Greetings Warriors of Calradia!
Since the launch of War Sails, we’ve been closely following your feedback and rolling out a steady stream of hotfixes to improve the experience. Today, we’re releasing War Sails v1.1.1 alongside Bannerlord v1.3.13, both of which have already gone through the public Beta.
This update adds Nords to Land Custom Battles, makes sail rotation more responsive, and brings improvements to boarding bridge placement and stability. We’ve also continued refining the naval storyline and introduced Custom Encyclopedia pages for every ship, making it easier to explore and learn about the fleets of Calradia.
The base game also saw the reintroduction of the hideout assault option, as well as improvements to the lord’s hall battle.
On top of that, we’ve addressed a variety of crash and performance issues that many of you have reported. Your feedback has been invaluable in helping us prioritize and deliver these improvements.
Below, you’ll find the major highlights from the hotfixes released since launch, as well as the key changes included in today’s update. Thank you for your continued support, patience, and passion for War Sails and Bannerlord.
Please note that there may be a delay between the download of the base game and the download of War Sails. If you launch the game prior to both of them being updated, you will crash. If you face this issue, please verify your game files.
Please also note that Console hotfixes arrive with a delay, as their release processes take a bit more time. Releasing to PC without waiting on this process allows us to gather data and feedback more quickly - benefiting all platforms.
The following changes are specific to the War Sails expansion and are not part of the base game.
Custom Battle
Added Nord faction and troops to the land Custom Battle.
Naval Battles
Improved sail rotation responsiveness:
Sails now rotate more quickly in the correct direction based on the wind once opened.
Furling the sails during rotation is now smoother.
These changes should improve overall ship control responsiveness.
Improved naval boarding bridges and hook mechanics:
Bridge placement now better matches each ship’s shape, reducing cases where bridges connected at odd angles or caused unnatural positioning between ships.
Better connection spots are chosen during the hook-throwing stage, allowing bridges to form more cleanly.
Bridges automatically adjust in length based on where ships connect.
Your crew now automatically assists you when you start throwing hooks or cutting loose, removing the need to give manual orders for these actions.
Bridge connections are more stable and less likely to break unintentionally.
Improved attacker ship formation AI so they advance with sails kept open until halfway to their target, if the wind conditions allow them. (Defender AI is unchanged.)
Reduced incoming missile damage to the player by 60% while controlling the ship.
Adjusted air friction and projectile speed for ship ballistas, which should make long-range shots more effective.
Adjusted post-battle behavior so all troops (including the player) are unable to attack once the battle ends.
Fixed several ship control and interaction issues:
Increased the interaction area size for the Roundship control point.
Fixed a spawn point and control point intersection issue on the Cog.
Fixed the hand position for the control point on the Ghurab.
Fixed the hand position for the control point on the Lodya.
Fixed rope issues on the Dromakion.
Fixed a visibility tag issue on the Roundship ballista.
Fixed a bug that caused naval reinforcements to spawn in inaccessible positions due to ship movement, which could trap agents and prevent battles from ending.
Fixed a bug that caused agents to get stuck inside Ghurab’s interior due to a physics object, sometimes preventing battles from ending.
Fixed a bug that caused troops to get stuck on the sail mast holder of the Eastern Galley.
Fixed a bug that caused troops to wait for allies before climbing, preventing AI units from using climbing equipment quickly.
Fixed a bug that caused floating ship debris to get troops stuck instead of being pushed aside.
Fixed a bug that caused the player’s camera to get stuck when a ship ballista got destroyed while the player was using it.
Fixed a bug that caused troops to receive incorrect figurehead and other initial bonuses when ships and crews were rearranged in Order of Battle.
Fixed a bug that caused corpses to get stuck mid-air in certain edge cases during naval battles.
Fixed a bug that caused wave physics to reset during naval battles, resulting in ships briefly jumping unnaturally.
Fixed a bug that caused the player to be able to attempt capturing a ship even without fulfilling the requirements. This action is now disabled in these situations.
Fixed a bug that caused broken oars to still apply force and create visual particles such as water wakes.
