I guess our opinions/tastes differ, because at 25$ I really wish I had not of purchased this at release. I've seen multiple people not be able to even connect to multiplayer servers, including friends and me. The server browser is incredibly wonky at times. Vanguards being 90% of the pick on servers due to obvious class benefits, certain objectives being slightly imbalanced/no autobalance (being fixed apparently today), objectives on maps being very hit or miss at times, etc. I understand that warband and Chivalry are SLIGHTLY different in that warband is more methodical and has a higher skillcap, but I'd say if you want to learn/play a new game for this price, get warband over this. Warband also has a single player, and much larger community/servers. I haven't tried WOTR but I've heard good things about that game, too. As for warband not being similar to this game.......I'm really not sure if you've played MP warband. It's pretty identical to this, and has horses too. I think deathmatch, tdm, and KOTH are the only new styles of gameplay that are exclusive to Chivalry, where warband has castle sieges with larger amounts of players on servers (up to 200).
Overall, I just really can't recommend this game to anyone (right now). I have a huge feeling that you will see this much cheaper in the following months, and by then it will be polished.