This Is What A REAL RBM Battle Looks Like

[@ingold1470]

Reinforcements walking in from the edge of the map is so much better, they actually seem like reinforcements rather teleporting robots

[@Strat-Guides]

Yeah and they came in from more than one direction, which was cool to see. I had to fight on the spine for one of the waves instead of holding the high ground.

[@Nimno74]

Historically pretty accurate too. Often reinforcements would show up from different directions in ancient/medieval battles.

[@mortache]

@@Nimno74 its not accurate to have 90% of your army arrive as reinforcements. I really wish there was a way to remove reinforcements altogether. Really fucks up any sort of tactics and makes every single battle into a samey meat grinder

[@VK-sz4it]

@@mortache I think there should be a choice between reinforcements mechanic and squishing of size of the army mechanic. Or even combination of both.

[@jesshorn257]

@@mortache in the options you can pump up the size of armys start(200 vs200 to 500vs500 or more)

[@tnty1561]

I remember getting caught by an army with 400 vs my army of 200, and leaving with only like 4 healthy soldiers, and everyone else either dead or wounded. I literally saw soldiers do a kneeling animation in sheer exhaustion

[@Strat-Guides]

Oh wow, down to the last! Those are the best/most memorable battles :)

[@linwu8701]

😂😂

[@MrDragondrian]

How tf did you survive, if that happend to me is bye bye to all my stuff

[@michaelsanders7484]

@@Strat-Guides this was with warband so not as cool but I’ll never forget, keep in mind I play with max difficulty settings for the better retirement score. I had just captured a city for my faction, and had a party of around 100 Swadian Sergeants, and then while waiting to be given it they launched a massive counter offensive like 850 troops. And I just remember feeling like man, all this hard work leveling these troops, all gone. So I figured I’m going to get wiped anyway might as well fight. After a day my faction came to my aid but never engaged because of the sheer size of their army and ended up abandoning their campaign to stop the counterattack. So I was left hopeless, by myself with my men to fight and inevitably lose. The battle launched and I just had them hold as close as they could to that ladder entry. There were times were they began to overwhelm us and only be holding back them back until reinforcements arrived did we not lose our foothold by the ladder. Wave after wave after wave they came. They pushed, they died so quickly but with each 20 we killed we would lose one. And this battle of attrition lasted 3 battles with each victory forcing them to rebuild their ladders and allowing us to gain a few soldiers that were knocked unconscious. On the 4th battle I can’t remember how many we had left but it was pathetic. We had exhausted any reinforcements, so them and I were all that was left between them capturing this city. It was an intense battle. I don’t think I had ever tried harder to win in a game lol. But we withheld them and won the battle forcing them to rebuild their ladders. They waited outside the city for a day or so and decided to end their campaign and they all dispersed, leaving the city to us! Well, the few that survived. I’ll never forget that battle haha it will come to mind anytime Warband is on my mind.

[@fiezalyusri4642]

@@michaelsanders7484 that's really shows how immersed you are in the role, describing the feeling as if you're actually in there instead of playing a game. I wish to reach that level of immersion. Kudos to you

[@christopherquigley5468]

My largest battle was roughly 4000 vs 6000. There was a bug that caused Ortysia to have about 400,000 wheat stockpiled. That caused the population to explode. And with a massive population (100,000 citizens) they had a massive garrison of 6000. Due to the obvious financial advantage of owning that city, I gathered ALL of the parties in my entire kingdom, using up almost all of my influence, and then attacked after destroying the wall first. What ensued was a slaughter of proportions that no battle you’ve seen in this game can compare to. Once we breached the walls, I stood my troops on top of the spawn point for the defenders. So every time they spawned, my elite troops just hacked them all to death. This lasted for an hour maybe. Which is a very long battle. In the end we killed 6000 and lost maybe 1000. Eventually the bug was fixed. So the food supply collapsed. The population of the city then collapsed from 100,000k down to 10,000k. My empire controls half the map. But we are constantly at war and so I can’t expand further.

[@Strat-Guides]

Wow that's a massive battle! It must have been a marathon to fight.

[@peenplays4219]

Holy crap

[@joeyyc8515]

That's hilarious

[@daemonwulfe]

I love these kinds of battles. Not too long ago I had an army of 1900 Khuzaits and Sturgians vs 2300 Vlandians and we cleaned house, but it was a super intense battle. I lost count of how many times the balance of power shifted. At least three times I thought I was going to lose the battle, but we pulled through and still had 1000 men standing with 400 wounded. The Battle of Omor will stand out as one of the biggest/most bloody battles my army has faced in this campaign so far. Next up, "liberate" the Battanians from the Vlandians...

[@Strat-Guides]

Wow that's a massive battle! It's a lot of fun battling it out and then dealing with reinforcements. I've learned to not go too hard with my main character or risk sitting the battle out early and losing (cause the AI sucks).

[@DailyDipo]

Pls upload the video, i want to watch it

[@alexanderrahl7034]

It's the absolute slaughters that get me in these battles. I was playing Eagle Rising with the my little warband mod, and my D'haran troops facing off against a Roman army was a real nailbiter. I occupied the high ground on the other side of a river. A decently large and steep hill for my archers and infantry. The archers started shooting around the time the enemy left the river. The times I lost the most men were the absolute slaughters after my infantry went down and they targeted my archers. I find it's times like those that really makes me clench up

[@xXAlmdudlerXx]

You mean you gonna pull a Putin on the Vlandians? :D

[@hannayapelekai1628]

@@xXAlmdudlerXx the analogy doesn't work, and why involve irl politics in the first place?

