Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord – War Sails Preview and Impressions – Naval Dominance

Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord is taking a major step forward as it ages into the back half of the decade with the release of its expansion, War Sails. The action strategy game is finally adding naval combat in this expansion, and ahead of its release, I got to spend some time hearing about it from developer TaleWorlds Entertainment.

I also got to speak with a couple members of the development team, senior producer Falk Engel and design lead Gökçen Karaağaç, all about this expansion and how it changes Mount and Blade: Bannerlord II, and why TaleWorlds Entertainment is calling this its "biggest expansion ever."

I want to start by saying I'm very new to strategy games. I've previously avoided them because whenever I saw gameplay clips, no matter which specific strategy game it was, it all seemed like it moved too slowly for me. I was also concerned with not being able to really grasp the mechanics, and was overall concerned that I would just not be very good at the game.

But at the same time, I also knew these concerns were holding me back from an entire genre of video games I knew I might seriously enjoy, particularly when it comes to the strategy games that integrate historical elements into their gameplay. Wanting and willing to finally overcome those concerns is what drove me to Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord - War Sails, and after spending some time with the game, I can confidently say: I was right to be concerned, I am not very good at these games.

Thankfully, I was also wrong to be concerned, because I'm still having a great time. It helps that this feels like a fresh start, not just for me, but for Bannerlord as well. With the release of War Sails, old saves are getting wiped, and it's a fresh new Caladria to explore on land and on sea.

"Mount and Blade has always been about freedom, it's meant to be a blank slate for you to write your own stories," as TaleWorlds Entertainment's Antonio Santo said in the opening to the studio's presentation ahead of release. You can't get more 'blank slate' than new saves.

It feels understandable, then, that the cost of this expansion, which is $24.99 USD at regular price (currently $22.49 with its introductory 10% off sale), is half the price of the base game (when the base game isn't on sale like it is right now for half-price, which means with the base game at $24.99 and War Sails at $22.49, you get both for the price of Bannerlord not on sale).

I won't be going into detail about the War Sails storyline, purely to avoid spoilers and also because I'm not through all of it. What I can say is that while it does take a bit to get going since you need to scale your naval capabilities and party size to really get a feel for it, I now can't imagine playing Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord without War Sails and without naval combat. In a lot of ways, it really does feel like a whole new arm of the game has been added, and can now be improved upon.

Which is to say, there's incredible potential here, and while War Sails perhaps doesn't deliver on everything you'd want right away with the addition of naval combat, it sets a strong foundation for what could be next.

For one thing, the sailing is wonderfully intricate and fun to try to master. Mastering maneuverability with your own ship, and especially with a whole fleet of ships, creates an incredible spectacle in naval battles. Even if most of my battles did devolve into smash-and-board skirmishes mostly, the wonderful backdrops and learning how to navigate the conditions, paired with a strong soundtrack, strike at the core of what Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord does best.

And the battles where I employed more strategy than just a head-on assault were all the more rewarding because of how challenging it was to work against the wind and stormy conditions. Large-scale battles are where Mount and Blade is at its best, and that's true for its land battles, and now, naval battles.

Of course, combat isn't the only area of Mount and Blade that was changed with the addition of naval combat. In his presentation about War Sails, senior producer Falk Engel said, "Even before the full release of the main title, we started receiving many community requests for a naval expansion. By the time we had finished our work on the core game, it was clear that this type of content would be one of the best additions that we could make. Why? Because the addition of the naval dimension allows us to build upon the wide range of gameplay and content, without taking from what people already know and love."

Which is exactly what TaleWorlds Entertainment did, as the naval expansion not only introduced naval combat, but also changes to the game's economy, to trading, to the balance of importance between cities. Coastal cities like Chaikand are now even more important as a hub for trade. You even get a new port area you can walk around that's tuned to each nation.

Speaking of nations, War Sails also brings the Nords back into the equation, an inclusion that design lead Gökçen Karaağaç told me was introduced partly for nostalgia, partly because they were "easy to justify" introducing. "Oh, they were always up there, and now they've started to pick up their ships and come here," he said in our interview.

The Nords, an entire new area to explore, new campaigns, and an entire new frontier of combat are altogether a sizeable addition to Mount and Blade, though they're by no means perfect. Even with TaleWorlds Entertainment putting out several patches since launch, the odd bug feels bound to happen. Thankfully, it's not been anything too severe, like issues with the game crashing on me consistently; it's been more firmly in the funny, sometimes ruinous, freezes and hitches that, as I said, aren't too bad, but are consistent enough that I expect them.

Of course, they hurt far more when you are, as I did, going against the advice Karaağaç provided, which was "do not sail a ship that you can't afford to lose." The stakes are already high enough with how much it means to lose a ship, or multiple ships, in a battle, and especially because most engagements, once you've boarded an enemy ship, can result in unwinnable situations if you're not careful with how you move across the deck of your ship. Losing your ship and the battle because of an untimely freeze doesn't feel great, no matter how you slice it.

But bugs can be patched, and at least in this case, they don't ruin the entire experience. War Sails is a more than solid expansion for Mount and Blade, laying an excellent foundation for future evolutions that I feel is particularly strong because of how welcoming it is to strategy-game newcomers. Hopefully, now, it won't be another five years before the next major expansion.

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