Bannerlord Tactics: Freestyle Tactics, Volume XII: To Hell With Caution (Transitional Tactics)

Welcome back future Khans, Emperors, Jarls and Sultans of Calradia! We're continuing to show our late-game campaign including huge battles, and winning(most) of these battles by deploying advanced tactics to overcome superior enemy forces. Our entire channel is dedicated to helping players improve their field command and if that's your desire, or just want to see huge, dramatic battles, you've come to the right place.
This series of battles were the result of my crazy war against all of Calradia in which army after enemy after assaults out small Kingdom and our small forces dig in, fight back and give it all they have got.
Please comment, like and subscribe if you're interested in more of my ultra-late-game campaign, that may end up ending in utter despair, but that's the challenge of it. Any challenge where success is assured is no challenge at all.
My campaign is an extremely late-game campaign where I am resolved to give no peace to these scum Kingdoms attacking me - seven of the eight have been at war for years, with only Sturgia at a neutral stance. My family of warriors is now large though and with what remaining strength and valor we can must, we stand against the map of Calradia.
Join me on this adventure if you like huge battles, the use of advanced tactical maneuvers and intense Bannerlord gameplay, and subscribe to my channel if you want to follow along. This campaign is very lightly modded:
I use five to seven mods:
Time Pass Mod: Realistic Lighting for battles and town scenes(the time CHANGES):
www.nexusmods.com/mountandbla...
RTS Mod(for better unit flag colors/overhead view and using other characters in battle):
www.nexusmods.com/mountandbla...
Immersive Battlefields:
A great mod that adds battle cries, roaring troops and more:
www.nexusmods.com/mountandbla...
Lord Retinue Uptier(Makes the enemy forces stronger, much less peasants and lower ranked troops)
www.nexusmods.com/mountandbla...
Improved AI Troops(Also makes enemy lords and their armies tougher by giving them a higher daily xp rate. This means you'll routinely face armies with HUGE numbers of the highest tier units, sometimes four or five times the normal amount in vanilla Bannerlord): www.nexusmods.com/mountandbla...
Death for all: This mod allows you to set the rate at which nobles die more often. I want both a harder challenging late-game but also a more realistic game. If you're cut down with a massive aserai two-handed axe, you shouldn't just be injured 99.9% of the time. It's a very customizable mod so you can just a little more death or set the death rate so high you get several deaths every battle. The number I often like is '10', some deaths but not a massacre of nobles...
www.nexusmods.com/mountandbla...
I also use the Dismemberment Plus Mod: It's highly customizable and works seamlessly with the new beta(and versions back to 1.28). I thoroughly recommend it if you enjoy carnage!:
steamcommunity.com/sharedfile...
I've also used Realistic Battle Mod in the past and highly recommend it for Ai and battle realism BUT I find the pace too slow for my taste and the AI is actually rather predictable after a half dozen battles. Still I wanted to put a plug in for it here, it's a GREAT mod and highly configurable. www.nexusmods.com/mountandbla...
Much of the music and inspiration for this and other videos in the channel are inspired by Epic History TV - probably THE best channel on youtube(and the internet for that matter) covering the Napoleonic wars. With amazing work Epic History TV takes you through the dramatic and incredibly story of Napoleon covering all of his most famous battles. I HIGHLY recommend it.
Epic History TV:
/ @epichistorytv
#bannerlord #war #medieval #bannerlordgameplay #bannerlordmod

[@HeadlessHorsemanProductions]

Our Death-Match campaign against all of Calradia continues in the upcoming weeks as I have enough episodes for the many side series now processing, I can delve back into this insane challenging fighting the entire map of Calradia with our small kingdom. Can we actually beat back the endless hordes and carve out a Kingdom or will we be enslaved by the evil empires of Calradia? Time till tell. Episodes coming later in June and July fellas...

[@arrgylerawrgyle3784]

I did not see the sacrifice for future victory this time... Oh ohh, defeat on the horizon!

[@HeadlessHorsemanProductions]

Damn it!! You're right and I have a huge battle as I fire back up my main deathmatch campaign tomorrow.. I'll be sure to kill one of our own troops in that battle!

[@blackamericannomad7500]

That was a really great battle and even 4 months ago your ability to narrate while playing even aggressively like this is really good. Thanks for the peek behind the emerald curtain!

[@HeadlessHorsemanProductions]

With six or seven mini series going on AND my campaign, I've developed a backlog of videos to publish. That's good news for those interested in content - PLENTY more coming, and thanks for the constant patronage and kind words mate...

[@treewithoutcontext8943]

helping me with the RBM. It feels so much more difficult than regular bannerlord, but so much more fun

[@HeadlessHorsemanProductions]

Much more difficult indeed but it is a highly functional mod and for those who want cavalry to be properly dominating I think rbm is the way to go

[@jamestalbot6916]

I am not an expert on bannerlord tactics, but my hypothesis is: The problem with this battle was that you got too tied up in the fighting, so retreat became impossible. Their reinforcements showed up much closer than yours so no matter what those troops you brought in there were all going to die, or be wounded. I believe this could have been averted by moving at least one cavalry division behind, and to the flank of your enemy in preparation for the ai counterattack. If you also withheld one of your archer divisions on the top of the hill on your side of the river you could have fallen back with your infantry while simultaneously charging your cav through their lines. The cavalry's purpose being to scatter and divide the enemy, hopefully leave them facing a bunch of different directions so your archers can rip into them. Then you can transition into a killbox for as long as necessary before the enemy is softened up and you can charge again.

