Ultimate Combat & Battle Guide for Bannerlord

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Strat Gaming's Amazing Video:
• Bannerlord's Best Unit...
Struggling with Combat and the Battle system in Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord!? Well in this guide, I'll help you through fighting and commanding your troops in Bannerlord!
0:00 Intro & Summary
1:13 Combat Options
3:48 Momentum Attacks
6:14 Feint & Attack Canceling
8:01 Chambering
8:52 Kick & Shield Bash
9:40 Other Combat Tips
11:20 Practice Fight
16:12 Important Battle Options
23:12 Pre-Battle Set up
30:06 Infantry Tactics
35:58 Horse Archer Tactics
38:58 Cavalry Tactics
42:39 Archer Tactics
44:34 Mock Battle
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#bannerlord #guide #mountandblade2 #beginners

[@italianspartacus]

Thanks so much for watching the video! I have a ton of guides linked in the playlist below as well as some choice videos if you're looking for a build for your first character! ⚔ Guides Playlist: kzbin.info/aero/PLDLBnN-W_m2llVMhpmV8ngVQ2VOoi_mdQ 🏹 Beginner's Build: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nXbcnoCDh9x5qas ⚔ Vlandian Knight: kzbin.info/www/bejne/in2ZpZ6Yh7iDqZo

[@TheRustDominatorTN]

I think you got a bot trying to scam me for a PC, this can't be real

[@LeatherCladVegan]

Whenever I see horse archers circling an enemy formation, I like to imagine that there is just one left-handed horse archer, circling in the opposite direction all by himself.

[@szilardkovacs8586]

🤣

[@honingpot4577]

Archers could fire a bow with both hands in those days

[@TheBeastlyHispanic96]

With the long history of demonizing/othering left handed people, I wouldn't be surprised if they made left handed people just get used to everything right handed regardless of preference.

[@keremoner3420]

😂

[@wafflesfjdjdjfjf9554]

That would be me

[@melihgurel39]

I couldn't find THIS much detailed video since Everyone, but literally EVERYONE was doing "Basics and Beginner Guides for Combat", which teaches the most basics what you can learn in the game within 2 minutes. I personally thank you for making a depth detailed guide video such like this about combat. This is the only one video I was waiting for a loooong time, and you did it now. Thank you so much.

[@italianspartacus]

my pleasure brother!! :) i am going to work on a tactics video as soon as i can!

[@Wifalconry0118]

I have started bannerlord recently. This is the most comprehensive mechanics tutorial I have seen. Thank you for this video. You earned a sub and a like.

[@marz14n98]

WARNING: DO NOT keep your units on engage. F1 -> F3 just before contact with enemy (talking about frontline inf now). Staying on engage will prevent them from wrapping around the enemy line or keep them a few feet away from the fighting (wasting their damage potential) in order to maintain formation. Engage is for maintaining cohesion on the advance, charge is for the actual fighting.

[@rusticfox4283]

F1 + F3 is charge F1 + F4 is engage by default.

[@FCLahm]

This dude just outplayed the game developers and helped more people than they did. This game is awesome but doesn’t have much tutorials and on console it is even harder to get this much of information. Thank you very much and keep up the great work 👍🏼

[@TeamIONDarius]

I have to leave this comment here. Using the tactics that I learned in this video, I have just before commenting, managed to win a huge battle where the numbers were not in my favour. I finally feel I am playing the game properly, and I owe it all to your guide. Thank you very much.

[@cyplex6190]

If anyone is interested, I'm more then happy to write a huge console controls (with time stamps) to link up with this video, this video is unbelievable in how accurate and helpful it is. I would love to help any console players with the corresponding control's Eg, selecting units You use your unit select, and use the dpad to either select what unit you want , OR you hit the dpad TWICE to select all groups. Thank you for this video.

