to grab the Taxes from your Fiefs for the biggest boost in Thaler. When you are done, Export your Character; & get ready for the actual story of With Fire & Sword.

Building off of the Crimean Victory Save we made earlier, it took me 508 Days, basically an extra 110 Days to reconquer the World Map for Sweden. If you had to start a New Game for this, you’re most likely looking at 300-400 Days to conquer the World from scratch.

76% Complete

1. Campaign Arc: Cossack Hetmanate
2. Main Quests: 1-6
3. Achievements: 17/21
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is now time to dive into what sets With Fire & Sword apart from the other Mount & Blade titles… story... With your Character safely Exported, it is time for us to start a New Game. Build some random Character with the same gender & name as the last & start the game. When the irritating Tutorial begins, open up your Character Screen, enter Statistics, & Import your old Character over so we can annihilate this playthrough. You may want to make a permanent Hard Save after beating the Tutorial again to reload to after the Cossack Victory playthrough; that way, we can keep Importing our Character to this point & so we can skip the Tutorial every time…

Note that the Questlines in this game are VERY bugged! You will want to take full advantage of the nine Save Slots we have & make a different Save before each segment of the Questline. Don’t worry, I will let you know when we should Save. These are just paranoid precautions for the most part; but if your game does unfortunately bug out, you will be thankful you have Saves to reload back to. If you do not, it could void the entire playthrough & you will have to Export your Character & try again.

Main Quest #1 – Befriending the Cossacks: When the game begins, seek out the Cossack Hetmanate & begin increasing your Relations with them. Warning! We cannot join the Nation as a Mercenary or Vassal before we have +10 Relations, or the Questline will not become available!

To increase our favour this way, we will have to aid Cossack Hetmanate Lords in battle. On a fresh game, the Cossacks are at war with the Crimean Khanate & Polish Commonwealth. Both Nations are fair game to become enemies with. This is not as easy as you want though; where do you even begin? To start, use your Imported Thaler & begin building up your Party, Character Equipment, & Renown. Things will be fairly quiet for the first two weeks; after enough time has passed you will see notifications of Lords falling in battle or settlements under siege. Fighting the Crimean Khanate is much easier than fighting the Polish Commonwealth so keep that in mind.

Main Quest #1 – Defend the Villages: When you have +10 or more Relations with the Cossack Hetmanate, & you are not a Vassal of the Nation, track down any Cossack Lord. When you speak with them, they will tell you that a (random) Village is under attack by Bandits. Agree to assist them to begin the Quest to start us down the Cossack Questline.

Ride to the (random) Village, & when you enter the Village, we will be instantly attacked. This could be random as well, but for me I faced: 20 enemies, mostly Bandits but I saw a few Cossack & Crimean Units along with a Swedish Reiter!

With the Bandits defeated, we will initiate a conversation with an Old Man who is conveniently the last keeper of an ancient secret. He begins telling us about The Black Mace… before he perishes from his wounds… starting us upon the Cossack Hetmanate Questline “The Black Mace”.


Achievement #17 – First Steps: First Steps: Start any Main Storyline Quest found in the three main Factions.
Story Related. This will be unlocked after completing our first direct Main Quest under a Nation, starting us upon its Main Storyline.

For the Cossack’s, it will unlock upon completing Mission #2 – Defend the Villages.

Main Quest #3 – Secret of the Black Mace: With the Old Man dead, track down Cossack Lords & ask them what they know of the Black Mace. The majority will not know anything; keep finding Lords & asking until one of them mentions the Chevalier de Clermont, the man we helped in the Tutorial. It is possible you can keep spamming the question to the same Lord until they speak of Clermont… or you can just track down Clermont to begin with. There is not much info about this Questline out there…

To locate Clermont, travel around to Taverns & ask Travellers of his location (he usually ranges around the vicinity of Smolensk). If you ask a Traveller where the Frenchman is, they will charge you 30 Thaler. Most will say he is “in Smolensk”, but he is not, he is patrolling in a rather hefty radius AROUND Smolensk. This is where I found him during the Cossack Questline (took me 6 in-game days).


When you find Jacques de Clermont, confront him about the Black Mace & he will reveal the name of the Lord that told him the tale. (It is a randomized Cossack Lord, for me it was Army Chief Pavlo Gomon).

Main Quest #4 – Errands: After you have spoken with Clermont & he has told you which Lord spoke to him about the Black Mace, track this Lord down; speak with other Cossack Lords to learn his whereabouts. When you do track this Lord down, you will need to increase your Relations with them to +8 or higher. Simply perform Tasks or fight in battles with them to increase your Relations; follow them around the World Map for a few in-game weeks. When you have enough Relations with the Lord, they will tell you about the Claimant Janusz Radziwill.

Main Quest #5 – For Great Lithuania!: We must now locate Janusz Radziwill; wait around for 4-7 days & track down a Traveller in a Tavern. Pay 30 Thaler & ask the Traveller where the Claimant Janusz Radziwill is to find out his location (for me he was in Warsaw). When you find him, speak of his claim to the Polish throne then ask him what he knows of the Black Mace. Make a barter of helping him to regain the Polish throne for information of the Black Mace to begin the next Main Quest.

Before he will accept our pledge of support, we need 200+ Character Renown. The fastest way to get Renown is in battle. Track down the current Cossack Marshall & follow the warband around to where all the action is. The more the odds of battle are stacked against you, the greater the Renown bonuses will be. Use this time to our advantage; track down your favourite Companions again, re-equip yourself in good gear, & slowly build up a half decent Army.

When you have acquired 200+ Character Renown, make a separate Hard Save in case things don’t work out for us. Carry on & speak with Janusz & pledge your support to his Claim of the Polish throne. He will then join our Party & we will progress the Cossack Questline.

Main Quest #6 – Support A Claimant to the Throne: Now that we have Radziwill in our Party, speak with him & ask him what he thinks we should do next. This is not the same as asking for a Task. Radziwill will tell us to seize a City or Castle.

1. Campaign Arc: Cossack Hetmanate
2. Main Quests: 7-12
3. Achievements: 17/21
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Main Quest #7 – First Order: When it comes to taking a settlement, we can take one from Poland or from the Crimean Khanate. The Khanate is a much easier enemy to fight, especially during sieges. Look for settlements with a Garrison of 150 Units or less; ideally with all low tier Units. It also helps taking one close to the Cossack Hetmanate borders as they can help defend us by proxy. I ended up taking Kyzykermen from the Crimean Khanate.

Whichever settlement you end up seizing, remember which one it is! Go to the City or Castle’s main office/throne room & we can find Janusz there. He does not appear as a Unit on the settlement’s info panel when we hover over it on the World Map. Once a settlement is taken, he stops being a Unit, hence why we now have to keep track of him mentally. Note that we are able to claim this settlement & Villages we took as our own; I recommend you do so as we can build our wealth back up. Be warned if we do, it can become under siege & may prove more hassle than it is worth to you. You might want to make a different Hard Save just in case. This is only recommended if you took the settlement from the Crimeans; if this was a Polish settlement, defending it from them will be a nightmare this early on.

Leave the captured settlement & pass time for two seconds or so & this Quest will complete.
If you did end up declaring War on the Crimean Khanate, we need to have a captured Lord from their Nation to progress a Main Quest late on. Keep this in mind as you play, if you have the option of capturing a few, do so & store them in one of your Castles until later.

Main Quest #8 – Seizure of Kiev: After we completed the previous Main Quest, Radziwill will give us our next one, to seize Kiev from Poland. This City will instantly defect to Poland even if it was controlled by a different Nation. This is where things get tricky as we now have to take on an entire City’s Garrison. For me, Kiev had a Garrison of 200, 55 of them being Winged Hussars!

