Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

[Andnjord]

At war with the Aserai now, I swear at some point they will run out of soldiers, right? RIGHT?

Night battle, I'm trying to siege one of their cities and suddenly 1200 men attack my 600

Lucky for me the AI kinda crapped out and it decided it was gonna fight a defensive battle in front of my archers. Cue me leading repeated charges through their ranks with my cavalry until they're all dead.

Kuzhait infantry and horse archers, battanian foot archers and imperial cataphracts


But wait, there's more!

Went back to home territory for reinforcements and calling in more vassals, now I'm sieging again with an army 900 strong, should be fine , RIGHT?

Oh shit.


No luck with the AI this time, they just keep charging straight for my lines making my horse archers almost useless. Also 80 horse archers is a lot when fighting 300-400 strong armies, but against 1500 men? They just don't have the stopping power to be that effective.

But the cataphracts saved the day!

 

[RK47]

I learned that even with 100% chance of winning a fief, you can still LOSE it...
Caladog just took a castle for himself despite having 0% chance while I had 100% chance of getting it.

So I did what any frustrated vassal would do. I immediately left the kingdom and attacked all the depleted lords who just won the siege.
I captured all 8 former-colleagues and beheaded them all before retiring to Pravend.

 

[ArchAngel]

I learned that even with 0% chance of winning a fief, you CAN still win it...
Caladog just took a castle for himself despite having 0% chance while I had 100% chance of getting it.

So I did what any frustrated vassal would do. I immediately left the kingdom and attacked all the depleted lords who just won the siege.
I captured all 8 former-colleagues and beheaded them all before retiring to Pravend.

The numbers are there just for favor sake. King decides

 

[Thal]

I've clocked about 50 hours now and after dicking around as a merc I have started my own kingdom. Some people have said that basic gameplaywise it isn't that much different from Warband, so here are some first impressions on what makes it different.

• First and foremost, the tools to give directions to your troops are massively improved. Really, this one is a game changer. Instead of just amassing a large cavalry force and lancing half the enemy to death, field battles can get pretty tactical. Especially since the enemy pulls back occasionally and stages new charges. There are times when it's actually beneficial to stand back, get a good view of the field and direct your troops instead of charging in. My first impression was that high level archers break the game now, but after fighting a series of field battles against numerically superior opponents I can say that winning still requires some thinking. Even if they annihilate enemy infantry, archers can still run out of arrows (some types carry two quivers!). Furthermore, I found out that high level infantry with throwing weapons pose a genuine threat even to Palatine Guards, if they make it close enough.
  
• Back in warband defensive sieges were mostly about sniping enemy and steel picking them to death next to the ladders. I've noticed that headshotting still works, but siege engines will ensure that you need to have adequate defensive force as well. The enemy has multiple ways to get inside the walls so you can't rely on your own PC killing all of them anymore. On the other hand, planning tactics at the time is hard, because you have really no way of knowing what is happening at the other end of the castle.
• With the disclaimer that I haven't played Mordhau or Chivalry, Bannerlord's melee combat is meatier than anyhing I've ever played. Especially two handed weapons are a joy to use. Ragdoll physics are so developed that I have hard time even calling them that, and it's not just the death animations. The first time I scored a flawless hit with my billhook on the right side of the enemy, the force of the blow actually pushed my enemy left exactly as you'd imagine. Furthermore, two handed weapons can now kill multiple enemies with one hit (two handed polearms cannot, creating a real trade off). Finally, your foot and arm positions will determine how fast you can strike. For example, it takes longer to make a backhand slash than a normal one, because you have to move your arm there first, unless you just slashed someone and your sword-arm is already at the backhand position. I imagine this will mostly affect multiplayer but there is for example a perk that boosts your second succesive hit damage by 40% which will make your two-handers cut through enemies like they were nothing.
  
• Speaking of which, at first glance, perks seem unimaginative. Really, who gives a fuck about getting 3% increase in hp or damage? However, there are some real game changers there, once you know what to look. One leadership skill allows you to convert bandits into regular troops for example, which in turn allows you to get best archers in the game by capturing forest bandits, recruiting them and training them to Battanian Fians, otherwise a really rare troop type.
  