[@reapz3919]

I need that bad and which button on the dpad? (Xbox btw)

[@xxRegentRaptorx]

@@reapz3919 If this is about selecting different formations during combat, so you can, for instance, tell your cavalry to charge without having your archers also charge in, then you hold LB to bring up your command screen, then you can use the D-Pad to select your formations. They should be represented by the boxes at the top of the interface. You can press down once to deselect the formation you’re currently on or double tap down to deselect all but your currently selected formation. Hope this helps

[@Chordgaille]

@@reapz3919 directional pad, the +, under the joystick lol

[@reapz3919]

@@xxRegentRaptorx I figured it out, appreciate it bud.

[@zachcottongim5844]

​@@xxRegentRaptorx Bro tysm I have watched around 4 hours of videos trying to find this answer. Tytyty

[@ricardobermudez1279]

I appreciate the time you took for this. I'm very very bad in combat and most of the time I get killed. This is the video I was needing.

[@Pepperpotk]

Square is the best formation to anihialate cavalry, they charge right in the middle and get stuck in between the two handed units in the center, it's a fucking meat grinder

[@mathboy6398]

Love the video, even as a hardened veteran there was new info for me. Hope I can return the favor: Bonus formation for infantry. If you set them to loose formation and then shield wall, you will get a testudo instead of the regular shield wall.

[@markj2305]

have you tried mixing in spear and shield to good effect?

[@mathboy6398]

@@markj2305 Depends on what you mean. I have tried it with various units that have spear and shield such as sturgian heavy spearmen, imperial legionnaries and others. But I have not tried a mix of say menavliatons and legionnaries. I have heard others say that pikemen would form the 2nd line and use the pikes from a distance. Generally I just use this instead of the regular shield wall when marching towards the enemy and set them to engage. Then shortly before the infantry clashes with their line I would switch to regular line formation (possibly with shield wall) and order them to charge.

[@LeatherCladVegan]

I have to test this out, will edit if it works. Edit: it doesn't seem to work, least not with the custom troops I tried. They form something like a square, but it is not recognisable as a testudo.

[@panapopsgaming7628]

I love you godamn man!

[@Herculesbiggercousin]

You couldn’t ask for a better, more in depth explaination on this topic. This video is head & shoulders over most of the content on Bannerlord that I could find on KZbin and the forums, like others have mentioned before me. Thank you!

[@thebiglebrowski3695]

The single biggest tip I can give anyone in a 1v1 capacity (Tournaments mostly) is that if you circle away from the enemies sword hand hand (i.e to your right or their left) while close to their body then the AI's swings will naturally miss you the vast majority of the time while they will struggle to block any backswing attacks. It is cheesy but you can beat even the toughest lords at level 1 with no armour reliably with that strategy. Hard to describe exactly what I mean but once you get a grasp of it, it is broken.

[@JoshDragRace0688]

I noticed if you do this they will sometimes abruptly turn around as they swing and try to hit you. I am using some mods though, so maybe it is a mod.

[@thebiglebrowski3695]

@@JoshDragRace0688 Yeah they do every now and then, those are the minority of the time where they don't miss naturally. Still very blockable though and they tend to have dreadful speed modifiers because of the weird swing.

[@rwiii5115]

One correction: "chambering" is actually deflecting the opponents attack with the wind up of your swing leaving them open for your follow through which is a 99.99999% impossible to block hit. Its not just the weapons clashing. Important difference for people who want to learn it.

[@Negniwret]

How do you actually do it reliably? I have 4,000 hours in Warband, most of them in multiplayer, but when I try to chamber in Bannerlord it either works or it doesn't and in neither case I know why

[@Keishi6]

@@Negniwret I don't know if you found out, but I think it depends on your grip/stance. Some weapons like 2H swords can switch stances by going to the left or right,some are locked into left/right stance. And I might be wrong, but I think left stance can chamber above/right, and right stance can chamber thrust/left attacks. Maybe the other way around for thrust/upward. I haven't mastered chambering in bannerlord yet, I just read that somewhere so don't count me on that.

