History of Mount & Blade

Now that 1.0 is closely approaching, I think it would be nice to collect a little history of mount & blade.  It was a very long process, and incredibly fun.  One of the most unique experiences I have ever felt.  I would like to think that I had an impact, even if a tiny one, on the course this game took.  As some of you might remember who have been here a while back when it wasn't Calradia it was Calardia and it wasn't Mount & Blade it was War Rider, this game has took many different shapes.  There used to be dead zombie like things, but the game remained true to its goal "a unique blend of action, roleplaying  and strategical gameplay" one of the most fascinating concepts I have ever played.  And one of the main reasons I have always been here and returned over the past 4 years.

I first saw m&b when it was war rider at a lan party at a friends house.  I will never forget how we all stopped playing games as one of the guys was showing us the game war rider.  I was so amazed at how awesome it was I had to go get it.  I downloaded it not too long after that and played it until I had to support the game and bought it.  Finally somebody was making my dream game and I was going to help make it. 

Please post your memories of the earliest days of Calradia (or Calardia lol) and when you first joined mount & blade and why, so that maybe we can organize a nice history of this great game.  So that the future of this game will be even more fun and exciting.

update:  I forgot to add this in.  Please add how much you paid for the game when you bought it.  It would be interesting to see how the price has gone up over the years, and how much those who decided to invest in the game ended up saving by not paying full price when the game hits retail.  I remember I paid $11 when I bought my version.  I didnt know id be waiting this long but I'd say its worth the investment.  I think i trippled my investment as far as value goes.

I discovered it while taking a break from studying exams in May 2005 on The Underdogs. I was looking for indie RPGs, and after reading the review had to download it. I played it for a couple of days and bought it I think for $13 before reaching the level limit. I remember getting an email from Armagan thanking me for my purchase and giving the activation code within a couple of hours of paypal, which was nice and it was the first time I was using paypal to buy an online game - I wonder does he still do that?

I played Native for dozens of hours and then joined the forums just around the time when Ancientwanker and N00Bsomething and others were planning the first mods through the arcane art of the decoding the text files. The first mod ever I think was the "Peasant Attack" mod which added an encounter option to allow you to attack and enslave bands of peasants - I think it was never completed, but Mag-7 came along shortly after and I was hooked on that, fighting the Dark Knights with my band of heroes.

I also remember a huge flame-war when the first girl fan turned up, kittysomething or other, good times.

I found M&B while I was on the Total War Center forum. I dowloaded the beta and bought a serial the same day. It was in May 2007 and 0.808 was the version. I paid 20 euros (17 + 3 of tax) or something like that. In fact I don't care at all, it was the best money can buy (with Rome Total War).  I have play a long time with Calradia at War mod and TLD. I'm on the forum since this day and I have a look everyday or so. One of my best moment here was the openning of the French sub-forum, maybe now it will be today for final release.

- Lion -

well i remember seeing someone using mount and blade in their avatar/sig at total war center a few years back...

went to investigate it and just simply fell in love... played the demo for as long as i could stoumache but then i got a (then) friend of mine to share the cost with me and bought a serial for 12$... so basically i payed 6$ (well i was on welfare back then, so that was alot of money)...
played from version .7 something upwards, but then i recently switched computers and i am no longer on speaking terms with my former friend so i had to buy a new serial since he had the e-mail with it...
so i payed (whatever it was at version .9 something) and im back playing it now...

honestly tho, i dont think ive played the vanilla version since version .7xx
the mods are what makes this game a winner for me... and im looking forward to the mods for version 1.xxx

Some smart cookie at Australia's most popular (and, well, only) pure PC gaming magazine decided to whack a copy of .632 on the cover disk, and include a very short (100 words) mention of it in the random bits part of the magazine, which bought a lot of aussie players to the game.

sneakey pete said:

Some smart cookie at Australia's most popular (and, well, only) pure PC gaming magazine decided to whack a copy of .632 on the cover disk, and include a very short (100 words) mention of it in the random bits part of the magazine, which bought a lot of aussie players to the game.

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heh... for about 30 seconds there i thought you meant that he did that NOW...

got me worried (thats what you get for reading several threads at the same time hehehe)

It got mentioned at NTRPG, a Chinese site about, well, RPGs. I might have to translate that article some time and put it up here, but who knows....
I eventually got playing from 0.632 (I think), and quickly bought it for about $18CAD (I think).
Absolutely miss the dark hunters. Those were the only times you could get large numbers of refugees....

I started playin about last summer.  My friend was just begging me to play so finally i tried it and instantly fell in love.  My first mod was the legions mod for v.894.

I forget exactly who gave me the heads up about this game, but it was word-of-mouth from a friend.

It was version .63something, June 2005.
The combination of the best horse combat I had ever seen in a game, and the most intuitive draw-and-release archery system I'd seen made me quickly fork over my $11 so i could go past level 6.

Lets just say that may be the best $11 I ever spent, because there's no other game like it in existance, and I've had the priveledge of playing it for the last 3 years.




ah!  my download of 1.0 has just finished... off to check out the shiny new goodness.

