Mount & Blade 2

[mTk]

This looks fun. I tried M&B1, but had to give up because I found the combat UI too wonky.
This looks bit easier, but only a bit. Yeah, I know. It's a me problem.
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[Nathangun]

It looks good, 60GB on the hard drive I'll have to uninstall a lot of sh1t on my PC.

 

[mTk]

I admit I am leaning towards it. I just think the whole idea seems to work pretty well.

 

[Nathangun]

I admit I am leaning towards it.

So am I. I played Warband and had great fun with that. Also fought in the Napoleonic wars as a infantry private, got captured and became a bandit. Cleared some space on my PC (64 GB available).

 

[mTk]

While it can be played alone, the more I see the more it was obviously made to be a co-op kind of game. There are so many little icons running all over the strat map as to be dizzying! While the game does look fun it also looks like it heads in a direction more MOO like than single player. If you get it let me know what you think.

 

[Nathangun]

Those little icons are the troops in your warband or troops on your side. It's very much a single Player game, multi-player is pitch battles on severs. Don't think it has Co op.

 

[mTk]

I think one's troops are all designated by a single numerical marker above a horsey.
All those others belong to everyone else.
Anyway, I've made my decision. Next game up is Ultimate Admiral: Age of Sail.
Soo many good games (that interest me) coming out in just a few months.
Even thinking about pre-order for Wasteland 3 just to get those cool, bonus, winter weapons to start.

 

[Nathangun]

I still have a few I haven't played yet.

 

[Hardradi]

Loved the original and Warband. There are some epic moments like storming a castle where you are all crowded up on the siege tower bridge with arrows flying in. You just try to keep pushing through with your shield up. Also charging down infantry with a specked out cavalry group. You blast through their ranks and they get shunted aside. There were some great mods as well.

I am currently restricted to a small laptop and its graphics card is just below the minimum specs for Bannerlord. This makes me a little apprehensive about buying it.

 

[mTk]

Every time I see a YT vid on this I keep thinking "That looks like fun."
Confirmed it is primarily a single player game although you do have an option to set it up as a multiplayer campaign at the start.
Can't change back and forth.
If I wasn't such a crap RT player I'd have already DL'd this...as my finger quivers over <purchase>...

 

[DoubleD]

I took the plunge and purchased it. I haven’t played any of the previous titles so I’m going in fresh. To get the larger scope of the game you need to play single player. Despite it being real time it’s not a click fest. The larger strategic map pauses itself and nothing runs too quick, even for my slow reactions. I find battlefield combat difficult and so I tend to take a more command role on the battlefield, though this is limited because I’m still getting used to the UI.

It’s early realise and there does seem a lot of content missing. There’s only a couple of tasks you can do which reappear again and again, dialogue options going nowhere, and there’s some balancing issues. I’m trying to follow the main ‘Plot’ and certain battles are really tough, partly because I’m cr*p at the combat. Levelling up can also be a trudge because there’s so few tasks.

It’s open world sandbox, it just seems like a limited amount of sand in the box right now. I’m playing it, and it keeps tempting me back, but it’s not got me hooked. My recommendation is to put it on the steam wish list and give it a while for more polish and content. If there’s other stuff on your list, maybe wait for a sale

 

[Bulletpoint]

I have fond memories of playing the original (before Warband) on a weak laptop while being stuck in a little village in southern India. I later bought Warband, but for some reason never actually got around to play it.

Now I see that Bannerlord is the newest iteration, and apparently they worked on it for 10 years... but it's still only released as a half-finished "early access" game. I have bad expriences with early access games, so will give them some time to finish the game before I plunge in.

 

[Hardradi]

In Warband there was a training place where you could train yourself up, maybe event your troops. The hand to hand combat training was beneficial and I found it fun. The horse archery and lancing was difficult (I think it was lancing). Also there was an arena where you could engage in fights. I used to play this on a Sunday evening with a few beers. In the actual game against the AI it felt like some days I had the flow going and on other days it was a struggle. If I was in hand to hand versus three opponents I was in big trouble. In PVP, it felt like Ping ruled the battlefield.

There were some goods mods as well, I liked the British Isles Viking one the most.

Hope they are not going down the broken game release followed by endless game breaking DLC path... probably another franchise ruined. As long as its enjoyable and value for money I guess.