[@favorius]

We are just starting. In a few years we might see light siege engines on battles, field fortifications for defending side, even camps of armies on the opposing edges of maps so capturing it may give loot. We might even see feigned retreats like mongols did in history, ambushes by hiding archers (so they do not appear until they decide to shoot) and etc. All of them thanks to modding masters. This game has huge potential.

[@Strat-Guides]

I would love to see field fortifications! Baiting a massive army into a hastily made choke-point would be top of my list :)

[@favorius]

@@Strat-Guides The very least we need stakes in front of archers :)

[@GrasshopperKelly]

Light onagers were used as relatively mobile field artillery by the Roman Republic. Very equivalent to the modern mortar team. They were still in use in conjunction with Scorpios by the Byzantines and Western Empire. So very light artillery in game like that would make my year, and not even be/feel arcadey.

[@chameleo6735]

Just to mention the feigned retreat. It was one of the defining traits of any Turkic army.

[@smolpp585]

Old realms mod already has artillery and cannons

[@Playa001]

My biggest battle was around 1800 vs my 880… I fought with my infantry and kicked my horse away with no intention of fleeing the bloodshed. The battle lasted so long I found myself trying to break past my own ranks just to get a break from battle and save my last bit of HP. So many men yellling and swords clashing that it formed this symphony. Pair it with the dust being kicked up by all the men and horses and the bodies dropping just awesome man. We were completely eliminated, but fought to the very end.

[@ste847]

Bro why you fought they had 1000+ mens

[@charlesc.9012]

@@ste847 There is no choice anymore. You get caught in the first place because you are slower than them, and when you sacrifice men and cargo to retreat, you get a "disorganised" debuff to your party speed, so you get caught again, but with less men to fight with.

[@nickthompson1812]

@@ste847 think of the loot

[@absolutelyfookinnobody2843]

🥱

[@freedomforall1712]

So little tidbit of info this made me think about the battle of Silarius, where Sparticus killed his own horse to fight on foot with his men. The irony is that if he had his horse he may have got closer and actually killed the opposing commander.

[@DV_Laurin]

Absolute Bannerlord Pro: "I can't tell who's who!" Imagine a real historical battle now lmfao

[@KaptifLaDistillerie]

Well it was easy for Romans to tell who's who, however it was an absolute mess during medieval ages with levies coming with all sorts of armor depending on their wealth, and nothing to identify themselves

[@DV_Laurin]

@@KaptifLaDistillerie That's why the Europeans thought of their Coat of Arms

[@hyperion3145]

@@KaptifLaDistillerie Maybe after Rome had standardized their equipment, but that wasn't the case with the Monarchy, early Republic and the Byzantine era. In the Monarchy and early Republic they looked like other Italics and Etruscans which also joined foreign armies and Byzantium looked like other Eastern militaries, especially Iran. Even started leaning more towards cataracts like Iran. Also didn't help that some people started adopting their tactics and equipment so some Germanics did look pretty Roman.

[@logannitzel]

This is great, I just got the mod yesterday and am already having fun perpetuating more set-piece battles rather than posturing and waiting for the inevitable melee scramble that you usually see in vanilla Bannerlord. The handle-hit mechanic and the armor changes were kind of a shock but I'm really liking it now

[@Strat-Guides]

It's almost like playing a different game! My favorite part is battles lasting long, which means there is more time to flank or call in the cavalry, etc.

[@irishihadapotato7084]

It's a great mod though I tend to use DeReMilitari in conjunction with it as well which overhauls the troop tree's greatly as well as being for RBM.

[@solinvictus7582]

The handle/hilt changes suck. Games are supposed to be fun.

[@rufescenteagle7299]

@@solinvictus7582 what are the changes? I've heard nothing about this

[@fransiskusbiliamandrea3452]

why it always crash when i use it tho? is it because of other mods such as banner king/dismemberment plus/xorberax's legacy?

[@boylibrary3533]

Imagine. You’re in the largest battle of your life, your leader goes down behind enemy lines. You ride off mourning your general as he is surely dead, and some time later you notice the other side is now retreating… towards your front line. Your commander defiantly returns through them returning on horse back to lead the army.

[@Strat-Guides]

The emotional highs and lows of battle must been incredible! (good and bad)

[@peenplays4219]

I read that and then immediately watched it happen lol

[@TheRealNova0707]

I think I've been playing Bannerlord wrong - this was incredible. Watching this completely changed my way of approaching the game, so thank you for that; having the archers sit behind and up from the infantry, using the cavalry to break up archers and assist when needed, skirmishing the horse archers around. I usually either delegate command or send troops into battles where I outmatch my opponent, but this makes me want to methodically play through each battle. You just exposed a whole new aspect and play style of this game to me - keep it up, I enjoyed every minute! Edit: If you see this, do you have any content on offensive and defensive sieges? Would love to see what strategies you may have, and how this would defer from field combat.

[@azrielackerman4659]

Yeah bro! Archers are insane in this game. And, you can do a lot of this in the base game. Keeping archers above your infantry line is very important 😉 but when you can't find higher ground, having the archers in front of the infantry and in loose formation is good for a barrage (as long as the enemy doesnt have crazy cav), then when the enemy infantry line get close, get the infantry to advance (not charge) F1+F4 through the infantry line

[@faasnuhind8578]

Won games against armies bigger and stronger because I actively controlled what my troops were doing, on console to boot. Placement and movement control can change casualties. Note: charge was generally found to be a better command than engage, and does more damage.

[@Jiub_SN]

@@faasnuhind8578it depends on the size of your enemy and if there's cavalry in my experience, engage is better for larger forces as far as I can tell

[@faasnuhind8578]

@@Jiub_SN I personally found Engage to be finicky. It could do well, just having your troops not gassed, but if the enemy charged first, they get the momentum bonus. The Momentum bonus is large in the game, and I find it fascinating how it gets implemented.

[@benekibagaming2573]

"they're pushing into Fian's... that's not a winning strategy" are some of the most understated words I've ever heard xD

[@thisisntsergio1352]

Brooooo this was an absolute banger of a battle. Well done!!!

[@thisisntsergio1352]

btw "let's go bowling" at 19:00 should be on a shirt or something lmao

[@Strat-Guides]

Thanks for watching! This was such an intense and fun battle to fight in :) Lol that would make a great shirt

[@jaydaytoday3548]

AND THEN THE GAME CRASHES

[@PlatinumGaming67]

This video was a figment of your imagination, the game crashed 3 seconds after he started the bsttle

[@f_ew4637]

Bravo! Nice battle, from the strategy to the tactics, down to the individual fighting and especially the commentary. Only a few movie battles come to my mind that were as intriguing to watch as this 25 minutes of pure entertainment. Thanks and keep up the good work!

[@Strat-Guides]

Thank you for watching! This battle had me sweating a few times lol they had so many troops. In the mod True Armies of Calradia, the Aserai has these Haras units (t5 and t6 shock troops) that have a massive 2H mace and are terrifying to fight against.

[@martinez206045]

I always try to place the archers on the incline of the hill, not at the very top, to get them optimal lines of fire. Ideally, the archers in the front line of the formation should be able to shoot over the head of the infantry shield wall.

[@strikemasterice2004]

You are right, I try to do that as well, unless I am countering enemy horse archers. In that situation, have some archers at the top of a peak will allow them to shoot at the flanks and rear.

[@Wish-and-Hope]

When I last played >6 months ago, I also noticed archers sometimes don't shoot in line formation, when their allies block their line of aim. Positioning them on an incline helped, but generally, I always kept my archers in loose formation, if I couldn't put them in a single line. Not sure if that issue still exists though.

[@jeewoo7195]

And remember, firing from your left is more effective cause shields

[@FASynergy]

That bit when you were going to push the scattered enemy line with your jnfantry, then saw the enemy reinforcement line charging your flank.. so harrowing

[@Strat-Guides]

It's really hard to not get tunnel vision and get into a bad spot, but I've done it enough times to (sometimes) catch it before it's a problem lol

[@FASynergy]

@@Strat-Guides i bet, I've been playing since launch on xbox and only recently have I stopped blindly charging my units and tried to use actual tactica to win battles in real time. Its no joke with only a fraction of the troope here's

[@CirBam24]

I find using my horse archers as flanking archers a better use than simply having them circle around. Using infantry as an anchor, you can shoot the enemy from behind. You can also use your melee cavalry as a way to deal with enemy archers, you can even dismount them once they are in the midst of the archers to more effectively clean them up.

[@morbus5238]

Not too bad of an idea my go to right now is breaking my horse archers into two groups, using my calvary to buy time or cause chaos to move the archers to the side then move my infantry and foot archers to the front, call my calvary off and let the archers do their thing, if they still give a good fight send the Infantry. Only had it happen once but if they organize again I have the calvary set up behind them to charge again.

[@MilkJugA_]

i feel like my horse archers shoot a lot less when not in charge, and instantly starts shooting like 100 arrows when the charge order is made

[@DestroyerOfOgis]

1:13 Bro took down Liena, my respect for Strat 📈📈📈

[@Strat-Guides]

Lol good catch! :D

[@thisisntsergio1352]

My waifu 😭

[@DestroyerOfOgis]

@@thisisntsergio1352 vl*ndian

[@favorius]

@@thisisntsergio1352 My brother's wife

[@DestroyerOfOgis]

@@favorius L brother

[@ian2372]

I struggle with my band of 66 in eagle rising. The fact you can command this many troops is awesome. Well done.

[@Strat-Guides]

Only after many many many hours did I get to this comfort level leading troops lol for a very long time I was terrible and just defaulted to being a soldier on the front line :) Thanks!

[@anshraghav23]

@@Strat-Guides i completed the game with f1 f3

[@laisphinto6372]

Thats why in Real Life you have officers. Now multiply that by 1000 Times roughly you have Like one Legion . A Roman consul Led 2 Legions plus an equal number of auxillaries,then you have a Second consul with the Same Numbers and that was a Standard Roman consular Army. Well Caesar the Mad man Had ten legionsaka about 50000 troops.

[@denen404]

Bro your level of command is insane I'm gonna have to watch more videos I've been in command of battles this size but I always tend to delegate to my captains

[@Strat-Guides]

Thanks!!

[@Kris-z6r]

I don't know if it's possible but it would be epic if there was a mod that increased the battle size limit to something like 5000 or more

[@Strat-Guides]

I think there was one that went up to 2k units. I'll have to look for it as I just upgraded my PC and really curious to see how it would run. It's going to be mayhem lol

[@devynlucy8765]

There’s two, one called battle size unlocker and the other being just Battlesize, you’ll want the second one as the first is outdated. The second one sets all battles limit to 2040. But be careful, it counts horses as entities. So if you have 1000 vs 1000 and of that like 400 units are cavalry total it’ll count as 2400 and crash.

[@Equilibruim77]

Engine limitations are 2040 total assets which include horses

[@ESFAndy011]

@@devynlucy8765 Oh the horses also count? I heard about the camera being considered an entity, but not the horses. Damn, that explains my last crash. I'll keep it at like 1200 or so, plenty of action there. Thanks for the heads up!

[@vietnguyenhoang5795]

That's gonna destroy any gaming pc lol

[@marioalonso8658]

It was the beginning of a new year in mount and blade warband. My mid level character was a new vessel under the swaths, he was on bandit duty when the call came. Dhrim would be under seige by sarranids and hundreds of them. He gathered dozens of recruits from nearby friendly villages but when he came to the city it was a ghastly sight. Nothing but fresh recruits most who were clearly only meant to inflate the towns numbers were now the only thing stoping the sars from taking the town. He took the hand full of knights and ordered them to hold the ladders at all costs, if they breached it was all over. Like a raging wave they came, unarmored like our troops for the most part but almost all armed with range weapons. Once his arrows fell short he took to a spear that was dropped, unfortunately he suffered occasional nicks. So he took to executing his own men for arrows, to be used by a faster archer, thump thump thump each arrow went into heads, necks, and more ass shots then I care to admit. But in the end the day was won, my character got to keep his bakery

[@antoniolamacchia9417]

my PC would never survive

[@kobusburger4485]

Damn that was intense. Following the Hardrada campaign religiously and loving every minute of it, but this battle was next level. Keep up the awesome work Strat!

[@Strat-Guides]

Thank you!!

[@sethleoric2598]

Man watching this makes me wish for a Pendorlord, i remember in Pendor i was at war with Ravenstern as Baccus, despite Baccus having great infantry and good bowmen, my allies were all but slain by the Ravenstern army. I was the only one left with like 20+ knights (of various orders and factions) my small as infantry force and a bunch of Radiant Cross Plaguebearers, Noldor, Crossbowmen, Seers, etc. Battle went on for a good hour, because of the whole tug of war thing. My knights were straight badasses beating up tons of footmen and a bunch of Krierguard, the archers were a real pain in the ass but we pulled through. By the end i only had like.. 10 or 9 knights and one of my Noldor rangers died and a ton of archers and my best infantry were also dead but damn was it badass

[@terry5183]

Good to see the modding community making bangers in this Mount and Blade too. Can't wait for what the future holds for Bannerlord. I just began my adventure and am happy with the base game (tho I added a few mods for armors and dismemberment) but seeing something like this here is quite overwhelming. I can't think of any other game that let's me get into the thick of enormous battle like MB. Warhammer has the big battles too but I can't directly play as a character, only zoom in with the cinematic camera. There was an old game called Rise and Fall : Civilizations at War or something like that, where you could both build your base, direct your army and jump into action mode as the chosen hero, though it was limited and heroes were totally broken.

[@Strat-Guides]

There are some amazing mods being worked on right now! Kingdoms are Arda looks soooo good

[@arrynroyce72]

Can't wait to get to this part! I'm watching through the campaign presently and loving every second! That hill is such a good vantage point to plan out the battle. Edit: Just noticed in your description that this happened after the campaign ended. Thanks for showing it anyway! Would hate to have such a cinematic battle go unseen.

[@Strat-Guides]

Yeah that was my thought exactly! I was trying to find a good spot to "go to Valhalla" but the AI wasn't up to the task apparently lol

[@jamoecw]

so the reason that one group got wiped out was because they had one infantry group and assaulted that one group. the other two dealt with the spill off, which held them in place and made it look like each was fighting their own group. as the numbers dwindled they were able to be enveloped. a single group could not be targeted and wiped out as efficiently, as when their numbers dwindle they collapse together in one group instead of making gaps in the line. their cav also smashed through that line accelerating its collapse. Sun Tzu split his forces evenly, but one did one more group than the enemy most times. most European generals from the Bronze age when using flexible formations (more groups) would try not to have less than half to meet the enemy's line for the group they were engaging, then using smaller groups for flanking and other special maneuvers.

[@Strat-Guides]

That's a great point, the AI will focus on one formation in that situation. I think maybe having a big central formation with smaller flanking ones would have been better in this situation.

[@nesh_san]

Playing Bannerlord for two weeks, finally rocking with my own kingdom and I bumped into your channel, amazing battle. Had one yesterday 2k vs 1k while sieging, went from 400 to 70 troops, I alone had almost 200 kills, had 1hp and was being careful but at one point I saw that we were losing because they had really great number of archers so I took my last 20 cav and charged them with the LOTR "Death!!" in my mind, rather I die and win then lose more of my troops, it worked, I got knocked out by an arrow to my butt actually but they retreated.

[@RobertMunteanu105]

Impressive battle! Though only 10 some renown and 15 influence... the results should be scaled as well. It's not like a 1 v 30 bandits

[@Strat-Guides]

Thanks! The influence and renown is a bit off because TW doesn't tell you how much your clan parties make, only the one your main character leads. So if you fight a battle with 3 other of your own clan parties, they will all get their own influence and renown which actually goes to the clan (which you control because you're the head) so it's a little deceptive.

[@МихаилБгатов]

12:29 - Their horse archers are trying to come throu~ - "W8 a second, this IS a horse archer" - BONK

[@Strat-Guides]

Lol that happens to me so often because I don't play with the icons above friendly troops, so it's hard to tell sometimes :)

[@theelement_c6684]

I usually can't even finish 5-10mins videos but this one I actually finish. This one is great.

