There is no aim to the game. You can spend your time as a trader, or you can raise an army and take over the map. You can run around solving quests, help a sovereign regain his/her throne, or pillage and burn your way to riches. Because of the overwhelming supply of mods for mount and blade; imagining life as a warrior from lord of the rings will feel more real than any of the official Lord of the Rings games.
The Bow And Arrow Mechanics Are Sublime
Many people have admired Legolas on LOTR and then jumped right on to M&B to start spearing people with arrows. The physics are prefect, plus the effect of each arrow works according with your bow strength, shot power and the enemy’s armor. Even better is the fact you get more experience point for shots that are more difficult, so it gives you an incentive to aim right between your enemy’s eyes.
Training Your Troops Makes An Obvious Difference To Their Abilities
As you train your troops, they become better armored and more skilled. Your highly trained archers can darken the skies with their higher shot output and better aim. Your poorly trained horsemen will be hammered down by a small team of axemen, whereas your highly-trained knights will cut through clusters of enemies like a hot knife through butter.
Your Experience Points And Level Upgrades make A Noticeable Difference
Improve your strength, and your broad sword will cut through men in one slice. Improve your agility, and you will be firing off shots like as fast as a gangster’s Tommy Gun. If you improve your leadership skills, your army will swell from twenty to thousands. Each upgrade affects the way you play the game.
Set Your Own Course
Feeling imperialistic? Then start sacking towns one by one and stationing men in them to protect them. Want the life of a trader? Find the sexiest selling trends and make a fortune by exploiting supply and demand? Want respect and honor? Take up maiden’s and king’s quests and earn epic amounts of experience.
The Campaign Map Is In Real Time
Mount And Blade is not like Total War. It isn’t real-time battles with a turn-based campaign map. Your troop is represented by a walking man or a horse on the campaign map, and time passes normally as you move. It even turns from night to day. While on the map, you may camp out to refill your life bar and revive a few of your troops.
You May Gain Permanent Allies
Have troops join your cause as you go along and train them up to do your bidding. That is all fun and good, but you may also gain new allies. They are NPC characters that are just like you. You can add and remove armor, alter their levels to suit, and you can give them lands so that you do not have to defend your entire realm yourself. You can even train them up to plug the gaps in your own skills. For example, you can train one of them as a medic to ensure fewer of your troops are killed during battles.
