Greetings Warriors of Calradia! We’re thrilled to announce the official release of War Sails - the naval expansion for Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord! It’s available now on PC and Consoles (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S).
To celebrate the launch, War Sails will be 10% off on all platforms for the first two weeks. Bannerlord is also joining the celebration with a 50% discount on select platforms.
Join us in watching the War Sails Launch Trailer!
With War Sails, we’re bringing full naval warfare to Bannerlord for the first time. You’ll be able to command your own ships, lead fleets across the seas, and take part in large-scale naval battles as part of your campaign. War Sails is a single-player expansion that plugs directly into the base game: new region & faction, new naval battles, and a lot of ways to get into trouble on the water. The Nords & the Northern Kingdom
War Sails adds a new Viking-inspired faction: the Nords, based in the northern region. You’ll travel through jagged coasts, taiga forests, and frozen fjords, visiting scattered settlements that feel almost like ships rising from the sea. There, you can trade, recruit warriors, work with Nord clans, or try to challenge their power yourself. The Nords Naval Battles
We’ve built a naval system inspired by historical medieval sea battles. You’ll command ships that are affected by wind and waves, decide when to ram, when to board, and when to keep your distance. You can seize opportunities by boarding already engaged ships, prepare for an incoming attack by creating a floating fortress, or take a risk to tie down several enemies at once - giving your allies an edge elsewhere. You may also ram an enemy ship to sink it - or at least throw men off board, shatter oars, and compromise buoyancy. Well-placed arrows and ballista fire can also ignite and destroy enemy sails and ships, forcing crews to abandon their stations. Burning Sails And Ships A Larger World to Sail
Calradia now extends to the north, including a settled island, coastal routes, and open sea. Weather plays a bigger role at sea: storms and currents can speed you up or grind you down. Riding the wind can make journeys faster, but attrition will punish long, poorly prepared expeditions. Naval trade, piracy, and the Nord presence all feed back into the campaign. New trade goods, ship production, and coastal routes give certain towns a chance to grow rich - if they can survive raids and naval invasions. Sieges can also involve the sea now: to fully cut off a coastal settlement, you’ll need a fleet to blockade it and stop supplies and reinforcements from slipping through. New Northern Region And Island Building and Growing Your Fleet
War Sails adds 20 ships: 15 warships, 4 trade ships, and a civilian fishing vessel, all based on historical designs with their own handling and roles. You can:
Equip ships with siege engines, cargo holds, upgraded sails, rams, and more
Capture enemy ships and figureheads in battle
Acquire vessels from shipyards that build and stock ships based on their town’s culture and development
Ramming Custom Naval Battles
If you just want to jump straight into fighting, you can set up custom naval battles. Pick your hero, factions, fleet compositions, ships (with randomized upgrades), crew setups, and then choose the wind, season, and time of day on River, Coastal, or Open Sea maps – no campaign required. New Skills, Items & Troops
We’ve expanded the character system with Nord-themed hairstyles, beards, and tattoos, as well as three new nautical skills focused on navigation, tactics, and stewardship at sea. There are also new weapons and gear – spears, swords, axes, shields, and armor – along with mariner troop branches that perform better in naval combat. You’ll also meet new companions with seafaring backgrounds.
Naval Battle Getting Started: War Sails Questline
If you’d like a guided introduction, there’s a new questline that takes you from your first steps on deck to commanding a small fleet. Through cinematics, scripted missions, and familiar Mount & Blade gameplay, you’ll learn the basics of ship control, then take the fight to a pirate confederacy alongside your newfound allies. Audio & Music
We’ve added new Mediterranean and Nordic-inspired tracks and updated the soundscape for life at sea: winds, waves, creaking hulls, and the chaos of boarding actions and ship-to-ship combat.
Alongside War Sails, we’re also bringing the base game Patch v1.3.4 to all players and platforms. Some of you have already played the patch during our Beta phase and provided immensely valuable feedback. This allowed us to further balance and refine the experience for which we’re truly grateful. Here are the major highlights you’ll find in v1.3.4… Alliances & Trade Agreements
Common enemies bring kingdoms closer to forming alliances, which encourages them to stand together against each other’s foes, while trade agreements incentivize caravan traffic between partner kingdoms. Reworked War, Peace & Tribute Decision Scoring
Each conflict is now evaluated through a refined war progress score, resulting in more logical declarations and outcomes, while reducing the number of short wars. Stealth & Disguise
Stealth and Disguise mechanics now power prison breaks, new hideout scenes, and hostile town infiltrations. Guards react to light, sound, and movement while you sneak, create distractions, eliminate targets quietly, and hide bodies. Disguise lets you scout and operate in hostile towns, though suspicious actions will quickly raise an alarm.
