Unlike most games, Mount & Blade has a ton of information you need to know before you start playing. As I surround the last 8 fiefs of Rhodoks, the only remaining original faction, I thought I would share the strategy I used for configuring the companions. The idea is to turn the companions into an elite heavy cavalry. I found this strategy to be very effective. I found it on this forum although I tweaked it a little. A lot of this information wasn’t part of the original strategy. It’s my own opinions. My current game is the second time that I have played Warband and the first time that I have used this configuration for companions.
Most important skill groups in order of importance
1) Scout – Pathfinding might be the most important skill in the game. Being able to run away from enemies and catch up to enemies is crucial
2) Doctor – Wound treatment is the most important medical skill and one of the most important skills in the game because it affects everyone in your party after every battle
3) Engineer – The Engineer skill is crucial during the mid-game because it allows you to build siege items and prison towers
4) Looter – Training Looting is useful because it increases the amount of loot you get after a battle and when looting villages
You want 8 companions to learn as many of the skills in these groups as possible so you don’t have to.
Companions
This is just the important info. For more info, I suggest you read about companions in a strategy guide. Just Google for one. You want 8 companions that won’t argue.
Think of it as 2 groups of 5:
Jeremus, Deshavi, Klethi, Bunduk, Ymira
or
Artimenner, Borcha, Lezalit, Matheld, Rolf
and 2 groups of 3:
Alayen, Baheshtur, Firentis
or
Marnid, Nizar, Katrin
Choose 1 group of 5 and 1 group of 3 and you’ll be fine. Four of the companions you choose will be known as “skill monkeys” because they will start with Intelligence skills. Four will be called “fighters” because they will start with combat skills.
The best companions:
I think the best group of 5 is Jeremus, Deshavi, Klethi, Bunduk, Ymira.
I say this for two reasons
1) Better People Right from the Start
Deshavi is the best scout and Ymira will become the best doctor. That means this group of 5 has or will have the most well trained companions in the 2 most important skill groups. Also, Klethi is the best choice for Looter because she starts with the highest Agility level and her character level is only 2.
2) Lower Average Starting Character Level
The Jermus group has an average starting character level of 3.6, much lower than the Artimenner group’s 6.4.
The Artimenner group has the best engineer and 25 point higher average starting proficiencies than the Jeremus group. These advantages don’t compensate for its disadvantages.
For a group of 3, I went with Marnid, Nizar and Katrin. I thought Katrin’s training in Trade would be helpful. This is only my second time playing Warband and I think the Marnid group was a mistake. Katrin is a slow learner because of her high starting character level and after nearly completing the mid-game it’s clear that Trade is the least important skill. Katrin was always far behind the others along with Bunduk. Next time I will go with Alayen, Baheshtur and Firentis.
Although the skills the two groups of 3 have to offer is very different, the amount of training they’ve had is very similar. Also, the two groups have a nearly identical average starting character level but the Alayen group has 35 point higher average starting proficiencies. Alayen, Baheshtur and Firentis all start at least 2 levels lower than Katrin but have starting proficiencies at least 20 points higher than Katrin. Compared to the other companions, the Alayen group won’t be the fastest learners but they won’t be the slowest. They should be near the middle of the pack and much faster than Katrin.
So the companions I recommend are:
Jeremus, Deshavi, Klethi, Bunduk, Ymira
and
Alayen, Baheshtur and Firentis.
Think of them as having these titles:
Baheshtur - Engineer
Deshavi - Pathfinder (scout)
Alayen - Emissary
Klethi - Looter
Ymira - Wound Treater (doctor)
Jeremus – Surgeon
Bunduk - First Aid Medic
Firentis - Spotter
Alayen, Baheshtur and Firentis have no training in their assigned jobs so they could be moved around. The other 5 are all qualified in 1 or more ways for their assigned jobs. This is definitely the group I will go with next time I play.
Attributes and Combat Skills for Everyone Except the Looter (Klethi)
Attributes and levels to train to:
Strength: 12
Agility: 12
Intelligence: 30
Combat Skills and levels to train to:
Ironflesh: 4
Power Strike: 4
Weapon Master: 4
Riding: 4
I decided not to train Athletics. Athletics determines running speed. That’s all it does. When do your companions need to be able to run fast? It didn’t sound important to me. I’m near the end of the mid-game and I’ve never wished they could run faster. By not training Athletics you save 4 skill points that you can spend elsewhere.
Attributes and Combat Skills for the Looter
Attributes and levels to train to:
Strength: 12
Agility: 30
Intelligence: 12
Combat Skills and levels to train to:
Ironflesh: 4
Power Strike: 4
Weapon Master: 4
Riding: 4
Non-combat Skills for the Skill Monkeys
Each companion trains the Trainer skill and 2 other Intelligence skills to 10. Some companions train a 4th skill but sometimes to a level below 10. Each companion’s title comes from skill 1. Skills 1, 2 and 3 can be trained simultaneously. When you have finished training those skills, put whatever skill points are left into skill 4 if there is a skill 4. The columns line up well in the editing window but wouldn't line up when I posted it but I think you can read it.
Name Skill 1 Skill 2 Skill 3 Skill 4
Jeremus – Engineer Engineer Trainer Tactics
Deshavi – Pathfinder Pathfinding Trainer Spotting Tracking
Ymira – Wound Treater Wound Treatment Trainer First Aid Surgery
Klethi – Looter Looting (Agility) Trainer
Non-combat Skills for the Fighters
The fighters function as backups to the skill monkeys for Int Skills. Some skills don't need a backup while others have 1 or 2 backups. Each companion’s title comes from skill 2.
Name Skill 1 Skill 2 Skill 3 Skill 4
Alayen - Emissary Trainer Persuasion Tactics Pathfinding
Bunduk – First Aid Medic Trainer First Aid Surgery Wound Treatment
Baheshtur – Surgeon Trainer Surgery Wound Treatment First Aid
Firentis – Spotter Trainer Spotting Pathfinding Surgery
Training Strategy
The post I got this strategy from, recommended training only combat skills until they were level 4 and then training Int skills. If you do that, you get little benefit from some important skills like Pathfinding, Spotting and Wound Treatment for a long time. So, I decided to alternate the training between combat skills and Int skills until I had all the skills trained to the levels I wanted. This way you gradually get more and more benefit from each group of skills which I think is a better training strategy. The idea is for combat skills to be 4 and Int skills to be 10 before entering the mid-game. Once Int skills are 10, Strength for each companion is raised to 15 so they can upgrade their melee weapon.
Companions’ Gear Before Entering Mid-game
Armor:
- Plate body and boots
- Gauntlets
- Great Helmet
Horse: Heavy Charger
Melee weapon: Sledgehammer. Later, when Strength is raised to 15, this weapon will be replaced with the Heavy Great Hammer.
Ranged weapon: Siege Crossbow with 2 big bags of steel bolts
Shield - They do not get shields because when they have shields they spend too much time hiding behind them when they should be fighting.
Proficiencies Before Entering Mid-game
By the time Int skills were trained to 10, all my companions had proficiencies of 275+ for both 2-handed and crossbow.
