[1.6.1] My modlist with Kingdoms Expended. (Updated with images)

Setup Bannerlord 1.6.1 with Calradia Expended Kingdoms (about 15 different kingdoms) with custom troops, armors and troop trees.
Makes use of Custom Spawns to add non-kingdom factions inside the game. (Inquisition, Cultists, etc)
About 35 mods total !

Introduction

Hello and welcome to this guide.

It will help you to setup Calradia Expanded : Kingdoms and some other additions to change the game in a geat replayability sandbox experience.

I used Vortex from NexusMods to get all of this stuff working, but I assume you can also make that configuration work without it, following the good load order.

The mods will be given out from top to the bottom following my load order that is working and stable. You'll just have to follow it.
Always download the 1.6.1 version Read the Warning and Personal Notes !
If you are using VORTEX, reach Manual download and chose the 1.6.1 version to be downloaded!

If you are a begginer with mods, you need to know that your computer locks DLL(from mods) from being modified by the game by default.
Please unlock the DLL files AFTER you installed all the mods together!
This is why I give you here nformation about how to unlock your DLL files:
https://www.reddit.com/r/mountandblade/comments/g0korl/how_to_easily_unblock_all_mod_files_without_the/
(If you are using Vortex to setup the mods, go into C:\Users\Your-Username\AppData\Roaming\Vortex\mountandblade2bannerlord\mods to unlock your DLL files with ci -recurse | Unblock-File) !

Additional help with images.

• First, you need to switch Mount&Blade Bannerlord to the 1.6.1 version, here is how to achieve that.
  Go into your steam library, right click Bannerlord and go into properties then enter the Beta Tab.
  You should see this window :
  
• Chose Beta 1.6.1 like on screen. After ward, the game should appear in your steam library with the suffix [e1.6.1].
  
  
• Make sure that Bannerlord is recognized in Vortex very well, with the right location.
  
  
• The mods will be installed there, on screen. The folder path will change with your username. (mine is TV on screen).
  
  
• To access to this folder, type %appdata% inside your windows' research tab then reach Folder Roaming > Folder Vortex > Folder mountandblade2bannerlord > Folder mods. Don't forget that it is here that you will need to unlock the DLL files if you used VORTEX !
  
  
• The game will ask you to load Rearmement before/after some of the mods. Make sure it will load after every mod except it's own "Greek City States" addon. (The two screens below)
  
  
  
• To add to Vortex a mod that you got in .zip or .7z, please use this box here :
  
  
• If you load the mods with VORTEX, below are screens of my load order.
  
  
  
• To start the game with Vortex's load order, please use this launcher here, at the top left corner of Vortex's window :
  
  
  
• If you did something wrong like installing mods manually and using vortex and mixing up the two, great chances that the game won't load correctly and it will crash. Please only use VORTEX or only install mods manually.
  If you made a mistake, or if the game tells you that there is an error with the native folders, please uninstall all mods and repair your game.

Harmony

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/2006

This module should be the highest in loading order. Any other module that requires to be set at the top (Better Exception Window, Community Patch, MCM, etc.) should be loaded after this mod.

Personal notes : Mod's skeleton.

Better Exception Window

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/404

This mods will report a detailed error.
Instead of infinite loading/freezing or any weird behaviour, the game should throws an error window so you can identify the cause. You can also save the error logs as well.

Personal notes : It's helpful to identify where errors are coming, from which mods and how to troubleshoot your mod configuration !

ButterLib

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/2018

Extension library for Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord containing common functions for modification development.

Personal notes : It is used by many mods coming next.

UIExtenderEX

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/2102

Rewritten fork of UIExtenderLib with the similar goal of enabling multiple mods to alter standard game interface.

Personal notes : Allow interface customization from mods.

Mod Configuration Menu

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/612

A fork of ModLib created by mipen that only focuses on providing a library for creating an unified Mod Option screen for mods.
Can display Settings created by ModLib.

Personal notes : Allows mods to have a menu where you can custom their settings.

NATIVE MODS

In the load order, here should sit all of the native mods.

-Native
-SandBox Core
-CustomBattle
-Sandbox
-StoryMode

Open Source Armory

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/2829

Your #1 stop for all your custom armor needs!
Combines existing popular armor mods.
Adds 560+ new custom armors!
Compatible with 1.6.0 and later versions.
Largest custom armor pack so far!

Personal notes : Is used by some mods coming next. I'd prefer putting armor/weapon mods first to allow REAMAMENT (CEK) to load them without issues. You'll see that later on.

CA - Eagle Rising - Dawn of an Empire

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/2428

A Calradic Antiquity mod
Under active development.

Glory to the Empire!

Personal notes : Reamament (CEK) will use this content mod later!

Hellenic Panoply (Greek)

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/2658

Hellenic styles of dress and arms

Personal notes : looks really cool!

WARNING

/!\

After you installed it, delete the Scene Objective folder inside the mod's folder !
Otherwide the game will crash at startup !

/!\

Hallow Armor Reworked

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/2660

A rework of Hallow Plate Armor Set which is in the base game files

Personal notes : used by reamament CEK

Vlandian Steel - Troops Replacer - EN-FR

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/2522

Complete rework of the Vlandian Troop Trees

Personal notes : Used by Rearmament CEK

Swadian armoury

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/2349

adds a lot of random armor pieces
this is not ment to be historicaly accurate or somthing but more of a collection of all my armors.

Personal notes : used by Rearmament CEK

Medieval Armour and Weapons

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/2345

This mod adds additional armour and weapons to the game, based off of early and late medieval artifacts/art.

Personal notes : Used by Rearmament CEK

Horse Caparisons

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/2653

It adds horse caparisons to game

Personal notes : Used by Reamament CEK

Reign of Sword - new weapons pack

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/2221

This mod adds some new sharp tools of mass destruction.

Personal notes : Used by Rearmament CEK

Vlandian Knight's Lances

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/2901

It adds medieval heavy lances to game. I think Vlandia needs this

Personal notes : Used by Rearmament CEK

Knight Helmet inspired by Dark Souls 3

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/2319

Just an Full Knight Helmet inspired by Dark Souls 3 Elite Knight Armor.

Personal notes : Used by Rearmament CEK

Tetsojin Equipment (Samurai)

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/2845

Equipment pulled directly from Tetsojin

Personal notes : Used by Rearmament CEK.

/!\

also download the Tetsojin Equipment smithy fix for 1.6.0 and load it after Tetsojin base mod !

/!\

Additional Quests

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/3066

This mod adds additional quests to Bannerlord.
Each quest is vanilla friendly, blending seamlessly with other quests you can get from notables.
Currently adds four quests, with plans on adding more as I finish them.
Still initial release, expect there to be possible bugs or side effects.

Personal notes : Cool quests, working great.

Agriculture Estate

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/3088

Buy land in villages to collect rent for passive income or used captured bandits as slave labor to produce goods either to keep or sell

Personal notes : Working great and adds a lot of depth to the economy.

Diplomacy

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/832

A vanilla-friendly mod for the campaign and sandbox modes of Bannerlord. Diplomacy's goal is to provide balanced, fun, and creative options for characters to have an impact on the world, including both the player and NPCs. Diplomacy creates more believable world behaviors while giving the player the agency to shape their world.

Personal notes : Allows NPA, alliances and more.
In addition of the kingdoms added by Calradia Expanded : Kingdoms, it is a very great option for world politics and kingdom evolutions.

Calradia at War (Custom Spawns)

This mod is no longer updated by it's creator.
Discord users from https://discord.gg/NrZjvEa have made an unofficial patch for 1.6.1 that is working great for me. Please download it there and add it manually to VORTEX if you are using it.

Here is the link of the exact message with the updated version for 1.6.1 : https://discord.com/channels/700030272736985158/700030273252884493/881941554225360906

Original NexusMod link (outdated) : https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/411

One of the largest vanilla expansion mods and tools. 21+ new factions, custom C# systems such as spawning, AI, dialogue, rewards, diplomacy, and more! Hundreds of new units, campaign spawns, troop trees, campaign events, etc. Modular enough to act as an API for other mods, allowing for easy XML modding that is not possible with the base game.

Personal notes : Great addition to the game with the 21 factions, new units customized for each and every faction and much more ! It is worth the installation !

Calradia Expanded

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/1389

This mod adds an extra 14 Towns, 8 Castles and 77 Villages. It also relocates many vanilla towns, castles and villages onto other locations for them to make more sense. For example a castle defending a pass rather than at the arse end of nowhere. It also attempts to move village resources into sensible geographical locations.

Personal notes : The core mod of this whole mods setup.

Calradia Expanded Kingdoms

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/2828

Welcome to Calradia Expanded: Kingdoms. This mod introduces 8 additional Kingdoms to the world of Calradia and reforges the existing Kingdoms of Calradia and their lands to fit the Calradia Expanded Universe. Nutshell: Kingdoms, Cultures, Troop Trees and Features all based in the Calradia Expanded campaign map.

Personal notes : The other core mod of this modlist!

Fire Archers for Calradia Expanded Kingdoms

• I don't advice this mod anymore, unless you really like fire arrows/bolts.

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/3216

Adds fire arrows/bolts to top tier archers/arbalests for all major CEK factions.

Personal notes : Who hates fire ?

/!\ WARNING /!\

This mod is cool, but it does replace the whole last tier troop instead of just adding fire arrows/bolts.
If you really like fire archers/crossbows go for it.

If you want the full modded troop tree from REAMAMENT (CEK) do not install this mod.

Minor Troop Overhaul EX(Calradia Expanded Kingdoms Mod Compatible)

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/2948
Hireable Minor faction troops with new T5 units, Reblanced Armed Trader, new bandit troops,
Armed traders, militias are able to upgrade to each culture''s minor faction troop.

Personal notes : Modify basic vanilla traders/bandits/looters and much more to CEK !

Rearmament (CEK)

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/3250

What it does -
Changes the equipment of Lords and units of the faction Apolssaly.
Changes units from the Cortanian and Rhodok unit tree lines.
Changes the Khergit to the Tetsojin faction. Includes Lords etc.
Look to images to see the new unit trees
Much more.

Personal notes : All of the previous weapon and armor packs are used here by this mod !
It should be loaded after all of them.

Also download Rearmament (CEK) Greek City States and load it after the core mod.

DismembermentPlus

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/2190

This mod adds full dismemberment/decapitation to Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord.
If you have the skill you can remove the enemy's head, arm, hand, leg or foot. All options are on the table or rather at the edge of your axe, sword or glaive.

Enjoy, and let the enemies bloodied stumps fall at your feet.

Personal notes : Gore content !

Fourberie (Roguery)

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/2969

Fourberie is a mod adding different actions (with scene fight) in town.
Depending on your relation with gang leaders and other conditions, you will be able to scam people, organize a heist, sabotage the foodstock, arrange a plot and more.
But be sure to act wisely, or you will have to face the consequences...

Personal notes : Great mod that adds depth to the rogue gameplay !

Improved Garrisons

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/688

Customize your fief management with recruiters, advanced troop training with templates, automatic garrison recruitment, a standalone UI, custom parties with orders and more!

Personal notes : You will need it when you'll get your own kingdom !

PARTY AI OVERHAUL AND COMMANDS REBUILD

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/3218

This mod is "PARTY AI OVERHAUL AND COMMANDS" for the game version e1.6.1.
Adds giving advanced orders to your Clan parties on the campaign map, including control over their recruitment. Restricts AI sieges to borders of Kingdoms. Makes the AI more likely to conquer and less likely to raid the lands that share their culture. Causes all hostile Vassals who like/hate you to target your properties less/more respectively.

Personal notes : Cool addition to your clan.

Raise your Banner

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/3253

Banners for the troops in battle. Updated for to be compatible with troop mod.

Personal notes : I like it when I see troops in line with banner all over the place.

Realistic Battle Mod (AI version ONLY)

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/791

This mod makes combat more realistic. Armor and damage is reworked according to experimental data. Weapons attack faster. Units parry and block more. Projectile damage is based on kinetic energy, ranged weapons use draw and projectile weight based simulation. AI tactics improved. Units climb ladders during siege. Optional unit overhaul included.

/!\ WARNING /!\

Only download the Realistic Battle AI module for 1.6.1 stable and not the Unit Overhaul or Combat module as it would corrupt datas from previous mods.
All we need here is the AI module that modify troops behaviour.

