Each Faction represents a different medieval culture and has its own troop characteristics. There are five Factions (Nations) in M&B, with a sixth added in Warband. There are no fantasy elements (though for that, you can always play a mod). Your character is dropped into the medieval world of Calradia.

You won’t survive long if you don’t build a strong war band, and recruiting, commanding and building up your troops is really the heart of the game. You create a character, form a band of troops and roam around the land, solving unrelated quests, fighting enemies and either serving a liege or carving out your own kingdom (creating your own Faction was a Warband addition). The latter is both a strength and a weakness. M&B is a combination first person combat and strategy wargame, with some role playing elements. Mount and Blade and Warband are overall, quite similar and I’ll be using the phrases interchangeably, distinguishing between versions when relevant. However, I have never tried that option and don’t plan on doing so. There are some gameplay differences, the most prominent being that the latter includes multiplayer. I spent my first round playing the original, Mount and Blade ( M&B). But Mount and Blade (and the stand alone expansion, Mount and Blade: Warband) holds a unique spot for me and several years after last playing it, I’m in up to my elbows again. And from Temple of Apshai to Dungeon Master to Baldur’s Gate to Age of Conan, I’ve quite enjoyed them. I have spent a lot of hours on a lot of different PC/video games over the years – mostly of the fantasy/RPG variety (though Out of the Park Baseball is my favorite simulation game).

Mount and blade warband black armor