Skipping the introduction parts and the parts that I feel weren't interesting.
Oyungezer: For us, it's not just about the game being good but also feeling proud of it. I will be playing a Turkish game for the first time on E3. A few other games were here before, you were allowing playtime last year as well but I never had the chance. I never played Bannerlord before, I mean I did the last time I visited you, but I was just taken out on a stroll through the villages (in game) so I never got to see the combat parts. There are 3 demos, which one would you recommend?
Armağan: The demos have combat but none of them put as us the battle commander. In the first one, you command the cavalry, the second one is for commanding the horse archers. The third one is for experts of the game, a bit more difficult version of the demo.
Oyungezer: Let's not get into the difficult part, don't want to be embarrassed. (laughs)
Armağan: Then let's the do the horse archer one.
Oyungezer: Desert map.
Armağan: Yeah, this is the desert map. Right now you need to command your soldiers, the commander can give directives occasionally. The easiest command is to use F1 - F3 to have them follow you.
Oyungezer: Follow me! Let's see...they're following me. I can see a list of my soldiers. 61 swordsman, 37 archers, 35 cavalry, 71 horse archers. Oh, we have a lot of soldiers.
Armağan: Yeah, you're only commanding the 71 horse archers, the rest are with the battle commander.
Oyungezer: Okay, so we'll harass the enemy. Are those the enemy?
Armağan: Yeah, those red ones. Since you're a horse archer, you can only fire to your left. Can't draw the bow to your right. So you need to move counter-clockwise to the enemy.
Oyungezer: So we need to flank from the right?
Armağan: Yeah, yeah, flank from the right.
Skipping a bit, nothing much of substance here.
3:35
A: Our main host has met the enemy and are engaging, you should probably help them.
O: Should I just randomly shoot there? Would I hurt our own guys?
A: Yeah, if you fire randomly, you can hurt your teammates. Your soldiers wouldn't but you could.
A: The best tactic for cavalry is to never stop moving, don't get bunched up.
4:40
O:The effects look very nice. It looks like the dust is rising from horse movements and the wind.
A: Yeah, the desert ambiance looks good, doesn't it?
5:00
O: So which factions are these?
A: We are Khuzaits and the enemies are Aserai.
O: So we're a bit like Mongols and the Aserai are kinda Arabic?
A: Yeah, Khuzaits are Turk-Mongol themed, yeah.
O: I mean, I'm not playing too well here but the game doesn't feel strange to me, it's alike Warband and I got used to it quickly. I played Warband for a couple of hundred hours. There seems to be more movement, more animations. Are we winning, by the way?
A: Actually, you're losing badly.
O: (laughs) Are we? Well, the cavalry wasn't moving. Our commander must be bad then.
A: (laughs)
O: Let me see. Oh, pretty much everyone has died. We've got about 15 men left.
A: Well, your 15 men could be enough for the rest of the enemies.
O: Yeah, they got a bit separated. Our commander gave the order to fall back but no. My men won't run away, right? As long as I'm here?
A: Yeah, you are their commander. Your men won't run away unless you give the order.
O: Alright, I'll kill the enemy first and go after our commander later. (both laugh) Is that not the tradition?
A: Just as you were saying that...
O: Yeah, just as I was saying that, didn't turn out that way. Not only they put me down but also stepped on me.
O: That was good for a first try. Do I quit now?
A: Return to the game, press TAB and then "Fall back", because the battle is still going on. You could watch the fight if you want, your soldiers can win after you fall.
O: The archery was very good. Shall we try Vlandia now?
7:50
O: I'm commanding the cavalry now. This time I have 37 cavalry, but the commander has 88 swordsman, 66 archers, and another 29 cavalry under him.
O: There are lots of formations and commands here. I suppose they're controlled by the other F buttons.
A: Yes, you could tell them to face a certain way, to get off their horses, allow them to fire at will, different commands like that.
O: Compared to Warband, there are lots of orders to give.
A: Yeah, compared to Warband, the formations are completely new. It is much easier to give commands and lead the soldiers to different positions. You can hold the left mouse button and line them up
O: Alright, we're given a command now, being told to flank from the left.
A: Hmm, you're being told to engage the horse archers. There must be some horse archers around here. Look, they're right there.
O: Oh, I missed. Thankfully my men are better than me.
O: This map looks like a steppe map. What other types are there?
A: In the campaign, the type of land you are on dictates the map type. It could be snowy, when it is winter, the snow is automatically there. If it is raining on the campaign map, the battle map has rain as well.
12:00
O: Is there a mini-map?
A: No, we didn't put one on purpose. It could be done but we didn't want to disrupt that feeling of being an ordinary man on the battlefield. Modders will certainly add minimaps but it doesn't look like we will.
O: Are those our guys?
A: Yeah, looks like the commander pulled them back, they're reorganizing and will attack again.
O: Come on, commander.
O: Yeah, the order to attack has come in.
A: It looks like your infantry lost the initial fight and your archers tried to pull back to the hill. Now the enemy's main force is moving on your archers.
O: By the way, we got a skill point. I suppose we are called "Eren"? The character name seems to be that.
A: Yes.
O: Do the horses ever get tired?
A: No, they don't run out of stamina. They can get hurt though.
O: But it does feel like you increased the amount of health points for the purposed of this demo.
A: Yeah, since people can be lacking in experience, we did that.
- Battle ends with the player dying -
O: Well, it looks like we were going to win. So we can fast-forward at this point, to see the result.
O: It does the fast-forwarding quite fast. Yes, we won. Anyways, it is very enjoyable. Has been years since I played Warband so I wasn't very good but mechanically, it's not too different. It feels like a continuation of Warband. Hoping to see more game modes at Gamescom.
O: No release date yet?
A: No, since we don't know the release date either, we can't say anything about that.