Ships & Upgrades
Adjusted ship upgrades so that the pieces purchased for a specific ship can no longer be equipped on other ships.
Character Development System
Increased the Shipmaster skill experience rate multiplier from ×0.6 to ×1.4.
War Sails Storyline
“Free the Sea Hounds’ Captives” quest adjustments:
Enemy reinforcement ships in the end battle now start with an “Engage” order, preventing them from kiting and improving the flow of the final naval battle.
Removed the dromon ship’s ram (ramming is still possible but less effective).
Purig and his bodyguards now spawn with his crew but will not engage until the boss fight.
Increased wind speed during the large naval battle.
Added an objective marker and progress bar to the “Defeat Purig’s crew” objective.
Adjusted enemy ship spawn points in the final fight; they now spawn in two closer, better-grouped formations.
Allied ships are now allowed to attack Purig’s ship.
Updated upgrade pieces for mission ships.
Purig’s roundship now includes roof upgrades and additional visual elements.
Purig now wields a two-handed axe - which also means that he no longer uses a shield.
Added world map travel commentary from Gunnar for events, quests, and locations encountered during the naval storyline.
Adjusted naval storyline set-piece encounters so enemy party size and details are hidden on the world map. This better reflects the custom nature of the encounters.
Adjusted the camera to focus on the reinforcing enemy ship in the “Defeat the Sea Hounds” mission after capturing the first enemy ship.
Increased party speed of Vlandian Merchants in the “Set Sail and Escort Vlandian Merchants” quest.
Introduced consistent, custom sail patterns for storyline ships in “Defeat the Sea Hounds” and “Meet the Vlandian Merchants in Hvalvik” quests, ensuring that their sail visuals do not change between campaign and mission scenes.
“Free the Sea Hounds’ Captives” quest fixes:
Fixed a bug that caused the reinforcement AI ship’s orders to be disabled during the naval battle phase.
Fixed a bug that caused the second formation to appear empty during the large battle.
Fixed a bug that caused Gunnar not to hold the ship’s control point.
Fixed a bug that caused Gunnar not to remove his helmet when starting the quest from the second phase.
Fixed a bug that prevented sail colors from displaying during the mission.
Fixed a bug that caused mission dialog notifications to appear after returning to the campaign map.
Fixed a bug that caused the escape ship to have incorrect movement direction and speed during the escape phase.
Fixed bugs that caused visual glitches on all quest-related ships (such as ropes and barrels clipping or floating).
Fixed ship interior scene visual bugs.
Fixed a bug that caused the player to become stuck at sea when returning to Ostican after completing the “Free the Sea Hounds’ Captives” quest while Ostican was under siege.
Fixed a bug that caused the banner icon to show above Gunnar in the naval storyline alley fight.
Fixed a bug that caused AI ships to get stuck in a hook-throwing loop even after the player created distance from the target ship in the “Protect the Merchants” quest.
Fixed a bug that caused AI ships to sometimes get stranded on rocks or shoreline during naval storyline quests.
Fixed a bug that caused the ship to rotate during the “Save the crewmen” quest.
Fixed a bug that caused Left mouse click (RT/R2 on consoles) to give a move order instead of a charge order during the storyline end battle.
Fixed a bug that caused the player’s eavesdropping position to be incorrect in the naval storyline alley fight mission.
Fixed a bug that caused missing ship control point icons in the “Escort the Vlandian Merchants” naval storyline mission.
Fixed a bug that caused the player to win the “Escort the Vlandian Merchants” battle even if the Vlandian Merchants party was defeated during the fight.
Fixed a bug that caused a missing dialogue line from al-Fahda in “Hunt down Emira al-Fahda and the Corsairs”.
Fixed a bug that caused the encounter text to revert to a generic one after retreating in battle during the “Escort the Vlandian Merchants” quest.
Fixed a bug that caused party size information to be hidden for regular naval storyline battles.
Fixed a bug that prevented the leave button from working with gamepad controllers in storyline encounter menus.
Fixed a bug that caused stealth movement on ships to be treated as walking on water surfaces and had an unintended sound penalty.
