Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

so, like I mentioned, I started up a bannerlord run again. axethrowing battiana. I took varcheg and omar from rebels, and was like. why am I playing vanilla? all those cool mods out there, extra factions, etc..

so, The old Realms. started that up.

Can get on Moddb. (I could have sworn moddb also had some drama, but its not Nexus at least.) also, you can just install it via steam workshop too.

it does require Harmony lib. also can be gotten on moddb and steam.
harmony goes before native. old realms goes after native/storymode, base game.

manual that includes installation. and documentation on classes, cultures. (wizard lores are here, not shown in game at time of selection. )


Errors. have had a good amount.
1. load time at start is huge. I thought I crashed or froze. but, nope, just takes like 4minutes...
2. d3d. terrain quality needs to be set to medium or higher. and, graphics settings seem to reset periodically. every time you start, check.


I went in blind. didn't know what to expect.

6 cultures currently.
first impressions here was low. between crashing, and getting here and seeing 2 elves, which are badly deformed human heads, on regular human bodies, and 4 humans.

Empire
Brettonnia
mousillon
Vampire counts
Asrai-Athil lorien
eonir

next step character creation.

first major addition. Careers. instead of just the total freeform building, you get a career. which gives you special perks and abilities.
and these are ALL culture based.
empire can be a merc, warrior priest of sigmar, warrior priest of ulric, witch hunter, or college wizard.
brett can be merc, knight of bret, damsel of the Lady
vc can be merc, von carstien vamp, blood knight, necrarch, or necromancer
etc.

I went college wizard.

Attributes/focus/background. narratives here all changed. but the basic attribute/focus tree seems exactly the same, with no rebalance at all. strange. that said, another attribute is added. devotion. with faith/gunpowder/spellcraft skills in it.

start the game proper.
And, here is where we really see how deep the TC really is. wow.

Old world map. looks great. high res. roads, lore accurate. its actually interesting as towns, etc are not game balanced. some are really close, other areas have huge gaps of nothing. ha. visually fantastic. random towers, houses, etc. bridges have toll gates, and such. (decorative) but in general its not the barren empty map of base game.

factions. a TON of factions. theres only 6 cultures.. but, tons of counts. so like Mousillan is 1 town, and 1 castle only. empire of man is like 30.. but, also broken into like 10 factions/counts.

Shrines. Faith. There are a number of unique things on the map. Shrines, you can pray at, to get blessings. World roots, elves can use to teleport,etc.

A metric TON of unique troops. all high quailty art. and unique not just by empire all having the same. I mean, sons of altdorf can only be obtained in own village outside altdorf. gryphonknights can only be obtained from altdorf. riflemen and cannon engineeers can only be obtained from Nuln. towns and villages often have unique troops.
I think the RoR over the name is the indication of this.

I've not fully explored this, but I was very impressed so far.

models. while I was unimpressed with Elves at first. Beastmen are fucking beastmen. not just humans deformed with bad 3d tools. wizard armor, chaos armor all looks proper as well. and is high quality. treants as well.

artillery. cannons, etc.

Books. you can buy books from wizards, which you read over time, while stationary or traveling. these give EXP to specifc skills. 13-130k each.

companions. ive only seen wizards so far. 20k to hire one. massive rebalance for that.

workshops/caravans unchanged. (but, note its like 20k to hire a companion for that 15k caravan.)

wizard spells. so far weak. spellbook on character page. college wizard can only get 1 lore. (but can pick, metal, fire, light, celestial, life, or beast) +minor magic.
add spells to your quickslot in the spellbook, then in battle hit Q to open a radial menu, and pick spell. slowmotion while doing this. target and cast.
Balanced by cooldowns. and mana, which regens on the world map over time. (not in mission.)
weak aoe, friendly fire, for me so far. pretty meh. Major weakness is you can't use it in many town missions.

Witch hunters in taverns give cultist hunting missions, these start town missions in villages. which usually end in a fight. but again.. solo without magic. ugh.

Story book random events. While traveling on the map, you will often get storybook pop ups. "you come across an enchanting pond. do you "rest, and heal all wounds", "investigate... intelligence 5% chance of success", or "say a prayer, faith 3% chance of success". type stuff. A cool addition.

unique village, town and bandit camps. Ive seen 1 cultist and 1 beastman camp so far. noticed 1 unique village.

unique culture mechanics.
so each culure has unique mechanics.

empire of man has prestige for example. battles, etc gives it. you can then spend prestige for various things, notably required to upgrade artillary/firepowder troops/gryphons.

brett knights have Chivalry. which is more complicated.
undead have dark energy. which is obtained by defouling shrines, and killing enemy troops. undead troops have a daily dark energy cost.
and so on.


So, I'm VERY impressed with it so far. and do recommend people playing it.

Also, I got my butt kicked early on pretty badly. outlaws/beastmen/deserters/cultists running rampant in the starting area. deserters are the looters of TOR. except its not 6-16 unarmed, unarmored nobodies. its 6-16 mixed t1 army. archers, and sword/board infantry. same with beast men. while YOUR t1 recruits don't have shields.
so, equal numbers will probably lose. then even when you get 25 or so, with starting leadership, beating 1 10-20 deserter pack.. you will get swarmed by another while still in disorganized.. their are just so many...
maxing out your troop count, upgraded exclusively archers first. empire infantry seems to suck.

Caliane said:

so, like I mentioned, I started up a bannerlord run again. axethrowing battiana. I took varcheg and omar from rebels, and was like. why am I playing vanilla? all those cool mods out there, extra factions, etc..

so, The old Realms. started that up.

Can get on Moddb. (I could have sworn moddb also had some drama, but its not Nexus at least.) also, you can just install it via steam workshop too.

