Cattle are small parties of neutral troops that can be driven or brought along with you.
Cattle can be bought or stolen from villages, although stealing them will reduce your relationship with the village. The price in that village will rise each time you buy cattle, but the cost will reset after some time. Cattle must be bought personally from the Village Elder - you can't buy the cattle directly from the trade menu. The number stolen and the chance to successfully steal them is based on your Looting skill. Cattle appears on the overland map once acquired, rather than going into your inventory.
Upon encountering a herd, there will be three options:
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- Leave it. If you leave it, the cattle will eventually despawn.
- Slaughter a given amount of cattle, giving you two pieces of fresh beef for every one head you slaughter.
- Herd them, driving them toward the location you want to go to. The best method is usually to move behind them and press space bar in order to wait. When they are far, then get close again. In With Fire & Sword and Viking Conquest, the cattle will follow you.
Obtaining and |delivering cattle is a quest that can be given by village elders and marshalls.
Guild Masters may give you a quest to drive a herd to another town.
There is a glitch encountered by many Warband players where the ocean and oases (all water textures) have a cow graphic on them.
There is a way to make cattle follow you in classic Mount&Blade and Warband. It is a simple task: all you have to do is change a number in one of the game's text files.