Best tier 1 unit for stuffing a garrison?

[Commodore_Axephante]

Lets say your strategy is to have so many men in the Garrison that the AI doesn't bother. Which type of unit do you choose, in order to best prepare for the unthinkable: someone bothering?

[Hazzardevil]

I'd pick Khergit, since they have a lot of cavalry options that can be taken later on for a mobile army.

[Ferodaktyl]

the cheapest, they are useless anyway and used only for the numbers. Don;t bother training them.

edit: they're all cheap, so get those closest to your castle; i visit all nearby villages and dump them in the garrison, plus whatever i get from freed prisoners

[Commodore_Axephante]

the cheapest, they are useless anyway and used only for the numbers. Don;t bother training them.

Right, I wouldn't train them, but are there any tier 1 units that might be considered less useless? Khergits all have bows, right?

[Ferodaktyl]

if you have the occasion to use them in battle this means you've already lost  so it doesn't really matter

[Commodore_Axephante]

hmm... I wonder if there is a tier 2 or 3 then, some unit with just enough oomph to be less than useless in a siege defense scene, while still being cheap. There's got to be a sweet spot somewhere on that binary.

[Leonard DeVir]

Swadian Peasent Archers and Nord Berserker? Both are tier 2 and cost 4gp, you have some basic archers, and the Berserkers have large wooden round shields, perfect for bottlenecking breached defenses.

[Muglos]

Send out the belligerents drunks at the tavern! 

[Commodore_Axephante]

If my garrison is comprised of hundreds of berserkers, I'm sure there will be plenty of belligerence at the tavern, yeah.

[Bankoleva]

Tier 1's and 2's are effectively useless. I would normally argue that the weakest archer en masse would be a force to reckon with but it's not just about the proficiency but also the weapon and damage type. 100 Tier 1 archers will see massive casualties against anything wearing armor, because the cutting damage and and low damage potential to the high armor threshold is well very unbalanced... this is of course natural and realistic.

Don't believe me.... Dawn medium or heavy armor and ride solo into a group of looters. I have done this accidentally a few times when riding fast for a quest without my army and the looters see only 5 guys to their 30 something. I die laughing the first few times when i literally stood in the middle getting "jumped" but my text screen just registered "0 damage". occasionally i'd see some actually damage but usually less than 10. Meanwhile i'm 1 hitting all of them. I walk out fo the battle with 40 something health and all 30 looters dead.

Take that and put it into your siege battle. Remembering that the AI always sends their top tiers (lords, tier 6 & 7) in the first 2 to 3 waves. This game and mod has a good quality over quantity aspect. Anything less than a tier 4 should really just be there because you haven't trained them up yet. You really don't want to rely on them.

[Wim]

Then it might be best to stuff the garrisson with the cheapest crossbowman you can find, probably the rhodok A3 right.
They can be a challenge for anything when they come in numbers

[Bankoleva]

Well that is a good point. Crossbows do piercing damage automatically so maybe their more useful in low tiers than archers with cutting damage. But low proficiency coupled with that reload time.....

Like i said i wouldn't rely on anything below a tier 4

[anoddhermit]

T1: Kerghit Tariachin because they have ranged weapons. Everything else is utterly useless probably. I guess Sarranid Millets have blunt weapons, might knock things down.
T2: Nord Berserkr because the have 30p throwing axes and decent shields. Hands down the best super low rank IMO. I'd go with these, easy to level them up just hanging onto them for a night or two with training skill.
T3: Rhodok Recluta Balestriere (42p crossbow), or Sarranid Cemaat (Shields + 40p throwing spear)
T4: Nord Bogsveigr (very fast 28p bow), and they're limited @ T4 so they're faster to level than most other T4 options I think.

[Commodore_Axephante]

T1: Kerghit Tariachin because they have ranged weapons. Everything else is utterly useless probably. I guess Sarranid Millets have blunt weapons, might knock things down.
T2: Nord Berserkr because the have 30p throwing axes and decent shields. Hands down the best super low rank IMO. I'd go with these, easy to level them up just hanging onto them for a night or two with training skill.
T3: Rhodok Recluta Balestriere (42p crossbow), or Sarranid Cemaat (Shields + 40p throwing spear)
T4: Nord Bogsveigr (very fast 28p bow), and they're limited @ T4 so they're faster to level than most other T4 options I think.

Fine work!