Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord is the medieval war ‘em up that often pops up to say: “Hello, I still look good.” We have seen its sieges, its horse archers, and even played some of its multiplayer sword-clashing. But at this year’s Gamescom, I played some of the single player campaign. And oh yes, that’s the good stuff. I played as Valtis, an athletic sword-swinging dude from the Southern Empire who can also throw javelins. I like javelins. I like the sound they make as they whoosh by and impale a man.
Like its predecessor, this is set in a sideways world of alt history and alt nations. In the year of our alt Lord, 1084, the land of Calradia is split into cultural factions all based on historical peoples. The Khuzait live in Mongol-like clans, the Battanians resemble the Celts, and so on (the game will have a built-in encyclopedia to help you trough all this, and like previous games it’ll include key characters and their relationships).
But the first thing I see as I am plonked onto the world map is the detail in this landscape of valleys, seasides and mountains. A river spreads out into a large lake, with palm trees at the side. Dry, mountainous lands rise in the south. The little villages, castles and cities found on the world map will be a reflection of what they really look like on the inside, I’m told. In the previous game, these were just tiny identical models for each type of settlement.
(Press play to see the GIFs)
It looks good, especially compared to the Mount & Blade of old, which you can see here.
I wander to the village of Lysia. Inside, it looks green and lively. There are geese and chickens and pigs roaming around. Vegetable patches, stone cottages, animal enclosures, and peasants going about their lives.
An excellent chance to walk among the people. Except, I can’t find the button to get off my steed. This is embarrassing. I suppose I’ll just speak to everyone from my literal high horse. This is how I meet Nasiclys, a man I presume is the local elder. He tells me to watch myself around him because he is a big deal in the village. He is listed by the game as “Owner of bog”.
“They know me as Valtis,” I say. “Mark it down, you shall be hearing of me a lot.”
Nasiclys the bog man does not frighten me. So I hire two of his finest men (his only two men) just to show him I have the gold to throw around. Now I have one archer and one recruit spearman. I leave the village, feeling shrewd and powerful. Then I run into a group of 11 desert bandits.
“Maybe we can work something out,” I say.
I pay him 179 gold pieces to leave us alone. It’s good to know that throwing your weight around is still the best way to negotiate in the sequel, and a viable way to get money. It’s just a pity that I’m the one paying up this time.
But enough of this failure. Cle activation easeus data recovery. I ride into the deserts, toward the lakeside city of Razih. There’s a Middle Eastern vibe to these southern lands. The toy-like trading caravans who criss-cross the world map have gone from using horses to camels. Meanwhile, Razih is a much larger settlement than the bog village. There are 279 troops inside the city, so a siege is probably out of the question. Although the flavour text tells me that the populace isn’t exactly happy with things under the current Emir.
“You hear some complaints about prices, shortages and greedy merchants,” it says, “but no more than normal.”
I go for a walk around town but it’s the dead of night. The market is empty and I don’t know where to go. Luckily, if you hold down “Alt” you can see all the notable characters and places in the city.
Places like the hall of the local Lord, or the dungeon, or the tavern. I head to the Lord’s hall. A pleasant Moorish-style riad at the summit of sixty-six steps, with a star-shaped pool outside the doors.
“Sorry,” says on of the guards, “But we don’t know you. We can’t just let anyone in.”
I give him 100 gold.
“Now I remember you,” he says.
I’m allowed in. I instantly march to the top of the chamber and approach the most important-looking man in the room. A bloke called Addas. He doesn’t look like an Emir, but he’s civil and well-dressed. He asks me my name.
“They know me as Valtis,” I say. “Mark it down, you shall be hearing of me a lot.”
I tell him I’d like to join his people, the Aserai. To offer my sword in vassalage. Me and all of my, uh, two men.
“You will need to talk to Unquid about that.”
That’s what Addas is like, you see. All pleasantries and civility until you want to make a formal declaration of allegiance to a foreign sovereign state. He tells me to seek out the Emir of this realm, Unquid, who’s currently tearing around another part of the map with his army. This is very Mount & Blade, and it’s reminding me why I like the games, repetitive dialogue and all. I look at my map and make a mental note about the coastal city of Quyaz, where the Emir has been spotted.
I could also have taken a side quest from this guy, but decide to leave the hall without one. Matthew, the RPS video person who was playing a campaign alongside me, recorded his own side quest adventure about training some peasants into a force resembling a militia for a local chieftan.
Mount And Blade Warband Global Campaign Coop
Perhaps it was time for me to get into a similar scrape. But on my own terms! However, that depends on making some new friends, which means going to the local tavern. It looks like Taleworlds is still working on the lighting.
Like previous games, you can still hire people in the tavern. These are named characters with skills and a better life expectancy. The companion menu shows space for five close pals, special roles you can assign to certain people: Engineer, Surgeon, Quartermaster, Sergeant, Scout. I remember in previous games the companions often bickered and you sometimes had to tell them to stop annoying one another, like some sort of frustrated war dad. I didn’t get to see if those strained relationships were a part of the sequel or not, but I would be disappointed if they didn’t show up.
In the pub, I meet two thugs and a bloke called “Jaim the Falcon” who claims to fight for honour and glory. I have no interest in those things, but I hire him anyway. The thugs too. They will make good henchmen, you’ll see.
After the pub, I visit a man on the outskirts of town who calls himself “Farim the Demon”. They’re very theatrical in this town. I don’t walk to this fella, like I did with Addas in the Lord’s hall. Instead, I simply make use of the town menu. As in the old games, you can start a dialogue with people just by clicking around these menus. You don’t need to hoof it everywhere if you’re not into the deep role-playing side of things. Normally, I’m a hoofer, but I’ve only got five minutes left to play. So I zoom to Farim by clicking on his turbaned head.
“Peace to you stranger,” he says, “What is your name?”
“They know me as Valtis,” I say. “Mark it down, you shall be hearing of me a lot.”
Farim ignores my impudence. He is a local crime lord, according to the game. He doesn’t mind talking in the dark.
He says there is a caravan that has been cornered by bandits out in the sticks somewhere. And me and my ragtag bunch of thugs, knights and bog men are just the crowd to help them out. But Farim is going to have some militia men follow us and join in the fray. I’m also told to make sure I have enough food to feed my posse.
The trading here offers a familiar assortment of goods to the seasoned Mount & Blader. There are weapons like crossbows and spears. There’s clothing, armour, and ammo for your archers. There are cows and horses, a welcome return for any player who loved to steal cattle from villages and sell them in the big cities of neighbouring provinces. Not that I, Valtis, would do such a thing.
Then there’s food. This keeps your troops satisfied and energised. I buy some dates, meat, cheese, fish, salt, olives, grapes, beer and flour. This shopping screen is much neater than the basic square filling inventory boxes of Warband. For a sense of how much they’ve tidied it up, here is the new trading interface.
And here is the old trading screen from Mount and Balde: Warband.
That’s a welcome improvement. Anyway, let’s buy all these delicious things and feast! Ha ha.
“You don’t have enough money.”
Oh right. Yes. Cash. I put the most expensive picnic food back on the shelves and make do with the basics. I set out with my new militia men and without hesitation I neglect to do anything Farim asked of me. That’s right, I’m going to the city of Quyaz to find the Emir. This is the true joy of this sword ‘n’ shield sandbox – you can just do whatever. I forget about Farim’s mission and decide instead to wander past the good-looking cliffside city of Husn Fulq.
These are excellent ambush lands, but we make it through okay. The demo is nearly over, however. There’s no way I’ll find the Emir in time. That’s disappointing. So I guess I’ll take out my frustration on some sea raiders. Have at ‘em boys.
The militia have abandoned us, so it’s just me and my five bog thugs against these five Viking-like outlaws. I fancy those odds, mostly because we have some horses and they don’t.
It’s a grubby night time skirmish, unlike the large battles between hundreds of soldiers that the later game will deliver, once you’ve built a name for yourself and earned a big bag of coin. But it does a decent job of reminding me of how enjoyable it is to swing a sword. I could have gone into the arena of any nearby city and tried out the combat more thoroughly, but I played the multiplayer battling last year, so I felt more drawn towards the RPG elements this time. Of course, that did not stop the bloodlust bubbling up when the last sea raider was running away.
