5 Essential Balanced Bannerlord 2 Gameplay Rebalance Mods

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, while a fantastic game, often feels unbalanced. Difficulty spikes, overpowered units, and economic quirks can disrupt the immersive experience. This article solves three problems: identifying key rebalance mods, understanding their impact, and providing practical tips for installation and customization. I’ll share insights gained from hundreds of hours spent modding and playing Bannerlord, focusing on achieving a more fair and enjoyable game.

Bannerlord, in its vanilla state, presents several imbalances. Some factions are significantly stronger than others, leading to predictable campaign outcomes. Unit costs and effectiveness are often skewed, making certain troop types overwhelmingly dominant. The economy can be easily exploited, trivializing resource management.

Identifying Common Gameplay Imbalances

• Overpowered Units: Certain units, like Elite Cataphracts or Khuzait Darkhan, can dominate battles due to superior stats and equipment.
• Economic Exploits: Trade routes and workshop management can be easily manipulated to generate excessive wealth, removing any financial challenge.
• Uneven Faction Strength: The Vlandians, with their powerful cavalry, often steamroll the early game. Other factions may struggle due to poor starting positions or underpowered units.
• Siege Imbalances: Sieges can be overly reliant on cheesing tactics or exploiting AI weaknesses.
• Skill Progression Issues: Certain skills are incredibly difficult to level up, while others are trivial.

Why Rebalance Mods are Crucial

Rebalance mods aim to address these issues by adjusting unit stats, tweaking economic values, modifying AI behavior, and re-evaluating skill progression. The goal isn’t necessarily to make the game easier, but to create a more consistent and challenging experience where strategic decisions matter more than exploiting game flaws. These mods enhance the longevity of Bannerlord by providing fresh challenges and encouraging diverse playstyles.

Here are five essential mods that significantly improve Bannerlord’s balance, followed by guidance on how to implement them effectively.

1. Realistic Battle Mod: A Comprehensive Overhaul

The Realistic Battle Mod (RBM) is arguably the most popular and comprehensive rebalance mod available. RBM overhauls combat mechanics, weapon stats, armor values, and AI behavior to create a more tactical and realistic battlefield experience.

• Key Features: Improved AI, realistic weapon handling, armor penetration system, adjusted unit stats, formation tweaks.
• Impact: Battles become less chaotic and more strategic, rewarding tactical positioning and unit composition. The armor penetration system makes armor matter more, but also allows weaker troops to effectively damage heavily armored foes with the right weapons.
• Why it’s essential: RBM addresses core combat imbalances, making battles more engaging and rewarding.

2. Bannerlord Tweaks: Fine-Grained Control

Bannerlord Tweaks is a modular mod that allows for fine-grained control over various aspects of the game. It provides options to adjust everything from party sizes and recruitment costs to crafting recipes and skill progression rates.

• Key Features: Customizable troop limits, adjusted recruitment costs, tweaked crafting recipes, enhanced smithing, altered skill progression, AI aggression settings.
• Impact: This mod offers unparalleled customization, allowing players to tailor the game to their specific preferences. You can increase party sizes for more epic battles or slow down skill progression to make character development more meaningful.
• Why it’s essential: Bannerlord Tweaks empowers you to customize almost every aspect of the game to eliminate frustrating elements and enhance those you enjoy.

3. Improved Garrisons: Enhanced City Defense

Improved Garrisons focuses on improving the AI and management of garrisons, making sieges more challenging and realistic. It adds new features like garrison patrols, training options, and automatic troop recruitment to enhance city defense.

• Key Features: Garrison patrols, training options, automatic troop recruitment, improved AI defense, configurable garrison wages.
• Impact: Sieges become more challenging as garrisons are better equipped to defend against attackers. This mod also reduces the micromanagement of garrison troops, allowing you to focus on other aspects of the game.
• Why it’s essential: Addresses the often-underwhelming performance of garrison troops and adds depth to siege warfare.

