TaleWorlds released Warband in March 2010 as a standalone expansion to Mount & Blade, and sixteen years later it is still the reference point for directional melee on horseback. You start as a nobody with a sword and a horse in a Calradia carved up between six kingdoms, and you can finish as a bandit, a mercenary captain, a marshal, or a king with your own vassals. Multiplayer runs up to 64 players across Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Conquest, Battle and Siege.
These tips go beyond the basics. They're the strategies experienced players use to play more efficiently, the hidden mechanics most people miss, and the optimizations that compound over a full playthrough. If you're just starting, check our beginner's guide first.
Essential Tips
1. Fight the tournament in every town you pass through during your first ten in-game days
Fight the tournament in every town you pass through during your first ten in-game days. Betting on yourself pays better than any early quest, and the renown lets lords take you seriously months before you can afford a real army.
2. Put your first skill points into Power Strike, Ironflesh and Riding
Put your first skill points into Power Strike, Ironflesh and Riding. Trade, Leadership and Prisoner Management matter later. None of them matter if a Sea Raider knocks you off your horse in week two.
3. Buy a shield before you buy better armor
Buy a shield before you buy better armor. Arrows kill unarmored characters fast in Warband, and a shield blocks arrows passively while it is on your arm, which is a change from the original game.
4. Blunt weapons take prisoners
Blunt weapons take prisoners. A war hammer knocks lords unconscious rather than killing them, and ransoming a captured lord through a ransom broker pays more than a whole battle's loot.
5. Recruit from villages that actually like you rather than the nearest one
Recruit from villages that actually like you rather than the nearest one. Village relation rises from completing their quests and from not raiding them, and a friendly village hands over more recruits per visit.
6. Send infantry up the ladders last in a siege
Send infantry up the ladders last in a siege. Order archers to clear the wall first, then push, because troops climbing a ladder arrive one at a time against an entire garrison.
7. Build enterprises where the input is cheap
Build enterprises where the input is cheap. A Wine Press in Uxkhal earns because grapes are cheap there. The same building somewhere else pays a fraction and takes just as long to break even.
8. Do not declare your own kingdom until you can hold two fiefs
Do not declare your own kingdom until you can hold two fiefs. Right to Rule, garrison wages and the war every neighbor immediately declares all cost more than they look like they will, and most first attempts fold inside a month.
9. Companions dislike each other
Companions dislike each other. Several of the sixteen will walk out if forced to travel with a specific rival, so check the conflict pairs before you fill every slot, or run eight carefully chosen ones instead.
10. Keep your army under your Leadership cap
Keep your army under your Leadership cap. Every soldier over it drags party morale down, and a low morale army bleeds troops to desertion between battles, which costs more than the extra bodies were ever worth.
Advanced Strategies
Build Optimization
The difference between an average build and an optimized one is massive. See our builds guide for full breakdowns.
For Swadian Knight heavy cavalry (S-Tier):
- The classic Calradian answer to almost everything: a lance charge into the flank of a busy infantry line. Swadian Knights bring heavy armor, a lance, a sword and a shield, and they held the title of best cavalry until the Sarranid Mamluke arrived in Warband.
- Core gear: Lance, one handed sword, heater shield, charger or warhorse
- Stat priority: Riding, then Power Strike, then Ironflesh
For Nord Huscarl heavy infantry (S-Tier):
- Huscarls carry great axes, throwing weapons and heavy armor, and they beat any other infantry in Calradia in a straight fight. The Nord tree has almost no cavalry, so a Nord army is a wall that wins wherever it decides to stand.
- Core gear: Great axe or axe and round shield, throwing axes
- Stat priority: Power Strike, then Ironflesh, then Athletics
Mechanic Interactions
Understanding how Mount & Blade: Warband's systems interact is where the real optimization lives. Our combat guide covers this in detail.
Directional melee blocking + Mounted combat and couched lances: Attacks and blocks come from four directions and your block has to match the incoming swing. Combined with Mounted combat and couched lances, horse speed adds directly to weapon damage, so a lance strike at a gallop kills troops who would survive three swings on foot.
Troop tree upgrades + Faction relations and fiefs: Village recruits climb a faction-specific tree by earning experience in battle and then costing denars to promote. When paired with Faction relations and fiefs, every lord, town and village tracks a relation number with you, and lords vote on who receives captured fiefs.
Trade and enterprises scaling: Goods carry local prices, so buying grain where it is cheap and selling it where it is not funds an army faster than looting ever will. A Wine Press in Uxkhal works because Swadian grapes are cheap there, and it pays weekly with no risk of dying in a field.