• Furthemore, because it takes so long to increase skills to high level, you really have to specialize and are rewarded for it. If you want high athletics, you need to move and fight on foot all the time, instead of just in sieges and tournaments. This is basically required if you want to be the ideal two handed fighter, since you need to be fast enough to pick your battles. On the other hand, you can still get the benefit of multiple kills on one hit, if you decide to go mounted so that playstyle is viable as well. I'm currently playing as one handed/polearm/bow/riding but my next playthrough will be athletics/two handed/throwing/roguery to see how differently it works. Also, take note that Battanian territory is cramped, which means that you don't need to travel long distances to replenish your troops, which makes fighting on foot more viable. And again, since infantry and archers are much more useful now, I expect that fighting on foot on field battles will no longer be a suicide. I have to try it first, but my impression now is that you can be succesful in multiple ways if you plan your Player Character and army composition accordingly, e.g. both Khuzait horse archer army and Battanian Forest Bandit (capture and recruit bandits)/footmen force can be succesful.
• A word of advice on raiding Bandit hideouts. Take high level archers with you (move them on top of your list) and notice that commands are turned off by default. F4 and you'll be a bit more succesful in taking on 40 forest bandits.

There are of course shit ton of bugs left, quests are repetive and main quest is paper thin but on the whole I think it's a massive improvement on Warband already.

 

[dehimos]

Yeah I got everyone back and went back to the trader to organise restarting the caravan. The issue was I had to pay again? is there a way to avoid that?

Very strange, perhaps it's a bug.

 

[PulsatingBrain]

A riveting tale

 

[Black Angel]

A riveting tale

And tears fell upon that day, the day we heard her spoke those saddening words.

 

[IDtenT]

A riveting tale

Sounds like a woman.

 

[Zanzoken]

At war with the Aserai now, I swear at some point they will run out of soldiers, right? RIGHT?

From what I can tell it appears the Warband policy of allowing AI lords to incessantly spin up armies of trash mobs is alive and well. The devs were selling wolf tickets with the whole "AI lords have to recruit just like the player" schtick.

I was hoping they'd design the system so that AI lords would be knocked out of the war once they lost, upping the drama of big battles and ultimately making wars more decisive.

 

[ArchAngel]

At war with the Aserai now, I swear at some point they will run out of soldiers, right? RIGHT?

From what I can tell it appears the Warband policy of allowing AI lords to incessantly spin up armies of trash mobs is alive and well. The devs were selling wolf tickets with the whole "AI lords have to recruit just like the player" schtick.

I was hoping they'd design the system so that AI lords would be knocked out of the war once they lost, upping the drama of big battles and ultimately making wars more decisive.

People spent first 2 weeks complaining about snowballing and you want more of that ..

 

[Alienman]

Restarted the game with a new character with a lot of mods that makes survivability higher for units, and armor better. So far so good, but I can't enjoy the game now. It's just too damn easy. A couple of fights with looters and I already got top tier troopers. High tier should be hard to get. I'm wondering. Does anyone know here where or how to modify the XP gain for troopers? I can't figure it out and there seems to be no mods. I want to slash the XP game with a factor of 10. It's just too much now and it sucks the enjoyment out of the struggle!

 

[Optimist]

A riveting tale

Still better than PoE backer character's stories.

 

[PulsatingBrain]

Is there a way to save the order of these things? I have to move the redheads mod to load first everytime I launch, and I feel like I must be missing something

 

[Andnjord]

Restarted the game with a new character with a lot of mods that makes survivability higher for units, and armor better. So far so good, but I can't enjoy the game now. It's just too damn easy. A couple of fights with looters and I already got top tier troopers. High tier should be hard to get. I'm wondering. Does anyone know here where or how to modify the XP gain for troopers? I can't figure it out and there seems to be no mods. I want to slash the XP game with a factor of 10. It's just too much now and it sucks the enjoyment out of the struggle!

Trouble is, if you were to do that I'd imagine the AI would struggle even more than currently to get anything else than tier one recruits. One positive side effect of the Training Perk mod mentionned before that I've noticed is that I'm seeing the AI having a lot more tier 2 and 3 troops in their armies. If you look at the second screenshot I posted, Unqid's party is made mostly of tier 2 and 3 soldiers, whereas previously he would have had a majority of recruits. Sure the mod helps you get a lot of elite soldiers quickly, but you could already do that easily by doing a lot of tedious farming while that AI benefits a lot more than you do from the buff as it keeps getting its men constantly killed and needing to replenish then.

