Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord War Sails designer on ships that mimic horse archers and dredging for inspiration in French bogs

“Yeah, this doesn't acceptable realistically, but erstwhile we tin find a meaningful crushed to person specified a ship, past it fits”

Can a vessel beryllium a equine archer? This is 1 of the galore maritime musings Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord's devs had to grapple with erstwhile putting unneurotic the flotilla of vessels which marque up its naval warfare-themed War Sails expansion.

Ahead of War Sails' merchandise connected November 26th, I chatted to a mates of its developers. Naturally, I was keen to perceive astir what the process of assembling the expansion's armada. A peculiar situation arsenic each of Calradia's historically-inspired nations has entree to unsocial ships.

"We ever had this thought [that] if the Calradian Empire were to person a flagship - this apical of the enactment vessel - it volition beryllium a Dromon", Taleworlds plan squad pb Gökçen Karaağaç. Naturally, the Roman and Byzantine-inspired legions who predominate the cardinal regions of Bannerlord's representation person an oared galley with trigular sails which mirrors those utilized by the real-world Byzantine navy arsenic their main craft.

"The Aserai volition effort to lucifer immoderate the Empire does," Karaağaç says, explaining that they bespeak the 2 sides successful the Arab versus Byzantine navy wars. Meanwhile, the Vlandians a Norman-ish faction whose cogwheel includes immoderate aboriginal medieval tech, person a benignant of "pre-galleon roundship".

Karaağaç admits that the squad didn't necktie themselves excessively intimately to naval history. "A Ghurab oregon what inspired the Ghurab, the Aserai unsocial ship, is fundamentally rather a antithetic vessel than what Byzantian radical called a Dromon," Karaağaç says. "So, we had to skew the clip frames to lucifer things together. Once each of those were successful place. Even though they are benignant of anachronistic, they inactive fit."

Even then, picking ships is lone a tiny portion of the puzzle. "The details, the balance, and however we acceptable them each unneurotic [came later]," Karaağaç says.

While the squad has been reasoning astir the naval pairings of their factions for years, that doesn't mean the imaginativeness for each vas was successful larboard and acceptable to sail from the start. "The Khuzait's unsocial ship, the Qalguk, and the Battanian one, the Birlinn, were the past 2 ships we figured out."

Image credit: Taleworlds

The situation for the Mongol-inspired Khuzait, is that the humanities radical Taleworlds is drafting from aren't known for their shipcraft. "They usually commandeered oregon made usage of different radical for their navies oregon their naval expertise came overmuch later," Karaağaç says. "We didn't privation to springiness them a mediocre ship, but a vessel that's made with close intentions [with] benignant of weird results. So, their unsocial ship, the Qalguk, derives inspiration from a overmuch much modern ship, a xebec. But it is fashioned into this clip frame, and play this equine archer relation connected a ship."

The Qalguk "trades disconnected its quality to transportation a batch of troops, its durability, its truly precocious velocity oregon transportation capableness to fulfill that equine archer role". It whitethorn not acceptable the historical play Taleworlds are usually drafting from perfectly, but it does acceptable the quality of the faction. "This doesn't acceptable realistically, but erstwhile we tin find a meaningful crushed to person specified a ship, past it fits," Karaağaç says.

Image credit: Taleworlds

Then, the Battanian Birlinn faced a antithetic occupation - Taleworlds knew they wanted the faction's vessel to reflector the nation's onshore and lake-locked geography, but didn't person a go-to real-life vessel to deliberation astir visually.

"Since they’re connected apical of this plateau, [the Battanian] don't person truly casual entree to the sea," Karaağaç explains. "They've been known to raid rivers and marque usage of their interior sea, but they are not known for their seafaring, truthful we didn't privation to springiness them this immense large Battanian ship. We recovered a insubstantial connected this stream flat-bottomed vessel adjacent bluish France successful a bog. We said 'that sounds and feels similar a Gaelic vessel that idiosyncratic from Gaul would usage oregon Celtic radical mightiness use', truthful we tried to marque usage of arsenic overmuch arsenic possible."

Add those to the array of different unsocial ships Taleworlds person designed for the different nations, and you've got an intriguing enactment of many-oared flagships for each fleet, which tin past beryllium surrounded by a premix and lucifer of clones oregon different boats for battles with up to 8 vessels connected either side. Make definite you ticker retired for the Qalguk doing its champion content of a crackshot riding a colt amid the chaos.