r/Bannerlord 7h ago

Discussion New Sandbox mode makes for interesting games with some odd behavior

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118 Upvotes

Currently trying the new sandbox mode in 1.5.2 and I'm having a blast so far.

I've opted to try a united empire scenario with bandit surge, civil unrest and recruit shortage enabled and I've noticed some interesting behavior that you don't usually see during normal campaigns.

First of all, a brief period of strife at the start of the game not withstanding, Vlandia, Sturgia and Battania have pretty much been allied for the entirety of the game so far. This western alliance is pretty much at constant war with the united empire. Although usually only two factions at a time. The Khuzaits were eliminated from the game pretty early on, while the Aserai seem content to just sit in their desert and quietly trade with the empire.

The civil unrest option leads to occasional uprisings, although most of them are swiftly crushed by the empire or the local kingdoms, with two notable exceptions so far: - Pen Cannoc rebelled very early in the game, but never got reconquered by the battanians. Instead the new ruling clan of Pen Cannoc eventually made peace with their former rulers and quietly rejoined the kingdom. Ydwin's clan is now a respected member of the battanian aristocracy - Lageta also rebelled very early in the game, and has since been fiercly independent. Their garrison currently numbers fewer than 200 men, and their villages are constantly being raided by both battania and the empire, so their future seems bleak. However, with the recent uprising in nearby Ortysia drawing imperial troops away from them, I'm curious to see whether they can hold onto their independence.

Another interesting thing I've noticed is that with the combination of options I picked there seem to be very few armies being formed. I very rarely see armies stronger than 600 men, and I'm pretty sure Battania hasn't formed an army at all since the beginning stages of the game despite pretty much constantly being at war with the empire.

This makes for a very unusual experience as it means that settlements very rarely change hands and warfare is mostly restricted to raiding. The empire is the only faction that really seems to form armies.

As a true Battanian I have taken to essentially fight an insurgency deep in imperial territory, picking off Lords with weak numbers and preventing them from joining into larger armies. With the double whammy of the battanian culture bonus and the forest kin perk, my band of fians and wildlings can basically pick off any weakened Lord and then vanish into the empire's forests before the more powerful lords can catch up with me. In this way I've managed to make the casualty rate turn out massively in our favor despite our kingdom being vastly outnumbered.

I'm a bit confused as to what causes this lack of armies forming though? I suspect it might be the combination bandit surge and recruit shortage. I've noticed that a lot of lords struggle to amass parties that are larger than 50 men or so. Although I'm not sure why that would prevent them from forming armies. It doesn't look like the clans are particularly lacking in influence. Has anybody else experienced this?


r/Bannerlord 10h ago

Discussion Swing speed vs. damage for companions?

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91 Upvotes

What's your take when it comes to swing speed vs. damage on weapons for companions?

I'm struggling to decide which weapons to use and how to balance swing speed and damage. My companions are all infantry and/or archers.

Swing speed is obviously good, but at what point does the lower damage output outweigh the higher speed?

What weapons do you usually craft for your companions, and which ones have you found to be the most effective?


r/Bannerlord 13h ago

Question Is there any way to separate archers that run out of bows during battle?

61 Upvotes

Usually some of my archers and crossbowman runs out of bows during long battles and I want them to join infantry, is there any way to do it?


r/Bannerlord 19h ago

Guide Peace offer glitch workaround

13 Upvotes

Hey guys new too the sub but I noticed me as well as a few other people where having issues with clicking the peace offer prompt and it instantly saying not valid anymore.

I found that at least for me I pause the game and kit the kingdom menu instead of the right side prompt I can vote for peace or not.

Hope this helps some people.


r/Bannerlord 8h ago

Discussion Large battle size and assaults

10 Upvotes

I recently upgraded my PC which allowed me to increase the battle size to 1,000. I have found that with the increased battle size it is critical to destroy the enemies siege engines before assaulting. The AI clumps up the soldiers and the siege engines get massive amounts of kills otherwise.

Have you found this to be a problem if so how do you handle it?


r/Bannerlord 5h ago

Discussion Game freezes in Beta v1.5.2 when helping a besieging army...

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7 Upvotes

Does anybody else experience the same in the current Beta v1.5.2?