[@Strat-Guides]

Nice, I'm glad you enjoyed it :D This one had my sweating a few times lol

[@stanleybacklund5614]

Got the tiktok brain

[@FilipMoncrief]

Dopamine receptors desensitisation

[@damyanexssessgeorgiev6]

with this good tactics and commentary you won the respect out of me! new sub! going to watch more tonight!

[@Strat-Guides]

Thank you!!

[@mcredifine]

Amazing battle and your explanations of what you see going on on the battle, said in that calm manner definitely gets my like. Awesome vid!

[@DestroyerWolfFenrir]

This man's meant to be a medieval warlord, not making KZbin videos, not that I can complain this is quite interesting. Man's a genius.

[@unclejesse2506]

I'm so glad I found your channel my friend! Subbed, watching and liking all these awesome battles!

[@Strat-Guides]

Thank you for the support!!

[@RenderUntoMe]

That two handed mace is so sweet

[@michaellowe2305]

The worst feeling in the world is when you've done amazing with solid tactics taking out their high tier troops then at the end lose a bunch of Kahn guards to imperial recruits with OP pitch forks

[@Glorbnok]

My favorite battle, I had about 160 troops, a mixture of mercenary pikemen, a mixture of each factions shield units, and palace archers. My strategy is always based on heavy shields to the front, pikemen or axemen in the center, then a metric ton of archers in the rear. But was outnumbered because I got caught by the KHERGITS of all people, and they had me outnumbered by about three times. I got lucky though, the terrain put me by some REALLY steep hills, so it was a battle of attrition. Circle formation for the anyone with a shield on either end of a pass, archers mixed into the center of each circle, and pikemen backing up the shields. Anything on horseback stood no chance, love it when terrain plays in your favor.

[@PyromaN93]

I had similar expirience. My band had about 150 legionaries and imperial veteran footmens, and 30 elite cataphracts, and we was caught by 800 khergits, mostly cavalry (lucky me). I dismounted my cav, and place them in cquare formation in the center of legion circle. And my infantry just wrecked their cav every time, that they was charging. Most annoying was their infantry

[@isverchoon7760]

This has got to be one of the most immersive games I've ever seen, The emotions of "Shit they just got reinforcements" Then looking back and seeing your reinforcements hauling ass to help is sheer amazingness

[@Madmax45247]

I split my archers into 2 formations and split my infantry into 1 main formation with 2 smaller units equipped with spears to cover the flanks. Splitting you archers into two formations allows you to move them around the enemies line when they engage your infantry.

[@Kil23Joy]

Love me an L shaped ambush

[@Madmax45247]

@@Kil23Joy Lol, mines more of a C

[@AlexMSQ]

That is tertio tactics...

[@su1thor760]

This kind of battle calls u back to play some more. Always

[@evanwilliams1839]

I'll be honest, I hate fighting the Aserai, they spend most of the game in relative peace, so whenever you fight them it's an army of like 2000 raw recruits that they'll throw to their deaths. There is usually a small corp of actually experienced troops but they're too small in number to matter. What makes this worse is when the Sultan conjures up an additional 2000 peasants in 3 days after losing the first 2000.

[@MapleMcIntyre]

Just found your channel and am hooked, I’m coming as a huge total war fan and you’ve really opened my eyes to the tactics of this game…. Also that mace goes BONK so hard Lmao

[@12Prophet]

I love how the "Thwak of Clarity" is universal. Swing at every unit to find out if they are friend or foe.

[@Strat-Guides]

Haha yeah friendly fire is disabled for melee (not ranged) so I just give it a go if I'm not sure :) I don't like having the icon above every single friendly unit, makes the battles look ugly and cluttered so it's the price we pay I guess

[@keashaneverts4452]

Near the End: "Left!! and RIght!!! Both sides can Get it!!" -Bloodlusted Strat Gaming after Switching out 5 Horses

[@paulciampo2104]

I've had dreams of something similar to this, mixed with other types of games. Wow ❤️

[@badmorty5164]

Great job man :) I really love this game it's so cool how you can use strategy to overcome hard odds. A really simple but effective strategy I use to save troops losses. Is set up a sheild wall with infantry. Archers behind on higher ground ideally. Then horse archers behind the normal archers. Horse calvary behind the horse archers in sheild wall to. Basically protecting the archers. Infantry will handle it well especially soaking up arrows. The second the enemy infantry gets close to yours. Grab your horse archers and run them behind the enemy. So the enemy is now getting shot from the front and the back. This completely destroys the AI. Then you can jump in and help to with your weapon. use your horse calvary to push in and kill a few/be health sponges if infantry look like there struggling.

[@peteredwardcox]

I felt some Theoden at Helm’s Deep vibes when you were charging down the rows of archers swinging left and right. Now for wrath, now for ruin!

[@Strat-Guides]

Ooh man that reminds me - I can't wait for the Kingdom's of Arda mod to come out!

[@oliversaxby2005]

Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden! spear shall be shaken, shield shall be splintered, a sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises! Ride now, ride now, ride! Ride for ruin and the world's ending!

[@herrdoctor2895]

@@oliversaxby2005 DEATH

[@oliversaxby2005]

@@herrdoctor2895 I can hear the music

[@peteredwardcox]

@@oliversaxby2005 got goosebumps just reading that. Thanks!

