Don't look too much at two-handed weapons, as they leave you without a shield, hence open to a sudden death from couched lance strikes and ranged headshots. At worst can you need STR 11 for the Great Lance. Weapons are, again, not that important, at the latest stages of your game your most valuable 'weapon' will be a Masterwork Steel Shield so you do not die. Don't make Strength too big either, because STR of 9 already allows you to use the strongest possible body armour, and STR 10 gives access to the strongest possible helmet. The reason is that in the end-game your character's performance stops being important unless your battlesize is extremely low. Most likely, no combat skill should go above 4: for example, Riding 4 allows you to get the heaviest horse, while Riding 5 just makes you a bit faster. You need to be barely able to win tournaments on your own to get Renown - that's all.
I played my last campaign long ago, so I am not sure if I remember everything. What do you need for it? Well, lots of things. Just as the accepted answer tells, you decided to support claimant way too early.
This post is part of the series: Mount & Blade Guide It is about to get more thrilling because there is a multiplayer expansion pack for Mount & Blade on the way. Taking part in large battles fighting alongside your troops against a range of enemy soldiers is a thrilling experience. While the mission choices are limited and a bit repetitive, and the visual design is slightly dated, the combat game-play is excellent. There are many features to master and the depth of the world makes it an enjoyable and immersive place to lose yourself for a few hours. The game is open ended so each time you play a new story is created and you can weave your way to victory via a number of routes.
Eventually you will be asked to join a faction and will gain the ability to seize castles and towns and hold them in your king’s name. Successfully completed missions will earn you cash or renown and build your reputation. The missions in Mount and Blade are varied and you can undertake missions for towns, villages, lords or kings. Your character has a large inventory and there are many items in the game available for trade. Your character can build up their skills through experience and similarly you can recruit basic soldiers and more developed companions who can also be trained up through experience. The well developed RPG system features a large overview map of the land highlighting the various villages, castles and towns. You can also pillage villages and siege castles and towns. There are tournaments to take part in, pirates and barbarians to fight and of course rival lords to face down on the battlefield. Leading a band of men you undertake various missions and can join a faction in order to fight for domination of the land.
You can also ride on horseback, joust, fight with axes, spears and even crossbows and bows. This is third-person action with a well developed melee combat system which brings sword fighting to life. The final retail version was released in September 2008 by Turkish developers TaleWorlds and has enjoyed a decent level of success. Mount and Blade is a fantastic single player role-playing game which casts the player in the role of a knight in the mythical medieval realm of Calradia and challenges them to find fame and fortune through the open ended game-play.