>First time played
>Start in Kingdom of Nords because vikings are cool
>Finish starting quests
>Start exploring the world
>Notice a group of 15 bandits on horseback
>Ohshit.jpg
>Run for my life but is cornered by a group of 5 other bandits coming in from the opposite direction
>Me and the 4 men that I recruited during initial quests try to stand our ground
>Get ♥♥♥♥ed
>Humiliated and dragged around until I escape
>I start my journey all over
>I finish quests given to me by the vassal lords, win tournaments, hone my skills, and finally become a vassal myself to the Nord King
>However I still remember the deaths of my 4 companions and my thirst for revenge grew stronger each second
>I make an army of over 30 highly trained hurcarls, as well as some archers, and begin my hunt for those bandits that wronged me long ago
>Spot my first group of bandits, only 15 strong and on foot
>Go in for the kill
>They run away from me into the hostile neighboring territory of the Kingdom of Swadia
>I hesitate at first, but then i remember the horrid things done to me at the hands of those bandit ♥♥♥♥ers
>The steep terrain of the area slowed me down considerably
>It was night but I was on their heels
>Suddenly 2 Swadian bands appear out of the dark, right in front of me
>Each 100+ men strong
>The lord that reaches me first demands my surrender
>I have no choice but to fight
>I set my huscarls to follow me into a charge while the archers stay behind to provide supressive fire
>Steel clashing on steel and the screams of the dying can be heard all around
>Though I am battered and i have lost over 2/3rds of my army, i manage to defeat the Swadian scum
>Suddenly, i notice something in the corner of my screen
>"A new wave of enemies has arrived"
>Ohshit.jpg 2.0
>Suddenly, a wave of arrows showers down on my forces from the top of a hill as fresh enemy infantry charge down
>We try to stand our ground
>Get ♥♥♥♥ed 2.0
>Dragged and humiliated until 4 men and I escape
>Begin to head back to the lands of the Nords
>Get ambushed by a band of 15 bandits on horseback
>Ohshit.jpg 3.0
>Me and my 4 men try to hold out
>get ♥♥♥♥ed 3.0
>10/10 would get ♥♥♥♥ed, dragged, and humiliated again

How it went
- Bought game and 10:15 AM
- Played for a while, was thouroughly impressed
- I wake up from what seems like a dream at 4 AM the next morning
- Still made hardly any progress

Legitimately one of, if not the best games on Steam

14/10, would play again, and have, for ~220 more hours.

Six years later, still playing with mods, still ppl drinks from my skull.

Its almost harvesting season... 10/10

They razed my village,
I razed their kingdom.

>buy game
>get info
>"playing as a female peasant is the hardest way to start the game"
>k
>play as female peasant
>name her Lady Troublesome
>lose to bandits many times
>know the pain of humiliating defeat
>escape, and start my quests anew
>seek to be a vassal of the swadian king
>he says no, they will think he has been bewitched
>k
>fight many more battles, and win
>seek to be a vassal of the nords
>he says yes, even gives me a fief
>"i am a nord now"
>go to war with swadia
>destroy the swadian king's forces at his last hold
>he knows no trouble except for the lady for which it is named
>experience true victory, crush the man who crushed my dream
>100 trust with kingdom of nords
>crush the vaegirs, very troublesome indeed
>my warband loses morale as the days go by, they need war
>my warband runs on war
>rhodoks want some trouble
>we end up losing much land due to traitors and defectors
>lady troublesome is angered
>the war is over
>our faction is splintered
>my hope wavers
>"no, i cannot abandon ragnar, for he never abandoned me"
>lady troublesome stands with her liege even if the other lords will not
>war starts up again, it feels like ages since the last one
>sarranids starting some ♥♥♥♥
>"♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sand people"
>crush the sarranids, they are too squishy to stand up to a wave of troublesome
>war is over, too soon
>war starts up again, it feels like ages since the last one
>khergits talkin some mad ♥♥♥♥
>crush the khergit khanate
>"khan you feel it"
>war is over
>rhodoks attack one of our caravans
>anger combines with troublesome
>war, but i am more than ready
>begin by uniting the nordic homeland
>re-unite the vaegirdom
>take back suno and praven, and then the rest of swadia
>crush the resistance in the desertlands
>i am king ragnars champion
>sweep the curtain in front of the rhodok mountains
>we own everything except the rhodok homelands
>capture every rhodok lord i can get my hands on
>lock them up in a dungeon
>deny their ransom, so i have less lords to fight
>lose honor
>i do not need honor
>i seek victory
>whittle down their defenses
>the last town is yalen, then i will have won
>war ends as soon as i am at the gates of yalen
>"you have known trouble, but you will soon know troublesome"
>build and train my forces
>nords, always nords
>wait outside of yalen for days at a time
>waiting for war
>i am war

as of yet, war has not come, but when she does, she will bring lady troublesome with her
10/10 would kill countless men again

M&B: Warband is a great game. I remember playing the first M&B and falling in love. I was invested in my army more than I ever was in any other army in any other game. When I talk about this game, I always mention that one time when one of my elite bodyguards beautifully saved my life during a siege, but then when I turned to him to say thank you, an arrow pierced his head ... it was dramatic and I loved it! http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=440357386 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=731820796 Unlocked all achievements!

Let's be honest guys, if this game was a girl, she would have a beard, a unibrow, a crooked nose and uneven teeth. But, if you kiss her with your eyes closed, it will be one of the best experiences ever, especially if she treats you like a king too. What? I can't be the only one that did this!

