Greetings Warriors of Calradia! 

The v1.3.0 base game update is now available in Public Beta.

This update brings a wide range of improvements across the game, from new features to refined gameplay systems and technical upgrades - all aimed at making your time in Calradia more engaging and rewarding.

Because this is a Beta, please note that:

• Save game compatibility is not guaranteed.

• You may encounter instability, crashes, or unfinished elements as we continue development.

This phase aims to stress-test the update at scale, gather performance data, and make sure everything is solid when v1.3 launches in full.

If you’d prefer to wait for the most polished version, stick to the Live branch and jump into v1.3 with the launch of War Sails. But if you’d like to be part of the journey, opt into the Beta branch via the Steam Betas system today and tell us what’s working - and what still needs work.

Thank you for sailing with us on this voyage!

Before jumping into the full patch notes, here's a quick recap of the many features being introduced.

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Art

Changes

• Added a new main menu video for each culture - 6 in total.

• Added 4 new armor pieces: Blackened Boots, Blackened Armor, Blackened Cape, and Blackened Hood. These have a high stealth factor.

• Added 4 new shields: Sturgian - Druzhinnik Kite Shield, Reinforced Leaf-Point Kite Shield, Leaf-Point Kite Shield; and Vlandian - Angular Kite Shield.

• Added 6 new sword scabbards for existing blades.

• Scene Atmospheres

  • We moved away from an automated interpolation of atmospheres based on time of day and instead introduced a greater range of custom environments that are tailored to cover specific times.

  • We further fine-tuned atmosphere values in general and improved our skybox textures.

• Added and improved existing global illumination for various towns, castles, and keeps.

Fixes

• Minor fixes (including siege-related) across town, castle, and tavern scenes.

• Minor clipping fixes for the Rural Headdress and Palatine Guard Helmet.

• Minor fixes for Battania helmets.

• Fixed a visual issue with the Arbalest crossbow handle texture.

• Fixed a bug that allowed players to leave the training field mounted area on horseback.

Animations

Changes

• Improved idle animations for guards.

• Corrected party rotation visuals on the campaign map — parties in map events now face their opposing leader rather than the midpoint of the event.

• Adjusted beggars’ animation speeds for smoother movement.

Fixes

• Fixed a bug that caused some parties to play a running animation while stationary on the campaign map.

• Fixed an issue where the battle animation would not play for a party raiding a village during a raid.

• Fixed a bug where sitting beggars would not turn to face others while speaking.

• Fixed a bug where a character seated on a throne could slide out of position when a conversation began.

• Fixed a bug that caused idle animation issues for female companions in civilian scenes.

• Fixed an animation bug that caused the barmaid to get stuck in the beer-pouring animation.

• Fixed a bug that caused NPCs to sit or float in mid-air in civilian scenes.

Campaign Map

• Fixed specular issues affecting the appearance of settlements on the world map.

Audio

Changes

• Game music now ducks when the player gets near town musicians.

• A new music track & sound set for stealth missions.

• A new sound set for “The Retreat” ending.

• New sound sets for Settlement Build, Recruit and Kingdom Decisions panels.

• A new ambient sound set for Slow Motion/Order mode.

• A new sound set for Formation Targeting.

• A new sound for the Banner Bearer's movement.

• A new sound for fast movement of the Campaign camera.

• A new sound for hideout battles and raids on the Campaign map.

• A new sound set for weather events on the Campaign map.

• Added ambient village scene sounds to scenes that were missing them.

• Optimized the footsteps to free up audio resources in crowded situations.

• Balanced the in-game UI notification volumes.

• Revised the bodyfall physics sounds.

• Reworked the campaign ambients to have more consistency.

• Improved the sound of campaign armies.

• In-combat AI yelling behavior now reacts to close engagement and chasing situations.

• The arena audience now better reacts to fights.

Fixes

• Fixed a bug that caused the background music to stop when switching culture in the Character Creation screen.

• Fixed a bug that caused some combat music to have the wrong transitions and mood jumps.

• Fixed a bug that caused order and dialogue voiceovers to play on the Loading screen.

• Fixed a bug that prevented the in-game Master Volume setting from impacting the intro sound.

• Fixed a bug that caused the character’s voice type to reset every time the Character Creation screen was opened.

• Fixed a bug that caused the wrong voice to be assigned to the character on the Character Creation screen.

UI

Changes

• Implemented a new heir selection popup. The new popup presents information in a clearer, more visual format similar to the marriage popup, and shows the player’s relation to each candidate.

• Improved the town management popup:

  • Pressing outside the Reserve popup now cancels instead of confirming.

  • Fixed a bug that caused the “Add to queue/Remove from queue” button to always display as “+”.

  • Added tooltips to the “Add/Remove” and “Set as active” buttons.

  • You can now reorder items on the right‑side queue via drag‑and‑drop, or click to manage an item directly.

  • Fixed a bug that caused minor visual flaws.

• Added a visual for the banner‑bearer count on Order of Battle formation cards.

• Added controller hotkeys to the Order of Battle screen.

• Added “Culture” to hero tooltips in the Manage Town menu.

• Added a tooltip to the Party Troop Wage icon.

• Added additional warning menus for “Force Recruit” and “Force Goods” hostile actions to indicate that the action may cause war.

• Added a tooltip warning of possible death when accepting corporal punishment.

• Added an influence gain message to the log when donating prisoners.

• In a hero's encyclopedia page, the friends/enemies lists have been shortened to 3 rows, and the overflow is now displayed via a tooltip.

• The message log is now temporarily hidden (instead of cleared) when opening fullscreen menus, entering Photo Mode, or starting a conversation.

• Made several improvements to the “Upgrade Troops” popup regarding horse requirements.

• Disabled saves are now also selectable in the “Saved Campaigns” screen (they cannot be loaded).

• Disabled quicksave‑related options when the save limit is reached and added a tooltip explaining why. Previously, a non‑specific error would appear.

• In Custom Battle, the Siege Engine selection popup can now be exited without making a selection.

• Clarified “Party Wage/Party Expenses” texts and refined clan tier bonus descriptions on the Clan screen.

• Time now resumes to its previous state after a marriage offer is closed.

• Made troop tiers more visible on the Manage Troops screen before hideout battles.

• Moved the pregnancy icon on the Clan screen to be more visible.

• Updated journal quest highlighting: clicking a quest now hides its highlight, while updated/new stages remain highlighted until clicked a second time.

• Items plundered during raids are now grouped before being displayed.

• Restructured the troop list in the in‑game encyclopedia into two main groups: Culture (regular faction troops) and Outlaw (bandits).

• Improved encyclopedia search to include results with diacritics.

• The “Transfer All” button when trading with a settlement now transfers goods only up to the settlement’s gold; pressing it again transfers the remaining goods.

• The “Toggle Camera Follow Mode” button no longer appears in Photo Mode when visiting scenes like the Tavern.

• Made unavailable items clearer to distinguish in the Crafting → Refine window.

Fixes

• Fixed a bug that caused the “Undo/Redo” and “Reset/Reset All” buttons to not remember history values properly during character creation.

• Fixed a bug in the Inventory screen that could cause prisoner conformities to reset when moved to Discard and back.

• Fixed a bug in the Lord’s Hall fight where the “Done” button remained grayed out when the player did not have enough troops.

• Fixed a bug where links that wrapped to a new line in a text box would lose their proper styling.

• Fixed a bug that caused an old alley leader’s thumbnail to remain in the settlement menu bar after changing the leader.

• Fixed a bug where the banner sigil was not displayed on shields in the Clan screen.

• Fixed a bug where pausing the game with an active tutorial caused the tutorial to appear in front of the pause menu.

• Fixed a bug that caused inconsistencies between militia/garrison information displayed in the Encyclopedia and in hover tooltips.

• Fixed a bug that prevented the Encyclopedia from responding to gamepad navigation.

• Fixed a bug that caused the “Kingdom has been destroyed” cutscene to display the wrong kingdom name.

• Fixed a bug where the “Location” text in the Kingdom screen’s Armies tab displayed the current “Behavior” instead.

• Fixed a bug that showed the wrong cutscene when the main hero executed their own sibling.

• Fixed a bug in the Character Developer screen where a perk selection popup would not close when changing characters, instead moving to an incorrect position.

• Fixed a bug that caused the troop percentage sliders to behave unpredictably in the Custom Battle menu.

• Fixed a bug where opening the Kingdom screen via circle notifications caused it to remain permanently enabled.

• Fixed a bug that caused no information to be shown when a raid ended because the village’s bound settlement joined the player’s kingdom.

• Fixed a bug where the mouse cursor could trigger tooltips even when off-screen.

• Fixed a bug that made the banner button in the Clan screen unclickable if a tutorial was active.

• Fixed a bug in the Character Developer screen where “Unspent attribute points: 0” text was invisible.

• Fixed a bug that caused banner effects to display twice in banner item tooltips.

• Fixed a bug in the Inventory screen where horse weights were incorrectly included in the left roster’s capacity.

• Fixed a bug where pressing in-cart army icons in the Army Management screen caused the X button state to change incorrectly.

• Fixed a bug that caused alternative usage buttons in Inventory screen tooltips to appear unselected after selection.

• Fixed a bug in the Kingdom screen’s Fiefs panel where a floating button with no text appeared when no fiefs were selected.

• Edited the layout of certain screens and adjusted the orientation of some non-Latin alphabets to resolve alignment issues.

• Fixed a bug that caused the prisoner donation tooltip to display repeatedly above a settlement.

• Fixed a bug that caused banner inconsistencies in certain cases for settlements and mobile parties.

• Fixed a bug that allowed kingdom decisions to be viewed when they should be disabled.

• Fixed a bug that prevented the “Party Priority Change” dropdown in the Clan → Parties screen from being enabled.

• Fixed a bug that caused highlights to be missing on recently completed quests.

• Fixed a bug that caused the “Manage Army” button to display inconsistently between the map and Kingdom screens.

• Fixed a bug that made the Members list slider in the Kingdom screen’s Clans tab unclickable.

• Fixed a bug that caused the party speed tooltip to display incorrect values.

• Fixed a bug where, if the player was not the leader of an ongoing siege and the leader’s party left, another party could appear twice in the overlay menu.

• Fixed a bug that caused certain tooltips to overflow incorrectly into two lines.

• Fixed a bug that caused parties to display incorrectly in the army overlay after creating an army.

• Fixed a bug that caused individual army members to display inconsistent tooltip behaviors.

• Fixed a bug where neutral troops appeared as attackers in the scoreboard during missions.

• Fixed a bug in the Order of Battle screen where pressing Esc while dragging a hero could make the hero disappear.

• Fixed a bug in the Order of Battle screen that prevented selected formations from being deselected when pressing Esc.

• Fixed a bug that caused dialogue nameplates to misalign in ultrawide displays.

• Fixed a bug that caused tooltips to appear in incorrect positions on ultrawide screens.

• Fixed a bug where “Press to do 5/All” shortcuts in party/inventory item tooltips appeared invisible.

• Fixed a bug in New Game/Campaign Options where some settings appeared available when they should be unavailable, and vice versa.

• Fixed a bug that prevented raider parties in the tutorial from being tracked correctly.

• Fixed a bug that prevented Encyclopedia search results from appearing when using an on-screen keyboard (Steam Big Picture, consoles, etc.).

• Fixed a bug that prevented a notification banner from appearing when a new governor assigned by the player arrived.

• Fixed a bug where zooming the camera with a controller immediately before entering a settlement broke focus.

• Fixed a bug that prevented marriage notifications from appearing when a female family member married.

• Fixed a bug that caused the workshop purchase tooltip to be misleading, showing only the lack of funds as a reason but failing to mention the workshop limit.

• Fixed a bug that caused siege engine tooltips to remain on screen if the game was paused.

• Fixed a bug that prevented the “Charge to the Gate” order icon from appearing during sieges.

• Fixed a bug that displayed nobles in the village UI even after they had left.

• Fixed a bug that caused on-screen notifications to persist with broken text when exiting a mission during an active notification.

Stealth & Disguise

• Implemented the stealth system - used in prison breaks (from a dungeon) and hideouts.

  • Enemies detect the player through sight and sound, reacting to movement, noise, bodies, or their alarmed allies.

  • Their vision is influenced by 

    • elevation — enemies see more clearly when looking down, but struggle to spot movement above them.

    • light exposure — shadows and night offer concealment while areas lit by torches make you stand out.

  • Natural hiding spots such as tall grass and dark corners provide concealment; crouching reduces visibility further.

  • Enemy alertness states: Neutral → Cautious → Searching → Fully Alarmed.

  • Added distraction mechanics with thrown objects and noise-making; some enemies resist being diverted.

  • Stealth attacks deal bonus damage to unaware targets with certain weapons allowing crouched melee and ranged strikes.

  • Players can drag bodies to conceal them and prevent raising alarms.

  • Your roguery skill will now also impact the damage dealt via stealth attacks as well as how fast you move and the noise you make while crouched.

  • Reworked the bandit hideout scenes and mission to accommodate stealth gameplay.

    • Instead of diving straight into the fight, you’ll need to clear out sentry camps surrounding the main hideout first. Once you’ve eliminated these outer threats, you’ll have the option to call for an all-out assault on the main camp, leading to the final boss fight.

  • Reworked dungeons and the prison break mission to accommodate stealth gameplay.

    • Breaking someone out won’t be as simple as waltzing in and cutting their shackles — you’ll now need to sneak your way in, locate the prisoner’s cell, and then escort them out without raising suspicion. You can’t fight your way in, but once you reach the cell, guards will start to sense that something is off and begin patrolling. At that point, you’ll have to decide—do you attempt a stealthy escape, or fight your way out?

    • 6 new dungeon scenes have been added designed for stealth gameplay.

  • Implemented a third equipment layout which will be utilized in stealth missions.

    • Certain armor pieces now modify your visibility and audibility, offering bonuses for stealth-oriented gear. This is indicated with a stealth bonus entry on the item tooltip.

    • Selected daggers now have an alternate backstabbing attack.

    • Daggers, certain swords, short bows, composite bows, light crossbows, and select throwing weapons will be usable in stealth missions.

      • The range of available weapons remains subject to change.

    • Added Bag of Rocks for creating distractions and diverting enemy attention.

• Implemented the disguise system - used when sneaking into hostile towns.

  • The first infiltration of a town requires setting up a contact inside the settlement. The town mission, however, now has increased guard presence and surveillance, requiring you to disguise yourself and find the contact person within the mission.

  • Disguise relies on inconspicuity — suspicious actions such as running, drawing weapons, or hiding will raise guard suspicion. High suspicion triggers guard investigation. If you break line of sight, they eventually return to their posts.

  • Being identified blows your cover, placing all guards on full alert and initiating pursuit. Escape requires leaving the settlement and capture results in imprisonment.

  • If you establish a contact successfully, you can then explore the town in disguise, including in any future entries.

  • If you prefer the campaign menu, you may still use the skill roll option to sneak into the settlement each time — but only after you’ve established a contact there.

• Implemented a tutorial quest for stealth that is added at the end of the campaign tutorial (also when skipping).

• Added a new difficulty option for stealth and disguise.

  • The selected difficulty option (normal, veteran, challenging) affects the sight and hearing abilities of enemies in both gameplays.

Battles and Sieges

• Introduced a new ranged weapon with a high force of impact and great range - Slings. 

  • They are used with a single hand, and can be used alongside shields.

  • 3 different types and ammos were added:

    • Wool, Braided and Reinforced Slings

    • Stone, Chiseled and Lead Sling Bullets

  • Changed the "Throwing Competitions" perk to "Slinging Competitions” which now enables head armor penetration with sling weapons (personal effect). It also gives +1 militia recruitment in the governed settlement (governor effect).

  • Sling weapons were given to Looters, Mountain Bandits, Desert Bandits, Empire, Aserai, Battania Villagers, and Hidden Hand Troops.

  • Reduced the throwing stone range to a smaller value than slings.

• Added morale & retreat to battle & siege simulations.

  • Lord parties now lose morale after losing rounds in simulations when they suffer heavier casualties than their opponents.

  • When a side loses too many rounds in a simulation, it may attempt to retreat. During the retreat phase, the opponent continues to strike for four additional rounds. If the retreat succeeds, the side escapes the battle with its remaining troops.

  • When a side’s morale reaches 0, it automatically loses the battle.

  • Parties above 50 morale are less likely to take casualities, while parties below 50 morale are less likely to inflict casualties.

  • This allows a small party of elite troops to stand against a numerous but less trained force and come out on top if their party morale was high. Players (and AI) can thus preserve their high tier troops by keeping their party morale up.

  • Parties without a leader (such as looters and other bandits) do not retreat to avoid having to hunt them down repeteadly.

• Campaign/Sandbox

  • Removed the defender advantage factor from siege battles. Troop count ratios for attackers and defenders now reflect only the actual party troop counts on the campaign map. Previously, defenders could spawn up to 1.5x more troops than attackers in equal-troop sieges.

  • Improved besieger AI to ensure at least one siege tower and one ram are built, with additional siege engines constructed as needed.

  • Increased the Devastate and Show Mercy influence costs in the post-siege menu to prevent them from being unrealistically low.

  • The player now gets kicked out of the siege if they choose not to participate in the parent army’s attack.

  • Fixed a bug with siege commitment scores that caused parties to abandon sieges after starting them.

  • Fixed a bug causing caravan parties to leave their settlements while under siege.

  • Fixed a bug that prevented siege engines and weapons from being installed during sieges.

  • Fixed a bug that caused the stash to disappear in a conquered town.

  • Fixed an issue where the player could become siege commander (and take all loot, including the settlement) when joining a siege started by another faction.

  • Fixed the “0-troop” continuing siege bug after a failed sally out. The settlement will now correctly be taken by the besiegers

  • Fixed a bug that caused the player and allied parties in their army to enter a settlement twice after winning a siege.

  • Fixed a bug that allowed the player to enter a settlement instead of joining the battle when there was an active sally out.

  • Fixed incorrect battle reward calculations when a settlement was captured during an active sally out.

  • Fixed a commitment score calculation issue for sieging that caused parties to sometimes abandon the siege after starting it.

  • Fixed a bug that caused incorrect menu text to appear when an enemy army encountered the player during a siege, while the settlement garrison sallied out against the player.

• Siege Mission

  • Improved the aiming behavior of boulder-throwing agents in gatehouses. They now drop boulders through murder holes instead of onto the floor.

  • AI troops now position and aim more effectively when attacking targets such as castle gates and siege machines.

  • Improved AI handling when moving toward enemies outside navigable areas.

  • Improved ladder queue behavior so agents now respond to new orders instead of staying locked in their scripted position.

  • Fixed various movement issues around siege engines and barricades, including ladder-related problems.

  • Fixed an issue where some agents waited too long to climb ladders due to incorrect scripted movement assignments.

  • Fixed an issue causing agents to be teleported into the air when attempting to use siege ladders.

  • Fixed a bug that caused AI troops to stop moving while climbing stairs.

  • Fixed a ladder-climbing behavior issue where troops would climb down one siege tower ladder only to climb up another on the same tower.

  • Agents no longer rotate excessively while attacking siege machines with melee weapons.

  • Fixed a bug that prevented attackers from opening castle gates from the inside in certain situations.

  • Fixed a bug that prevented ranged troops from attacking castle gates when ordered to do so.

  • Fixed an issue where attackers used both side siege engines while attacking via a single line.

  • Fixed a bug that prevented agents from spawning at strategic positions such as castle walls or siege engines.

  • Fixed an issue where attack orders on siege weapons were not registered if the order flag was placed on non-navigable terrain.

  • Fixed a bug where agents falling from siege towers could end up beyond the terrain boundaries.

  • Fixed an issue where defender formations abandoned castle walls when siege tower gates were dropped.

  • Fixed a bug causing agents to spawn outside deployment boundaries.

  • Fixed several AI pathfinding issues.

• Order of Battle Phase

  • Improved the Reset Deployment button so it correctly reverts any arrangement orders given to formations.

  • Improved agent fall prevention near edges during the deployment phase.

  • Improved the boundary projection algorithm so troops are teleported correctly to the nearest deployment boundary when given orders outside it.

  • Fixed a bug that caused player formations to be incorrectly placed when joining an encounter as a third party (e.g., caravan battles).

  • Fixed a bug where the warning icon failed to appear when moving the cursor outside the deployment boundaries.

  • Fixed an issue where a newly created formation’s troops were placed incorrectly when their formation was teleported for the first time.

  • Fixed an issue where formations loaded from a previously saved battle configuration became widened during deployment.

  • Fixed a bug that caused siege weapons on the player’s side to remain unused by troops after auto-deployment.

• Fixed a bug that caused pack mules to immediately flee from battle during caravan missions.

• Fixed an issue where companions could spawn with a different banner color than the player’s.

• Fixed a bug that caused the player’s troops to spawn inside the castle during sally out ambush missions.

• Fixed an issue in ambush missions where some reinforcements on the player’s side remained inactive until ordered.

Character Development System

Changes

• Added Import/Export hero cheats.

  • Campaign.export_main_hero \[filenamewithoutextension]: Exports main hero as a file to the Game Saves folder.

  • Campaign.import_main_hero \[filenamewithoutextension]: Imports a character from a file in the Game Saves folder.

  • Campaign.export_hero \[filenamewithoutextension] | \[nameofhero]: Exports a hero as a file to the Game Saves folder.

  • The files can be edited manually once inside the Game Saves folder.

  • The import/export actions concern equipment, perks, skills, attributes, traits, unspent focus and attribute points, body(age, build, weight, race, face), name, culture, gold.

• Clarified the descriptions of the following perks: Rapid Development, Tradeyard Foreman, Show Of Strength, Braced, Keep At Bay, HardKnock, HammerBolts, StoutDefender and Knock Off.

• The Empire cultural bonus that reduces garrison wages by 20% is now applied based on the culture of the settlement’s owner instead of the settlement’s own culture.

• Updated adolescence option texts in character creation.

Fixes

• Fixed a bug that caused settlement perk effects of governors to not work in castles.

• Fixed a bug where the Leader of Masses perk applied its bonus to all troops regardless of whether the party had the perk.

• Fixed a bug that caused the Moral Leader and Natural Leader perk effects to not apply correctly during persuasion.

• Fixed an issue that allowed focus points to exceed 5 during child education.

• Fixed a bug that prevented crime rating from increasing when taking bribes from villagers or caravans.

• Fixed a bug that prevented the player from gaining Roguery XP when looting animals during village raids.

• Fixed a bug that prevented the player from gaining Trade XP from player-owned workshops.

• Fixed a bug where executing devious lords incorrectly reduced the honor trait and applied improper relation changes. Executing devious lords now no longer affects honor, and the negative relation penalty is smaller than when executing an honorable lord.

Clan and Party

• Added a new bandit faction called “Deserters”.

  • Deserter parties can be created after lord battles and roam around nearby villages. As a consequence, they will proliferate in war-torn regions but remain rare during peace time.

  • As these parties are made up of trained soldiers rather than bandits and looters, they can be a bit more of a challenge. They can also merge when certain conditions are met, creating larger and stronger forces that can threaten even clan parties.

• Added a new party type called “Patrol Parties”.

  • One patrol party is automatically generated in towns when the “Guard House” settlement project is built. Each Guard House level then enables the party to field stronger troops. Patrol parties do not incur wages.

  • While a Patrol Party is active, it provides a security bonus to the town.

  • Patrol Parties patrol their bound town and its bound villages, favoring hunting bandits and helping villages under raid. 

  • If a patrol party has suffered losses, it can return to town for reinforcements. If it is defeated, it takes some time to create another one.

• Added Random Events.

  • You may now encounter up to 100 different events presented through pop-up menus as you play. These appear based on your actions — for example, entering a town or participating in a siege. Each event tells a different story and offers choices that can affect your character’s traits, skills, party, items, or gold.

• Added the ability to edit party and caravan leading clan members' equipment and inventory through dialogue.

• Tweaked certain aspects of Sturgia to make them more distinct & in-line with their historical inspirations.

  • The first Sturgian culture bonus has been changed from “Recruiting and upgrading infantry troops is 25% cheaper.” to “Village grain production is increased by 10%.”

  • The second Sturgian culture bonus has been changed from “Armies lose 20% less daily cohesion.” to “Armies are gathered with 50% less influence.”.

  • Round shields have been removed from Sturgia troops, nobles, and tournament equipment. They have been replaced by 3 new shields (mentioned under Art). Kite shields have also been distributed among Vlandia, Empire, and Sturgia.

  • Removed certain Nord-inspired weapons and head armors from Sturgian troops.

  • Replaced certain Nord-inspired banner sigils used by Strugia with existing suitable icons.

• Wanderers now spawn younger. In addition, the age at which they leave the game due to aging has been increased, allowing them to remain in the game longer.

• Prisoner heroes and troops are now healed over time. Prisoner heroes’ health is capped at 20%, and one prisoner troop recovers daily.

• Party food consumption will now always be at minimum 0.01.

• Noble and companion parties from factions or clans without settlements (such as minor factions) will now patrol around towns, castles, and villages they are neutral with. Combined with increased enemy detection for patrolling parties, this makes it more difficult for bandit parties to roam and pillage freely near settlements.

• Party AI Movement Improvements & Fixes

  • Reduced the campaign map movement speed of all parties by 20%. As a result, the “Cavalry” and “Footmen on horses” campaign speed bonuses now also provide a smaller boost.

  • Adjusted party evasion behavior so that faster parties will circle around stronger enemies to reach their target location instead of fleeing in the opposite direction.

  • Parties will no longer try to flee to a settlement if the party they are fleeing from is also in that settlement.

  • Parties will now flee to a suitable point instead of trying to flee to a settlement if the party they are avoiding is static (in a map event, in a siege, etc.).

  • Modified engagement behavior so parties no longer target enemies unless they have higher movement speed and are within engagement radius.

  • Parties are now more likely to visit those settlements with sufficient food supplies when they need to replenish.

  • Parties now require at least 6 days of food to begin patrolling.

  • Parties will no longer have an immediate contributing factor to visit a settlement simply because some troops are wounded — this now only occurs if wounded troops exceed 20% of the party.

  • Adjusted the wounded score for visiting settlements so parties will not wait for 100% wounded recovery.

  • Fixed a bug that caused parties to flee from weaker enemies instead of the most powerful nearby enemy.

  • Fixed a flee behavior bug that caused some parties to stand still.

  • Fixed a bug in the party visit score calculation for garrison support, which caused parties to avoid settlements if they could not take troops from the garrison.

  • Fixed a bug that caused parties to attack stronger parties in certain scenarios.

