Bryseis
Recruit
Let me just preface this with: I’ve been playing M&B for a very long and time mostly warband and when bannerlord came out I figured I’d let the game marinate for a bit before trying it as I consider myself a “hardcore” fan. Well, I finally got Bannerlord and boy am I having a lot of fun. No the game isn’t complete and has some bugs and mess ups but I still love it. I’m 10 years into my first (successful) play through. Maybe around 35/40 hours? I guess now this is just gonna be a “thoughts so far” thread with maybe a few tangents so here goes:
At first I played the game exactly how I’d play warband. Took me several new starts to get it right lol but I’ve now adjusted to the changes. At first I thought smithing was broken from how much money you can easily make in 2/4 weeks of smithing.(I liked how hard it was to get money in warband) Then I amassed about 1400 troops across my party and garrisons and now I’m glad I can fund my army by smithing about once a year in game.
Since this is my first playthrough I’m not used to how the AI will act but so far I really really like it! The king of Battania was almost immediately replaced in the first year by Muinser but me and him are homies and he gives me lots of fiefs. Not feeling bad about save-scumming as I’m learning the game; every time I do it something different happens which tells me the AI is really dynamic which is awesome. (When a hardcore mode is added that removes my ability to save-cheat I will play that)
I try not to start wars because I don’t like killing innocent villagers/caravans/lords (doing a lawful good play through) but that sometimes causes months of peace times which can be annoying. That’s not necessarily a good or bad thing. When more diplomacy is added that will really add a lot to late game.
Field battles are super fun, and I don’t necessarily mind when the enemy AI is defensive. But it’s annoying when they’re so defensive they just retreat to the back of the map so much so that I spend several minutes advancing my troops up to them. Only to have their reinforcements spawn behind or on top of my men and my reinforcements to spawn a mile away only to get picked off by horse archers.
Taverns/towns/and buildings feel so much cooler and livelier but are still kinda stale. Lots of potential there.
Militia is a new cool feature I think is great. Also the way cities and villages work is really cool. I take care of all my settlements and protect them and then they produce more hearths and more supplies for my cities and the people like me more, boosting up the relationship meter. I like how you can appoint a companion as governor but at times I feel myself searching random companions just because any governor is better than no governor. It might be cool to just have a local election or maybe I can select one of the officials from one of the villages or something that would be cool. Either way you can tell the devs clearly care very much by how much particular detail that’s going into the game.
I will continue to sink hours a day into this game every day as I’ve already got ideas for an Aserai, Empire, and Vlandian (NotSwadian) playthroughs brewing in my head. Thanks guys, my younger self who would sit and play M&B for hours waiting for this game is so happy.
Edit: to add my absolute biggest complaint, no compass. I get so flipturned upside down sometimes. Pls add compass for my disoriented loin cloths
At first I played the game exactly how I’d play warband. Took me several new starts to get it right lol but I’ve now adjusted to the changes. At first I thought smithing was broken from how much money you can easily make in 2/4 weeks of smithing.(I liked how hard it was to get money in warband) Then I amassed about 1400 troops across my party and garrisons and now I’m glad I can fund my army by smithing about once a year in game.
Since this is my first playthrough I’m not used to how the AI will act but so far I really really like it! The king of Battania was almost immediately replaced in the first year by Muinser but me and him are homies and he gives me lots of fiefs. Not feeling bad about save-scumming as I’m learning the game; every time I do it something different happens which tells me the AI is really dynamic which is awesome. (When a hardcore mode is added that removes my ability to save-cheat I will play that)
I try not to start wars because I don’t like killing innocent villagers/caravans/lords (doing a lawful good play through) but that sometimes causes months of peace times which can be annoying. That’s not necessarily a good or bad thing. When more diplomacy is added that will really add a lot to late game.
Field battles are super fun, and I don’t necessarily mind when the enemy AI is defensive. But it’s annoying when they’re so defensive they just retreat to the back of the map so much so that I spend several minutes advancing my troops up to them. Only to have their reinforcements spawn behind or on top of my men and my reinforcements to spawn a mile away only to get picked off by horse archers.
Taverns/towns/and buildings feel so much cooler and livelier but are still kinda stale. Lots of potential there.
Militia is a new cool feature I think is great. Also the way cities and villages work is really cool. I take care of all my settlements and protect them and then they produce more hearths and more supplies for my cities and the people like me more, boosting up the relationship meter. I like how you can appoint a companion as governor but at times I feel myself searching random companions just because any governor is better than no governor. It might be cool to just have a local election or maybe I can select one of the officials from one of the villages or something that would be cool. Either way you can tell the devs clearly care very much by how much particular detail that’s going into the game.
I will continue to sink hours a day into this game every day as I’ve already got ideas for an Aserai, Empire, and Vlandian (NotSwadian) playthroughs brewing in my head. Thanks guys, my younger self who would sit and play M&B for hours waiting for this game is so happy.
Edit: to add my absolute biggest complaint, no compass. I get so flipturned upside down sometimes. Pls add compass for my disoriented loin cloths
Last edited: