This article addresses three key pain points voiced in the Bannerlord 2 Steam forums: the feeling of slow progression, frustrating AI behavior, and a lack of late-game direction. We’ll explore practical solutions, offer unique perspectives, and provide actionable advice to enhance your Bannerlord 2 experience.
One of the most common complaints on the Bannerlord 2 Steam forums revolves around the feeling of slow progression. Players often feel like it takes an incredibly long time to level up their characters, accumulate wealth, and establish themselves as a powerful force in Calradia. This feeling is compounded by the early-game vulnerability and the constant threat of bandits and lords.
Revitalizing Progression Through Focused Skill Training
The default skill progression in Bannerlord 2 can feel like a grind. However, focusing your training efforts can significantly accelerate your character’s development.
- Identify Key Skills: Don’t spread yourself too thin. Choose 2-3 skills that align with your desired playstyle (e.g., combat skills like One-Handed and Riding, or economic skills like Trade and Steward) and concentrate your efforts on those.
- Targeted Activities: Engage in activities that specifically train those skills. For example, fighting in tournaments is excellent for improving combat skills, while crafting weapons trains Smithing. Trading in profitable goods rapidly increase Trade skill.
- Companions and Family: Leverage your companions and family members to fill skill gaps. A dedicated steward can handle governance while you focus on war.
Rethinking Economic Strategies for Faster Wealth Accumulation
Early game poverty is a significant hurdle. Moving beyond basic trading strategies and exploiting specific opportunities can dramatically boost your income.
- Early Game Trading: Look for opportunities to buy low and sell high between towns. Focus on identifying goods with significant price discrepancies. Salt, iron, and horses are often good starting points.
- Workshop Management: Invest in workshops in prosperous towns. Prioritize workshops that align with the town’s resources (e.g., a brewery in a grain-producing town).
- Caravan Escort: Early on, escort caravans for a quick and relatively safe profit boost. This helps fund your initial investments.
The Bannerlord 2 AI, while improved since launch, remains a source of frustration for many players. Issues range from lords making questionable strategic decisions to troops exhibiting bizarre combat behavior.
Understanding and Exploiting AI Tendencies in Battle
While we can’t change the AI code directly, understanding its patterns allows us to exploit them.
- Flanking Maneuvers: The AI often struggles to respond effectively to flanking maneuvers. Position your cavalry to attack the enemy’s flanks and rear.
- Shield Wall Weakness: While effective defensively, shield walls are vulnerable to ranged attacks and flanking. Use archers to soften them up before engaging in melee combat.
- Terrain Advantage: Utilize terrain to your advantage. Position your troops on hills to gain a height advantage and funnel the enemy into chokepoints.
Influencing Strategic AI Through Clan and Kingdom Management
You can indirectly influence the strategic AI by strategically managing your clan and kingdom.
- Clan Roles: Assign companions and family members to specific roles (e.g., quartermaster, surgeon) to improve their effectiveness.
- Kingdom Policies: Vote for kingdom policies that align with your strategic goals. Policies like “Royal Guard” can improve the quality of kingdom troops.
- Relationship Building: Cultivate strong relationships with other lords to influence their decisions and form alliances.
Many players report feeling a lack of direction and purpose in the late game. Once you’ve conquered a significant portion of Calradia, the game can become repetitive and unchallenging. This is a critical area where player-driven goals and modding can significantly enhance the experience.
Defining Your Personal Endgame Goals
Instead of relying solely on the game’s objectives, set your own goals to maintain engagement.
- Cultural Domination: Focus on spreading your culture throughout Calradia through marriage, policies, and cultural buildings.
- Economic Monopoly: Establish a complete economic dominance by controlling key trade routes and industries.
- Mercenary Empire: Instead of ruling, create a powerful mercenary company.
- Create Custom Scenarios: Use the developer console (enable in launch options with
) to create challenges like super armies that are deployed to take your land.
Leveraging Mods to Extend and Enrich the Experience
The Bannerlord 2 modding community offers a vast array of content that can significantly extend the game’s lifespan and add new layers of complexity.
- Diplomacy Mods: Diplomacy fixes some of the AI’s shortcomings regarding managing kingdoms and declaring wars.
- Gameplay Overhaul Mods: Mods that overhaul the combat system, economic system, or skill system can provide a fresh and challenging experience.
- Content Expansion Mods: Mods that add new factions, units, quests, and world events can significantly expand the game’s scope.
From my personal experience, the key to enjoying Bannerlord 2 is embracing its sandbox nature and creating your own narrative. I initially focused solely on military conquest, but I found the game became much more engaging when I started focusing on the economic and political aspects. Learning the trade routes, managing workshops, and influencing kingdom policies added a new layer of depth that kept me invested.
Another lesson I learned is the importance of patience. Bannerlord 2 is a game that rewards long-term planning and strategic thinking. Don’t expect to become a king overnight. Focus on building a strong foundation, developing your skills, and cultivating relationships.
Here’s a table summarizing some common player pain points and possible solutions:
| Pain Point | Solution |
|---|---|
| Slow Progression | Focused skill training, targeted activities, economic strategies |
| Frustrating AI | Exploit AI tendencies, influence strategic AI |
| Late-Game Boredom | Defining personal endgame goals, leveraging mods |
As a long-time player of strategy and simulation games, including hundreds of hours in the Mount & Blade series, my insights are informed by practical experience and a deep understanding of game mechanics. My background includes analyzing game systems, identifying optimal strategies, and exploring innovative ways to enhance the player experience. I strive to provide accurate, well-researched, and actionable advice that empowers players to get the most out of their gaming sessions.
While much of this article is based on personal experience and anecdotal evidence from the Bannerlord 2 community, some claims are supported by external sources:
- Bannerlord 2 Skill System: https://www.bannerlordperks.com/perk (Provides a detailed breakdown of the game’s skill system and how skills are trained.)
- Diplomacy Mod: Available on NexusMods, it addresses some of the issues of diplomacy (This is a popular mod to resolve the pain points.)
These resources can provide further information and context for the strategies discussed in this article.
By addressing the core issues of slow progression, frustrating AI, and late-game boredom with focused strategies, personal goals, and community mods, you can significantly enhance your Bannerlord 2 experience. Remember to embrace the sandbox nature of the game and create your own unique story within Calradia. This allows each player to tailor the game to their preferences and keep the game interesting.