Victory. But now the demo was over and that made me sad. This was only a small taste of a game that has been far too long in coming. It basically seems like a big shiny upgrade to everything that made Warband and its ilk so alluring. I didn’t get time to explore the depths of its diplomacy, or to figure out how your character learns new skills. But the flavours I did catch are all familiar: the sweetness of freedom, the saltiness of being captured and taken prisoner, the bitterness of oddly repetitive dialogue. But principally it feels like another massive, moreish meal of RPG-strategy wanderlust. I’m happy enough for it to be just that. If the campaign is anywhere near as freewheeling as the demo suggests, Bannerlord will probably take over my life for a few weeks when it does come out.
So mark it down, you shall be hearing of it a lot.
Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord still doesn’t have a release date :(
Welcome to the Calradic Campaign Patreon page!
Beginning in early 2016, the Calradic Campaign Team has been creating Mount and Blade: Warband multiplayer events every month since. These events are known as the Calradic Campaign. The Calradic Campaign came from humble beginnings, starting as a 30 odd person event ran on a borrowed server. With custom maps and a dedicated community, the campaign sees anywhere between 150-200 players during the monthly events, which are hosted on our own server. We track the victories and defeats of the warring kingdoms so that every round matters and results are permanent. As well as these events, the community comes together to play different Mount and Blade: Warband multiplayer mods each month in our Mod Nights. In order to host these events, a paid server capable of handling those high player counts is needed. Contributions to this Patreon go directly and solely to the funding of the server used for the Calradic Campaign, and any funds above our goal are stored for use in future Calradic Campaigns and community events exclusively. We hope that you'll consider helping us create events for everyone to enjoy and strengthen our community. In the past, the team running the events has had to contribute their own money to keep the server afloat, so this Patreon being fully funded means that the team members don't have to pitch their money on top of the time and effort already given. Our lead team is currently made up of: • Treasurer, Server Owner, and Community Manager: Avagantamos • Lead Scene Creator: Suspicious Man • Server Operator: RubbingMyAxe • Discord Owner: Brandis • Head Writer: Suicidal Cake • Community Moderators and Event Coordinators: Saultnami, Reus, RookishKnight, Turnaround, and Harlaus As well as these people, a team of valued community members assists in running the events and moderating the community. We enjoy hosting these events, and we hope that you can help us continue to do so. Please consider contributing today!
Mount & Blade: Warband is one of my favourite games but I haven’t played it for a long time. In part, that’s because I’ve been waiting for the sequel, Bannerlord [official site], since it was announced four years ago. After over half a decade of development, details about the game have started to emerge and I spoke to Armagan Yavuz, CEO and Founder of developers TaleWorlds, to find out how the team are aiming to improve on the dynamic world of the original. We talked combat, historical influence, settlement management, co-operative possibilities, modding and AI.
RPS: One of the key elements of Warband, which very few games attempt, is the creation of a dynamic world, that supports both strategic play and a more RPG style experience. What are the main ways you’re building on that?
Yavuz: With Warband, we felt we had a very original game with some unique elements. A lot of players and critics said that they felt it was like a rough uncut gem. There was a lot of potential but it didn’t quite meet that potential, and I agree with that. So we’ve tried to improve on all of the various elements, as well as trying to make them click with one another more effectively. We want all of the mechanics to work togeether.
At the heart of that, there’s a new scripting system, which is C#-based. It allows for many more sophisticated mechanics, from the way seasons work in the game to the functions of the AI. In Bannerlord, the AI can use any gameplay mechanic in the same way that the player can, whereas in Warband there were things that worked differently for the AI and the player. We’re getting rid of almost all of that, so that the player and the AI are working on an equal footing.
For example, you can talk to your enemies’ vassals and snatch them, poach them for your faction. Now, they can do the same thing to your vassals. That means you always have to be on your toes because whatever plans you might come up with, the AI can be coming up with similar plans to use against you.
