Train Hard, Fight Easy

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Train Hard, Fight Easy

Questline

Previous Quest

Awakening

Next Quest

Keeping the Peace

Quest Info

Location

Rattay

Reward

70

Train Hard, Fight Easy is the fifth main quest in Kingdom Come: Deliverance. After being accepted into Sir Radzig's service, Henry is required to undergo basic training.

Background

Sir Radzig wants me to undertake training with his Captain, Sir Bernard. He has a reputation for being gruff, and I'm not sure whether he'll be too happy about Sir Radzig taking me, a blacksmith's son, into his service.

Quick walkthrough

• Go to the training ground and talk to Captain Bernard.
  • Undertake Bernard's training
    • Slashing (0/5)
      • Stabbing (0/3)
        • Chain strikes (0/3)
          • Block (0/5)
            • Zone change (0/5)
    • Attack the leader (0/3)
      • Perform the perfect block (0/5) [slow]
        • Perform the perfect block (0/5) [medium]
          • Perform the perfect block (0/5) [fast]
    • Attack the teacher (0/3)
      • Dodge the attack (0/3) [slow]
        • Dodge the attack (0/3)
          • Feinting (0/5)
• Follow Bernard to the shooting range.
  • Undertake archery training
    • Compete with Hans Capon in archery
      • Swordfight with Hans Capon
        • Speak to Bernard
• Report to the Bailiff

Detailed walkthrough

Now that Henry is in Sir Radzig's service, the player character will need to undergo basic training. Travel through Rattay and exit through the Northern gate, where the combat arena is located. Speak with Sir Bernard to begin your lessons.

Sword training

The training starts off similar to what Vanyek taught you back in Skalitz. First, move around, then attack. Practice slashing, then stabbing, then chain strikes. Sir Bernard will then teach you about defence and blocking. Once Henry has successfuly learned it, Bernard will invite you to show him what you've learned, and afterwards teach Henry about zone control and more refined blocking. He'll go through it with the player character slowly, then up the pace as the player start to get the hang of it. Hans Capon is spectating Henry and will mock him for his swordplay before continuing into the castle to practice archery. Bernard moves to the next lessons: dodging and feinting.

Archery training

Follow Sir Bernard into Rattay and to the archery range. There, Henry will obtain a set of vambraces. Once your first attempt at archery is over, Hans will mock you for your lack of skill regardless of how well you did and remind you that you ran away at Skalitz. Henry insults the young lord and Sir Bernard threatens to lock him in the stocks, but Hans instead proposes an archery competition and bets his bow against Henry's groschen.

Competition with Hans

For the archery competition, Henry and Hans both get seven arrows. The black bullseye is worth three points, the white ring two points, and the outer ring one point. The first to finish gets three extra points.

After finishing the archery competition, regardless of the result, Hans will challenge Henry to a longsword duel, much to Sir Bernard's frustration. Hans will change into a yellow Saxon dyed gambeson, while Henry will keep whatever he is currently wearing.

If Henry wins both contests, he will receive Capon's hunting bow. If he wins only one, neither Henry nor Hans will trade anything. If Henry loses both, Hans will take 2 from Henry.

Joining the city watch

After the competition, speak to Sir Bernard again, who will direct Henry to visit the Bailiff of Rattay at the Rathaus. Go back through Rattay to the market square, then walk through the arches of the pink building into a courtyard. The tailor's shop will be on the left. Follow the stairs on the right to the Bailiff's quarters, where he is typically found working at his desk. Put yourself at his disposal, and he will appoint you to sentry duty under Nightingale. You are now an official member of the city watch.

Strategies

• During archery, Hans is a very poor shot and takes his time to fire, but he can still win if Henry misses too many shots. There are several tricks and observations to maximize the odds of winning.
  • First, focus on being the first to finish for three easy points.
  • Next, focus on landing your arrows on the target at all - do not worry about hitting the bullseye specifically.
  • Use Henry's left hand as a reference point when aiming. While the reticle is disabled when using a bow, Henry will always aim the bow at the center of the screen unless drunk. His left hand will therefore be slightly to the bottom right of his target.
  • Henry's aim will have significant horizontal sway when readying a shot at low archery skill, but vertical sway is fortunately minor and the screen will move to keep the bow centered. It is therefore recommended to wait for him to fully finish charging his shot before manually correcting aim.
  • Finally, do not charge the bow for too long after it is fully drawn. Loosing quickly is very important not only to finish first, but also to save stamina and prevent sway from growing even larger. At higher archery skill, this is also key for maintaining Henry's hand near target for correcting aim, since at that point his sway when readying a shot will be very minor, while he will still have significant sway if charging the bow for too long.
• During melee, Hans seems to favour the defensive rather than the offensive. Side swipes will be less effective, as his gambeson provides some light armor. The best target is his unprotected head, though hits to his body will still deal respectable damage.
• If you have managed to obtain any stat boosting potions at this point in the game, you may drink them during the archery contest since the game treats Henry as being out of combat during this segment. Potions will generally last long enough to help during both phases of the competition.

Notes

• Bernard's comments towards Henry after free fighting will vary depending on how well Henry performed. If Henry did not meet his standards, Bernard will remark that he has his work cut out. If Henry performed well, Bernard will say that Henry is on his way to becoming a soldier. Similarly, Bernard will react negatively if Henry missed often during archery training, or reluctantly admit that Henry performed well. Regardless of his performance, Henry's reputation with Bernard will not change.
• If the player does not have enough groschen in their inventory to wager with Hans, he will still wager his bow and keep his word if defeated. Losing both contests with no groschen will simply lead Hans to say that Henry owes him.
• Reporting to the Bailiff will enable the option of training with Captain Bernard, so if you are eager to get to combos and master strikes, head back to Bernard before meeting up with Nightingale.
• Reporting to the Bailiff also enables bow training with Berthold and Nicholas, which up to that point had been unavailable.
• The meeting with Nightingale does not have to be on the same day. Since the meeting with Radzig triggers the first Rattay tournament, you can first take part in that and meet Nightingale the next day. However, if you delay the meeting for too long, the Courtship side quest triggers automatically and you might lose reputation with the Rattay soldiers. A delay of one or two days however does not seem to have a negative impact.
• After the meeting with the Bailiff, the player character is classified as a guard until the conclusion of Keeping the Peace, which means the Rattay guards will not perform searches on Henry for stolen goods during that time.

Trivia

• The quest is named after one of Alexander Suvorov's utterances, in which he states to "train hard, fight easy. Train easy and you will have hard fighting."