INJ 1.1version: Balian of Ibelin news - In the name of Jerusalem mod for Mount & Blade: Warband

Greeting warrior of Jerusalem!

In the name of Jerusalem Mod is updating and fix bugs since the beginning of June. There were totally 8 patches has been published within two month. Most of mod won't update as frequent as this mod does, so we know some player may still recognize this mod in 1.0 version. So, what is the different between 1.0 and 1.1 aside from bug fix and small adjustment? Is there anything new? We are here to present you the major change in this mod.

Add Balian of Ibelin as playable character

If you watched 《Kingdom of Heaven》, you may know Balian (Orlando Bloom) is hero of this medieval film. He was blacksmith in film and been promoted as baron of Ibelin who lead crusaders to defend Jerusalem against Saladin's siege. The actual history background is not exactly the same as film, but it is true that Balain of Ibelin was the head of Jerusalem garrison against Saladin.

In the name of Jerusalem mod was inspired by the Kingdom of Heaven, even though this mod has no relation toward the film at all now. Therefore, we name 1.1 version as Balian to homage the film 《Kingdom of Heaven》

Add logistics system

Amateurs talk strategy. Professionals talk logistics. Throughout history, logistics is one of the most important element of war as well as in this mod. The vanilla M&B logistics system is still considered as rough work for us, as play need to purchase or requisite supplies by themselfs, it is very time consuming and took a lot of inventory spaces. Therefore, we made logistics system.

In order to organize logistics troop, player need to hire senior captain who can be found in city towns. And talk to senior captain in troop menu, give him 20 men, and assign his troop as logistics party. Since that, the troop lead by senior captain can lead a group of forces while constantly provide supply to player troop if they are nearby.

Once you have your logistics troop, you can march everywhere while put less focus on your supply, as logistics will provide all water and supplies purchased from nearby settlement. But be aware that you must stay close to logistics party in order to access supply all the time. And we recommend you to assign more than 20 units of troop as your logistics party, it would be the best if they are all cavalry as they can move much faster and have adequate force to protect them self.

Add mercenary system

We are not talking about the small group of mercenary scattered tavern, but a mercenary group with dozens of warriors. Mercenary group will spawn in every town, and fight for their employer if they are been hired. They can reinforce any battle, or send back to guard the settlement like a vassal, and you don't need to worry about supplies because they can take care of their self.

However, those mercenary group are expensive to hire, and if you hire more than one group of mercenary, their wages will be multiplied. So it would be the best to consider your wallet before you hire them. Also, their wage is paid in daily, so it wouldn't be worth anything to fire them at weekend, they are smart business men as well as they are selling their life to you.

Add sub-faction system

You won't be able to rebel or start your own kingdom due to realism, gameplay and bug issues in this mod. But we still give you an other option to play as a lord.

In this mod, you can raise your title if you own more land and have better relation with king. You start from baron, then count and duke. As a noble lord, you can assign your fiefs to companion NPC (who can be found in your village once you are a lord), they can manage your fiefs and leading an army in your command while ignoring the order from other lords or king.

Once you become a duke, you will be grant a significant autonomy to do whatever you want in your fiefs. You can assign more NPC as your lord, and the land you have conquered is only belong to you, as other lords won't be able to get those land from a duke. Which means, you are the rightful ruler of your land even though you are still a vassal belong to a king. The quote "My vassal's vassal is not my vassal" become a feature of this mod, as vassal have responsibility and obligation service toward a lord who give them contract.

Add religion system in settlement

Throughout the history of crusaders, you will see the hostility between religions and bloodshed of war. But on the same time, the holy land is also a place for multi-faith and multi-culture. In this mod, whether you are in Sultanates or European kingdoms, two major religion and their believers are always there, the only difference is the proportion of population. In current version, the local lords and religious building will effect the proportion of believer, which will be calculate in every 100 hours. The relation between lord and local settlement will gradually reduce if there are more pagan population, but pagan will pay more tax than true faith.

This system is based on historical setting, as in every history record, whether you are Christian, Muslim, people with different faith can still live together. In that time, pagan can still live in settlement if they paid their poll tax, and in some places, people with different faith do have certain autonomy to protect their right. The culture communication stimulate development of technology and increase the productivity in the holy land, that period of time is also called "Renaissance of the 12th century".

Conclusion

There are still many content and feature we need to add in future, the feature mentioned above are the important add on of 1.1 version. And most of them are still very simple and need more improvement. We will continue to add and improve gameplay features, whereas we need your feedback and suggestion to do so.

The last thing we would like to mention is that 1.1 version is not save game compatible, so you have to start a new game in order to enjoy full game experience.