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Aims to provide some insight into various mechanics in the game like party size, map movement speed, and clan/kingdom management among other things.
Unexplained Game Mechanics
Other Mount & Blade II Bannerlord Guides:
- Mount & Blade II Bannerlord Best Mods
- Mount & Blade II Bannerlord Money Guide
- Mount & Blade II Bannerlord Governors Guide
- Mount & Blade II Bannerlord Main Quest Guide
- Mount & Blade II Bannerlord Tips for Beginners
- Mount & Blade II Bannerlord Cheats & Console Commands
Map movement
Positively affects map speed
A few of the early perks in the Scouting tree provide small % benefits, have a companion in your party fill that role by designating them as Scout if they have a decent skill in it because it’s a skill that takes forever to raise with minimal benefits imo.
Personal movement speed whether mounted or on foot and the associated stats athletics/riding affect your base party move speed (needs some testing not 100%)
Having cavalry in your party and spare horses for your foot soldiers to ride increases map movement tremendously, foot soldiers riding horses only recieve about 80% of the movement bonus that cavalry provides but it is still a lot.
Negatively affects map speed
Holding prisoners and higher % of your max weight carried (small penalty)
Wounded soldiers (moderate penalty, wounded soldiers don’t ride horses so it can increase your herd size debuff as well)
Herding (dynamic penalty), and Disorganised Army debuffs (more below)
Hauling more weight or prisoners than you can manage (Very harsh penalty the more you go over your capacity)
Herding
Reduces movement speed if you lack the soldiers to herd your sheep/pigs/cows/mules/horses, this can be reduced or nullified by having an appropriate ratio of soldiers to cattle (Roughly 1:2 i’ll update later).
Note: Horses being ridden by foot soldiers will not be counted towards the herd.
Disorganized Army
This is a temporary speed debuff after any battle fought, incurs a large penalty to your speed for a brief amount of time (1-2 game hours)
Increasing Party Size
Increasing your Stewardship is one of the most reliable ways to increases max party size early. You recieve additional max party size at a 4:1 ratio to your Stewardship, so 100 points will net you +25 max party size as long as you are the designated Quartermaster of your clan.
Stewardship Perks
[Bannerlord] – +2 to party size for each fief the player owns.
[Swords As Tribute] – +10 to party size for every vassal.
[Man-At-Arms] – +5 to party size for each fief the player owns.
Other Perks
There is an early (Lv75) Riding perk [Squires] gives +2 max party size, this stacks with other companions who also have this perk.
There are a few other perks as well but most of them are for level 200+ in skills. I’m not going to be mentioning these at this time as this guide is aimed at newer and more inexperienced M&B players.
Clan/Kingdom Modifiers
You will gain +15 max party size for each clan level, your clan level can be increased by gaining renown through various actions
If you rule a kingdom the Royal Guard policy will give +80 max party size to the ruler as well as some other nice benefits.
The kingdom policy Noble Retinues will grant Tier 4+ clans within the kingdom +1 influence per day and the party size of their leaders is increased by +50.
How to create your own kingdom or join an existing one
Joining an existing kingdom
Once you obtain enough renown to reach clan level 1 you can speak to a lord about work for their kingdom as a mercenary. The main benefit of this is a small amount of gold income for defeating the kingdoms enemies, you are also able to raid opposing lords villages and freely for a bit of extra cash and loot.
After you have gained enough renown to reach clan level 2, you then have the option of your clan swearing vassalage to a kingdom by talking to its current ruler. As a vassal you have the right to vote and propose kingdom policies as well as receive settlements that your kingdom takes
Creating your own kingdom
You can create your own kingdom by advancing the main quest “Neretze’s Folly” in which you have to talk to the 10 lords in calradia that have blue exclamations over their parties. Once the quest is completed you must then talk to both Istinia (Located in Epicrotia) and Arzagos (Located in Marunath) and complete a task for each of them to finish the “Assemble the Dragon Banner” quest. Once the banner is completed you will need to fulfill the requirements which are to be at clan rank 3, have 100 troops, be an independent clan, and own a settlement
Supporting a clan (Requires being part of a kingdom)
You can spend 200 of your own influence to give another clan in your kingdom +50 influence, useful for improving relations if you have a reliable way to generate influence. (+1-3 relations with their entire clan)
Improving relations
Nobles
You can perform quests for nobles in towns/villages yourself or by sending a companion, check the portraits in the top right for blue exclamation points and talk to them (slow method but you are able to focus on certain towns or cultures and it gives gold rewards).
Your party members(when dispatched as their own party) will increase relations wherever they stop at a settlement to gather recruits and supplies
(slow but widespread, useful for increasing random nobles out of -1 or -2 relations in a large area or around a settlement you own).
You can create an army and have a party members join it, any town you wait in they will start increasing relations after a few ticks
(fastest, useful for improving relations in specific towns/villages
Maintaining high security in an owned settlement will (very slowly) increase relations with the nobles affected, you can also destroy bandit lairs to increase relations with surrounding nobles (unreliable but useful for increasing relations slightly in an a wide area)
Lords
Will complete this at a later date, currently the ways to improve relations with a lord are very limited.