  • Fixed a bug that caused nearby non-lord parties to override other possible lord targets.

  • Fixed a bug that prevented allied parties from joining nearby sally out events.

  • Fixed a bug that caused parties called to an army to immediately leave a settlement even if it was under siege.

  • Fixed an issue that caused some minor factions’ parties to become stuck on villages.

  • Fixed a bug that allowed an unrelated party to join a battle while the player was already engaged.

• Removed main hero’s parents in Sandbox mode.

• Fixed a bug that spawned the main hero's parents alive in Campaign mode.

• Fixed a bug that prevented the player from selecting the main hero’s sister as an heir.

• Fixed several bugs that caused troop XP progress to reset, such as when opening the party screen or transferring troops.

• Fixed an issue where courtship failure displayed incorrect text while in an army.

• Fixed a bug that caused grown-up heroes to have negative skill points.

• Fixed a bug that caused AI parties to lose almost all their members after their leader died.

• Fixed inconsistencies in the home settlements of the player’s siblings immediately after character creation.

• Fixed a bug that removed alleys from the main hero after an heir was selected.

• Fixed a bug that teleported the hero to a target settlement or party while they were a prisoner.

• Fixed a bug that caused the player to pay wages for family members when they were part of their party.

• Fixed a bug that caused party wages to become a profit instead of a cost when using cheats.

• Fixed a bug that caused a new ruler’s clan to retain the player’s clan banner after the player left their own kingdom.

• Fixed a bug that caused enemies to refuse to release imprisoned companions after the player left the kingdom.

Armies

Changes

• Overall, there are a lot of improvements on both the army and party level to make their actions less self destructive and more deliberate and consistent. These changes intend to avoid suicidal attacks of small armies against targets they can not best as well as a better overall readiness in individual lord parties so they can provide a more robust defense.

• Armies will now disband if their average party size ratio drops below 40%.

• Increased the maximum influence AI can spend when creating an army, resulting in larger and more effective armies.

• Reduced influence costs for AI armies when boosting cohesion and adjusted influence decay to make large armies more sustainable.

• Adjusted the strength ratio required for attacking a settlement. Armies now only target settlements they can realistically capture or take with heavy losses.

• Improved army cooperation through code changes, allowing armies to support each other more effectively during campaigns.

• Armies that have lost troops and fallen below the strength needed to capture settlements now disband after a period of inactivity, allowing them to reform later as stronger forces.

• Non-attached army members now ignore bandits while traveling to join their armies, enabling them to reach their destination without delay.

• Corrected strength calculations for sieges. Army strength is now measured as besiegers in siege battles rather than as attackers in field battles.

• Army assembly points are now placed near the closest enemy town or castle instead of enemy villages.

• Increased the minimum food required for AI parties to join an army from 3 to 12 days.

• Disabled army raiding and raid defense features to prevent armies from wasting time on raids and ensure focus on strategic offensive and defensive objectives.

• Armies now ignore enemy parties (not armies) that are weaker than half their strength.

• Armies will no longer attempt to siege settlements already under siege if the attackers have a 5x strength advantage.

• Armies will not form if they don't have at least 12 days of food.

Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused armies to wait indefinitely during assembly. Armies now depart if 90% of the called parties gather within 3 days, or if 75% arrive after 3 days. After this point, the requirement decreases by 1% per hour.

• Fixed a bug that caused the army leader’s visit score to include the wounded score of unattached members.

• Fixed a bug that caused only the army leader to buy food when entering a settlement.

• Fixed an exploit that allowed players to gain influence by inviting their own clan members to their army without paying cohesion upkeep. Clan members no longer generate influence for the army leader.

• Fixed a bug that prevented the “Leave Army” option from appearing while raiding a village as an army member.

• Fixed a bug that caused enemy armies to help the player raid a village when the player was an army member.

• Fixed a bug that caused army members to leave when defending in a siege.

• Fixed a bug that caused army members to remain marked as disorganized indefinitely in the army menu.

• Fixed a bug that prevented non attached army member parties from leaving tracks on the campaign map.

Kingdoms and Diplomacy

Changes

• Added Alliances

  • Depending on relations between rulers, shared or separate wars, existing tribute payments, ruler traits, and other factors, kingdoms can now decide to form an alliance through a kingdom decision.

  • Alliances are between 2 kingdoms. Every kingdom can have 2 alliances.

  • Alliances end after 1 in-game year (84 game days) or when one ally declares war on the other.

    • The duration is extended when there is an ongoing Call to War obligation.

  • Forming an alliance cancels any existing tribute payments between the kingdoms.

  • Allied kingdoms are less likely to declare war on each other and more likely to wage war against their ally’s enemies.

  • Kingdoms can request that their allies join their wars through Call to War agreements, which may include a gold payment to secure support.

    • This kingdom decision automatically occurs when an alliance is created and the members have an unshared war or when a new war begins for one of the allies.

      • It cannot be requested again during the war - but allies are incentivized to join the war themselves.

      • Players can call the ally to war through dialogue - but have to pay the required gold themselves in this case.

    • A kingdom that accepts a Call to War is bound to the conflict for a minimum of two in-game seasons (42 game days), after which it may return to its own diplomatic course.

• Added Trade Agreements

  • Depending on relations between kings, between clans and the opposing king, and on the number of bordering settlements, kingdoms can decide to improve trade relations through a kingdom decision.

  • Once a trade agreement is signed, the likelihood of caravans visiting the other kingdom is increased.

  • If war is declared, the trade agreement is immediately broken.

  • Kingdoms can hold up to two trade agreements at the same time.

  • Each trade agreement lasts for one in-game year.

  • It becomes harder for kingdoms to sign a new agreement after a recent war.

• Reworked War, Peace & Tribute Decision Scoring

  • We had 3 primary goals in mind:

    • prevent illogical war and peace declarations and tributes

    • limit the number of very short wars that are breaking the flow of the sandbox and the player experience

    • properly assess the current state of wars and use that to affect the peace decisions.

  • Kingdoms will now choose opponents more wisely, avoiding wars against overwhelmingly stronger factions. They will also be more resilient and less eager to declare peace once they are at war. This will result in fewer but more impactful wars.

  • Added a more precise war effort system in which successful sieges, raids, and casualties determine which side holds the upper hand. This system carries greater weight in how kingdoms decide when to offer or accept peace - and should stop losing kingdoms from demanding and winning kingdoms from paying tributes. It should also enable kingdoms to focus their peace pursuit on the wars that they are losing.

    • White Peace treaties, where no tribute is exchanged, will also take war efforts into account.

Fixes

• Fixed a bug that caused clans from a destroyed kingdom to be removed from the game prematurely.

• Fixed a bug that caused peace proposal notifications to appear repeatedly.

• Fixed a bug that prevented successful raids from appearing on the kingdom’s diplomacy screen.

Economy and Trade

Changes

• Added a new dialogue to player-owned caravans, which allows players to change the caravan’s home settlement and restrict trade with settlements of specific kingdoms.

  • Caravans are incentivized to return to their home settlement as time passes.

• Added two new trade goods.

  • Felt has been added and is produced by Wool Weavery workshops.

  • Planks have been added and are now produced by Wood Workshops instead of tools.

• Increased the town trade commission rates by 5x to rebalance tariff income. This diversification of town income sources means you will now need to more carefully consider trade routes and town projects to achieve decent income. On average, a third of a town’s income may arise from tariffs.

• Increased village taxes by 30%, town and castle taxes by 130% to support the larger AI garrisons, strengthen clan wealth, and improve player income.

• Increased village hearth recovery rates (from 0.6 to 4.0 for poor villages, and from 0.2 to 1.2 for medium-wealth villages) to allow settlements to recover more quickly from raids.

• Grain and fish can now substitute for each other in town consumption at a 90% rate. This means that if towns run short on grain, they will spend most of their grain budget on fish instead, ensuring a steadier food supply and reducing the risk of shortages.

• Caravan Behaviour Changes

  • Increased the chance for caravans to return to their hometown after visiting several cities, so they now return more frequently.

  • Increased caravan trade volume; beyond small sales, they can now conduct larger bulk transactions.

  • Together, these changes slow the distribution of local goods to distant markets and allow players to engage in more profitable trade.

• Changed the production output of 15 villages to improve the game’s economy.

• Workshops in rebellious towns (loyalty < 25) will no longer produce items but will still incur workshop expenses. Added a tooltip to display that in the Clan - Workshops screen.

• Improved the AI notable workshop type selection algorithm so notables are less likely to open workshops that compete with existing ones in the same town.

Fixes

• Fixed a bug that prevented looted and quest items from being marked as having “good or bad prices” with the necessary trade perks.

• Fixed an issue that caused average prices to be displayed incorrectly.

• Fixed a rare bug that caused workshops to have no owner.

• Fixed an issue in older saves where some workshops had deceased owners.

• Fixed a bug that allowed trading settlements with minor faction heroes.

Crafting

• The most recent crafting hero is now restored when opening the Smithy.

• Made unavailable items clearer to distinguish in the Crafting → Refine window.

• Fixed an issue where the crafting screen displayed invalid damage types for invalid weapon usages.

• Fixed clipping and offset issues for crafting pieces.

Settlement Actions (Town, Village, Castle and Hideout)

Changes

• Added the Parley feature.

  • You can now start a parley with enemy-held settlements that have a noble inside from a distance by holding Left-ALT, and Left-Mouse-Clicking on the settlement. You can then select who you wish to speak to from the present nobles.

  • The target settlement must be within line of sight, and your clan tier must be at least 3.

• Town & Castle Project Changes

  • We added new and modified existing town projects to improve the balance between projects with impactful effects and those with limited or situational effects. This should allow for better control over the management of your fief. For all the details, check out the forum thread.

  • All settlement projects and their levels across the world have been updated. Settlements now also start the game with a military, economic, or balanced focus.

• Added a dialogue option to recruit notables as supporters.

  • To gain a notable’s support, the player must achieve sufficient relations with them and provide a one time payment.

  • Notable Supporters are an existing mechanic in the game, which previously automatically happened when clans met certain conditions.

    • A supported clan receives daily influence for every supporter. They also receive a loyalty bonus if the notable is one of their owned towns - and reduce loyalty if they are in a town that is owned by an enemy of their supported clan.

  • If relations with a supporter drop too low, the notable may withdraw their support.

• Reworked certain bandit hideout mechanics.

  • From now on hideouts are attackable both day&night time. If you attack hideouts in daytime, you get a penalty for stealth since you are more visible in the daylight.

  • Needed troop count for entering a hideout is updated. The minimum needed troop count is 25 and maximum is 40 (+1 if ""Small Unit Tactics"" perk is enabled).

  • “Send troops" option has also been added for hideouts. The clearing hideout process is completed after 6 hours once ititiated. After that the main party gets regular rewards as clearing the hideout via mission but neither the main hero nor troops get any experience in this case. 

  • Updated the minimum needed troop count to initiate the mission to 25 with maximum at 40 (+1 if "Small Unit Tactics" perk is enabled).

  • From now on, the main party gets some additional trade good items as loot.

• Increased the number of effects that boost the veterancy rate — the chance for militia troops in governed settlements to spawn as veteran militia.

  • The Battanian cultural bonus now increases the veterancy rate by 20%.

  • The Drills, Citizen Militia, and Seven Veterans perks each now increase the veterancy rate by 10%.

  • Added a new kingdom policy, Land Grants for Veterans, which increases the veterancy rate by 10% and reduces village tax by 5%.

  • As well as the town project changes mentioned above.

• Increased the number of Militia spawned after successful sieges.

• AI nobles now check a settlement’s food and wage conditions before donating troops to prevent garrisoned units from dying unnecessarily. They also cannot donate troops if the town or castle already has more than 750 or 500 units, respectively.

• Civilian agents now avoid each other more effectively.

Fixes

• Fixed a bug that caused the companion to spawn far away from the taken over alley.

• Fixed a bug that caused civilians to get stuck if they strayed from their intended path.

• Fixed a bug where hideouts remained visible on the map after being cleared.

• Fixed a bug that allowed players to abandon the same alley twice.

• Fixed an exploit that allowed players to recruit troops from alleys without clearing them first.

• Fixed a bug that allowed players to visit the keep without bribing the guards.

• Fixed an issue where the tavern keeper in a rebel-controlled town had no dialogue option to ask about companions.

• Fixed a bug that could cause influence gains to be miscalculated when donating troops.

• Fixed an issue where the bribe condition was not displayed when the player lacked enough gold when speaking to a keep or dungeon guard.

• Fixed a bug that allowed the player to occupy two alleys by clearing the first one and initiating a fight in the second one without leaving the mission.

• Fixed a bug that caused some hideouts to become oversized, preventing new hideouts from appearing on the map.

• Fixed an issue where raid messages were sometimes not shown, and corrected some raid messages displaying incorrect text.

• Fixed a bug that allowed players to ask tavern keepers for information about themselves.

• Fixed a bug that allowed players to leave companions in villages.

• Fixed a bug that caused relations with notables to improve after taking over their alley.

Quests & Issues

• General

  • Updated the “Recruit Troops” and “Purchase Grain” tutorial quests so menu options are unlocked in sequence: recruit troops first, then purchase grain, with both options locked initially and enabled only after their respective quests are completed.

  • Players can no longer activate the “Lord Needs Tutor” and “Family Feud” quests if at their companion limit. These quests now also get canceled if the companion limit becomes insufficient.