Fixed a bug that caused the chain unshackle animation in the story questline to get stuck.
Audio
Added new voice lines for the naval storyline:
Implemented new voice-overs for the alley fight.
Added new boarding warnings and post-boss fights dialogue in “Hunt down Emira al-Fahda and the Corsairs” quest.
Added new Gunnar’s voice lines and default one-liners for Bjolgur and Lahar in “Capture the imperial merchant Crusas” quest.
Improved storyline soundscape by adding new ambient sounds and music throughout.
Improved ship ballista sounds, making them fuller and more powerful.
Improved voiceover pipeline so dialogue can be heard more clearly in loud situations.
Added new voice-overs for Corsairs.
Fixed a bug that caused some sounds not to play correctly during naval battles due to distance-based optimizations.
Fixed a bug that caused some voice lines not to be triggered.
Art
Added a passage from the town center to the port scene in Hargard.
Reduced the wave strength of water in some Nord scenes.
Fixed a bug that caused an incorrect grip position when blocking with some axes.
Fixed a bug that caused border prop visibility issues in Thronderlag Arena.
Fixed a bug that caused LOD issues with the walls of Nord towns.
Animations
Fixed a bug that caused incorrect sitting animations in tavern scenes, including female characters using faulty animations and musicians appearing to sit in mid-air.
Campaign Map
Reduced the Undermanned naval speed penalty by 60%. This change should make it easier to return to port after capturing additional ships.
Adjusted the size of naval party circle decals on the campaign map to better match ship scale, improving their visibility and preventing them from being obscured by ships.
UI
Added a new Ships encyclopedia page for naval gameplay, including ship lists, filters, and bookmarks.
On this page, you can see all the ships’ images, descriptions, stats, and available upgrade slots.
Added a “Mariner” filter to the Encyclopedia troop list.
War Sails storyline quests are now highlighted in blue in the Quests screen.
Naval Custom Battle sliders now show skeletal crew size, deck/maximum crew size, and reserve troops.
The focused ship’s name now appears at the bottom of the screen.
Adjusted ship capture visuals so the previous ship's icon switches to grey instead of red after capture of the new ship.
The “Control the Ship” text on the control point is adjusted to only show “[F] to use”.
Ballista ammo is now always visible, even when not using the ballista (displayed with lower opacity).
Boarding orders now show “Board <SHIP NAME>!” instead of “Attempt Boarding!”.
Added clear visuals and input prompts for Attempt Boarding and Stop Using the Ship near the ship-control UI.
Adjusted the layout of Formation cards in the naval Order of Battle.
Ship markers and scoreboard icons now become transparent for ships that have no troops onboard.
While holding “Alt”, ship icons for very close ships are now distance-adjusted for cleaner visibility.
The player-controlled ship’s own marker is not shown in naval missions.
Added Encyclopedia entries for the locations on the expanded War Sails map.
Improved oar state visibility while controlling a ship.
Fixed a bug that caused the banner icon to show above Gunnar in the naval storyline alley fight.
Fixed a bug that caused the anchor visual (player’s fleet location) to disappear after being released from captivity.
Fixed a bug that caused the “Defend Ship” order to remain highlighted in the order menu after giving a “Charge” order.
Fixed a bug that caused the troop names and “Control the Ship” text to be visible while the player is controlling a ship.
Fixed a bug that caused the Order of Battle phase to open even when the player had only one ship to deploy.
Fixed a bug that caused fleet weight information (current vs. maximum capacity) to display inaccurately.
Fixed a bug that caused players to have difficulty stopping control of the ship’s interactable objects.
Clan and Party
Fixed a bug that caused nobles’ parties to end up having too many ships.
Fixed a bug that caused parties to continuously embark and disembark while trying to defend a settlement.
Fixed a bug that caused patrol parties not to join the player's battles against bandits and looters.
Fixed a bug that caused the Sea Raider Boss not to be classified as a mariner troop.
Performance
Improved the CPU performance of naval battles by optimizing the general physics systems.
Improved memory usage in Hvalvik by converting a multi-part prefab into a single optimized piece.
Improved Ragdoll performance.
