Mount & Blade: Warband

The game is very good, even in 2025 it is still worth it.

It provides a wealth of possibilities, mixing RPG and Total War, the graphics are dated but not horrible. The community makes awesome mods too, for example the Lord of The Rings convertion called "The Last Days of the Third Age", it is addicting, I love it.

Game is awesome. Takes a bit to learn everything but still an awesome game

The game isn't good. I lost track of time and now it's morning.

The graphics and animations are dated, the gameplay is timeless. Makes me wish there were more games like it that had any intention of being finished products. Warband still has some janky bits, but aside from some development on Viking Conquest, this game won't release an art and crash fix patch every few months that breaks all of your mods.

If you aren't after nicer graphics, stick to Warband, perhaps mod the hell out of it and realize you actually have four or five similar games because of the depth of mods.
If you are after nicer graphics, get Bannerlord and do your best to ignore features that still don't work or even exist.

Yes, I am still mad, but Warband is good.

This is an addicting game, to those that loves RPG, Strategy, Management, FPS/TPS action, all of that are in this game, you won't regret it! More interesting feature is this game is moddable, there are a lot of amazing mods that would fullfill your fantasies such as, Paradigm Worlds, Perisno, Song of Ice and Fire (AGOT), and even the Viking Conquest is awesome! So i absolutely recommend this game!

Crack in video game form. Becomes cocaine with overhaul mods.

One of the best modable games, mods are essential

it is 2010, i am in the army in iraq, and i am playing warband.
it is 2015, i am getting married to the love of my life, and i am playing warband.
it is 2020, i am stuck inside due to a global pandemic, and i am playing warband.
it is 2025, i am preparing my oldest child for 2nd grade, and i am playing warband.

the more things change the more they stay the same. my favorite game of all time.

"Mount & Blade: Warband – The Medieval Sandbox That Lets You Conquer, Fail, and Try Again (And Again)"

Mount & Blade: Warband is the kind of game that sneaks up on you. At first glance, it looks like a simple medieval RPG with clunky graphics and an unpolished interface. But beneath its rough exterior lies one of the most addictive, open-ended experiences in gaming history. It’s part strategy, part action, and 100% chaos—a sandbox where you can be a knight, a bandit, a merchant, or just some guy who really likes punching horses.

Let’s start with combat, the heart of Warband . Mounted battles are exhilarating, especially when you’re charging into a group of enemies with a lance, sending them flying like ragdolls. Melee combat feels weighty and satisfying, rewarding skill and timing over button-mashing (most of the time). Archery? Tricky but rewarding—there’s nothing quite like picking off an enemy commander from across the battlefield. Of course, the AI-controlled allies sometimes act like confused toddlers, running headfirst into danger or standing around while arrows rain down on them. But hey, that’s part of the charm!

The real magic of Warband , though, is its freedom. There’s no linear storyline forcing you down a specific path—you’re dropped into the world of Calradia and told to figure it out yourself. Want to become a wandering mercenary, climbing the ranks by fighting for various factions? Go for it. Prefer to build your own kingdom, recruiting soldiers and besieging castles? You can do that too. Or maybe you just want to rob villagers and sell their grain at inflated prices? No judgment here. The possibilities are endless, and every playthrough feels unique.

Sieges are another highlight, offering a mix of tactical planning and chaotic melee. Will you storm the walls with ladders, smash through the gates with siege engines, or starve the defenders into submission? Each approach has its pros and cons, and victory often comes down to luck as much as skill. And let’s not forget the thrill of commanding your troops during battle—it’s incredibly satisfying to bark orders and watch your army execute a perfect flanking maneuver… unless they ignore you entirely, which happens more often than you’d think.

Of course, Warband isn’t without its flaws. The graphics haven’t aged well, the UI is clunky, and the lack of hand-holding can feel overwhelming for newcomers. Diplomacy is hilariously broken—if you have enough money, you can bribe lords into betraying their kings faster than you can say “medieval politics.” And don’t even get me started on how easy it is to accidentally declare war on everyone because you clicked the wrong option in a menu.

But despite these quirks, Warband shines because of its sheer depth and replayability. Every decision matters, every battle feels earned, and every failure teaches you something new. Whether you’re leading a massive army to victory, getting ambushed by bandits in the middle of nowhere, or awkwardly trying to romance a lord’s daughter, the game never stops surprising you.

