If you’re tired of the slow grind of building your army in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, you’re not alone. Many players find the vanilla recruitment system tedious. The good news is that the modding community has stepped up to provide solutions that can significantly speed up the process and offer more strategic options. This article explores five bannerlord 2 mods for recruiting troops that offer different approaches to streamline and enhance your army-building experience.
The core issue with vanilla Bannerlord’s recruitment system is its reliance on RNG and the time it takes to travel between villages and towns, hoping to find the troops you need. This can be especially frustrating when you’re trying to build a specific type of army or quickly replace losses after a battle. Mods that address this either make troops more readily available, offer alternative recruitment methods, or allow for more efficient troop management.
1. Distinguished Service: Turning Companions into Powerful Lords
Distinguished Service is a mod that allows your companions to become lords after reaching a certain level of skill and loyalty. While not directly related to speeding up troop recruitment, it indirectly achieves this by allowing you to create new lords who can then raise their own armies. This lets you expand your military power more quickly than relying solely on your own character’s recruitment efforts.
- Beyond immediate armies, they establish clans, adding to your kingdom’s long-term military strength. This mod solves the “one-man army” problem many players face.
- It’s especially useful when you’re trying to establish a new kingdom and need to quickly fill your ranks with loyal vassals. This allows you to create a network of trusted lords who can support your war efforts and contribute to your kingdom’s overall power.
- Remember to consider your companions’ skills and cultures when deciding who to promote to lord status. A companion with high stewardship skills will be better suited to managing a fief, while one with high combat skills will be more effective leading troops on the battlefield.
2. Recruit Everyone: The Power of Persuasion
“Recruit Everyone” lives up to its name. It allows you to recruit lords, ladies, and even wandering notables into your party, provided you can pass a persuasion check. While not every recruit will be a combat powerhouse initially, the potential for acquiring skilled characters is immense.
- This mod completely changes the dynamics of your campaign, as it allows you to add experienced leaders and skilled specialists to your ranks. This opens up new strategies and tactics that wouldn’t be possible in the base game.
- The persuasion checks can be challenging, especially when trying to recruit powerful lords. Investing in your character’s charm skill and having high relations with the target character will significantly increase your chances of success.
- Use your companions with high charm skills to assist you in recruitment attempts. This can provide a significant bonus to your persuasion skill and make it easier to convince even the most reluctant characters to join your cause.
3. Banner Kings: Deeper Social Strata & Recruitment
Banner Kings is a comprehensive overhaul mod that significantly expands the social and economic systems of Calradia. One of its key features is a more nuanced recruitment system that takes into account social class and regional demographics.
- This mod introduces new troop types and recruitment options based on the culture and social standing of the villages and towns you visit. This adds a layer of realism and strategy to the recruitment process, as you’ll need to consider the local population when building your army.
- For example, you might be able to recruit high-quality feudal troops from villages controlled by powerful lords, but you’ll need to have good relations with those lords to gain access to these recruits.
- Be mindful of cultural differences when recruiting troops in different regions. Troops from different cultures may have different strengths and weaknesses, and they may not always get along with each other.
- For example, if you recruit Sturgian troops into your Empire army, they will have morale issue.
4. Improved Garrison: Management is Key
“Improved Garrison” helps indirectly with recruitment by making it easier to manage existing troops. The core functionality focuses on automating garrison replenishment and training, freeing you to focus on other aspects of your campaign.
- With “Improved Garrison,” you can set up recruitment templates for your garrisons and let the mod automatically recruit and train troops to meet those specifications. This ensures that your settlements are always adequately defended, even when you’re away fighting battles.
- The mod also allows you to set up training schedules for your garrison troops, improving their skills and combat effectiveness over time.
- Consider setting up specialized garrisons in different regions of your kingdom. For example, you might want to have a garrison of heavily armored infantry in a region that is prone to sieges, and a garrison of horse archers in a region that is frequently raided by enemy cavalry.
5. Freelancer: Experience the Ranks
Freelancer offers a unique perspective by allowing you to enlist as a soldier in the army of a lord. While not directly about recruiting troops for your own army, it provides valuable experience and connections that can later aid your own recruitment efforts.
- By serving in a lord’s army, you’ll gain valuable combat experience, improve your skills, and build relationships with other soldiers and commanders. This can give you a significant advantage when you eventually start your own kingdom and need to recruit troops and find loyal vassals.
- You’ll also have the opportunity to observe the lord’s leadership style and learn effective strategies for managing and deploying troops.
- Pay attention to the lord’s preferences and expectations. Earning their trust and respect can open up new opportunities and accelerate your progress within their army.
From personal experience, I’ve found that combining several of these mods creates the most satisfying gameplay loop. “Distinguished Service” gives you long-term strategic depth, while “Recruit Everyone” provides exciting and unpredictable opportunities. “Improved Garrisons” is essential for efficient management, and “Freelancer” adds a unique role-playing element.
It’s crucial to remember that mod compatibility is vital. Always check the mod descriptions and forums to ensure that the mods you choose are compatible with each other and with the current version of Bannerlord 2. Load order can also be critical; experiment to find the optimal configuration.
Beyond the specific mods, focus on building relationships with notables in villages. These individuals can often provide access to higher-quality recruits and can become valuable allies. Increase your charm skill to improve your chances of persuading them to help you.
Here’s a table summarizing the mods:
| Mod | Core Functionality | Recruitment Impact | Compatibility Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Distinguished Service | Companions become Lords | Indirectly expands recruitment capacity by creating new lords | Compatible with most mods, but may conflict with mods that alter companion behavior. |
| Recruit Everyone | Recruit Lords, Ladies, Notables | Allows recruitment of unique and powerful characters, bypassing normal means | May conflict with mods that heavily modify character interactions or AI. |
| Banner Kings | Overhauls Social Systems | Introduces nuanced recruitment based on social class and region | Requires careful load order; known to be incompatible with some other overhaul mods. |
| Improved Garrison | Automates Garrison Management | Frees player to focus on other recruitment efforts | Generally compatible, but may conflict with mods that directly alter garrison mechanics. |
| Freelancer | Enlist as Soldier | Provides experience and connections for future recruitment efforts | May conflict with mods that alter troop trees or combat significantly. |
The Bannerlord 2 modding scene is constantly evolving. As the game receives updates and new tools become available, we can expect to see even more innovative mods that address the challenges of troop recruitment. Keep an eye on the Nexus Mods website for the latest and greatest creations from the community. (https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord)
As a long-time player of the Mount & Blade series and an avid follower of the Bannerlord 2 modding community, I’ve spent countless hours experimenting with different mods and strategies to optimize my gameplay experience. I’ve also actively participated in modding forums and communities, sharing my knowledge and learning from other players. This article is based on my personal experience and research, and I’ve done my best to provide accurate and up-to-date information.
By strategically utilizing these mods and focusing on building relationships within the game world, you can overcome the grind of troop recruitment and build the army of your dreams in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord.