Ok I am going to buck against all these negative reviews. This game is fun and takes elements from Mount and blade and mixes them with Sid Myers Pirates and Total War (ship combat). The element of controlling troops via the map is a big improvement, the story element, the economy, the ability to take the map without suffering degrading income, the greater player customization are allOk I am going to buck against all these negative reviews. This game is fun and takes elements from Mount and blade and mixes them with Sid Myers Pirates and Total War (ship combat). The element of controlling troops via the map is a big improvement, the story element, the economy, the ability to take the map without suffering degrading income, the greater player customization are all improvements over the much loved mount and blade warband, and best of all... battles don't end just because the player gets dropped. The negatives are... while the ships cannons while fired by the player the gunners target the nearest ship, which may not be the ship you want to target. Grape shot from the cannons have the same range as ball shot... you are able kill all the crew on a ship at long distance, but chain shot is the shortest range of the shot types. What I find myself doing is just using grape shot exclusively in all battles and capturing all the ships that I board. In terms of city capture those defending with wooden forts are a whole lot tougher to take than those protected by a stone fort.... on stone forts you tell your guys to hide behind a hill while you go in single handedly and take the fort by killing the defenders who refuse to shoot you as you stand next to the guys firing the cannons. The wooden forts cannons can kill you and about 40 of your guys in the first 3 seconds of a battle.... Cannons blast radius is HUGE and hard to escape when your put in firing range... and the cannons fire at a fixed location which means you cant avoid being killed. Attacking forts via the sea is spectacular and fun to watch... but you shriek in terror at the knowledge that your well maintained ships are getting massive repair bills. The battlefields are limited in number but come off as better crafted than say Viking M&B. Another thing I liked a lot was the amount of gear and variations of it... so many to pick from.… Expand