To tackle this, we first need to build up ourselves & our Army. Take this time to develop our settlement & Villages so can start generating a half decent revenue. Ideally you still have enough left-over Thaler that we can commission the Black Armor & Armet from an Armor-Master as well as your preferred Melee & Ranged Weapons from a Weapon-Master.

If you take too long the Cossack Hetmanate may actually take Kiev from Poland. In theory, Poland might take it back. But if they do not, that will put us in a bit of a pickle & you will have to declare war on them to take the City. If you have the Thaler, I would definitely make Peace with them straight away afterwards.

After we take Kiev, return to Janusz to complete the Quest & be given a new one.

Main Quest #9 – Kiev Mayor’s Request: Return to Kiev & speak with its Mayor. Tell him that Radziwill has an assignment for him completing the Quest.

The Mayor will then go on to tell of a strange plot involving Janusz & the Kirillovskaya Church, but will later need 5000 Thaler to refresh his memory. Bribe him to continue his story & reveal its ties to the Black Mace beginning the next Main Quest. Make a Hard Save; potential bugs ahead!

Quickly return to Janusz & tell him that we found out what he needed from the Mayor. This will complete the Quest. It is very important we do this step; if we do not the Quest has a potential to bug making Janusz disappear from the game which will void our entire playthrough!

Main Quest #10 – The Intractable Radziwill: After we have turned in Main Quest #9, demand Janusz to tell us what he knows about the Black Mace. He will deflect our question & instead give us a new Quest to capture ourselves a Crimean Lord.

Main Quest #11 – Tatar Mirza: We must now track down a Crimean Khanate Lord & take them as a prisoner. If you were planning ahead, you may have already captured one & saved yourself a lot of effort. If not, we now have to go through the tedious process of riding around & battling as many Crimean Lords as we can find in the find in the hopes we capture one. This may take some time; get a good Cavalry force & spend a few weeks riding around in their territories.

After we have a Lord, once again make a Hard Save as we are approaching bug territory! There is a chance that when we speak with Janusz after we complete this Quest that it will not unlock the next one, voiding our game. With the Crimean Lord, return to Janusz & he will have dropped a letter. Speak with him about it which will unlock our next Main Quest. Speak with him again to tell us about the Crimean Lord in our possession to complete this Quest.

Main Quest #12 – The Templar Archive: After speaking with Janusz about his dropped letter, we will now have unlocked this Quest. Ride to Riga at the far end of the World Map which is most likely in Sweden’s control. To gain access into the Archive we need to accumulate a Relation of 26 or higher with Riga’s Lord. Alternatively, you can conquer it but that is very risky declaring War on Sweden. If you have the men to take it, & the Thaler to sue for Peace immediately afterwards you can do so. If you do not, we will begin our Relation grind. To do this, locate the current Lord of Riga & either fight with them in battle or complete a series of Tasks for them to boost Relations.

Whether you took the City or boosted Relations with the Lord to get his consent, return to the Riga Mayor & we can enter the Archives. Here we can read a report that the Black Mace might be located in the Radziwill family burial-vault & we will receive a new Quest.

Making Peace with Sweden if you took Riga will cost around 29,040 Thaler. Do not bother defending this City if it gets sieged by anyone. It is way too far away from our territory to be logistically defendable.

1. Campaign Arc: Cossack Hetmanate
2. Main Quests: 13-17
3. Achievements: 17/21
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Main Quest #13 – The Family Crypt Part 1: We now need to find the location of the burial-vault. To do this, we will need to find a Polish Lord with the dialogue option of asking about the crypt. Unfortunately, they will not tell us unless we have a Relation of 35+ with them.

By this point, you should try & start persuading Polish Lords to defect to our Nation. This will make earning favor with them much easier as we can bestow Fiefs to the same Lord to quickly boost our Relation with them. Otherwise, we will be reduced to farming Tasks off them which is very tedious. Chip away at this as we complete the next Main Quest.

Main Quest #14 – Radziwill Rebellion: We must now conquer all of the Polish Commonwealth & eliminate them. Either persuade the Lords to join our Nation & or seize all of their Cities & Castles. If you have not already done so, be sure to give Radziwill a Castle or two so that he has places to go; if he owns no Castle or City he will bug out & disappear from the game!

After we eliminate Poland, Janusz will be crowned king & we will complete this Main Quest along with Main Quests #5 & #6.

Main Quest #13 – The Family Crypt Part 2: Now, if you have not already done so, grind out Relations with a Polish Lord to 35+ so that we can ask about the Radziwill family crypt. If we ask Janusz himself where the crypt is located, it will severely lower our Relation with him every time we ask. He will not tell us.

When you do have 35+ Relations with a Polish Lord who has the crypt dialogue, ask them its location & they will tell you that it lies in the Village of Nesvizh completing the Quest.
Though you can go to Nesvizh early/at any point, you need to have the next Main Quest active, or you will not be able access the crypt.

Before starting the next Main Quest, make sure you have a kitted-out Party or at least 5000 Thaler to spare; we will have to solo fight or Bribe an Army of 200+ to progress the Campaign.

Main Quest #14 – Nesvizh Legend: Travel now to the Village of Nesvizh & speak with the Village Elder. Tell him that we know that some stone coffins were brought to the Village a few years ago; when he asks why we are here, tell him that Janusz Radziwill sent us (telling him we seek the Black Mace will give us a dead end & we have to re-talk with the Elder to say the other choice). The Elder will tell us of an old Russian Prince who came to the Village earlier asking about the Black Mace but was slain by Bandits.

After we leave the Village, a unique Army of 200+ Deserters will be patrolling around Nesvizh. Approach them & we will have the option of Bribing the Army with 5000 Thaler or fighting them to learn more about the Russian Prince & complete the Quest.

Main Quest #15 – The Secret of House Oleg: When we deal with the Deserters, we will receive a Signet Ring belonging to the Boryatinsky family. Track down the Muscovite Lord, Prince Yuri Boryatinsky, by asking Muscovite Lords of his location. When you find him, it will be revealed that the old Russian Prince was Yuri’s father.

Give Yuri his father’s Signet Ring & Yuri will tell us about an old book, the Book of the Crow, that his father used to read regarding the legacy of the Black Mace. Unfortunately, he sold it to an unnamed Book Merchant.

Main Quest #16 – Book of the Crow: We now have to locate a Book Merchant, these men can be found in Castle or City Taverns. Travel around from Tavern to Tavern until you find one; Book Merchants are a rare spawn & it may take a fair bit of traveling around until you finally locate one.
When you find a Book Merchant, tell them you want to buy a “special book” from them & tell them you’re looking for the Book of the Crow; we need 7000 Thaler to buy it.

If you have 15 Intelligence, you will automatically read the Book of the Crow when we leave the Tavern & initiate the next Main Quest. If you do not, you must find someone to read it for you which initiates the second part of this Quest.

Main Quest #16.5 – Pafnuty: If you do not have 15 Intelligence, you will receive this Main Quest to find a translator for the Book of the Crow. Travel around & speak with Muscovite Lords until one of them has the dialogue option that mentions the scribe Saint Pafnuty who is located in Novgorod. Escort him to the City, & he will then ask us to wait for 14 days so he can transcribe the Book.
This Quest is actually bugged in a good way; in some cases, you only need to wait for 2-4 days instead of 14 for him to transcribe the Book of the Crow.

