Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord: A Strong Case of Tunnel Vision
Updated: Jan 18
Few games capture the rise from nameless mercenary to ruler quite like Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord. Yet, for many players, that rise also marks the beginning of the end. The point where the world’s dynamism collapses under its own systems.
For many Bannerlord players, what I am about to describe is a common experience. You become one of the strongest vassals in your kingdom, or you start your own kingdom. You march around Calradia with 1000+ man armies steamrolling your enemies. Siege, capture, defend, siege, capture, defend, siege, capture, defend until your eyes glaze over. Eventually, the process becomes so mind-numbing that you start a new save just so you can feel something again. All before you even reach your 2nd generation.
Trust me, I’ve been there with dozens of dead save files to show for it. At first I thought the problem was me, that I was somehow undisciplined for being unable to see out a playthrough until its end. But then I realized it was the game design. The late game feels so dull compared to early Bannerlord because much of the dynamism that defines the start of the game is lost as you progress. The sandbox shrinks the longer you play and the farther you progress, rehashing the same scenarios and killing the emergent nature of the world. TaleWorlds’ plans to address some of these issues are addressed with Bannerlord’s DLC Patch War Sails, which releases soon, but a lot of aspects still need work, and I can’t keep them to myself any longer. Let's start with the standard run-of-the-mill playthrough.
The Martial Route: The Standard Playthrough
So, the main way the average player interfaces with the game is combat. Battles are by and large the most developed and intricate part of Bannerlord, to its benefit. The feeling of charging into an enemy line from the perspective of a single soldier is unmatched by any other game on the market right now.
However, that gameplay in a vacuum is quick to stale when stretched over a 100 hour campaign. Auto-Resolve is a common fixture in a Bannerlord player's arsenal as a result of this. TaleWorlds tries to alleviate this by incorporating an engaging overworld for players to engage with between battles, but it often falls short of the depth and complexity brought about by the combat scenarios. Such a large focus being placed on the combat creates other issues.
Combat-Centered Design: How the Decision Space Shrinks
The standard progression pipeline in Bannerlord looks something like this.
Nobody > Mercenary > Unlanded Vassal > Landed Vassal > Distinguished Vassal > Sovereign
Most of this process is facilitated by raising your Clan Tier, allowing you to lead more troops, recruit more people to your clan, open more workshops that increase your income, and engage politically at higher echelons of status. You raise your clan tier by gaining renown, and renown is gained primarily by defeating enemies in battle. This is fine for the combat centric playthrough, but when taking other playstyles into account it becomes very hard for Traders, Bandits, or Politicians to gain Significant Renown to raise their Clan Tier. For example, you can't really play Bannerlord as if you were a character like Littlefinger, controlling and manipulating politics far away from the battlefield. You are expected to win battles to progress your standing in the game world. A way to remedy this would be to create varied and significant renown sources outside of battle.
Alternate Renown Sources
Traders: Successful Caravans, Workshops, Trade Deals, With Lords, Trade Good Profits
Courtiers Advising their liege, learning schemes, convincing people of opinions, deflating conflict, etc.
Spymasters and Rogues: Plotting assassinations, planning prison breaks, backstabbing, stealing, lying, etc.
A lot of these playstyles are available to pursue in a fledgling manner, but they serve more as supplements to the normal combat experience. There isn't enough meat on any of these experiences for them to fill an entire playthrough worth of time. By creating more activities for these playstyles and tying them to renown, TaleWorlds could simultaneously deepen these experiences and make them viable alternatives to the martial route.
When It All Falls Down: The Devolution Into Apathy
So far, we’ve discussed how Bannerlord leans heavily into its combat gameplay but in doing so damages other aspects of the experience. I feel I have given a good overview so far, but I would like to dig deeper into how a campaign falls apart as you progress through the different stages. Before I start, I would like to define some terms:
Decision space refers to the number and variety of meaningful choices a player can make at any given time.
Immediacy refers to the sense of urgency and personal stake a player feels in the moment-to-moment gameplay, the feeling that their choices and failures matter right now.
Early Game: Narrow Decision Space, High Immediacy
At the start of the game the decision space is relatively narrow due to resource limitations. To put it more bluntly, you’re dead broke, with no renown, no supporters, and no land to your name. You are forced to scrape by with whatever you are given, and that dynamic creates a very engaging period in which every action you take is impactful. Whether you have enough wages to pay your men tomorrow, or if you can feed them, or if you can make it to town while the band of looters blocking the road. Every gold piece, every man in your warband, and every item in your inventory are valuable to you and are useful as a stepping stone to your eventual ascension. This is inherently engaging because almost every challenge you take on is a matter of life and death.
