I've confirmed that most of my earlier guesses about what Mount & Blade is were wrong. With the early access release of Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord, I've had a chance to see what all the fuss is about. Games with fervent fanbases that I simply haven't had time to play. Mount & Blade is one of those series that floats at the periphery of my perception, like Warframe or Counter-Strike. Then I assumed it was like Dynasty Warriors or Kingdom Under Fire, a tactical layer over a melee scrum hack-and-slash.

For a long time, I thought it was like the Total War series. I've been vaguely aware of the first game for a very long time, but never got around to picking it up. I have never played a Mount & Blade game. I don't feel too badass, but it's probably what would happen if I was actually leading an army. Thus the latter half of the battle is me riding around in circles avoiding enemy fire, and attempting to call out formations to my troops. Unfortunately, the charge results in my hero taking entirely too much damage. Unfortunately, my character isn't the most combat-focused, as I've found diplomacy to be quite useful. It began with me leading the charge forward as their commander, facing the enemy down one-on-one.

My army, a mix of long-time followers, mercs, and conscripts is doing its damndest to whittle down the enemy forces.

Mount and blade total war