Mount & Blade: Warband

[JdB 151]

I know there are some fans of this game here. We were talking about it in the Free Games thread and some wanted to make a new thread about the game so here it is. I decided to post this thread now because the release date for the Singleplayer part of (one of) the most anticipated mod has been announced: L'Aigle!

Since no one bothered to inform me (;)) you'll just have to watch the announcement trailer like I did.

[ProfTournesol 956]

Bloody hell, i'm eagerly waiting for the 31st of december !

[mr burns 131]

Not a fan of gunpowder mods in M&B apart from the 1860´s one where you can mess the whole wild west up.

Literally only played 5 minutes of fire & sword because i sincerely could´nt stand the musketeers theme.

Watching the L'Aigle video reminded me instantly of that "ewww" feeling, but then again their cities look breathtaking, might have to give it a try just for that :D

[Tonci87 163]

So, I just bought Warband in the steam sale, any recomendations?

[mr burns 131]

Recommend playing vanilla until you get a feel for the game.

(i.e. owner of several fiefs, mostly running around to find acceptable enemy)

Once it get´s boring, mod it, but beware of overpowered item mods, they destroy everything.

Two most recommendable mods imho:

-Floris Expanded Mod <-- kinda like ACE for M&B

-The last Days Mod <-- for your middleearth fix

[froggyluv 2130]

Yeah - turn off automatic blocking and prepare for a lifetime of trying to master directional blocking -it's that addicting and will make all medieval games that don't use it feel lacking.

Now that THAT's outta the way, the rest just depends on your preference. If your looking for a long SP campaign, I think you'll find vanilla a little lacking without mods. As far as mods, there are ALOT of full conversion mods such as the excellent fantasy laced Propehecy Of Pendor to the much more pragmatic but equally satisfying Brtynwalda.

Enjoy! It's one of the best games ever made imo as the combat system just outstanding and without peer.

[JdB 151]

So, I just bought Warband in the steam sale, any recomendations?

Play it on vanilla as Mr Burns said before trying mods, it has a lot less features than many of the big mods so it's kind of like a tutorial.

My favorites:

- 1257AD

- 1860s Old America

- Bellum Imperii

- Brytenwalda

- Floris Expanded

- gekokujo

- Prophesy of Pendor

- The Peloponnesian War

[krycek 349]

Tonci,I recommend Prophesy of Pendor.Vanilla is way too easy,you'll get a real challenge with that mod.

Also get this for bigger battles http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php?topic=103109.0

Don't go over 500 troops on battlefield though,it might ctd,I keep mine at 400.

[ProfTournesol 956]

Tonci,I recommend Prophesy of Pendor.Vanilla is way too easy,you'll get a real challenge with that mod.

Also get this for bigger battles http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php?topic=103109.0

Don't go over 500 troops on battlefield though,it might ctd,I keep mine at 400.

It doesn't lag like hell ?

[krycek 349]

In some battles yeah,but only at the beginning and it's very playable,for example I had no issues in sieges.I used to play with the 400 troops value together with Calradia in Darkness on an old system with an Intel Q9400,4GB Ram and Geforce 9800GT.So I don't think you'll have problems if you have a more up-to-date pc.

Just had a look through that thread for Calradia in Darkness,all links are dead but you can get the latest version from here

Edited December 30, 2014 by Krycek

[myshaak 0]

I got M&B from when it was for free on GOG a few weeks ago and bought Warband almost immediately, the game is great. I'm currently playing Floris and kicking some Nord asses in the name of Butterking Harold of Swadia! :)

My main problem with the game is the rather non-functional "auto-resolve" battle calculator. If I outnumber my enemies by a mile and have top tier cavalry while the enemy are some low tier bandits and looters, I expect a swift clean victory. But no, the game thinks looters can kill heavy cavalry and gives me quite a few casaulties. Because of this I need to fight every bandit group on my own which gets boring quickly because of the lack of challenge and reward.

And regarding the battle-size, I'm playing at 150 :( I guess my computer is older than I thought. At the beginning of the play session it is OK, but after a while the battle starts lagging. Maybe the game still has some memory leaks

[onlyrazor 11]

I got M&B from when it was for free on GOG a few weeks ago and bought Warband almost immediately, the game is great. I'm currently playing Floris and kicking some Nord asses in the name of Butterking Harold of Swadia! :)

My main problem with the game is the rather non-functional "auto-resolve" battle calculator. If I outnumber my enemies by a mile and have top tier cavalry while the enemy are some low tier bandits and looters, I expect a swift clean victory. But no, the game thinks looters can kill heavy cavalry and gives me quite a few casaulties. Because of this I need to fight every bandit group on my own which gets boring quickly because of the lack of challenge and reward.

And regarding the battle-size, I'm playing at 150 :( I guess my computer is older than I thought. At the beginning of the play session it is OK, but after a while the battle starts lagging. Maybe the game still has some memory leaks

Yeah, the auto-resolve's been wonky since Mount & Blade was a thing. If you want an actual auto resolve just enter the battle scene and order everyone to charge while you go get some tea or something. As for the memory leaks, I might be in the same boat since the game only gets laggy after playing for a while.

[Rydygier 1304]

Addicting at first. Monotonous and tiring after some time (at least with my style of play). My first try of M&B was about 5 years ago. It was short and frustrating experience due to lack of save without exit (saves limiting is for me unacceptable and usualy disqualifies the game completely). Now unlimited saving is on place. Still, I found myself able to achieve anything beyond dying fast and ugly only in the horse archer role. Anything else - and I'm not surviving like 90% of 1:1 duels, no matter, how weak opponent is and I seem make no progress in melee skill at all. Lately tried 1257AD. So I'm roaming across whole Europe alone and collecting stuff and money by defeating 20-30+ bands of pirates and such by exploiting advantage, that I, equipped with a horse and bow, have over foot melee - effective but tedious and boring.

