Most Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord campaigns follow the same script: start as a nobody, grind bandits, build a clan, swear fealty, then slowly climb into lord status.

Mercenaries are usually just a stepping stone on that path. So I asked the obvious question and then went and answered it the hard way: can you conquer Calradia using only hired blades, and never field a single regular troop?

Short answer: Yes, you can. But with caveats.

Bannerlord lets you build and fight with an army of only mercenaries and recruited outlaws, and you can absolutely take land with them. But the economy is not designed for it. So a mercenary only run turns into a brutal money management challenge that gets harder the more you win. It works, until it really, really doesn't.

First, Can You Even Play as a Mercenary?

Two different questions hide inside this one, and both answers are yes.

You can literally serve as a mercenary by signing a contract with a kingdom, fighting their wars for pay before you ever own land. And, separately, you can field an army made entirely of mercenary type troops rather than village recruits, which is the run I am talking about here. You hire mercenary soldiers from town taverns, pick up whole mercenary parties from minor clans, and press captured bandits into service. No peasants required.

The Rules: No Peasants, Only Professionals

To keep things honest, a few ground rules need to be applied:

• No recruiting from villages or towns, ever.
• Only mercenaries, wanderers, and recruited prisoners and bandits, who level into their own outlaw lines.
• No console commands or cheats for money or troops.
• If a mercenary company disbanded or left, they were gone for good.
• If I ran out of money, I had to fix it in game, not reload.

On paper, this sounds like a power fantasy. In reality, it is a constant balancing act between money, loyalty, and logistics.

Early Game: Rich Man, Poor Man, and Both

The first few hours felt like playing on hard mode with a credit card. Mercs are expensive, and even a small stack of good infantry will chew through your daily wage. So the early game becomes all about fast, high value fights.

Bandits turn into prey instead of a threat, since low tier looters and raiders melt instantly against mercs, which is great for your cash flow and terrible for your ego. And one bad loss is catastrophic. Lose a fight and you do not just lose troops, you lose access to specific mercenary types until you find them again.

Instead of slowly training peasants into elites, the loop becomes hire, fight, get paid, pay them, repeat. You are basically a warlord running a private mercenary company.

Mid Game: When the Money Faucet Starts to Drip

Once my clan tier increased and a couple of workshops and caravans were running, the merc only playthrough started to feel stable. On the surface, anyway. Here is what started cracking underneath:

Instead of being a lord with an army, you become an HR manager trying to keep a revolving door of high maintenance contractors happy.

Late Game: The Empire of Hired Swords

The real test came at the kingdom level: sieges, multi front wars, and actually trying to hold land. This is where the merc only dream starts to unravel.

• Sieges turn into wage hell. Long sieges mean long stretches of high daily wages with no guarantee of a payout. If an allied lord snipes the capture or the war ends suddenly, you have just burned money for nothing.
• Garrisons are even worse. Regular campaigns lean on cheap recruits to hold the walls, but garrisoned troops draw full wages, so here every defending body is a paid specialist draining your treasury even while idle.
• No national identity to fall back on. Normal factions get culture bonuses and troop identity, like Khuzait cavalry or Battanian archers, while your army is a patchwork of whatever is available. Strong on flexibility, weak on cohesion.

The funniest part? Politically, you are supposed to be a noble ruler. In practice, however, you are just a slightly better funded bandit boss who happens to own a few castles.

What Completely Broke

By the time I held a handful of fiefs and was pushing deep into enemy territory, the merc only run had exposed a few real cracks in Bannerlord's systems.

1. First, the economy and army balance simply is not built for maintaining a full mercenary army. The wage curve punishes you hard unless you fully optimize your economy and stay in constant war, so you are financially incentivized to never stop fighting. In theory that fits the mercenary fantasy. Mechanically, it's exhausting.
2. Second, there's no late game merc infrastructure. Nothing lets you formalize your bands into a professional standing army with better contracts, reduced wages, or long term loyalty. You are stuck in the same tavern and prisoner loop even as a king.
3. Third, and this is a biggie, there is no meaningful mercenary ruler identity. The game never acknowledges that you are running an empire built entirely on hired swords. Lords treat you like any other faction leader, when there is obvious room for unique events like betrayals, merc uprisings, or rival companies muscling in. You end up roleplaying something the game itself was not designed to recognize.

How to Try a Mercenary Only Run Yourself

If you want to attempt this, here is what actually keeps the run alive:

• Bank an economy first. Workshops, caravans, and smart trading are not optional here, they are life support. Get passive income running before your wages balloon.
• Level Roguery. High Roguery makes recruiting bandits and prisoners far cheaper, which is your only steady stream of bodies, and at 150 it lets you take them for free.
• Stay at war, but pick your fights. You need the loot and prisoners, but avoid long sieges that bleed wages with no payout.
• Keep garrisons tiny. Every idle defender is a full wage, so hold only what you can afford to pay for.

For the money side specifically, our full guide on how to make money fast in Bannerlord is basically required reading for a run like this.

So, Was It Worth It?

Absolutely. A mercenary only run turns Bannerlord into a different game. Every denar matters, even late game. Every casualty stings. You are constantly choosing between better troops now and being able to pay them later.

But it also shows how much of Bannerlord's endgame still leans on the same recruit, train, steamroll loop. Take that away and you expose systems with little support for players who wander outside the intended path.

If you are bored of standard campaigns, this pathway is a great way to make Calradia feel dangerous again. Just be ready to live in the tavern, watch your bank account like a hawk, and accept that your glorious mercenary empire is always one unpaid wage cycle away from collapse.

FAQ

Can you play as a mercenary in Bannerlord?

Yes. You can sign a mercenary contract with any kingdom and fight their wars for pay, well before you own any land of your own. Separately, you can also build an army made up entirely of mercenary troops and recruited outlaws.

Can you win the game with only mercenaries?

Yes, it is possible to take fiefs and push toward conquest with a mercenary only army, but the economy is not built for it. Wages climb faster than your income, so it becomes a constant money management challenge rather than a straightforward campaign.

Where do you recruit mercenary troops in Bannerlord?

Mercenary soldiers are hired in the taverns of major cities when available, and you can also hire whole mercenary parties from minor clans. Captured bandits and prisoners can be recruited into your party as well.

Do garrison troops cost wages in Bannerlord?

Yes. Garrisoned troops draw full wages, which is why holding fiefs with a mercenary army gets so expensive. Keep garrisons small unless your economy can comfortably cover them.

What is the hardest part of a mercenary only run?

The wages. Because you cannot fall back on cheap village recruits, every soldier and every garrison defender is a paid professional, so a single bad wage cycle or a stalled siege can push you toward bankruptcy.

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