Today, TaleWorlds Entertainment shared new work-in-progress screenshots and details about the upcoming War Sails expansion for Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord.
First of all, we get to see the expansion of the explorable land (and sea), specifically Nordvyg, the Island of Beinland, and the area around the Jumne river, where you can sail all the way to the Khuzait lands.
Rivers have been widened to enable sailing, and several towns have been moved close to them, giving them ports.
Parties and fleets (which are embarked armies) can blockade ports, cutting off cities from reinforcements, trade, and escape routes. Blockades are automatically formed if a besieging army has ships available.
The enemy can attack the blockade with its own ships. Defeating the blockade breaks the siege entirely, while the blockading player can decide to withdraw, breaking only the blockade and maintaining the siege, but opening the sea route.
A city that is not blockaded can be reinforced via water, and you can even try to break through, but it’ll cost you a number of men.
At any port, you can purchase or sell ships, repair, and upgrade them. You can give them to your clan members, either by sending them via a port (which will take time and troops to be used as an escort) or by speaking to them directly, which is instant.
Once you’re on the sea, you can make land in several suitable places, although others are blocked by cliffs and rugged shores. Unloading ships to disembark takes time, depending on your army and inventory size.
Once you want to go back to your ships, you can either ride back to where they’re anchored or to a coastal town where you can summon them.
Different kinds of ships have different base speeds depending on where they are navigating. Open waters provide a base speed boost, while having overloaded ships or too few crewmen gives a speed penalty. Larger fleets also suffer a penalty in how quickly they can move.
Both currents and wind affect your traveling speed as well. Rivers are faster to be filed on downstream, while oceans also have predefined flows. The wind, on the other hand, changes dynamically.
Traveling in open sea under harsh weather conditions will gradually damage your ships, depending on weather strength and the ship’s size and its innate seaworthiness.
Storms form and dissipate dynamically. They can damage ships, or you can ride the edges to gain speed.
Damaged ships can be repaired at ports. If you lose all your ships at sea, you can be captured during a battle or escape on rafts. In the latter case, some of your units may die or be incapacitated.
Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord is currently available for PC via Steam, GoG.com, and Epic Games Store, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.
War Sails will release in the early fall of 2025, following a recent delay.