[@Bencher-ut8qs]

I just absorbed so much knowledge, started playing bannerlord 3 days ago, already have 40 ish hours, been sticking with the battanians and Calvary, usually 20 strong, solo infiltrating hideouts, just having fun battles with my Calvary, but this is a while other level, if we gave you a Time Machine you’d be the new Spartacus at any time in history.

[@Strat-Guides]

Wow that sounds familiar haha I'm up to 4500 hours at this point :D I'm glad to hear you're enjoying the game!

[@tyecharessewhite7831]

Get fian champion an Calvary . That’s all u need .

[@nickmills8906]

Had a "With Blood and Smoke" my little Warband battle with a Vlandian lord against ALOT of Sturgians in the 458 vs 1k+ and somehow won because I knocked the lords out it was the disorganized bit but I was also the only Lord PERIOD so the allied Vlandians did whatever while my guys sat back and shot and left with 40 of my original 143....best battle as if yet (not counting the Inperials crushing the Khuzaits near that castle in the swamp)

[@090giver090]

That soldier roaming the battlefield at 15:50 as if shocked and wounded is straight out of Spielberg's or Stone's movie. **Chef Kiss**

[@Strat-Guides]

Haha like Tom Hanks on the beach in Saving Private Ryan - ear ringing noise, vision blurred, time slows down a bit

[@090giver090]

@@Strat-Guides Enemy cavalry with commander wielding two-handed mace closing in from the blurred background. Closeup on the mace swing. Cut to black. Camera pans over the battlefield to the sound of the lonely violin.

[@rnbicalho]

The whole horse swap was an another level of fun and entertaining

[@Strat-Guides]

Lol especially when it happens over and over! I've read stories of it happening to commanders in battle before, but now I understand what it actually means :p

[@Cat-sampo]

9:28 that one solo aserai to the right was shellshocked af, love how realistic this game is

[@Nie155]

I hope they fix that terrible looking lance attack someday

[@CalebJacques]

dude is an awesome battle commander

[@Strat-Guides]

When I'm not murdering my own troops with friendly fire lol thanks for watching!

[@CoeGr]

That's why I genocided the Aserai to down to one city and less than 20 nobles.

[@Strat-Guides]

Lol fair play

[@CoeGr]

@@Strat-Guides I also did that exact same thing to the Sturgians. But something strange happened, I got them down to one city, we made peace, and one of our city's that we took from them rebelled. So I went and kill all of the lords from the rebellion but when I did the city flipped back to the Sturgians instead of us. Do you know if this is a feature or a bug?

[@Baso-sama]

for some reason i find it extremely funny how you whack them with that giant mace :D

[@keltorpse6980]

More realistic battle than in any movie... Cool video!!!

[@Strat-Guides]

Thanks for watching! Yeah there's non of this 2 massive lines running full sprint at each other for 1 mile before engaging in combat, the hero fighting without a shield and helmet, etc. lol

[@Flesson19]

Strat Gaming "You n00bs, Looks like I have to do this myself" gets out his weapon. Look at all the bodies...are we on horse 5 or 6. Strat will be unavailable for awhile as PETA and the police want to have a word with him

[@Strat-Guides]

Lol PETA for sure gonna sue after this one :D In my defense, I didn't target too many horses...

[@justinh9450]

They should add this type of gameplay to multiplayer, customize your army of 100-1000 troops/banner and 1v1, captain mode sucks cause everyone wants to do their own thing unless you get lucky with a good team.

[@Strat-Guides]

Yeah a 1vs1 army battle would be amazing!

[@cameroncrider6970]

Check out the new commander servers. That have really good one now. There are hundreds of bots in the battles it’s insane.

[@EmilioPerezGlez]

Awesome commanding skills. Lot to learn from you, thanks for sharing!

[@Strat-Guides]

Glad it was helpful!

[@fabilavooy]

OMG! That was brutal! What a strategy and courage!! GREAT video!

[@Strat-Guides]

Thanks for watching :D I was pretty nervous for at least half the battle lol

[@Apenimon444]

mate, when I first saw your channels it was this series, ep.1 where I corrected you that they aren't vikings but Kievian Rus', I've quitted there and I didn't watched any other bannerlord playthroughs . This video is so amazing that it made me to start watching the whole series and I've realised that by ep3 you started calling them Kievian Rus', you're the best, because you constantly take notes and learn :) subbed to all of your channels p.s now I gotta try this mod list, plus a few mods that fix base things. I usually play with over 50 vanilla plus mods

[@pawtter_ink]

For me, rbm is a must have. Can't play without it

[@Strat-Guides]

Agreed!

[@darthnemesis]

Pro players: all tacticians like playin AoE Me in all battles: just all chaaaarge!

[@boogaloobaloo]

F1+F3 is like stonks. It literally can't fail.

[@JazzJackrabbit]

"Let's go bowling" -- Sun Tzu

[@KathrynsWorldWildfireTracking]

20:53 - Cameo by Eric the Red...no no, the horse, not the man! He's fighting riderless: He's had ENOUGH! 🤣

[@Strat-Guides]

Haha Eric the Red is a horse?! :D

[@philozoraptor6808]

Nice, video. We will put it into list of videos that show the mod gameplay if you dont mind. BTW: what is your two haned skill and what do you think about crafted weapons balance wise. Do they need tweaking or are they fine in your opinion?

[@Strat-Guides]

Hey Philozoraptor! Thanks for checking out my video and for your amazing work :) My 2H skill was around 310 in this battle if I recall. The crafted weapons balance seemed just fine to me. I make a couple polearms, 1H maces, 2H maces and 2H axes and all of them performed as expected. I didn't test any of the other weapon categories though so I cannot comment on them.