At its core, Mount & Blade: Warband is a celebration of player agency and medieval mayhem. It’s raw, unpolished, and occasionally frustrating—but also deeply rewarding and endlessly entertaining. If you’ve ever dreamed of ruling your own kingdom, charging into battle on horseback, or just causing absolute chaos in a medieval world, this is the game for you.

Rating: 9/10 – A flawed but unforgettable masterpiece that lets you live out your wildest medieval fantasies.

+ Fun gameplay loop
+ After a while everything becomes automatic and you can just zone out and enjoy
+ Excellent total conversion mods
- I need to go to bed

mount and blade warband is a fantastic sandbox rpg which has you managing both a party a map based screen, and fighting other parties within a third person or first person perspective.

you can besiege castles, marry, form your own kingdom, or conquer others in the name of your lord.

some of the systems are showing their age a little bit, the inventory system for me specifically, but it is still a good game overall.

the game also has a large modbase, with there being many mods all the way from a brittanic mod that will turn your game into the early british isles, to a mod that turns the map into a star wars galaxy, with you going between planets in a ship.

8/10 but 9/10 for nostalgia

10/10 would run circles trying to joust for 20 minutes in the tournament again (amazing game, highly recommend).

Found the wrong woman, always asking to beat her other suitors for fun. Ditched the hoe and conquered my own castle and lands: Land over hoes.

been playing since I was 12 and never had a problem with this game. This is elite gaming and super fun.

I have been playing this long before Bannerlord and can conclude both are absolute bangers. Bannerlord, however, does bring a lot of changes/additions that are great to the game, in my opinion.

Nonetheless, playing Warband just hits different. It's the OG.

Regarding mods, Warband has a giant collection of great singlerplayer mods (in and outside the Workshop) - Something that I couldn't find in Bannerlord.

Well.. I’ve played a bit.. what can I say? Outrageous.. I’m just at a loss for words, really. Ironman mode. 100 hours into the game. You only have one single save file. It gets corrupted. You lose everything including your sanity.

By and large, I’m not touching this game ever again. And you can’t call me out on that because it’s justified.
If you still want to buy the game, watch out for tons and tons of bugs and corrupted save files. And there’s nothing to make up for it to make it worth playing.

I’m not grumbling but If the developers don’t give any single flying f… about their own game, WHY SHOULD I?? Ultimately, I regret my life choices and having wasted more than 500 hours playing this UNWORTHY and unfinished, abandoned game. Bye.

bought this game on a whim because it was on sale and could run on my horrible specs when i first started pc gaming, had no idea at the time i was paying $2 for one of the greatest games i would ever play. do yourself a favor and experience this masterful sandbox.

It's a fun game.
Medieval combat,
Medieval money management,
Sea Raiders saying they'll drink from your skull, even if you outnumber them ten to one,
Being chased down by an enemy war party,
Your party losing 3 morale because you ran out of food herding cattle to some backwater village,
All while some passing Farmers remind you that "It's almost harvesting season!"
Good stuff.

The perfect niche of strategic campaign and thrilling combat that NO other studio has tried to replicate. The graphics may not be ideal, but that doesn't matter when you're having FUN. You can choose to mow down enemies or sit in the back and command your troops. You can create your own empire or build relations with the characters in your realm. Everything is about creating the best combat / strategy game to simulate an ancient empire.

Not to mention that there are many mods developed over 15 years now. When this is on sale for dirt cheap, you HAVE to get it.

I used to play it but didn't buy it from steam. Now that I paid for it, I can tell you that it's worth it, and don't forget to try out the mods.

One of the greatest games of all time. RPG, live strategy, field battles and brutal sieges. Still better than Bannerlord after all these years. Try the mods, they have everything.

Very good however end-game founding your own kingdom especially at hard diffucilty is IM PO SIB LE

this game is the core of my life, i would marry mount and blade if it was a real person

It's an incredibly addicting game.
I don't recommend the game because it will absolutely waste your time.
And not in the good way, the game loves to crash and has no auto save.
You will lose hours of your life to random crashes.

got it like 2 years ago as a birtday pressent but wasnt very interested, started playing last week for real (had like 2-4 hours prior) when i joined any kingdom it wasnt awfull to have a fief raided every time theres war and even if you join the nords and get kulum even the kherit kanate (sorry if spelled wrong) the purpe guys will attack every so often and not to mention neighbouring countries. i havent even gotten into like 40% of the game and cant even get my fiefs to above average in prosperity before the kings decide that war would be the best option and i have to start from scratch because king graveth has it out for me :( anyway play it its fucking epic, only wish travel system wasnt so slow at times...

