So how does Bannerlord, in its current state, compare to Warband?

[Jarek Defiler]

Howdy all,

I run a youtube channel on patient gaming and Bannerlord was the next title I was wanting to cover in a review as it's on sale now, thought I might pick it up; however, after looking through the most recent reviews, I'm somewhat conflicted.

So I thought I would ask any veterans of Warband and Bannerlord if you could give me your opinions (unbiased and biased alike!) on how Bannerlord fares to Warband as of today (July 7, 2024...my dead grandma's birthday funnly enough, heh. Happy birthday Grandma!).

Noted in my concerns was seeing people say there's no diplomacy like in Warband. They say it's there, but severely lacking in content. Is this true? The diplomacy/political side of Warband (honor, renown, controversy, etc.) was perhaps my favorite aspect of the game and I was hoping they'd improve on that.

Another major criticism I've seen was that Bannerlord has no real end game. I'm hoping some of you can expound on this because in Warband the end game you basically made yourself. Become a super rich merchant? Check. Become marshall to a faction? Check. Start your own faction and take over the map? Check. Things like that. Any thoughts on Bannerlord's end game?

I suspect combat and sieges are improved? I loved Warband's combat as it never got old for me, so anything outside of a downgrade is fine by me!

Any other thoughts or opinions is helpful as I'm undecided on if I want to go through with covering Bannerlord on my channel or not. Much appreciated, thanks in advance!

Pays to be a patient gamer.

[Action Man]

I didn't play Warband, but the observation I've had from these forum topics:

Vanilla Bannerlord > Vanilla Warband

Modded Warband > Modded Bannerlord

Warband has had years of extra time for mods to develop, so Bannerlord may (or may not) catch up in that regard. Many people highlight a number of total conversion mods for Warband. There are some for Bannerlord, but I guess they aren't up to par given the years/decade long timeframe Warband has had. That and TW is still actively working on this game, making very large mods more difficult to maintain through numerous game versions.

Diplomacy is in the game, but it's not what many people (that post here) want it to be. This game is a hack and slash/battle simulator much more than it is a game of intrigue and RP.

The Endgame is...eh. This is a sandbox game, so you set your own objectives. A common endgame goal people point to is painting the map so they control everything, but that's a huge exercise in tedium. Even the story mode in the game doesn't go that far. It involves wiping out a few factions, but that's it.

Like in all sandbox game, you are going to become unstoppable, and the game will stop presenting a challenge. It's just how the games go.

As someone who really enjoys this game, the battles are fun, and the non-combat systems don't have much depth to them. I don't play this game for intrigue and deep RP. I play this game to strap on a helmet and swing a pointy stick at hundreds of enemy soldiers, sometimes mixing it up by firing catapults at them.

[Shaileen]

To be honest they aren't really different. Both kind of broken, feels like extreme Indie, Bannerlord has better graphics, Warband better flavour. Just one example: I spend hundreds of hours in Warband, finally bought Bannerlord after it being out for almost a decade in development:

My first Siege on defense - I went down early so I had time to fly around and look at how this stuff works. Spoiler, it barely does. First of all the soundscape is awful - very quiet. My small garden behind the house is louder then a siege with 200+ soldiers in it. The enemy attacked with two siege towers. At one point my soldiers defeated all enemies at one tower, so I guess they wanted to reinforce the other point - which they did by travelling down the tower, running in front of the wall, and trying to get up the other tower. This lead to the "great" situation where the attackers were up on the wall, defending against my defenders who tried to get up there through the enemy siege tower.
In general it seems that the defending army is constantly shuffling to get somewhere, never standing and fighting. They're always on the move.
After both towers were down, they got to work on the main gate with their weapons. After it went down, they keep going at it. I'm currently watching them for 10+ minutes, because my archers can't hit them because they are under the stone, still hacking away at an already destroyed gate.
For some reason a contingent of ~40 of the attackers also stands at the entry of the map and doesn't move. My archers occasionally hit a shot from 400m away and kill one of them.

And that it just one small example. I have absolutely no clue what the devs did all that time, because it sure as hell wasn't related to working on this game. I'm very sad about it. I had the game on my wishlist since 2016 and recently finally bought it, thinking it would be a great adventure after loving the previous one. Well...

[Wusch]

I wouldn't return to Warband unless for some total conversion mods. Bannerlord has still some bugs, but the base game is better than Warband.