Edited January 1, 2015 by Rydygier

[krycek 349]

My problem with the vanilla Warband was that you had a challenge only in the beginning where even a peasant with a pitchfork was dangerous,once you had access to Swadian Knights or Huscarls you could basically steamroll everyone.It also didn't helped that the campaign AI was stupid as night and most of the time his army was composed of 90% low tier troops.Or an enemy faction reduced to a single town or castle and still declaring war on me.:annoy:

Even when they assembled their army and head to one of my castles or towns I could take them on only with my troops.

I didn't even need the help of other lords and after smashing their army the rest of my time was spent chasing lords with 70-120 troops away from my villages.Hell,I used to capture lords and refusing their ransom just to keep them in my prison and stop pestering my villages with their crappy troops.

I really hope they rectify this with M&B2 Bannerlord and add a challenge to the late game.

Edited January 2, 2015 by Krycek

[ProfTournesol 956]

Someone has tried l'Aigle mod ? I haven't had time to DL anything.

Edited January 2, 2015 by ProfTournesol

[onlyrazor 11]

Someone has tried l'Aigle mod ? I haven't had time to DL anything.

It's nice, but rough and clearly in need of some serious playtesting and balancing. The troops cost you nothing once you've hired and upgraded them, making it completely possible for a level 5 character to run an 80-man heavy cavalry force. The enlistment system isn't anything to write home about: you get a rubbish musket and 50 francs (the recruiter promises 100 and then subtracts half since you're obviously going to buy him a drink). Then you're dumped back onto the world map and treated somewhat like a regular vassal without any land. There are bandits, but they're quite sparse around the map. If you intend to play it, I suggest you don't take a musket because they're excessively inaccurate when firing (won't hit anything beyond 5-10m) and the current bayonet combat system means you're better off trying to punch the enemies thanks to the severely limited range. Siege maps have pathfinding issues with troops getting stuck on fortifications.

Other than that, it has nice detail in it, but I'd wait a bit until some hotfixes come out.

Also, you haven't experienced war until you've seen George III of Great Britain sprint to the enemy's ramparts and start killing Dutchmen with his sword.

[JdB 151]

It really shows off the quality of the artwork, but the gameplay is unbalanced and rough around the edges. Basically what you would expect from a mod that has only had a limited closed alpha phase. I also feel that the absence of the Freelancer mod is a real shame which causes the "feeling lost" bit of what OnlyRazor described, just being dumped back onto the map like some kind of 2nd rate vassal.

[froggyluv 2130]

 40 Minute Stream of new expansion Bannerlord today

 

 Only Apex comes close to my anticipation for this title

[Marduk1813 62]

 40 Minute Stream of new expansion Bannerlord today ...

 

 Only Apex comes close to my anticipation for this title

 

Mount & Blade starts at 3:02:14. Man, it will be realy difficult to recreate the fascination of M&B1. Defintly a game I'm looking forward to. 

[JdB 151]

The main things I got from that video are battle continuation, influence and some others things that mods added to the original game. The crafting is nice and some smaller things done to the economy but other than that it looks more like a graphics update to me than a proper new game.

[x3kj 1247]

Lately tried 1257AD. So I'm roaming across whole Europe alone and collecting stuff and money by defeating 20-30+ bands of pirates and such by exploiting advantage, that I, equipped with a horse and bow, have over foot melee - effective but tedious and boring.

I liked 1257AD. But they overhauled the recruiting system at some point to be realistic "lances" - which took the fun out of it for me to upgrade troops. Map is very large, which can be a bit boring, depending on where you fight. The "fight as a soldier in a lords army" feature is pretty cool, although you have to be in a faction that wages alot of war for this to be not just waiting. I like the theme of the mod, but the gameplay isn't all that great now.

You need to be a Vassal of a faction and try to conquer stuff if you dont want to miss out on the majority of the gameplay. Beeing mercenary is good first but it will get boring.

 

The inherent problem of lategame gameplay in warband is the ridiculous Lord system. None of the Characters can die and they always escape after a while, and they get their units for free basically. If you conquer all their towns they just go over to the next faction. This is a fight you can't really win. I hope Bannerlord will fix this somehow.

[JdB 151]

The inherent problem of lategame gameplay in warband is the ridiculous Lord system. None of the Characters can die and they always escape after a while, and they get their units for free basically. If you conquer all their towns they just go over to the next faction. This is a fight you can't really win. I hope Bannerlord will fix this somehow.

In Brytenwalda you can kill lords after you capture them, but it comes with a huge penalty to your reputation. You're instantly hated by everyone except for the mortal enemies of that lord.

[x3kj 1247]

yes i know, brytenwalda and 1257AD where my most played mods. But still - it makes little sense that you completely "eradicate" a faction and yet their "noble houses" / their lords keep fighting/ defect to the remaining enemy faction, so that they have a alot more Lords then your faction, which is a problem in terms of defending villages etc.

[JdB 151]

yes i know, brytenwalda and 1257AD where my most played mods. But still - it makes little sense that you completely "eradicate" a faction and yet their "noble houses" / their lords keep fighting/ defect to the remaining enemy faction, so that they have a alot more Lords then your faction, which is a problem in terms of defending villages etc.

The respawn rate of lords with full stacks (one or two mods tried to balance this) and the way your villages are constantly under threat was definitely one of my major gripes along with the inability of castles to block movement (what's the point in taking the Vaegir castles in the passes if the enemy can ride straight through them ... ) and the inability to station troops in villages to protect them from raiders. It is beyond me how no mod has every seriously tried to address these issues.