I really enjoy playing Bannerlord, as I did playing Warband.
If you liked Warband, as of now think of it as a "Warband 2.0". Give it some time and hope, and with updates and mods we will get a real "Bannerlord". But you can get it now. It's good.
In short : many good ideas, cool gameplays mechanics, but a lot of grind, unfair bots (and if you want to win/not loose you have to play their way), lacks replayability if you're not into this genre, and many things are missing or to be improved. But it's good and I like it.

*Things I like :
- Being able to make your own kingdom and rolling over the kingdom of the ones that you owe 8k tribute/day
- The possibility to save, try out things and correct my mistakes (yes, I like that possibility, no Iron Man for me)
- Some mods are great and now Steam Workshop's integrated (I love "Diplomacy")
- The massive battles (although I don't use the mod to put even more troops as it's not stable for me, and sometimes the enemy gets backup way earlier and more often than I do)
- When you have good relation with people, they talk you like equals and I don't know, I like that
- The massive parties you can have (with many troops I mean)
- Sometimes sieges are really satisfying on both sides, but defenders are often way to advantaged (Defending a castle I won a 200v1k battle in auto-resolve, and attacking I lost a 300v50)
- The fact that you can outsmart your ennemies and win battles when you are outnumbered (up to a certain ratio).

*Things I dislike :
- Not many "options" for your kingdom. You have general policies, but not that deep of a way to customize your kingdom.
- Vassals are a pain to recruit. You can hardly recruit lords, even when you are way stronger than another realm. You have to search for the rare ones that will agree on fighting by your side (and why does your clan have 7+ parties with 100+ troops when you are working for the bots, and 2 clans with 49 recruits when you are working for me ???)
- Interpersonal relations are super basic (Likes you, dislikes you), and sometimes weird. I befriended Unqid the Aserai Sultan as my brother married his daughter. Way later, he declares war on my kingdom, and when I engage parleys, he tells me that *I betrayed him*. Me no likey.
- Some skills are too long to level up, and some are not interesting

*Things I have mixed feelings for :
- Garrison systems and the mod improved garrison. I'm not satisfied with either.
- No "female" apart from the nobility, companions and a pair of mercenaries (the sisterhood). There's a mod for that, but given that Calradia is ALWAYS at war, I think female troops could be a logical implement. The game is a bit "unfair" when the player plays a female character. Maybe there could even be patriarcal or matriarcal policies.
- Yes, my character's sisters and daughters can be married. No I don't want them to leave my clan and be used to join armies to fight against me. (and also : if my character or his brother marries your daugther, we could maybe have good relations ??)
- I like the idea of a campaign, but I feel like it's going against me. If I don't do that specific thing, everyone will ally and beat the **it out of me.
- Initially you will fight every battle. But progressively, you will tend to autoresolve almost 90% of them as they are either repetitive and too easy, or hard because the in-game battles don't allow you to take many troops, and the fights get almost 1:1 when the troop number difference is not huge. I have mixed feelings for that because in a way, I like "small" battles so I still do some, and auto-resolve are faster. But battles are a great mechanic in Bannerlord, so I'd like to play them more if the systems were better. And sometimes auto-resolves results in a better outcome for you, with less losses.
- Smithing. Too OP to make money if you fully focus on it. But if you don't, you will have to wait almost the endgame to make really cool looking (and OP) weapons (which is the real fun of it).

*Things I'd like to see improved or added :