 

[MOS:96B2P]

I played Warband for a time. The open sandbox type environment was interesting. I had a decent size business empire spread out over several cities that funded my warband. I do remember the combat was difficult at first. I used the training fields which I think you could improve your combat ability up to three levels on? I also learned to be careful during combat and mostly commanded the fight. I only got personally involved to save a companion or fill a gap that developed in my battle line etc. I often did allow my character to fight at the end of a battle when the OpFor broke and ran (blunt weapon time IIRC). I also had two mercenary swordsmen that were assigned to the group "Kings Guard". When a battle started this group was given the order "Follow Me". So they stuck close and were generally able to save me when I got in trouble.

My biggest concern with Bannerlord is the power needed to run the game. I've read several accounts of players with powerful rigs (water cooled etc.) commenting that it was a burden on hardware. My rig is nowhere near as powerful.

 

[Bulletpoint]

The brilliant thing about Mount and Blade is the combat. There are stats that you can level up that make you faster, but even then, it's still very much the player's own skill at reading the combat flow, and attacking and blocking, that wins or loses the fight. Also, the game dares to be dificult. Real sword fights are. Especially against multiple opponents.

 

[Nathangun]

British Isles Viking one the most.

Yeah that was fun.

 

[Hardradi]

I pulled the trigger on this one. 25 hours of play so far and still exploring. I am running this on a very small laptop (i5-8250u, 16GB, MX-150 2GB). Its about a year old. Left all graphics setting as default. Running the Beta version of the game.

The Good:
A. no crashes, runs pretty smoothly even on my laptop. A few minor textual bugs.
B. all of the content from Warband is included (or most of it from what I can see)
C. better graphics all round than Warband (as expected).
D. pretty cheap for a new release.

The Bad:
E. stretching myself here but maybe the loading times, although I think this was the same in Warband.
F. too many generic looter groups running around. At least customsze them a bit for the different region you are in.

To me the game plays very much like the Warband expansion in almost every aspect. I am happy to get an updated version of the game with major improvements in graphic and battle sizes for the price paid. Its been a long time since I played Warband so memory is a bit hazy but I think there are a lot of other improvements in areas such as trade, interaction with some NPC's, etc. I haven't played a siege yet. They are supposed to be a lot better.

 

[MOS:96B2P]

A. no crashes, runs pretty smoothly even on my laptop. A few minor textual bugs.

I've read that the game puts a heavy load on hardware. So this good news. It will be interesting to hear what other thoughts you have on the game as you get further into it. If you have the ability /motivation to post screenshots that would be cool too.

 

[Hardradi]

47 hours in now. I think that's five full days of playing without stopping. Haven't had time to even get into the arena yet!

- I have found that my settings are set at 500 men per side max for a battle. This can be changed but I have left it as is. If you have more men on your side I think they reinforce but not 100% sure yet.
- In the siege battles I got screen jitters at the start and then slowing fps. It was still playable, just in slow motion at some points. It was mainly when there are a lot of troops in the screenshot. So climbing up a siege ladder/tower, chopping down the gates and fighting on the walls wasn't too bad.
- the siege and battle landscapes are nice. I haven't managed to be besieged yet. I look forward to using the ballista and fire pots.
- likewise in the big battles each side is capped at 500 from my settings. Again, fps drop when a lot of soldiers are on the screen at once. Its not to bad as I am generally pursing other horsemen, charging through archers or scattered footmen.
- still no crashes. The fans on the laptop are running pretty constantly but I am playing with headphones on.
- There have been a few WTF happened moments, like sudden declarations of war, losing businesses, sudden massive loss of influence (although this may have been because I chased down and captured starving/injured enemy troops or maybe because I lost that castle). Some more prominent messaging would be nice.
- The trade system isn't too bad. It dynamically adjusts as you load in goods and wear out trade routes. As the whole continent erupted into warfare there was no money to be made in my area. Sadly there is more money in fighting. It would be nice if you could actively war profiteer, etc. Maybe now I should give it a go now as I have tons of mules and draft horses.

I took a series of screenshots on the first city siege that I joined. Here's a gif:

Now onto Orica Castle. I am the only "Noble" stupid enough to storms the walls with the men.

Lining up with the boys at the gatehouse. Waiting for the ram to do its work.

There is another door in the inner gatehouse. Hacking it down.

 

[mTk]

What's that little arrow thingie indicate?