/!\ WARNING /!\

Personal notes : It's great... REALLY GREAT. The troops behave WAY better with this AI modification mod. You won't be able to play without it after having tried it.

Show Companion Requirements for Issues

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/2937

Displays the companion requirements in the tooltips of notables who have available issues

Personal notes : Helpful for questing. Not mandatory mod tho, it's just quality of life thingy.

SliceThrough

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/3237

SliceThrough is mod that enables your weapons to cut through multiple enemies. Older mods had this feature but have since been made obsolete with new updates from TaleWorlds. This takes the same idea and just updates the code.

Personal notes : My favorite weapons are 2handed swords or axes, and it works really great with those!

Workshop Rework

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/3215

-add several new feature to workshop to give more depth and player control, especially for a trade based campaign

Personal notes : Good addition to the game, vanilla workshops aren't that great imo.

Last words

Now that all of the mods are installed, don't forget to unblock the DLL files !

/!\WARNING/!\

The first time you will start a new campaign or a new sandbox, the game might crash or have an infinite loading issue. It won't be able to load character models. Usually, this issue is fixed by restarting the game and trying again. I think that the game needs to create temporary files on the first startup in order to load properly character models afterward.

I tried to setup Captivity events mod too, but it makes the game crash because of the custom child system after some weeks in game. Maybe you can try to add it and make the pregnancy chances set to 0% to avoid the crash ? You can try it.
If you want to add other mods, do so. If it is working well, please come back here to share the information so I can update this mod list !

Thank you very much for your support !

[Emmanuelf37]

TaleWorlds.MountAndBlade.MissionAgentSpawnLogic.BattleSizeSpawnTick_Patch1(MissionAgentSpawnLogic this)
at TaleWorlds.MountAndBlade.Mission.OnTick(Single dt, Single realDt, Boolean updateCamera)
at TaleWorlds.MountAndBlade.MissionState.TickMission(Single realDt)
at TaleWorlds.MountAndBlade.MissionState.OnTick(Single realDt)
at TaleWorlds.Core.GameStateManager.OnTick(Single dt)
at TaleWorlds.Core.Game.OnTick(Single dt)
at TaleWorlds.Core.GameManagerBase.OnTick(Single dt)
at TaleWorlds.MountAndBlade.Module.OnApplicationTick_Patch1(Module this, Single dt)

I've tried deleting my game folder and re-downloading everything, but it doesn't fix the issue for me.

[Emmanuelf37]

I've been getting a crash when half-way through large battles. It says something like:

Source: TaleWorlds.MountAndBlade
Index was outside the bounds of the array.

Source: No module
No inner exception was thrown

Inner exception callstack:
No inner exception was thrown
Outer exception callstack:
at TaleWorlds.MountAndBlade.Formation.CalculateFormationClass()
at TaleWorlds.MountAndBlade.Formation.AddUnit(Agent unit)
at TaleWorlds.MountAndBlade.Agent.set_Formation(Formation value)
at TaleWorlds.MountAndBlade.Mission.SpawnAgent(AgentBuildData agentBuildData, Boolean spawnFromAgentVisuals, Int32 formationTroopCount)

[RedSteelGunslinger]

Would recommend adding "My Little Warband" if it is compatible. I am using it with Eagle Rising and CEK right now, and its great. Plus you can easily turn it off in game.

[[PBS] Wo3dy]

@shaiTan have you deleted the folder in hellenic map ?
"After you installed it, delete the Scene Objective folder inside the mod's folder "

[ShaiTan]

Re-deploying the mods does not work.

[ShaiTan]

I have installed it using vortex and all seems to work well until I attack some bandits. It just loops the battle loading screen indefinitely. The simulation and everything else works fine except for a battle :( Any ideas?

[Knockdown]

Food-based crash on start up fixed,
To anyone else experiencing this issue; Please do not install manually. For some reason that is what triggers the crash, currently able to play just fine after using Vortex and ensuring that all steps were taken.

[Siulek]

CustomSpawns give me this crash

[Siulek]

@Damned when i click "new campain" i have crash :

Source: TaleWorlds.ObjectSystem

An XML error has occurred.

How fix this ? ;)

[[PBS] Wo3dy]

i Re-deployed all the mods and now it seems to work again.