After that much totally unneeded information, let's talk about Warband. It's the standalone expansion of 2008 game Mount and Blade. It follows the same principles, you are in Calradia and you are free to do whatever you want, but there are several new twists like new nations and an expanded map.

While the game is not gonna score that high due to certain drawbacks, it has certain elements that make it enjoyable and addicting. If you are into RPGs, you will definitely spend more than 100 hours to it. Let's elaborate.

When it comes to graphics and soundtrack, the game looks like it was released 10 years ago. Models have low polygon counts and structures have low resolution. Battlefields look a lot better (although repetitive), but they are nothing impressive like Skyrim's landscapes. Even Pokemon GO on a 3MP camera looks better. As for the music, it's so shallow that sometimes it might feel completely out of synch with the game's theme. It has a couple nice moments like swords glowing, but that requires an extremely strong pc that not anyone has or can afford.

Despite its presentation failure, the gameplay is top-notch stuff. Each and every one of its aspects is complex to a degree, and all together form a very complicated and interesting gameplay. For example, other weapons thrust, others swing, others deal unbalanced damage, others shatter shields easier, or a combination of them all. The direction you block or try to strike an enemy matters, as you can deal huge damage to an enemy that blocks attacks from his e.g. right if you strike from the left or his head. Also, the part of the weapon you attack with matters since, let's say, an axe will deal more damage if you strike an enemy with its blade rather its hilt, etc. That's something you don't really see in most games, many developers tend to overlook this small, immersive detail. That basically means you have a steep learning curve to deal with, and you need to master it in order to play properly and have fun.

Story-wise, you have absolute freedom. After a brief tutorial, you are thrown in a world where 6 factions duke it out for supremacy. You can join them, fight for the highest bidder as a mercenary, make your name as an arena fighter, become a merchant, ambush caravans as a bandit, become a king of your own faction and many more. Nothing constraints you, it's only you versus the world. On the downside, quests don't add any significant amount of depth and are repetitive, and the new romance quests, despite having interesting political consequences, are all about visiting ladies and finding the best poems to sing to woo them. Unless you take the quick way and abduct them. Easy peasy.

And of course, you got the online feature. Truth is, I had tremendous fun with it. There are several modes like deathmatch, siege (my favourite) etc where you have to work with your teammates to achieve your goals. It's something really addicting knowing that you are shooting arrows to tens of enemies on the foot of your castle with other players and then you rush to the breach to defend it. It's so good a feeling, you will not get enough of it. Killing gives you gold to buy better equipment counterstrike-style, and it's guaranteed you will become more resilient to arrows and slashes. On the downside, there are some mysterious unbalanced issues, like some slashes not actually hitting the enemy players, some latency that will ruin how you feel your character hitting or being hit and certain maps have exploitable spots where an archer for example, can slaughter entire hordes of players while being safe for quite a while.

For a small game by a small company, M&B:W has survived a lot more time than flashier, big name studio games with bigger budget. It's the best example that sometimes, the spirit of a small game can beat money. It's worth buying and i recommend it hands-down.

Just remember to see your family and go out a bit after you start it, guys. And shower. It's very addicting.


9/10

5/10

7/10

8.5/10

Mount & Blade: Warband is an incredibly addicting and absorbing medieval game.There's no set path or goal except for that which you make yourself, allowing one to advance through the game perpetually hunting and killing bandits as the head of a ruthless body of sellswords, or to start your own nation and proceed to announce war on everyone because you see it fit. The combat is exciting to partake in, notably when you get to larger battles with more units on the ground. In my opinion it's worth the full price.

ps if you go into a tournament and get a jousting stage, keep calm and realize that this might take a long time

-Entered a tournament for the first time because why not
-Doing well, my character wasn't very good and I was still new to the combat but still could win a one on one pretty easily against the AI
-My ranged attacks were terribly innacurate at the time, had to get right next to anyone to hit anything (especially on horseback)
-Manage to trap a guy against the wall, others join in attacking me or him
-Soon half the tournament participants packed into one corner shooting each other and swinging wildly with swords
-Chaos ensues
-Manage to survive and be the last man standing
-Tournament not over yet, final round
-Me vs some random guy
-Both on horseback with lances
-I had never used a lance before
-IhavenoideawhatI'mdoing
-AI doesn't really know how to use it either, doesn't realize it does 0-1 damage from point blank range
-Chasing each other around the arena trying to hit each other, even if we do line up for a jousting situation it either gets blocked by a shield, misses, or gets messed up and does little or no damage
-Cue Benny Hill theme
-~10 minutes of chasing each other around until I finally figure out how to use it
-Kill him in two hits after that
10/10 would chase a dude around in circles for 10 minutes again

Seriously though, it's a great game. Don't be turned off by the older graphics, it's a ridiculous amount of fun, and there's so many different ways to play between the DLC, mods, and the base game itself.

It looks like a low budget Playstation 2 game, the game engine is janky as hell, the combat is kind of awkward and the shooting is pretty much luck based at distance but this is still one of the most fun times you can have in a multiplayer game on Steam. The 100+ player battles are something else.
The Napoleonic Wars DLC is reason enough to pick this game up, it's unintentionally hilarious (i think) and there's nothing else quite like it out there.
I love this game.

Also i have over 100 hours played and i am yet to touch the single player, that has to be some kind of achievement.