By Adam Smith on March 30th, 2012 at 12:25 pm.
Edit: added details on the Mount and Musket mod!
Napoleon was most likely of average height rather than being the tiniest man in the world and I’m sure that’s been taken into consideration during the making of this expansion for Mount and Blade: Warband. Weapons, uniforms and even military musicians playing authentic songs of the period are all in place, as the hooves and hacking are somewhat eclipsed by boots and mortars. Taking in the final years of Napoleon’s conquest, it’s a multiplayer only affair, developed by the team behind this mod, that will be out later this spring. I’ve rounded up some documentary footage of the early 19th century below.
According to the team, they’ve rebuilt their Mount and Musket: Battalion mod to make it bigger and better. You can download their original work here and a big tub of gratitude to those who made me aware of it. I am clearly out of the Mount and Blade modding loop.
There will be five nations to choose from, with over 220 units altogether, fully controllable artillery units, and an engineer class capable of digging trenches, rigging explosives and constructing barricades. That’s all very Napoleonic but what may truly elevate the game into the stratoleonicsphere is this: “Special musician units with drums, fifes, bagpipes or trumpets, able to play historically accurate tunes; all recorded and played by award winning musicians”. Superb.
A new ‘commander battle mode’ will also be included but there’s little detail on what it involves beyond leading squads of soldiers.
Mount and Blade DLC is always going to have the army of excellent mods to face up to, which is perhaps why Paradox are so keen on bringing that talent on board. Just a shame it’s multiplayer only, or am I the only person who still enjoys running around on my own causing mischief?
For those disappointed by the lack of actual documentary footage, here’s some stunning imagery from my hometown, yesterday.
30/03/2012 at 12:31 Grovy says:
“Mount and Blade DLC is always going to have the army of excellent mods to face up to” — this DLC is continuing from the Warband mod Mount&Musket: Battalion, flying squirrel is made up of the modders responsible for it. Congratulations to them for getting backing from Taleworlds and Paradox.
30/03/2012 at 12:38 Bluerps says:
Hell is other people. Especially on the Internet.
So, yeah, I would also prefer an opportunity to cause mischief on my own.
30/03/2012 at 19:48 Zephro says:
The words “multi-player only” just means no sale.
31/03/2012 at 20:18 TemplarLord says:
+1
01/04/2012 at 02:55 JulietPapaOscar says:
To all of you saying multiplayer only…
Granted, I’m sure alot has changed from the mod to this DLC, if the MOD says anything, you can still create custom battles. Obviously won’t be as organized as what you see in the video, the AI doesn’t well…understand it xD but you can still do massive singlplayer custom battles. Just no campaign. Again, just thinking back to the mod :P we’ll see soon I hope :D
30/03/2012 at 12:41 ninjapirate says:
It won’t feel right without Sharpe’s Chosen Men!
30/03/2012 at 14:16 frightlever says:
Reminds me of the Sharpe TV series where the entire peninsular campaign was settled between 8 men in a gravel pit with a smoke generator.
30/03/2012 at 15:48 mondomau says:
Wait, wait. Are you telling me the battle of Waterloo wasn’t actually won by a half dozen riflemen marching towards twenty odd frenchmen with stick-on mustaches?
30/03/2012 at 12:48 Maldomel says:
I do enjoy running around on my own causing mischief. But doing with other players is fine too.
30/03/2012 at 12:55 Docm30 says:
Cool beans!
Though, as the leader of the singleplayer Napoleonic mod L’Aigle (http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,195571.0.html hint hint), I must say I’m a bit relieved this is multiplayer-only.
30/03/2012 at 13:41 rapier17 says:
Doc, I must say I’m far more interested in L’Aigle, and have been for a while, than MM, or ‘NW’ as it is now known. Keep up the good work sir!
30/03/2012 at 19:49 Andy_Panthro says:
That looks fantastic, and exactly the sort of thing I’m looking for! (always looking for good SP mods)
30/03/2012 at 12:57 Duckee says:
I want Mount and Blade 2.. not this multiplayer only crap.
30/03/2012 at 13:00 tigershuffle says:
nice for a multi plyr mod…..but will now check out Docm30′s wares ;)
well sold sir :)
still playin through Prophesy of Pendor
30/03/2012 at 13:01 Fanbuoy says:
Who the hell wears a friggin’ monocle to battle? Stylish to be sure, but seriously?
