Guide to Ships & Mariners in War Sails DLC -Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

The long-awaited naval expansion for Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord“>Blade II: Bannerlord War Sails Guide: How to Win Ship Battles Easily”>Blade II: Bannerlord has finally arrived with the “War Sails” DLC, fundamentally transforming the landscape of Calradia by introducing deep, strategic maritime gameplay. This comprehensive guide dives into the heart of the new systems, offering both new admirals and veteran warlords the essential knowledge to conquer the coastal and open waters. We will explore the intricate mechanics of ship classification and upgrades, the crucial role of the new Mariner troop type, and the trio of Naval Skills that will define your prowess at sea. Whether you aim to dominate trade routes, lead devastating naval invasions, or become the most feared pirate on the high seas, understanding these core pillars is the first step to claiming naval supremacy. Prepare to set sail as we break down everything you need to navigate the challenging and rewarding new world of Bannerlord’s War Sails.

Section 1: The Fleet – Understanding Ship Classes, Stats, and Acquisition

Navigating the new maritime layer of Bannerlord begins with building your fleet. Ships are not mere transportation; they are floating fortresses, cargo carriers, and instruments of naval warfare with distinct characteristics and trade-offs.

Ship Classifications: Light, Medium, and Heavy
The DLC introduces three primary ship classes, each serving a strategic purpose:

• Light Ships: Agile and fast, especially along coastlines and rivers. They are the most affordable entry point but lack the durability, cargo space, and deep-sea capabilities of their larger counterparts. Ideal for quick raids, coastal patrol, and early-game mobility.
• Medium Ships: The balanced workhorse of any fleet. They offer a significant upgrade in durability, ramming damage, and cargo capacity over light ships, while maintaining respectable maneuverability. They can venture cautiously into deeper waters.
• Heavy Ships: The titans of the sea. These vessels boast the highest hit points, devastating ramming power, and superior Seaworthiness, allowing them to sail the deep ocean with minimal attrition. Their trade-offs are slower speed, especially near shore, higher cost, and a Deep Draft that hinders river travel. They are essential for long ocean crossings, blockading major ports, and decisive fleet engagements.

Key Ship Statistics Explained
When purchasing or upgrading a ship, several critical stats demand your attention:

• Crew Capacity: Displayed as three numbers (e.g., 8/32/64). The first is the skeletal minimum; dropping below this incurs severe speed penalties. The second is the deck capacity, or the maximum soldiers who can fight in a naval battle. The third is the maximum capacity, the total troops and crew the ship can hold for campaign travel.
• Cargo Capacity: Determines how much trade goods, food, and loot you can transport, directly impacting trade and campaign sustainability.
• Weight: Influences acceleration and top speed, but also directly enhances ramming damage. A heavier ship hits harder.
• Draft (Shallow/Deep): Perhaps the most crucial navigational stat. Shallow Draft ships excel in rivers and coastal seas but are slower and vulnerable in open water. Deep Draft ships are built for the ocean, traveling faster there but becoming sluggish near shore.
• Seaworthiness: Reduces attrition damage taken when sailing in deep water and during storms. Higher classes and upgrades improve this.
• Sail Type (Square vs. Lateen): Square Sails offer better acceleration but lower top speed and a narrower “wind coverage” arc. Lateen Sails have slower acceleration but a higher potential top speed and a much wider wind coverage, making them more efficient on long, open-water journeys. Higher-tier ships can have multiple masts combining sail types.

How to Acquire Your First Ship
Entering the naval game requires significant investment. You cannot simply walk into the water anymore.

1. Major Ports: Look for settlements with a small anchor icon on the campaign map.
2. Port Menu: Enter the town and find the “Manage a Fleet” option.
3. Purchase: Here, you can browse and purchase ships. Prices are steep (starting around 18,000 denars for a basic light ship), making early-game access challenging in Sandbox mode. The DLC’s campaign story provides a faster entry point.
4. Regional Variety: Ships vary by culture (e.g., Western Galleys, Nordic Longships, Aserai Dhows), each with slightly different base stats and visual styles, encouraging faction-specific fleet strategies.

Section 2: Mariners – The Lifeblood of Naval Warfare

Your elite infantry and knights may be terrifying on land, but at sea, they are often out of their element. This is where Mariners become indispensable.

Identifying Mariners
Mariners are not a separate recruitment tree but a specialization within existing faction rosters. Look for the small wave icon beneath the troop type in the encyclopedia or party screen. Most factions have at least one upgrade path that leads to Mariner units.

Why Mariners Are Essential
The core advantage of Mariners is twofold:

1. No Skill Penalty at Sea: Non-Mariner troops suffer a significant reduction to their combat skills (Athletics, Weapon Proficiencies, etc.) during naval battles. Mariners fight at 100% effectiveness on the water.
2. Swimming Proficiency: Mariners wear lighter armor, allowing them to swim longer without drowning. This can be crucial if a ship is sunk or during boarding actions where combatants are knocked overboard.

