The Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord War Sails quest, Hunt Down Emira al Fahda, starts right as we find her fleet at sea. The previous quest, Sail to the Gulf of Charas, leads us to the Corsair Hunting Grounds for a chance to use our new fancy ram.
If you’re looking for other quests in our War Sails walkthrough, be sure to check out the walkthrough hub.
Engage the Scattered Corsairs in Battle
The beginning of this quest shows us two different Corsairs to fight. Fortunately, despite being close, you can engage them separately. In my playthrough, I took out the slightly smaller fleet of 33 troops first. Afterward, I took out the second fleet and then sailed to the nearby town of Galend to recover the troops I lost. You can likely do this at any port town, where it will give you the “Gather Reinforcements” option.
This doesn’t cost anything and will only help you in your next battle if you don’t mind a short detour. Regardless, when starting your first battle, make sure to assign a leader to the Salt Mare ship. You can do this by dragging Gunnar to the silhouette image of a head below the Salt Mare image.
When hovering over him, you’ll see how he benefits your infantry and ranged units. You can hold Alt while hovering over him to see in-depth information. Once you’re ready, hit that green Ready button at the bottom and sail into battle.
In my playthrough, the wind was against me when targeting the smaller of the two Corsairs. If this is the case for you, I recommend keeping your sail up so it doesn’t slow you down. Despite only having your oars for speed, you can try using the ram against the lone enemy ship. In order to deal the most damage, you’ll have to hit them quickly and on its side.
Otherwise, you can go for an immediate boarding strategy with your friendly ship. Hitting them from both sides will make for an easy win. As long as you still have plenty of troops, you can then take on the next nearby Corsair fleet of 39. Or, as previously mentioned, you can visit a nearby town’s port to recover troops.
If you’re already in a battle and see the message that your “Ship is undercrewed!”, you’re not completely screwed. You can either focus your troops all into one boat or deal with them being a bit slower.
This battle worked out a little better than my previous one, with the wind not being completely against me. I had to zig-zag a little to keep the wind blowing my sail forward. If you’re not able to do this, don’t worry, you can still use your oars to travel the short distance onward.
As goes with most War Sails ship battles, you can follow the usual strategies here. I recommend using your ram again to take out some troops quickly. You likely won’t destroy their ship, but it’s a good way to get some early kills. Afterward, board them with your other ship and start slaying.
Unlike other War Sails quests, if you go down during the fight, you can spectate to another character to control them. It may take a moment before the option is available. However, once it is, you’ll see a prompt that says “E – Take Control of Character”.
Prepare to Fight Emira al Fahda
After defeating the second Corsair ship, you’ll see a much larger one appear with 131 troops to engage. Make sure you’re ready before taking on Emira al Fahda’s ship. Despite that large number looking quite intimidating, your ram will help lower those numbers. Here’s what you need to know before attacking Lady Fahda:
- This part of the quest has a hidden timer where you’ll fail if you take too long on the first step.
- When starting the battle, you’ll have to ram the main ship that has 69 troops on it. As long as you hit it at a decent speed from the side, it’ll crumble and potentially stop the hidden countdown. If you don’t get a good hit, you can try again until you take them out.
- After defeating the main ship, chase down the other three and defeat them. Don’t forget to have your other friendly ship engage as well.
Once all four ships are defeated, you’ll enter a conversation with Emira al Fahda. Despite destroying her fleet, she’s quite eager to threaten you. Lahar reveals his plans to return her to Quyaz, where her uncles will deal with her. But before doing so, he gives you a chance to question her for information about your sister.
Fahda reveals that Purig is now leading the Sea Hounds, acting as though he’s now their king. In the process, he ordered her to hunt for more captives to then sell to him. She also gave us a new lead about a group of Vlandian pirates hunting Omor merchants.
Before leaving to chase the next objective and War Sails quest, we have a decision to make. Here are the two choices regarding what to do with Fahda:
- Return her to her uncles alive, as per your original understanding.
- The lady offers a fair ransom. Let us accept.
In my playthrough, I chose the first choice and gained a relationship boost of 10 with 5 different notables. I imagine if you pick the ransom, you’ll likely get some money instead. And perhaps a negative relationship impact to those notables.
Regardless of which decision you make, this will complete the War Sails quest, Hunt Down Emira al Fahda. This sends us back to Ostican with a choice to teleport there immediately. You’ve likely seen this window before. Upon reaching Ostican, you can speak with Gunnar at the port to start the next quest, Speak to the Sailors in Omor.
Jeff is a journalist with over 10 years of experience writing, streaming, and making content about video games. With an associate degree in journalism, he’s a sucker for RPGs, survival games, roguelikes, and more.