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What advantage does it give you to do it in one day vs two? How many times do you need to train an entire army from scratch in one day?

Lord Brutus 说:

NeverUseCavalry 说:

Yep, balanced elite scimitar is my 1h of choice as well, unless I'm going with a military hammer for prisoners.

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Meh, you want prisoners?  Rescue manhunters from bandits, recruit them into your army.  They upgrade eventually to slaver chiefs and the entire troop tree carries blunt weapons.  Instant prisoners.

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I don't use cavalry.

Yep, balanced elite scimitar is my 1h of choice as well, unless I'm going with a military hammer for prisoners.

I don't really use any of these weapons.  The Morningstar is fantastic as a 2h weapon on foot (the only situation in which it has no penalty).  The short reach for a 2her can be a blessing in a lot of situations, like sieges or just close scrums in the field.  And of course guard crush and piercing damage.

As a 1h weapon, though, I think the Military Pick is clearly better on foot companions.  I don't see what argument could be made otherwise.  Now, the player is a different story because the player is actually capable of utilizing the versatility.  If you don't have the slots for a dedicated 1h and a dedicated 2h, the Morningstar is a good all purpose weapon.  A great one in fact.

The one place you could make a good argument for the Morningstar as a 1h weapon is on horseback.  The speed bonus will increase the damage and the guard crush effectiveness.  Weapon speed doesn't mean much on horseback, but reach does. 

So to sum up, I would say:

Human, foot, dedicated 1h: Pick
Companion, foot, dedicated 1h: Pick

Human, foot, true 2h/1h usage: Morningstar
Companion, foot, true 2h/1h usage: N/A (can't do it)

Human, cav, dedicated 1h: Morningstar
Companion, cav, dedicated 1h: Morningstar

And bonus, even though not relevant to your question:
Either, foot, dedicated 2h: Morningstar could be the best dedicated 2h weapon in the game in certain situations, but will be outperformed by the big cutting 2hers (Great Bardiche) in most situations with some power strike.

You make a pretty compelling case, but from an efficiency standpoint it's just not something I would do.  I personally don't see a need to train from zero to top tier in one day vs two.  You've also pointed out the inefficiency yourself.  You're raising int for only one skill, which is causing a lot of wasted skill points.  A guy with 30 str, 10 power strike, 10 iron flesh, and 10 power draw is quite a bit more powerful than 15/5/5/5.  I'll take that and "only" train my entire army to max in 2 days.

But hey, if your plan is working for you, then more power to you.

Making them all 30 int is a waste of the resource.  10 trainer on every companion is way overkill.  I have 10 trainer on my two int heroes and on myself.  My combat companions each have 3 trainer.  My entire army stays top tier all the time.  Having every companion get 30 int just for trainer deprives you of a lot of combat power while the additional training is wasted.

I understand the theory that some people have expressed when it comes to party skills and companions.  It goes like this: you get most of your combat power from regular troops, since you can have 100+ troops and only 8 companions.  On the other hand, regular troops can't get party skills.  Therefore, the real use of companions is for party skills.  Yes, entirely true... up to the point that you've attained all useful party skills.  If you're going int yourself, that only takes one to two more int heroes.  The only one that stacks is trainer, but even with that you reach a point where enough is enough.  At the same time, people that subscribe to this theory underestimate just how powerful a companion can get.  A single companion that is leveled purely for combat and geared out properly can eventually be as powerful as several top tier troops while never dying and always improving both in skill and equipment.

To answer your question about horse archer companions, though: yes, they will be worse as horse archers than as melee cavalry.  They will get less kills as they waste time riding around firing arrows which will virtually never hit anything, and even when they do hit something it will do significantly less damage than a melee strike.

They don't dominate field battles at all.  In theory they should, but in reality they are nearly as useless in field battles as they are in sieges, for the reasons I stated above.  Just take any faction's top infantry unit, supported by that faction's top ranged unit.  Everyone hold position.  Infantry take ten steps forward x3.  Infantry move closer together x3 or 5 or whatever.  Khergits will charge straight into your infantry.  The moment before they arrive, everyone charge.  Game over.  Khergits will be slaughtered with their poorly armored troops atop their mostly unarmored horses.  You as the player can either be on foot with a big two hander to join in on the fun, or you can be on horseback and pick off stragglers that escape the scrum.  It really doesn't matter.  As long as you have levelled up troops and you're only outnumbered 2 or 3 to 1 rather than 10 to 1, you will win with minimal casualties.  I play on max difficulty settings.