  • Added a requirement of 25 healthy troops for the “Associates Captured by Bounty Hunters” and “Bandit Base Near Settlement” quests.

  • Fixed a bug preventing hideouts from being spotted in “Dragon Banner Piece” quests.

  • Fixed a bug where the “Talk to the Headman” tutorial could appear in the wrong village.

  • Fixed an issue where two numbers could overlap in some quests’ completion bars on the Quests screen.

  • Fixed an issue where the red exclamation mark for quest updates could remain even without updates.

  • Fixed a bug where quest logs were not updated when quests were canceled due to the player’s death or retirement.

  • Fixed an issue where canceling a quest could incorrectly apply a negative relationship penalty with the quest giver.

• Scout Enemy Garrisons

  • Upon successfully completing the quest, players are now informed via log entry that scouting reports were sent to the quest giver.

  • Fixed a bug where very distant enemy cities could be targeted.

  • Fixed a bug where the same settlement could be counted twice if scouted and captured.

• Revenue Farming

  • The quest can no longer be taken if the player is the king of the quest giver.

  • Fixed a missing quest log entry.

  • Fixed a bug where notable relationships could increase instead of decrease.

• Raid Enemy Territory 

  • Fixed an issue where no reward was given despite successful completion.

  • Fixed a bug that prevented raids from counting toward the quest’s progress.

• Escort the Caravan

  • Fixed a bug where the caravan did not recruit troops when entering a settlement.

• Unify the Empire

  • Fixed a bug related to settlement owner tracking.

• Base of Operations Discovered

  • Fixed a bug that caused hideouts to spawn on the wrong side.

• Bounty Hunters

  • Fixed a bug that allowed sending tier 1 troops despite restrictions.

• Locate and Rescue Traveller

  • Reduced the frequency of the Recruit Troop pop-up notification to every 4 hours.

• Headman Needs Grain

  • Fixed a bug that canceled the quest when a raid began in any village.

• Smugglers

  • Fixed a bug where the quest did not cancel when the player changed kingdoms.

• Associates Captured by Bounty Hunters

  • Fixed a bug where a very distant hideout could be targeted.

• Family Feud

  • Removed the incorrect release notification for quest targets after being taken prisoner.

• Spy Among Us

  • The quest log now displays the reward upon completion with a companion.

• Lesser Noble Revolt

  • The quest no longer fails if the player chooses not to attack the noble’s party and leaves.

• Caravan Ambush

  • In the quest, raiders are now marked with a blue quest icon.

  • Fixed a bug that caused the battles to never end.

• Company of Trouble

  • Fixed a bug where failing the quest did not apply a relationship penalty.

• Special Weapon Order

  • Fixed an exploit where players could craft more daggers than required and receive extra gold per dagger. 

• Landlord Needs Access to the Commons

  • Fixed a bug where quest parties were not destroyed after completion.

• Headman Needs Grain

  • Increased the occurrence rate of the issue quest.

• Army Needs Supplies

  • Fixed a bug where the quest was not canceled after the quest giver’s army was disbanded.

• Artisan Can't Sell Products

  • Adjusted rewards and penalties for the quest.

• Lord Wants Rival Captured

  • The target rival hero in the quest is now marked with a blue quest icon.

• Overpriced Raw Materials

  • Fixed an issue in the quest where it could give more gold than the sale price in the quest giver’s settlement.

• Landlord Needs Manual Laborers

  • The quest now features a progress bar for delivered prisoners and total ransom value in the trading page. The quest log also updates when the requested number is met.

• Nearby Bandit Base

  • Fixed a bug where the quest did not fail if the player raided the quest village.

• Rival Gang Moving In

  • Quest henchmen are no longer listed in the encyclopedia and now have correct cultures.

• Notable Wants Daughter

  • Fixed a bug where a different name could appear after acceptance.

• Snare the Wealthy

  • Fixed a missing notification.

• Escort Caravan Quest

  • Fixed a bug where donkeys, camels, and goods failed to appear during defense battles.

• Rival Gang Moving In

  • Fixed a bug in the Rival Gang Moving In quest where the game could get stuck after defeating the rival gang.

• Rescue Your Family

  • Fixed a bug that made the hideout infested by looters.

• Extortion by Deserters

  • Fixed a bug that caused the deserter party to endlessly run from the player.

• Army of Poachers

  • Fixed a bug that prevented the player from acquiring loot and troops after completing the quest.

Conversations & Encounters

Changes

• Added new dialogue options with villager and caravan parties that let you start a battle even if they surrender.

• Added tooltips showing the consequences of choices in villager and caravan dialogues.

• Disabled talking to party members during encounters (battles, conversations, etc.).

Fixes

• Fixed a bug that prevented villager, caravan, and bandit parties from surrendering when overwhelmed.

• Fixed a bug that caused NPCs to forget prior conversations and introduce themselves again.

• Fixed an issue where Mountain Bandit dialogue appeared empty.

• Fixed an issue where siege conversations showed normal options instead of siege-related options.

• Fixed a bug that caused agents to loop the turn-back animation when a conversation started behind them.

• Fixed a bug that caused the agent following the player to move in circles after speaking with an NPC.

• Fixed a bug that showed incorrect dialogue options when speaking to villager parties after taking hostile actions against them.

• Fixed the simulation context tooltip on Send Troops showing incorrect information when loading a save during an encounter.

• Fixed a bug that displayed incorrect text during marriage persuasion.

• Fixed a bug where relations did not increase after releasing a prisoner via dialogue.

Save & Load

• Added the ability to delete corrupted save files.

• Fixed a bug that could cause crafted weapons to lose their properties after loading a save.

Localisation

• Localisation improvements for Turkish.

• Minor localisation improvements for English.

Other

Changes

• Defined hair, beard, and tattoo variations for all NPCs generated with random facekeys based on faction (including minor factions and bandits). For example, Battanians more often have moustaches, while Empire and Vlandia men tend toward clean-shaven, shorter styles.

• Organized campaign player cheats: standardized names, removed unnecessary entries, and added precondition checks. Also added the “campaign.add_building_level” and “kill_hero” cheats.

• Party leader heroes now appear in the encyclopedia wearing their battle outfits.

• Grandchildren now appear on a hero’s encyclopedia page.

• Disabled agent and object interactions while in Photo Mode.

• Added helmets to equipment sets for ladies who lacked them.

• Vlandian Pikeman now uses the Pike instead of the Fine Pike.

• Renamed the stat label from “Length” to “Weapon Reach.”

• Updated minor factions’ and bandit factions’ banner colors to match their cultures.

Fixes

• Fixed training field targets incorrectly changing color as if hit during Mounted Archer training when the player was unmounted.

• Fixed incorrect statistics being shown after a game ends.

• Fixed a bug that caused all arena spectators to spawn in white clothing.

• Fixed a visual bug where musicians used irrelevant instruments or had none while a track was playing.

• Fixed a bug that allowed two NPCs to sit on the same chair simultaneously.

• Fixed the “Best Served Cold” achievement not unlocking.

• Fixed encyclopedia descriptions: the player is now properly identified as a ruler when applicable, and dead heroes no longer display incorrect text.

• Fixed a bug that caused nobles to equip gear intended for the opposite sex.

• Fixed the “CanPenetrateShield” icon displaying on Bound and Heavy Crossbows.

Performance

• Improved memory usage and performance in regards to localisations.

• Fixed a bug that caused certain deployment initializations to run more than necessary, leading to performance drops and occasional spawn issues.

Crashes

• Fixed a crash that occurred when hovering over item cost properties.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when exiting a settlement while hovering over numerical values in the settlement overlay.

• Fixed a crash that occurred after loading a save due to a party attempting to travel to a training field.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when disbanding a party.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when the player exited during a board game.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when opening a screen (such as Quests) at the exact frame an encounter started.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when loading older save files.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when an agent attempted to take a banner dropped on the ground.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when a hideout boss conversation started.

• Fixed a crash that occurred after a siege due to the player party being detached from its army.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when a controller was active while Steam was not running and the on‑screen keyboard was requested.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when adjusting troop percentages after using the Auto‑Deploy button.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when a hero whose only ranged weapon was a non‑stackable javelin picked up a javelin from the ground while holding a melee weapon.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when joining a kingdom as a mercenary.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when receiving a mercenary offer from an eliminated kingdom.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when closing certain menus.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when saving the game.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when entering a town center, tavern, or arena after capturing a settlement as an army member.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when an allied army started a siege battle and the player chose not to join; the player is now removed from the siege event in this case.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when attempting to sally out while the attacker party was engaged in another map event and had a low troop count.

• Fixed a crash that occurred during conversations with freed lords, captured lords, and prisoners.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when the player party attacked a town or castle while in an army.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when losing a siege as a defender and the player died in battle.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when a hideout mission’s enemy side was empty due to bandit faction elimination.

• Fixed a crash that occurred during heir selection when the selected heir was part of the main party.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when initializing cinematic notifications.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when starting a conversation with a notable already flagged by another NPC guide request.

• Fixed a crash that occurred some time after purchasing a new workshop.

• Fixed a crash that occurred during the daily tick.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when talking to a prisoner hero in the player’s party immediately after capturing a fortification.

• Fixed a crash that occurred after clearing an alley.

• Fixed a crash that occurred after defeating a Sally Out event by joining from outside to help the besiegers.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when sorting settlements with the garrison filter enabled in the encyclopedia.

• Fixed a crash that occurred in the party screen when dragging and dropping a troop which is already in the target roster’s second-last slot.

• Fixed a crash that occurred after successfully persuading a lord to join the player’s faction.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when an item also designated as a tournament prize was deleted.

• Fixed a crash that occurred during siege preparation.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when creating a new campaign

• Fixed a crash that occurred due to the auto‑track settlements feature.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when a peace declaration happened during a village raid.

• Fixed a crash that occurred due to the on‑screen keyboard returned null on closing.

• Fixed a crash that occurred due to calculations involving destroyed bandit parties.

• Fixed a crash that occurred after a peace event during a siege involving multiple factions.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when hovering over the leader of the player’s clan on the encyclopedia page.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when leaving a siege on the campaign map.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when saving or loading during a Caravan Ambush quest while the encounter menu was open.

• Fixed a crash that occurred during the Revenue Farming quest if revenue collection was cut short by an Extortion by Deserters bandit party.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when the "Rescue Family" quest was started while the main hero was not in a settlement.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when the “Army of Poachers” quest battle started.

• Fixed a crash that occurred after defeating the rival gang in the “Rival Gang Moving In” quest.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when selecting the inventory option during a conversation with the Smugglers quest caravan if the quest had been canceled.

• Fixed a crash that occurred after certain quest battles.

• Fixes a crash that occurred at the end of a campaign siege while the player wasn’t the siege leader.

• Fixed a crash that occurred on older saves in the siege menu.

• Fixed a crash that occurred on older saves due to quest parties.

Art

• Fixed a bug in Tsagaan Castle that enabled an exploit.

• Fixed a bug at Ayzar Stronghold that allowed players to climb a cliff.

Design & Balance

• Changed mirrored-faction voting: a mirror match now triggers only if at least 70% of votes select the same faction.

Server & Network

• Server now waits for reconnection if a player disconnects during warmup, instead of canceling the game immediately.

• Dedicated Servers

  • The map voting screen at the end of matches now supports horizontal scrolling for custom servers with more than 6 maps.

  • Fixed a bug where the custom server web panel allowed logins with an empty password when AdminPassword was not set.

  • Fixed the "disable_map_voting" config to work as intended — it now selects a random map from the automated battle pool.

UI

Changes

• Added new weapon icons to the armory that display weapon effects.

• Added UI checks to prevent spamming server list refresh requests.

• Reflected friendly-fire damage is now shown in the combat log and next to the health bar, like any other damage source.

• The server list now remembers both the last sorted-by field and the sort order.

• Improved visibility of the current game type selection on the MP Lobby page and Leaderboard pop-up.

Fixes

• Fixed an issue where the defender team always used the secondary color set.

• Fixed mismatched clan and culture banner colors in the lobby clan overview.

• Fixed a bug that caused non-Latin characters to not display in a player’s name while spectating.

• Fixed an issue where some multiplayer lobby texts did not refresh after changing the language from the MP Options menu.

• Fixed a bug that made the multiplayer scoreboard slider unclickable.

• Fixed a bug where the “Filter by favorites” option was not saved in the MP server browser.

• Fixed a bug that prevented the “Friendly Troops Banner Opacity" setting from taking effect on teammates.

• Fixed a bug that prevented a notification on the Friends List button when receiving a Bannerlord friend request from a Steam friend.

Other - Miscellaneous

• Fixed a bug that allowed players to rejoin a matchmaking game they’d been kicked from.

• Fixed a bug that prevented the Pointing taunt from being used while a bow was equipped.

• Fixed a bug that caused the “Banned Until” and “Ban Reason” texts to be empty in non-English languages.

• Fixed a bug that prevented cheering agents from moving.

Crashes

• Fixed a crash that occurred in Captain Mode when the player died immediately after taking control of an AI agent.

• Fixed a crash that occurred at the end of Captain Mode matches.

• Fixed a crash that occurred due to party invites on PlayStation.

• Fixed a crash that occurred in the multiplayer lobby on Steam clients.

• Fixed a crash related to multiplayer voice chat.

Art

• Added 9 new holsters for all shortbows and corrected physical issues with other holsters.

• Fixed a bug that caused terrain textures to appear tiled at a distance.