Factional Breakdown of Mariners

• Battania & Sturgia: Excel in Mariner infantry, often equipped with throwing weapons for deadly close-quarters volleys before boarding.
• Aserai & Vlandia: Offer strong Mariner archers/crossbowmen, allowing for effective skirmishing and deck-clearing fire.
• Empire: Provides a balanced approach with accessible Mariner infantry paths.
• Khuzait: Notably lacks native Mariner troops, making them highly dependent on ship upgrades and tactics if they venture to sea.

Strategic Implication: To build a dominant navy, you must prioritize recruiting and upgrading Mariner-specific troops. Relying on a standard land army for naval combat will put you at a severe disadvantage.

Section 3: The Captain’s Skills – Mariner, Bowswain, and Shipmaster

Your character’s personal prowess on the waves is governed by three new skills, each tied to a pair of attributes and offering distinct branches of perks. Investing in these skills is as important as building your fleet and training your crew.

Skill Overview & Governing Attributes
Each naval skill draws its learning rate from two attributes, allowing for diverse character builds:

• Mariner (Cunning & Endurance): Focuses on personal and crew combat effectiveness during naval battles. This is the skill for the captain who leads from the front lines during boarding actions.
• Bowswain (Control & Social): Centers on ship logistics, economy, and troop management. This skill benefits the strategic admiral concerned with upkeep, upgrades, and the mechanical performance of their fleet.
• Shipmaster (Vigor & Intelligence): Governs campaign map navigation, scouting, and fleet operations. This is the skill for the master navigator and tactical commander of multiple vessels.

Deep Dive into Skill Perks & Builds

1. Mariner: The Boarding Captain
This skill tree turns you and your crew into terrors during ship-to-ship combat.

• Key Perks: Look for perks that increase weapon handling, accuracy (reducing penalty from ship roll), and devastating bonuses for specific weapons like axes and throwing javelins. The pinnacle perks allow for spectacular effects, such as javelins impaling through shields to damage the holder behind or cleaving through multiple enemies with two-handed weapons.
• Who Should Invest: Characters built for melee combat (high Vigor/Endurance) who want to personally decide boarding actions. It synergizes perfectly with a Cunning build for scouting and tactics.

2. Bowswain: The Fleet Manager
This skill is essential for maintaining a cost-effective and powerful fleet over a long campaign.

• Key Perks: Provides critical economic benefits like reduced ship upgrade costs, lower crew wages (especially for non-Mariner troops at sea), and increased chance to capture ships after battle. It also offers tactical perks for ship combat, like faster ballista reloading or bonus damage to enemy ship components.
• Strategic Choice: The tree often offers branching perks, forcing you to choose between, for example, cheaper troop upgrades versus cheaper troop recruitment. It allows you to tailor your naval economy to your playstyle—whether you prefer a small, elite crew or a sprawling, numerous one.

3. Shipmaster: The Navigator & Admiral
This skill impacts your strategic mobility and resilience on the campaign map.

• Key Perks: Enhances campaign map sailing speed, reduces penalties for large fleets, and provides crucial survival tools like fishing while sailing (a vital food source) and reduced attrition from storms. High-level perks can allow your shipboard ballistas to fire during port sieges or provide a morale bonus to all allied ships in battle as a “Flagship” effect.
• Who Should Invest: Essential for any player who spends significant time at sea. It pairs naturally with leader builds (high Intelligence for Steward/Medicine) and is crucial for admirals who command multiple companion-led ships.

Section 4: Naval Combat & Ship Control – Mastering Wind and Boarding

Understanding the interface and physics of ship control is the difference between a glorious victory and a humiliating dunk in the ocean.

The Interface: Wind is Everything
The most critical UI element is the wind indicator in the lower-right corner.

• The moving particles show wind direction.
• The colored bars on the ship’s icon represent wind coverage on each side (port/starboard). Taller, fuller bars mean you are catching more wind, translating to higher speed.
• Sailing with the wind (wind at your stern) provides the greatest speed. Sailing against the wind is possible but slow; you must often “tack” in a zig-zag pattern.

Basic Ship Commands

• Movement: Standard WASD controls the ship’s direction.
• Sails (Z Key): Raises/lowers sails. Lowered sails drastically reduce speed but increase maneuverability for tight turns.
• Oars (X Key): Cycles through oar settings (Half/Full/None). Oars provide speed independent of wind, crucial for maneuvering in battle or when wind is poor.
• Camera (C Key): Switches to a close, over-the-shoulder view perfect for aiming ramming attacks.
• Reverse: Essential for quick stopping or “power sliding” to turn your ship faster.

The Two Phases of Naval Combat

1. The Maneuver Phase: Use wind and oars to position your ship. The goal is to either:
   • Ram: Line up a broadside attack with your heavier ship to inflict massive hull damage. Heavier ships can often sink lighter ones in a single good ram.
   • Board: Pull alongside an enemy ship to initiate boarding.
2. The Boarding Phase: When ships are close, the enemy will throw boarding lines.
   • Cutting Lines (X Key Prompt): If you act quickly, you can press X to cut these lines and prevent the boarding, allowing you to disengage or ram.
   • If Boarded: Once boarding nets are down, the battle becomes a infantry fight on a confined, unstable deck. This is where your Mariners shine. Command your troops (F1-F3 keys) to hold key points or follow you as you try to break the enemy formation. Kicking heavily armored enemies overboard can be an instant kill.