Mid Game: Wide Decision Space, Middling Immediacy
The mid-game phases are interesting in their own way. While you’ve climbed up Maslow's Hierarchy a bit to the point where you aren't struggling to feed yourself, you still have pressing issues of finances, logistics, and improving your own character. The immediate danger has lessened, but your increased status in the world has widened your decision space significantly. At this point, many kingdoms may ask for you to join them, whether as a mercenary or a full blown vassal. Many lords will freely let you into their keeps instead of having to pay to get in. You may start to arrange political marriages to strengthen your clan and have children. The decision space has widened tremendously from where it was before, further entrenching you in the world.
Late Game: Wide (but ineffectual) Decision Space, Zero Immediacy
The late game brings about a certain shift. Once you own a good amount of land and are around Clan Tier 4 or 5, the only way you can realistically be harmed is on the battlefield, whether it be you losing a battle or one of your fiefs being besieged. No amount of AI political scheming or plague or financial cost is really going to halt your progress unless you are intentionally sabotaging yourself. You tend to have enough gold that questing, which is a very valuable early game for income, becomes near useless during this phase. It’s pretty ironic because the Decision Space is more open than it ever has been, but 80% of the things you can do are worthless to you. What’s the 20% that remains? You guessed it. Battles and sieges.
What Can We Do?
That loops us back around to the beginning. Either you subscribe to the slog that is constant siege battles and fights you've done 50 times over, or you start a new save with the hope of reigniting the feeling you got at the beginning of your playthrough. Are we doomed to this fate? Is there nothing TaleWorlds can do? I am of the opinion that it need not be this way. There are two paths that could be trod to alleviate this issue.
Widen the Relevant Decision Space. When the player feels that they have access to impactful decisions, they then engage with the game more authentically.
Return Immediacy Back to the Second-to-Second Gameplay. Some sense of danger or urgency must be reintroduced into the late game, and it doesn’t have to be via combat.
Ideally, both of these objectives would be tackled at the same time, but even addressing one would bring about a massive shift in the way the progression feels within the game. It seems wise to turn first towards the decision space problem.
Design Fix #1: Making Decisions Relevant
For a martial player in the endgame, their goal is generally to conquer and control as much territory as possible, either for their liege lord or for themselves. Therefore widening the decision space for a player such as this means creating interesting decisions that allow the player to push towards that goal. It is important to note that the player should also receive pushback to create more interesting decisions. Sieging settlements is an obvious and straightforward method for the martial player, but as stated above, constant sieges can become exhausting when they are meant to be final-stand types of experiences. Sieges are a great dessert but horrible for consistent nutrition. We need more variety in our decision space. Let's brainstorm a bit.
Let's say that the player wants to conquer a given city. Rather than directly besieging it, they could
send an emissary threatening to siege the city if certain conditions are not met.
Take the lord of the city hostage and press demands against their kingdom.
Stage a peasant revolt, weakening the city from within prior to an assault
And as is the nature of Bannerlord’s sandbox, all of this should also happen to the player.
Receive an emissary threatening to siege your settlement or else
If you are captured, your liege is sent a message with terms of release that may include your settlement. If you are the liege, you are presented with the terms.
Opposing factions can sow dissent in your peasant population, forcing you to put down a revolt.
These are just 3 ideas for alternatives or additions to direct sieges that can spice up the decision space. A trader character may be more inclined to bargain than fight, while a political schemer would probably lean towards sowing dissent within the enemy's ranks. These options enhance the game and allow for different and distinct playstyles to emerge outside of the battlefield.
Design Fix #2: The World is a Scary Place
Now that we’ve touched a bit on how to affect the decision space more positively, we can talk about immediacy a bit more. Challenges and tension are the main levers for generating immediacy. Pacing is important so the player shouldn’t always be on edge, but there also should not be protracted periods of time where the player is not being challenged or feels that they are at risk of failing their objectives. When there is tension, it should also be multivariate. In the endgame there is some tension surrounding combat, but that is basically the only place it stems from. The player never has to worry about any other factors that could set them back or hinder their progress.
Now what are some things we can do to create Immediacy in the Endgame?
Add a plague system that requires the player to take precautions against destruction of their settlements, and the death of their clan members.
Other lords could stage assassination plots against you that will kill you if you fail.
As stated above, peasant revolts can become more of a serious issue the more land you hold.
Again, these are just suggestions for creating immediacy in the endgame. TaleWorlds could also lean on the levers already present within the game like making running a kingdom more expensive and make vassals more likely to become dissatisfied with their liege. Anyway they do it, there must be more non-combat pushback against your goals in the game.
Ultimately, the longevity of a Bannerlord playthrough hinges on TaleWorlds' ability to evolve the endgame beyond repetitive combat. The core issue lies in the design progression that narrows the relevant decision space and kills the sense of immediacy that makes the early game so compelling. By focusing development on two key areas—widening the available range of impactful non-combat decisions and reintroducing tension through systems like politics, assassinations, and plagues—the developers can provide the much-needed variety and pushback to sustain a campaign until the end. Only by addressing these foundational concerns can the game realize its full potential as a deep and enduring medieval sandbox.
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