The first Mount and Blade game, Mount and Blade: Warband, was a pioneer in the field of historical warfare simulators, influencing games like Mordhau and Kingdom Come: Deliverance. The early access of Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord, recently released on March 30th, 2020, throws players into a pre-modern world where mercenaries and warlords fight over the carcass of a decaying empire. This action/strategy RPG purports to recreate medieval-style combat, but how close does it come to this ideal? The answer to this question lies not just in the weapons and armor on display in Mount and Blade II, but the real historical parallels between the factions of the game and the real-life cultures that rose from the ashes of the western Roman Empire.