Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord – War Sails Review — High Seas Piracy (Legal and Otherwise)

Mount and Blade has always been an incredibly unique, niche series, an open world medieval sandbox in which players start from nothing, raise huge armies by recruiting from different upgradeable troop trees with their own strengths, weaknesses and cultural diversity, and become a land owning noble or even continental emperor as they engage in long, open ended simulations of life and war in a bygone age. Unlike many games, I cannot name one that plays similarly to the Mount and Blade franchise, which has only become even more beloved and popular since the release of its latest title, Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord, in 2022.

I have been playing Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord on and off since the game’s original Early Access launch, tagging along Calradia for all of the game’s biggest updates. Balance patches, new gear or tweaks, little changes here and there that can make the overall simulation feel very different.

Never has there been an update to the game quite as big as Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord – War Sails however, a massive expansion paired with free changes to the game that focus on completely overhauling Bannerlord with the addition of a new faction, new diplomacy and storytelling features, and the introduction of ship faring and fleet building mechanics, forever changing how you will play the game.

Almost as big as the downloadable content itself are the free changes releasing alongside it. Even players who do not buy Bannerlord will be treated to a complete change to the game, with the version one point three point zero update being the biggest patch to the game yet. The patch itself is absolutely gigantic, and I could not do it justice in this review by listing out every change. Suffice to say, between the new diplomacy options, new story events that pop up from town to town and battle to battle, improved artificial intelligence and new armor and weapons, the game felt like a completely new one. The addition of decision driven story events also helps to make Bannerlord feel less like an empty sandbox and more like a living world, something I think the franchise has always suffered from, and I am glad to see a step taken in that direction.

I was also pleased to see the reintroduction of the Nord faction with the War Sails expansion. Based in a new expanded map area just above the homeland of the Sturgians, the Nords return with several changes from their original design in Warband. Namely, the Nords seem to be designed to be the perfect marine force, with every troop in the tree having traits that give them extra efficiency in sea combat. Seemingly less armored than the Sturgian infantry but with stronger axes and better throwing weapons, they dominate in close quarters combat such as the new ship boarding scenes and are likely to become a new fan favorite faction to play.

No review of Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord War Sails can be complete, of course, without talking about the sails themselves.

Buying and maintaining a fleet in Bannerlord completely changes the way you play the game. It is not only that the ships themselves open you up to new travel opportunities, but war across Calradia can no longer efficiently be fought without them. Huge armies can now move swiftly and strike at previously hard-to-hit locations, raiders can now strike villages and flee quickly, and traders can now safely and efficiently complete the longest and most gold efficient trade routes with nothing more than a fast ship and a good crew to man it.

Each faction has its own ships and its own mastery of the seas. Again, the Nords are arguably the best seafarers in the game, with their entire troop tree built around the new mechanic, but that does not mean you should turn your head at an Aserai warship or avoid the seas altogether if you are a Battanian lord.

For my first adventure with War Sails, I played the part of a raiding Nord adventurer. After some lucrative trading with the new whale oil and walrus tusk luxury goods, I was able to buy a ship and set the coast of the Northern Empire aflame, hitting villages for loot and building my fleet by stealing fishing boats as I went Viking across Calradia.

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the new maps and gorgeous lighting present in the land battle segments up north. Every time my party jumped a group of bandits, I was absolutely breathless staring at the distant mountains and Fjords on the horizon, to the point where I almost forgot I was in the middle of spilling someone’s blood.

Warfare and factions are not the only things to change with the introduction of ships to Bannerlord. The entire map has been reshaped to accommodate sea travel. Rivers have been widened, cities moved, and entire mountains raised from the ground, changing the way the map is navigated. As a consequence, some cities have become better protected by land, requiring a naval presence to competently invade, while others have been pushed away from valuable trade routes due to their distance from a dock. I have said it several times in this review, and I was not exaggerating; you will never play Bannerlord the same after playing the War Sails expansion.

Try Hard Guides was provided a Steam code for this PC review of Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord – War Sails. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page! Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord – War Sails is available on Steam and Xbox.