Main Quest #17 – Cossack Legends: Whether you read the Book of the Crow yourself or had Saint Pafnuty transcribe it for you, begin speaking with Cossack Lords & ask them who knows the Cossack legends the best. They will tell you to seek out the Cossack/Companion, Mamai, who can be found randomly in Taverns; he will typically spawn in Cossack Taverns like Sich, Cherkassy, or Korsun.

When you find Mamai, you will need to pay off his bar tab of 5000 Thaler. Mamai will become a Companion in our Party; he is compatible with every Companion in the game & Likes/Dislikes no one. After we recruit him, speak with him from our Party tab & ask him about the Black Mace. He will tell us that the old Cossack Hetman, Barabash, knows the most about the Black Mace…

1. Campaign Arc: Cossack Hetmanate
2. Main Quests: 18-20
3. Achievements: 17/21
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Main Quest #18 – Hetman Barabash Part 1: We must now track down the Cossack Hetmanate Claimant, Ivan Barabash. He can usually be found in the Warsaw, Riga, or Krakov but we can also ask any Traveller in a Tavern to give us his precise location.

When you find Barabash, speak with him about the Black Mace to receive our next Main Quest. Note that there is a very large battle awaiting us in Nesvizh of around 300 enemy Units; prepare your Army accordingly…

Warning! Completing this next Main Quest will outlaw us with the Polish Commonwealth. This means that all of our Fiefs will be seized & we will no longer have access to our Garrisons or Taxes. Make sure you have amassed as much Thaler as you need as well as recruiting all your best Units from Garrisons to maximize your Army. It is best making a separate Hard Save before entering Nesvizh in case you need to reload to prepare more… As well, to make things easier once we are outlawed, quickly track down a Polish Lord before entering Nesvizh & ask where Janusz Radziwill’s location is ahead of time to save us having to try to find him manually.

Main Quest #19 – Nesvizh Part 1: Thanks to Barabash, we now know that the Elder of Nesvizh was holding out information for us. Return to the Village & we will find a battle awaiting us when we enter it; we will be attacked by the Villagers accompanied by Winged Hussars & a few other Polish Units, just under 300 Units.

After we defeat the enemy Polish Army, our captured Volunteer prisoner will tell us that they were sent by none other than King Janusz Radziwill himself. The Volunteer will then reveal that Janusz has outlawed us from the Polish Commonwealth.

Warning; Save your game! After the conversation with our Volunteer prisoner, Mamai will ask us if we want to assassinate Radziwill or fight him in battle. Tell him we want to assassinate him. If we say we want to fight Radziwill in battle the game can potentially glitch & we will not receive the next Main Quest. Note that what we say to Mamai is irrelevant in the grand scheme of the Questline; we can choose how to deal with Radziwill on the fly later on.

Main Quest #20 – Hetman Radziwill: Radziwill will begin uniting the Cossack Lords over to the Polish Commonwealth & one by one they will begin defecting over the next month. We must act quickly, as if all Cossack Lords defect to the Polish Commonwealth, we will actually fail the Cossack Main Questline & possibly ruin our playthrough depending on how you Save your game. Frequently make new Hard Saves in case you think you are taking too long so you do not trap yourself.

Track down Janusz Radziwill (it can be helpful reloading a Save prior to completing Nesvizh to ask a Polish Lord where his location is & reloading back to present) & defeat him in battle. When you do, you will automatically take him as a prisoner where we can take the Black Mace from him.

Radziwill may be a difficult fight depending on how many Units he has recruited & if he is in a City or not. If you recruited your best Units from your Garrisons, I suggest going after Radziwill immediately while your Army is still fresh.

After a few days pass with Radziwill as our prisoner, a Reiter will eventually come tell us that he died during the night from a hard attack, completing the Quest.

Main Quest #18 – Hetman Barabash Part 2: With the Black Mace in our possession, track down a Traveller & find out where we can find Ivan Barabash. If the City Tavern he is in belongs to a hostile Nation you will have to Disguise yourself & sneak into the City.
Speak with Barabash, & tell him we have the Black Mace to complete the Main Quest.

1. Campaign Arc: Cossack Hetmanate
2. Main Quests: 21-24
3. Achievements: 17/21
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Main Quest #21 – For Barabash!: Tell Barabash we will begin speaking to the other Cossack Lords & start recruiting them to the rebellion; we need to recruit at least half of the Cossack Lords to our side. When you speak to a Cossack Lord, show them the Black Mace, & they will either join our cause or decline. Whenever you recruit a Lord, they will tell us to go speak with Hetman Bogdan Hmelnitski.

This is where this entire Main Questline can shift: We can either keep recruiting Cossack Lords for Barabash’s Rebellion, or go & speak to the Hetman. Make a Save before speaking with Hetman Bogdan! If you speak with the Hetman, ask him what he thinks about Barabash & he will tell you that he is a Polish lapdog who does not stand for Cossack values. He will then give us an ultimatum: side with him & the Cossacks, or refuse & continue to serve Barabash (& the Poles). You are free to choose either as both Questlines will progress the Cossack Main Questline & the legend of the Black Mace.

Declining Hetman Bogdan will revert you back to gathering Lords for Barabash to begin the rebellion against the Cossack Hetmanate. If you accept Bogdan’s request, we will now be tasked with chasing down a Caravan & intercepting a message from Barabash to the new Polish King. Be careful though as this Caravan is fast; it will be called Trade Carts & have a day-time Speed of 3.9 (night-time Speed of 2.3), as well there will be 200+ Units in it! The Caravans location & destination are always randomized, but it will leave from a Cossack City to a Polish City (for me it left from Sich to Akkerman). If the Caravan’s location & destination are way too far away from you, reload your last Save until you get a more ideal location (I was able to reload & get it leaving from Chernigov to Akkerman instead; I was right at Chernigov).

Main Quest #21.5 – Cart With A Letter: Intercept the Caravan, & you must attack them. Asking for a Toll will prevent you from attacking & the Caravan will escape to its destination & we fail the Quest. Defeat the Caravan & read Barabash’s letter to the Polish King to learn of his plot for a Polish/Cossack alliance & half of the Cossack Hetmanate territory given to Poland if the King aids him.

Destroying the Caravan will fail the Main Quest For Barabash! & we will instead begin down Hetman Bogdan’s arc. I prefer this arc as it is for the best interest of the Cossack Hetmanate. Return to Hetman Bogdan & tell him he was right about Barabash & we will become a vassal of the Cossack Hetmanate & complete this Quest.

Main Quest #22 – For Hmel!: This is a weird Quest. We will receive it upon completing the last Main Quest & we will need to wait for Mamai to convince Hetman Bogdan to make us Marshal. What makes it weird, is that the Hetman already makes us a Marshal at the end of the last Quest automatically. Simply wait for two seconds & this Quest will complete without us having to do anything.

The Quest will complete, but we cannot do anything just yet. Ride around & pass a few in game hours until a pop up message appears decreeing that the Cossack Hetmanate will now conquer Poland!

Main Quest #23 – To Poland!/To Muscovite!: We must now eliminate the Polish Commonwealth as the Cossack Hetmanate. Build up an Army & begin taking Polish Cities & Lords. If you chose to side with Barabash instead, after you lead his rebellion & conquer the Cossack Hetmanate in his name, he will then task us with eliminating the Muscovite Tsardom.

Regardless of which Questline/Nation we must eliminate, be sure to take more than a few Fiefs as your own as we will want to build up our hoard of Thaler for our next playthroughs Export/Import.

Main Quest #24 – Rebellion: Shorty after defeating the required Nation be it Poland or the Muscovites, King Jan Kasimir of the Polish Commonwealth Rebels will lead a rebellion & we will gain this Quest to put it down. The King will automatically seize of random of set of Cossack Cites & we must go & re-take them; how tedious.

After we have eliminated the Polish Commonwealth Rebels, wait for a day or two & a pop up message will tell us that the Rebellion has been crushed… in case we did not already know & the Quest will complete.

1. Campaign Arc: Cossack Hetmanate
2. Main Quests: 25-27
3. Achievements: 19/21
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Main Quest #25 – The Military Incident: Before we return to the Hetman & speak with them, note that for this next Main Quest we will be released from service from the Cossack Hetmanate & in doing so lose all of our Fiefs once again. We will also need to single handily conquer an enemy’s City or Castle. Be sure you withdraw all of your best Units & build up your Party before beginning the next Main Quest.

After your preparations, return to Hetman Bogdan/Barabash & ask them why you have been summoned. They will tell us that they wish to unite the realm & declare us a new Nation, the Grand Principality of Rus.

If you sided with Hetman Bogdan, we must now eliminate the Muscovite Tsardom. If you sided with Ivan Barabash, we must eliminate the Polish Commonwealth. The catch for this Main Quest, is that we are currently allied with the Nation we need to eliminate. The Hetman will release us from their service, & in doing so seize all of our Fiefs from us.

We must now scout out the enemy Nation & find ourselves a manageable City or Castle that we can comfortably siege on our own. Take hold of the City or Castle & it will be turned over to the Cossack Hetmanate which will immediately declare war on the enemy Nation straight afterwards. Don’t ask me why we had to be removed from service & lose our Fiefs for this… cause “story reasons”. If you did this fast enough, you may still even get to be the Marshal of the Cossack Hetmanate if they did not replace you yet. Continue the war effort & eliminate the Muscovite Tsardom or Polish Commonwealth to complete the Main Quest.

Before turning in the Quest to the Hetman, take some to & build up your Fiefs so we can generate some good Thaler. We are nearing close to the end of this playthrough & will want all the Thaler we can get for our impending Export…

Main Quest #26 – Vytautas’s Crown: Return to the Hetman & tell them that our enemies have now been defeated. The Cossack Hetmanate will now be renamed the Grand Principality of Rus. Before the Hetman can become the Grand Prince however, we need to secure the Crown of the late Prince Vytautas first.

After speaking with the Hetman, ride around or wait for a day, & Mamai will speak with us offering us some vodka & some conversation. With drinks in your bellies, Mamai will remember an old legend about the Crown at an old monastery. Give him 1500 Thaler for his expenses & he will leave our Party in search of the Crown’s whereabouts.

Mamai will be gone for around 4-6 days (depending on where you are on the World Map). When he returns, he will tell us that the Crown is located in a random Cities monastery (for me it was Lviv).

Return to the Hetman & tell him your news that the Crown has been found. To obtain it, we are tasked with disguising ourselves as a monk & sneaking into the monastery to steal it. Head to the City & make a Hard Save outside! We will be doing a challenging event solo & if we die we will fail the Main Quest!

Enter the City & your men will create a distraction for you to slip inside the monastery. We must now fight our way through a literal dungeon (so cool) & locate the Crown. While we do have all our equipped Weapons, we do not have our Armor & are instead wearing Monks Robes. Be careful; Bullets will deal full damage to us!

I am unsure if you need to enter a specific room or just spend a certain amount of time in the dungeon. Eventually in your exploration, you will get a message prompt saying that you found the Crown of Vytautas & the Quest will automatically complete.

With the Crown in hand, return to the Hetman & he will influence the upcoming Election to make us Marshal… even if we already are Marshal.

Main Quest #27 – From Sea to Sea: After we have been elected Marshal, or if we already were when completing the last Main Quest, we will receive this new Main Quest.

From sea to sea… I am sure you can see where this is going. We now must eliminate all remaining Nations: The Kingdom of Sweden, & the Crimean Khanate if you have not already done so.

Keep your Fiefs in mind as you war & build them up for our final cash out.

After all of the other Nations have been defeated, we will be able to turn in this final Main Quest to the Hetman.


Achievement #18 – Power Shift: As any Faction; conquer the map & eliminate all other Factions.
Story Related. After eliminating all four Nations in the game as the Cossack Hetmanate/Grand Principality of Rus during the Black Mace Questline, you should unlock this Achievement.

It may have even unlocked for you during our Swedish or Crimean Victories, but it did not for me anyways. Not sure why. It may only unlock during the Cossack, Polish, or Muscovite Main Questlines… or it might be bugged. But I really hope it isn’t.


Achievement #19 – Black Mace: Finish the Cossack Hetmanate's Main Storyline Quest "The Black Mace".
Story Related. Shortly after we successfully eliminate the final Nations, an old Soothsayer will approach us & claim to be a servant of Perun, the God of Thunder. He will ask us to hand over the Black Mace to him as it is an ancient weapon of the Gods. Do so, & he will take it to a hidden location where it will be sealed away completing the Cossack Hetmanate Main Questline & unlocking our Achievement at long last.

Now, simply free roam & collect as much Taxes from your Fiefs as you want. When ready, sell off all of your Companions Weapons & Armor as well as your own, & Export your Character from the Statistics tab in the Character Menu.

This took me 349 in game days to complete from start to finish. I ended this playthrough at Level 38 gaining an extra 5 Levels to Export & 13,135 enemies were killed personally in the making of this Victory…

90% Complete

1. Campaign Arc: Muscovite Tsardom
2. Main Quests: 1-8
3. Achievements: 19/21
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Either start a New Game or reload your fresh Post-Tutorial Save, name your Character identical to the one we Exported during the Cossack Hetmanate Playthrough & Import them over for round 4!

Around this point, my Character was around Level 38. I only Leveled up five times during the entire last playthrough; things really slow down on that front the further in we get. As well, I was able to Import over 900,000 Thaler which will be very useful indeed.

For this playthrough we will be siding with the Muscovite Tsardom. Load up a New Game or your post-Tutorial Save & Import in your character for the last time. Your Relations with Lords is important for this playthrough; if you capture any Lord, release them to earn more Relation with them.

Main Quest #1 – Befriending the Muscovite Tsardom: When our Playthrough begins, seek out the Muscovite Tsardom & begin increasing your Relations with them. Warning! We cannot join the Nation as a Mercenary or Vassal before we have +10 Relations, or the Questline will not become available!

On a fresh game, the Muscovites’ will be at war with the Polish Commonwealth, Crimean Khanate, & the Kingdom of Sweden.

Ride around & seek out Muscovite Lords to assist in Battle to quickly gain Relation. If you are lucky, you can rescue Farmers or Caravans being attacked by enemies which is the best way to gain Relation. Poland or Sweden are the most convenient targets to assist the Muscovites in fighting; patrol around near Pskov & Rzhev Fortress for popular conflict zones.

Main Quest #2 – Tsar Secrets…: When you have +10 Relations with the Muscovite Tsardom, seek out a Muscovite Lord & speak with them. Ask the Lord to advise us how to win fame & honor. They will tell us about the False Dimitry & end the conversation by asking us to go & raid 3 Polish Villages. We must agree; declining the Main Quest will void the entire Muscovite Main Questline & it will not even begin.

Main Quest #3 – Ravage the Villages: After accepting this Quest from a Muscovite Lord, choose any three Polish Villages & raid them. Depending on who your current Companions are (if you even have any) they may become angered & leave the Party. Be sure to Save before raiding a Village just in case…

After raiding the Villages, return to the Lord that gave you the Quest to turn it in.

