Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

[vota DC]

I've found it easier to hit with everything on horseback compared to wb though I haven't tried lances yet, javelins are especially satisfying to use now from horseback.

Melee, expecially one handed weapons are terrible from horseback. You could kill looters with ease with the regular sword of 95 length in warband, sea raiders too. If you don't attack from side then it is easier: hitting with the spear without couching is easier than warband.
Ranged horseback is much easier because ranged is easier. Zero skill and you can hit everybody with your bow, same with throwing weapon...just test in the arena: the only limit is the range of your weapon....this is a problem because bots are bots.....so they will always hit a standing target from the maximum weapon range and they are very good against moving target too. That means high skilled troops have just a bonus to damage and better gear (also skill is required to use that gear).

 

[Quillon]

Melee, expecially one handed weapons are terrible from horseback.

Melee on horseback is awesome. I've been playing with lance hit & runs, now I got another which I can swing too, even better.

If you start your own kingdom, all enemy factions literally take turns declaring war on you every month without any logical reasoning whatsoever. I'm occupying lands formerly belonging to the Western Empire, but am receiving war declerations by the Khuzait and Sturgians who are on the other edge of the map and at the same time fighting for their lives against the Battanians and Northern Empire.

Sometimes they don't even attack, they just declare war for the lols and just sit there. Of course, this is better than them sending out their entire army against you while an enemy army is wrecking their cities. These factions must really hate upstart kingdoms with a passion.

On my next playthrough I think I'll just start trading and hunting bandits, kingdom management is so barebones right now that it's downright hostile.

I remember this happening to me in Warband. Think my right to rule was really low or something and every other faction just hated my guts for it.

lol same here. Started with western empire, took the southern city then sturgians declared war and then khuzaits... -where I stopped yesterday.

Isn't it more to do with strength rather than right to rule? My hundreds vs their thousands.

 

[Fedora Master]

F4 is actually better because it makes ranged units skirmish properly.

 

[Konjad]

For those of you struggling to set satisfying graphic settings I've written some small guide:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2049013573

 

[Funposter]

I've had a few battles where the AI appeared to use tactics, like turtling up when they were outnumbered or holding position across a bridge to blunt my cavalry charge.

But it does sort of feel like Mount and Blade vanilla where Swadian Heavy Cav = faceroll.

Turtling up in a circle formation against a cavalry heavy army is a common one I've seen. The AI also seems to be decently effective at utilizing chokepoints and timing infantry charges while the archers do all of the heavy lifting for that first minute or so of the battle. You can actually see the AI tactics at work when you join an army and get to command one of the formations. From what I've seen so far, the tactics and commands from the AI general are pretty sound, and more often than not, following its orders has led to good results. The most braindead battles happen when you have two large forces approach each other on a relatively flat map, and all they can really do is charge at each other. Maybe sometimes they will camp out some trees or a hill, but not often.

Melee, expecially one handed weapons are terrible from horseback.

Melee on horseback is awesome. I've been playing with lance hit & runs, now I got another which I can swing too, even better.

Can also confirm that Lance on horseback is fun. Couch to take out cavalry or heavily armoured infantry, and just go to town scoring head shots with normal attacks on tier 1 and 2 units in order to rack up quick kills. Only thing you need to do is stay away from pikemen.

 

[AwesomeButton]

It seems that 8 GB RAM is simply not meeting the minimum requirements for smooth gameplay.

That's your problem, I was still running 8gb ram when the EA released and the game was barely playable, I upgraded to 32gb and can now run the game perfectly on high/medium settings with no stutter even with my old ass gpu and cpu.

I've seen lots of people on the forums with the same issue, and upgrading to at least 16gb ram seems to be the answer. Sucks, because the minimum requirements say 8gb is enough, but at least ram isn't too expensive these days.

Yeah, sure I'll upgrade. I'm such a junkie for M&B and I'll do anything Taleworlds tell me. I'll wear my pants on my head if they ask.

 

[dehimos]

F4 is actually better because it makes ranged units skirmish properly.

I have had problems with F4 (advance) because they did not advance but withdrew

But F4 is the new F3: same shit without breaking formation.

 

[vota DC]

Can also confirm that Lance on horseback is fun. Couch to take out cavalry or heavily armoured infantry, and just go to town scoring head shots with normal attacks on tier 1 and 2 units in order to rack up quick kills. Only thing you need to do is stay away from pikemen.