- Deeper relation system (family, truely befriending nobles and companions)
- Better vassal dynamics
- Better or more important "global" economy (between villages and cities, and maybe between cities)
- Better war dynamics (eg. : raiding villages plays an important role in winning a war, bots always do it, but try doing it once and everyone will hate you forever) (eg. : I captured 17 of your nobles out of 25. Maybe you could admit I won instead of waiting a month for them to escape while hanging onto your castles)
- Better inventory management
- Better troop management
- Improved strategic choices. When you delegate command, troops can for example split cavalry to protect your flanks. You can't really do that. Also when you're part of an army, the commander can "order you" to act a certain way, or order a given strategic line (Like playing on defense or getting just close enough for your archers to shoot). The problem is : you can't really do everything by yourself, and if you delegate command, your "generals" will rarely do what you intended.
- There are no dogs or cats ??? I'm the ruler of an important clan. I want my dog with me.
- Why can't we make camp with our party ??? I really liked that feature.
- Send your companions and other parties on "custom" tasks. "Take my prisoners and sell/emprison them", "Go defend THAT castle at the border, don't wander around the safe zone of the kingdom", "Recruit more archers/cavalry/infantry", "Execute these automatically but not these" "Spy on them" "Sabotage this town's doors or garrison" "Try convincing this one to like me, or to hate his ruler"
- Workshops in cities need to be improved. Drastically. They have no significant use as of now, apart from telling yourself "oh cool I've got a brewery, a blacksmith and a tannery. They give me 60 denars each day. What a greatly invested early 15k/19k hardly gained denars"
- At one point, trading is loosing it's interesting part (as many things in this game it seems). You end up selling everything without thinking. And cities don't care. "What mylord ? You want to sell us for 99k of worn leather boots, curved arrows, decayed flax and rusty falchions ? No problem even if we are now ruined."
- Maybe playing games in taverns and lords' hall would be better if it had an impact on the relations ? It could create another gameplay loop, instead of playing them once and never going back because the IA is too strong for my small brain, and I get no reward for winning.
- Tournaments. They are really good, but something's missing. The variety of the fights, also maybe the possibility to fight and win the tournament as a group, The weapons and rewards. I don't know. You like them at first, but then they lose interest pretty fast.
- Smithing. Make it less grindy, less profitable, and let us craft COOL WEAPONS YEAH. Or maybe the possibility to hire a smith.
- Back to the last idea : maybe hiring "specialists" could be nice, and complementary to workshops. "This one's a smith, he crafts better weapons for you and your army", "this one's a horse-maker (english is not my first language), he can give you high-quality/work horses", "this one's an assassin. He assassins. (or poisons. or sabotages. I don't know leave me alone)" "This one's a spy, he gives you insights on the relations and politics of other kingdoms (with useful informations)." "This theater group can improve the mood of a city for x days for y denars"


Hope this will be enough.
I'd love to make mods to improve the things on the list I made, but I have no skill nor time to make them. Maybe one day, who knows.
TW, keep on updating the game and adding content, we count on you.

