As Nike said, you can't force them but you can encourage them with the flags. They are pretty effective at getting the attention of your heroes if you make it worth their while
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Naturally because you are the King, you will be getting your gold back once your heroes return home and spend it on purchasing upgrades, buying potions etc..So not only are you getting them to do what you want, but you also help them upgrade themselves and become more effective.
It's a clever concept, keeps you in control without having to micro-manage.
But with the introduction of the lords i was hoping we might atleast be able to control the couple of lords we can hire. It would be nice to send your lords out to attack something before you place a bounty, then the other heroes can just come in to back them up and there wouldn't be as many casualties
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They seem pretty useless currently. I always see them "looking for adventure" but ignoring my bounty flags (or enemies in the town) and when they finally do get into battle, they tend to go home after every encounter.
It's almost like they are suffering of old age and have to rest more than the newer heroes.
Could this perhaps be a mod-able feature?
I saw in another thread someone suggested the game itself should be easy to mod because it's using the MoW engine. But would that include things like giving players control over units?