I started in .894, and immediatelly it started feeling like pwntastic game.
I remember that I lost to sea raiders, they took my horse, I escaped, recruited rhodoks from my village and attacked the raiders with the loyal borcha. And lost.
Every time I killed at least 1-2 of them, so I spent over an hour repeating this until they finally lost and I got my horsey back.


I just downloaded version 0.2xx. After the laughs, I realised I have seen many, many games in same developement stage as it was. All of them were just left in that stage.

Fortunately, m&b wasn't.

I read about it in some random mag here in Australia!

The problem was I couldnt remember the name but kept on thinking about it and having the desire to find it!

Finally at TAFE (a kind of technical collage kinda like Uni) I spoke to one of the guys about a game I had heard about and he told me what it was called and then WHAM! I got the demo and played untill level 4 like a million times!!!

I was kinda too poor and too insecure to buy it throug the net so I was stuck in a kind of limbo for ages untill I joined the forums and decided to start modding it! You caould mod the game by using the demo so i said "IT MUST BE MINE!!!"

I think I got it for $28 Australian dollars

Now here I am, from version 6 (I think) Mounting Up and bladeing my way through all foes!!

The first mod I tryed was The Holy War but I wouldnt work and the I got my hands on the lord of the rings mod, "FOR THE WHITE CITY!!"

Best game ever!!! Next to Original Doom that is!!

IIRC it was the Underdogs which I saw it on too. Was up visiting the girlfriend while she was at Uni and needed something to keep me occupied while she was in classes. Downloaded .632 on Monday night and bought a serial on Tuesday morning.

Well, I'm relatively new. Heard about the game quite a bit through an Indie mmo i play called Roma Victor, and after looking at it for a while, downloaded the trial and got hooked. Got it in March 07 for about 15 quid or something. Guess that was around .8xx Got into mods earlier this year, and became involved in BoW when i saw what amazing work the folks there - NCrawler, Hardcode, Gilrain and FishEye were doing.

Man I love this game. Big thanks to Armie and the team! You truly have excelled here. I and some friends once tried to start our own game, and we hardly got anywhere past a few items and a simple engine... it just died. You managed to forge on through, and have created a thing of beauty and skill.

*Bows to the Greatness!*

Those days 0.351 it was. River pirates, arena and black riders are the things I remember. It was quite fun even back then. I was charmed by the parry/strike combat system and damage values.

The first version I played was 0.751 (if I recall correctly). Dark Hunters, leaderless faction parties, only two factions, rescued prisoners remaining on the world map... it was like a completely different game.

For me, it's long ago and I can't really tell when I downloaded the game, but I know which version it was. It was 0.751.

I read about it on a homepage from a German game magazine. I thought "I HAVE to download that!" I always loved  everything which has to do with the the middle age.

.632 for me.

My brother saw it on the total war forums and showed it to me. I think I spent about 1/6th of the following year playing it. (I did the calculation, it was pretty scary)

I only really got into the forums about 2006, though I posted on and off in 2005 when I discovered the game. Unfortunately I also got banned from it in 2005, so hey, I had to sign up again.

Anyway, I'd say the forum's my main reason for liking this game. The game's good, but flawed, the people on the forum are a bunch of retards, but they grow on you like some kind of infection, so now I'm hooked.

Anyway, I'd say the forum's my main reason for liking this game. The game's good, but flawed, the people on the forum are a bunch of retards, but they grow on you like some kind of infection, so now I'm hooked.

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lol an interesting choice for liking a game based on the forum, but hey everybody has their treasures.

I got this game back when it was v.408
I think it was reviewed in PCGamer and on the coverdisk, but I may be wrong.
I remember being too scared to leave zendar until i had saved enough money from the tournaments to buy some decent weaponry.
I persuaded some of my friends to get the game as well and we sat together in GCSE biology lessons in 2005 and spent most of the lesson sharing our tales of glory from last nights adventuring.
I also remember having an army of Vaegir knights, thinking it was the best army possible and that nothing could defeat me, and getting slaughtered by sea raiders.
My first encounter with throwing axes: In a battle against just one man, my first ever Vaegir knight, who I was very fond of, charged at him and took a throwing axe to the face, killing him instantly. I have respected the weapon ever since.
And finally, my first encounter with Black Knights. It was night time and the terrain was very hilly, poor terrain for my cavalry based army. I remember the initial charge and thinking there was no way i could beat these guys. I saw a Dark Knight get de-horsed and I thought that finally we would kill one, but as one of my horsemen closed in on him, he stood up and with a swing of his sword killed my horsemen and then took on 5 or 6 infantries, killing them all. I lost my entire army that day and found a lot of respect for those enemies.

I remember my first battle against steppe bandits, it was me against 16. Then the old Robin Hood music came on and my brother said: "You're going to die.", then I answered: "Are you serious? Listen to this music! The bandits will be riding into each other, and smashing into trees." Surely enough I won! Keep in mind that I had fought other battles before that.