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

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

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...

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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!

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

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

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!

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.

AND THEN THE GAME CRASHES

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

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!

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

my PC would never survive

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.

I love this type of content i've learned ALOT from you. Keep it up

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.

That two handed mace is so sweet

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

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

You and I are playing different games. This is insane!

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.

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

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!

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

I just got the game I put it off for the longest but I’m so glad I did. My biggest battle so far was about 2100 Vladinians or whatever that bottom left faction is called and I was a vassal to the empire. We were viciously expanding but during a siege they brought those 2100 against our 1700 (I only had about 280 of that 1700) but the battle lasted so long. I actually started shaking from exhaustion lmao. The balance went back and forth soo many times and we finally broke. Lucon had a cavalry unit on backup almost the entire fight which surprised me. But he swung them in and broke a deadlock we ended up having. They enemy regrouped and pushed us back but we finally retreated. This game just shows me how much I have yet to learn but so damn glad it’s teaching me

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

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)

This looks amazing !

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

I hope they fix that terrible looking lance attack someday

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

Omg, cant wait to get to this part of the gameplay. So far I have only ever gotten one castle and a party of 80 people

Insane battle well done

"Let's go bowling" -- Sun Tzu

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.

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

That was absolutely an awesome way to start the day

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

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.

Watching you ride around bonking archers is hilarious, quality entertainment

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**

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?

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

Very cool fight!

Amazing battle!

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.

RBM is great

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.

ohhh this looks hype lets see what we got

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

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

This guys talks about warfare like construction. “Let me just shore up this flank” *hammers*

dude is an awesome battle commander

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

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!

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!"

Beautiful battle

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.

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

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

Bro you are a fucking legend I feel like if that was me I would have lost from being overwhelmed at the sheer about of stuff going on

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).

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?

"forgot the archers on hold fire" every video. I feel this pain so much hahaha.

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.

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

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.)*

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

I get a good experience when I turn on RBM save a game, then turn it off then load the game. What I didnt like about RBM is the units equipment sets. However doing what I stated seems to incorporate the RBM AI actions and tactics into what ever weapon/mod I use. For instance my latest run has been on the CA_EAGLE RISING mod and having RBM's tactics with everything from Greek Phalanxes to Roman Fortestudo and Celtics etc is something that has to be experienced.

Oh my goodness the bonking noise when you take someone out is activating all the neurons

Love RBM and congrats to you Strat with 145k views in three days time!