Warband is among the best games released in recent years. An incredible title blending strategy and action RPG gameplay.

I prefer to play as a female character. The whole 'I cannot give you a fief because you are a woman' thing is a boon rather than a hindrance. Because kings are so reluctant to vassal a woman you can grow your warband pretty strong prior to choosing who you want to side with and hunt down all your companions. In Warband, after assigning your character's attributes, you additionally choose what city your character starts near. (In the original you start near a random training field.) You can choose from Praven, Reyvadin, Tulga, Sargoth (Karachi in Warband), Jelkala, and Shariz. Your choice here does not obligate you to associate with the faction that.

While the sequel (Bannerlord) expands on pretty much every feature seen in the original, there’s one thing that Bannerlord lacks: the same sizable mod library (at least, as of this writing!)

Mount & Blade: Warband, on the other hand, has one of the most active modding communities on the web. A community that has provided so many mods that it would be truly impossible to list them all.

So to help you get back to gaming with some cool new features, I’ve organized all the best mods in this list. Let’s take a look and see what we can do.

30. Assassin’s Creed Mod

The ancient war between Assassins and Templars raged across the world for centuries. And even the kingdom of Calradia saw the two faction go at one another.

Well, not quite, but you get the idea.

This Assassin’s Creed mod, set during the Third Crusade, introduces two new factions inspired by the now legendary open-world series. You’ll be locked in a vicious war to conquer the Holy Land.

Both the Assassins and the Templars factions come with their unique traits and are very fun to use, but I cannot help but think the Templars are going to be the more popular of the two. Must be because of the Hidden Blade.

29. Dynamic Troop Trees

To conquer the whole of Caldaria, you must always have things under control.

Troops, especially. Who else would do the dirty work for you?

Dynamic Troop Trees, which requires modmerger to work, creates a graphical troop tree viewer for each faction in the reports menu.

This doesn’t really add any new features to the game. But it looks so cool, and makes managing troops a teensy bit easier. Gameplay will never be the same again after installing it.

28. Classic and Enhanced Native

Mount & Blade: Warband was a definite step up from the original game. But some of the changes it introduced did not sit well with some players. Time to turn back time, then!

The Classic and Enhanced Native mod is a massive gameplay overhaul that brings back many of the features of the original Mount & Blade.

Some examples include the original map, the original faction colors, as well as tons of enhancements like reduced improvement build time, new items, increased battle sizes, and more.

So how’s that nostalgia going?

27. Blue Blood

This is the Kingdom of Calradia no more. Welcome to the British Isles, 1184.

The Blue Blood mod adds the Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, a map of Europe, historical kings, lords and settlements… and an overhauled recruitment system that closely resembles how lords actually made their armies bigger during the medieval era.

Yeah, it’s a lot.

With this mod, Warband rightly turns into the feudal lord simulator that no one asked for, but everyone needed.

26. More Women

How could adding more women would make a game worse?

This fancy mod does exactly what you expect: adding female variants for most troops, new companions, NPCs, Lords, and so on.

These are not just cosmetic changes, either. As the female troops have slightly different abilities than their male counterparts. So you’ll have to learn their ins and outs to be as good as you are in vanilla.

25. Diplomacy Compilation

Diplomacy has failed. Time to resort to the Compilation.

This is actually a collection of mods that improve the game in several different areas.

It changes so much from cosmetics to actual mechanics, that listing all of the changes here would take as much time as you’d need to conquer Caldaria.

Check out the mod page for a full list, but suffice it to say this one will keep you busy for a while.

24. XL Samurai Weapon Set

No self-respecting game set during medieval times can do without the weapons and armor sets of the Samurai.

And here we see it’s no different.

The XL Samurai Weapon Set is an extra large mod in every sense of the word.

You’ll find a ton of new weapons like the Yumi Bow, Odachi, Uchigatana, Wakizashi and Naginata, and they feature a huge polygon count that makes them look just plain incredible.

The downside is that they have no LOD. So if you equip them to NPCs, you can expect your PC to kneel down after a while. You’ve been warned: check your specs first!

23. OSP Itempack

New armors? Check.

New horses? Check.

New weapons? Check.

New everything!

No, you haven’t ended up in a medieval telemarketing show. This is just what the OSP Itempack mod gives us: shiny new items that look great, and will make the game feel fresh. Even after you’ve spent thousands of hours on it already.

22. 1860 Old America

1860 Old America makes Warband the best strategy action role-playing game set in the Old West.

What a mouthful.

While it’s a little unpolished and even outright broken at times, the 1860 Old America mod excels in gunplay and atmosphere.

It’s a shame that development has been halted on this one. As it had the potential to be the very best total gameplay overhaul ever made for Warband. I’m rooting for someone to pick it back up in the near future.

21. San Guo Yan Yi

The San Guo Yan Yi mod. Also known as Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Warband.