RPS: Building an AI capable of working with such complex systems must be a huge challenge. How do you begin to build something like that?
Yavuz: One of the most important things is to make sure the AI can evaluate all of its options. If it doesn’t know what the options are, it won’t use them, just as a player won’t. We use a very modular system, which works such that when we add new features to the game, the AI is automatically able to see them and use them.
We approach the design the same way when we think about the players’ experience, introducing new elements that overlap with things that you’ve already learned. We try to make the game more transparent to players – if you don’t know how to do something, or even know that it’s possible, you might as well not be able to do it.
There are a lot of mechanics that make the economy and politics more fluid, and we want to make sure that managing villages and diplomacy doesn’t become an intellectual load. It’s very easy for a game to become intimidating when there is so much to do and so many options, so we need to make sure there is no information overload.
To do that, we try to give the player very simple interfaces to interact with. They’re very rich in information but not overwhelming. The information that you need when trying to perform any action should always be visible, and positioned under your mouse pointer as soon as you need it. For managing villages, you basically have three sliders – militia resources, taxes and building resources – and you decide how much importance to place on each area.
And as a beginner player you can leave them all in the middle and not worry too much. The game doesn’t force you to optimise constantly, or to care about all of this stuff just to survive. If you are part of a kingdom and you have a single village to manage, you can do that suboptimally without altering the course of the war too much. That way, you can learn the more complex mechanics and how they all tie together while working as part of a bigger system, without too many responsibilities. That’s a natural learning curve and there’s plenty of time to master strategies as you play.
The entire UI is much more streamlined than in Warband as well. You can see characters in the gameworld and interact with them directly, and you’ll be able to access various properties and statistics directly rather than looking through menus.
RPS: Why did you decide to set the game two hundred years earlier than Warband?
Yavuz: We decided early on that we would either be basing the game either a little earlier or later, because we didn’t want to revisit exactly the same time. We opted to go earlier for several reasons, one being that if we go too much later then, realistically, the combat changes a lot and becomes based on heavy armours, full plate, and firearms.
There are lots of interesting things to look at in that setting and there’s a charm to it, so it’s something to explore at another point maybe. But it’s not what we wanted to do just yet because we wanted to retain the medievalish feel of the combat.
One thing that opens up in this setting is the use of female characters. In Warband we had female nobles but they didn’t have armies and they weren’t commanders, because that didn’t fit with the time period. But if you go back in time a little bit, you see that a lot of societies did have female leaders. It was much more prevalent and it’s something that we’ve implemented. It’s an fascinating period to explore culturally and gives us a lot more freedom to create some new social dynamics.
RPS: How do you balance historical realism and entertainment? Medieval life wasn’t all fun and games…
Yavuz: First of all, we arevery much interested in history and we’ve learned a lot while making the game. Steve Negus, our writer, is a super history nerd and a great source of knowledge. There are a lot of really interesting, knowledgeable people in our community as well.
We aim to keep the game balanced between fun and realism. What’s important is that whatever mechanics we use are believable within the world we’ve created. We try to use history as a source of inspiration rather than a script to follow. But we’re always surprised by the number of inspiring ideas that come from historical research. As we dig into it, we find so much that we can use.
RPS: What changes have you made to combat?
Yavuz: The idea was to keep the basic mechanics that worked really well but to evolve them and to add mechanics so that everything feels more natural and polished. We’ve redone almost every animation with mo-cap and thrown in some physics-based calculations as well, which actually work to balance the speed of animations.
As you play, you realise that doing certain actions feels faster or slower according to the situation of your body. You don’t need to learn lots of combinations and controls, but you’ll come to understand the tempo and the rhythm of it in a naturalistic way, and you’ll catch certain methods and be able to use then more intuitively.
RPS: Can you talk about how minor factions will work?
Yavuz: We can’t share too much information on minor factions yet. They’re a way to make the game world richer, as well as the lore. The exact mechanics aren’t quite as rich as with the core factions but they open up new possibilities.
RPS: You’ve mentioned elsewhere that modding support is important to you. What are your plans for Bannerlord modding?