30/03/2012 at 13:07 mentor07825 says:
One must stay classy, even in times of war.
http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/019/1/5/classy_necron_by_blazbaros-d4myzxj.png
30/03/2012 at 13:03 Enzo says:
Basically this is just the Mount and Musket mod for Warband but this time you have to pay for the next patch for it. And from what I’ve heard they’re closing the servers for Mount and Musket.
Greeeeeeeeeeeat.
30/03/2012 at 13:41 Reefpirate says:
Ya, people want money for their work, geeeeeze. Why can’t they service my lazy ass for free all the time?
30/03/2012 at 13:50 Enzo says:
I wouldn’t have absolutely any problems with this dlc IF they wouldn’t simultaneously close the servers for Mount and Musket – but from what I’ve heard they are closing them. So they’re grabbing the game from the hands of the players and saying “You need to pay for the next patch to your favourite mod, and if you can’t do that then tough shit, you cant play anymore”.
30/03/2012 at 15:26 HTAPAWASO says:
Running a server ain’t free.
Seems perfectly reasonable to me that they want to make the jump from casual to professional, and it makes sense to keep the community as grouped as possible (Warband does not have many people playing it these days).
30/03/2012 at 13:53 rapier17 says:
…and what about all the other good quality mods for Warband out there? Don’t hear them clamouring for money for their work…
30/03/2012 at 14:36 Mattressi says:
The biggest issue that I see is that Warband multiplayer doesn’t have all that many people on any more. Certainly there are some full servers, but nothing like there used to be. Mods now have very few people playing them – MM included. I’m just worried that there won’t be anyone playing this DLC; it’d suck to pay for a mod, no matter how much work was put into it, only to have absolutely no one playing it.
Hell, even With Fire and Sword, a standalone expansion which added quite a bit, the servers initially had a few players, but it’s all but died already. At least it has SP though. I’m honestly not sure how this DLC can make it.
Warband is quite old now and there’s mostly only the small number of hardcore fans left playing, spread out over many mods. We really need M&B2 to breathe some new life into the community.
30/03/2012 at 15:53 Reapy says:
Yeah, I still would love to pop in and play from time to time, but there are basically only 2 servers to pick from in NA at any given time. It is a pretty sad state of affairs, but, hell, it has always been this way. The only time you felt like you had a plethora of choice in m&b multi is right after release or a new steam sale, but the numbers quickly dropped off.
I hope war of the roses is able to maintain a higher amount of players than m&b does when it gets released. I just want a decent melee oriented game like either with a reasonable amount of people playing it.
Hopefully together WOTR and m&b2 and even chivalry, can up the awareness of the genera and the fan base in general for everyone’s benefit.
02/04/2012 at 09:39 rycon says:
This DLC will bring more people to both native and NW community.
07/04/2012 at 21:23 Grape says:
Yeah, for maybe two months.
30/03/2012 at 13:06 Jimbolina says:
Gotta say RPS, you let the ball drop on this one.
This ‘DLC’ is a paid-for-version of a long overdue patch for a mod that features little to no innovation. Quite why TaleWorlds chose MM as their next cash-cow, I am not sure. I can however be sure of this; every ‘feature’ found in the ‘feature-list’ of this new DLC has been found and made in previous Warband mods, most notable ‘the Deluge’ and ‘Vikingr’ for free, without the backing of TaleWorlds itself.
30/03/2012 at 13:25 Drake Sigar says:
“Just a shame it’s multiplayer only”
Next time you might want to open with that. Totally got my hopes up. At this rate I’ll never get to play Sean Bean.
02/04/2012 at 09:45 rycon says:
Single player is always nice to have but multiplayer is where this game needs to be.
This game is very competitive with the community organizing regiment vs regiment LB’S , Melee tournaments and army vs army LB’S.
Have you ever played mmrussia with 250 players ? With this DLC it will be much better.
30/03/2012 at 13:39 cliffski says:
Definitely something I’d buy if it was singleplayer, maybe even for some multiplayer fun…hmmm…
30/03/2012 at 14:44 MajorManiac says:
Definitely agree. If this was/included the single-player campaign, I’d be throwing my money down the internet instead of writing this.
30/03/2012 at 13:43 Casshern says:
Paradox in charge of releasing a finished game.
30/03/2012 at 13:49 hellboy says:
Firing guns don’t interest me in Mount & Blade. I’d like a proper sequel, or maybe some DLC with Orcs or something…
30/03/2012 at 14:12 Grargh says:
Warband was about vassals and troop moral and the campaign map and charging through recruits with a great sword, stuff like that. Don’t they have a different M&B game for shooting with ancient guns in fancy costumes?
Besides, multiplayer in this setting absoluteley kills any historical atmosphere because people simply don’t act like medieval/napoleonic soldiers when playing competitive online battles.
30/03/2012 at 14:14 smeaa mario says:
I have been to the original m&b, warband and wfas. All I can say is that we need some freshness in the game, not the same old stuff. By the way, melee weapons should urgently be brought back into the game along with bows and crossbows and some… errr… freshness. Let us keep fingers crossed for m&b 2.
30/03/2012 at 14:48 Jimbolina says:
smeaa mario; if you crave melee fights and skirmishing, I will urge you to try out Vikingr. It is a MP mod for Warband – excels in close combats for a realistic fashion.
30/03/2012 at 14:44 Durkonkell says:
My reactions: Interested, interested, interested,
“Multiplayer only”
Not interested.
30/03/2012 at 15:09 Enzo says:
I’m pretty sure this post should be changed a little bit cause Adam didn’t even mention that this DLC is just an updated version of the “Mount & Musket” mod.
So just download this mod and check it out, you’ll know right away if you want to buy the DLC or not.
30/03/2012 at 15:24 Adam Smith says:
A tip of the hat to you and the others who mentioned it.
30/03/2012 at 15:44 Enzo says:
No problem.
Completely offtopic: You should probably write something about Starbound. It’s basically a sequel to Terraria, except this time it’s sci-fi.
30/03/2012 at 15:18 thebigJ_A says:
You’re not alone. I was extremely excited for this, being a Napoleonic history buff to an embarrassing degree as i am. I’m the guy people come to when they need to know the vital difference between a chasseur à pied and a voltiguer. What? It happens…
Then I found out this was mp only, and was crushed. I almost never play multiplayer. :’(
30/03/2012 at 16:39 Jason Moyer says:
I volunteer to be the gentleman holding the flag.
30/03/2012 at 17:38 Grape says:
Holy crap! This looks aweso… oh, it’s multiplayer.
*Leaves.*
30/03/2012 at 18:02 gritz says:
I hope the next mod Paradox takes over is the Prophesy of Pendor.
A full PoP game with a AAA budget and production values is one of my top 3 “dream games” (especially if they added features like drop-in multiplayer, more robust RTS-style commands, and deeper quests/plots).
30/03/2012 at 18:16 bobgrey says:
I dunno, multiplayer always seemed to be the biggest draw in this mod anyway.
http://youtu.be/dse_aGJuwn8
30/03/2012 at 18:57 Quentillius says:
Being someone that has played this game a lot (a caporal in the 1er regiment if anyone is interested) I can say that this game truly is incredibly enjoyable. The standard multiplayer is fun enough, but it’s joining one of the community clans that you’ll find real enjoyment from the game, taking part in huge battles with hundreds of people from all around the world lining up and shooting at each other.
02/04/2012 at 09:24 Awesome sarcastic robot says:
Personaly i dont get why they chose MM, and not The Deluge, which, or at least to me, seems like a superior mod when it comes to gameplay/organized warfare/events. although the playerbase is smaller, that also makes the community tighter. also, its possible to make new clans/regiments that can actualy grow, instead of the large ones getting bigger in MM..
07/04/2012 at 21:57 nw_drako says:
If you worry that the community around NW will lack quality, I can assure you that such things are irrelevant. Due to the mod turning into a DLC we expect a much larger community. Due to such factors, the community around NW will be more organized, more player friendly and of a much higher quality. MM grew fast, and so did the community. Due to fast growth within the community, it was hard for It to remain of the greatest quality and maintain a high level of organization. But worry not, this time tings will be different.