Mount & Blade

I bought Mount & Blade recently, when it was the Steam weekend deal.

I had played it several times before, in various stages of development.  Mount & Blade has a very interesting development story, one I think that more people should use.  Technically it’s one long open beta, but it didn’t feel like it most of the time.  There was a demo that anyone could play, it limited your levelling up to the sixth level.  If you liked it and wanted to support the developers you could buy it then and there.  This guaranteed you a copy of the final product, and also unlocked the higher levels for this and future demos.  The game went through a lot of changes from start to finish, features created, played and commented on.  Straight away the horse-riding and -fighting impressed me.  There have been several attempts at adding horses to a game over the years, but none have really lived up to the expectations.  The only other game to impress me was Gun on the Gamecube. (it was available on other formats but I only played it on the GC.)  Oblivion’s looked great, but didn’t move very convincingly, spinning around on the spot far too much.  Plus there was no mounted combat (although there is a mod. that adds it).  The horses in M&B lean when you turn, some having bigger turning circles than others, and different horses capable of different speeds.

The fighting system, whilst not the prettiest, or most flowing, is one of the most realistic I have used.  Left clicking to ready a swing, then let go to carry it out, pointing the mouse in various directions changes from side-swings, to stabs and chops.  The other impressive feature is the battle system.  While riding from place to place you can either be attacked by or attack other parties.  From a small band of looters right up to a 100+ army.  You can hire troops and train them, they level up following a specific levelling tree.  For example, if you go to a Nord village and recruit anyone willing to join your party, they will start off as Nord Recruits.  After gaining experience you can choose which way they level up, the two choices for Nord recruits being Footman (melee fighter) and Huntsman (ranged fighter).  Different races have different upgrade paths, all except the Nords having five levels (Nords have six).  When you start a battle you can only have a certain amount of troops at the same time, then once people start dying the rest can come as reinforcements.  There are apparently mods to increase the amount of troops allowed in a single battle, but I have yet to try these, I might something write up when I’ve had a play around.

What follows are screenshots and comments explaining how a typical battle unfolds.

Here is the character I created for this game, his name is Farnholt and he is a Khergit. (yes, I know it’s inaccurate) The Khergit specialise in horses, and I chose to further specialise my group by only upgrading to the ranged classes. Here is a good shot of them from a previous battle:

Having seen a varying number of wins and losses, including losing my whole band and being captured by bandits myself (I later found the group responsible and freed those who were still alive.), we were finally in a position to take on a force of comparable size.  I had seen a large group of Steppe bandits roaming near one of the big cities, and decided they were the perfect target.  Steppe bandits are found in the Khergit’s land, they also ride horses and can be quite a pain for smaller groups.

My group are in the middle, top left of Halmar, and we have a total of 28 troops (including myself), at a variety of levels.  Tribesmen, Skirmishers, Horsemen, Horse Archers and one or two Veteran Horse Archers.  To the left are the Steppe bandits, they have 24.  A Steppe bandit can beat a Tribesman one-on-one, so it’s a reasonably even match.  (But not too even.  )  The marks on the ground are tracks.  If you or one of your party has the tracking skill you see marks left by the various groups travelling around, the higher the tracking level, the more detail.  (Such as approximate size and time since they passed.  Red are recent, scaling down to blue before disappearing.)

After engaging them on the map screen, the leader of the group appears.  Depending on who you meet, you have different conversation options.  Next you are given the option of either sending in your troops without you, joining in, or retreating.  If you decide not to fight then you are just given a casualty report.  We charge in.

The two sides start a reasonable distance away, giving you a chance to arrange your forces.  One of my other characters had a lot of archers, so I would setup two lines with some infantry in front in case anyone got close.  Since my band are almost all on horseback, I just leave them to it.  Here are the Steppe bandits charging our way:

We clash, everyone splits off to find a target, sometimes a battle can end up separating into two or more sections.  I have got a bow, two lots of arrows and a two-handed axe, which is wielded with one hand since I’m on horseback.  I start off with the bow, firing at anyone I thought I could hit.  (My men nicknamed me ‘Poor Shot’ due to the unnerving amount of headshots I somehow managed to hit my allies with… )
The announcements on the left let you know how the battle is going, without having to keep an eye on every soldier.  They are colour-coded for quick recognition, Green mean your men have knocked out or killed an enemy, Yellow mean one of your soldiers was knocked unconcious (not too bad as long as you win) and Red for one of your soldiers dying.

In this shot, you can see the enemy in front aiming with a bow, however he can’t get round far enough to point it at me.  You can only fire an arrow on your left hand side (plus a little to the right at the front), another of this games realistic touches.

The reticule starts out big, then gets smaller as you notch the bow, if you hold on for too long it starts growing again, simulating your arm getting tired.

I have now run out of arrows, and so have switched to my axe.  The arrow signifies what kind of swing I’ll do if I click the mouse now, this one would result in a swing from left to right.

As you take and dish out damage, blood appears.  Blood on the body means that person has been hit, blood on the hands mean they have been doing the hitting.

Things getting close usually has bad results, very little tactics, just swing.  Ooh, nice blade.

My horse!  Horses take damage as well, this can be a good tactic (if a little cruel), leaving soldiers stranded or evening the score if you are not on horseback.  You can also kill the rider without injuring the horse, this results in lots of horses riding around aimlessley, they can then be climbed on.

I’m not horseless for long though, the battle is over.  If you’ve won then you stay on the battlefield a little longer, your troops shouting and cheering, punching the air.

The game tracks all arrows and leaves them where they hit, a lot end up in the ground.  Having a lot of archers in a battle can have some funny, if a little scary, results:

Mount & Blade certainly isn’t everyones cup of tea.  A lot of people are put off by the graphics, some because of the lack of direction.  I can understand these views.  But I like M&B, mostly because of the amazing battles that can result.  It has quite a few different paths you can take, fighting for one of the sides, either as a mercenary or a pledged member and fighting in tournaments.  But you do have to do the leg work yourself, as there is no real story.

I’ll just say what I always say in these situations, Try the Demo.

Click the images for a more detailed picture.

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