Any weapons companions can use half way decently on horseback?

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I'm thinking the answer is "no", since the AI seems to go a bit brain dead when put on a horse. On foot they seem to do as well as expected, only really getting into trouble when out numbered as long as I give them decent armor and a good fast weapon. On horseback however ..... they suck, even when using a weapon that they have 150+ proficiency with. I'm thinking companions are only useful for governors and leading parties to be honest, but it would be nice to see them occasionally get more than one kill even against looters. Companion horse archer seem to do ok (putting it nicely) in longer battles as long as they have some skill in bow/crossbow and riding. This is mostly concerning the melee ones, or when the horse archers decide to go melee.

Things I've tried:
  • One handed users: Giving them a long high damage one handed sword.
  • Two handed users: Giving them a long high damage two handed sword, these do a bit better......in some battles.
  • Polearm users: Gave up on lances and spears (watching them try to jab someone standing in front of their horse for minutes had me pulling my hair out). Polearms that only do swing damage was hit or miss (no pun intended), maybe one in three battles they could manage more than one kill.
  • Making sure they only have one melee weapon type since the AI can't be counted on to pick the best one for the situation and often randomly changes weapons for no good reason.
Maybe I'm expecting too much? I don't expect them to be gods on the battle field .... but why do they have to be so damn useless? Even going up against a pack of looters I'm almost ecstatic if they manage three kills. I mean do they need over 200 proficiency to not swing three seconds after they ride past their target?

I'm almost thinking of trying glaives since the Khuzait Khan's Guards seem to do ok with them. But before I go around tracking them down (haven't unlocked them yet in the idiotic lottery system), I'm wondering what others think.

This is 1.6 in case it matters.

And completely off topic, why does auto correct try to change "glaives" into "laxatives"? ?
 
The best weapon to give companions on a horse is a bow. The second best is a glaive type weapon. The ai does pretty well with those, a two handed sword or axe can work but not as well. Two handed swords and axes need to be as long as possible to work out properly, everything else is just a bad idea.
And completely off topic, why does auto correct try to change "glaives" into "laxatives"? ?
For me it's trying to change it to "lawgivers", like wtf??? :shock:
 
I see a lot of deaths come out of companions with light crossbows - I guess because it has a relatively high kill to skill ratio - and it also seems to contribute towards accelerated horsemanship. Sometimes once their skill goes high enough, I transition them to foot to up their crossbow quality and give them extra bolts.

But that might also be symptomatic of how I use horse archers - more as stationary - but highly mobile and elevated - regular archers. A crossbow probably isn't quite the ticket if you like your Horse Archers firing at speed.

But other than that, as above, I tend to transition all my companions over to swinging polearms (glaives, menavlions etc) as I can afford them. Although for the first time in my current playthrough I've given a companion with high polearm a super high level Kuzait spear that came with a wife and I'm seeing it score deaths, so maybe my scepticism of spears is unwarranted.
 
what i've noticed is that obviously giving them ranged weapons is the best most optimal way, namely the bow and xbow (they changed it so half of them don't require perk to reload on mount).
Also surprisingly but i guess not, maces is the best 1h option. the speed bonus from the horse allows it to become 1 hit kill capable
and lastly but not least. the famous 2h swing weapons, the longer the better. so Warrazor. Long Glaive, Fine Steel M, and romphalia is ur best bet. they often 1 shot anything they touch and have better hit rate on horse
 
Polearms that only do swing damage was hit or miss (no pun intended), maybe one in three battles they could manage more than one kill.
This is the best you can do, all mounted units are kinda are bad at hitting things but swinging polearms work pretty well. My plan A is bow or light cross bow and hope they don't run out of ammo before the battles over.
 
They do fine with lances and spear. Of course they share the same AI as any other unit on horse, so yes, they are going to miss from time to time. But so will they miss with any other melee weapon.

Infantry AI is made to use spears against cavalry and they do that reasonably competently. Therefore 1H and 2H weapons are simply no, no. I did not try swing polearms like glaives but I ques they will share similar problems as 1H/2H in that they will be decimated by spear infantry from the front.

