Welcome to Archery Popshots, a series in which I, as an archer and a gaming and history enthusiast
critique archery in video games. Today, we’ll be looking at a cult classic, Mount & Blade.
When it comes to historical and medieval themed video games, few have the cult following that
surrounds Mount & Blade, by Taleworlds Interactive. If you’re looking at this game and wonder
about how outdated it looks…well, consider that when M&B was in development, it was basically
described as “Elder Scrolls on horseback”. And not Skyrim, but Oblivion. I played the
beta back in 2007, when I was still in university and became obsessed with its gameplay. Offering
a more intense real-time battle environment than any other game at the time, giving you
a taste of what it might be like to be a single warrior in an army, Mount & Blade was a pioneer
of the genre, which has since seen attempts to replicate it a few other games.
We’ll be focusing on the Warband instalment, which is the update and overhaul to the original
game. So, without further ado, let’s journey to Calradia and experience the chaos of medieval
war – with mount, blade and, of course, bow.
Mount & Blade is set in the fictional realm of Calradia, with its factions going through
phases of war and peace. Each faction is loosely modelled after a real world counterpart.
The Swadians, with their knights and heavy infantry, are based off Western European kingdoms.
The Vaegirs are the Eastern European counterparts. The Nords reflect a Viking influence. The
Rhodoks, with specialised crossbowmen and pikemen, may be based on the Swiss. The Khergits
are clearly based on the steppe nomads, while the Sarranid Sultanate is derived from the
Muslim empires.
Each of these factions vie for control of towns, cities and castles dotted around Calradia.
You as the player may opt to pledge allegiance to a faction, fight to claim more land for
the king – or otherwise declare an independent realm and fight for recognition.
Players will encounter enemies on the field, initially starting off as bandits but soon
fighting bigger foes, such as lucrative caravan raids and then major battles with hundreds
of well-trained soldiers. Sieges will also pop up as you lead your men to attack or defend
the walls, which always turns out to be a bloody engagement with hundreds dead on either
side.
As battles go up in size, things get really chaotic. Javelins and arrows fly everywhere,
and your men get cut down by the terrifying barrage of enemy archers. You lead a brave
cavalry charge against the enemy infantry, or circle around and pick off loose soldiers
with deadly precision with a bow. Reinforcements arrive to mop up the remainder of the troops.
Hundreds of bodies litter the battlefield, and then you do it all again.
These battles are always intense. Whether it’s seeing how quickly you can break an
outnumbered army to fighting for your survival, these skirmishes are the main source of replay
value in Mount & Blade.
The actual combat, for its time, was innovative. Most games at this point are simplistic attack
and block mechanics. M&B highlighted directional blocking, with attacks requiring a specific
block, or otherwise the use of the shield for full protection. This combat mechanic
would be the hallmark of the Mount & Blade series.
Of course, for an archery video, we’re more focused on the ranged aspect of the game.
Like with most medieval games, archery is a relatively simple affair. Aim crosshair,
release. Players can go into first-person view for a better grasp of aim and distance,
and in most cases you will have to aim above the target. With enough character progress
and practice, you should be able to knock off individual headshots intuitively.
For those of us who thought that the coolest thing was to make a horse archer character,
you might have been shocked to see that they…kind of suck. Early on, your reticule is impossibly
wide and you can’t hit a blob of enemies from ten metres away. With enough persistence,
you can turn into a dashing warrior. This is because of the way the game uses stat points
to develop your character.
To dig into the RPG mechanics a bit, a character has three categories of points. Stat points
cover Strength, Agility, Intelligence and Charisma. Each one determines how many Skill
points you can put into things that your character actually gets good at, such Riding, First
Aid and Athletics. Then there are weapon proficiencies for each kind of weapon.
While the points may seem abstract, they reflect a remarkable realism when it comes to handling
bows. Firstly, to even equip certain bows, you require a certain amount of Power Draw,
which in turn is limited by your Strength. While many gamers are more accustomed to seeing
archery as an Agility weapon, this is true to life: archery requires significant strength
to use heavy bows. So a poorly trained fighter might be able to use weak bows, but using
the war bows with more damage and speed requires more Strength and Power Draw.
This would imply that to be a proficient archer, you need to dump points into Strength – which
is also convenient for melee weapons. But not so fast. The Power Draw requirements represent
the minimum just to use the bow. The reticule is impossibly large to use, and thus you are
required to invest additional points on top of the minimum requirement, up to 3 extra
Power Draw points to gain maximum accuracy. This also represents a realistic element,
as the ability to physically draw a bow doesn’t mean you can control it, and extra training
is needed for power and accuracy. This also means that if you are going to build a dedicated
archer character, you need to put a lot of stat points into Strength.
And that just gets you going on foot. If you want to be a mounted archer, you have to invest
points into Agility to not only get the Riding skill up, but the dedicated Horse Archery
skill, without which you would have a penalty to your accuracy. Once fully invested, you
are able to shoot with maximum precision at full gallop, which represents the immense
amount of training needed to become a proficient horse archer.
When you get to this point, you are absolutely terrifying. With the right bows, enough arrows
and a steady hand, you can bring down masses of soldiers alone. With an army at your back
and a trusty sword or spear as a backup weapon, a horse archer character is one of the most
fun to play.
Fans of Mount & Blade comment on the realism of the game. Compared to contemporary games
like Oblivion, sure, it’s much more grounded in history. But as a game, and limited as
it was back then, we need to appreciate how much of a replica this would be compared to
its historical inspiration.
In terms of the general handling of the bows, it’s a decent interpretation of what it
takes to be an effective archer. Given the immense number of stat points needed to use
the best bows, this is a fair portrayal of how specialised an archer needs to be. Also
given that the same stats are used for other weapons, this would also be a fair depiction
of archers being proficient in hand-to-hand combat. The large crosshair is a decent presentation
of the inherent floating inaccuracy which can be improved with further training and
experience.
Even the small, modest features which we now take for granted are innovative for its time
and reflect good attention to detail. The fact that the reticule begins to widen after
a few seconds represents the inability to hold a bow at full draw for too long, and
encourages a quicker aim and shot process. On horseback, given that all characters are
right-handed in the game, archers are only able to shoot in a limited arc in front, to
the left and behind. This allows for certain tactics like the Parthian shot, but it also
reflects the limitations an army might have when deploying horse archers. In real life,
a horse archer would likely have been proficient with shooting on both sides if necessary by
switching hands, but otherwise this forces the player to adopt a realistic approach in
circling around the opponents to shower arrows on them.
The equipment is fairly generic, but otherwise based on real bows. You mostly get simple
self-bows when starting out, with the designs branching out into the European war bows and
the composite bows more commonly seen in Asiatic archery. The damage is fairly arbitrary, given
that the game has to allow you to kill enemy soldiers regardless of what armour they are
wearing. Realistically, armour was actually very effective against arrows, with the typical
layered armour of mail and gambeson being very good as it was, and plate armour was
nearly impervious.
For those who don’t want to invest time and points into developing archery, there
are crossbows, which require no stat points whatsoever and accuracy is purely based on
weapon proficiency. This is also a realistic contrast, and precisely the reason why many
armies, especially in Europe, favoured the crossbow.
Overall, the feel of battle is fairly good at depicting how they might have felt with
the different styles of warfare used. The scale is considerably smaller than a real
battle, with only hundreds on the field compared to tens of thousands, so we don’t truly
get the sense of a relentless arrow storm. Still, we get a small taste, whether it’s
from the tenacity of castle defenders or the panic of a wave of Khergit horsemen shooting
arrows and running away, forcing the player to adapt their tactics and armies to fight
effectively against each foe.
Mount & Blade has undeniably earned its place as a cult favourite. It brought the medieval
genre more into the mainstream, especially with its release on Steam. Even more so, its
active modding community have produced numerous mods, covering the Sengoku period of Japan
to the Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. The official releases have also been significant,
especially Napoleonic Wars, which in turn inspired a genre of team-based musket warfare.
A lot can be said about the success story of a small team of independent developers,
and Mount & Blade truly stands out as a pioneer. Hopefully, and sometime soon, we’ll see
the sequel arrive on the battlefield.
If you haven’t yet played the game, you’ll find that it still has an active online community,
though the visuals might look dated and the sandbox structure a little too unguided. But
if you can enjoy the long journey to the top interspersed with quick and unforgiving combat,
you’ll find Mount & Blade is worth a shot.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this episode of Archery Popshots. As usual, shoot straight
and aim for your best.