Yavuz: The modding scene is something that we are really fortunate to have. We’re blessed with a great community, and the modding tools are one of the things that we want to develop as much as possible and to the highest possible standards. We were able to draw a lot of lessons from the things that we did and didn’t do well with the previous games, so we’re fixing some of the mistakes and coming up with a much better system.
Mount And Blade Coop Mod
There is a very rich scene editor that people can use and we’ll also have very powerful scripting tool, written in C#. The goal is to make sure that even after the game is released, we’ll be able to patch and change things, with as little effect on the mods as possible. And further to that, we’re trying to come up with a system that makes it possible for different mods to work together.
The community also creates lots of fanfiction – the world is important to them and we’re making it richer this time around. The lore isn’t at the forefront though and part of the reason that it’s not so pronounced is that the game also works a bit different each time you play. Part of the lore becomes your own personal history. In Bannerlord, there’s more dialogue, more small stories and more interesting characters, but each player’s experience of the game will be unique. We build algorithms that enable narrative rather than scripts.
RPS: A cooperative campaign is a holy grail for a lot of Mount & Blade fans. Is it a possibility?
Yavuz: It’s very difficult to do, not just because of the technical difficulty, but also to make things practically playable when we have two people doing wildly different things in real-time. One player might be trying to have a very exciting battle that is the climax of a very important experience, and one player just beforehand decides to go to town and look at the marketplace. These people have to be in the same gameworld and it’s very difficult to make sure that they’re both enjoying themselves and all having a great campaign experience simultaneously. It’s almost impossible without cutting down on what the game offers.
There may be another way to manage all of those things, by limiting the co-op to one kind of campaign. Let people play together as a party and have them always be together. That might be possible and that may be the the only kind of co-op that we can deliver. It’s something we’re experimenting with and that we have worked on. We’ll only officially announce something if we can make it 100% efficient and fun to play though.
RPS: If you could point to one thing that has improved since Warband, what would it be?
Yavuz: It’s the way that you’re involved with the game world. In Warband, the player didn’t have enough ways to interact with it. There was, for example, no way to hold proper diplomacy and conversations due to very limited dialogue choices. I think that’s one of the most important things that we tried to address.
Whenever you feel that you’d like to do something in the game, you have a much better chance of being able to do that thing in Bannerlord. Say you’re cornered in a castle and you have your enemy’s son as a prisoner. You might want to give him his son back so that he’ll leave you alone – those things will be much more possible in Bannerlord. You’ll be able to interact much more with the game characters and the game world than was possible in Warband.
RPS: And finally, how close are you to release, will you consider Early Access, and have you been building foundations for the future as well as for this one game?
Yavuz: We’re still not too close to release unfortunately. We are considering Early Access, or perhaps an open beta of some sort. We definitely want to involve players at some point so they can dig in and help with final touches and game balance.
And, yes, the big challenge was to make a platform for the future with this game. That’s one reason that it took so long. At the beginning, some of the choices that we made – technological and design – were suboptimal. They became limiting factors when we wanted to add more things, which led to having to do things two or three times. We’ve improved in that regard. But the most important thing is to make this a great game, which can hopefully then be a great foundation not only for mods and expansions, but for future games and projects.
RPS: Thanks for your time.