Audio

Changes

• Replaced selected ambients with Quad-Surround versions.

• Reworked ambient sounds on many scenes.

• Reworked siege related destruction events to have more consistent distancing.

• Reworked all gamepad vibrations to reflect in-game actions better.

• Revised the camel vocalisations - Humphrey will be angrier now :).

Fixes

• Fixed a bug that prevented debris from making sounds during sieges.

• Fixed a bug that prevented the end-of-battle scoreboard from playing a sound.

UI

Changes

• Added a new option to show agent head banners only while holding the Show Indicators key.

• Added the ability to toggle walk mode when using a controller.

• Added an ability to close the keybind popup by pressing the already-selected keybind.

• Made agent banners slightly smaller and decreased their opacity when close to the camera.

• The launcher will now scale with the screen resolution, staying at the same visible size.

Fixes

• Made minor fixes and improvements to text input boxes:

  • Fixed a bug where Ctrl+Del worked the same as Ctrl+Backspace instead of acting properly.

  • Fixed a bug where typing or deleting while dragging over text behaved unpredictably.

  • Fixed a bug where pressing and releasing the left mouse button in the same frame, while text was selected, failed to reset the selection as expected.

  • Fixed a bug with editable text boxes that could place the cursor on the wrong side of a letter, shift the visible text to the right after reselecting, or reset the text shift to 0 on arrow-key press even when the cursor was centered.

  • Fixed a bug where Ctrl+A in text boxes did not select all text.

  • Fixed a bug with console text inputs where the first input was not registered.

• Fixed a bug that caused shortcuts to be invisible and buttons to remain enlarged in the Order menu.

• Fixed a bug that disabled D-pad navigation when a DualShock 4/DualSense controller detected a touch on the touchpad while the touchpad mouse option was disabled.

Animations

Changes

• Removed female-specific movement animations; all characters now use the same movement set.

• Improved the shield-movement animation by refining its motion and the direction the shield faces.

• Updated the rider’s couched-lance grip to align with historical references. This is largely cosmetic but may slightly affect combat due to the change in passive shield stance.

Fixes

• Fixed a bug that prevented the player's stand/crouch stance from being restored after actions such as climbing a ladder.

• Fixed a bug that caused agents to stagger after successfully pushing a ladder with a fork; the animation now plays only when pushback fails.

• Fixed a bug that caused camel idle animations to not play properly.

• Fixed a bug where alternative weapon mode-switch animations did not play correctly for some weapon types.

• Fixed a bug that caused a leg animation glitch when frequently changing direction.

• Fixed a bug where the character did not hold the reins when using the Horse Light Harness.

• Fixed a bug that caused the wrong animation to play when an agent was hit by an arrow.

Combat

• Players can now fire and reload while crouching with short bows, light crossbows, and throwing weapons.

• Mounted AI

  • Improved cavalry AI charging behavior and aiming skills, with additional refinements to their tournament combat behavior.

  • Improved the behaviour of mounted troop AI when rotating toward their targets.

  • Fixed a bug that prevented AI troops from mounting nearby available mounts.

• Mounted Ranged AI

  • Improved movement of mounted ranged AI troops to reduce excessive zig-zagging.

  • Fixed an issue where the target points given to horse archers were overly randomized. They now attempt to use the first valid target point directly when possible. Their turning behavior has also been refined: softer turns when circling inside, harder turns when moving outward.

  • Fixed an issue where the banner bearer of mounted ranged formations would charge the enemy alone; they now stay with their formation.

• Melee AI

  • Overhauled troop AI to improve melee aiming and reduce stuttering.

  • Adjusted melee combat AI target selection to prevent infantry from ignoring nearby mounted enemies.

  • Fixed a bug that caused melee troops to keep excessive distance from mounted enemies, resulting in missed attacks.

• Spear-related Improvements

  • Spear bracing animation now blends between two states instead of switching, offering more freedom while aiming. This increases the effectiveness of spear bracing, making cavalry charges deadlier.

  • Improved spear bracing targeting for AI. Instead of always aiming at the chest or head, AI can now also target the rider’s abdomen with vertical randomization, preventing horses from bypassing.

  • Fixed an issue that caused spear bracer troops to have their weapon stutter when knocked by a mounted enemy.

  • Fixed a bug that caused spearmen to immediately switch to their swords at the start of battles. They will now correctly hold their spears unless switching to swords is advantageous during close combat.

• Ranged Troop AI

  • Improved the accuracy of ranged troops against moving targets.

  • Ranged AI troops will no longer continue advancing toward enemies once they are within effective range when under a “Targeting” order.

  • Improved AI friendly-fire avoidance, allowing higher firing rates from behind allied troops.

  • Fixed a bug that caused ranged troops to keep moving when having their vision blocked by friendly troops.

• Shield AI

  • Improved AI shield direction choice for troops with smaller shields, offering better protection against missiles.

  • Fixed a bug that caused troops to defend against non-incoming missiles.

  • Fixed a bug that caused certain troops (e.g., Battanian Mounted Skirmisher) to ignore incoming missiles.

• Formation AI

  • Formation arrangements now appear more natural: lower-tier troops will form more loosely while higher-tier troops remain more aligned.

  • Fixed a bug that prevented troops with the “Engage” order from rearranging their formations properly.

  • Fixed a bug that caused troops to constantly change positions under the “Engage” order.

  • Fixed a bug that caused the number of ranks in formations to change unexpectedly during arrangement changes.

  • Fixed an issue where troops remained in a previous arrangement due to target charge orders not being canceled properly.

• Other

  • First-person camera no longer restricts the player more than third-person view while climbing ladders.

  • Improved movement of both player and AI agents on stairs. Speed now depends on slope and movement direction, with minimal penalty when moving sideways.

  • Improved collision avoidance of troops around trees.

  • Improved AI pathfinding by further optimizing found paths.

  • Fixed a bug that caused troops to attempt to pick up unreachable items.

  • Fixed a bug that caused the player to perform an action or swap weapons when pressing a button as the weapon wheel opened.

  • Fixed an issue where longer weapons could collide with forward facing shields even when attacking directly from behind. Attacks from behind will no longer be blocked in this way.

Other

• Fixed an issue that caused the controller to keep vibrating even when playing with mouse and keyboard.

• Improved animal behavior for wandering.

Performance

• Optimized visibility checks for ranged AI units to improve performance.

Crashes

• Fixed a crash that occurred when using the Column formation.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when the launcher failed to close properly.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when a UI button was activated by a mouse click and its hotkey in the same frame.

• Added audio modding support for FMOD Banks and Events.

• Engine Changes

  • Added a functionality that makes interpolated atmosphere moddable. Modders can override any interpolated atmosphere used on the world map and in missions by placing their files in Module\\Atmospheres\\Interpolated, which will override the base game version. Important: missions fetch only a slice of the selected atmosphere set (not fully dynamic). For example, Aserai towns and villages use semicloudy_aserai.xml.

    • This also fixes a bug reported by hunharibo where assigning a custom culture to a town and “Taking a walk through that town” caused a crash. 

  • Added save/load compatibility for campaign map changes.

    • Party positions, map event & siege positions, and party AI targets now adjust appropriately on load if a campaign map change is detected.

    • Fixed a crash that occurred when loading saves created on a different version of a (modded) campaign map; such saves now load without crashing on the default campaign map.

  • Distance Cache data now loads from all active modules (static map info such as settlement data, neighbours, and land ratios used by mobile party AI). This helps with overall campaign map performance.

    • Modders can create a navigation cache for their custom map through the SettlementPositionScript component in the editor - by clicking on the “ComputeAndSaveSettlementDistanceCache” button. The file gets generated under ModuleData\\DistanceCaches and is named “settlements_distance_cache_Default.bin”.

    • Added automatic cache rebuilding: if a cache is missing or invalid, the game now recreates it on first launch.

    • Added a way for modders to mark valid and invalid terrain nodes on custom maps by overriding the PartyNavigationModel.

  • Added the ability to store up to 10 RGL logs.

    • In response to the community request by poheniks.

• Mission Changes

  • Added a new weapon flag that allows attacking while crouched - hurray for mods with guns!

    • In response to the community request by Lucon.

  • Added a new capability for modders to alter AI behavior via the agent component system. To use it, create a class that inherits AgentComponent, override OnAIInputSet (AI inputs are passed by reference and invoked each tick after the AI makes its decision), then add the component to the agent.

    • In response to the community request on the Modding Discord by Kemo III.

  • Agents can now continue running to their target (instead of slowing to a walk when close) if the NeverSlowDown flag is set.

    • In response to the community request by Gotha.

  • Added new parameters to weapon selection in the AgentDrivenProperties class to support modding. These allow modders to adjust troop weapon choice behavior by influencing whether AI troops prefer melee, ranged, or polearm weapons in specific situations:

    • AiWeaponFavorMultiplierMelee

    • AiWeaponFavorMultiplierRanged

    • AiWeaponFavorMultiplierPolearm

      • In response to the community request by order_without_power.

  • Provided more control over StaticBodyProperties for modders.

    • In response to the community request by RandyOglestein.

  • Added support for handling entity callbacks of non-scripted entities via MeleeHitCallback.

  • Fixed a bug that caused an exception when a weapon was removed from an agent upon impact.

    • In response to the community request by Kommissar here.

• Campaign Changes

  • Added a new general XML merging algorithm. Modules can now add new elements to the XMLs or change attributes during merge using unique attributes and XSD-driven metadata.

    • Added missing XSD files (e.g., soln_skins.xsd).

    • Documented unique attributes for each element in existing XSD files and formatted them.

    • Modding documentation covering this new XML merging system will be released at a later point.

  • Introduced a new approach for creating classes that inherit GameModel, enforcing use of the base model rather than inheriting base-model implementations, without breaking mod support.

  • Added a new capability for MBObjectManager to create objects from an XML node and type name.

  • Made CampaignTime variables such as CampaignStartTime moddable through CampaignTimeModel. Previously hardcoded, CampaignTime is now exposed as a model with every parameter accessible, allowing modders to override values such as the number and length of days and weeks.

    • In response to the community request by MitchPTI here.

  • Improved FactionManager moddability by refactoring the class, removing bandit faction checks, and moving related logic to DiplomacyModel.

    • Added three overridable methods in DiplomacyModel: GetShallowDiplomaticStance, GetDefaultDiplomaticStance, and IsAtConstantWar.

  • Added IFaction.FactionsAtWarWith for easier access to enemy factions.

    • In response to the community request by Spinozart1 here.

  • Added a new ability to set the starting level of buildings in a settlement via settlements.xml. Since all building types must be added to a town or castle, any building without a specified level in settlements.xml is automatically added with its starting level.

  • Added a new DefaultHeroAgentLocationModel to manage hero locations at settlements.

  • Added a new GetPartyStrength function that accepts parameters to compute a party’s “virtual” strength under specified conditions (e.g., calculating its land-attacker strength while the party is currently flying).

  • Increased the maximum hair type limit from 32 to 64.

    • In response to the community request by conleyc86 here.

  • Changed MobileParty.RemoveParty() from public to internal to prevent misuse that could lead to crashes for modders.

    • In response to the community request by Carter Drake on the Modding Discord.

  • Added automatic registration of texts defined in ModuleData/global_strings.xml to the global text manager. Existing GameText variations can now be overridden.

    • In response to the community request by Vombora on the Modding Discord.

  • Added a new VillageTradeModel to make TradeBoundDistanceLimit modifiable.

    • In response to the community request by Alexander Drakos, svelok, ClayBullet, and NPC99 here.

  • Added a new ShouldStayInKingdomUntil parameter to control when mercenaries and vassals can leave a kingdom.

  • Added a new ability to add a crafting piece to a crafting template via XML.

  • Added new callbacks in CraftedDataView — OnWeaponMeshBuilt, OnHolsterMeshBuilt, and OnHolsterMeshWithWeaponBuilt — allowing modders to modify crafted weapon meshes after they are built.

    • In response to the community request by fedeita here.

  • Added an option to override Tier levels of uncraftable items (e.g., quivers, bolts, bows, crossbows, armor pieces, shields) via their dedicated XMLs.

  • Made managed_core_parameters moddable.

    • In response to the community request by KingKilo here.

  • Made the TradeBound setter public.

    • In response to the community request by Midnightknight here.

  • Enabled character skills to have multiple character attributes.

  • Added a new IsSettlementBusy event to settlements to indicate when they are used by issues or quests.

  • Added a new CustomSettlementComponent for settlements.

  • Added a couple of functions to PartySizeLimitModel to support clan tier effects.

  • Added a new GetModel function to CampaignGameStarter to ease model creation and moddability.

  • Moved the equipment ID used for brides in the marriage scene notification to culture XMLs.

  • Moved SetCustomName from MobileParty to PartyBase, enabling settlements to have custom names.

  • Replaced the CalculateHighCourageProbability function with GetSurrenderChance for surrender and bribe calculations of villager, caravan, and bandit parties.

  • Replaced character creation occupations with objects instead of enums, making the process of defining occupations easier.

  • Updated MapScreen.cs to work with IInteractablePoint instead of PartyBase.

  • Updated kingdom IsBanditFaction and IsOutlaw decisions to derive from the ruling clan’s IsBanditFaction and IsOutlaw checks.

  • Renamed IMapEntity to IInteractablePoint.

  • Split the Clan.Lords property into AliveLords and DeadLords.

  • Refactored mobile party creation functions in clan-related code paths.

  • Refactored the character creation base system.