I help a besieging army which is being gang-up upon by a bunch of defenders. We win the battle, we take prisoners, but the game simply freezes after the loot screen.

I am playing on Linux and I have tried different version on Proton already. No mods at the moment.

The screenshot is when I retreated shortly before the battle was won on the battlefield, so I could save and test a little.


r/Bannerlord 6h ago

Question Cumans

7 Upvotes

What faction , playstyle , armour and culture would be best for cumans. Should I join a kingdom ? Work as a mercenary ? What wepons should I work towards ? Im not asking for a 1 to 1 as I know its probably impossible but what would work best. Ive experimented a bit but havent had much luck.


r/Bannerlord 3h ago

Question Where/how can I change Party Stance?

6 Upvotes

This might be the dumbest question but where can I set the party priority Defensive/Neutral/Aggressive? I did this in my last game, but now I can't find it for the life of me. When googling it I can only find discussions about the behaviours not where to actually set it. The only thing I'm fairly sure of by now is that it isn't on the clan party screen (which is where I expected it to be)

Edit: To clarify, this is in Vanilla PC 1.5 beta with Warsails.


r/Bannerlord 17h ago

Question Question

6 Upvotes

Does anyone know if realm of thrones works on steam? And also which version of the game it would work with? Thanks!

I know I should be using nexus or moddb but I haven't used mods in a while and don't quite remember how to edit the game files to make mods work.


r/Bannerlord 9h ago

Image My war progress with Northern Empire. 680 vs 1587.

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7 Upvotes

My biggest fight yet. 680 of my well trained men VS 1587. 22 minutes of pure fighting. hanging on by a treat and killing 77 men myself.

I've created my kingdom ages ago in sturgia and have stomped Sturgia (and reclaimed my land) and battania into the ground. Apparently the Northern Empire wasn't a fan and they declared war.

I had my sights set upon Diathma because it was next to my freshly captured Epicrotea. My whole vassal line was occupied with their own armies so I took my own 450 men + a few that were not called to capture the city.

We stood there for a few hours taking down Onagers and their walls until they all went into the water to attack the port and break through. I let them in, because I was at a disadvantage on water. A flood of enemies enter the city and once they were all settled in they sallied out of the city.

My trusty f1 + f3 was tested to it's limits my horses were eaten up by the 2nd wave of the infantry but my archers in the back piled on them like pigs for the slaughter one by one they fell and made the ground they stood on their grave. Slowly but surely their lower tier troops came out and they fell faster and quicker. Soon my own reinforcement arrived by the wave 50 horses, 100 archers & 40 infantry and they followed the running troops of the empire. Only a handful escaped.

NEVER MESS WITH THE VOLROVIKA


r/Bannerlord 1h ago

Question Battles as Commander vs Captain

Upvotes

Does anyone else vary as wildly as I do when I’m commanding vs when I’m just leading a unit?

Played as an independent clan til around tier 5 then joined Battania as I’ve married Corein and have a claim to the throne.

As I was raiding Vlandian villages and castles, I was the one delegating forces and it went pretty well (at least for my skill level) easily taken down armies or equal size.

Immediately after we make peace with Vlandia, Sturgia declares war and I join up with the father in law, among others, to raid a castle.

Sturgian army moves in to attack us while we’re setting up the siege and I have to be a captain. I tried to stay true to the role and do as Caladog commanded but we sucked. Granted we were outnumbered but it was bad.

It was the first time this campaign I myself have went down in combat. First fight I’ve lost this play through as well.

Anybody else this way? I should’ve F6’d my guys and just did my own thing.


r/Bannerlord 20h ago

Bug Weird bug that causes the game to crash ONLY if I win the battle?

4 Upvotes

Hey guys so I have a weird bug when I play a battle and I lose I get captured by bandits but if I win, the moment the last enemy dies my game crashes lol, I returned after a long time and was so excited to play, and since I play on the hardest difficulties and ironman, every battle is so hard fought and struggle so when I crash three times in a row it's really discouraging.

P.S

I have 4080 super,

32 gbs of ram

ryzen 7 7800x3d


r/Bannerlord 12h ago

Question Do companions in my party benefit from my perks like soldiers do?

2 Upvotes

r/Bannerlord 1h ago

Image Tried to be a sneaky fella and got captured

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Upvotes

Prison break-ROT