

Also, despite its initial clunkiness, there’s definitely depth to the hand-to-hand combat, as seen by how easily some players would dance around me and slice me to death as I made futile attempts to stick them with the pointy end. And if both teams’ numbers have dwindled enough, then skilled swordsmanship suddenly becomes far more important than how far you managed to make it through The Art of War. Mount & Blade II: Bannerlords modding community is actively making some of the best mods for players to experience. That’s not to say that there’s no place for individual heroics - a skilled fighter can take out more than a few AI-controlled soldiers on their own, given the right approach.

Victory will almost always go to the team that manages to outthink the enemy, with tactics and battlefield awareness winning out over individual heroics. Each dead soldier stays dead until the end of the round, making each match a deadly game of high-stakes chess where you and your teammates must work together to either hold critical points or wipe your enemy off the map.

You wander around the battlefield yourself, pointed stick in hand, barking orders to your soldiers about where to stand, where to face, when to charge, and when to run away with your tail tucked between your legs.