  • Refactored the HeroCreator class and updated function names for clarity; moved default assumptions to HeroCreatorModel.

  • Refactored party creation and renamed custom party component creation functions.

  • Refactored the building effect system to use increment types (Add / AddFactor) and updated all effect value calculations to use ExplainedNumber for consistent results.

  • Removed companion templates from the culture XSD.

  • Removed the hardcoded CultureCode enum for cultures. CultureCode is no longer required to add a new culture.

  • Removed the RetirementSettlementComponent.

  • Removed TextObject.Empty, and replaced uses with IsEmpty() and a new TextObject.GetEmpty().

  • Removed traits affecting the skills of the characters, and assigned skill templates to characters instead of removed traits.

  • Fixed a bug that caused troop XP variables to reset in various cases by refactoring the TroopRoster class algorithms.

  • Fixed a bug that prevented defected kingdoms from being shown in the OnClanChangedKingdom event.

  • Fixed a bug that prevented enums with the Flags attribute from loading correctly.

  • Fixed a crash that occurred when a weightless equippable item was added.

• Modding Toolkit

  • Added three new prefabs: crows, seagulls, and a lavender flower.

  • Added extensive boundary checks to the scene editor.

  • Fixed a bug that prevented changing an entity’s scale after setting it to 0 in the modding toolkit.

  • Fixed a bug that prevented adding a vertex to an edge in the navmesh in the Scene Editor.

• Multiplayer Modding

  • Added a new IsGameModeAllowChargeDamageOnFriendly on MissionMultiplayerGameModeBase for modding, allowing team bump damage for horses.

    • In response to the community request by Takeo.

  • Added a new OffhandWeaponDefendSpeedMultiplier (shield defend speed) to AgentDrivenProperties.

    • In response to the community request by Takeo.

  • Added a new CalculateRemainingMomentum in AgentApplyDamageModel for modding.

    • In response to the community request by Takeo.

  • Made GetScoreForKill in MissionMultiplayerGameModeBase moddable.

    • In response to the community request by Takeo here.

  • Changed the WarmupTimeLimit server option to WarmupTimeLimitInSeconds to allow more precise values.

    • In response to the community request by Takeo here.

  • Made DecideWeaponCollisionReaction moddable, allowing behaviors where weapons don’t get stuck on a player and can, for example, cleave.

    • In response to the community request by Gotha.

  • Increased the maximum friendly-fire server option limit from 100% to 2000%.

    • In response to the community request by Tark on the Modding Discord.

  • Fixed a bug that caused GetDefendCollisionResults to bypass StrikeMagnitudeCalculationModel, affecting moddability.

    • In response to the community request by Takeo here.

Greetings Warriors of Calradia!

In this War Sails developer blog, we’re turning our prow toward the untamed North to introduce the Nords. We will trace their backstory, culture, and highlight what defines the kingdom — covering architecture, equipment, troops, and more. Stick until the end to get a glimpse at the pirates that will prey on Calradia’s waters. As always, please note that some details may still change as we get closer to the release.

Join us in watching the new trailer showcasing the Nords!

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In Calradia’s far-northern reaches, long before a single crown united the Nordvyg, each settled fjord kept to its own — relying on the sea for survival. The local chieftains had their longships sail south bearing walrus ivory, whale oil, and fish to sell – then return to the fjords laden with plunder and captives.

Until recently, southerners could take comfort that the half-dozen so-called "kings" of the Nordvyg each controlled little more than a shrine or slave market surrounded by a wooden palisade. A generation ago, however, Volbjorn the Hungry returned from a decade in the empire's Vaegar Guard with great riches. He used this wealth to bend the northland to his will, forcing its chieftains through blood and bribery to pledge themselves as his jarls.

Today, his son rules, and though the bonds holding this new realm together are weak, they may be strengthened by turning their vassals' attentions to conquest. Volbjorn’s son, Halthdar the Golden of clan Throsniring, now rules from Thronderlag. He is a seasoned warrior who would otherwise be beloved by all who followed him into battle and feasted alongside him, but he is a king in a land still unhappy to be a kingdom. Many blame him for his father’s sins and would gladly return to the old days when they answered to no one.


Halthdar “the Golden” Throsniring In-Engine Cinematic


On the map, Nord lands run from the Jumne River in the east across Nordvyg to the isle of Beinland in the west, with four towns — Hargard, Thronderlag, Gretysfjord, and Hvalvik. Hargard, for example, stands on a rocky bank of the Jumne River, founded by Nordic tribes from the western fjords several generations ago. Today, it serves as the meeting place of Nords, Vanni, and Sturgians, all harvesting the wealth of the river valley to sell to the peoples of the south.


Hargard Town

Here and throughout the North, life follows the old ways — longhouses serve as home and council hall, shipwrights turn pine and oak into longships, and each clan keeps its own sagas. Across the land, the Nordvyg is built of timber and turf, with mossy thatch, curved roofs, and dragon-headed beams. The walls of Nord towns and castles follow the lay of the hills, their lines bending with the land. Timber or stone towers rise above sturdy palisades, the logs set atop foundations of solid stone.

Nord Gatehouse Levels Concept Art

Past the palisades, the tavern greets friend and stranger alike — nets on the beams, a hearth at its heart, and long tables carved with the marks of many feasts. Higher still rises the keep, where the jarl’s high seat faces the hall, and chambers lie just beyond a screen of wood and wicker.


Nord Tavern and Keep

Yet beyond these halls lies the true breadth of the Nord realm — the northern frontier, where the land itself shapes every path and battlefield. Along the coasts, rugged peaks rise steeply above the waves; inland, dense green forests close around the road; and farther still stretch wide, stony fields with only scattered trees.


Northern Battle Terrains


Nord warriors arm themselves for the sea and the hard ground alike. Their round shields may be plain, painted, or decorated. They wield hand or long axes, and spears in the shield wall, with javelins and throwing axes to hurl before the clash. Straight-edged swords hang at their sides, while the finest among them carry the Atgeir — a long-hafted blade for the strongest arms. Their armor ranges from padded coats and tough leather to mail shirts, with cloaks thrown over the shoulders against harsh weather. Helmets are made to give clear sight and easy breath, for a man must keep his wits when the deck creaks beneath him.

Nord Shields Concept Art

A Nord warband begins with the Younglings — men barely old enough to grip a shield, armed with little more than a hatchet and courage. From there, the path divides.

Those who take up the bow train as huntsmen of the woods and coasts, growing into seasoned archers in mail, able to loose volleys across a clearing or a ship’s deck.

Those who stand in the shield wall start as Drengr, before branching into the axe or spear traditions. The axe path leads from hard-bitten warriors to the fearsome Berserkr or the mighty Skjaldbrestir. The spear path climbs toward the wolf-cloaked Ulfhedinn, wielders of the deadly Atgeir.


Regular Nord Troops In-Engine Cinematic

As in every land, warriors of higher standing follow their own road to war. They begin as Aettlingr, young fighters trusted with their first shield, and rise to Thegn, proven arms in their jarl’s service. From there, they serve as Jarlsmenn and Hirdmenn, each step bringing finer mail, sturdier steel, and shields worthy of their rank. Only the fiercest and most loyal earn the honor of bearing the decorated round shield of a Huscarl.


Noble Nord Troops In-Engine Cinematic

At this point, forgive us for jumping out of in-universe “talk,” but there was no other option! With the arrival of naval battles, we are also adding new troops — mariners. For these warriors, the roll of a deck and the creak of timbers are second nature, and unlike others, they suffer no penalty when the fight moves to sea or river. Among the Nords, every warrior is a mariner, giving their warbands greater readiness for battle on the water. The Khuzaits have no such troops, while others field only a handful of dedicated mariners. Soldiers untrained for ships see all their skills diminished when battle shifts to the deck and sail. Mariners fight well on land too, though their lighter gear — suited for speed aboard ship — can leave them at a disadvantage against heavier foes ashore.

When the fighting moves inland, Nord captains rally their warriors beneath new battle banners. Their flags follow the classic Viking shape — a quarter-round cloth hung from a crossbar, fringed along the curve, and crowned with a carved beast’s head. As with other cultural banners, each design brings its own effect in land battles — some reduce the horse’s charge damage, while others rattle enemy morale.


Nord Battle Banner Cinematic


When you launch a new War Sails playthrough, the culture choices will now, of course, include the Nords. As a seafaring folk, they sail faster on rivers and in coastal seas, as well as acquire more loot from raiding villages, villagers, and caravans. That said, their armies suffer from greater cohesion loss when on land.

Next, you will be greeted by the appearance selection screen. A host of new options — 19 in total, including fresh beards, hairstyles, and tattoos — await you here to help shape a face fit for the high seas and battlefield alike.

New Tattoos, Hairstyles, and Beards

After choosing the Nord culture and your appearance, you will be greeted by the family background screen adjusted to the Nordic ways — one of several game systems we have integrated Nords into. Your choices here draw from Nords' history and tradition, making each starting path feel true to their lore. We extended the same care to other game systems, such as child education, which now includes Nord-specific prompts and outcomes. As with every culture, joining the Nord kingdom earns you a gift from the king, and victory in their tournaments brings culture-specific rewards. We also introduced 14 new Nord-themed banner icons — with the Nord faction emblem remaining exclusive to the Nords.

New Nord Banner Icons


Once you take to the seas, it won’t be long before you cross paths with pirates. They roam the waterways much like looters on land, sailing in bands of two or three light and medium ships, and haunting busy ports in search of unprepared travelers. A hard fight can leave their hulls splintered and crews bloodied, yet given time, they always return replenished to menace the trade routes again. In the southern waters, you may encounter Corsairs — their look drawn from the pirates of the Barbary Coast, with new gear crafted to match. Their ranks rise from Corsair to Corsair Warrior and finally Corsair Chief. In the northern waters, you will face Sea Raiders, the shipborne version of their land counterparts.


Corsairs In-Engine Cinematic

And that wraps up another War Sails developer blog! Drop any questions you might have in the comments below, and join us on our socials where we continue to share development updates.

Greetings Warriors of Calradia!

Our “Setting Sail” dev blog revealed the expanded Calradia coming with War Sails as well as the new campaign gameplay mechanics — and your questions quickly followed. Below you’ll find answers to some of the most common ones since our last Q&A.

Got something else you’re curious about? Drop your questions below — we’ll be picking some for the next Q&A!

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• There will be two separate world maps - the existing one for the base game and the new one for War Sails. The latter will contain changes relevant to naval gameplay and the new Nord faction discussed in our last blog.

• No, bridges won’t disrupt your naval voyage.

• Four towns and ten castles, though the exact number of castles may still change slightly as we balance the experience.

• The harsh environment of the North makes it harder to produce surplus grain, leaving the Nords to rely more on fish. Several villages across the map also had their production changed to accommodate the new Warlus Ivory and Whale Oil trade goods, as well as to boost fish yields, bringing them on par with grain as another staple food source of Calradia. All of these will introduce new trade opportunities in combination with naval voyages.

• They will no longer be there in the War Sails map.

• To open the seas, some land also had to give way. Two major crossings — once narrow land bridges — have been removed. The southern corridor between Quyaz and Ortysia, and the northern pass linking Omor to Varnovapol. This allows for travel into two massive bodies of water, which would otherwise be blocked off.

• Each party is responsible for acquiring and maintaining its own ships. However, armies may set sail even if not all linked-up parties have ships, as long as some parties in the army have them. Additionally, a low ship vs troop ratio penalizes the army’s campaign movement speed.

• Shipless parties “on route” to join the army try to link up on land or move to the last known army embarking position if the army is already naval. Once the army disembarks, they attempt to link up via land again. Parties in this limbo state also take care of their urgent needs, like acquiring food or avoiding significant threats.

• The army creation menu contains information about which summonable parties have ships — allowing you to make informed decisions that impact your army’s effectiveness on waterways.

• Yes, it includes both cavalry and horse archers. This system benefits factions like the Nords, who rely more on mariner troops, while limiting cavalry-heavy factions like the Khuzaits. The AI follows the same restrictions as the player.

• The Boatswain skill will reduce the negative effects, though the storms themselves aren’t predictable. These dynamic weather events will move across the sea and deal damage to ships caught in them. Players will be able to spot storms forming thanks to visual cues like dark clouds and thunder during a brief buildup phase. While you can’t forecast their paths, careful navigation and good ship stats can help you pass through safely or avoid them entirely.

• You need to be at the port yourself — ships can only be summoned to the port you're currently in.

• Arrival time depends on distance, but it's shorter than regular travel time. Certain perks can reduce it even further.

• No, ships will automatically leave the port when the town changes hands, regardless of who owns them. However, they will not be interactable — you will need to visit another port to summon them.

• They take place in coastal waters for seaside towns, and river battles are triggered for riverside towns.

• For each journey, the AI will weigh a land-only route against one that uses waterways. It will compare their travel time — which is impacted by many factors like equipped ships, mounts, troop counts, inventory weight, etc. It will then estimate the damage the water route would inflict on the vessels. If the ships’ current condition (plus a safety margin for unforeseen trouble) can withstand that wear, the party will choose the route that includes water; otherwise, it will stay on land.

