Troop Talk

I've heard so many things about some troops in this mod, specially about Rangers and Silvermist.
However I still came across troops that were pretty good which I haven't found mentioned anywhere really.

Barclay sappers: these crossbowmen are so awesome in sieges, specially defense. They have good armor so they tend to survive until the siege tower reaches the wall, and they aren't bad at close combat either. I really recommend them to everyone as they can be recruited in significant numbers and do a great job.

Fierdsvain berserkers:i fought quite a bit against these guys. In the field they can't really do much except dieing if not handled well. However in sieges they are very strong. Their two handers can deal massive damage and even though they have no armor, they have quite a lot of hitpoints.

Mystmountain honor guards: they are sort of fragile but can deal high damage with their twohanders. I took them for granted but theres a lot of them, at least for me.

What troops do you guys like/use or just want to make a comment about? I am really curious since after quite a few hours of playing, I still don't know much about the troops in this mod.

I am missing defensive infantry in my army, are empire legionnaires and pikemen something to go for?

I like the Barclay Sappers, too. Really good for sieges, both in defence and offence. The Barclay Heavy Footmen aren't bad either. The Ebony Gauntlet KO is quite similar in my opinion and is a good addition to Barclay troops in sieges.

I was pleasantly surprised with the performance of the Heretic Magni, they are really good cavalry. D'Shar Windriders are also quite nice. Hero Adventurers are also something to consider. Haven't seen any Doomguides yet, but I recall they were quite good four years ago and I think you can still upgrade them from Doomseekers (hard to get many of those, though).

For defensive infantry, you'd probably want something with a pike or halberd. Armoured Empire Pikemen and Sarleon Halberdiers come to mind. Can't say how well they perform, though. I haven't gotten around to using many legionaries yet, but from getting on the wrong side of them I'd say they are quite accomplished javelin throwers and have pretty strong shields. Makes them a pain to fight, but probably means they'd be an asset on your team. I guess you can use them both defensively and offensively.

I love the Barclay troops, oh and legionaries are nice too, javelins are fun, I gave my cko sergeants 2 bags of javelins and they're very deadly with them. My favourite unit is probably either the Barclay soldiers or the Kierguard, I really like the kierguards because of their cheap upkeep cost and their axes (well they have both swords and axes) they're decent infantry, and easy to recruit. No idea about defensive troops though, I guess a mix of Empire infantry would do quite well against most enemies.

Pendor Men At Arms (Henceforth referred to as PMAA): Keep these guys alive until they get to enemy lines and they become the poor man's Bearclaw Berserker and do the job surprisingly good for their price tag. And you know my opinion of Bearclaws already (In a nutshell: OH GOD GET THEM AWAY FROM MY HORSE).

Ravenstern Rangers in melee mode: Whoever said these guys are useless in melee in the wiki should really revise that opinion after you see them shatter a cav charge with a hail of arrow and Greatsword the survivors. In fact, I think the RR are about the only viable unit if you take on a "One unit only" challenge (i.e. make your army of only one commoner top-tier unit and conquer the world with it).

@ OP: I personally never play with defensive infantry. My entire military doctrine is "do the most damage possible over the shortest time possible". Companion cav to distract the archer and infantry. Shock infantry right behind them. Works against everything but Noldor.

bearclaw berzerkers...im starting to go all nope and horse away when i see them getting close to me too.

ive also found the pendor archers to be reliable enough for sieges and withering down enemies, didnt try with ravenstern archers due to their high cost, but should be trying soon enough.

personally i have liked the maiden heroines, but thats just my bias due to the lady knights from vanilla, their cost is too damn high, but there is something about their chuckle when you win a battle that makes me keep getting more, also, takes too damn long to get them to heroines...

in current game im trying with fierdsvain huscarls, i like their armors very much, and im a sucker for that big huscarl shield too, so far they've proven to be good enough for hwat i use them (that being bait for to let my cavalry get in from behind)

Cobra warriors. Insanely good equipment for ridiculously low price. Just never, ever do autocalc. Too bad Snake cult is dead in my game, Shadow Legion is just too powerful

Maiden Nobles:

They have fixed equipment which is a big plus and they are pretty good cavalry units. With plenty of grinding you can get them upgraded to Heroine Adventurers who are amazing.

Mercenary Highlanders:

Those guys are beasts, they can take down enemy cavalry and easily go toe to toe with other infantry.

Heretic Magnus:

They can act as tanky cavalry since they are well armored and rarely dehorsed due to their powerful netherworld chargers.

placenik said:

Cobra warriors. Insanely good equipment for ridiculously low price. Just never, ever do autocalc. Too bad Snake cult is dead in my game, Shadow Legion is just too powerful

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That's strange. The Snake Cult is very, very hard to destroy if Maltise has spawned. One look at the 1.4 k train of DOOM and every single Empire lord, Marius included, would go "Nope" and run the heck away. The Shadow Legion (which I think you mean their patrol?) are too weak for anything other than prisoners.

