Mount and Blade 2 Bannerlord, Taleworlds’ popular sandbox medieval combat and tactics game, has received a surprise beta update ahead of the launch of its next DLC.
“War Sails”, which will add naval combat and sailing to the game as well as a massive expansion of the world map, was slated for release in June 2025 but has since been pushed back to “early Autumn.” The new 1.3.0 beta update will now test most of the other changes taking place with the new release.
Three years after its release, the strategy-based action role-player remains one of the best indie games, at least in spirit after recently reaching 130 employees.
Mount and Blade 2 Bannerlord War Sails New Features
While the new headline sailing feature and larger world map won’t be included, the updates included in the beta include additional diplomacy options such as alliances and trade agreements, random party events, a stealth and disguise system, and the ability to parley with enemy armies.
Diplomacy and AI have been longstanding criticisms of the title for the notoriously slow-paced developers, and fans have been reacting positively to see the additional updates focus on those two areas in particular.
New Bannerlord Beta
According to the patch Bannerloord notes, the beta was launched “aims “to stress-test the update at scale, gather performance data, and make sure everything is solid when v1.3 launches in full.”
To opt in, players will need to right click on the game in the Steam menu, click properties, go to the betas section, and change their game version to the 1.3.0 beta.
As the update is still a beta, bugs and performance issues are a distinct possibility. The patch notes state that users are also welcome to “stick to the Live branch and jump into v1.3 with the launch of War Sails. But if you’d like to be part of the journey, opt into the Beta branch via the Steam Betas system today and tell us what’s working – and what still needs work.”