Thanks for quality replies! Much appreciated!
I'm early on but I absolutely love it. Harder, much more defensive, involves more strategy and you progress slower (which is actually a good thing). However, makes the game much more interesting if you're bored with the typical mounted gameplay.
From roleplay perspective I go for a viking type build around the use of axes - thrown, long war axe or pole axe. I fully agree that axes are not the best thrown weapons, however they are the only thrown weapons that can swing with a shield in melee mode making them a bit better if you don't take typical one hander (I sometimes go for 3x thrown axes + shield - had some absolutely epic moments using them both as range or melee weapons or just fighting with whatever I picked up).
I decided to go for the native with some armors and weapon addons with orders and deployment mod and the features included are absolutely great for a footman army (spear bracing, splitting units, formations). I also went for the option of switching off companion complains to have a bigger party of companions.
I've never done that before, but I guess it makes perfect sense here because a) I need to prepare for heavier losses than I'm used to so having stronger non-killable units will help balance out lack of proper calvary (personal thing, but I hate having too many losses, very often I reply fights if too many elite units drop dead...) and b) more companions equals to more 'training' skill stacking which in turn allows for quicker troop advancement. Feels a bit like cheating, but on the other hand fighting on foot is a much harder endeavour.
Also, from role-play perspective having so many companions is a blast - I want to give them all different armours and weapons to make them stand out from the crowd (you tend to fight much more arm in arm with your companions as a footman). I've divided them roughly into three divisions which correlate with my current troop set up (a small team of 40 for now):
- 2-handers + shield/throwing
They tend to be the frontline of my shieldwalls with the huscarls defending the back lines from missiles and killing off the approaching footman with their thrown weapons.
The added benefit of it is that they pepper the battlefield with throw weapons. Since I'm going for a throw build I very often refill my supplies of throwing weapons in-between kills which make for some absolutely epic moments. When the enemy is close enough they break the formation and charge with they 2-handers.
- polearms + shield/1-hander
For now they support the 2-handed team, but later on and when I go on fighting lords and their calvary they will be part of my rhodock sergeants division. For now they use glaives and such but latter on I want them to go for poleaxes (role play reasons

) Given that they will end up with a very long polearm I will also train them with shields and 1-handers so they can defend themselves when surrounded and when attacking a stronghold.
- archers + 2-handers
For now they are part of my rhodock sharpshooter division, but later on I want to put them on horses together with a few khergit horse archers. I don't want to have calvary in a normal sense, but I'll experiment with having a mobile group of 5-10 riders half-way between my and the enemy armies who will skirmish/harass the approaching calvary and disrupt their charge I played a lot as a khergit horse archer and I find that to be a very successful way of breaking up an enemy charge and messing up with enemy formations. I can always order them to come back if I want to shift the fight back to my infantry divisions.
Also, it's good to have some calvary to finish off the fleeing types and for support. I currently have a few mounted slavers that I use temporarily while my khergit plan is in the works.
In general - fully recommend that sort of game play! Will see where it takes me. Once again thanks for good advice.