And yes the entire Snake Cult upgrade tree is, respectively, "Bargain bin javelineer", "Bargain bin Empire crossbowmen" and "Bargain bin super-heavy cavalry" respectively. You can't get better bang for the bucks.

shoshuro said:

Maiden Nobles:

They have fixed equipment which is a big plus and they are pretty good cavalry units. With plenty of grinding you can get them upgraded to Heroine Adventurers who are amazing.

Mercenary Highlanders:

Those guys are beasts, they can take down enemy cavalry and easily go toe to toe with other infantry.

Heretic Magnus:

They can act as tanky cavalry since they are well armored and rarely dehorsed due to their powerful netherworld chargers.

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Rogue Knights > Heretic Magni even though they seem superficially similar, because Noldor Composite Bow.

personally .. in terms of efficiency in sieges vs cost... always pendor. great top tier in sieges when you need to defend 200 vs 1000. i even preffer grey archers over silvermist because the pendor wears my banner
cobra, magni, rogue, adventurer for trash cavalry, before your custom order. highlander for/or barclay, always. i once defended sange safid against the twenty times more dshar scorpions (1800 vs 220, 20 kiltmen vs 400 scorpions+wind+adventurers!!) by retreating all my troops and placing 20 highlanders at the gates (near them) . with archers support (pendor) they defended succesfully against 1800 dshar troops ( i know it sounds amazing but i had 200 grey archers shooting)

so sprry for my being drunk, but since i like to chit chat, here it is:

best bandits: vanskerry jarls. you can get hundreds of them for kicking some KotD ass, which is worth it because if thou wants a KotD custom order, you are a bloody cheater, it is too easy! pick falcon for a challenge. so yeah, vanskery jarls, the legionaire cousin who keeps the new tv on the top of the old tv.

best tavern mercenary award goes to the drunken beligerrent. i always tell him to f*ck off because i hate to have to sell that cheap vanskerry sword of his aaaand he reminds me of myself. however, the award goes to higlanders, although barclays are a close call. but yeah, highlanders are damn crazies. simon says pick them.

best cavalry to f1f3 you should aim for unless you're the bloody 1% who owns a castle should of course be the asians cobra warriors which for a politically correct 22 gold/week have incredible equipment to kill you long time. Of course for the fashion adepts you should check out the rogue knights collection this summer with incredible accesories and jewelry. Also the adventurers amd the mighty hero adventurers are the new pink.

best cavalry to miss universe this year goes to noble maiden, although some doubt the title since in the history of miss universe, the winner was always from earth. but yeah, you wanna have more ladies than dr. dre hits the fairies? well, it is a hard man's road, son. it is the wild west. awesome cavalry when upgraded, versatile, well armoured, well skilled. the only problem is more people saw santa claus than those who saw a heroine adventurer. reeeeeaaaaallly hard to upgrade.

best ravenstern creature: the mighty ravenstern ranger, no doubt, although you know their reputation with sheep.

best sarleon moustache is hard to tell between open field longbowman and siege halberdiers so i'm gonna go ahead and rock paper scissors to the archers because you can order them and in two hours they're steaming.

the empire is a hard one because the crosbowmen is really hard to upgrade but worth it. the legionaire (and his bearded cousin the gladiator) are easy to upgrade and look scary but they're actually a bunch of pussies waiting to be cut like sheep (i told you already about the ravenstern) sooo.. yeah. i personally skip recruiting from the empire.

d'shar well here's good fun, you wanna really play this game.. go dshar. weak horses, good fighters but hard tactics. you can aim for any top tier, they are all great.

the fiersvain? i cannot advise you young padawan since i never recruit from them, the green is my traditional late enemy and i keep it that way.  but i think the huskarl will do, they have that russian vodka flavour about them.

oh yeah, one more thing. when i'll open a restaurant you won't be allowed inside with pets or singalian spearmen.

Vanskerry Jarl for best bandit: Rogue Knights want a word with them, because Netherworld Charger + Runed Bastard + Noldor Composite Bow.

Best tavern merc: Anything with a horse that doesn't die in one hit and a lance is "good" enough until you grow out of them. Which means either Adventurer, Jatu Merc Rider or Melitine Merc Lancer. Highlander and Barclays are okay, but they aren't the tide-turning force you need. (Highlanders never seem to do better than PMAA in my personal experience for some reason).

Best charge-type cavalry: If you can secure a supply of Snake Cult peeps (Fighting the Empire and/or Noldor), then yeah, can't go too wrong with Cobra Warriors. If not, you can't go wrong with Rogue Knights.

"Miss Universe"? Wherefore art thou Doomguides?