Crashes
Fixed a crash that occurred after the naval storyline alley fight.
Fixed a crash that occurred during the “Free the Sea Hounds’ Captives” quest when a cutscene was triggered before Purig’s ship had spawned.
Fixed a crash that occurred when exiting the “Free the Sea Hounds’ Captives” quest mission after the boss fight with Purig.
Fixed a crash that occurred if Gunnar dies during the boss fight with Purig.
Fixed a crash that occurred when spamming the F key during the transition between Gunnar and the sister’s conversation in the “Speak to Gunnar and Sister” quest.
Fixed a crash that occurred during naval battles, which was related to Sambuk ships.
Fixed a crash that occurred when ramming a ship.
Fixed a crash that occurred when a troop was climbing onto a sinking ship.
Fixed a crash that occurred when opening the fleet management menu via map shortcuts.
Fixed a crash that occurred in the campaign map due to fisher parties.
The following changes are part of the base game and apply to the War Sails expansion as well.
Battles and Sieges
Hideout Improvements:
Reintroduced the hideout battle mission as the Assault option (available during the day), with Sneak In remaining the night option.
Assault requires at least 8 troops and allows up to 15 to join the battle.
Updated all hideout scenes to support the Assault option.
Reduced the minimum troop requirement for Sneak In from 25 to 20.
Lord’s Hall Battle Improvements:
Updated reinforcement logic: 5 attackers will now spawn at once, instead of 1.
Fixed a bug that prevented all available troops from being used in simulations, which could previously cause losing battles due to limited troop numbers and entire sieges being lost as a result.
Fixed a bug that caused attackers to lose Lord’s Hall battles (both mission and simulated) due to low morale, even when they still had troops remaining.
Fixed a bug that caused settlement advantages to be applied in Lord’s Hall battles.
Adjusted shield stats and pricing to better match their size and visuals:
Corrected shield weight values so they now properly reflect the shield’s physical size and model.
Rebalanced shield hit points to be consistent with their size and construction.
Updated shield tier and price formulas to account for the new stat distribution.
Most commonly used infantry shields received minor adjustments.
Increased the speed of throwing stones, resulting in more damage loss at range as well as less damage gained from speed bonus. Base damage further reduced from 15 to 10.
Huscarl’s spear changed to be braceable instead of couchable.
Fixed a bug that caused friendly troops to push and stutter when multiple formations were ordered to attack the same object (such as gates) during siege battles.
Audio
Improved the sounds of the main menu videos.
Fixed a bug that caused the slaughter button to play an incorrect sound in the inventory.
UI
Updated Stealth and Disguise UI in missions:
Adjusted the suspicion bar in town disguise missions, with a bar and an exclamation mark that will glow when the bar is full.
Added a white progress bar to hideout stealth missions to display the remaining time before failure.
Adjusted clan member lists in the Encyclopedia so that they are now sorted by age.
Improved visibility of the battle power comparison bars by adding a subtle highlight for dark color themes.
Updated the icons for the Barracks and Waterworks buildings in town management.
Added an option to toggle between formation distances and scale displays.
Enabled the inventory screen search bar.
Added the ability to scroll the credits.
Reverted the smithy Confirm hotkey from Space back to Enter (PC).
Re-enabled Order of Battle save/load functionality while in an army, with army-specific OOB saves now stored separately from non-army saves.
Restored upgrade and recruit shortcut buttons to the party screen pop-up menus.
Fixed a bug that caused the combat log to display “Engage” when issuing the “Charge” order.
Fixed a bug that caused random events to trigger when switching menus, which could induce incorrect calculations (giving players very large sums of denars instead of taking the correct amount away from them).
Fixed a bug that caused gamepad navigation to scroll to the top when equipping an item with the equip button.
Fixed a bug that allowed accessing photo mode in situations where camera movement was not allowed.
Character Development System
Added a condition in character creation that disables Ironman mode if the save limit has been reached.
Kingdoms and Diplomacy
Fixed a bug that caused the kingdom decision screen to show relation changes even when none would occur.
