Mount & Blade: Warband

I've never beaten Warband. I'm not particularly good at it, and I have something of a short attention span when it comes to playing Warband, but beyond the serviceable graphics is a game that requires skill, daring, and wit to play. While the game's RPG elements initially seem puzzling, they're actually fairly simple (and it's easy to make a character that's not really suited to surviving in Calradia). Still, the RPG elements, the excellent and exhilarating simulationist combat, and the constantly changing alliances, battles, hostages, and trade going on in the background create a living, breathing world at war that hasn't been done until this series. And of them all, Warband is still so far the best example. Some of the most fun I've had is roaming around the coasts of Calradia fighting Sea Reavers (a fairly tough foot enemy) with my small band of heroes, and then trading between the cities before going back at it with the Sea Reavers when I approach the coast. I have something of a fixation on punishing those Norse inspired brigands, since on my early explorations of Calradia they used to kill/capture me quite often. Now that I'm more experienced, they die like anything else. Another tough but fun activity is the tournaments. I used to die a lot in those, and now I win them on a fairly regular basis. Warband is just one of those games where the best teacher is experience, and being able to accept defeat/failure, and learn from it, will be one of your biggest assets to enjoying the game. Warband is tough but fair, and if you can manage to get the feel for the rules of how things work in the politics and overall strategy of waging war in Calradia, you'll be well on your way to carving out your own kingdom. Don't neglect the economy however (this is something I'm still trying to figure out - so definitely look into investing in town and seeing what you have to do in order to be allowed to do that, as money and food are what an army needs).

Although this game is pretty old, it still blows all other "modern" games out of the water. The vanilla experience is okayish but this game really starts to shine once you start playing the mods. There is so much content here it will keep you engaged 100%. Not since Baldurs Gate 2 has there been a game that has caught and held my attention for this long. Among others you can be a; Mercenary who fights for money A bandit that robs and steals A noble knight who wants to build a name for him/herself A merchant going from town to town finding the best deals and making money A vassal of a king with your own little town/village A king/queen that rules a nation However you want to play is up to you, just find the best mod out there *cough Prophesy of Pendor cough* and have fun. I'm in for 1000 hours+ and still have a few ideas about new characters I want to play.

Mount and Blade: Warband is one of my favourite games of all time. It is a strategic RPG that allows you to run your own warband (pun intended) and take part in battles where you are the leader of your troops, assisting them and guiding them into battle. Take part in politics that resemble real life, where you: *Bribe your opposition *Suck up to important figures of authority in the hope of monetary support or just some moderate recognition. *Insult someone who you don't like, resulting in a pointless fight that might not actually advance your career. *Incite violence amongst your supporters And you only realise that this isn't a first world presidential campaign when the petty squabbles break into all out war 100% of the time and no one is racist toward minorities. You can also create your own kingdom where you fight everyone who used to be your allies and create elaborate trade routes and an actual economics system that I usually spend hours fussing over. Some gripes I have are that the economy is largely based on if you're not fighting certain trade partners, rather than focussing on trade agreements. You still have huge control over your own economy by helping your own towns and villages, but supporting your trade partners by helping their property feel counter-intuitive. The random events also can feel quite contrived and repeated, and you'll soon get tired of being asked to deliver letters to nobles when you're the king of an empire. This game is amazing, and you should absolutely get it if you are a fan of moderate RPG elements, and active combat system, or large scale party management.

After 1800 hours it's beginning to get just a little stale! It's a sandbox, a brilllant rpg, events are unpredictable and take you down different paths. Battles and sieges are immensly absorbing. OK the character animations in pubs are terrible, and it can be annoying trying to find someone to ransome your prisoners to. It's old, but hasn't aged and can be run on a potato. I play it on a Chromebook using the Linux switch, but it will play on almost anything.

The tactical battle aspect of the game is awesome! This is the first game to use horseback riding and fighting in a believable way. It's fun, tough and filled with adrenaline and fear of getting K.O.'ed. With modern computers, I think they should up the individuals on the map to 500, I doubt that it will affect performance much, especially if you exploit multi-core techonology. That combined with good RAM would make it possible. The strategic part is ok. Getting your hand on a city or fort/castle the first few times is tricky, but once you have seen the game flaws of attacks on cities and strongholds, they're a bit easier. Defending them while exploiting the game flaws is even easier! I think they should make real castle/city assault, because right now, you have one hole in a wall and everyone rushes there and that is not realistic and causes lots of bugs and silliness. Cities and castles cannot be starved out by besieging them, you are REQUIRED to attack each place. The economic part sucks. Warband is the crappiest of all M&B when it comes to trading. Only three or four commodities are worth trading. Prices vary little. There is no consumption on the part of the cities or strongholds. So the economic aspect of the game is absent. Something they should work on. I think Warband is a good tactical combat game, but that's it. I prefer the original game (the one that was worked on before Paradox put its hand on it) and Fire and Sword. Only buy if you want the collection, otherwise skip to Fire and Sword or Mount and Blade 2.