Patch NotesMount & Blade II: Bannerlord1.2.8

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord 1.2.8 Patch Notes (10th August 2026)

The War Sails Modding Kit is now live, giving modders full control over naval world maps, ship creation, and new settlement assets. Patch 1.4.8 also addresses shader corruption crashes that have plagued some players.

Nathan Lees6 min read
Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord naval expansion War Sails modding tools interface
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The War Sails Modding Kit is now available as a free download through Steam, marking the first time modders have had direct access to the tools that built the naval expansion. This is not a cosmetic addition: modders can now construct entirely new naval world maps, edit the existing War Sails map including wind and current flowmaps, design ships from scratch, and build new settlements using Nord architectural assets. The Kit also enables creation of Seaborne Village Raid scenes, essentially opening the entire naval framework to community expansion. Three new modding documentation pages ship alongside the Kit to explain World Map, Ship Creation, and Seaborne Village Raid systems.

For modders, this represents a significant shift in what Bannerlord's naval content can become. Previously, War Sails was a closed system. Players could engage with it, but the underlying architecture remained off-limits. Now a modder can theoretically create an entirely new naval faction with custom ships, settlements, and map regions, rather than reskinning existing assets. The Kit falls under the standard Bannerlord Modding Tools EULA, and mods can be uploaded to Steam Workshop via the usual process. Taleworlds also published a dedicated forum thread covering usage, creation, and distribution questions.

Patch 1.4.8 itself addresses several stability issues that affect both the base game and War Sails. A shader compilation fallback system now detects corrupted local shader caches and removes them without crashing. A fix for players who experienced crashes on launch or after mod changes. The patch also fixes a silent failure in Settlement Distance Cache computation on modded world maps; errors are now properly reported so modders know when something has gone wrong. For modders specifically, locally created shader caches now delete automatically after a module list change, preventing the cascading crashes that plagued some custom mod setups. The mod publish system now compiles terrain shaders during publication, reducing loading times for modded scenes.

Standard gameplay bugs receive attention too: horse rein visuals no longer glitch when mounted agents die, ragdoll jittering is resolved, and drag-and-drop UI elements now respect different resolutions and UI scales correctly. Multiplayer mission resets no longer strip all decals from the map. Only newly added blood decals are removed, preserving environmental detail. A new modding documentation page covers custom water materials for non-naval scenes, giving modders finer control over water appearance outside the naval expansion.

One practical note: if you download the base game update before War Sails finishes downloading, you will crash on launch. Verify your game files if this happens. The modding-focused changes here. Particularly the Settlement Distance Cache performance improvement of fifty percent and the shader compilation system. Suggest Taleworlds is preparing for a wave of community content. Whether that translates to the kind of sustained modding ecosystem that keeps Bannerlord alive in years to come depends entirely on what modders build with these tools.

Full Patch Notes

▲ Buff✓ Fix◆ Tweak

Greetings Warriors of Calradia,

The War Sails Modding Kit is now available! A big thank you to all the modders who tested the Kit during the Closed Beta. Your feedback and early creations directly shaped the Kit we're releasing today.

With this Kit, modders can:

  • Build their own naval world maps, and edit the War Sails map, including the wind/current flowmaps.
  • Create entirely new ships from the ground up, and edit existing ones.
  • Build upon the Nord armour sets to create new variants.
  • Use the new Nord architectural assets (walls, gates, houses, etc.) to design brand new settlements.
  • Create new Seaborne Village Raid scenes.

We are also releasing three new modding documentation pages to detail the new systems:

How to Access the Kit

You can download the Kit via Steam: Open Steam → go to Library → right-click “Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord” → Properties… → DLC → Install “Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord - War Sails Modding Kit”.

You can then open it via Steam: Open Steam → go to Library → launch “Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord - Modding Kit” → enable “War Sails” on the launcher’s “Mods” list → press “Play” → press “Editor” in the “Main Menu”.

Modding Kit Usage, Mod Creation & Distribution

The Modding Kit usage and mod creation fall under the Bannerlord Modding Tools - EULA. To learn more about the EULA and how to upload a mod to Steam Workshop, visit the War Sails Modding Kit & Mod Creation forum thread.

Thank you again to all the Closed Beta participants: Thyrell, Anate, Arcaddon, Awallacer, BlackRose, Byako, CaptainFRACAS, conleyc86, Cozur, Dedmond, Detals, Eogan, Fatrod, g-spurs, Ha_rang, Hart, HyperCharge, jabdimelborn, John_M, KAMBY, Le Profyteur, Lemmy1916, Litauen, NiceGuardian, Path, Shieldly, Sly, Snorri, toy boat, Vampy, Z3rca, Zodiac, zzensan.

Please note that there may be a delay between the download of the base game and the download of War Sails. If you launch the game prior to both of them being updated, you will crash. If you face this issue, please verify your game files.

War Sails v1.2.8

The following changes are specific to the War Sails expansion and are not part of the base game.

Changes

  • Fixed a crash that occurred if the deceased notable had a caravan at sea at the moment of death.
  • Fixed a crash that occurred during the War Sails storyline when trying to initiate a conversation with Gunnar while the owner of Ostican is hostile.

Bannerlord v1.4.8

The following changes are part of the base game and apply to the War Sails expansion as well.

Changes

  • Added detection checks and warnings which appear in case the player has corrupted game files.
  • Added a fallback system to shader compilation to handle cases of corrupted local shaders. The system should recognize a corrupted shader cache and remove it without causing a crash.

Fixes

  • Fixed a bug that caused horse rein visual bug when a mounted agent died.
  • Fixed a bug that caused jittering on ragdolls.
  • Fixed a bug that caused drag-and-drop to use incorrect position with different UI scales and resolutions.
  • Fixed a bug that caused decals being removed in Multiplayer mission reset. Only newly added blood decals will be removed.

Modding

  • Locally created shader cache is now deleted automatically after a module list change, to prevent shader cache-related crashes.
  • The mod publish system now compiles terrain shaders as well, reducing loading times for scenes in mods.
  • Added a system that lets modders override the water material on a per-scene basis for non-naval scenes.
  • Added a new modding documentation page to cover this system - Custom Water Materials for Non-Naval Scenes.
  • Significantly improved the Settlement Distance Cache computation performance, reducing the overall time needed to generate it by half.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Settlement Distance Cache computation to fail silently on modded world maps. Errors are now properly reported to the user.
  • Fixed a crash that occurred while saving a metamesh from modding tools.
  • Fixed a bug that caused the world map water to render as black in the editor.

    • Sources

    Tags:Patch NotesMount & Blade II: Bannerlord
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    Written by

    Nathan Lees

    Gaming journalist and founder of XP Gained. Covering patch notes, breaking news, and updates across 160+ games.

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