Fixed a bug that caused invalid ruler clan data to be saved for the player’s former kingdom when abdicating due to a UI issue. Affected saves should now load with correct data.
Quests & Issues
Fixed a bug that caused quest markers of one army member noble to apply to all noble members of the army.
Fixed a bug that caused the player to be addressed with the wrong name during quests.
Conversations & Encounters
Fixed a bug that caused players to receive double gold when selling prisoners to the ransom broker via dialogue.
Fixed a bug that caused party visuals to be hidden during hostile map dialogue.
Save & Load
Fixed a bug that disabled the “Save” and “Save & Exit” options in Ironman mode when the save limit was reached.
Localisation
Localisation improvements for German.
Performance
Improved campaign map performance by reducing memory allocation and usage, resulting in fewer frame spikes and smoother gameplay.
Improved memory usage during mission scenes and battles:
Campaign map banners and flags will now unload during missions and reload afterward.
Optimized the unused weapon details.
Optimized troop face variation while maintaining variety among troops.
Crashes
Improved the crash uploader to allow players to report cases where they become stuck in missions or quest progression (situations that previously couldn’t generate a report).
Fixed a crash that occurred on the campaign map when a noble AI party attempted to defend a settlement after the attacking party had already been destroyed.
Fixed a crash that occurred when the besieging leader’s party had no healthy troops during a siege state change (such as being attacked by a friendly force or a sally-out).
Fixed a crash related to mount harnesses.
Changes
Changed the “Always Show Friendly Troop Banner Indicators” setting to include a “Multiplayer Only” option, which is now the default.
Updated the multiplayer intermission map selection to use a scrollable grid instead of a scrollable list.
Fixes
Fixed a bug that caused the couching animation to blend too quickly; blending speed has been restored to its previous values, making couched-lance initiation slower again.
Fixed a bug that caused the crossbow aim to slide sideways during reloads in first-person view.
Fixed a bug that caused the “Buy Sigil” pop-up’s shield to display inverted colors.
Crashes
Fixed a crash that occurred when mounts died underwater.
Fixes
Fixed a bug that caused the flag from IsUniqueItem to be unavailable.
The following changes are specific to the War Sails expansion and are not part of the base game.
Changes
Added an option to ransom the player’s sister by speaking with Gunnar after completing the “Defeat the Sea Hounds” quest. The ransom costs 10,000 denars, and the sister returns after approximately three weeks. This concludes the War Sails questline without playing the remaining missions.
Improved several naval storyline texts for clarity and consistency, including menu labels, tooltips, and dialogue lines. This includes clearer wording for postponing the story, adjusted restart options in set-piece encounters after checkpoints, gender-neutral dialogues, and an updated “Set Sail” warning tooltip when the player does not own any ships.
Adjusted the naval storyline so the final conversation now triggers immediately after the end battle, instead of after completing the “Return to Ostican” quest and visiting Gunnar at the port.
Added auto-save checkpoints during the naval storyline before set-piece battles. This functionality will still be disabled if autosaving is turned off in game options.
Adjusted the final battle of the “Speak to the Sailors in Omor” quest by increasing the player ship’s durability and reducing ballista damage taken while controlling the ship.
Improved the final battle in the “Hunt Down Emira al-Fahda and the Corsairs” quest so that being knocked out after sinking Emira al-Fahda’s ship no longer immediately fails the battle, allowing the outcome to be decided by the remaining fight.
Reduced the length of naval storyline quests by removing the following encounters:
Second generic Sea Hounds encounter from “Escort the Vlandian Merchants” quest.
Generic Corsair encounters from “Hunt Down Emira al-Fahda” and “Capture the Merchant Crusas” quests."
Added new voice lines and notifications for the "Speak to the sailors in Omor" quest.
Updated the player-controlled ballista in the "floating fortress" naval battle of “Capture the Merchant Crusas” quests to Heavy Stone Ballista. This should make it easier to cycle while aiming and simpler to see the projectile.
Added 6 additional focus points to all heroes in new games and existing savegames. (Added with a hotfix on 24/12/25)
Adjusted the ramming impact point requirements to make higher-quality rams easier and more consistent.