[Jarek Defiler]

Originally posted by Shaileen:

To be honest they aren't really different. Both kind of broken, feels like extreme Indie, Bannerlord has better graphics, Warband better flavour. Just one example: I spend hundreds of hours in Warband, finally bought Bannerlord after it being out for almost a decade in development:

My first Siege on defense - I went down early so I had time to fly around and look at how this stuff works. Spoiler, it barely does. First of all the soundscape is awful - very quiet. My small garden behind the house is louder then a siege with 200+ soldiers in it. The enemy attacked with two siege towers. At one point my soldiers defeated all enemies at one tower, so I guess they wanted to reinforce the other point - which they did by travelling down the tower, running in front of the wall, and trying to get up the other tower. This lead to the "great" situation where the attackers were up on the wall, defending against my defenders who tried to get up there through the enemy siege tower.
In general it seems that the defending army is constantly shuffling to get somewhere, never standing and fighting. They're always on the move.
After both towers were down, they got to work on the main gate with their weapons. After it went down, they keep going at it. I'm currently watching them for 10+ minutes, because my archers can't hit them because they are under the stone, still hacking away at an already destroyed gate.
For some reason a contingent of ~40 of the attackers also stands at the entry of the map and doesn't move. My archers occasionally hit a shot from 400m away and kill one of them.

And that it just one small example. I have absolutely no clue what the devs did all that time, because it sure as hell wasn't related to working on this game. I'm very sad about it. I had the game on my wishlist since 2016 and recently finally bought it, thinking it would be a great adventure after loving the previous one. Well...

Damn, that does sound disappointing. Still on the fence but it's things like this that keep me there. :(

[Jarek Defiler]

Originally posted by Wusch:

I wouldn't return to Warband unless for some total conversion mods. Bannerlord has still some bugs, but the base game is better than Warband.

How so?

[Jarek Defiler]

Originally posted by Action Man:

I didn't play Warband, but the observation I've had from these forum topics:

Vanilla Bannerlord > Vanilla Warband

Modded Warband > Modded Bannerlord

Warband has had years of extra time for mods to develop, so Bannerlord may (or may not) catch up in that regard. Many people highlight a number of total conversion mods for Warband. There are some for Bannerlord, but I guess they aren't up to par given the years/decade long timeframe Warband has had. That and TW is still actively working on this game, making very large mods more difficult to maintain through numerous game versions.

Diplomacy is in the game, but it's not what many people (that post here) want it to be. This game is a hack and slash/battle simulator much more than it is a game of intrigue and RP.

The Endgame is...eh. This is a sandbox game, so you set your own objectives. A common endgame goal people point to is painting the map so they control everything, but that's a huge exercise in tedium. Even the story mode in the game doesn't go that far. It involves wiping out a few factions, but that's it.

Like in all sandbox game, you are going to become unstoppable, and the game will stop presenting a challenge. It's just how the games go.

As someone who really enjoys this game, the battles are fun, and the non-combat systems don't have much depth to them. I don't play this game for intrigue and deep RP. I play this game to strap on a helmet and swing a pointy stick at hundreds of enemy soldiers, sometimes mixing it up by firing catapults at them.

Thanks for the info! For some reason I saw this post last and it may sway me to getting the game. I wasn't planning on modding anytime soon and I haven't modded Warband for quite some time. So if Bannerlord seems better in vanilla, it might be picking up on sale for me.

[The Mau Corporation]

Bannerlord is objectively bigger and better.

Vanilla Warband has a fighting layer with some sprinkling of other activities like marriage and dueling with a pretty static economy. But it has a couple of decades of mods behind it.

Vanilla Bannerlord has added a simulated demand and supply economy.
A Diplomatic layer, both internal and external (which is contentious but Ill gladly spend time with someone willing to listen about how badly the aggrieved part of the community have it wrong).
Generational layer: the game can be played like a proper sandbox for quite some time, but this comes with caveats surrounding a players ability to nourish their own fun.

And more. I'm not interested in selling it. But the thrust of my point is that the game suffers from a unconscientious modders mentality. Warband gameplay loop was personally tailored over a decade and more while Bannerlord suffers from personal tailored experience because its still in development. Mods get broken and people lose their sh!t.

As far as endgame goes: We're getting claimants soon (which dramatically shakes up the options mid-lategame.
How much more endgame content design can we ask for when the sandbox is so dynamic and the general population still hasnt figured out the diplomatic layer? I'm not sure the games complex structure can support much more.