They need longest spear/lance you can get and decent horse armor. In longer battles giving them bundle or two throwing weapons will prevent them from charging in to the thick of enemy right at the start of the fighting, making them last much longer.

Spear/lance + throwing weapons and shield is my favorite combination for companions. If you care about them been forced to fight on foot when dehorsed, give them 1H weapon, if not 2 bundles of throwables.
 
What if you want to assault hideouts? Two handed will grant you perma death for your brothers and companions
 
Depending on their weapon and riding skill. I saw my companions getting a lot more kills when they are 150 in both riding and given weapon skill.
So for example a camopanion with 150+ riding, 150+ one handed and 100 polearm was better with long one handed sword than with lance or spear.

Still they are best as infantry or ranged on foot. I keep only one of them on horse to use his perks as captain of cavalry. and others are either infantry or ranged on foot and i also use thei captain perks.
 
I have a companion that is quiet okay with 150 riding and 115 Spear/Lance. Also all my companions are somewhat ok with javelin (On foot and on horseback), but they need at least 60+ throwing.
Just make sure they have good armor, (also the horse!), like that they are able to charge several times without dying instantly.

(i dont know if good leg armore protects them better on horseback? Since they get most hits from infantry troops while riding past them? )
 
Thanks for the info all. Yeah I know they do better with bows/crossbows on horses, I was just hoping to do something different this time around. Doing the same thing every playthrough gets boring. I do however always give my medic a bow or crossbow when I'm not the medic, they tend to stay alive longer and often never get hit.

From what it looks like, I'll probably try different polearms ad see how they do on horseback. I was staying away from polearms mostly because I also enjoy small scale battles as well (such as bandit hideouts) and in my experience they seem to do better with shorter weapons in those and I didn't feel like remembering to swap weapons.

And as far as horses and armor, I often give them the best on the market. But armor in Bannerlord seems to be made of paper mache. Still, like I said, they seem to do as expected on foot and I have no problem with that.
 
Echoing most of this. Late game, I have all my companions with bows (NOT xbows!), a rhomph or warrazor, and a 1h/2h sword.

Early game, they have a shield instead of the polearm! Sometimes I get a Throwing companion and I give them double javelins and (hopefully!) a Long Jereed pole, but eventually, I hand-me-down the starter bows for more range...
 
Yeah mounted melee companions couldn't hit a bus. But like some others I found glaives the most effective. Craft them at around 140cm long so they're also still usable for close quarter foot combat. Hammer head and Bill heads are only tier-2 in smithy, they're ok until you unlock voulges and razors in T-4, and ultimately the long glaive head in T-5. I also found they seem to do better with a 2-h axe than 2-h sword.

Having said that, I make them all bow, shield + 1h sword (preferably swing damage only, no thrust attack). This works the entire game, polearms require good body armour, not great early on when you're doing hideouts etc. IMO they're more of a mid-late game alternative for companions - and late game you're probably relying more on armies than companions anyway, once the non-stop total war phase begins.

If a companion maxes out their 1-H skill (and has spare focus points) I switch them to polearms or 2 h axes, by this time everyone has good armour.
 
From what it looks like, I'll probably try different polearms ad see how they do on horseback. I was staying away from polearms mostly because I also enjoy small scale battles as well (such as bandit hideouts) and in my experience they seem to do better with shorter weapons in those and I didn't feel like remembering to swap weapons.
To the switching weapons problem:

What you can do (also in hideouts), is giving your companions 1 weapon for reach (bow or 2 hand weapons) and 1 weapon that is 1 handed with shield.

So when you order them into shieldwall formation, they will use shorter weapons for sure, they can also charge like that.

When you let the companions choose, they tend to take the weapon with more damage or reach i think (bow/ spear/ 2 handed weapons) .

But with "shieldwall" or "hold fire" command, you can force them to use shorter weapons in close quarter combat, because they switch to the shield or their "side weapons":smile:
 
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