[@da5341]

At 15:53 that guy just walking was just shellshocked completely disconnected from reality

[@stepjoy2615]

This is THE format we needed but didn't know we wanted, great thinking!

[@Strat-Guides]

I'm glad you liked it :D

[@rilly1489]

At 1:00 I was thinking the same thing before he said it. Pure mayhem.

[@OksmanTV]

Last time I played this it was almost impossible to damage anyone, even clubs didn't go through armor, pierce barely did anything. I had to download a mod to make the nobles far less frequent in armies, because they were all just insane tanks

[@Strat-Guides]

RBM makes them even tankier actually lol BUT if you have high skill in 2H, then a 2H mace really does wonders. I also found that hitting people in the legs to be extremely effective since leg armor is much less than all the other body parts.

[@joubertpenilehaver5803]

They added in face and under arm hit boxes, so you can aim for the gaps in armor now and do more damage

[@anklebiter9116]

Im so happy I got this game for the series x. It's phenomenal.

[@jacob8858]

My favorite battles are siege defenses from inside the walls. It's amazing how much better siege defenses are when you have even 150 extra trained soldiers and decent fortifications.

[@Dakkalazy]

Watching you ride around bonking archers is hilarious, quality entertainment

[@Strat-Guides]

Lol it's one of my favorite activities when playing as a Viking :D

[@tubemankiwi]

Constantly shifting formations causes more losses than not, there needs to be a reasonable rotation For the most part your infantry couldn't hold a line without having to move and fight, leaving a good portion vulnerable, archers had breathing space but they too had to move so often that the shooting was not being done that well When moving units, if you hold fire they go faster than if shooting while walking Well done though, very entertaining!

[@Strat-Guides]

Yeah it was definitely a tough one and some mistakes were made! Thank you, glad you enjoyed it :)

[@jsgp1]

There is so much to this game that I'm never going to figure out as a casual. You would have to be a full time gamer

[@Strat-Guides]

Yeah pretty much - this campaign took about 50 - 60 hours to get to this point

[@dyn9726]

love seeing RBM getting some love, still i much prefer RTS to play XD

[@Strat-Guides]

Yeah RBM is one of my favorites for sure! It would have been an interesting battle to watch from top down

[@jackgeary6928]

I don’t knew why, but “we may have to use that camel” got me laughing. Nice vid

[@Strat-Guides]

Lol they are big, slow and smelly :D Thanks for watching!

[@ivansalamon7028]

I am using RBM although I have to say its AI behavior (non individual) leaves a lot to be desired. The AI and the formations are much too static, although in a glorious battle like this you may not see the difference, it would likely be a lot more dynamic WITHOUT the combat AI portion of the mod. The very same mod that slows down the game loading and entering menus significantly. The formations and the men are a little bit too passive and static for my liking. Try withholding a Battanian charge with and without the mod. Without it, you have the feeling that they quite literally hurl themselves at your formation (the Batannian AI isn't special in any way, just trying to better illustrate) but with this mod's AI submod on, they kind of have staticky formations that hold cohesion, and while this is good on paper it means that not every unit will do its job to its maximum efficiency but rather hold a formation somewhat artificially. This is a mod with many good toggleables and I do consider it essential. In my opinion the better missiles are a must, the slowed down bows balance the games well, the spears are much improved, however some melee weapons (axes in particular) are too weak and bouncy off of just about anything. Some things are nerfed to Oblivion, though I still think that portion of the game works rather well. It makes one handed weapons less useful and makes you rely more on two handers and spears and lances as your primaries. The individual combat AI really makes for some interesting encounters at tournaments (individual combat), but in cohesion of a battle and in cohesion of a formation it falls short of the native AI by a tangible difference. Its still functional, well and usable, but I would advise turning RBM AI off. RMB Tournaments: On (avoids cheesy exploit and makes it more interesting) I forget the other sliders. Overall, the mod I do consider essential, and the good thing is that you can play with tweaks and sliders to your hearts content.

[@Strat-Guides]

I agree, the smaller battles are extremely passive and not realistic. You can leave a shield wall to hold position and flank with a small group or your main character and wipe out 80%+ of the enemy with just that lol But over all I still prefer RBM to vanilla.

[@Salac0]

For the reasons you list I prefer Drastic Battle, which tweaks the damage model but not the AI

[@areyoufcknkiddinme]

agree with you on the axes, but swords are very useful from horseback to wipe out squishy archers. since the mod makes all weapons lighter, its very good to make longswords that would be too slow for vanilla, but actually good here

[@xLONER18x]

That poor guy at 15:50 with a literal Javelin in his heart stumbling away from the infantry line. "I will not die in this forsaken desert!"

[@quincyames2014]

I wish my computer could handle this many mods, this battle looked so cool...

[@Strat-Guides]

I used to play Bannerlord on a GTX 980, but I had to have everything on low settings and 1080p. It's definitely a different experience at 1440p with everything maxed out, but still fun even at the lower settings

[@Wzrd8]

every body gangster untill the 115 kergit horse archers show up.

[@JetSquidward]

What’s the benefit to having multiple smaller groups rather than one big line?

[@matthewgagnon9426]

More fine control over their positioning, and if one side collapses that won't have as much negative impact on the morale of the smaller groups.