Equipment Efficiency
| Equipment | Best Use Case | Why |
|---|---|---|
| One handed weapons | Shield infantry and anyone farming prisoners for ransom | Swords, axes and maces paired with a shield, which is the only loadout that survives sustained arrow fire on foot. |
| Two handed weapons | Siege ladders and breaking a shield wall open | Great swords, long axes and mauls trade the shield away for reach and damage. |
| Polearms and lances | Cavalry charges and holding a siege breach on foot | Pikes and long spears out-range everything on foot and brace hard against cavalry, while lances gain couched damage from horse speed. |
| Bows | Mobile damage, horse archer builds, defending walls | Fast to draw, tied to Power Draw for damage, and usable from horseback once you have Horse Archery. |
| Crossbows | Siege defense and low strength characters | Higher damage per bolt, no strength requirement at all, and slow to reload. |
Location Efficiency
Kingdom of Swadia (Good starting region for a new character): Central plains ruled by King Harlaus from Praven, holding Uxkhal, Suno and Dhirim alongside it. Swadia is the only faction with genuinely strong troops in all three categories, and the Swadian Knight is the benchmark every other cavalry unit gets measured against.
Kingdom of the Vaegirs (Mid game, once you can carry archer upkeep): The northeastern kingdom centered on Reyvadin, with Curaw, Khudan and Rivacheg. Vaegir Marksmen out-shoot every crossbow unit in Calradia and Vaegir Guards are excellent shock infantry, though the cavalry sits a step behind Swadia's.
Kingdom of the Nords (Any stage, brutal to fight early): A seafaring culture on the northern coast under King Ragnar at Sargoth, also holding Tihr and Wercheg. Nord Huscarls are the strongest infantry in the game and Veteran Archers back them, but the faction fields next to no cavalry.
Kingdom of the Rhodoks (Any stage, strongest on defense): Hill country around Jelkala, Yalen and Veluca. Rhodok Sergeants carry long polearms that stop a cavalry charge cold, and Rhodok Sharpshooters bring crossbows with a shield, which makes this the best defensive faction on the map.
Khergit Khanate (Difficult early, dominant once you can afford horses): The eastern steppe faction based at Tulga, with Narra, Ichamur and Halmar. It is the only kingdom whose entire troop tree is mounted, so Khergit armies are the fastest on the world map and the hardest to run away from.
Mistakes Even Veterans Make
- Mashing attack in melee. Warband rewards holding a swing to feint and matching your block to the incoming direction, so players who click as fast as possible lose duels to anyone who learned the four directions.
- Ordering a full charge on turn one. That throws your archers into melee where they die, and scatters cavalry into single fights they lose. Hold ranged, hold infantry, send cavalry wide.
- Fielding one enormous army of low tier troops. Sixty Swadian Recruits lose to twenty Swadian Knights and cost more in wages, because damage in this game scales sharply with armor and weapon quality.
- Raiding villages of the faction you plan to serve. It funds the early game, then the relation loss follows you, and lords remember it when they vote on the fief you wanted.
- Ignoring world map speed. Party size, terrain and cavalry ratio all change how fast you move, and being slower than the Khergit party chasing you is how a promising campaign ends.
Pro Quick Tips
- Fight the tournament in every town you pass through during your first ten in-game days. Betting on yourself pays better than any early quest, and the renown lets lords take you seriously months before you can afford a real army.
- Put your first skill points into Power Strike, Ironflesh and Riding. Trade, Leadership and Prisoner Management matter later. None of them matter if a Sea Raider knocks you off your horse in week two.
- Buy a shield before you buy better armor. Arrows kill unarmored characters fast in Warband, and a shield blocks arrows passively while it is on your arm, which is a change from the original game.
- Start with Nord Huscarl heavy infantry, switch to Swadian Knight heavy cavalry when ready
- Invest in One handed weapons above everything else
- Clear areas in order: Kingdom of Swadia → Kingdom of the Vaegirs → Kingdom of the Nords → Kingdom of the Rhodoks → Khergit Khanate. See our maps guide
- Directional melee blocking + Mounted combat and couched lances together are stronger than either alone
More Mount & Blade: Warband Guides
- Mount & Blade: Warband Mount & Blade: Warband Overview
- Mount & Blade: Warband Best Builds
- Mount & Blade: Warband Tier List
- Mount & Blade: Warband Walkthrough
- Mount & Blade: Warband Beginner's Guide
- Mount & Blade: Warband Weapons Guide
- Mount & Blade: Warband Combat Guide
- Mount & Blade: Warband Boss Guide
- Mount & Blade: Warband Maps & Locations
- Mount & Blade: Warband Crafting Guide
- Mount & Blade: Warband Classes & Characters
Similar Games
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- Cyberpunk 2077 Tips & Tricks: rpg game with similar mechanics