This is a total conversion that brings Warband to China, introducing an original map of the country, 45 kingdoms, 101 castles, and over two hundred villages. Not to mention 35 factions locked in a war for dominance.

If you’ve never heard of what happened in China after the fall of the glorious Gan dynasty, now’s the right time to learn everything about it.

20. TweakMB

With the TweakMB mod, you’ll become the only true lord in all of Caldaria. A god, even.

This makes tweaking many of the game’s features incredibly straightforward.

With this installed you can modify tournament bet amounts, village improvement/build times, party sizes, base ammo amounts, and prevent some companions from leaving you (oh, the agony).

If this is not real power, well then I do not know what is.

19. The Gathering Storm

The Dragon Reborn is here.

But I’m not sure we should be really happy about it…

Gathering Storm is an amazing gameplay overhaul mod. It introduces lands, factions, and mechanics inspired by Robert Jordan’s epic fantasy series The Wheel of Time.

You know what this means, right?

It means the series’ complex magic system has been brought to a video game, possibly in the best possible way. And you don’t have to worry about going mad, if you are a male channeler.

Oh, how clear Saidin looks today!

18. Sands of Faith

Have you ever heard about An-Nasir Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub… a man so strong about his devotion that even his enemies praised him? No?

Yeah me either, this is a weird one.

Sands of Faith is a total conversion mod set in the Middle-East during the era of the Crusades which brings historically accurate factions, kingdoms, towns, and troops.

So yes, you can even create the Teutonic Knights Order and become the bane of Muslims. Or help Salah ad-Din protect his governorate, and show the European invaders who’s the one true knight of the Middle East.

17. Sword of Damocles

Sword of Damocles is more than a gameplay overhaul.

It’s a true expansion, one that would be worthy of some kind of official status.

There isn’t one feature or mechanic of the original Warband that this mod skips over.

I mean, the map is completely new and features more than three times the playable landscape of Caldaria. All factions have been rebalanced and tweaked, the 200+ troops have been overhauled, and the entire game now feels more like a proper strategy game by featuring way more buildings and way more situations.

If you just want a fresher game that’ll keep you busy, this is the way to go.

16. Imperium Romanum

Gameplay overhauls don’t get more realistic than the Imperium Romanum mod.

If the Latin name didn’t give it away, this is a historically accurate modded update set during the Roman invasion of Britain.

It allows you to control a member of the Roman army, enjoy realistic combat featuring realistic Roman units, rise through the ranks of the army, and show those barbarians how the Roman legions must never be challenged.

It’s starting to get a little Total War-ish in here…

15. Sweetfx Mod

Graphics improvements without performance drops? Now we’re talking my language.

Sweetfx introduces a ton of graphic improvements without altering the vanilla game’s textures, preventing any serious performance issue.

The improvements are still noticeable though. So much that you’ll never go back to the unmodded game.

14. Male and Female Face Replacer

Character models in Mount & Blade: Warband leave something to be desired.

So, mods like the Male and Fame Face Replacer are truly invaluable.

This mod introduces tons of improvements for both male and female character faces, including new eye textures for women, new face textures for men, plus new hairstyle improvements that look great at high resolutions.

Which should be the only way to play HD games nowadays.

13. Last Breath of the Calradian Empire

Any battle fought on a bridge makes it epic instantly.

This should be more than enough to make you download the Last Breath of the Calradian Empire.

This overhaul mod could be considered a sequel to the main game’s campaign. It’s still set in Calradia, but with new factions and a lot of gameplay changes.

Like three troop trees for each faction, new items and animations, new formations, reworked scenes, and plenty more.

And yes, even battles on bridges. Which open up some interesting strategic options and bring the epicness factor to ten thousand.

12. Nova Aetas

It has been some time since you conquered the Calradian Empire.

History never stops flowing, and a new era is about to begin.

Like the Last Breath of the Calradian Empire mod, Nova Aetas feels almost like a sequel to the vanilla game.

It brings an increased focus on the management and strategy elements of the game, with the introduction of new features like a Hierarchy system. Plus a few more complex building mechanics.

But if fighting is more your thing, you’ll be able to explore a new world, travel the seas, and fight stronger enemies with a much better AI.

Don’t expect to be able to put an end to any battle by yourself anymore: this is the real deal.

11. Warsword Conquest Beta

Warhammer and Warband are a match made in heaven.

Or hell, depending which side you’re on.

The Warsword Conquest mod is among the most complex gameplay modifications ever developed for the game.

It introduces not only content inspired by the popular franchise created by Games Workshop, but also tons of new features. One of which is a character creator that will let you control characters from any faction in the game. Good times, yeah?

10. Brytenwalda Special Edition

Being the ruler of all of Caldaria is small stuff, compared to being the king of all Britain.

