Why Mount & Blade: Warband is one of my favorite games of all time

While waiting for Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord to come out, I decided to tell you why Mount & Blade: Warband is one of my favorite games of all time. I've been playing Warband for atleast 3 years. One of those years included consistent gameplay, the other two were on and off. Long story short, I've spent countless hours playing this game. So why does Warband take one of the top spots in my favorite game list?

1) The Medieval Addiction

Mount & Blade games are a medieval series. Medieval games have always appealed to me because of their setting and atmosphere. Warband made me feel a part of the world - taking care of my castles, villages and cities, forming relationships with other lords and participating in various battles. Gradually evolving from a simple warrior to a mighty lord or king and expanding your lands has a truly rewarding feeling to it.

2) The Battles and Sieges

Fighting against foes, whether they're bandits or lords of a different faction, is really fun. The battles or sieges don't require a lot of strategic thinking, though it does help. What really matters in Warband is you army - the ranks of you soldiers, the level and the equipment of your companions as well as your own gear. Depending on what difficulty you play, you can take out a band of soldiers by yourself, without any backup. Though that's hardly possible when playing at a realistic difficulty!

Sieging is also quite breathtaking. Taking a castle with your army was quite hard, especially if the foes had lots of archers. But it was practically easy to overrun a castle if you have enough forces. I remember defending one of my castles against a huge amount of enemy soldiers while being at a disadvantage myself. I managed to be succesful at the end because the foes were too focused on breaching my defense lines while I attacked them from behind.

3) The Politics

Warband has a fair amount of politics included. For instance, if you don't have enough right to rule and you try to establish your kingdom, the other kings will disrespect and declare war against you because you are a minor unnecessary threat to them. Though once you defeat some of their forces and they realise that you're not so weak after all, they ask for peace with due haste.

Vassals are also a huge part of the game. Once you form your own kingdom, you need vassals to maintain the security of your kingdom as well as gain additional forces when attempting to expand. However, it's never easy to attract lord to become your vassals in the beginning, because they don't deem your kingdom as safe for their family and their overall well-being, so persuasion skills come in use. Some vassals feel betrayed by their current liege, so they renounce, leave everything behind and join my kingdom as my vassals, because they feel that I'm a better king (may be other reasons, too).

4) Your Own Kingdom

Gathering forces and taking a castle or city by force and starting your kingdom was always my main goal in Warband. The first time I did it, I really felt a sense of accomplishment and was ready to expand my kingdom all over the map and defeat the other factions. Though I quickly realised that with a limited amount of soldiers and being financially weak will not get me far. Lords from the faction I took the castle from bundled together and took the castle back, while leaving me with nothing but some amount of money and what's left of my armor.

Though after some time I made some more logical decisions and gradually expanded my kingdom over the whole map, defeating the other factions. I've done this multiple times and reached the end-game.

5) The Mods

The Warband modding community offers a huge amount of different mods and addons. You can find various things from HD texture packs to weapon and armor packs. There are also mods who do a full makeover of the game, adding new quests, types of troops, new factions, a whole different map, different lords and some new systems which increase the political and economical experience. There are even Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings themed ones! The mods are definitely one of the things that keep you playing without getting boring or repetitive fast.

If you want to try some mods, I definitely recommend mods like Prophesy of Pendor or Anno Domini 1257.

These are almost all of the reasons summed up on why Mount & Blade: Warband is one of my favorite games of all time. Surely some of you have spent a decent amount of time on this game and can agree with me on some points. It was one of my most played games and I still jump back on it when I want to again.

Share your thoughts!

@cheaky