It's rare to find marvels like M&B in today's AAA games. Rich storyline, addictive gameplay

Nothing beats the king you have sworn allegiance to invite you to a feast at his castle, where all the other vassals gather to have a good time...all the while your kingdom is at war with every possible other empire and your cities and villages are being robbed.
Thank you, King Harlaus. It was a truly delicious Rotten Chicken (31/50).

It's the perfect game for me personally, a perfect blend of roleplaying, tactics, grand strategy etc.

have you ever had the manly urge to saddle up on your horse, draw your sword, and lead your troops to glory at the head of a cavalry charge? this is the game for you. huge sandbox with a million modding options. If you want to be fighting over middle earth, you can. if you want to be fighting over Westeros, you can. Do you want to be fighting over Warring States Period Japan? You can. 10/10. one of my favorite games.

Crack addiction v2. Also has an insane and dedicated modding community, unfortunately mp is kinda dead now.

Same as my M&B review but better. Very fun if you like unit management or just grinding to become borderline godlike with a sword or any other weapon you get your hands on.

Also this lets me be a scummy merchant rotating towns and getting filthy rich before I build my army and conquer the region.

this game brings your lego lore set in action...amazing!! not about the graphics or the extreme mechanics of the game but it has a vibe that makes me feel 10 years old playing in my room...i havent felt that in years with any other advanced game...i dunno tho might be just me ...

I really enjoyed the first 10–20 hours of playing, but the next 40+ hours felt incredibly boring. Deathless lords who can escape from any prison? Cringe. The lack of a 'kill lords' option feels nonsensical and restrictive, especially in a brutal medieval sandbox where life and death should matter. I love the battle and combat system, but I hate the mid and endgame mechanics of this game. Also later you will notice that there is no logic in the actions between the kingdoms. Everything is very scripted and monotonous.
The game is certainly worth its pennies to spend 10-15 hours. But what awaits the player later will be too disappointing to leave a positive review about the game. I haven't tried mods, maybe there will be something interesting there.

Overall very fun and satisfying game. So many incredible mods that once you feel bored with vanilla you barely scratched the surface of what this game offers. Just as fun as Bannerlord and no matter what year you see this it's never too old of a game to try out.

very flexible if you looking for a medieval/historical sandbox this game is perfect and easy to mod taking one game and making it into many with some mods

Very well made party management game and a classic, the only issues with this are things that show with age or some very small features. Amazing and would recommend, plentiful amazing community mods and upgrades for the game also.

Go Swadia

Once you get by the graphics, its pretty good. Until then you feel like your computer is lagging.

It's an oldun but a goodun. In many ways still superior to its successor Bannerlord in its simplicity and clarity of vision. Its a game that knows what its about and does it well. A great battle sim. As it was, like none other, but now a trailblazer. Its great to go back and remind yourself where it began. Recommend to old and new players for sure...

111111/10

BaseGame is awesome.
Game with mods more awesome.
Ur mom? She is nice, appreciate her more.

Sadly, it's better than Bannerlord...

It's like if Taleworld's had a baby and Warband was perfect. Then they wanted another and would name it Bannerlord, but this time they would drink, fall down steps, etc till finally producing the abomination they keep locked in the basement.

Great game. Its what ive been wanting for a long time. Amazing Combat and Sandbox Elements.

I have so much nostalgia for this game. I played a lot of Skyrim as a kid, but this game is way more iconic for my younger years. I played it vanilla, modded, abusing console commands, role playing. I love this game. I imagine Warband is better, but I havn't played it because whenever I want to play Mount & Blade I play this game.

Very fun game with lots to do and lots of different routes of progression. Combat is fun too.

I’m not sure what’s happening, but it keeps force closing, and there are many bugs when playing it on a MacBook.

Please fix it.

I just wanted to relive some nostalgia playing this game.

I remember seeing this game and seeing the graphics (even back in 2016) were terrible and sitting on the fence but seeing overwhelmingly positive reviews and reading some of them and wondering "Should I buy this game?" I finally came across a review that said something along the lines that you can be a bandit, warlord, or the line that captured my attention and pushed me to buy it "a noble knight who can protect the villagers/peasants" and I thought, alright, time to buy it.