Not couching it is easier. I had very difficult time and no incentive at all hitting someone without couching in warband: if couching was an option I always couched. Bannerlord give the option to couch or to hit with a lance thrust with less risk but less damage.
Also hitting on side with lance is easier because it uses a different animation: a side thrust instead of a slash. The slash is terrible...it is ok with polearm or long two handed but you have to be tied with the enemy with one handed because your character doesn't stretch his arm enough. With a tall character it is even worse: the slash often fly OVER enemy's head.

 

[Van-d-all]

F4 is actually better because it makes ranged units skirmish properly.

Did you mean F6? Jokes aside, it can be quite decent, the first I used it my infantry actually occupied nearby hill against a cavalry strike and won against superior force. Preety neat. They do get lost in sieges though.

If you start your own kingdom, all enemy factions literally take turns declaring war on you

It's because the late game quest isn't implemented, so it just keeps failing and making empires attack. There are already several "Extend Conspiracy quest" mods working with varied effectiveness.

Makes the campaign seem more sensible and realistic, in my opinion. The real issue is the lack of proper response.

Pretty much that. Despite the patches, while it stopped from a single empire (Vladians...) steamrolling everything now it's 2 (Vladians AND Khuzaits) sometimes 3 (if one of the empires gets lucky). It's because AI makes shit choice of targets. For instance Battanians in my game were running around the desert fighting Aserai getting their core cities completely fucked over. They should prioritize recapture of own territory, then go after expanding borders not some random cities hell knows where. The second issue I noticed, is that factions tend to get assraped when their villages are mostly raided and they just can't muster enough recruits; seeing that creating parties spawns soldiers from thin air, I'm afraid it's going to be fixed in similar manner - spawning units for the AI lords.

 

[Funposter]

Can also confirm that Lance on horseback is fun. Couch to take out cavalry or heavily armoured infantry, and just go to town scoring head shots with normal attacks on tier 1 and 2 units in order to rack up quick kills. Only thing you need to do is stay away from pikemen.

Not couching it is easier. I had very difficult time and no incentive at all hitting someone without couching in warband: if couching was an option I always couched. Bannerlord give the option to couch or to hit with a lance thrust with less risk but less damage.
Also hitting on side with lance is easier because it uses a different animation: a side thrust instead of a slash. The slash is terrible...it is ok with polearm or long two handed but you have to be tied with the enemy with one handed because your character doesn't stretch his arm enough. With a tall character it is even worse: the slash often fly OVER enemy's head.

Like I said, couching is for key targets that you want to one-shot. In my experience, a regular thrust with the Lance is less reliable at doing that.

 

[Van-d-all]

Can also confirm that Lance on horseback is fun. Couch to take out cavalry or heavily armoured infantry, and just go to town scoring head shots with normal attacks on tier 1 and 2 units in order to rack up quick kills. Only thing you need to do is stay away from pikemen.

Not couching it is easier. I had very difficult time and no incentive at all hitting someone without couching in warband: if couching was an option I always couched. Bannerlord give the option to couch or to hit with a lance thrust with less risk but less damage.
Also hitting on side with lance is easier because it uses a different animation: a side thrust instead of a slash. The slash is terrible...it is ok with polearm or long two handed but you have to be tied with the enemy with one handed because your character doesn't stretch his arm enough. With a tall character it is even worse: the slash often fly OVER enemy's head.

Like I said, couching is for key targets that you want to one-shot. In my experience, a regular thrust with the Lance is less reliable at doing that.

The problem with couching in Bannerlord, is that even a shitty looter can break your stance with a rock. Not to mention they also have a major chance of at least wounding your horse.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I only played small scuffles, because my performance dies, but it was kind of hilarious how deadly looters could be against "imperial recruits".

 

[RK47]

when every single dude is 100 hp...then that's the problem.
not to mention u can still see rocks doing upwards 6 damage even with 35+ armor.
the easiest n fastest way to clear is just to get 10-15 khuzait tribals on horseback to circle strafe these fuckers fast n effectively.

also - not a single female looter. wtf

 

[IDtenT]

seeing that creating parties spawns soldiers from thin air

I think that's ultimately a "bug" that will be removed.

Just makes no sense in the context of the game.

 

[IDtenT]

when every single dude is 100 hp...then that's the problem.
not to mention u can still see rocks doing upwards 6 damage even with 35+ armor.
the easiest n fastest way to clear is just to get 10-15 khuzait tribals on horseback to circle strafe these fuckers fast n effectively.

also - not a single female looter. wtf

Archers on foot can be just as effective against looters.

 

[Funposter]

Can also confirm that Lance on horseback is fun. Couch to take out cavalry or heavily armoured infantry, and just go to town scoring head shots with normal attacks on tier 1 and 2 units in order to rack up quick kills. Only thing you need to do is stay away from pikemen.

Not couching it is easier. I had very difficult time and no incentive at all hitting someone without couching in warband: if couching was an option I always couched. Bannerlord give the option to couch or to hit with a lance thrust with less risk but less damage.
Also hitting on side with lance is easier because it uses a different animation: a side thrust instead of a slash. The slash is terrible...it is ok with polearm or long two handed but you have to be tied with the enemy with one handed because your character doesn't stretch his arm enough. With a tall character it is even worse: the slash often fly OVER enemy's head.

Like I said, couching is for key targets that you want to one-shot. In my experience, a regular thrust with the Lance is less reliable at doing that.

The problem with couching in Bannerlord, is that even a shitty looter can break your stance with a rock. Not to mention they also have a major chance of at least wounding your horse.

It only really becomes a problem when dealing with horse archers, and maybe some heavily armoured troops with throwing weapons (Sturgians). Your average enemy with ranged attacks isn't worth trying to hit with a couched lance, but I absolutely agree that it's ridiculous how a Looter's rock can stagger a knight decked out in a full coat of plates etc. etc.

 

[Van-d-all]

seeing that creating parties spawns soldiers from thin air

I think that's ultimately a "bug" that will be removed.

Just makes no sense in the context of the game.

It makes loads of sense actually. Seems to me like a generalized behavior that accidentally got carried to player characters, ie. that's how creating parties for AI works, hinting at the aforementioned issue - unit spawning IS a thing. It's a full fledged functionality, things like this are implemented deliberately, the only thing that's a mistake/bug here was assigning them to human player as well.

 

[vota DC]

when every single dude is 100 hp...then that's the problem.
not to mention u can still see rocks doing upwards 6 damage even with 35+ armor.
the easiest n fastest way to clear is just to get 10-15 khuzait tribals on horseback to circle strafe these fuckers fast n effectively.

also - not a single female looter. wtf

Regardless of armor and hp even of looters wouldn't damage the knight their performance wouldn't be of malnourished bums.
As a player with 5 skills of throwing and bow my reticle Is small: I can hit people from other side of arena without problems, zero limits from accuracy but only for the weapon range. That wasn't warband: looters and low tier missed static targets while taiga bandits with their 110 throwing were headhunters. Bots Is like an automatic player: higher skill just means better gear and bonus damage but the accuracy Is the same, It also has ballistic skill to guess moving targets but too stupid to dodge a javelin. Bots don't even simulate the reticle.
With melee weapon higher skill means also faster Attack, still lowest skill Is enough for the player to stop cavalry with a pitchfork while in warband very low skill were turtle attacks.

 

[Fedora Master]

Character creation is really more important than I thought, my charming Fedora lord is and remains a chump in combat because I barely had any points in martial stuff during childhood.

 

[Van-d-all]

Character creation is really more important than I thought, my charming Fedora lord is and remains a chump in combat because I barely had any points in martial stuff during childhood.

Focus points only matter insofar as learning speed, but with experience being totally fucked up, effectively not much. You get to 65 super fast no matter what, then it becomes a major slog, no matter what.

 

[Peachcurl]

Yeah, experience gain is fraked.

I'm using the Bannerlord Tweaks mod: https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/49

It's a bit better without going overboard with progression (and has some other reasonable improvements).

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Seems like a PITA to play with mods now with daily patches likely breaking them.

 

[Van-d-all]

Seems like a PITA to play with mods now with daily patches likely breaking them.

Just avoid core XML edits. It's mostly OK if you use modular (those with SubModule.xml) ones, ie. ones that only overwrite relevant XML nodes. They work unless two mods edit same ones and don't get overwritten/broken by patches. But seeing as the modding been going for the weekend, the game will really need some proper XML editing features like XPath in the very near future.

 

[Aemar]

Soloed an entire mercenary force (mainly recruits), routed half of them. In the end I took almost all of them as prisoners.

 

[Jrpgfan]

The RTX 2070 I ordered finally arrived last week and with some tweaks to my OC(turns out the CPU BLCK and Memory Frequency were wrong somehow) the game now runs considerably smoother.

Had quite a bit of fun with the MP this weekend. It's still leagues bellow the cRPG mod which I probably played for more than 1k hours but I'm still having fun with it. Despite all the flaws, I don't think there's any other action RPG I enjoy more than M&B. It's probably the only game I can play for hours on end and not get tired because of the gameplay alone.

 

[Aemar]