There are so many things I like about the game it's hard to point them all out. It's okay to skip the first one, you'll get to meet all the same companions and have the same quests and Warband gives at least three big reasons to favor it: So I slowly shifted strategy to have heavy armor, heavy war horse, and a lance.īefore I go any further I should say Warband is just a revision of the preceding Mount and Blade, but a revision worth getting. I would get knocked out of combats which affected my troop morale and would end up losing me battles I should have won. But as the stakes got higher and higher I found I was a liability with my light armor. The first game I played I made a steppe archer and favored agile horses and archery. And eventually if you make your own kingdom, battles won't be the biggest problem but your lazy, greedy vassals. Once you have decent armor and weapons and find some companions that have skills that can help you and your troops out, there is a mid game where you are no longer fighting bands of bandits but other military forces. More than any other game I've played it feels like D&D in that the game becomes different games as you become more powerful. But you quickly learn that to make any headway you need troops and that they need to be paid so the early game requires a lot of scrimping and nail biting battles to try and get loot from bandits.Īnd by mentioning the early game, I bring up one of the things I love about this game.

You start out with little armor, no troops and are dropped into the world to do whatever you want. It starts off feeling more like a roleplaying game something like the first Diablo. It is a military skirmish game, though that is underselling it. The same set up I love about Rome: Total War. Mount & Blade is a game that has a strategic overland map and when there are conflicts, it zooms into real time tactical battles. 'Hey Telecanter, where you been? It's the New Year and you haven't posted in like a week!' I, dear friend, have been absorbed in this game: This is not a review, more like a love letter.

Mount and blade warband difficulty