Ravenstern *horsemen* make decent lancers for their cost, if we're talking about cost-effectiveness. In terms of lethality the RR are so versatile (They are basically Highlanders with less armor... and a bow. That KILLS) you can afford to roll around with nothing BUT rangers and still beat half of the unique spawns to a draw (Exceptions: Heretic Army, Dread Legion, and the Noldor. Then again nothing seem to work well against them short of an autoresolve dogpile anyway. That army may also have a problem with the Barclay and Vanskerry, but they will kill one for every one you lose at worst)

Sarleon Armored Longbow are bargain bin rangers. Good to fill in the archery role, but you can't make an army out of them and hope to work. Halberdiers are... well, halberds actually aren't as good in sieges as they seem, as I've found out the hard way with my 110 Shadow Legion Failrinae (Then again, they were fighing Huscarls and Valkyries who are VERY face-hug-happy).

D'Shar Scorpion Assassins. Enjoy your headdagger from fifty yards away. That is, if you can actually mass them (You can't.)

Now, the Empire troops.

"Stop right there criminal scum. Nobody disses the Gladiators on my watch!"

They are shock infantry that are slightly more versatile (As in armor and throwing sticks) than Fierdsvain berserks and should be used accordingly. Toss them in if and ONLY if all the enemy archers are preoccupied with something else. Like you and your companion. Then they can win battles for you more easily than any other kind of infantry. Fail that, and, well, they die just as easily as 3rd-4th tier throwaways. For the same logic, I somehow entertain the idea of a veritable army of berserkers wrecking havoc after you've offerred your companions (and maybe yourself) to the enemy archer line as bait.

Somehow in this new version the Legionnaires have not been redeeming themselves in my game. Perhaps not having guaranteed throwing weapons any more has something to do with it?

How did you get the shadow legion and snake cult to start fighting each other? They are always neutral to one another in my games and it annoys me to no end.

oldark said:

How did you get the shadow legion and snake cult to start fighting each other? They are always neutral to one another in my games and it annoys me to no end.

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same here

Maybe one or both of them once happened to join a battle already taking place with both ending up on opposite sides, and then as sworn enemies after the battle.

+1 for Ravenstern/Mercenary Highlanders
+1 for Barclay Sappers

You can only recruit them as prisoners and only from minor faction-specific spawns, but the Melitine Heavy Horse Archer is probably one of my favourite looking troops in the entire game. I was able to rescue a group of 4 by chance from fighting a lord and just fell in love with them. I don't think they stand out too much power-wise, but they seem to handle themselves rather decently on the field

I like D'shar archers, anything Dervish+. But, also the peasent women tree, Female Noble, and Heroines. Strong cavalry and decent archers.

No mention of the Ravenstern MOUNTED Rangers?  These are the most versatile troops in the game that are easy to get.  Calvary has so many advantages both on the field and off the field with faster map movement.  These guys are also good in sieges as mentioned before, almost the same stats as the Ranger.  I love them because they save me the trouble of "switching out" troops or if I'm going into a situation where I don't know if I'll be fighting a siege or field battle.  A lot of times you just don't have enough time to keep on going back to your town/castle to get the right troops, Mounted Rangers are good in any situation, anytime. 

Pendor Armored Bowmen are the best archers in terms of cost efficiency.

I'll take Vanskerry Jarls over Highlanders.  Jarls have shields and also throw axes that are deadly. 

Does anyone else feel that the Red Brotherhood and Singalian troops kinda suck?  Singal spearman spawn with shields only half the time and those aren't even very good.  The horsemen aren't as fast as other light cavalry, and their equipment isn't the best.  Only the temptresses are good, and they don't spawn in big numbers.  And only the brotherhood guildsmen are of any worth as light cavalry, and even then are way too expensive for their worth, let alone too rare to help their parties much. 

Also, bandits are so weak compared to all the other rogue troop types out there.  The troublesome bandits quest is now the quickest and possibly the easiest guildmaster quest in my opinion.

omeganaut said:

The troublesome bandits quest is now the quickest and possibly the easiest guildmaster quest in my opinion.

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Wait until he asks you to deal with an Heretic Army.
True story 

But that's a different quest.  Troublesome bandits spawns a bandit group outside the city.  The quest you are refering to (which I don't have an official name for) has you chase after a group that attacked villagers of that town or a caravan going to that town.  Recently Ravenstern put a bounty on Valdis himself, which I was not about to take on day 10.

Also, on topic, anyone else feel that Ravenstern simply has the best commoner tree?  The archers are the best in Pendor, and the melee track trains quick and can utilize its numbers well.  Plus mounted units on either branch of the tree help it own in the field if used correctly, and can hold a wall well thanks to their archer units.

Ravenstern has a balanced tree. I haven't used their mounted troops, but I have always used their archers. They also really help when a mounted unit somehow gets to my archer line, they take out their two handers and dispatch it in seconds, along with the horse. I annihilated the Mattenheim by just shooting at their big mass of two-handers while I was riding around them in a circle. They aren't that expensive either.

I have made another observation now that I was at war with the Sarleons, their halberdiers are strong. Mainly cos of how many they are and how far they can reach, they often manage to stop enemy horses with their halberds and then overwhelm the rider with their numbers. Are Empire Armoured pikemen that good as well? I am currently using those instead of Sarleon troops but I have never fought against them.