Mount and Blade: WarbandMount And Blade War Band ModsMount and Blade: Warband is the exclusive expansion game to the original Mount and Blade. Mount & Blade: Warband is a hack-and-slash action-adventure rpg much like the original, but Warband has improved graphics, AI, combat, animations and most importantly online play. But still, there are many bugs and issues with Mount and Blade: Warband. The answer to those issues is by modding Mount and Blade: Warband. But with so many mods to choose from, what is a lonely medieval warrior wannabe supposed to do? Thats why this handy guide was written, to show you the top 5 best Mount and Blade: Warband mods. 5. DiplomacySingle player Mount and Blade: Warband is much like the original Mount and Blade. With a detailed overworld map, engaging free-play campaign mode and epic army on army action, Warband still delivers an exciting single player campaign. However, the Mount and Blade: Warband mod Diplomacy makes the single player campaign much deeper than almost any other mod. You see, a new addition to Warband is a much greater emphasis on Kingdom Management, and diplomacy allows for a great deal of freedom in that department. Some improvements include an alliance/traitor system, a faction culture system that helps lord not choose bad troops, a choice between domestic policy, some economic options, and a host of other anti-enemy options as well. These improvements allow for an almost political warfare type minigame to emerge, deepening the addiction of many rpg lovers worldwide. 4. Blood and SteelDo you wake up in the morning and power down a Musclemilk for breakfast? Go base-jumping for meditation? Are you on a first name basis with Chuck Norris? Well if so, you will probably love Mount and Blade: Warband Blood and Steel. Blood and Steel says it perfectly, it is a 'very hardcore tactical combat simulation with a lot of 'what-if' scenarios in it- for example, we get to find out what it might have been like if the Roman Empire had continued to exist, and continued to use heavy infantry tactics versus medieval shock-cavalry forces'. Emphasis on the hardcore. Blood and Steel improves Mount and Blade:Warband combat to make hitting someone actually mean something other than '22 damage!'. Instead of normal sieges of 200-400 smelly Nords, think more like a calm hurricane of 1500+ vikings all aiming to pull an arm or leg off of your body. However, the best improvement in Blood and Steel is the completely satisfying enemy AI, gone are the days of horses getting stuck on rocks. Also appreciated is the focus on reworked equipment; an arrow actually kills people now. The fun in Blood and Steel is mainly in the challenge, and the satisfaction in simply surviving the most intense battles in Mount and Blade ever. That is why Blood and Steel is in the top 5 best Mount and Blade: Warband mods. 3. Prophecy of PendorOne of the most popular Mount and Blade mods, Prophecy of Pendor has now been ported over to Mount and Blade: Warband! While this alone would have been enough to vault Pendor into the top 5 best Mount and Blade Warband mods list, there have also been some improvements to the base Pendor mod. First off, many textures have been reworked to fit into Warband's graphical changes, meaning that Pendor is even more beautiful and varied than before. Second, the enemy AI has been revamped completely, gone are the days of peasants charging headlong into 100 strong filthy Nord armies, now enemies can run away from battle. Also, there are new formations, such as wedge and column that help you annihilate annoying enemies such as dirty Nordic warlords. Lastly, the randomly spawning named enemies have gotten a tweak that makes them spawn at rates a little less absurd, making the single player campaign for Mount and Blade: Warband much more enjoyable. 2. Battle Sizer ModAh, the old standby best Mount and Blade mod; Battle Sizer Mod. Thankfully, this mod still works with Mount and Blade: Warband, although with the new graphical changes it can be slightly unstable if driven to extreme levels, such as 400+ unit battles. It also takes a little bit of technical know-how, or following directions to the T, as you do have to change the config.txt file in order to use the mod. Still, Battle Sizer Mod is one of those once in a lifetime epiphanies, like trying a slice of real New York pizza for the first time. Once you see an epic battle of 200 vs. 200 you will never want to play Mount and Blade Warband the same again. This beautiful little mod gives us the warfare we all wanted to see. That is why it is the number two best Mount and Blade Warband mod ever. 1. cRPGI know that all of you are probably saying, 'Why are there no multiplayer mods in this stupid list? Isn't that what Warband is all about?'. And you are all correct. That is about to change now, because the only multiplayer mod for Mount and Blade Warband you will ever need is cRPG. cRPG makes the inconsistent, buggy and hacker filled world of Mount and Blade Warband multiplayer mods take a 180-turn for greatness. This mod actually has several multiplayer overhauls written into its code, including more balanced weapons and equipment and improved matchmaking and server stability. While those are nice and certainly needed, the biggest reason why cRPG is on this list is because it adds a persistent multiplayer world, where your character gains levels and loot based on how well you kill other players in real-time. There is strategy, team-based play options and a deep and addicting grind. There is not much else to say about cRPG, other than this is the best Mount and Blade Warband mod available today. This post is part of the series: Mount and Blade Mods
A guide to the best mods, patches and expansion packs for Mount and Blade.
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