[@Negniwret]

@@Keishi6 If that's how it's implemented that'd be so damn unreliable. I really hope you're wrong, because stance is near impossible to control since you constantly change it every time you switch direction

[@Mightydoggo]

Kong toys are just a live saver for me at this point, especially the very robust ones. My giant (mental) puppers just constantly destroyed all the normal toys, even the tug rope, however the hell *that* happened. lol Thanks for the guide. It drove me crazy loosing even against looters on Bannerlord, I thought I´m too dumb for this game but it just goes a lot deeper with its systems than I thought. Now the ground shall tremble underneath our hooves and the sky will black out by our arrows! (or I will get headshotet by a bushwhacker, which is the more likely outcome anyways. xD)

[@sam22smith13]

Excellent video to compliment Strat Gaming’s quant analysis. Just started playing this game and without you two I would be utterly lost. Many thanks.

[@tailung1006]

49:33 all that green in the end of the mock battle was so satisfying to watch, beautiful display of tactics taking advantage of unit formations ! you were literally mowing them down. It really makes me wanna learn how to micro manage my units as efficiently as you do

[@chaywarburton3488]

It was like a movie. I loved watching it. First person warhammer.

[@snowieken]

Side note on loose formation for archers: in addition to being more protected against enemy missiles, it also enables them to fire better and more accurate, especially when they're placed in multiple rows.

[@leohawk776]

I find the best tight formation for archers can be the skein, especially if you have to worry about enemy cav. It gives you a decent firing line, and they go into pretty long rows, all things considered.

[@jerrypocalypse1180]

I haven't played since like the 3rd month of EA and recently started playing again this last weekend. They've added and improved a lot to the formations and battle planning, thanks for covering this as there were a few things I didn't know had been changed!

[@chrisj5227]

Great video!!! I just started getting good at bannerlord and this video made me 100× better. The info you give on strategy tactics is simple, understanding and informative. Appreciate you taking the time to help!

[@TheOmmadawn]

Simply astonishing how much information you have crammed into this video. Excellent, excellent, excellent. Thank you so much.

[@williamarthur6644]

THANK YOU so much for this. I'm brand new to Mount & Blade and with this video I learned so much about different formations, best uses for diff types of troops and just all sorts of tips and tricks that the game just doesn't make immediately apparent. I have now managed to defeat forces that far outnumber my own because I finally know what I am doing haha!

[@oMeGa0122]

Amazing! Very well informative! The one and only combat guide. Thank you so much! I subscribed

[@DumbDogIsDumb]

Dude, You make great videos with lots of useful details. This is yet another very helpful one. Thanks.

[@italianspartacus]

Glad you like them brother! :)

[@Ratt611]

Love your continued coverage of this game, very detailed ty

[@Hoot_hoot777]

Love the vid. Learnt a lot, thank you for making it. I think what was happening with the archers was your facing order. Looked like they were holding a facing. You can order them to face the enemy in which they will adjust their face to the direction of the element they are engaging. This can cause issues with long line like this because they will pivot there whole line toward their target, which may mean the large portions of the formation will be moving instead of shooting. But they do keep distance better. So if your meeting a lot be head on engage works okay. But like you said set and forget is usually more reliable if you get your ranges right.

[@DennisUrMenace]

This just opened up bannerlord soo much for me WOW I had no idea you could control the length of units and was always frustrated I couldn’t have my shield wall units have just shields! I though when you selected that tab that was the unit they would focus on and it didn’t make any sense to me, YOU MADE IT MAKE SENSE thanks!!

[@vapor1115]

This was GREAT! I seldom engage with these videos but this one deserves it. Thanks for your effort in this.

[@pizzaman6784]

I really needed the tactics guide in this video! I’m a bloodthirsty Vlandian Knight that usually defaults to charging everyone in, or having the sergeants take charge most of the time 😂

[@rochmel1409]

I've just watched this whilst having my breakfast. I can't wait 'til I get back from work this evening to see how much I remember!! Great content as usual. The best guides out there. Thanks

[@ProjectDodds]

literally watcing ur live stream today and was thinking i need a video like this then once u finished it popped up! Thanks

[@Simon-ss8pe]

These videos are literally the best guides out there!! Thank you so much

[@sketched9069]

Awesome video dude. Helped a bunch!

[@nomad875]

Great video, nice intro and very detailed guide as someone that doesn't play these games regularly you made it more fun

[@Fallub]

Absolutely wonderful and informative video. I learned a lot. Thank you.

[@dinoking5179]

Great video man thank you for all the cool tips

[@Dr.UldenWascht]

My brother in banner, that was such an awesome video, especially the battlefield management part. I could feel the fun just watching. Also, for the last 10 minutes of the video I was watching intently and listening closely to learn what in the battlefield was making that squeaky sound 😂 until you mentioned it was your dog.

[@Mansa_Musa678]

Great video going into deeper details is truly appreciated

[@minkua]

Thanks, this really helped me, especially the horse archer instructions

[@alviazirin9003]

as always great video man, but i just want to add up a little bit. The momentum swing its not actually just a timing of attack, but specifically you put "another" attack before the "first" finish, what it means is when you, let's say swing from the right, you click for the right swing again before the first swing finish. so you click right attack and before it finished swinging you clicked for the right attack again. momentum swing can also be combined with upper attack, like right swing to top swing, top swing to left, any combination, BUT, it cannot be followed with opposite swing, so left and right or vice versa, it will not follow up to another swing but just stop and then swing. now if you know how momentum mechanic work, its a little bit easy to make up what to do for a momentum swing, with whatever weapon, you can even manage a right -> top -> left combo, or basically a never ending momentum attack

[@ErMarietto]

Super useful! I learned like 5 new things in the first 10 minutes of the video. Thank you!

[@italianspartacus]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Strategic-Monk]

Love this guide, thank you!

[@mobius1fox2]

Very solid tutorial, thanks !

[@DeviledLettuce]

Just bought the game on PS5 and this video helped me out so much, great content!

[@luminoussun]

This helped me understand how to control my army so much. i had no idea what was going on. I can not wait to start using this. i was just charging and doing my own thing. It just looked like a complete mess. Thank you so much

[@louisbarton688]

Great guide just started playing and this is the best game I've played on Xbox for a while

[@splitsmile3625]

Thank you for this guide!

[@mwurk5000]

Hey! Totally unrelated to this video and you might not see this comment but! Tyvm for your Warhammer total war 2 guides^^. I had a really hard time getting into it as I suck at strategy games. I also had a hard time watching guides as I have adhd and a lot of people talk veeery slowly and overexplain. Your videos helped a lot! Even tho they are quite old by now you were very good at explaining everything while keeping a very good pace. I even manged to finish hour long videos from you which I did not think was possible for me xD. At first I got my asses whooped in like 40 rounds but after your videos I made it all the way to round 140+ in the vortex campaign so tyvm for all the guides! You def earned my sub, notification bell included!

[@italianspartacus]

I did see this and thank you so much for watching dude. That's such high praise!! I hope you're enjoying Warhammer 3 as well! I have a bunch of guides for that too. Again thank you so much for watching!

[@gks_aoe]

Great work man!!

[@johnmobbs6584]

Just started playing this on console, this guide is brilliant, thanks for posting 👍👏👏👍

[@Anakthemutantmassenjoyer]

This was very useful. Had such a hard time understanding many of the components. The game really doesn’t explain well how to do most things. This video completely changed my understanding on how to approach battles.

[@matheusmterra]

My dude, THIS is the video I was looking for.

[@alcoholicsanon]

Love your videos man

[@grazie-dc6we]

Great guide, thanks for this!

[@jeremypedigo9802]

Very helpful man thanks

[@matthewwhittington7722]

Another great video, thank you!

[@deathwish_duolol4922]

Thank you for the video I paid no attention to options. And there are lots of tips so thanks!

[@dh8203]

Great video covering combat and battle tactics. You should do one covering different army compositions, and how you manage a war with armies on the world map.

[@lilbaldspot5780]

Great video, helped a lot

[@lunog]

If you order your cavalry to engaje then it will prioritise attacking the enemy cavalry without losing it´s formation. If you order it to charge then it will prioritise attack their nearest enemies but it will also easily scatter and lose it´s formation, becoming more vulnerable in the process. That´s my experience with cavalry.

[@ianjeffery4773]

Great video, very informative.

[@ianjeffery4773]

"ItalianSpartacus 4 weeks ago IMPORTANT: If you got a message from me, or any content creator, that you won something on "Telegram" and to go click a link. It is a scam, please do not click any links you get!!"

[@Hjorth87]

Really informative and great video. Im currently playing pure cavalry (role playing a khuzait trader turned lady), so I tend to just do it horde style. But I can see there is a lot more to it and that I maybe should let my horse archers run free and direct my cavalry instead of leading the ridey shooty guys. At lot of things to work with

[@--sql]

So helpful, man. I have 130ish hours in Bannerlord. I feel like I auto-resolve too much because I lose less troops that way since I'm not good on the battlefield. This is much appreciated.

[@italianspartacus]

My. Pleasure brother!!

[@imjustaguy8232]

You just gotta ride by on your steed and slap em on the ass with a trench shovel

[@jaygerlach6884]

I can't believe how entertained I get by swinging polearms while riding around on my mount. Couching a lance and running into formations to bust them up can also be pretty satisfying lol

[@kdefensemartialarts8097]

Wow, so impressed by this video!

[@TreeFiddy0013]

Sorry if I missed anything but I play on Xbox and I cannot figure out how to extend my lines. Causing a lot of problems for me so if anyone has help that would be much appreciated. Awesome video, definetly cleared some things up!

[@MostafaOT]

Beautiful video man.

[@italianspartacus]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@DH-ng2lh]

Tip on Momentum Attacks I know I am a bit late to this but for the momentum attacks I’ve found (at least while using a two hander) that after I click for the initial attack I can hold down the attack button fairly quickly after the first attack. It will initiate the momentum attack without having to have that exact timing making it much easier 😊

[@adamsheriff6461]

I can't believe I never heard about this game till now i been looking up videos an beginner tips before I start this game looks absolutely fun

[@TheRustDominatorTN]

Great info on the faints

[@Squantoon]

really glad the bannerlord content is back

[@UnKnown-cx8dj]

Thank you so much for the great video lots of useful stuff

[@cyplex6190]

First , amazing vid, really needed this, I have sunk hundreds (if not thousands) into warband I got bannerlord today on my Xbox x and IV not been able to find anything this coherent or easy to follow along. You have my sub, and my thanks 🌹 Also I laughed at "to piss me off with", with your puppa , fucking adorable.

[@xxdeathreaperxx1711]

Good stuff man

[@michaelsdenney]

Good tips man

[@Banana28]

I was always beaten at arena... I was miserable at 1 on 1 batlle.. Very very good guide. Thank you!

[@italianspartacus]

I JUST SAW THIS DUDE! THAN KYOU SO MUCH!!!

[@TeamIONDarius]

Thank you very much for making this video. I’ve been playing Bannerlord for a long time but never really grasped the finer points of combat. With this video, I feel like I have learned a lot and can’t wait to put it into practice.

[@italianspartacus]

Glad you enjoyed it! :D

[@joshhendrix8407]

A couple mounted units dont actually affect spacing. According to the flags it does but when the unit actually goes to the formation they are there normally. This is an issue for the mounted unit though as the rest of the troop basically forms a wall and can get them stuck easily.