4. Diplomacy Fixes: Enhanced Political Interactions

Diplomacy Fixes overhauls the diplomacy system, adding new options and addressing existing issues. It introduces features like alliances, non-aggression pacts, and improved AI decision-making to create a more dynamic political landscape.

• Key Features: Alliances, non-aggression pacts, improved AI diplomacy, more realistic war declarations, better peace negotiations.
• Impact: The political landscape becomes more complex and engaging, requiring players to carefully consider their diplomatic relationships. Alliances can provide crucial support in wars, while non-aggression pacts can prevent unwanted conflicts.
• Why it’s essential: Enhances the often-simplistic diplomacy system, adding depth and complexity to political interactions.

5. True Noble Opinion: Realistic Relationship Dynamics

True Noble Opinion aims to make relationship building with nobles more meaningful and realistic. It adjusts the factors that influence noble opinions, making them more consistent and less prone to arbitrary fluctuations.

• Key Features: Realistic opinion modifiers, improved AI decision-making, adjusted relationship gains and losses, clearer feedback on opinion changes.
• Impact: Relationships with nobles become more important and require careful management. Actions have more meaningful consequences, and building trust takes time and effort.
• Why it’s essential: Addresses the often-arbitrary nature of noble relationships, making them more engaging and realistic.

Installing these mods is straightforward but requires a mod manager. I highly recommend Vortex or Bannerlord’s built-in mod loader.

Step-by-Step Mod Installation

1. Download a Mod Manager: Download and install Vortex (https://www.nexusmods.com/vortex/) or use Bannerlord’s built-in mod loader.
2. Download Mods: Download the desired mods from Nexus Mods (https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord).
3. Install Mods: Use the mod manager to install each mod. Vortex will automatically handle the installation process. For the built-in mod loader, simply place the mod files into the “Modules” folder located in your Bannerlord installation directory.
4. Enable Mods: In the mod manager, enable all the installed mods. Ensure the load order is correct. Usually, core mods like RBM should load first, followed by smaller tweaks and fixes.
5. Launch Bannerlord: Launch Bannerlord and verify that the mods are loaded correctly in the launcher.

Configuring Mods for Optimal Balance

Most rebalance mods offer configuration options to tailor the gameplay to your preferences. Bannerlord Tweaks, in particular, provides a wide range of settings that can be adjusted through an in-game menu. Experiment with different settings to find a balance that suits your playstyle. Some mods, like RBM, may have optional modules that can be enabled or disabled to customize the mod’s features.

Load Order Matters: Avoiding Conflicts

Load order is crucial for preventing conflicts between mods. As a general rule, core mods should load first, followed by smaller tweaks and fixes. If you encounter issues, try rearranging the load order to see if it resolves the problem.

Here is a potential load order which often works well:

Having spent countless hours experimenting with Bannerlord mods, I’ve learned that achieving perfect balance is a subjective process. The key is to find a combination of mods that enhances your enjoyment of the game without making it feel too easy or artificially difficult.

Finding Your Perfect Balance

• Start Small: Begin with a few core rebalance mods, like RBM and Diplomacy Fixes, and gradually add more mods as needed.
• Read Documentation: Carefully read the documentation for each mod to understand its features and potential conflicts.
• Experiment: Don’t be afraid to experiment with different settings and load orders to find what works best for you.
• Consider Your Playstyle: If you prefer a more challenging experience, increase the difficulty settings and use mods that enhance AI behavior. If you prefer a more relaxed experience, use mods that streamline management and reduce micromanagement.

The Importance of Community Feedback

The Bannerlord modding community is a valuable resource for finding information and troubleshooting issues. Join online forums and Discord servers to connect with other players and modders. Share your experiences and ask for help when needed.

Balanced Bannerlord 2 gameplay rebalance mods are essential for creating a more engaging and rewarding experience. By carefully selecting and configuring mods, you can tailor the game to your specific preferences and overcome the imbalances present in the vanilla version. Remember to prioritize load order, read documentation, and experiment to find the perfect balance for your game. With the right mods, Bannerlord can become an even more immersive and enjoyable experience.