The first in a brand new subseries for Games Thursday - Indie Games Worth Buying or IGWB for short - yes, I know I suck at creating acroymns 
IGWB will showcase those independently developed games which I have already bought or intend to buy in the near future 
It’s not going to be a weekly feature since I don’t have that much money to buy games on such a regular basis but I’ll try my best to feature games that I think are worth their price in terms of replayability.
The first game to kick off this series is Mount & Blade by Turkish indie developers Taleworlds Entertainment. If you’ve always wanted to wondered what it’s like being part in one of those cavalry charges in movies (albeit in a smaller scale), this is the game for you
As a leader of a freewheeling band of mercenaries, you are given free rein to decide which missions to participate and which kingdom(s) to side with among the five in the fictional realm of Calradia.
Calradia resembles Earth during the middle ages and thus each kingdom is loosely based on the actual powers during the medieval ages - e.g Nords will remind of the Norsemen with their distinctive helmets and axes and the steppe nomads of the Khergit Khanate look and dress like the Golden Horde. Although you’re free to hire mercenaries from any of the five kingdoms (each with their distinct strengths and weaknesses) for your party, you’ll probably hire those warriors that match your playing style.
A Nord Veteran with the Viking-style helm and armed with a axe.
The main draw of Mount & Blade is the real-time combat which kicks in when you encounter an enemy party e.g roving bandits or warriors of a rival kingdom. As the leader of your company, you’re always mounted (although you can always dismount and fight on foot). A lot of practice is required to fight effectively atop a horse, but nothing beats that exhilarating feeling of charging straight into the midst of a rowdy gang of bandits together with your mounted companions.
Melee combat is effected using the left mouse button to attack and right mouse button to block with a shield or parry with a melee weapon. Fighting isn’t a point-and-click affair ala Diablo-style but a fluid system of feints, strikes and parries which rewards players who can fight with finesse by properly timing your attacks and defences correctly to exploit your opponents’ mistakes. You might get away by hammering away at ill-disciplined and unarmoured opponents like looters and bandits but heavily armoured horsemen and foot infantry will quickly cut you down.
Aspiring archers and crossbowmen are not left out in Mount & Blade since there’s a rather realistic archery system incorporated in the combat engine (try out the archery range at 70 yards - you’ll see what I mean ).
The archery range at 70 yards (default view) and (zoomed view). The targets are hardly visible at that distance even when zoomed in.
Ranged weapons are realistically represented as with their historical counterparts in this game : crossbows are far more accurate and easier to use than bows at close range at the expense of a longer reloading time.
Now every mercenary leader knows it’s important to amass enough wealth to ensure that your men receive their weekly wages as well as a plentiful supply of food to keep them in high spirits since well-fed men march faster and fight harder. Money also buys you upgrades to your personal equipment and allows the addition of more raw recruits from the villages or experienced mercenaries from the taverns to bolster your warband.
By completing quests or from selling slaves and other spoils of war, you’ll slowly gather enough resources to outfit yourself and form a sizeable company of veterans (troops can be upgraded and equipped with better armour and weapons for free once they collect enough experience - the only cost is increased weekly wages for their improved fighting abilities). Quests can be issued by kings and lords and even village elders and may include typical delivery quests to assassination of fugitives to collection of taxes and even requests to liberate bandit-infested villages.
You can also join tournaments in the larger towns to raise more funds, but you’ll need at least basic proficiency in most weapons since the weapon assignments are random - finding yourself equipped as an archer and staring at a knight charging you with a couched lance is not very fun Last man standing type melee fights are also available at the arena and pay well for fighters who can defeat 20 or more opponents.
Some keys to get you started:
Third-Person View (in Towns, Combat)
- W,S,A,D - Move
- Tab - Return to World Map
- Left Click - Attack
- Right Click - Defend
- F - interact with NPCs
World Map
- Left Click - Move
- P - Party
- Q - Quests
- I - Inventory
- C - Character
The demo for Mount & Blade allows you to play until your character reaches level 6 or 30 game days have elapsed. The full game can be bought for 35 USD / 53.25 SGD (free upgrades for life! Yay!)
Try out the Mount & Blade demo (153 MB), buy the game or read a rather comprehensive unofficial manual for Mount & Blade.
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Edutainment Games (III) - Know Your Gladiator & Medieval Armour
Prints of Cavalry in Action from the US Army Center of Military History
Lessons from BBC History Channel Games
War and Game - Military History Blog
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Games Games Downloads IGWB Medieval Recommended
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