The Old Realms mod for Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

The Old Realms is a fan made mod project for the game Mount & Blade: Bannerlord. This project is 100% unofficial and in no way endorsed by Games Workshop. We do not accept donations nor do we receive any money from this project. © Copyright Games Workshop...

www.moddb.com

it does require Harmony lib. also can be gotten on moddb and steam.
harmony goes before native. old realms goes after native/storymode, base game.

manual that includes installation. and documentation on classes, cultures. (wizard lores are here, not shown in game at time of selection. )

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hARAlm3EfUIu3giGik_kzca6_38B5Y4wkf0P99wnigI/edit?tab=t.1zbb9s9bzbd1

Errors. have had a good amount.
1. load time at start is huge. I thought I crashed or froze. but, nope, just takes like 4minutes...
2. d3d. terrain quality needs to be set to medium or higher. and, graphics settings seem to reset periodically. every time you start, check.


I went in blind. didn't know what to expect.

6 cultures currently.
first impressions here was low. between crashing, and getting here and seeing 2 elves, which are badly deformed human heads, on regular human bodies, and 4 humans.

Empire
Brettonnia
mousillon
Vampire counts
Asrai-Athil lorien
eonir

next step character creation.

first major addition. Careers. instead of just the total freeform building, you get a career. which gives you special perks and abilities.
and these are ALL culture based.
empire can be a merc, warrior priest of sigmar, warrior priest of ulric, witch hunter, or college wizard.
brett can be merc, knight of bret, damsel of the Lady
vc can be merc, von carstien vamp, blood knight, necrarch, or necromancer
etc.

I went college wizard.

Attributes/focus/background. narratives here all changed. but the basic attribute/focus tree seems exactly the same, with no rebalance at all. strange. that said, another attribute is added. devotion. with faith/gunpowder/spellcraft skills in it.

start the game proper.
And, here is where we really see how deep the TC really is. wow.

Old world map. looks great. high res. roads, lore accurate. its actually interesting as towns, etc are not game balanced. some are really close, other areas have huge gaps of nothing. ha. visually fantastic. random towers, houses, etc. bridges have toll gates, and such. (decorative) but in general its not the barren empty map of base game.

factions. a TON of factions. theres only 6 cultures.. but, tons of counts. so like Mousillan is 1 town, and 1 castle only. empire of man is like 30.. but, also broken into like 10 factions/counts.

Shrines. Faith. There are a number of unique things on the map. Shrines, you can pray at, to get blessings. World roots, elves can use to teleport,etc.

A metric TON of unique troops. all high quailty art. and unique not just by empire all having the same. I mean, sons of altdorf can only be obtained in own village outside altdorf. gryphonknights can only be obtained from altdorf. riflemen and cannon engineeers can only be obtained from Nuln. towns and villages often have unique troops.
I think the RoR over the name is the indication of this.

I've not fully explored this, but I was very impressed so far.

models. while I was unimpressed with Elves at first. Beastmen are fucking beastmen. not just humans deformed with bad 3d tools. wizard armor, chaos armor all looks proper as well. and is high quality. treants as well.

artillery. cannons, etc.

Books. you can buy books from wizards, which you read over time, while stationary or traveling. these give EXP to specifc skills. 13-130k each.

companions. ive only seen wizards so far. 20k to hire one. massive rebalance for that.

workshops/caravans unchanged. (but, note its like 20k to hire a companion for that 15k caravan.)

wizard spells. so far weak. spellbook on character page. college wizard can only get 1 lore. (but can pick, metal, fire, light, celestial, life, or beast) +minor magic.
add spells to your quickslot in the spellbook, then in battle hit Q to open a radial menu, and pick spell. slowmotion while doing this. target and cast.
Balanced by cooldowns. and mana, which regens on the world map over time. (not in mission.)
weak aoe, friendly fire, for me so far. pretty meh. Major weakness is you can't use it in many town missions.

Witch hunters in taverns give cultist hunting missions, these start town missions in villages. which usually end in a fight. but again.. solo without magic. ugh.

Story book random events. While traveling on the map, you will often get storybook pop ups. "you come across an enchanting pond. do you "rest, and heal all wounds", "investigate... intelligence 5% chance of success", or "say a prayer, faith 3% chance of success". type stuff. A cool addition.

unique village, town and bandit camps. Ive seen 1 cultist and 1 beastman camp so far. noticed 1 unique village.

unique culture mechanics.
so each culure has unique mechanics.

empire of man has prestige for example. battles, etc gives it. you can then spend prestige for various things, notably required to upgrade artillary/firepowder troops/gryphons.

brett knights have Chivalry. which is more complicated.
undead have dark energy. which is obtained by defouling shrines, and killing enemy troops. undead troops have a daily dark energy cost.
and so on.


So, I'm VERY impressed with it so far. and do recommend people playing it.

Also, I got my butt kicked early on pretty badly. outlaws/beastmen/deserters/cultists running rampant in the starting area. deserters are the looters of TOR. except its not 6-16 unarmed, unarmored nobodies. its 6-16 mixed t1 army. archers, and sword/board infantry. same with beast men. while YOUR t1 recruits don't have shields.
so, equal numbers will probably lose. then even when you get 25 or so, with starting leadership, beating 1 10-20 deserter pack.. you will get swarmed by another while still in disorganized.. their are just so many...
maxing out your troop count, upgraded exclusively archers first. empire infantry seems to suck.

Click to expand...

I actually just picked up the game myself after watching a streamer play it for a bit. Been doing a Vampire Counts run as a Vampire that’s about to backstab Manlet von Baldstein and take over the VC.

Definitely has some fun in battle just running around chopping dudes heads off. Game can be a bit buggy and modding takes a bit of work but it’s has it’s own niche.