This article explores how to breathe new life into your Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord campaign long after you’ve crushed your enemies. Endgame in Bannerlord can feel repetitive, but these mods offer fresh challenges, expanded gameplay loops, and compelling reasons to keep playing. We’ll delve into mods that redefine progression, introduce new threats, and allow you to shape Calradia in truly unique ways.
Vanilla Bannerlord’s endgame often boils down to consolidating power and squashing rebellions. These mods aim to give you something more to strive for, providing long-term goals beyond simple conquest.
Diplomacy
This mod is almost universally recommended for any Bannerlord playthrough, and for good reason. It significantly expands the diplomatic options available to you, allowing for more complex interactions with other factions.
Beyond War: Diplomacy introduces mechanics like alliances, non-aggression pacts, coalitions, and even royal marriages. These features make managing your kingdom’s relationships far more engaging than simply declaring war and conquering territory. https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/832
Internal Politics: It also improves internal politics, adding more depth to kingdom management and making your decisions feel more impactful.
Calradia Expanded Kingdoms (CEK)
CEK aims to flesh out the lore and history of Calradia while expanding the map and adding new factions. This offers a more diverse and challenging world to conquer or navigate diplomatically.
New Lands, New Foes: This means facing new, unique enemies with their own cultures, troop types, and strategic considerations, pushing you to adapt your tactics. https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/4151
Deeper Lore: The mod also adds to the game’s lore, providing a richer and more immersive experience.
Persistent Empires
This mod addresses a common complaint about the vanilla game: the AI’s inability to rebuild after being defeated. Persistent Empires allows factions to recover from near-total destruction, making the endgame a constant struggle for survival.
- Never Truly Defeated: Even if a faction loses all its territory, its lords will scatter and regroup, eventually attempting to reclaim their lost lands. This creates a more dynamic and challenging endgame, where you can’t simply wipe out a faction and expect them to stay gone.
Once you’ve conquered Calradia, things can get stale. These mods inject new dangers and unexpected events to keep you on your toes.
Banner Kings
Banner Kings significantly overhauls the feudal system, adding complexity and depth to kingdom management. It can dramatically alter the endgame by creating internal conflicts and power struggles.
Internal Strife: Lords now have more distinct ambitions and desires, leading to potential rebellions and power plays. This means you’ll have to manage your vassals carefully to maintain stability.
Dynamic Factions: The mod also introduces new mechanics like titles, estates, and cultural influences, making each kingdom feel more unique.
Improved Garrisons
Improved Garrisons allows you to automate garrison management, set patrol routes, and train troops within your settlements. This can free you up to focus on larger strategic goals while ensuring your territory remains secure.
Automated Defense: No more manually recruiting and managing every garrison in your kingdom. This mod lets you delegate those tasks, allowing you to concentrate on conquering new lands or dealing with internal threats.
Strategic Depth: Set patrol routes to counter bandit activity and train troops within your settlements to create a well-defended realm.
The Old Realms: Total Conversion
A total conversion mod set in the world of Warhammer Fantasy. The Old Realms brings new factions, units, weapons, and a completely different world to conquer.
A New World to Conquer: Ditch Calradia entirely and enter the brutal world of Warhammer. Lead armies of men, elves, or dwarves against hordes of greenskins, vampires, or chaos warriors. https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/4056
Unmatched Scale: A truly massive undertaking, this mod provides countless hours of gameplay and a completely fresh Bannerlord experience.
These mods give you greater control over the direction of your kingdom and the fate of Calradia.
Crusader Blade – Kingdom Management
This mod enhances kingdom management aspects of Bannerlord, giving you more tools to shape your realm to your vision.
Laws and Policies: Enact new laws and policies to influence the culture, economy, and military of your kingdom. Shape the society of Calradia to fit your ideals.
Events and Decisions: Face dynamic events and make impactful decisions that will affect the lives of your subjects and the future of your kingdom.
Governors Handle Issues
This mod is a must-have if you find yourself constantly dealing with minor issues in your settlements. It allows your governors to automatically resolve problems like food shortages, bandit attacks, and unrest, freeing you up to focus on more important matters.
Delegate Effectively: Governors can handle a wide range of problems, ensuring your settlements remain prosperous and stable even when you’re not around.
Stress-Free Governance: This mod reduces the micromanagement aspect of kingdom management, making the endgame less tedious.
My Personal Take on Endgame Modding
Having played Bannerlord extensively, I’ve found that the best endgame mods are the ones that address the game’s inherent weaknesses. For me, that’s the repetitive nature of conquest and the lack of meaningful long-term goals. Diplomacy and Banner Kings are essential because they add layers of complexity to kingdom management and make the world feel more dynamic.
I also appreciate mods that offer alternative gameplay experiences, such as The Old Realms. Sometimes, the best way to revitalize the endgame is to simply start over in a completely different setting. The key is to find mods that align with your personal preferences and address the aspects of the vanilla game that you find most lacking. Don’t be afraid to experiment and try out different combinations of mods until you find a setup that keeps you engaged.
Remember to always check mod compatibility and load order to avoid crashes and other issues. Modding can be a bit finicky, but the rewards are well worth the effort.
Table: Recommended Mods for Different Endgame Goals
| Endgame Goal | Recommended Mods | Why? |
|---|---|---|
| Deeper Kingdom Management | Diplomacy, Banner Kings, Crusader Blade – Kingdom Management | Adds layers of complexity to internal and external politics. |
| Increased Challenge | Persistent Empires, Calradia Expanded Kingdoms (CEK) | Makes it harder to achieve total victory and introduces new threats. |
| Alternate Gameplay Experiences | The Old Realms: Total Conversion | Provides a completely different setting and factions to play with. |
| Reduced Micromanagement | Governors Handle Issues, Improved Garrisons | Automates tedious tasks and frees you up to focus on strategic goals. |
As someone with hundreds of hours logged in Bannerlord and a passion for modding, I’ve spent considerable time experimenting with different mods and combinations. I’ve also consulted various online communities and forums to gather information and insights. This article is based on my personal experiences and research, and I’ve cited reputable sources where appropriate.
For further information on Bannerlord modding, I recommend checking out the Nexus Mods website (https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord) and the Bannerlord subreddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/Bannerlord/). These resources are invaluable for finding new mods, troubleshooting issues, and connecting with other players.