[@liamsludge2659]

I'm surprised you didn't mention, i guess what they'd call drags. Initiate a swing, pull the mouse back(either left or right, doesnt seem to work great over or underhand) further in the same direction and then swing in hard to delay the actual impact of the weapon just a bit. A lot of the time it'll cause the AI to commit to a block too early and leave you a nice window to hit.

[@j.sargenthill9773]

I just started playing bannerlord on Xbox, after having played warband for years on PC and console. I used to put my better companions into a kind of personal guard that I would have follow me. but if they were good archers, I'd put them in the archer unit, or great hand to hand combatants or the commander types like lezalit into the infantry, and the medic/quartermaster types in a reserve unit with rookies and low level fighters or mercenary crossbowmen. In my head, they were like captains of those units. it's awesome to see that as a feature in the sequel

[@justingrant9144]

Great video really helps

[@tankredcaza]

The archers engage is actually great when you position their formation right! Your guys in the video had to engage in melee at the front of the formation because the guys in the back were too far.

[@Valkyrien04]

I swear this is the only RTS where you can actually find good tactics videos

[@Chironex_Fleckeri]

Youre a real gamer dude ty

[@jameswest957]

"I didn't want my archers to get into close quarters combat" .... Laughs in Fian Champion haha. Great video, thanks for the info on different formations.

[@PfizZz]

Thanks. I had no idea what I was doing.

[@savingferris8279]

Thank you so much for telling me how to get rid of those stupid directional arrows!!!

[@jeremypedigo9802]

Thank I'm going to look at that auto block will be great for my infantry build with 2 handed weapons may actually get in too two hannded

[@hybridce99]

Bro, thank you for this vid. Completely new to MB, was getting my butt handed to me. Subbed.

[@italianspartacus]

I'm here for you brother!!

[@evanpetelle5669]

Great video

[@SerpenteMusic]

So i discovered recently how OP the Khan Horse Archers are and i havent had a party with anything but ever since. Its so much fun having a shit ton of Khans circle them while i weave in and out of them killing off the group of enemies with my glaive.

[@Girthzilla0321]

Appreciate the videos. Are you making a guide for starting your own kingdom? Would like to see what tips you've got for that

[@italianspartacus]

I haveo ne up now but i'll be making another :)

[@Girthzilla0321]

@@italianspartacus sorry thats what i had meant, if you were going to be making another lol appreciate the response!

[@italianspartacus]

Absolutely mijo! IT SHALL BE THERE!

[@xheron6183]

I came looking for silver n found gold thanks so much I learned way more than I expected 2

[@IroncladPanther]

great video cheers

[@wackoking5559]

Hi ItalianSpartacus, your videos are SUPER helpful! Do you know if there is a way to determine/control your army composition when deploying for battles? I want to bring in more infantry troops and less ranged. I have plenty of infantry troops in my party to bring in but for some reason I always deploy with almost 2:1 ranged to infantry.

[@gollum740]

That was a momentum attack, I thought that was for show, I have been doing that a lot in freebooter mode of course, no I probably won't be able to do that now I am looking out for it:) Thanks for the video regards, Paras

[@algallontheobserver3780]

Goddamn this whole time I could have gotten rid of those damn arrows! Man you're a godsend!

[@specrtre]

I have a hard time, I move my mouse and sometimes it doesn't pick up the right direction, than i forgrt to re click mouse. I really wish fluid combat would be updated/introduced just makes it to where you can hold the block or attack than drag mouse in direction makes it a little more intuitive imo. Thanks for the great tutorial really enjoy the depth of it. Man the deployment screen tutorial helped me soo much

[@kamilkalbarczyk9126]

You're a cool dude! oh and your dog needs more kongo toys! xD

[@gamesak1]

best, thank you

[@italianspartacus]

Thank you for watching brother

[@Tonkoo]

Honestly worth every minute + points for time stamps

[@italianspartacus]

Thank you dude!!