[@ingold1470]

Flexibility

[@Strat-Guides]

The enemy infantry will approach in a straight line and the units that can filter through the gaps will generally run straight back to the archer line, which is great because they make for easy targets (flanking shots). Also having their massive line broken up into smaller groups makes them easier to manage in my experience. Having a giant death-stack is hard to beat, but several smaller ones will expose their flank for the archers.

[@JetSquidward]

@@Strat-Guides that makes a lot of sense thanks for the reply

[@cseijifja]

that part where he sent all hsi cav to anihilate the enemy cav in thje left, and was able to move one of his infatry ghroups to hold the right side and stop about 70 cav from anihilating his archers, probably what cemented his victory that battle.

[@martinholden6214]

Great video dude, I jst started playing this game, this battle was unreal. Looked like great fun, very stressful but fun. Can't wait to get into some larger battles. Think I'm commanding 80ish atm so won't be to long.

[@Strat-Guides]

Thanks for watching! Yeah it's so much fun. It can be a bit overwhelming at first when you start fighting those big battles, but just keep at it and you'll be jut fine :)

[@SilanTheTactician]

Imagine if Bannerlord could handle more than 1000 units on the field at once without imploding on itself. The scale of battles would be nuts

[@solinvictus7582]

One day... Will be epic.

[@strikemasterice2004]

Imagine delegating a flank to your captain. Then, when the battle at the centre seems desperate, you see friendly banners come over the hill and crash into the enemy lines...

[@Sam-wr1ji]

Prime Harald was a beast, goes in to sure up the flank and demolishes their morale in about 10 swings. Iconic.

[@apolakigamingandmore6376]

If this is feudal Japan, it would be easy to tell if they were friends or foes, since they have flags on their back, and the color of their clan.... I wish they add that option for realistic reasons to see flags instead of a circle. I mean sure, it's not Japan, but, c'mon, it can be useful, and it's only in the settings anyway, not the game lore itself, it will not break the game lore. It will just give you an option to remove the circles and have an alternative solution for it. *(But I guess they won't make it.)*

[@horslevhs608]

1 of the best tactics I've found with this mod is to make 2 arrow squads then stand behind the frontline but on each side of the melee squad then have cavalry attack enemy archers and sneak your own 2 squads behind enemy lines and have them shoot them in the back while they fight you infantry. it's a bit tricky to pull off because the enemy really wants to attack your archers but when it's successful its REALLY successful.

[@ellocosjchushhxha]

The only issue I had with this mod is that tier 6 troops are extremely op and are capable of defeating armies 3 to 4 times the size (outnumbered 3-4 to 1).

[@jamesson1154]

You can go into the mod files and debuff them if you like. I usually look at mod files and make minor tweaks so it doesn’t completely unbalance my games.

[@Strat-Guides]

That's true, I have a group of 24 highly trained companions with the best armor (took 10 - 15 years of gameplay to get there) and they can take a castle with 200+ defenders on their own with minimal losses lol it's pretty nutty.

[@foxdavion6865]

It is stuff like this as to why you need a powerful PC to play Mount and Blade - it isn't graphically all that taxing, it is however taxing in the number of entities it draws on screen engaged in combat.

[@Strat-Guides]

Yeah big battles like this can be tough for the CPU to keep up. I upgraded recently so this was recorded on an RTX 4080 and 13900k

[@55q23]

RBM is great

[@hunger4wonder]

Watching a good commander is a thing of beauty.

[@sladek692]

*Sun Tzu enters the chat*

[@DestroyerOfOgis]

Sun Tzu vs. Liena Sun Tzu wins Neg Diff 🔥🥶

[@demonfox1824]

When your horse died and you were stuck out there and I thought you were going to die I SCREAM OUT 'MY LORRRRRRRRRRRRRDDDDDDDDDDDDD!'

[@Strat-Guides]

Haha only to have Harald emerge from the crowd, striking those filthy archers down all around him!

[@MarcGF83]

The reason I stopped using RBM is that it disables keep battles, which I wasn't aware of and simply thought that they had never triggered for me. Do you know if they've added back in?

[@siluda9255]

what is a keep battle ?

[@adoc4015]

@@siluda9255 exactly my question, never heard of it

[@RainOn2SunnyDay]

@@siluda9255 when the enemy retreats into the keep during a siege attack, a keep battle happens where you take around 30 people to storm the keep

[@siluda9255]

@@RainOn2SunnyDay oh, those annoying battles at end, yeah i can see why they would be realistic, but tbh i feel it make more sense to siege these soldiers in the keep until they starve/surrender since its 30 men vs your entire army and new garison that took the city

[@juicebox6581]

I find keep battles pointless. The defender cant win them. The attacker can just send in their heavy armor and tank thru any stairway/hallway/balcony.

[@skyle13055]

11:21 bro hesitated for the poor guy on his right🤣

[@jeanaronnax4901]

The idea of a regiment breaking and the commander having to charge in and take their place is hilarious

[@Strat-Guides]

Desperate times call for desperate measures :)

[@blackmegalogan307]

Bruh, the largest battle for me has been a 90 vs 130. This group of 400 soldiers (I had 80 at the time), tried sieging my castle, and I was too far away to help. But luckily another army saved me just in time, once they tried retreating, I chased after them with another group of 50 soldiers until we got to the field. I kept on trying to bait them into coming at my line but they didn't. I got shot (I'm on the second hardest combat difficulty, if I'm not full health, arrows one shot.) Eventually when I died, my infantry and the other army I was with steamrolled through them. I got three nobles as prisoners.