My assertion: Too many are still trying to play Bannerlord the Warband way, and frustration over controlling ones tailored experience thru mods (which is fundamentally the modders concern and perogative imho).

[Groogo]

I have over 400 hours in Warband and I purchased Bannerlord about two weeks ago. I am having a great time with the game and I appreciate all of the QoL improvements Bannerlord provides over Warband. It is very easy to find the NPC, town, castle or village that you are looking for anywhere on the map at any time you want to look for it.

[Jarek Defiler]

Originally posted by The Mau Corporation:

Bannerlord is objectively bigger and better.

Vanilla Warband has a fighting layer with some sprinkling of other activities like marriage and dueling with a pretty static economy. But it has a couple of decades of mods behind it.

Vanilla Bannerlord has added a simulated demand and supply economy.
A Diplomatic layer, both internal and external (which is contentious but Ill gladly spend time with someone willing to listen about how badly the aggrieved part of the community have it wrong).
Generational layer: the game can be played like a proper sandbox for quite some time, but this comes with caveats surrounding a players ability to nourish their own fun.

And more. I'm not interested in selling it. But the thrust of my point is that the game suffers from a unconscientious modders mentality. Warband gameplay loop was personally tailored over a decade and more while Bannerlord suffers from personal tailored experience because its still in development. Mods get broken and people lose their sh!t.

As far as endgame goes: We're getting claimants soon (which dramatically shakes up the options mid-lategame.
How much more endgame content design can we ask for when the sandbox is so dynamic and the general population still hasnt figured out the diplomatic layer? I'm not sure the games complex structure can support much more.

My assertion: Too many are still trying to play Bannerlord the Warband way, and frustration over controlling ones tailored experience thru mods (which is fundamentally the modders concern and perogative imho).

Thanks for the reply, this was very helpful! I call that Skyrim syndrome (judging a game based off its mods). I think you convinced me to take the plunge as I did notice a lot of reviews discussing how modding makes the worth it etc. Kind of a reg flag. But you make good points in that regard. Thank you good sir/ma'am!

[Jarek Defiler]

Originally posted by Groogo:

I have over 400 hours in Warband and I purchased Bannerlord about two weeks ago. I am having a great time with the game and I appreciate all of the QoL improvements Bannerlord provides over Warband. It is very easy to find the NPC, town, castle or village that you are looking for anywhere on the map at any time you want to look for it.

Thanks! I decided to take the plunge and go ahead and get it. Crossing my fingers but think it'll be fine. I just don't want to waste what little time I have because I don't do videos on games I don't recommend. So your reply is much appreciated!

[Groogo]

Originally posted by Jarek Defiler:

Originally posted by Groogo:

I have over 400 hours in Warband and I purchased Bannerlord about two weeks ago. I am having a great time with the game and I appreciate all of the QoL improvements Bannerlord provides over Warband. It is very easy to find the NPC, town, castle or village that you are looking for anywhere on the map at any time you want to look for it.

Thanks! I decided to take the plunge and go ahead and get it. Crossing my fingers but think it'll be fine. I just don't want to waste what little time I have because I don't do videos on games I don't recommend. So your reply is much appreciated!

My pleasure. I think that you will find that you made a good purchase as Bannerlord is a very good game. Drop a link here to a video after you have time to get one done and I will cheerfully give it a look!

[Jarek Defiler]

Originally posted by Groogo:

Originally posted by Jarek Defiler:

Thanks! I decided to take the plunge and go ahead and get it. Crossing my fingers but think it'll be fine. I just don't want to waste what little time I have because I don't do videos on games I don't recommend. So your reply is much appreciated!

My pleasure. I think that you will find that you made a good purchase as Bannerlord is a very good game. Drop a link here to a video after you have time to get one done and I will cheerfully give it a look!

Will do! Might be awhile though. Need at least 100 hours game time most likely before I feel I can give ny opinion (also have a newborn at home that's taking all my and my wife's time lol). Thanks again!

[The Mau Corporation]

Grats on the baby! The ultimate rpg lvler right there.

[Groogo]

Originally posted by Jarek Defiler:

Will do! Might be awhile though. Need at least 100 hours game time most likely before I feel I can give ny opinion (also have a newborn at home that's taking all my and my wife's time lol). Thanks again!

Wonderful!

[Jarek Defiler]

36 minutes played and already 2 crashes

d3d_device_context_-> Map at rglGPU_device::lock_texture Failed!

Not a good sign lol