Bannerlord for Skyrim players feels familiar for roughly ten minutes. You ride into a medieval open world, you swing a sword, and you loot the bodies afterwards. Then a bandit party rides you down, and the game takes your armour, your money and your freedom. Several Skyrim habits cause that, and every one of them is fixable.
Bannerlord for Skyrim Players: You Get Captured, Not Killed
Skyrim trains you to treat defeat as a reload. Bannerlord treats defeat as a plot point instead.
Lose a field battle and the winner takes you prisoner. You keep breathing, yet you usually lose days of travel, much of your inventory and a large slice of your army.
The rule cuts both ways. You can capture enemy lords, hold them, and wait for a courier to arrive with a ransom offer.
There is a ceiling, though. Your prisoner capacity depends mainly on your party size, plus perks and other bonuses. Go over it and your party crawls, while captives start slipping away. The series wiki entry on prisoners covers the detail.
So the first habit to drop is the lone heroic charge. In Skyrim you can clear a fort by yourself. Here you bring troops, and you withdraw the moment the odds turn.
Blocking Is Not One Button Any More
TaleWorlds calls the combat a skill based directional system on the official store page. That word directional does a great deal of work.
Skyrim gives you one block. You hold it, and you block. Bannerlord first asks which way the blow is coming from, then asks you to meet it there.
An overhead swing needs an overhead guard. A cut at your left needs a guard on your left. With manual blocking on, get the direction wrong and the block simply does nothing.
Your own attacks follow the same rule, so you choose a direction before every swing. As a result, spacing and shield work matter far more here than raw stats ever will.
Your Party Is the Real Character
Skyrim scales the world to you, so your character sheet is effectively the whole game. Bannerlord scales nothing. A veteran soldier simply beats a raw recruit, whoever happens to be leading them.
That flips your priorities. Recruits need fights to become veterans, so feed them easy battles first. Meanwhile your soldiers draw wages every day, which means an idle army quietly drains your purse.
Money behaves differently too. Skyrim lets you sell almost anything anywhere for a similar price. In Bannerlord a good stays cheap where people make it and dear where they do not, so your profit comes from the route rather than the item.
Finally, the map keeps moving without you. Wars begin, sieges finish, and lords change hands while you stand still. No quest politely waits, and that is the biggest shift of all.
If directional melee is new to you, our Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 Combat Guide: How Master Strikes Really Work drills the same instinct. For where your old favourite goes next, read Bethesda Shares Elder Scrolls VI Update While Hinting at Oblivion Remastered Fixes.
Frequently asked questions
Do I lose my save when the enemy captures me? No. Captivity costs you time, gear and troops. You then escape or pay your way out and rebuild.
Should I learn manual blocking? Yes, and sooner rather than later. With manual blocking on, direction decides whether a block succeeds, so the skill repays itself in duels and tournaments.
Is the game still in early access? No. TaleWorlds finished early access and released the full version on 25 October 2022.
Add Comment