Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord – How to increase your party’s size

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord peaked at almost 180,000 players a few hours ago. Having 180,000 people definitely sounds like a party to us. While you obviously won’t have that many units running around on your screen, it’s still possible to increase your party’s size to have a formidable army roaming Calradia’s wilderness. Here’s our mini-guide to teach you how.

Note: This guide is intended for Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord‘s early access stage. It’s possible that some mechanics may change in due course, so please inform us if we need to update certain details. For more information, check out our Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord guides and features hub.

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord – Increasing your party’s size

In Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, the available slots in your party are filled up depending on the characters and units that you have. The player’s controlled character takes up one slot as do any of your companions; every unit that’s part of your army also takes up a slot. Let’s say you’ve got one companion and six imperial recruits, that’s already 8/23 slots filled up.

In order to increase this further, your best bet is to look at the Steward skill that’s governed by the Intelligence attribute. Here’s the gist:

• Having more points in the Steward skill increases the number if that character is assigned as the quartermaster.
• Your character and companions can be assigned as the quartermaster via the clan screen (L); you can see this in the image above.
• Higher morale due to food variety as the quartermaster levels up the Steward skill.
• Likewise, if you wish for your character to start with a high enough Steward skill for the quartermaster role, you could do that based on the backgrounds chosen during the character creation process in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord.

Let’s say you’re already done with all of the above and your character’s assigned as the quartermaster for now. Your next objective is to buy various types of food using the extra gold that you have.

As mentioned, food variety will help increase morale as a quartermaster. All you need to do is wait in settlements, or keep doing your other tasks, and you should see your Steward skill increase. Try not to have too many units with you, though, since you’ll take a hit when it comes to wages, food consumption, and, of course, morale. Only recruit a lot of troops once you’re happy with your Steward skill’s rank.

More skills and perks

But, it doesn’t end there. Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord has a number of skill perks that also contribute to boosting your army’s limit. Most of the details are discussed in our skills and perks guide, but here are the relevant ones:

• Control – Bows (150): Merry Men – +3 party size
• Control – Throwing (100): Skirmishers – +5 party size
• Endurance – Riding (75): Squires – +2 party size; party member role
• Endurance – Riding (175): Conroi – +4 party size; party member role
• Social – Trade (275): Mercenary Trader – +15 party size
• Intelligence – Steward (100): Bannerlord – +2 party size for each fief that you own
• Intelligence – Steward (150): Swords As Tribute – +10 party size for every vassal
• Intelligence – Steward (175): Man-At-Arms – +5 party size for each fief that you own

You should also take note of your clan rank via the clan menu (L). Getting more renown increases your clan rank which also gives you additional party slots. You’ll even get additional clan features such as companion-led armies. Much later in your Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord campaign, you could rule your own kingdom and gain the effects of the aforementioned Steward skill perks as well as additional boosts from policies.

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord is available now via Steam’s early access program. For more information, check out our guides and features hub.