Main Quest #4 – Gerasim Evangelic: We will then be tasked with finding Gerasim Evangelic who lives in the Village of Trakai. Speak with the Village Elder there & ask where we can find Evangelic. He will give us an ultimatum: he will tell us where Evangelic is only if we reclaim Trakai’s holy Orthodox icon that was stolen by a Priest from Vilna.

Main Quest #5 – Elusive Priest: Ride to Vilna now & sneak into the city; you will have to fight 3-5 Polish Units when they inevitably discover you. Once you are in Vilna, take a walk around the City streets & speak with the Commoners here. Ask them if they know where the Priest is (I had to ask eight different Commoners to finally get his location) & one will eventually tell you that he fled to Riga.

Head to Riga now & enter into the City (or sneak if you are enemies of Sweden) & take a walk through the streets once more to ask the Commoners of Riga of the Priest’s location. When you find the right Commoner, they will tell us that we can find the Priest at the local Tavern.

Speak with the Priest & either: bribe, persuade, or fight him for the Orthodox icon; leaving him be is not an option! With the icon, return to the Village Elder of Trakai & the Elder will tell us the location of Evangelic (it will be a random Village; for me it was Tarusa).

Main Quest #4 – Gerasim Evangelic Part 2: Ride to the Village that Evangelic is located & we will have the option of speaking with him straight from the options. As we speak to him about Prince Dmitry, we will be interrupted by a large group of Bandits; approximately 100-120.

Defeat the Bandits, & continue our conversation with Gerasim before he dies. He will tell us of Dmitry’s demise & ask us to seek out the current Lord of Novgorod. He will also give us a Pistol; if your Inventory is full you will not receive it…

Main Quest #6 – Talk to the Warlord: Seek out Warlord Yuri Buynosov-Rostovsky (ask Muscovite Lords of his whereabouts) & speak to him of Gerasim. He will deny any knowledge of the events we speak of, but we will gain a bit of favor with him. Yuri will task us with delivering the niece of King Carl Gustaf, Eleanor, to Allenstein Castle. She is being held at the Prison here at Novgorod.

Main Quest #7 – Bring Eleanor to Carl: To conveniently find the Prison in Novgorod, exit the front doors while inside the Lord’s Hall. When we exit into the Fortress Courtyard, we will see a large cathedral slightly off our left. Head over to the second building with the wooden fence in front of us to the right of the cathedral to find the Prison where a Prison Guard will be standing.

Speak with the Prison Guard & tell him that we come from seeing the Warlord. He will give us Eleanor… & 200 Thaler, & we can continue on our journey to go see King Carl Gustaf of Sweden.

As we leave Novgorod, Eleanor will speak with us. If we hear her out, she will tell us who she really is. She will also ask us to take her to her father, Warlord Boris Repnin-Obolensky, instead of King Gustaf. If we do this, we will receive a small reward but gain a -60 Relations with the Kingdom of Sweden; it is more beneficial to take her to King Gustaf but either choice will complete the Quest & progress the Main Storyline.

Main Quest #8 – A Letter to the Tsar: No matter who you deliver Eleanor to, we will receive a letter from them to take to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. For his gratitude, the Tsar will allow us to enter his service. Before this happens however, he discovers the golden Cross of Rurik we have carelessly strung around our neck & rightfully gets pretty pissed off.

1. Campaign Arc: Muscovite Tsardom
2. Main Quests: 9-13
3. Achievements: 20/21
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Main Quest #9 – The Tsar’s Mercies: We will now find ourselves in the Prisons of Moscow. Immediately when we our taken to the Prison, we will bust ourselves out & have to fight our way to the surface. We will keep our Weapons but be garbed in Robes that have pretty low Defence.

When we reach an intersection, a hall to the left & stairs leading up, take the stairs to the very top to quickly escape if you are not interested in exploring. Head down the hall at the top & get to the exit door at the end; we cannot interact with the door, simply stand in front of it & we will get a pop up saying we escaped… From here on, do not speak with Tsar Alexei or else we will enter combat with him, even if we are still an ally of the Muscovite’s.

Main Quest #10 – Stepan Razin: Once we escape, the Main Story feels a bit vague with no new leads. Go seek out any Muscovite Lord & speak with them. They will tell us to seek out the Claimant Stepan Razin.

Find any Traveller in a Tavern & ask them about this land. We can then ask them about Claimants & the location of Stepan Razin for 30 Thaler. Razin will be in a random City’s Tavern; ride to it & find him. If you are at war with the host Nation, you will either have to make peace or sneak into the City.

When we find Razin, he will falsely believe that we are the long lost Prince Dmitry… even if you are a female character… Agree to join his uprising, as refusing will void the Main Storyline. Once he enters our Party, speak to him about available Tasks & he will tell us to find Warlord Nikita Odoyevsky.

Main Quest #11 – Talks With Boyars: Locate the Muscovite Warlord Nikita Odoyevsky, & ask him how he feels about Tsar Alexei’s reign.

Main Quest #12 – Alevtina-Hanum: To gain Nikita’s support, we must rescue his daughter, Alevtina from the Crimean Khanate; she will be imprisoned in the City of Kafa.

Speak with the Slaver in Kafa & ask if he has heard of a captured Russian Boyarina. Of course, he has but he will only tell us for 3000 Thaler. Pay the man, & he will tell us that he sold her to Mirza Agish in Azaq-Kale. Ride to Azaq-Kale & sneak into the Mirza’s Harem. Speak with the Seymen in the main room & we will convince him that we are the new doctor. Seemingly against her will, we will take her from the Harem back to her father.

With his daughter returned, the rebellion will begin & we will lose -40 Relations with the Muscovite Tsardom. We will however now have Nikita Odoyevsky as our personal Lord who we can command which will definitely come in handy. Not only will Izum Fortress become a part of the Muscovite Rebels, but we will receive a letter from him which if we show any current Muscovite Lord they will join our new Nation instantly!

Main Quest #13 – Support A Claimant to the Throne/False Dmitry the Third: Now, we must conquer the Muscovite Tsardom & eliminate them. Abuse Nikita’s letter & use it to convert any Muscovite Lord we encounter to rapidly speed up our conquering; Nikita’s letter will appear at the bottom of our conversation list when Persuading Lords to join our cause.

After we have more then four Muscovite Lords who have joined our rebellion, speak with one & they will ask us to take over the rebellion from Stepan to become the new Tsar when we succeed. This is a crossroads in the Main Storyline: if you side with Stepan, some Lords will dislike you & go against the rebellion, if you take the lead then Stepan will leave our Party after the rebellion & have all Muscovite Lords that dislike us rise against us. Choosing to take the lead as Tsar now will avoid the rebellion; if Razin takes the throne we can vote to replace him where he will then rise against us making our lives more annoying.

Choose whichever you prefer, becoming the Tsar ourselves immediately is obviously the best choice.

As soon as you see the “Muscovite Tsardom Eliminated” pop up, make a separate Hard Save. There is a lot that can go wrong coming up… whatever you do, do not make Save in the Lord’s Hall when we speak with Razin. If you do, & do not like the end result, when you reload Razin will disappear & we will have to wait 2-3 in game weeks for him to appear as a Unit on the World Map before we can choose a different option.

When you have succeeded with the rebellion, we will have to speak with Razin in the Halls of his City/Castle. If you chose to be Tsar, we will have the option of making him a Warlord or throwing him in the dungeons. If you keep Razin, he will be the Marshall & we cannot muster our own armies. If you defeat Razin, we will be the Marshall & the Tsar making things a lot easier going forward. Choosing to remove Razin will make the rebellion not happen as well; if we make him Marshal he will start the rebellion after we conquer all of the remaining Nations.

Main Quest #13.5 – False Dmitry the Third: As the Tsar, all we must do now is conquer the entire World Map. Systematically declare war on each Nation, & conquer them… just like that.


Achievement #20 – Grand Tzar: Finish the Moscovite Tsardom's Main Storyline Quest "The False Dmitry".
Story Related. If you are already the Tsar, after conquering the World Map we will automictically complete the Main Storyline unlocking the Achievement. If you let Razin become Tsar & then vote to replace him or he became Marshal, then Razin will lead a rebellion against us after the World Map is conquered adding an extra step of having to crush his rebellion before we succeed.

This playthrough only took me 180 in game days to complete. Collect the taxes from your Fiefs, sell off your Companions & your own gear, & Export Character. We have one final playthrough to complete…

95% Complete

1. Campaign Arc: Polish Commonwealth
2. Main Quests: 1-5
3. Achievements: 20/21
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Deluge is the Main Questline of the Polish Commonwealth; note that this Campaign is very difficult with many battles that will be stacked against us.

There are also a lot of bugs in this Main Story; I will of course outline where they are & guide you through the mess noting when you should make a Hard Save in case you have to reload. Some of the bugs make things much harder for us as certain things do not work correctly making us have to do some sieges completely solo when we were supposed to have help from Lords. Being self-sufficient & having a strong Party (good Units, equipped/Leveled Companions, well equipped Character) is essential for success.

Main Quest #1 – Befriending the Polish Commonwealth: When our Playthrough begins, seek out the Polish Commonwealth & begin increasing your Relations with them. Warning! We cannot join the Nation as a Mercenary or Vassal before we have +10 Relations, or the Questline will not become available!

On a fresh game, Poland will be at war with the Muscovite Tsardom, the Kingdom of Sweden, & the Cossack Hetmanate. I would avoid making war with the Cossack Hetmanate as if they are eliminated before we complete the Main Quest #14 – Horse Thief, the game will bug out & we void our Playthrough. Instead, as awful of a Nation to fight as they are, Sweden is the best Nation to fight as they are the first Nation we will be sparing with during the Polish Questline. Hanging out near Vilna or Polotsk are your best places to be.

Ride around & seek out Polish Lords to assist in battle to quickly gain Relation. If you are lucky, you can rescue Farmers or Caravans being attacked by enemies which is the best way to gain Relation.

If you choose to fight Sweden, keep one of their Units as your Prisoner permanently; we need a Swedish Soldier to interrogate for Main Quest #5 & this will save us some time!

Main Quest #2 – The Deluge: When you have 10+ Relations with the Polish Commonwealth, seek out any Polish Lord & ask them what news they have of the Nation. They will tell us of an alliance between the Muscovites & the Cossacks to destroy Poland. Tell the Polish Lord that we would be honoured to fight by their side for Poland & we will begin the Main Questline.

Enter back into dialogue with the Lord you are speaking to & ask if there is any way that we can help Poland. The default response is to simply gather an army & fight Sweden or that they are busy. Keep asking the question until they eventually mention the Companion named Colonel Zagloba saying that they would know what to do. We do not need to seek out different Lords; the same Lord can be repeatedly asked until they tell us of Zagloba.

Main Quest #3 – Colonel Zagloba: Zagloba can be found in City Taverns controlled by Poland. Unfortunately, at the moment he is not considered a Companion as we have not recruited him yet so Travellers will not be able to tell us his location.

When you eventually find him, he will join our Party without hesitation. Before beginning the next Main Quest, it is highly encouraged that you build up a strong Party as Sweden is going to automatically seize Polish Cities & severely weaken Poland. This will unfortunately demand that we grind out a little bit of Renown as well as locate the majority if not all of your preferred Companions to deck out in gear. You want to be as strong as you can stomach to give yourself the easiest time.

When you are ready to continue the Main Questline, speak with Zagloba in our Party Menu & ask him what he thinks we should do next. He will instruct us to seek out Polish Lords & ask them to give us a Special Mission.

Find any Polish Lord & ask them for a Special Mission. They will instruct us to deliver an intercepted letter from the Muscovites to Sweden about invading Poland. We must take the letter to King Jan Kasimir. As soon as we accept this Quest & begin traveling, Sweden will seize Warsaw & Krakov from Poland. If that wasn’t bad enough, there will also be a unique Swedish Army outside of the two Cities as well consisting of 215 Units each!

Main Quest #4 – Bad News For the King: Track down King Kasimir (if he was in Warsaw or Krakov he is most likely fleeing or in combat with one of the large Swedish Armies) & give him the letter. As it turns out, Polish Lords defected to Sweden.

Make a separate Hard Save in case of a bug involving Warsaw! While Warsaw is under Sweden’s control, we cannot have it be re-taken back by Poland until we receive Main Quest #8 – Warsaw where we are specifically tasked with retaking it. If it is taken back by Poland before we have the Quest, the Quest will remain active but since Poland already has it, we cannot retake it, which permanently breaks the Main Questline! Try completing Main Quests #5-7 as quickly as possible & reload your Hard Save if it is taken before you were ready.

Main Quest #5 – Raid the Swedish Rears: The King will now task us with capturing any Swedish Unit. If you have one in your Prisoners already you can skip having to battle Swedish Lords or Scouts/Foragers to try & capture one to hand over to the King.

When you have a Swedish Prisoner, & are ready for war, return to King Kasimir & he will tell us we will receive our reward after they are finished with the interrogation.

1. Campaign Arc: Polish Commonwealth
2. Main Quests: 6-9
3. Achievements: 20/21
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Main Quest #6 – Receiving the Reward: We need to wait for around 2-5 days before we can return to King Kasimir to turn in this Quest. Unfortunately, Sweden will have control of the two Polish Cities & will also have two unique Armies patrolling outside them. While we wait for 2-5 days, try whittling down the Swedish forces. It is highly likely that Poland will lose other Cities/Castles in this Sequence of the Main Story to Sweden or other Nations since it is spread thin. This is fine, all we need to worry about is the Main Story right now… just stay close to the King & make sure he isn’t taken out in battle. Save often on a separate Save File from the previous Hard Save we made earlier.

After at least 2 days, speak with King Kasimir, & we will be tasked with stopping some Swedish troops from sacking a monastery in Chenstokhova.

Main Quest #7 – Polish Relic: Ride to Chenstokhova, which is just West of Krakov, & confront the Swedish army raiding it. There will be around 65-80 Units (a few being Swedish Reiters so be careful).

Defeat the army & return to King Kasimir to turn in the Quest.

Main Quest #8 – Warsaw: King Kasimir will now grant us a temporary Patent that will allow us to task Polish Lords into following us. The King orders us to amass an army & retake Warsaw form Sweden. This is where things get tricky as not only is Warsaw garrisoned by 215 Swedish Units, but there is also a unique Swedish army of yet another 215 Units patrolling outside it (unless it was defeated already). As of this point, Warsaw is safe to be taken & we no longer have to be afraid of bugs... or at least that one because...

This is where the Main Story hits a brick wall; the King’s Patent itself is actually bugged! Asking any Polish Lord to follow us will give us a response of them saying "I fear I have too many other responsibilities...". The only Lord who may follow you for a bit will be the Polish Marshal, for me he was Colonel Michal Wolodyjowski. This also has its problems though, as the Marshal will follow you... for only a few seconds (2-5 in game hours). He will then ride away & return to his business. This makes sieging literally impossible as they will ride away & lead the armies away before we can even make the siege preparations. We can however take advantage of the Marshall & his following Lords & lead them into the unique Swedish armies at least & take them out. Just stay close to the Marshal & keep on showing him the Patent to have them follow us; the unique armies patrol around Warsaw & Krakov.