Brytenwalda Special Edition is absolutely worth a try if you really want refreshed gameplay.

It brings you back to year 636, a dark time for the British Isles, ravaged by countless invaders.

With a complete change of most of the game’s mechanics, the introduction of a Captain Mode, and a historically-accurate recreation of the times(or as accurate as possible), Brytenwalda Special Edition is the Warband mod you have to get. Specifically if you’re into historically accurate overhauls.

9. Anno Domini 1257

Do 42 different factions sound like too many? I say it’s not too many enough.

Anno Domini 1257 is a historically accurate add-on for Warband that adds 42 different factions, inspired by the real European political situation in 1257.

Plus hundreds of new troops, custom battle scenes, and the ability to play as one of your soldiers in case you die. That is definitely one of the cooler features in this entire list.

8. Warband Battle Size Changer

Go big or go home. That’s the motto here.

Warband Battle Size Changer is a simple mod that not all Warband players will be able to run properly, as it increases the battle size limit from 150 up to 1000. Jeez louise.

The problem is that you’ll really need a solid system to run these large scale battles. So you’d better get the right weapons… I mean hardware, before attempting to install this one.

With that said, it’s absolutely worth it. Hours of fun to be had here.

7. The Last Days of the Third Age

You wanted an amazing strategy game based on J.R.R Tolkien’s works? No?

Welp, you’ve got one.

This is actually a total conversion mod that brings all of the factions seen in Middle Earth, right into Warband.

Plus you’ll get a brand new war system based on the canon of Tolkien’s books, a huge number of custom items, and all of the races that have walked Middle Earth since its creation.

Fun fps games for mac. The mod isn’t perfect by any means. I think it has some balance issues as you go further along. But this epic crossover makes the mod a must-download for all Tolkien fans.

6. Gekokujo

The lower-ranked taken over from the high.

Isn’t this just an amazing premise for a Warband mod?

The Gekokujo mod, literally “the low-ranked taking over from the high”, brings Warband to Sengoku-era Japan. It comes complete with a new map of the country, new factions, weapons, and items inspired by the era.

And even a couple new gameplay mechanics like town and castle recruitment.

And if you’re so into this mod that you’re going to try for multiple playthroughs, the tweaked startup scripts will make sure you’ll have to deal with different situations each time. Neat!

5. Perisno

All the Warband total conversion mods inspired by other works are well and good… but what about a new world created just for the game?

Perisno is one of the few that fit the bill. And it’s not based on history or any established work, as it introduces a typical fantasy world where humans, elves, and dwarves live together

With a new world to explore, tons of new items to collect, improved graphics, and changes to the gameplay like diplomacy and formations, Perisno is your mod to try if you’re just getting bored with vanilla.

Little chance of getting bored here.

4. A Clash of Kings

These two series were almost made for each other.

The A Clash of Kings brings you to Westeros and Essos, and forces you to deal with their incredibly complicated political situation.

You can join any faction and remain loyal to them, or become a rebel and wait for the Targaryen invasion that’s to come from the East.

If you still haven’t recovered from the trainwreck that was the Game of Thrones final season, and you’re still waiting for a book released in two thousand never, A Clash of Kings will surely ease your pain.

Or at least offer a few hours of fun.

3. A New Dawn

For being a kingdom in turmoil, Caldaria feels way too peaceful at times.

But not anymore, my friends.

A New Dawn doesn’t just introduce a lot of tweaks to combat and troop trees… but it also adds a way more active world, with tons of new factions that are constantly at war with one another.

And bigger armies that make the game far more challenging than vanilla.

Who would have thought that a new dawn would have brought more war?

2. Prophesy of Pendor

The kingdom of Pendor hasn’t seen a King for ages.

And the only thing that prevented the realm from shattering is a prophecy of a champion that will right all wrongs and restore the kingdom to its former splendor.

That champion is you (I hope).

The Prophesy of Pendor is yet another gameplay modification that changes pretty much every aspect of the vanilla experience.

It gives us a unique backstory and expanded character generation system, a new fantasy setting that’s incredibly grounded, and a level of immersion that’s unprecedented for a Warband mod.

And no magic whatsoever. Who said a fantasy setting always needs a magic system to be good?

1. Floris Mod Pack

So you want a seriously new experience, but you want to avoid downloading hundreds of different mods?

I feel that. Well look no more: we’ve struck gold here.

Mount And Blade Warband Character Builds

The Floris Mod Pack is a collection of mods created by the Warband community that improves the gameplay considerably. Basically all the best “must-haves” in one place.

The tweaks are so big that the developer released four different versions to let you choose how much you want the experience to change. These versions also depend on your system specifications, as some of the changes don’t sit well on a weaker GPU.

That said, if you download just one pack to get you started, make it the Floris mod pack.

Mount And Blade Warband Wiki

Mount And Blade Character Creation Guide