Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

About

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord is a medieval action video game published by TaleWorlds Entertainment for Windows. The game is set in the fictional medieval continent of Calradia and is a prequel to Mount and Blade: Warband set 200 years before during the decline of the Calradic Empire. The game is set to be released for early access worldwide in March 2020.

History

Bannerlord was originally announced through a teaser trailer on September 27th, 2012 (shown below), but didn’t provide many details at the time other than the fact that it was in development. Over the years since then, the devs have slowly released new information about the upcoming title, including that the in-game engine would be significantly improved over its predecessor with new character animations (through motion capture tech) and several other upgrades.

In March 2016, the first glimpse of Bannerlord’s gameplay was shown at PC Gamer Weekender featuring 40 minutes of in-game footage. Additional gameplay was shown at E3 2017, and TaleWorlds launched their weekly developer diaries following the game’s progress later that year to cover various aspects of the upcoming title. The first playable demo of Bannerlord was previewed at Gamescom 2018, and on August 20th, 2019, they finally announced plans for an early access release on March 31st, 2020, via a trailer (seen below).

The setting for Bannerlord returns to Calradia, but is set 200 years before the events of Warband, specifically at the fall of the Empire that lead to the formation of the many factions found in Warband. Though fictional, the plot shares many real-world similarities to the fall of the Roman Empire and is inspired by historic events, kingdoms and peoples between 600 and 1100 A.D. The eight major factions included in the game are comprised of the Calradic Empire (Roman and Greek) broken into Northern, Southern and Western, Aserai (Arabian), Battania (Celtic), Khuzait Khanate (Mongols), Stugia (Slavic) and Vlandia (Normans). Much like the factions of Warband, each of these will focus on a particular specialty of troop.

Much like Warband, this prequel will feature many of the same sandbox elements the series is known for, allowing players a multitude of ways to go about playing the game. Gameplay will include both action RPG and strategy elements similar to other games in the Mount & Blade series, allowing players to build up parties from humble beginnings as they create armies, join lords and kingdoms, perform side quests and missions, as well as lead these armies personally into battle through the perspective of their player character. Players have numerous options to achieve their goals in the game, such as trade, diplomacy and combat with far more options than the older games -- some of which are inspired by popular mods from the older games (like the Diplomacy Mod).

Sieges have also been dramatically improved in the game to make them more strategic -- meaning players can now construct various siege engines and use them to breach defenses. A more advanced dialogue system has also been added to Bannerlord, providing the player with even more ways to interact with NPCs from lowly peasants to royalty and companions. This new system will also allow marriage between NPCs and the player with the new option to have children who can then inherit soldiers and fiefs through a family system.

Mods will also be supported in the new title, and the devs have stated this was “a primary consideration when developing Bannerlord.” Though official modding support will not be included during the early access of Bannerlord, the tool set is set to be released alongside the full version of the game once it is completed.

The multiplayer elements also return with numerous upgrades, allowing players to fight other people in battles online across a wide array of maps and different modes. The campaign map included in singleplayer will be unavailable in this mode, but TaleWorlds said they are interested in including this later as downloadable content after a full release. Multiplayer characters will be based on a new class system where players can select prebuilt setups through a new point system (unlike money in the previous game).

Online Presence

Since the initial announcement, Bannerlord has had a massive presence online across many various websites, social platforms and communities. Currently, the game has nearly 50,000 followers on Twitter^[1], 6,000 followers on Instagram^[2] and 226,000 on Facebook^[3].

The r/mountandblade sub on Reddit^[4] has over 116,000 members where players discuss a wide array of topics on the game, in addition to posting fan art, gameplay and memes. Especially on Reddit, even outside the specific sub, the community is known for creating several memes and inside jokes. Many of these stem from the long time between Bannerlord’s announcement and the release date that took nearly eight years to reach fruition.

During the series of developer diaries, which were released each Thursday, subreddit members began posting memes of a camel named “Humphrey” to coincide with the new announcement of content. As time went by and no apparent release ever seemed to come, these posts became more and more apathetic -- typically accompanied by the line "It's Thursday, my dudes." One such example of this meme was posted on August 9th, 2018, by Redditor^[5] DoodieDialogueDeputy (seen below), where it received almost 2,000 upvotes and 68 comments.

The term “Butterlord” is another prominent meme created within the Mount & Blade sub that references Swadian faction leader King Harlaus, his infinite love for butter (a commodity and food in the game) and to the title “Bannerlord.” Several memes have since been created with the term, including a post on October 10th, 2019, by Redditor^[6] Hexciting under the title “After spending literally one month in Blender, Vegas and ofc. Warband I present to you an anime OP for our most beloved buttery butterlord: King Harlaus!” The video (shown below) was upvoted over 1,700 times and gifted several Reddit awards.

Related Memes

Search Interest

External References