The Marshal may go to take Warsaw on their own volition, though quite often when they siege it, they will camp outside the City for 5-8 days then abandon the siege accomplishing nothing. Unless you are lucky & the stars align, you probably can’t rely on support from Poland. Which means... we have to take Warsaw on our own.

Seeing as though it is extremely unlikely you have the Renown to amass an army of 150+ men, we have to use a loophole in the Game Options. To reduce Sweden’s strength in numbers, go into the Game Options & reduce your Battle Size limiter to the level you are comfortable fighting; this may take a bit of trial & error. I do not know the specifics of the math, but by reducing the Battle Size we also do not have to defeat the entire Garrison (you will only have to defeat 4-5 waves of Reinforcements). Definitely make a Save outside of Warsaw... I bumped my Battle Size down to 60 so that the odds were 30 enemies against 23 of my men; I took Warsaw this way with only 90 men against Sweden’s 275. The problem with this though as that you basically need to do almost all of the heavy lifting yourself & will most likely personally kill 3/4 of the enemies, but with only 30 spawning at a time, this does make it doable. You can obviously reduce the Battle Size even lower for an even easier time...

However you seem to manage it, with Warsaw taken, return to King Kasimir & we will be awarded a title over a Village & become a Polish Lord.

Main Quest #9 – Error of Protestant Ways: King Kasimir will now task us with capturing a Swedish Lord & bring him before the King. After checking out your Fief (if it wasn’t previously Looted), patrol around Warsaw & or around Cities/Castles being sieged by Sweden. This Quest will chew up our Party as we pit our men against Swedish Lords in hopes of capturing them. Your odds of capturing a Lord are better if you take them out personally; Blunt Weapons improve that percentage, but they are not necessary.

Take the captured Swedish Lord to King Kasimir & we will complete this Main Quest. We will not unlock our next Quest right away however; wait for around 5-7 days building up your army or spar with Swedish forces until we receive a letter from the King.

After a week has passed, we will receive a message reading that the King wants to see us. Once again, we will not receive a Quest notification so make sure you do not forget that the King has summoned us when he does… or you will be waiting for a while.

1. Campaign Arc: Polish Commonwealth
2. Main Quests: 10-13
3. Achievements: 20/21
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Main Quest #10 – The New Khan Part 1: Return to King Kasimir & when we ask why we were summoned he will tell of us of a new plot to make the Crimean Khanate an ally of Poland. To do this, we need to locate the Crimean Claimant Mehmed Giray. If we can place Giray on the Crimean throne, King Kasimir will assist us in becoming the Marshal of the Polish Commonwealth.

To start a Claimant Quest however, we must resign our service to Poland. Completing a Claimant Quest is no small feat as, unless you have high Relations with the Nations Lords, you will need to personally muscle your way to Victory. Seeing as though by this point you most likely can only raise an army of 100 men… we need to grind out some more Renown. It is easiest to do this while still serving Poland. Once again, Sweden is the safest Nation to fight. We cannot take too long farming Renown though as the Cossack Hetmanate may wipe out the Crimean Khanate which will void our paythrough… We can fight the Cossack Hetmanate if they are at war with Poland but we also cannot have them eliminated before we complete Main Quest #14 – Horse Thief or else our playthrough will be voided due to a bug as well. If at all possible, try getting a City bestowed to you so that you can craft the Black Armor, Armet, & your preferred Melee & Ranged Weapons before leaving Poland.

When you are ready to continue (I’d suggest being able to field a minimum of 130 men), speak with King Kasimir & renounce our oath to him; we will unfortunately lose our Fiefs & title. Once we are released from Poland’s service we must ask Travellers at Taverns about the land & then where we can find Mehmed Giray; he is most likely in a Cossack City. If you are at war with them, you will need to sneak into the City to enter the Tavern.

When we find Giray, speak with him about his claim to the Crimean throne & we will barter our help for his alliance with Poland should we succeed. He swears to keep the promise, & we will begin Giray’s Claimant Quest.

Main Quest #11 – Support A Claimant to the Throne: When Mehmed Giray joins our Party, we will instantly lose -40 Relations with the Crimean Khanate making them our enemy along with any other Nations that never sued for peace with Poland while we were still associated with them.

Our task is simple: conquer whatever is left of the Crimean Khanate & eliminate them; there is no other side tasks or Quests involved. Locate the Khanate’s weakest City/Castle & take it to become your stronghold to front the war. Claim all Cities we seize & a few Villages; make sure Mehmed Giray gets at least one Castle or he will not spawn anywhere after we win! When you see any Crimean Lord, speak with them & try converting them to our cause to give us an easier time conquering. Use this stage to rebuild our wealth & collect any remaining Weapons or Armor that still need to be crafted.

Once again, the Cossack Hetmanate cannot be eliminated as we destroy the Crimeans or else our game will glitch during Main Quest #14 – Horse Thief.

When the Crimean Khanate is eliminated, we will complete the Quest.

Main Quest #10.5 – The New Khan Part 2: Shortly after completing the previous Quest, we will have a conversation with Colonel Zagloba. He tells us that it is now time to remind Mehmed Giray of the promise he made about supporting Poland. Make sure that you respond by saying “So be it.” or the Quest will fail & end our Polish playthrough just like that! Respond correctly & we will complete this Main Quest as well.

If Mehmed Giray has a Castle, it will take him at least 14 days to appear as a Unit on the World Map after we complete this Main Quest (if he has no City/Castle he will not appear at all!). Use this time to develop your Fiefs & rebuild some of our Thaler stores. After two weeks, ask a Crimean Lord where he is located & track him down.

We are not timed to go speak with Giray, as said above, use this time to rebuild your wealth with your Fief’s taxes. When we progress the Main Questline we will leave the Crimean Khanate’s service & lose all of our hard earned Fiefs; might as well milk them for what they are worth.
When you are ready to continue, track down Mehmed Giray after two weeks & we can find him most likely in his City/Castle.

Main Quest #12 – Tartar Ally: When we speak with Giray, remind him of our oath & his promise to help Poland. He diverts his promise & will only now keep it if we take control of two Muscovite Tsardom Cities or Castles. After seizing all of the Khanate, taking two more settlements should not cause you too much trouble. Accepting this Quest will instantly have us make war on the Tsardom.

Grab some Lords & or start a campaign as Marshall & take over the Cities/Castles to complete the Quest.

Speak with Mehmed Giray & we will receive a Letter of support to give to King Kasimir of Poland & the rest of the Nations will all declare war on the Crimean Khanate.

Main Quest #13 – Return of A Hero Part 1: With the Letter, return now to King Kasimir at last to tell him that the Crimean Khanate is now our ally. While we will receive a fair sum of Thaler as a reward, we will not be restored to our original position of a Polish Lord as previously promised. We must go & earn favour with some of the Polish Lords before we can be reinstated.

After speaking with the King, we will have a conversation with Colonel Zagloba of what to do next. Zagloba will advise us to earn the favour of the three Polish Lords: Colonel Jan Skrzetuski, Colonel Michal Wolodyjowski, & Colonel Andrzej Kmicic.

We will need to track down each of the three Lords & complete a Quest for them to earn their favour. But first, we have to renounce our service to Mehmed Giray; be sure to collect your final taxes from your Fiefs before you do.

This may have only been for me, but there is a positive-glitch if we speak with King Kasimir with this Main Quest still active we can repeatedly tell him the Khanate is our Ally & we will receive 8000 Thaler. We can farm money extremely easily doing!

1. Campaign Arc: Polish Commonwealth
2. Main Quests: 14-19
3. Achievements: 20/21
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Main Quest #14 – Horse Thief: Track down Colonel Jan Skrzetuski & ask him for their support in court. (Note that if the Cossack Hetmanate was eliminated, our game will freeze! This is a game breaking bug & there are no work arounds; the Cossack Hetmanate must be still alive to continue!) After receiving the Quest, speak with Colonel Zagloba where to find the Cossack Lord’s residence & where the Horse might be located. Go to the Village Zagloba names & enter into its Stables where we can find the Horse. Mount it & fight your way out of the Village. You will need a Riding Skill of at least 1 to mount the Horse. With the Horse stolen, return to Colonel Jan Skrzetuski to complete the Quest & earn +50 Relation with them.

Main Quest #15 – Kidnapped Bride: Track down Colonel Michal Wolodyjowski & ask him for their support in court. We will then be tasked with locating Wolodyjowski’s wife, Anusia, who was captured by a Swedish Lord. Speak with Colonel Zagloba immediately & he will suggest we capture a Swedish Lord & ask them where she could be. He also tells us to speak with Wolodyjowski once again & ask for a Letter for us to give his wife so she knows to trust us; do just that.

Now we must seek out any Swedish Lord & capture them. As soon as we do, we will ask the Lord if they have heard of Lady Anusia. The Lord will then speak in a poorly written Swedish accent & tell us that she was sold to a Lord in a Castle (for me it was Dorpat Fortress).

Ride to the Castle & we will have the option of speaking with Anusia. Show her the Letter from Wolodyjowski (you may have to try a few times but she should accept eventually) & escape the Castle. When confronted by the Swedish Officer, choose to “Push through angrily!” & not sell her back to him or we will fail the Quest!

Return Anusia to Wolodyjowski & we will complete the Quest & gain +50 Relation with him.

Main Quest #16 – Damn Khovansky!: Track down Colonel Andrzej Kmicic & ask him for their support in court. Kmicic will task us with capturing Prince Andrei Khovansky of the Muscovite Tsardom. Speaking with Colonel Zagloba will help us narrow down where Khovansky currently is. Find Khovansky & take him prisoner (if you are unlucky like me, you may have to take the Castle he is currently in). Bring him back to Kmicic & we will complete the Quest, earning +50 Relation with him.

Main Quest #13.5 – Return of A Hero Part 2: With favour earned with the three Polish Lords, return to King Kasimir & speak with him about his response to our conversation with him earlier. We will be restored to a Polish Lord & granted a terrible Village as a Fief. While we do not get a Castle or City, the King does promise us that the first one we take shall be ours!

Main Quest #17 – Capture the City: We now must capture any Castle or City; look at the current enemies of Poland (or yourself) & try picking a centralized City as our base of operations for when we siege the world. At the end of the day though, any settlement will do. Any Nation is fair game to start attacking however we need the Muscovite Tsardom to survive for a later Main Quest!

As soon as we capture a City or Castle, we will complete the Quest & immediately be rewarded it as a Fief.

Main Quest #18 – Knapsack With Marshal’s Baton: Return to King Kasimir & speak to him about the next elections for Poland’s Marshal. We must go & gather support for our position in the election. Speak with trusted Colonel Zagloba & he will tell us to make friends among the Polish Lords… which we have three good ones as of completing Main Quest #13 – Return of A Hero.

Speak with our friends Colonel Jan Skrzetuski, Colonel Michal Wolodyjowski, & Colonel Andrzej Kmicic to ask for their votes. Speak with other Polish Lords & tell them that you’re backed by Zagloba to gain their support; when you have spoken to 5+ Lords & are confident that you will win the election return to the King to initiate it. If a Lord says they are not interested in speaking about the election just simply ask them about it repeatedly to gain their support.

Main Quest #19 – Marshal Elections: The King himself will prevent us from calling the election if he feels we need to speak to more Lords. When you have spoken with a quarter or half of the Polish Lords & have the required amount, the King will let us call the election beginning, this Quest.

It will take a matter of in game hours after calling for the election for us to win it; wait for another few hours & the Quest will complete.

1. Campaign Arc: Polish Commonwealth
2. Main Quests: 20-22
3. Achievements: 20/21
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Main Quest #20 – Liberator Hero: Once we are elected as Marshal, return to King Kasimir to plunge us into the next arc of the Polish Main Storyline. We will then be tasked with taking control over Pskov, Narva, Kyzyl-yar Fortress, & Poltava; the exact settlements you need to take may differ per playthrough.

The only Nation that needs to be left standing is the Muscovite Tsardom. We need the Tsar alive & on the World Map for the next Main Quest; it is easiest staying at peace with the Muscovites until the only settlements you need for this Quest or controlled by them. Note, that unlike previous Main Storylines, we will not have to conquer ever Nation to unlock the Victory Achievement.
After taking the required settlements, return to the King & turn in the Quest.

Anti-Tsar Coalition/Zagloba’s Rebellion: After a few hours have passed since completing our last Quest, Colonel Zagloba will speak with us & tell us about his displeasure with King Kasimir. He will tell us of a plan to overthrow the King, but peacefully, opting to have us win the votes of Polish Lords to force Kasimir to abdicate the throne.

This is where the Polish Main Storyline divides: we can join Zagloba & overthrow Kasimir, or we can remain loyal to the King & fight Zagloba.

Should we deny Zagloba & side with King Kasimir, we will plunge Poland into a bloody rebellion that ends with both the King & ourselves getting assassinated in the end. We will not be able to unlock the Achievement through siding with King Kasimir…

Main Quest #21 – Anti-Tsar Coalition: Agree to help Zagloba & we will have to speak with Polish Lords to gain their support in voting for King Kasimir’s abdication. Ideally, you are able to Persuade the Lords to agree with us; worst case scenario is you will have to bribe them instead.

Main Quest #22 – King’s Abdication: After you have converted enough Polish Lord’s to your cause, the previous Main Quest will automatically complete & begin this next Quest; it is around a quarter or half of the current Polish Lords converted.

With this Quest now active, seek out King Kasimir & we will confront him with our demands. The King will refuse & we must defeat him in combat with his army to dethrone him.


Achievement #21 – Polish Drama: Finish the Polish Commonwealth’s Main Storyline Quest “The Deluge”.
Story Related. After the King is removed, Colonel Zagloba will propose that we take up the throne to become the next monarch. When we do so, we shall unlock the Achievement completing Main Quest #2 – The Deluge.

While there is actually more to the Storyline as we unlock the next Main Quest – The Final Border where we have to conquer the rest of the Nations, with the Achievement already unlocked, we do not have to continue. This playthrough took me 245 in game days to complete.

With Fire & Sword is a gruelling 100% for what it is worth; it took me around 180 hours to complete! It is not terribly difficult, especially once you know where the bugs are ahead of time, just extremely time consuming as each of the five playthroughs of the game takes around 30-50 hours each to complete.

Note that this is the first guide of its kind for this game & there is so much information missing in terms of alternate endings to Quests or bugs. If you discover a game breaking bug or better ways to approach Quests, let me know in detail in the comments & they may potentially be added into the guide. Your efforts will only help future Hunters!

If this guide helped you achieve 100%, rate the guide or let me know in the comments. Helps me know if I am doing things right!



100% Complete
Thank you for choosing Cynical Guides, & I will see you in the next one!

If you are interested in a little bit of patronage, support my projects & consider buying me a coffee. If not, no worries; my guides are, & will always be free content. Achievement Hunting is my passion, & writing these guides is a way for me to give meaning to a life long hobby!
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/cynic0055

If you enjoy my style of writing guides, be sure to check out my profile for a full list of my works.
https://steamoss.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2992727030