Stealth Kill Fast Mode
Fast Mode is a new optional module that can be selected from the launcher on PC. It speeds up the passage of time: years are shorter, characters age faster, while skill progression and population turnover are tuned to match, making multi-generation dynasties and succession easier to experience in a single playthrough. Deserters & Patrol Parties War now has additional consequences. After battles, fleeing survivors may regroup into tougher roaming bands, especially in war-torn regions. Towns can counter this by building Guard Houses, which produce patrol parties that protect villages, fight bandits, and assist nearby battles. Random Events
These short moments of decision break up long journeys with brief and immersive stories that affect your traits, skills, party, items, or gold.
Random Events Parley with Enemy
This feature lets you start conversations with nobles inside enemy settlements from a safe distance, without immediately risking a full battle. Movement Control over Caravans
Through dialogue, you can change a caravan’s home town and instruct it to avoid specific kingdoms. Caravans were also adjusted to focus on maximizing trade amounts, value, and profits. Reworked Army & Party AI
Armies and parties now keep a closer eye on their strength, wounded troops, and food when choosing targets or deciding whether to press on, pull back, or disband, which cuts down on detrimental marches and makes their actions more calculated. Reworked Settlement Projects
We reworked settlement projects to balance impactful and situational projects, while introducing new options that give the player finer control over how they develop and manage their fief. Recruiting Notables as Supporters
You can now recruit notables as supporters via dialogue. With enough relation and a one-time payment, they’ll back your clan, generating daily influence and shifting loyalty in your favor, but if relations drop too low, they can withdraw that support. New Weapon – Slings
We also expanded the arsenal. Slings offer a fast ranged option with multiple ammo types, giving both you and certain troops a new way to pressure enemies at range.
Sling Post-Knockout Troop Takeover
You can now take direct control of another troop after getting knocked out in battles and sieges. Less spectating, more raiding! Crouched Ranged Attacks & Reloading
You can fire and reload while crouching with short bows, light crossbows, throwing knives, and throwing rocks, letting you stay low behind cover or move more naturally during both stealth missions and regular battles. Overhauled Spear Bracing
Spearmen will now fight with their spears more often, switching to swords when close combat makes it the better choice. Spear bracing has been reworked with smoother animations and improved aiming. AI also targets the riders more accurately while bracing, making properly timed spear walls far better at stopping cavalry that tries to push through.
Spear Bracing Improved Melee, Ranged & Cavalry AI
Melee, ranged, and cavalry AI troops received improvements to targeting and movement. Cavalry charges and tracks targets in a more refined way, horse archers move with less zig-zagging and stay with their formations more. Melee troops now aim better and don’t shy away from mounted enemies. Ranged units lead projectiles at moving targets more effectively, better avoid friendly fire, and hold position once they are in good range. New Main Menu Videos, Armour Pieces, Weapons, Shields, Scabbards & Holsters
New main menu videos were introduced for each culture, and several new armour pieces and equipment sets were added, including items that support stealth gameplay. Sturgia in particular received new shields and cultural bonuses, while newly added scabbards and holsters polish the overall look of troops.
Main Menu Videos Overhauled Mission Atmospheres
We fine-tuned atmosphere visuals with updated lighting and improved skybox textures. Towns, castles, and other scenes now have a greater range of custom environments tailored to cover specific times of day, together with improved global illumination. New Music & Sounds
To further improve the immersion, we introduced new music and ambient sounds to support stealth missions, as well as broader audio additions. Import/Export Hero Cheats
If you like to tweak your campaigns, new Import and Export options let you edit hero equipment, skills, attributes, gold, and appearance through save files and bring those changes back into the game. Expanded Modding Capabilities
We expanded modding support with a wide range of new options. We added FMOD audio event support, made atmospheres and campaign time moddable, and introduced new ways to influence AI and mission behaviour through agent and weapon settings. We also added better support for custom world maps and a new XML Editor. Many of these improvements were inspired by feedback from our modding community.
XML Editor Whether you’re diving into the v1.3.4 update or setting sail with War Sails, we truly hope you enjoy what we’ve been building. Your support, your feedback, and your passion continue to shape this game. Thank you for being part of this journey with us.