At war with the Aserai now, I swear at some point they will run out of soldiers, right? RIGHT?

From what I can tell it appears the Warband policy of allowing AI lords to incessantly spin up armies of trash mobs is alive and well. The devs were selling wolf tickets with the whole "AI lords have to recruit just like the player" schtick.

I was hoping they'd design the system so that AI lords would be knocked out of the war once they lost, upping the drama of big battles and ultimately making wars more decisive.

What's making my campaign difficult at the moment is that once the Empire factions got wiped out all their lords defected to nearby factions. And since I got quite unlucky with charming them to my side before, the Aserai got a massive boost to their manpower from it, I'm probably seeing as many Empire lords as Aserai ones fighting me. Although it does mean that now I've managed to turn Lucon, the ex-leader of the Western empire over to my side, which I find funny

 

[Alienman]

Trouble is, if you were to do that I'd imagine the AI would struggle even more than currently to get anything else than tier one recruits. One positive side effect of the Training Perk mod mentionned before that I've noticed is that I'm seeing the AI having a lot more tier 2 and 3 troops in their armies. If you look at the second screenshot I posted, Unqid's party is made mostly of tier 2 and 3 soldiers, whereas previously he would have had a majority of recruits. Sure the mod helps you get a lot of elite soldiers quickly, but you could already do that easily by doing a lot of tedious farming while that AI benefits a lot more than you do from the buff as it keeps getting its men constantly killed and needing to replenish then.

I don't know what the solution would be to fix the AI, but the game is just immersion killing me now, and I refuse to removed those mods I have. I want high tier armor actually doing something, both for me and AI.

Just look at this:

This is the beginning of the game. There is no struggle. Already got a Vlandian Sergeant by just killing looters while I still lord around in cloth armor. It just breaks it for me.

Can't believe how hard it is to find any information about XP gain anywhere. Is it hardcoded? Hidden away somewhere? I have seen XP multiplayer mods, but no idea how they work, or if you could go the other way...
If I could make a mod, I would make upgrading troopers (at least for the user) ten times as expensive and lower the XP drastically.

 

[Andnjord]

I would make upgrading troopers (at least for the user) ten times as expensive

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/153

That mod does that actually, makes upgrading more expensive. But I agree, it would make sense if the upgrade cost would grow exponentially with tiers so going from tier 1 to 2 would be relatively cheap but going from 4 to 5 would cost a looot of money.

 

[AgentFransis]

You can look at what the tweaks mod does: https://github.com/mipen/BannerlordTweaks
It's all done as a compiled C# plugin. That mod is configurable though so you could just edit the settings to allow a multiplier of <1. Everything in that mod can also be disabled.

 

[Alienman]

Yeah, I have tried that mod, but even 1 is super fast XP gain I find.

 

[AgentFransis]

Like I said you can mod the mod to allow a ratio lower than 1 or you can program something more complex like a ratio depending on the troop level.

 

[Zanzoken]

At war with the Aserai now, I swear at some point they will run out of soldiers, right? RIGHT?

From what I can tell it appears the Warband policy of allowing AI lords to incessantly spin up armies of trash mobs is alive and well. The devs were selling wolf tickets with the whole "AI lords have to recruit just like the player" schtick.

I was hoping they'd design the system so that AI lords would be knocked out of the war once they lost, upping the drama of big battles and ultimately making wars more decisive.

People spent first 2 weeks complaining about snowballing and you want more of that ..

Not really. One thing does not necessitate the other.

Let's imagine two kingdoms, each comprised of a ruler and 10 lords. Lords are given a party of 100 troops, and rulers get 200 troops, giving each side a maximum field army of 1200 troops. Each kingdom owns several towns, which can summon 500 militia if attacked, as well as castles, which can summon 300 militia if attacked. Militia can't be removed from fiefs for use in the field -- they can only mobilize in defense of their homes.

