War Sails Beta: Seaborne Village Raids Are Here

What's New

TaleWorlds has pushed a new beta update for War Sails that introduces one of the expansion's most anticipated features: seaborne village raids. Players and AI nobles can now launch amphibious assaults on coastal villages directly from the sea or rivers, with 16 brand new raid scenes built specifically for the occasion. Land raids on coastal villages will also make use of these new scenes going forward.

How Raids Work

To initiate a raid you'll need at least 15 healthy troops and shallow draft ships. When you arrive, the village militia will weigh up the odds — if they think they can take you, a full seaborne raid mission triggers. If not, looting begins straight away. During the mission your ships sail to shoreline landing points, troops disembark automatically, and the fight begins. Defenders will hold chokepoints and use elevated ground for ranged fire, while attackers should note that horse archers take a 50% power penalty at sea and reinforcements won't be coming. If the first assault fails, you can try again as long as you still have sufficient ships and troops on the campaign map.

Smoother Coastal Interactions

Beyond raids, interacting with coastal villages generally feels more fluid. You can now make port to trade, recruit, and resupply without fully disembarking, and set sail directly from a village if your fleet is already anchored there. Several villages have also been repositioned closer to the coastline on the campaign map to better support these new naval actions.

Other Fixes & Improvements

The update also buffs the Nord Berserkir troop — improved armour, a better helmet, and axes only (swords have been removed), with slightly increased damage to match. A number of crashes have been squashed too, including one when loading a War Sails save file and another when lifting a blockade during a siege. On the base game side, the character screen level progress bar has been restored and now shows current XP.

How to Access the Beta

To try it now on Steam: right-click Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, go to Properties → Game Versions & Betas, and select beta - Beta v1.4.1. TaleWorlds notes there may be a short delay between the base game and War Sails updating — launching before both are ready will cause a crash, so verify your game files if you run into trouble.