I took a chance on that alone and bought the game and got my butt kicked for quite a few hours, a bankrupt warband of angry, destitute men trying to scrap out a living and getting wasted by the nobles upon the map who had actual armies, fiefs and knew how to lead. I've restarted many times and tried different things and always had fun and actually started my own faction and took over the entire map.

There is Bannerlord out which depending on which reviews you read is a much more beautiful version than this game with a larger map and far bigger and better battles. This game is a very ugly (graphics wise) woman with a heart of gold who will never let you down.

My greatest moment in this game (I am not one of those players who can be a horse archer and take down 300 man armies by myself, maybe a dozen but no more than that) is when I engaged the king of the Rhodoks who has the best crossbowmen and spearmen in the game by far in open terrain with a band of around 160 Swadian knights against his 700+ army of elite Rhodok sergeants and sharpshooters. The battle went on for quite a while and his reinforcements eventually dwindled to nothing and 800 casualties later it was over and the king's army forever reduced to never reach those heights again (at least in that map and play-through). The reason for all of this bloodshed: in the defense of my small village the king tried to raid. I had fulfilled my oath and the draw of the game back to me.

I highly recommend this game. It is all open-world meaning there is no story line in the vanilla game (Viking DLC and mods will correct that if that is what you are looking for). So the open vanilla map will either be the most boring time or the greatest story line depending upon how you craft it in your own mind and also how some battles and betrayals and sworn oaths are fulfilled.

I figure at this point most, if not all will go for Bannerlord but I will always come back to this game, even with Bannerlord and other bigger and more beautiful battle games out there. This was a love that will never leave me. Also if you can't afford Bannerlord or you have a potato of a computer than this will fulfill those needs until you can afford those luxuries.

This is the taste of kebab at 2AM and the toilet sitting next day. Absolute beauty. If you're seeking an adventurous sandbox, where you can create infinite amount of stories - this is for you. Feeling like your nuts are about to crack from the amount of butter on them? Try out mods from the community which will get rid of the Swadians (and other factions).

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Problems

Summary

Best medieval war and strategy game available. Endless fun and great replay value.

I flipped out because it was a 7v7 and They gave me a weapon my player was worst at and my team died and they had 7 left and i lost the the whole event! 2nd time I was a lancer and I could not attack because he was cinstantly on me and when i did hit I did 0 damage even when charging. FIX THE GAME PLEASE,because right now it is absolutely smelly garbage.

Sadly, I don't think this game is for me. The procedurally generated story and world is too one-note and unimmersive that I felt like I was playing the stock exchange more than I felt like I was role-playing as an upstart in nobility. The vanilla version has mechanics that are still quite barebone with the developer's updates throughout the years. I know this game has an avid fanbase so if you played it and loved it, I'm not telling you anything you haven't already excused.

But if you're buying thinking you'll get to "live the life of a Medieval citizen", beware.

this game perfectly encapsulates the male fantasy of conquest and bloodlust

It was a lot of fun until the cat and mouse tactics of owning fiefs started. Enemies will brazenly waltz the entire length of the map to attack your little fief ignoring every other fief in their path for some reason. Theyre like cockroaches, just dozens of counts/lords/jarls running around with 20-30 men trying to pillage/siege whatever they can and they respawn instantly when you defeat them. Meanwhile I only have an army of 140, I cant seem to recruit any villagers even when my relations are 10-20 with them, so garrisoning troops is a big problem because I simply cant get any. I had to resort to going to all of the taverns to buy mercenaries every day since i had 140k+ gold but just didnt have any manpower to garrison in my numerous holdings to prevent the CONSTANT sieges.

AI Cheats like mad, I let the Nords keep 1 castle and 1 village in their territory while I owned literally everything else. Somehow, from that one remote settlement, they amassed an army of 2k+ and started crashing through 'my' land. How the f did they manage to recruit 2k+ troops from a single keep and 1 village when I own 6 towns, numerious castles/fiefs and can't recruit anyone? Makes no sense.

I'm voting this up because until the game just becomes a chase-the-annoying-nobles-around-while-they-try-to-pillage/siege-everything-even-if-it-isn't-feasable simulator the game is HELLA FUN. I just got bored at the end before I conquered the whole land.