[@HeadlessHorsemanProductions]

That's quite the thesis on tactical destruction. I see most of this as viable but it's hard to hav a cavalry unit left on standby in such a blow-heavy battle. Amazing perspective though!

[@exceltrickz2920]

Needed help with this aha, got about 300 elite troops fighting against Valandia at Lageta

[@HeadlessHorsemanProductions]

Hope it helps - those bastaad Vlandians can be tough!

[@joelhall3820]

I see a lot of questions on here about RBM. I know ​​⁠​​⁠​​⁠@HeadlessHorsemanProductions has used RBM in the past, but he is not using it here. IMO RBM introduces almost as many problems as it addresses. First, which ever army has the most cavalry wins. Second, EVERY armor pack you might want HAS to be patched for it. And the patches have to be in precise load order or it won’t work. It does make battles more drawn out, mostly through buffing armor and nerfing damage. What it does have going for it is the AI module which atleast tries to flank and stuff and not just bum rush like headless pigeons. I run it with the combat module off and the AI on. This also allows you to use the Better Pikes mod which fixes pole-arms into proper weapons. In lieu of the Combat Module of RBM, I run a mod called Warbandlord which attempts to make damage and armor values to old Warband settings. What it has in spades over RBM is that you can use sliders to adjust all damage and armor values for any weapon or armor in the game. It is fully compatible with any armor or weapon pack you install. I particularly liked it because I could personally go in and tweak things like throwing axes to be properly dangerous instead of feather ticklers. I highly recommend using it.

[@HeadlessHorsemanProductions]

I didn't know all this about the Warbandlord mod, Joel, I'll have to check it out down the road! (And THANKS for backing me up and filling in here, you're hired! lol)

[@joelhall3820]

@@HeadlessHorsemanProductions well one of the mods on the Bannerlord Facebook just accused me of having a hard on for you because every time someone posts a question about learning tactics I point them to your channel. 😂🤣😆

[@joelhall3820]

@@HeadlessHorsemanProductionsI actually had one of the Bannerlord Facebook mods ask me if I had a hard on for you because whenever anyone ask for tactics, I link them to your channel😂😂. And if you ever get a discord up I would be down to help you moderate and guide people through setting up mods. Also as a fellow history enthusiast I’m always down for theory craft. My wife got me Marshall Saxe’s book Reveries on the Art of War for Father’s Day as a gift.

[@HeadlessHorsemanProductions]

@@joelhall3820 YOU sir, are a TRUE war historian if you follow Marshall's Saxe and his book, pretty intense! I spread my research across the entire historic perspective, but more so 1200s-1800s. I still don't know much about discord, so you'd have to be my 'guide' to that process as well. I appreciate all the support, even if some knuckleheads complain lol, they don't know what they are missing, right?? :)

[@joelhall3820]

@@HeadlessHorsemanProductions every since I was a kid I’ve been into war for some reason. Growing up in the country in the Midwest I was able to build a lot of the stuff I would read about from swords to matchlock guns to trebuchets. When I finally had to face up to being an adult I joined the Army after 9/11 and am now on twilight of a 20+ year active duty NCO. Probably why I don’t mind your cussing cause I have the same vocabulary. But all my life I have read, studied, pretty much any source material I can get from Neolithic to future concept warfare tech.

[@daniel.0815]

is there a currently supported strategic camera mod? I only find the outdated ones :(

[@daniel.0815]

Nevermind, I just read the video description :D

[@zaye_5x]

How do you get companions’ level to the 30s and 40s? Like what skills are easiest to do so, and would I need to level up their smithing and athletics for the extra attribute points?

[@HeadlessHorsemanProductions]

No I don't have companions that are Smith's but I do almost have entirely companions with high athleticism so they gain the additional perks and attribute points mostly I use my companions as ranged units either as bow or as javelins and then as a reserve unit to be put into place in battles that are tight that way they get a lot of kills that range and last longer in battles.

[@joelhall3820]

@@HeadlessHorsemanProductionsthis is exactly what I do as well. If you put them in the group you want them to spec with and equip them with the weapons you want, you can build monsters.

[@russ1185]

Having trouble getting the rts mod to work. Are u playing the current version of the game?

[@HeadlessHorsemanProductions]

No I'm on a beta but not the newest beta. I've been very lucky and haven't updated any versions for a while. My base banner Lord game is version 1.28.31530

[@joelhall3820]

I have it running fine on 1.2.9

[@russ1185]

@joelhall3820 ill give it another go tomorrow. Maybe it's conflicting with other mods or iv not set it up right..thanks for ur reply

[@russ1185]

@joelhall3820 there are alot of rts mods . Are u using the same one as headless?

[@kiowa7893]

Are you using rbm? If so how are you getting your javelin to do damage? I only get kills when I'm throwing forward on my horse?

[@joelhall3820]

He is not using RBM in this video.

[@HeadlessHorsemanProductions]

Thanks for the help Joel! (Yep, not RBM in this episode).