Mount&Blade War Band
Warning!!
Mount&blade war band may cause addiction
Introduction
Mount&Blade War Band... what can I say.. It's one of those games you'll almost instantly fall in love with. I'm warning you now, you will become addicted to this game. It may take an hour or two but it will happen. Once you get the hang of it you'll be so hooked your wife or girl friend will be jealous.
Ok enough of that, Mount&Blade War Band is one hell of a game and thank you tale worlds for this masterful creation of awesomeness.
Mount and blade war band is a game about med-evil times, conquering the revival factions, and gaining wealth and fame.
Character creation
First of all you'll start the game off by creating a character that you will use in battle. Make sure you get enough strength and charisma. You'll need charisma to get the skill leadership. The leadership skill will determine how many men you will be able to have in your army.
You Adventure Begins
You'll start as a single man army with little to no money at all. Your first goal is going around to towns recruiting men to join your army. At first you may only be able to convince one or two men to join your cause, but soon enough you'll get four to six men at a time, raising arms to fight behind you. Once you have around 20-30 men you will want to find bandits or army deserters to fight. BE careful who you pick a fight with. If you have 20 men and try to go up against the King of Nord, you'll get demolished!! Each king will never have less then 100 men on him at any given time.. Even with a evenly match game 100 vs. 100 you will still probably lose since the king has all trained men.
Soldier Development
Soon enough your men will learn enough from battle to be upgraded. You will need to pay them though, so that they may be able to buy the equipment required to take the new role.
Example; Nord recruit goes from a Nord recruit to a Nord foot man. He will need 10-30 gold to be able to purchase a shield and sword. Then Nord foot man will go from Nord foot man, to Nord Archer, or a Nord Skirmisher.. You choose the path with which you want them to train. Either you want your end result to be a Nord knight or a Master Nord Archer.
Choose Your Alliance
After many successful battles you will acquire renown and honor. When you acquire enough "Renown" you will be eligible to give your self to a "Faction or Alliance". You will receive benefits by joining a faction, one of which is the right to own towns and cities, also castles. Now you'll only start out with one town till the king likes you enough to award you with newly conquered towns. You will also be able to marry royal blood and join in on war parties. Being in a faction also gives you protection from the king and his noble men. When you join a faction you are a noble man. Noble men are the kings right hand men and are allowed to do pretty much anything they want except attacking your factions home land.
Picture; Going to war with the king and his nobles
The numbers beside the characters are the number of men in there army
WAR
As you journey through the land you will notice factions going to war against each other. The game is ever changing, so you will never seen the towns owned by the same factions. When one faction goes to war with another its kinda like chess. They move into the enemy factions lands and begin to take towns, castle and cities. Journeying into a hostile faction territory while at war could be traitorous and very dangerous. Being in a faction that is at war with another faction, then being in the enemy factions territory will attract the enemy faction into attacking you. If your not prepared you could have your whole army slaughtered by the enemy faction.
Losing a battle will result in almost all to all of your army being killed. You must run from a fight when you know your odds aren't in your favor. Some times you will have to leave 12 of your 70 men behind, so that you may have a chance to flee from the annihilation that is coming.
Other Activities
Now if your not one for war and murdering the farmers and merchants for money, you could always enter the tournament, earn money the legal and honorable way. Tournaments are held at castles, you may find out when there will be a tournament by asking in the tavern. Talking with the tavern manager will give you a lot of information. He will tell you a lot of information about quests and other missions. Most people in the tavern are looking for work, as in military work. These men aren't cheap though, some time you will pay up to 2,000 gold for 6 men instead of the usual 10 gold per man. There is obviously a reason for the high price, almost always these mercenary for hire are highly trained men, ready for battle. Hiring all mercenary's will be a little pricey though. You will need to pay your men there weekly wages, if not they will abandon you eventually.
Goods Trading
So if your not looting and stealing all your merchandise from farmers, towns, or merchants you can buy goods from towns, cities, and castles to be sold at other locations for good profit most times. This is one of the ways to play the game as a good legal noble man.
Castles, Noble, Towns, and faction relationships
Almost everything you do will affect your relations with one of the above. This can have a good impact or a bad one. You will get cheaper goods if the town loves you or get protection from the farmers in battle if your close enough. One time I was out numbered by 60 men and I knew I was completely screwed.. BUT!!! to my rescue there is a near by town that hates the faction who is attacking me and they bring over a hundred men to my aid! We won the battle and I only lost one of my men. So you see how complex this game can be.
Of course as stated above when you prove your self against a enemy faction, the king will accept you and dub you a noble knight of his faction and from then on out or until you choose you will fight under him. Personally I choose the Nords.
There is certainly more I have missed but I promise you will fall in love with this game instantly!!
I'm sorry to say this game isn't free. You can purchase it from the tale worlds web site or steam.
Mount&Blade War Band Receives a 5/5
