Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord – Multiplayer Skirmish / General Fighting Guide

More M&B2: Bannerlord Guides:

• Cheats (Console Commands).
• How to Make Gold (Fast Method).
• First Mission: Investigate Neretzes’s Folly.
• How to Win Tablut Gambling Every Time.
• Basic Manual Directional Blocking Guide.
• Silk Road / Trading and Goods Guide.
• Companion Location List.
• How to Form a Kingdom.
• Smithing System Guide.
• Main Questline Guide.
• Early Money Making.
• Trading Tips.

These are some tips that I consider to be very useful for new players. I’ve more or less compacted the most important things one should keep in mind that I’ve learned over the years from my experience in the Warband competitive scene and Bannerlord beta.

General Tips

All credit goes to flavberg!

• Practice. This game bases itself on learning multiple playstyles and muscle memory of the game mechanics, you won’t go far without learning the basics, such as blocking and swinging.
• Try to stay alive, block more than you hit if you need to.
• Play with the team, it’s one of the most important things you can do.
• Dodge. If you don’t have a spear (you’re shock infantry, for example, or you didn’t pick one as infantry for whatever reason or you are an archer) and there’s a cavalry coming in with a couch, dodge it by leading the cavalry in one direction and then swapping and jumping in the opposite, or just bring your shield up if you have one.
• Try to listen for cavalry, they will come behind you, they will come and surprise you. Their horses are loud, so try to keep it in mind.
• Useful hotkeys. Use left alt to see objectives and teammates and find out their positions. Also use tilde key to look around you.
• Pick proper counters. Pick perks that can counter the faction you are fighting. For example, if you are Aserai and the enemy is Vlandia, you will want to pick a mace for the heavily-armored infantry and a spear for the cavalry.

Infantry Tips

• Stay in a group, play together, it’s always better to 2v1 than 1v1.
• Protect your archers, they will need protection that you can offer them with your spear.
• Use your spear – always walk around with a spear unless the enemy is fighting you. You can even fight the enemy using a spear, but that is something you should attempt after practicing some more.
• Try to survive as much as you can, block with your shield, your job is to stay alive so your cavalry and archers can do the damage.
• If you can, grab better gear from the ground (you can drop your shield by holding right click and pressing G). If your shield is low or too small, grab a better one. If your weapon is not that good, look for a better one, don’t two-hand.
• Don’t get greedy and watch teamhits. Oftentimes, many infantry players get greedy and stop trying to be careful with teamhits just to get the final hit and get the kill, which may just end up in them teamkilling their teammate and giving their enemy an opportunity to win a 1v1 when previously they were at a disadvantage in a 1v2.
• If you’re having issues with shield directions, just block down. It will provide the best cover from both archers and swings.
• Focus archers and cavalry. You should generally focus on shooting other archers and cavalry that are coming in to damage or kill your infantry teammates.
• Try learning basic feints, they will go a long way. The easiest feint you can do is left swing – cancel swing – left swing. Don’t overfeint, the opponent will spam.

Now, in regards to being outnumbered:

You will often find yourself in situations where you are one guy versus two or three. This is not necessarily a death sentence, since you can use your footwork to give yourself some hope to kill them and have them grief their advantage.

Generally, people tend to backpaddle (or hold S) while fighting multiple people, which make it very easy to spam hit after hit on the single guy. This is bad. What you want to do instead is to go in between them (1), and generally spin around one of them to keep one against the other (2), instead of being in the middle of them. Always try to fight one guy instead of more, so make them stumble and hit each other by going around them.

If you are outnumbering the enemy (video and image below):

Watch the teamhits. It’s extremely important that you do not hit your teammate while trying to spam the enemy with your teammate. Play safe, the enemy can always do what I stated earlier and try to spin you around your teammate so your advantage becomes useless, in which case, you will have to trap the enemy in between you two, being at some distance from your teammate so you can hit from two sides.

Archer Tips

• Move a lot, don’t stand in the same place. You will get shot and couched by cavalry, so try to keep safe. Planting yourself behind cover in which you can A and D is generally a good idea.
• Stay near infantry but at enough distance not to be engaged by other infantry when fighting, I’d say a few meters is good to run towards them in case of cavalry rushing you but also to be far enough so you can assist your infantry while fighting.
• Watch teamhits. Don’t risk shots by shooting at enemy infantry while they are fighting your infantry unless you are absolutely sure you’re not going to teamhit. Your teamhit may be a teamkill and you will risk losing the game.
• Position. Find the best position for you that both protects you from possible cavalry rush and allows you to get a good angle on enemy infantry.
• Look for gear. If you have an extra empty spot, try to grab a shield.
• Take your time to aim, bows are not accurate if you’re not allowing the reticle to get small and you’re walking all over the place.

Cavalry Tips

• Play slowly. You don’t have to hold W to be a good cavalryman, just play for maneuverability, not speed.
• Try to go for unsuspecting enemies (video below), couching them from behind or surprise couching them while they don’t expect you terminates them quickly and gets your team an advantage.
• Stay away from spears, they’re a dangerous stick.
• Couch in first person if you have difficulties – crank up the FoV a bit so you can see more.
• Bump enemies. If you’re not sure you can get in a swing or stab and you have a heavy horse, try to bump the enemy that is fighting your teammates. They will be knocked down and your teammates will get in a few hits.