Pro Tip: Use the Naval Custom Battle mode to practice ship handling and combat without campaign consequences. Mastering the turn radius of your ship class and learning to read the wind are skills that take practice but are incredibly rewarding.

In the next section, we will discuss advanced strategies, including fleet composition, trade and piracy, and how to integrate naval power into your overall campaign domination in Calradia.

Section 5: Advanced Naval Strategies – From Trade to Total Domination

Mastering the individual mechanics is only the beginning. True naval supremacy in Calradia comes from integrating your fleet into your overarching economic, military, and political goals. Here’s how to leverage the War Sails DLC for strategic advantage.

1. Fleet Composition & Tactical Roles
Don’t just buy the biggest ship. A balanced fleet performs specific functions:

• Scout/Interceptor (Light Ships): Fast, cheap vessels used to patrol coastlines, chase down enemy merchant parties, or screen for your main fleet. Equip with light troops for quick boarding actions against minor threats.
• Line Ship/Escort (Medium Ships): The core of your battle line. These should carry your primary force of Mariner infantry and archers. Their balance of speed, durability, and deck capacity makes them ideal for the majority of naval engagements and for escorting valuable trade convoys.
• Flagship/Siege Breaker (Heavy Ships): Your fleet’s anchor. Use this ship as your command vessel, loaded with elite troops. Its high Seaworthiness allows it to lead deep-sea expeditions, and its durability is key in protracted battles. Most importantly, its Shipmaster perks (like ballistas firing in sieges) make it a mobile siege weapon for blockading ports.

2. Economic Warfare: Trade & Piracy
The seas are now the ultimate trade routes and hunting grounds.

• Naval Trading: Heavy ships with large cargo capacity can become extremely profitable trade caravans, moving bulk goods like grain, salt, and ore between continents far more safely and directly than land caravans, provided you can defend them.
• Piracy: This is a viable and lucrative playstyle. Use fast ships to ambush trade fleets near choke points. The Bowswain skill’s perks for capturing ships and reducing wages are essential here. Sell captured cargo and ships for immense profit, but beware of dramatically reduced relations with victim factions and the “Outlaw at Sea” penalty that skilled Shipmasters can mitigate.
• Blockading: A fleet stationed outside an enemy port can enact a blockade, severely damaging the settlement’s prosperity and food supply over time. This softens the target for a land assault or can force a surrender on its own, especially when combined with the Shipmaster perk that allows ballista fire during the siege.

3. Campaign Integration & Grand Strategy
Your navy should not operate in a vacuum. It is a force multiplier for your land campaigns.

• Rapid Deployment: Use your fleet as a high-speed transport to move large armies across bodies of water instantly, bypassing enemy land forces and mountainous terrain. Launch surprise invasions on coastal castles and towns.
• Coastal Dominance: Control the seas around a warfront, and you control the flow of reinforcements and supplies. You can ferry your own troops between fronts while intercepting enemy troop ships, effectively cutting an enemy kingdom in half.
• Companion Fleets: Once your clan tier is high enough, you can assign companions as fleet captains. Equip them with their own ships and troops. A companion with high Shipmaster can operate an independent squadron, blockading enemies or hunting pirates while you focus on land conquest, splitting your strategic attention effectively.

4. Upgrading Your Fleet – A Strategic Investment
Ship upgrades at the port are not just incremental improvements; they define your ship’s role.

• Prioritize Based on Role:
  • For Warships: Focus on Hull Upgrades (Lead/Bronze Sheathing) for durability and ram damage, and Side Upgrades (Shields) to protect your crew in battle.
  • For Traders/Explorers: Prioritize Sail Upgrades (Linen/Cotton) for speed and wind coverage, and Hull Upgrades that boost Seaworthiness for safe ocean travel.
  • Oar Upgrades are universally valuable for battle maneuverability.
• Regional Specialization: Certain upgrades are only available in specific cultural towns (e.g., a Vlandian port may have superior crossbow emplacements, while an Aserai port offers the best lateen sails). Plan your upgrade routes accordingly.

Setting Your Course

The War Sails DLC doesn’t just add a mini-game; it adds a new dimension to the sandbox of Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord. Whether you become a merchant prince whose wealth flows through a network of protected trade galleys, a pirate king who rules through fear and plunder, or an emperor who uses a grand fleet to enable blitzkrieg campaigns across continents, the tools are now in your hands.

The key to success is synergy: your Mariner troops excel on the ships that your Bowswain skills make affordable to upgrade and maintain, all while your Shipmaster expertise allows you to outmaneuver and outlast opponents on the strategic map. Start with a clear vision for your maritime identity, invest in the corresponding skills and units, and Calradia’s oceans will become the highway to your ultimate victory.

Now, raise the anchors, set the sails, and command the wind. A new age of conquest awaits on the horizon.

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord – War Sails DLC (DOWNLOAD)

Guide to Ships & Mariners in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord – War Sails DLC (FAQ)