I don't know because my favorite troops are from the wrong era.  But if I can just ignore that problem, then it would be either:

1. Based on Roman legions.  Main troop is heavy infantry with short sword and javelins.
2. Based on Greek phalanx.  Main troop is heavy infantry with spear and shield.  Of course the game would have to be recoded so that spear and shield actually worked.
3. Based on the later Eastern Roman Empire (referred to by many as the Byzantines).  Main troop is heavy cavalry with lance and bow.  I guess this third one is actually in the right era.

I've made companions to be these troops just for fun.

Yeah, it's crazy how bad throwing is.  It's okay if you're keeping her infantry AND you have no cavalry such that you let every enemy just march to you.  That way she uses the throwing weapons while she's just standing there waiting for them to come.  But if you're fighting in any kind of fluid way, she just wanders around.  The thing that is strange is that I never really see Huscarls or other regular troops doing that even though they also have throwing weapons.

She would definitely be better with a crossbow, but I just have a thing about wasting those 3 points in throw power.  Would like to make it work... somehow.

Thanks.

I agree 100%.  It's all about what you enjoy playing.  The factions are pretty well balanced.  And even if there are slight differences in power, the advantages that a human inherently enjoys will more than make up for it.  As I said, in my opinion the only possible exception to this would be the Khergits.  I think it may be a bit more difficult to beat the game with them.  Then again, I have to be honest and say I have never actually tried.  I suppose if you built up a field army of 100% Lancers and a siege army of 100% KVH, you could get it done. 

Yeah, it would definitely be cool.  Another related idea I had is that it would be cool if there were no set companions but you could have any lord as a companion.  You would get companions from the pool of lords that don't currently have a faction, or you could even recruit a lord away from his faction.

There are certain things I never do in the game because they are too buggy.  One of them is the rebel quest and the other is loaning out companions.  Actually, in the second instance it just isn't worth losing my companion for a week for a minimal reward.  I'd rather be leveling my companion during that time.

Here is how I would play each faction in certain matchups, which may shed a little more light on my rankings.

1. Swadia. 

Against Rhodoks.  This is potentially your toughest battle.  The Rhodok AI (at least with Diplomacy installed) will usually refuse to charge, unlike other factions.  The cheese to use here is to keep your troops back and repeatedly circle their formation by yourself, picking off troops at the edges.  Works with a polearm.  Probably works a lot better with a bow, but I don't do horse archery personally.  You just keep doing this until they finally charge.  Then you grab your cavalry and circle around them so that they spread out.  Clumped Rhodok Sergeants equals death, even to Swadian Knights.  Spread them out, position cavalry near Sharpshooters, never Sergeants, and charge.  If you choose to not use cheese to make them charge, you will suffer casualties.  However, as long as you have enough "I win" units called Swadian Knights, you should still be able to beat Rhodok armies that outnumber your own.

Against Sarranids.  As I said in the rankings, these guys are about your equals.  You'll win because you're human controlled and you likely built more heavy cavalry than they did.  It's really that simple.

Against Vaegirs and Khergits.  These two literally have nothing on you.  Their cavalry is worse and their armor is light.  Just charge and win.

Against Nords.  Just be smart and circle to spread.  They might stay in formation like the Rhodoks.  Just use the same tactics.  If the army outnumbers yours and they have enough Huscarls, you will take casualties.

2. Sarranids.

These guys are so similar to Swadia in how they play that the matchups are pretty much all the same.

3. Vaegirs.

These guys are a little more interesting to play than the Swadians or Sarranids because their cavalry isn't as good but they have great archers.  This calls for more of a combined arms strategy.  You want to give your archers the chance to inflict casualties before the melee rather than getting to a cavalry charge as quickly as possible as with the other two.  If the enemy wants to approach you slowly, then that is great.  Just rain arrows the whole time they approach.  When they finally charge, crash into their flank with your cavalry.  How you play this faction depends a lot on what units you decide to build, though.  If you go the expensive route and just build knights, you will pretty much play like Swadia or Sarranid.  But then that would beg the question why did you pick Vaegir.