I really enjoy playing Bannerlord, as I did playing Warband. If you liked Warband, as of now think of it as a "Warband 2.0". Give it some time and hope, and with updates and mods we will get a real "Bannerlord". But you can get it now. It's good. In short : many good ideas, cool gameplays mechanics, but a lot of grind, unfair bots (and if you want to win/not loose you have to play their way), lacks replayability if you're not into this genre, and many things are missing or to be improved. But it's good and I like it. *Things I like : - Being able to make your own kingdom and rolling over the kingdom of the ones that you owe 8k tribute/day - The possibility to save, try out things and correct my mistakes (yes, I like that possibility, no Iron Man for me) - Some mods are great and now Steam Workshop's integrated (I love "Diplomacy") - The massive battles (although I don't use the mod to put even more troops as it's not stable for me, and sometimes the enemy gets backup way earlier and more often than I do) - When you have good relation with people, they talk you like equals and I don't know, I like that - The massive parties you can have (with many troops I mean) - Sometimes sieges are really satisfying on both sides, but defenders are often way to advantaged (Defending a castle I won a 200v1k battle in auto-resolve, and attacking I lost a 300v50) - The fact that you can outsmart your ennemies and win battles when you are outnumbered (up to a certain ratio). *Things I dislike : - Not many "options" for your kingdom. You have general policies, but not that deep of a way to customize your kingdom. - Vassals are a pain to recruit. You can hardly recruit lords, even when you are way stronger than another realm. You have to search for the rare ones that will agree on fighting by your side (and why does your clan have 7+ parties with 100+ troops when you are working for the bots, and 2 clans with 49 recruits when you are working for me ???) - Interpersonal relations are super basic (Likes you, dislikes you), and sometimes weird. I befriended Unqid the Aserai Sultan as my brother married his daughter. Way later, he declares war on my kingdom, and when I engage parleys, he tells me that *I betrayed him*. Me no likey. - Some skills are too long to level up, and some are not interesting *Things I have mixed feelings for : - Garrison systems and the mod improved garrison. I'm not satisfied with either. - No "female" apart from the nobility, companions and a pair of mercenaries (the sisterhood). There's a mod for that, but given that Calradia is ALWAYS at war, I think female troops could be a logical implement. The game is a bit "unfair" when the player plays a female character. Maybe there could even be patriarcal or matriarcal policies. - Yes, my character's sisters and daughters can be married. No I don't want them to leave my clan and be used to join armies to fight against me. (and also : if my character or his brother marries your daugther, we could maybe have good relations ??) - I like the idea of a campaign, but I feel like it's going against me. If I don't do that specific thing, everyone will ally and beat the **it out of me. - Initially you will fight every battle. But progressively, you will tend to autoresolve almost 90% of them as they are either repetitive and too easy, or hard because the in-game battles don't allow you to take many troops, and the fights get almost 1:1 when the troop number difference is not huge. I have mixed feelings for that because in a way, I like "small" battles so I still do some, and auto-resolve are faster. But battles are a great mechanic in Bannerlord, so I'd like to play them more if the systems were better. And sometimes auto-resolves results in a better outcome for you, with less losses. - Smithing. Too OP to make money if you fully focus on it. But if you don't, you will have to wait almost the endgame to make really cool looking (and OP) weapons (which is the real fun of it). *Things I'd like to see improved or added : - Deeper relation system (family, truely befriending nobles and companions) - Better vassal dynamics - Better or more important "global" economy (between villages and cities, and maybe between cities) - Better war dynamics (eg. : raiding villages plays an important role in winning a war, bots always do it, but try doing it once and everyone will hate you forever) (eg. : I captured 17 of your nobles out of 25. Maybe you could admit I won instead of waiting a month for them to escape while hanging onto your castles) - Better inventory management - Better troop management - Improved strategic choices. When you delegate command, troops can for example split cavalry to protect your flanks. You can't really do that. Also when you're part of an army, the commander can "order you" to act a certain way, or order a given strategic line (Like playing on defense or getting just close enough for your archers to shoot). The problem is : you can't really do everything by yourself, and if you delegate command, your "generals" will rarely do what you intended. - There are no dogs or cats ??? I'm the ruler of an important clan. I want my dog with me. - Why can't we make camp with our party ??? I really liked that feature. - Send your companions and other parties on "custom" tasks. "Take my prisoners and sell/emprison them", "Go defend THAT castle at the border, don't wander around the safe zone of the kingdom", "Recruit more archers/cavalry/infantry", "Execute these automatically but not these" "Spy on them" "Sabotage this town's doors or garrison" "Try convincing this one to like me, or to hate his ruler" - Workshops in cities need to be improved. Drastically. They have no significant use as of now, apart from telling yourself "oh cool I've got a brewery, a blacksmith and a tannery. They give me 60 denars each day. What a greatly invested early 15k/19k hardly gained denars" - At one point, trading is loosing it's interesting part (as many things in this game it seems). You end up selling everything without thinking. And cities don't care. "What mylord ? You want to sell us for 99k of worn leather boots, curved arrows, decayed flax and rusty falchions ? No problem even if we are now ruined." - Maybe playing games in taverns and lords' hall would be better if it had an impact on the relations ? It could create another gameplay loop, instead of playing them once and never going back because the IA is too strong for my small brain, and I get no reward for winning. - Tournaments. They are really good, but something's missing. The variety of the fights, also maybe the possibility to fight and win the tournament as a group, The weapons and rewards. I don't know. You like them at first, but then they lose interest pretty fast. - Smithing. Make it less grindy, less profitable, and let us craft COOL WEAPONS YEAH. Or maybe the possibility to hire a smith. - Back to the last idea : maybe hiring "specialists" could be nice, and complementary to workshops. "This one's a smith, he crafts better weapons for you and your army", "this one's a horse-maker (english is not my first language), he can give you high-quality/work horses", "this one's an assassin. He assassins. (or poisons. or sabotages. I don't know leave me alone)" "This one's a spy, he gives you insights on the relations and politics of other kingdoms (with useful informations)." "This theater group can improve the mood of a city for x days for y denars" Hope this will be enough. I'd love to make mods to improve the things on the list I made, but I have no skill nor time to make them. Maybe one day, who knows. TW, keep on updating the game and adding content, we count on you.