• AI nobles aim to maintain enough ships to transport their party efficiently, with many factors taken into account. When evaluating a suitable party ship composition, they will target to have a capacity that comfortably exceeds the maximum party troop size to allow for flexibility (like taking prisoners or losing a ship). On the other hand, they will avoid compositions with too large of a skeletal crew — to prevent movement speed penalties. They also prefer balanced ship compositions with light, medium, and heavy ships, and those that align with their own culture. For example, a large party might get one of each ship type before acquiring a fourth one, while smaller ones may field just one or two. In practice, this means AI parties favor type variety and slightly overcompensate to stay mobile, though they’re also mindful not to significantly impact their clan’s treasury with their ship purchases.

• War Sails makes use of several systems and improvements that benefit from the performance and capabilities of newer hardware. Focusing on current-generation platforms allows us to make design decisions that lead to a better overall experience across all platforms.

• Yes — tariff income has been significantly rebalanced to diversify town income sources. Previously, tariffs made up only a tiny fraction of a town’s income (around 2%), but they will now contribute about 30% on average and can reach over 60% in trade-heavy towns like Danustica. This change will encourage players to consider trade routes and town specializations more carefully, making settlement management and project choices more meaningful.

• We’ve experimented with newer .NET versions, and plan to continue during less busy periods.

• Yes.

Greetings Warriors of Calradia!

Welcome to the War Sails developer blog series. We’re excited to share our progress on the features taking shape, though as with all things in development, please note that details may shift as we navigate our course towards the release of the expansion in Early Fall 2025.

With War Sails, Calradia’s horizons have grown — quite literally. Today, we want to take you behind the scenes of the world map expansion and share how we’ve reshaped the land and sea to support the introduction of the newly added Nords faction and naval gameplay. We’ll also be diving into the systems that shape life at sea — from the flow of ship movement to the tactics of naval blockades, and the stormy hazards that test every voyage across Calradia’s waters.

The world map in War Sails now stretches beyond its former borders with an expansion to the north. We can divide these additions into three parts, starting with a new rugged long strip of a south-facing coastline — the Nordvyg proper. Passing through this terrain often means crossing rocky mountains and pushing through valleys filled with dense forests, not to mention the icy, cold winters.

Nordvyg proper

To the west of Nordvyg and across the sea, we find a recently colonized Island of Beinland — the land of bones. This refers to either the walrus ivory that drew the original settlers there or the remains they left along its desolate shores.

Island of Beinland

To the east of Nordvyg, you may find yourself wandering through the Jumne river area, where mysterious burial pits left by some long-forgotten people lie scattered along the riverbanks. The river runs south, eventually reaching Khuzait lands, allowing Nords to raid and trade along the shores of lakes Laconis and Tanaesis.

Jumne river area

Adapting Calradia for naval travel meant more than opening the seas — it required reshaping the very veins of the continent. Certain rivers have been widened to support inland navigation, allowing ships to reach far beyond the open sea, while bridges have been reconsidered to maintain vital overland routes. 

Widened rivers

Several towns have also been relocated closer to water, weaving them into the expanding maritime trade network. For settlements now hugging rivers and coasts, danger sails closer — rival ports are now just a voyage away. To meet this new maritime threat, both parties and armies can now travel by water, gaining access to naval movement and combat. Armies, in particular, are restructured into fleets once they set sail — retaining much of their land-based functions, though with some changes and limitations.

Parties with ships and fleets play a major role in supporting sieges of coastal settlements — not by storming towns from the sea, but by enforcing naval blockades that cut off reinforcements, trade, and escape. When a force besieges a coastal settlement and has ships available, a blockade is automatically formed once the siege camp is established.

Naval blockade

Maintaining a blockade introduces new risks and decisions. Enemy naval parties may attempt to aid the defenders — the besieging player must then choose to engage in a naval battle or withdraw. Victory keeps the blockade intact; defeat lifts both the blockade and the siege; withdrawing preserves the land siege, but allows enemies to reinforce the town by water.

The player can also attempt to reinforce a besieged town from the water — either by breaking through the blockade at the cost of some troops, or by attacking the fleet directly to lift it. Likewise, if trapped inside, they may try a costly breakout or sally out straight for the enemy ships.

Your naval journey begins at any town with access to the sea or a river. From these ports, you can purchase or sell ships, repair and upgrade them — all for the right price in denars. Ships can also be given to your clan — either through the port, which requires a few days and a small escort of troops for delivery, or instantly by speaking to the clan members directly, where you can also take command of any ships they currently control.

Ship management

Once your ships are ready, you're free to set sail in any direction across Calradia’s expanding waters. You can then return to any town with naval access or disembark at suitable landing areas — though some coastlines, such as sharp cliffs and rugged shores, are not accessible for landing. Disembarking and boarding take time based on your party size and inventory weight, so consider this when pursuing enemies or trying to escape quickly.

After landing, however, you may find yourself busy raiding and sieging enemy settlements, eventually wandering far off from your ships. To set sail again, you can either head back to your anchored ships or make for the nearest coastal town and summon your ships to meet you there.

How swiftly you cut through the seas on the campaign map in War Sails depends on a range of factors, from ship design to shifting winds. A party’s base speed is determined by the ships it commands — their hull types and any upgrades they have. Ships with shallow drafts — like the Nordic longships — gain a speed bonus in coastal and river waters but are slower on the open sea. Open waters themselves offer a speed boost, while going over crew or cargo limits and operating with too few crew members leads to slower movement. Larger fleets also suffer penalties, mirroring the mechanics of land parties.

Movement speed over water is dependent on typical wind direction and local currents, which is represented visually by the direction of the waves and an arrow indicator. Ships going against the wind on the campaign map will automatically be shown with lowered sails.

Ship movement on the campaign map

To give an example, sailing downstream along a river is noticeably faster than going upstream, and not all rivers have the same flow strength. The seas, too, have defined flows — these do not shift over time and are set through a flowmap that influences movement speed across the water bodies.

Flowmap in the scene editor (not visible while playing)

Life at sea in War Sails wears down even the sturdiest hull. Ships take gradual damage when navigating the open sea and when under harsh weather conditions. This damage is influenced by weather strength, ship size, and a vessel’s innate seaworthiness — a stat that helps reduce the toll the seas take.

Previously mentioned wind effects are further intensified when sailing through storms. Storms are circular, dynamic weather events that move across the open seas with various degrees of strength and sizes, all the way up to hurricanes. They can form at open sea, and then continue to grow — or dissipate when crossing land terrain.

Storms

Traveling into a storm is dangerous, but with the right ships and distance from the storm’s eye, it's possible to ride the outer edge and gain speed without taking damage. Managing your ship’s condition is vital — damaged ships must be repaired at port, and poor planning can leave your vessels battered or even destroyed long before the enemy arrives.

But what happens if you lose all your ships at sea? If you're not captured by the enemy, you and your surviving troops will make a desperate journey on rafts to the nearest shoreline — but not without cost. Along the way, some units may die or get incapacitated due to starvation. The same applies if you escape captivity while still at sea — you'll drift alone to shore on a raft.

And that’s a wrap! We will be answering your questions in another War Sails Q&A next week, so drop them in the comments below. In the meantime, join us on our socials where we continue to share development updates and chart the course ahead for War Sails.

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Greetings warriors of Calradia! Before we dive into this edition of #CommunityTales, we would like to invite you to the next official Multiplayer event.

Come join us this Saturday for the fifteenth official large-scale event with up to 700 players on the same server.

Two awesome folks you already know will be joining us - Simo (YouTube) and Captain Fracas (YouTube). They will lead their factions in an epic showdown.

We will be switching between Battle and Siege modes during the event. Players are encouraged to form protective formations around their leaders and follow their orders.

Playing in the event will also grant you three times the Loot & Exp that you would normally get.

⚔ Are you ready for war? ⚔

📅 Date & Time: Saturday, 14th of June, 20:00 CET / 2 PM ET

🎯 Event Type: Siege & Battle

📍 Server Name: [EVENT] Calradian War #15 - Simo vs Captain Fracas - 3x Loot & Exp

👥 Players: Up to 700 warriors

Don’t miss it—victory awaits!

Without further ado, let’s jump right in!

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Mini but mighty by 2hiei

Can't quicksave during battle by Less-Hedgehog6303

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"I'll eat your liver!" by chuckee85

Night Siege by ♛ 𝕽𝖔𝖈𝖍𝖔 ♛

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I Played as Historical Vikings for 100 Days by sortnir

Fighting As A Legionary In BANNERLORD by Resonant

Life of a Samurai Begins by Jackie Fish

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The Bannerlord Native League #7 is drawing to an end. The divisions will be scheduling their final matches, and we`re very excited to see all the teams from all divisions that will come on top this time around!

Congratulations to Imperial Eagles and Destiny Masters for reaching the grand finals in Division A! Follow the tournament for the news about the date of the finals.

The BNL administration team has done wonderful work with the organization and maintenance of this tournament, and we hope to see many more iterations of the Bannerlord Native League.

For those unfamiliar with BNL, it is a community skirmish tournament where teams are split into divisions - with multiple teams in each division. Usually, one match is played per week against the other teams. This leads to some epic competitive fights with teams on similar footing, with more skilled players in higher divisions!

The next Calradic Campaign event will be announced in the #announcements channel on M&B Discord server a week before the date of the event.
The date of the fifty-eighth event in their Bannerlord series is scheduled to be the 21st of June.

Join for some hack and slash on their Calradic_Campaign server using their Module. If you would like a quick overview of the CC events, check out this video - What is the Calradic Campaign?

The Bretonnie Roleplay Events are highly immersive weekly multiplayer community events organized by the Le Royaume de Bretonnie \[BRE] clan. Their next Sunday event is on the 15th of June at 20:30 CET.

This recurring event focuses on strict formation and roleplaying rules in an effort to re-create massive medieval battles with more than 500 players on the server at once. The story continuously unfolds and is impacted by the results of the battle events and roleplay scenarios. This narrative is further supported by the Mod Pack which contains custom maps and items.

It is required to participate with or as part of a clan to join the event, so if you’re already in one - sign up with your clan here. Still searching for a clan? Then make your way to the Clans board and find your new home!

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If you would like to suggest content for the next #CommunityTales, make sure to tag @Mount_and_Blade on X or @mountandblade on Facebook with the #CommunityTales. Alternatively, you can reach out on our forums to Piconi or Dejan.

Greetings Warriors of Calradia!

Thank you all for your understanding and support following last week’s announcement about the delay of War Sails. Today, we want to answer some of the questions you had since our last Q&A with many more details to come in the following weeks.

Got something else you’re curious about? Drop your questions below —we’ll be picking some for the next Q&A!

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• Yes. Characters can swim, dive, climb back on board, and they’ll drown under certain conditions.

• Yes, you will be able to keep mounts in inventory on ships, but unlike on land, they will take up ship inventory space instead of providing it. They also won’t provide a speed bonus.

• Yes, you will be able to sail on rivers in War Sails, allowing you to reach certain towns and strategic points. Combat on rivers will also be supported, with scenes designed to reflect the narrow, terrain-restricted nature of river warfare.

• Yes! You’ll be able to buy trade convoys from coastal town merchants. You will also have the option of going for the standard or armed convoys, with the latter having more troops to protect against pirates. These convoys will travel from one coastal town to another, trading goods and generating profit, but they will be vulnerable to various threats along the way, so protection matters.

• Characters from the new Nord faction will have distinct Scandinavian-inspired accents in campaign conversations (similar to the current unique voice-over content per culture). New voice presets will also be added to character creation, and they will be available to all cultures.

• We’re making some visual and characteristic tweaks to Sturgia so that they will stand apart from the Nords, but we don’t want to make the changes so drastic that they feel alien to players who’ve gotten used to their current design. For example, one of the Sturgian cultural bonuses, as well as some Nordic-inspired Sturgian banner icons will be changed. Likewise, various Nordic items previously used by Sturgian troops and nobles (shields, weapons, armor, and helmets…) will be redistributed, and new shields will be added.

• We’re not introducing a new attribute, but War Sails will add three new naval-oriented skills, each bound to already existing attributes. Please bear in mind that some of these details may still change:
  
  • “Mariner” - Enhances your personal combat prowess during naval engagements and bolsters your effectiveness in leading troops and employing tactics in sea battles - bound to Vigor and Endurance.
    
  • “Boatswain” - Governs the well-being and discipline of your ship's crew, as well as the vessel's overall combat readiness, including rigging and supplies - bound to Social and Intelligence.
    
  • “Shipmaster” - Improves your navigational abilities, the effectiveness of naval siege engines under your command, and the speed and quality of ship repairs and upgrades - bound to Control and Cunning.

• No. There won’t be pathfinding or traversability changes due to seasons on the world map.

• Yes. The Campaign mode will support both the base game's main storyline as well as the new naval questline.

• You won’t get a free ship from the start, but you will find that smaller ones are quite affordable.

• Ports are separate scenes accessible both through the settlement menu and from within the town scenes, much like the tavern scenes.

• Technically, there will be no limit to the number of ships you can own on the campaign side, but each ship will require a certain number of troops to operate. Falling short of that number will proportionally slow down the party’s sailing speed. Additionally, as you go above a certain number of ships, you will start to incur naval campaign speed penalties.

• You will be able to own a single fleet consisting of multiple ships. Parties in your clan and kingdom can likewise have their own, allowing you to maintain a strong presence across the seas.

• It’s planned to be only accessible via the initial character creation screen.

• Yes! The system will make a broader variety of traits easier to acquire during gameplay.

• Yes, modders should be able to activate and control it in many cases, though what’s possible may still depend on the specific use case.

