It’s so easy to get lost in Mount and Blade: Warband. A game that offers you a world of politicking and trade and system driven combat. One of those games where systems drive everything that’s interesting about the game.
Mount and Blade Warband is a systems driven fantasy role playing game. Released in March 31st, 2010 by Taleworlds Entertainment. It’s an older game, not necessarily a game with highest graphical quality or even the most interesting story. But what it lacks in style, it more than makes up for in substance.
The setting of Calradia is about as bog standard Medieval Fantasy as it gets. Each region has a biome and a real world equivalent to match. The Khanate riff on the Mongol hordes. The Sarranids have stepped right out of Arabian Nights. Swadians are your central European knights while Rhodoks play infantry only with Italian tower shields.
There’s not a whole lot to write home about that’s interesting or novel.
But within this traditional, generic framework,a collection of systems are building a game that’s unrelentingly compelling.
Combat systems are at the heart of it. It comes down to two things. Aiming your strike, and mounted combat.
The former is simple. Pick a direction with your mouse and a weapon.
Heavy swinging weapons like axes or hammers will strike multiple foes or shatter shields. Pin point accurate swords or spears will slip past your enemy’s guard with some careful direction. Blocking is as simple as right clicking. With a shield this means positioning to intercept that flying javelin, only moments before it strikes your head. With a weapon, it’s a furious dance of parrying and waiting for the correct angle.
Single duels are complex affair, feint and block. In a battleline of several hundred people, it’s a maelstrom. A mechanical conveyor belt of slicing and deflecting the opponent right in front of you, hoping that you aren’t flanked or overwhelmed.
On horseback it’s a whole different story. The sheer momentum of a horseback charge can barrel over infantry. A couched lance from the back of a steed will send both rider and mount flying when the point strikes true. And losing your horse in the middle of a battle to an errant arrow is a tumbling terrifying experience.
Beyond that, light strategy elements allow you to train and develop your Warband, as well as issue limited orders on the field. The political machinations of lords and kings are an option, eventually maybe giving the player their own village or town to manage, defend and develop.
And since the game is 10 years old, there’s an incredibly healthy modding scene. Want to raid the British isles or take over the whole of Westeros? There’s a mod for that.
The game is constantly on sale, and the long awaited sequel is supposedly going to be released in March of 2020. So now is the perfect time to get in on one of the most engrossing RPGs that you can try.