Recent reviews by ✝ Gamlingwine

A solid 7.5/10 for me, but go play AoW3 first, if you haven't already.

AoW 4 does some things worse than AoW3, especially with the choice of not having Racial Units anymore. I believe race plus culture allowed for a more interesting admixture of units in a faction, than culture plus tomes...
Besides that, and the choice of making all ranged units female (very unappealing for some races), everything else is an improvement from the third installment. The map, for example, is majestic to look at, and the faction and hero creation has much more customisation.

boys, time to turn off your body cams now

It could be just me, but I refunded it because it doesn't have much "simulation" if at all. It's also somewhat tactical, yes, but is too fast-paced and the cooperation can be totally lacking if most of the team doesn't care about team-play. In 100 minutes of gameplay there was no instance in which me and a team-mate cooperated, be it by watching each other's back or by assaulting/defending a point together. This is more the fault of players than the game's, perhaps... But it affects my experience so ultimately the game is the problem. Something is lacking that strongly suggests the players to play together.

The low waiting time for a respawn and the sometimes unrealistic damage (nobody dies immediately after taking an individual rifle shot to the chest - unless it's the heart) incentivises a playstile that is more akin to CoD than tactical shooters.

You'll die a lot and most times you'll have no idea how, because the culprit is someone well hidden somewhere in a spot he knows well since he's played that same map a trillion times. I guess the lack of a death-cam of sorts is because of realism, but the result is that you'll be frustrated and will take much more time to learn what you did wrong.

Another annoying feature is how bad the voice acting is for the italians. It's extremely bland, impassionate, modern and standard. Bland and impassionate because the voice actor is so blatantly acting; you don't believe for a second that it's an actual officer talking. Modern and standard because the language used is the current, standard form, and worst of all there is no accent anywhere. Every historian and aficionado of the italian front knows that many regiments were divided by sub-ethnic group because standard italian was understood only by some. There's no venetian or friulan heard in the game, and since I know history decently enough, it bothers me. Finding a venetian voice actor would have been pretty easy as well, if not one from Trentino, then at least someone from the inland provinces.

I wish I could try the game further to change my mind about it being fast-paced, but the matches are too long to do this without losing my chance for a refund, so this is all I can say.

Dwarf paladins, what else could I ask for?

"You look lonely, I can fix that... You look like a good Karl".

You stare at the emptiness of the grim caves, as a horde of glyphids and macteras approaches.

[Memory Reboot starts playing]

ENOUGH about the mushroom! We all know it's a mushroom, we get it!

I made a review last year after playing as Karl Franz, saying how unbalanced and unnecessarily frustrating the campaign was.
I deleted it after getting the Wissenland DLC because it seemed to have "solved" my problem. Besides, I love Wissenland and Solland in WHF's lore.

But after 100 turns, most of which I spent killing stacks upon stacks of Vlad's forces, I have to post a negative review again. It's unbelievable how he can raise a full stack repeatedly every turn, even with only two settlements left.

Meanwhile, Karl Franz has been (yet again) steam-rolled by Festus and left my western flank uncovered, and Kislev is almost in ruins, so I have to take the norscans down my throat too.

How is this endless grind supposed to be enjoyable? Is CA's solution for this that I play an Easy campaign after 15 years of playing Total War installments on Normal?

If you want to cringe to death, this is the right Total War for you. Make sure you play the Empire for the desired effect. Most other Order factions probably work too.

If not, just use the cheat mod found in the workshop.

I have played AoC quite extensively and, while I recommend it when heavily discounted, it's just a poorly crafted DLC. So little passion and care were put into it, bar for the unit icons.

PROS

+ exciting time period (it's subjective, but it's my favourite in all history).
+ the building trees feature several religious-themed options, which gives a good flavour to your kingdom.

CONS

- no Eastern Roman Empire; stupid choice taken so as to cut production costs. It was extremely relevant through Charlemagne's reign. Diminishing in the west, yes, but relevant.
- speaking of the ERE, it's present in the form of the Theme of Sicily, which is kind of stupid, and to make matters worse, it doesn't seem to matter at all that during the whole time-period the DLC runs through the ERE was struggling with the Iconoclasm... A struggle that created a massive divide between the East Roman aristocracy and the Papacy. No mention of it, no feature that makes the Popes angry at the Theme of Sicily... ok...

- there isn't a shred of dedicated interaction between the papacy and the neighbouring factions. No calls for intervention against muslims or pagans... even when they cross the Alps! No relevance of the pope's opinion towards your faction, no nothing. Remember: all of this was in Medieval II... Which is set just about 3 centuries later. Every fan of this period knows that popes were already actively calling christian states to war to push back the islamic advance.

- your generals speak of "the gods" during battles occasionally, even if your faction was always Christian.

- the music is soooooo bland. Music is very important for the genre, because you spend a lot of time on the world map and through various 'management' panels. It plays in the background while you perform many actions and therefore enriches your experience... Here it's so dull I didn't even notice it, ever. Think of the music you have in Crusader Kings II for this time period. Think of Medieval II. That's what should have been in this game.
- no bearded priests; cringe and anti-historical since shaving among the western clergy became consistently common centuries later.

Overall so much potential wasted. I still enjoy it but any child owning the code and assets for Attila could have produced this game in a few weeks of work, alone. So it's a nope.

I got this because the warrior's armor is very historically accurate and I could not pass on such a rare chance; viking armor is always depicted in the wrongest of ways.
The shield is also nice. The axes are meh but decent. The swords are terrible. Norse raiders never used such weapons, but I guess they look like exotic seaxes...

Finally, a maille hauberk would be extremely useful in a viking apocalypse, so why not?

I rate it 7/10
Would have been better with more historical fidelity and maybe a viking longbow or throwing spear.

Game is very much playable and I am satisfied with the experience.
Yes, the improvement over Warband is considerable. Though I still play Warband on a regular basis simply because this game cannot host (yet) historical mods, as the first game does. However, it compensates with the early medieval setting, much of my liking.

Speaking of the setting, I find interesting that the Rhodoks from the 1st game are actually what came out of the union of some Vlandians with the Imperials. This made me very interested in Vlandia as it reminds me of germanic tribes moving into northern Italy to form new kingdoms and cultures there, along with the local inhabitants.
It is also interesting that the Vaegirs came out of the Sturgians, as the scandinavians heavily settled some areas of ancient Rus'.

Historical stuff aside, my conclusion is that I'm sure that, some day, Bannerlord will truly replace Warband in all aspects. For now, it's just better because of the improved graphics, sounds, and some RPG features.