Against Nords.  These are your biggest enemies in terms of map position and AI tendency, and they are a pretty difficult matchup for you.  They have huge shields to negate your archers and their heavy weaponry is a serious threat to your lighter cavalry.  You have to get them in open terrain and spread them out.  You need a cavalry heavy army for this matchup.  Your archers won't be worth much.  If all knights is too expensive, guards can do okay.  Just make sure you focus on suppressing their archers with your cavalry.

4. Rhodoks. 

Make your army about 1/3 Sergeants and 2/3 Sharpshooters.  Make even your companions foot soldiers.  There's not much use in having 8 isolated horsemen that don't fit into the tactical concept.  You can make super archers with bow, arrow, arrow, great long bardiche.  Better ranged units than Sharpshooters and better cav killers than Sergeants.  Anyway, set your Sergeants up as a screen in front of your Sharpshooters, preferably on a hill and let any enemy come to you.  Have Sergeants clump together if the enemy is cav heavy.  Use above mentioned cheese to make them come to you if necessary.  You will win every battle with minimal casualties doing this.  The Sharpshooters will just annihilate anything but Nords before they even reach the line.  Clumped Sergeants on a hill will own Swadian Knights.  That's why I say with some basic tactics they can be the best faction in the game.  The only downside is it takes some patience.  You can't just auto-charge battles.  You can be the one guy on horseback to circle and distract.  That definitely helps.  However, I like to be on foot myself because when the cavalry gets stopped against my wall of Sergeants, I like to be there with a huge weapon like the Great Long Axe to butcher the enemy heavy cavalry.  I can sometimes butcher a huge number of them.  That helps the cause even more than being on horseback.

Against Nords. Even though Nords aren't that great overall, they are the toughest matchup for Rhodoks.  Their shields will allow them to get to your line relatively intact, and once they do you'll regret having a 2/3 ranged army.  This is the one faction that requires you to adjust your ratio to more like 50/50.  It's tough, but you will win anyway because you're the player. 

Ghost of Razgriz 说:

Actually, Rhodoks beat Huscarls out on the shield department, IMO.  Pavise Shields (guess I should call them Board Shields :/) have far more protective capabilities (200x86 coverage) over the Huscarl Round Shields (100 diameter) due to the overall larger surface area they cover.

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Yeah, I'd agree that board shields are slightly better.  It's pretty close though.

Also, Veteran Horse Archers have more than that.  That's just one of the ones that can possibly spawn with that equipment (I'm not going to put down the entire list of what they have unless you want me to :/).  The strongest armor they get is actually Khergit Lamellar Vest, which is 40 B and 8 L.

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Exactly.  So the best case scenario is armor roughly equivalent to what you'll find on Sea Raiders, and the worst case scenario is junk that you may be forced to use in the first 20 minutes of the game.  And that's their top tier troop!  Now to be fair, their top tier troop isn't actually their best troop.  But Lancers aren't exactly well equipped either.

Here's a little taste of how bad the Khergits are.  Here is the equipment for the Veteran Horse Archer (keep in mind this is their top tier troop): Tribal Warrior Outfit, Flanged Mace, Spear (regular Spear, no lance possible).  This is their top tier troop, using equipment you might have thrown on a companion at level 2 but quickly upgraded just from Sea Raiders.

Good catch.  For some reason I had it in my head that they used Heraldic Mail with Tabard, which is quite possibly the best infantry armor in the game.  (The real best is plate because the tiny movement difference doesn't come close to overcoming the protection difference.)

So the armor is very similar and the shields are very similar as well.  That means the increased death rate of Huscarls is owing entirely to the fact that they have 2h weapons.  As I stated in my companion thread, infantry with 2h weapons will die to archers very often, even though they will also do a lot more damage.

I know it's highly debatable.  But for me, I'll take the guys that are cheaper, train a lot faster, live longer, and specialize in killing the biggest threat to my army as an all infantry faction.