• Existing XSLT-based mods should remain functional, though, as with any content patch - mods may require a version compatibility update not related to the XSLT system / XML editor. Should compatibility issues arise, players can use the Steam Betas system to roll back to a previous game version and keep their current modded playthroughs running.

• For most modding cases, no. The new XML editor will allow you to override or extend base game XMLs by simply writing standard XML. It will merge entries based on unique attributes (like id or type) defined in the schema. This will work for items, skins, actions, etc. XSLT will still be supported and may be needed for more complex operations like removing elements or structural transformations not handled by the merge system.

Greetings Warriors of Calradia,

We’re excited for each of you to set sail in War Sails, the upcoming expansion for Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord. However, after taking a hard look at where things stand, it became clear we won’t be ready by the originally planned release date of June 17th.

The title is currently on track for an early Fall 2025 release window.

We came to this decision after a lot of thought (and a few long meetings), because we need more time to reach the level of quality you rightfully expect. The extra development period will give us more time to apply additional polish, and continue making progress on the improvements to the base game that are already in motion – We believe this short delay will ultimately lead to a better and more enjoyable experience for all players.

The team is currently working on a revised timeline, and we’re aiming to share the new release date with you in the upcoming weeks.

In the meantime, we’re excited to keep you updated — with regular developer blogs, behind-the-scenes glimpses, fresh gameplay footage, and brand-new War Sails content as we head toward launch.

Thank you for your patience and support.

The TaleWorlds Team

Greetings warriors of Calradia!

Before we dive into this edition of #CommunityTales, we would like to invite you to the next official Multiplayer event.


Come join us this Saturday for the fourteenth official large-scale event with up to 700 players on the same server.

We`re having a special treat, as two renowned content creators in the Bannerlord community, Pixelated Apollo (YouTube) and Artem (YouTube), will lead their factions in an epic showdown.

We will be switching between Battle and Siege modes during the event. Players are encouraged to form protective formations around their leaders and follow their orders.

Playing in the event will also grant you three times the Loot & Exp that you would normally get.

⚔ Are you ready for war? ⚔

• 📅 Date & Time: Saturday, 26th of April, 20:00 CET / 2 PM ET
  
• 🎯 Event Type: Siege & Battle
  
• 📍 Server Name: [EVENT] Calradian War #14 - Pixelated Apollo vs Artem - 3x Loot & Exp
  
• 👥 Players: Up to 700 warriors
  
  Don’t miss it—victory awaits!
  
  Without further ado, let’s jump right in!
  

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  Artisan's Atelier
  
  Lord of the north by pacienciaaa&克白
  
  
  Empress of Calradia by Cypripediun
  
  

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  Knightly Vistas
  
  Too slow by mellowtonin
  
  
  Battanian Folk by Ulfkarl
  
  

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  Crafting Marvels
  
  
  

  It's Sword of Long by riinagaja
  Unleash your inner blacksmith and design weapons from dainty daggers to towering greatswords with a crafting slider that now stretches from –50% to +50%. This mod also offers an optional physics patch for one‑handed blades over 110% length, readjusting swing speeds and handling so large weapons remain usable.

  
  

  

  Mission Duel by 将和
  Turn every battlefield into an arena: with this mod, you can challenge a single enemy hero to a one‑on‑one duel, or opt for an epic 5v5 team duel where you pick up to five heroes against theirs. Victorious champions can seize enemy gear, grab some coin, and even earn a bonus attribute point, as well as have a number of the defeated side’s troops switch allegiance in the aftermath.

  
  

  

  Enhanced Troops Reforged by Ulfkarl
  Building on the original mod, this update enriches troop visuals with carefully selected, period‑inspired gear that gives each faction a distinct, cohesive look. It deepens immersion and variety while trying to preserve balanced gameplay and full save compatibility.

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  Chronicles in Motion
  
  Bannerlord Tips You Have to Know by Collier
  
  
  
  
  I Survived as STURGIA for 300 Days by Krowns
  
  
  
  
  The Start - Bandit King by Knightly
  
  
  
  

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  Chivalrous Assemblies
  
  
  Bannerlord Native League #7
  
  After six seasons of wonderful work with the organization and maintenance of the tournament, the Bannerlord Native League organizers have treated us with its seventh iteration!
  
  BNL #7 signup period has stared and lasts until 2nd of May, 23:59 CET.
  
  Thinking of joining? Sign-up as a team or if you do not have a team, you may also sign up as a free agent in the hopes of playing as part of an existing team..
  
  For those unfamiliar with BNL, it is a community skirmish tournament where teams are split into divisions - with multiple teams in each division. Usually, one match is played per week against the other teams. This leads to some epic competitive fights with teams on similar footing, with more skilled players in higher divisions!
  
  
  
  
  Bannerlord Calradic Campaign #58
  
  The next Calradic Campaign event will be announced in the #announcements channel on M&B Discord server a week before the date of the event.
  
  The date of the fifty-eighth event in their Bannerlord series is scheduled to be the 3rd of May.
  
  Join for some hack and slash on their Calradic_Campaign server using their Module.
  
  If you would like a quick overview of the CC events, check out this video - What is the Calradic Campaign?
  
  
  
  
  Bretonnie Roleplay Events
  
  The Bretonnie Roleplay Events are highly immersive weekly multiplayer community events organized by the Le Royaume de Bretonnie [BRE] clan. Their next Sunday event is on the 27th of April at 20:30 CET.
  
  This recurring event focuses on strict formation and roleplaying rules in an effort to re-create massive medieval battles with more than 500 players on the server at once. The story continuously unfolds and is impacted by the results of the battle events and roleplay scenarios. This narrative is further supported by the Mod Pack which contains custom maps and items.
  
  It is required to participate with or as part of a clan to join the event, so if you’re already in one - sign up with your clan here. Still searching for a clan? Then make your way to the Clans board and find your new home!
  
  

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  If you would like to suggest content for the next #CommunityTales, make sure to tag @Mount_and_Blade on X or @mountandblade on Facebook with the #CommunityTales. Alternatively, you can reach out on our forums to Piconi or Dejan.

Greetings warriors of Calradia!

We’re thrilled to announce a major expansion to Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord. War Sails will be arriving on PC and consoles (PS5, Xbox Series X/S) on the 17th of June, 2025!

Watch the announcement trailer to get a first look at the intense naval warfare and epic battles that await.

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Wishlist now to stay updated and be ready to set sail on launch day!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2927200/Mount__Blade_II_Bannerlord__War_Sails/

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Sail the high seas, lead mighty fleets, and forge your legacy in War Sails, the epic single-player expansion for Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord. Bringing naval warfare to Bannerlord for the first time, War Sails lets players command powerful ships, engage in thrilling sea battles, and master maritime conquest.

Embark on daring naval adventures with new mechanics, territories, and challenges. Customize your fleet, conquer settlements, and carve your legend on the high seas!



Chart your course to the Northern Kingdom, home of the fearless Nords—legendary seafarers and masters of close-quarters combat. Explore a land of jagged peaks, vast taigas and freezing fjords, where scattered settlements rise like ships from the sea. A bold adventurer may trade their goods, recruit their warriors, join their ranks or challenge their rule. Will you join the North or seize its riches?



War Sails introduces a unique and immersive naval warfare system that has been inspired by accounts of actual medieval sea battles. Featuring realistic wind and water physics, ship-to-ship combat lets you board enemies from multiple points, ram them, or attack from afar.

Captains can seize opportunities by boarding already engaged ships, prepare for an incoming attack by creating a floating fortress or take a risk to tie down several enemies at once - giving their allies an edge elsewhere. They may ram an enemy ship to sink it - or at least throw men off board, shatter oars and compromise buoyancy. Well-placed arrows and ballista fire can also tear through sails, further crippling mobility.



Calradia has been reimagined with a northern region, a settled island, coastal waters and open seas. The dynamic weather system was also refined to include storms and trade winds. Ships move faster when riding the gales, but beware—attrition can unravel even the best-laid plans.

The naval systems and Nord faction integrate into Bannerlord’s world, reshaping trade, warfare, and diplomacy. Ship production and new trade goods add regional variety. Coastal towns may grow rich from this — if they can fend off pirates and naval invasions.

Sieges have also been adapted to naval warfare. Armies will have to bring along a fleet and set up a blockade, if they want to stop supplies and reinforcements arriving over sea.



Players can choose from 18 ship types modelled after historical vessels, each with unique handling, shaped by realistic wind and wave physics. They can be customized with siege engines, cargo holds, sails, rams, and more. Shipyards build and stock vessels based on their town’s culture and development. Players can also capture ships and figureheads in battle.



The character system has been extended with Nord hairstyles, beards, and tattoos. Three nautical skills were added that enhance navigation, tactics, and stewardship. There are also many new items including spears, swords, axes, shields, and armor.

Troop trees now include mariner troops that are more effective at sea. Players can also recruit new companions with maritime backgrounds.



A new questline introduces players to the seas of Calradia through cinematics, scripted missions, and classic Mount & Blade gameplay. Learn how to command your ship, then take it into battle against a pirate confederacy. Lead a growing fleet of newfound allies as you face a range of nautical challenges.



The sounds of the sea come to life with new Mediterranean and Nordic-inspired musical tracks. Experience rich soundscapes with piercing winds, crashing waves and creaking ships. Feel the heat of battle as steel clashes and sailors cry out.

You can also check out the following FAQ page for more information.

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We also want to give you a general update on Bannerlord - what we’ve been doing and what is yet to come.

After the full release in October of 2022, we published a number of updates that not only addressed important issues across the various platforms but also introduced additional features such as weather and weather effects, fog of war, sally out ambush, formation targeting, warehouses, alleys, and many more. Much like during our early access period, we’ve continued to expand and refine the game with your feedback and support. We’re truly grateful to have such a dedicated community, who’s been with us every step of the way.

As we mentioned in our post-release plans, we were open to exploring DLC as one way of introducing additional content. And while that remained true, we realize that our communication has not met the level you had grown to expect from us. The naval battle system being introduced with the newly announced War Sails expansion proved to be a technical and gameplay challenge. We had also been working on another project that was planned as a more story-driven DLC. While this was an interesting new approach, it ultimately didn't meet the quality we aim for. Rather than talking about and releasing something we weren’t happy with, we made the tough decision to cancel its launch. These hurdles caused a delay in our communication and we sincerely appreciate your patience during this time. The good news is that instead of shelving the work, we will be repurposing the new gameplay mechanics from this canceled project as content for the base game.

This involves the introduction of a robust stealth system that will allow you to infiltrate dungeons and hideouts, rescue prisoners, and dispatch enemies without ever raising alarms. The enemy AI will now detect sound and motion, becoming alerted by your actions through progressive levels of cautiousness. To succeed, you will need to not only carefully consider your position and movement, but also your environment - utilizing the elevation, darkness of the night, and natural cover to achieve your goals covertly. While these may be enough in some cases, you’ll find other stealth tactics like distractions and concealing corpses just as useful. Honing your effectiveness will further be possible through gear and the roguery skill. We’ll be sharing more stealth details in a future deep dive so stay tuned!


Stealth kill

We are also working on several features that we're planning to bring to the base game alongside the War Sails expansion. For one, we want to improve our trait system so that players will be able to better develop their characters. To this end, we are working on a feature that will prompt you with random events during your journeys. Ideally, this will not just offer a new avenue of character development but add further life to the world of Calradia.


Random events

Town and castle projects will also undergo changes. These adjustments will improve the balance between projects with impactful effects and those with limited or situational effects and add new types. This should allow for better control over the management of your fief.

Another point of interest is the passage of time and the cycle of life in the game. While we think that Bannerlord manages to achieve a happy medium between this progression and not rushing players… we also feel that additional choice in this regard would make for a rather fun alternative to the vanilla experience.

We’re also making it easier to communicate with nearby enemies by introducing the Parley feature, allowing you to enter into a conversation without getting your head cut off!


Parleying with an enemy from a distance

The community-requested Character Import & Export feature is in the works, allowing you to adjust various aspects like equipment, perks, skills, attributes, name, culture, gold,... by editing the character file in the Game Saves folder and importing it via the console window cheats.

Alongside these, we continue to work on the combat experience, which includes the addition of new weapon types like slings. Spear bracing is being refined with better targeting, smoother animations, and spearmen using their spears by default - making them more effective against cavalry charges.


New Weapon Type - Sling

A variety of AI enhancements are also being added such as more accurate usage of melee weapons, improved pathfinding and reduced zig-zag movements for mounted AI, improved ranged AI accuracy against moving targets, and increased firing rate through better avoidance of friendly troops. Beyond that, we’re addressing various siege AI issues, preventing archers with a targeted order from getting too close to the enemy, and more.

We’re likewise working on a number of adjustments to support our modders better. This includes allowing attack while crouched (looking at you - mods with guns), further opening up the AI agent attack and weapon selection decision-making processes, making the interpolated mission atmosphere moddable, providing audio modding support for FMOD Banks and Events, as well as opening up campaign time to customization. To make modding even more accessible, we’re creating an XML Editor, removing the need to manually edit XML files to add, remove, or modify items, heroes, factions, settlements, and more. Those that will prefer to continue doing it manually, will also see that process simplified, where using the XSLT system will no longer be necessary.

And that brings us to the end of today’s announcement. On behalf of everyone at TaleWorlds, we want to express our heartfelt thanks for your incredible support and dedication over the years. We can’t wait to share even more in the coming weeks. Until then, stay tuned and take care – we'll see you soon!