Stat threshold recommendations for companions.

[Tanus79]

Does anyone have recommendations on when to assign companions to a certain combat role?

What I’d like to do is make some of my companions Heavy cavalry, Horse archers, and 1 or 2 of them infantry, however they are terrible at any role I give them. For example I wanted to make a companion a horse archer and looked at some of my blackwidows mercs. and saw their (if I remember correctly) Riding is 7, horse archery 6, power draw 5-7, and bow 200ish. I can send 4 of them against 20 looters and the kills rack up fast.  Both cases the horse archers are sent to skirmish if that matters.I tried putting 6 of my companions on horses against 25 looters and it was absolutely embarrassing how after 2 minutes they had not killed one looter yet. I figured Odval would have at least had a few kills with a Riding 4, horse archery 4, power draw 3, bow 156. I know those aren’t good stats but at least one kill would have been nice from one of my 6 companions. Same things goes when I put Matheld on a horse for cavalry with a riding 3, powerstrike 3, polearm and 1hand aroud 150; she gets killed everytime and never kills anyone.

So basically is there a threshold they should all reach before granted a role? For instance don’t use them as horse archer till riding, horse archery, are at x and cavalry should be riding and what ever at x. Right now they all have bows and 3 have crossbows and sit with the archers getting 1-2 kills a fight if I’m lucky. They all are at trainer 5 now so I want to focus more on their combat skills.

They are all level 14-17 and I’m 27 if that information is needed. Thanks.

 

[Michiko]

Personally I'd do it as soon as they can equip what they need to fill that role. If I want to make a heavy cavalry/infantry unit, I just bump STR up as quickly as possible. For the most part, all the tier 5+ armors don't really require too much STR, and some characters already start with a fairly high STR value (like Lezalit).

Even if my companions aren't technically "heavy cavalry" yet, I'd already stuff them in with the other heavy cavalry units. They just blend into the crowd anyway. But I try to make sure they don't have faster horses than the other cavalry units, so they don't get to the enemy line first and alone. I equip them with whatever's the best that they can get (or I can afford), with some congruency to their role (spear instead of lance if they can't equip a lance yet). It's better than them being useless in the back line, unless they're archers.

 

[Tanus79]

As always thanks Hana 

The suggestion about a slower horse than the rest is a good one and I didn't even think of that. That was probably the problem; her/them drawing all the attention first.

Gear wise my companions are decently geared. I don't just give them what ever I loot (of course I do if it's good) but it's surprising how much decent gear you can find in what I call the clearance rack (items about the 3rd to 4th row and lower) of the armor merchant. Not so much body armor but I've found some really good gloves and helmets for under 300; gloves with 8-10 armor and helmets up to 49 (listed in 50's but the quality brings it down). It takes a while to find the deals but it's worth looking if you're stopping at a city anyways.

 

[Michiko]

Yeah heheh. That "clearance row" you're talking about is also typically what I get my companions, unless I can loot or win something better in a tournament. It's just not worth 30K denars to get like +10 body armor if you buy it without cheating. Shopping for companion equipment takes up a lot of my time when I begin the game. It's an excuse for me to run my own trade caravan between towns too.