Naval blockades now begin as soon as a siege starts, rather than after siege preparations are completed.
Improved Skirmish order behavior for ships by reducing unnecessary turning as a reaction to the enemy turning and improved positioning by having ships maneuver more consistently alongside enemy ships.
Adjusted the skills of Nord Berserkir:
Increased Two Handed from 80 to 140.
Reduced Polarm from 100 to 40.
Equipped Nord Ulfhedinn with better armor versions of the same armor pieces:
Increased the armor values of their Wolf Pelt Cape version from 6 / 3 to 15 / 6.
Increased the armor values of their Wolf Head version from 16 to 48.
These versions with increased armor values will not be available on the market and will only be used by the troops.
Adjusted the skills of Aserai Convoy Guard:
Increased Athletics from 40 to 110.
Increased the armor value of Berserker Helmet from 22 to 42.
Increased the armor value of Berserker Reinforced Cloak from 34 to 54.
Fixes
Fixed a bug that caused ship mangonels to attack the player’s ship during a cutscene in the “Capture the imperial merchant Crusas” quest.
Fixed a bug that caused AI troops to have a harder time getting on and crossing the rope bridges during boarding due to a navmesh issue.
Fixed a bug that caused the ballista camera to switch to a different ship's ballista during Order of Battle.
Crashes
Fixed a crash that occurred due to a sound-related issue when starting the “Speak to the sailors in Omor” quest from a checkpoint.
Fixed a crash that occurred when the player attempted to retreat during the final battle of the “Escort the Vlandian Merchants” quest.
The following changes are part of the base game and apply to the War Sails expansion as well.
Changes
Expanded "How To Learn" descriptions on some of the skills. (Added with a hotfix on 24/12/25)
Adjusted the skills of Lake Rat Recruit:
Increased Athletics from 20 to 45.
Increased One Handed from 40 to 60.
Increased Two Handed from 40 to 60.
Increased Polearm from 40 to 60.
Increased Crossbow from 20 to 30.
Increased Throwing from 15 to 30.
Adjusted the skills of Lake Rat Veteran:
Increased Riding from 30 to 40.
Increased One Handed from 30 to 40.
Increased Two Handed from 40 to 80.
Increased Polearm from 70 to 80.
Adjusted the skills of Lake Rat Wrecker:
Increased Athletics from 55 to 105.
Increased Riding from 30 to 60.
Increased One Handed from 100 to 120.
Increased Polearm from 110 to 120.
Increased Bow from 45 to 60.
Increased Crossbow from 15 to 20.
Increased Throwing from 110 to 120.
Adjusted the skills of Skolder Recruit:
Increased Athletics from 20 to 45.
Increased One Handed from 40 to 60.
Increased Polearm from 40 to 60.
Increased Throwing from 40 to 60.
Adjusted the skills of Skolder Warrior Broda:
Increased Athletics from 40 to 60.
Increased One Handed from 70 to 80.
Increased Two Handed from 40 to 80.
Reduced Polearm from 70 to 40.
Adjusted the skills of Skolder Veteran Broda:
Increased Athletics from 60 to 75.
Reduced One Handed from 110 to 100.
Increased Two Handed from 60 to 100.
Reduced Polearm from 110 to 50.
Increased Bow from 40 to 50.
Localization improvements in all languages except English.
Fixes
Fixed a bug that caused the call-to-war to result in the player’s kingdom being paid for calling an ally to war when the ally's relative strength was low.
Fixed a bug that prevented the Governor effect from the "Battlements" perk from working.
Fixed a bug that caused shielded ranged units to hesitate when switching to melee combat equipment at close range.
Fixed a bug that caused caravan and convoy troops to have incorrect stats.
Crashes
Fixed a crash that occurred when the player got knocked out during a siege battle and then waited in Fast Forward mode.
Fixed a crash that occurred when opening the Saved Campaigns screen or clicking on a saved game within it.
Fixed a crash that occurred when a formation using a column arrangement was following the player unit.
Crashes
Fixed a crash that occurred on Multiplayer servers due to corpse synchronization and weapon visibility issues.