Killing Foreign Traders

[Andre]

Is it just me or are foreign traders actually really easy to just murder? My usual hunting gear is bear furs, leather boots, leather belt, wool mittens, wool cowl and now wool socks after looting them from a trade group I murdered. And if I am wearing this setup I can easily kill them still with my javelins and kaumolais spear, I usually seem to take about 20% injury total but all minor injuries and still manage to kill all of them, the biggest issue here being the heavy loss of durability for the overcoat/cloak and shirt that comes with taking hits that penetrate them.

But if I am wearing full mail and iron gear, atleast to the extent that I have pieces for, which after murdering groups of traders is pretty much all pieces I will take no injuries at all or only very very marginal ones to any spots which still have slightly less protection. And the armor doesn't even degrade since hits that don't penetrate don't seem to really reduce durability at all.

I thought they would be more of a challenge to be honest. And I don't know if they will tell all other traders about you if you fail to kill them to the last, but so far that hasn't been a challenge either, since they sometimes seem to flee for a bit but then return just in time to be the only person left and then they just die anyways. I'm considering just donning my mail from now on while going out into the wild so I can simply murder any group I come upon without even taking any damage to anything.

Also I usually fight them by opening with a point blank or close to point blank javelin to the head of the guy I consider the largest threat (Usually this insta-kills or close to it) and then just hitting them and counterstriking at every oppurtunity until it's a 2v1 or maybe 1v1 when I will start to dodge since usually at that point I'll also be slightly fatigued and also won't need to hurry and kill them anymore. If one falls unconscious I hit them in the head once to almost guaranteed finish them off so they don't stand up again and bother me anymore, unless some other trader is too much of a priority. Early on I focus solely on attacking their heads, both when attacking and when counter-attacking, while I then start hitting their bodies on counter-strikes once I become a bit fatigued until I don't counterstrike anymore. Unless ofcourse they have heavy armor in those spots in which case I might target arms or legs instead or body if they have an iron helm or something.

[shorun]

you have simply been lucky.

keep doing this and see how long you last.

[Maisling]

Gotta agree with Shorun here. You were very lucky. Foreign traders are usually very well armed and travel in groups of 4 or 5. If one gets behind you you're generally a goner. The only way I know of reliably killing them is by having a cow for a meat shield and finding a spot where the trees create a tunnel with no gap at the back, then spamming them with arrows. Even then if one has a crossbow it gets risky. If they can't get behind you mowing them down with a battle axe can also work if you're well armoured. Though I don't bother killing them anymore anyway. Once you've killed a group of them you'll be a nasty bandit, and so very rich the game will lose it's challenge.  The fairplay (and fun) way of getting rich from killing NPC's is going to Njerpez areas with a pack of dogs and a partner or two. There will be bloodshed and adventure.

[Andre]

Never seen a group of 4, I've seen most of the time groups of 6 and sometimes groups of 5 or 7, and I've killed groups of all those sizes, with heavy metal gear and without, aswell as groups that have had crossbows and with heavy armor worn by them. Personally I'd say the most dangerous of them seem to be those with swords rather than crossbows though.