Getting back into Mount and Blade: Napoleonic Wars

An expansion to a game that most of us have played, however for those that haven’t; Mount and Blade: Warband is an RPG set in a medieval fantasy world, where the player has the ultimate goal of conquering the land and becoming the king of Caladria. But the roleplaying opens up and allows players to follow their own path, from trader to mercenary leader, from jouster to noble., Mount and Blade: Napoleonic Wars is still rather popular and after one day of sitting around somewhat bored and lacking any true entertainment I decided to try it once more. I found it wasn’t hard to see why so many people still enjoy this game and find themselves repeatedly coming back to play more; to march into battle to the beat of the drums and to shudder in their boots as the first cannon balls bounce across the battlefield towards them, never flinching.

True to its name, the expansion is situated within the Napoleonic era, back when muskets were the most used weapon and soldiers were expected to stand and fire at each other in a nice neat line. Depending on which server you go on, chances are you will find this still happens. One such server which I have now started to frequent is the Napoleonic Roleplay Server. I must say, however, the name is somewhat deceitful, as it does not require any true roleplay as some people are used too. No real dialogue and no real goal other than to obey the gamemode which is usally “Battle Roleplay”, fortunately there are countless other game-modes which they host, such as assassination where one team must eliminate the leader of the opposing faction! “Battle RP” is still the staple diet however. Simply put within the Battle RP gamemode you take up the role of the soldier of your choice, you are thrusted into the battle head first and you obey your officer or commander as you seek to wipe out the opposing force.

After joining and serving a few rounds as a Bavarian Ranker within the French army, firing alongside my comrades, forming lines and occasionally charging with our bayonets into the enemy lines. I decided to try something different and settle for an Artillery role and needless to say it’s great fun! Afterall, it's rather enjoyable pounding the enemy lines into oblivion with a howitzer.

My tales of victory shall be sung for ages to come, well, more likely they will just fade into internet obscurity, however I have accomplished some fantastic feats. Such as rescuing my general from an enemy firing line by lobbing a howitzer shell at them before they could execute him, the cocky admin who was leading the firing line had the gall to post his commands to the firing line in the global chat; “Reload!” “Present!” “Aim!”. Imagine his surprise as the moment before he could finish the order to fire his entire firing line met their ends in an inferno of shrapnel and gunpowder.

However, it saddens me to say that for every moment of glory, I have had many more moments of total failure. Numerous times I have met my end at the end of a Hussar’s sabre or the lance of an Ulan. Sometimes even at the end of a firing line after my team was flanked, but never once have I looked back in anger at this game. I have always been able to smile, chuckle and enjoy myself.

For a title as old as this (at least four years of age!) to still be going strong and to be able to feature 100-a-side servers that are known to completely fill up and leave a line waiting to join, is incredible. The game amazes me and so I must encourage everyone that if you have a spare 30 minutes and you simply have nothing to do or have been thinking about getting a new game recently, dive back into this classic. Where the community is still as strong as ever and the playerbase is still rather large. Great fun and a great experience!