The kingdoms go to war -- hopefully based on some system of casus belli, and not just random declaration -- and the rulers clash in a major field battle between both 1200-strong armies. Kingdom A manages to outmaneuver Kingdom B, and deals a solid blow. Kingdom B has two lords killed, four captured, and 800 casualties, while Kingdom A only has one lord killed and suffers 300 casualties. Kingdom B no longer has the ability to be competitive in a field battle, and so retreats to its nearest stronghold on the border to regroup.

Kingdom A has the upper hand, and now has some options. Their 900 remaining troops are enough to capture a castle, maybe two, maybe even a town. But there's only so much fighting the army can do before casualties pile up, money runs low, and cohesion breaks down, so they have to think strategically. Kingdom A may be better off to sue for peace, and persuade Kingdom B to pay tribute in gold, fiefs, etc in exchange for being spared a long siege or other devastation. Maybe property changes hands, maybe agreements are struck -- but either way Kingdom B lives to fight another day.

This is just barely scratching the surface of what is possible. Point being, you can design the game so that it operates in a way that is realistic and believable, and driven by strategy, cause, and effect. Or you can take the easy way out with constantly respawning trash mobs, diplomacy that is illogical and random, and other half-assery. They took the latter route with Warband -- which is forgivable, though still disappointing -- but I don't think I am off base for expecting better from Bannerlord. It's still early yet, so maybe we'll get there.

 

[RK47]

You can also add prisoner deal for truce etc.
Maybe the player would be given a mission to kidnap a baby as a bargaining chip.
Or an outright 'bring me this guy's head' for a huge pile of money.
I also would like the ability to do FoodPanda delivery for the lords who are sieging but never seem to bring enough food.
I wanted to donate but there's no option to do so.

 

[PulsatingBrain]

Is it possible to speak to an individual vassal in an army, rather than just the leader? pls tell me how

 

[vota DC]

At war with the Aserai now, I swear at some point they will run out of soldiers, right? RIGHT?

From what I can tell it appears the Warband policy of allowing AI lords to incessantly spin up armies of trash mobs is alive and well. The devs were selling wolf tickets with the whole "AI lords have to recruit just like the player" schtick.

I was hoping they'd design the system so that AI lords would be knocked out of the war once they lost, upping the drama of big battles and ultimately making wars more decisive.

Mercenary subfactions seems to get "magic troops" (even high tier) from nothing like lords in Warband. I guess because their troops aren't in villages or cities, but when they add regular troops from the faction they are serving they follow the rules.
Western Empire has just one city but has Beni Zilal, Karakhergit, Embers of Flame, Elefewhatever, Legion of Betrayed, Brotherhood of Woods, Skolder under his service...had also Ghilman, Wolfskins and Lake Rats that I convinced to join Battania. No idea how they pay them: they have only one city!
But regular lords seems to respawn with just 15 recruits struggle to increase them. Anyway Wolfskins after being persuaded were just parties of 20 and went to Battania cities to get only +1 recruit each travel.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Played this a little more, things are a bit better.

-Crossbows are affordable now. Hooray.
-But they still have skill requirements out of reach so I can't actually train up the skill. Boo.
-Javelins now cost 50k+ or more. Weird.
-I'm finally gaining charm and leadership. Neat. Riding only goes up with I shoot bows from horseback though, full tilt spear kills do nothing. Weak.

Vlandia made peace with Sturgia but now we are at war with western empire. We are evenly matched. They build up a doomstack of 1000 guys and march. Do they attack the closest castle? No, they siege Jaculan, deep inside our territory. I go there with my 100 guys and suddenly they're like, naw, Jaculan sucks. Only losers siege Jaculan. We're gonna siege Sargot instead. Thats what cool people do. Then they run into the king's army of about 800 guys. E P I C battle ensues. I lose about 10 men and get 4 noble prisoners plus a boatload of loot. Noice.

Now I'm prepping to invade while I can hopefully hang on to their nobles. My caravan is finally bringing in money but only breaking even. Meanwhile my carpenter workshop in Pravend is only making 50 gold a day. I notice there are a couple pig farms nearby so I switch to Tannery. Instantly profit jumps to 500/day. So workshops are worth it still IF you build the right thing, pay attention to nearby production.

 

[Zanzoken]

Is it possible to speak to an individual vassal in an army, rather than just the leader? pls tell me how

If you click on the army leader, there should be an option on the menu allowing you to speak to any of the vassals who have joined the army.