"Best" Troops

[Aetheus]

In your opinion, which faction has troops that excel in a way? Like having the best cavalry, or the best archers? Since Europe 1200 has dozens of factions, I thought I'd be better to listen to some opinions instead of testing each and every one of them against one another.

So far, the only faction that I've ever stuck to is the HRE. Their troops, however, are fairly average. They can do well against most of the pre-version 2 factions (haven't tested them against some of the newer ones, like Poland), but they don't fare well against more specialized troops. For instance, while the Papal troops are normally crap, their Christ Guard seem to take down large amounts of Teutonic Knights during custom battles. Though it doesn't really become an issue in normal gameplay, since Papal vassals rarely have that many Christ Guards to pose a threat anyway, and as said before, their infantry and archers are moot.

 

[blowcrapup]

I fight a lot as the Aragonese and they are pretty good at taking down Cavalary if you stick with the right tactic. They don't have much melee infantry but their own Cavalary is pretty damn strong especially the Knights. They really struggle at seiges though as they tend to have Javilins and Crossbows rather than normal bows.

Using up to 20 Knights and other Cav with the rest of my party (usually about 40 others) as Ranged Infantry, I can usually take down armies up to about 150 easily. The Aragons struggle against Ranged Infantry themselves due to a lack of shields.

The Templar Knights are pretty damn good as well. I got the two I had from Portugese troops and they owned until I hit one in the back of the head with a Javilin. The other was surrounded by about 10 Almohad Horse Archers and still managed to kill 8 of them.

The Almohads, in my experience, are very poor at everything but Seige defence. If you have to go up against the Almohads with a seige tower rather than a ladder you may be in for a tough time.

Hope this helps a bit.

 

[Cruger]

Hmm.. Even I can remember all the strenghts and weaknesses of all factions, but I have a dream-team though..

Cavalry: Hungarian Banderium
Infantry: Danish Huscarls
Archers: English Longbowmen

And if I was to make a "bad-team" of top-tier units it would probadly be like:

Cavalry: Irish Ridire
Infantry: Royal Almohad Guard
Archers: Papal Archer

If we are talking in game and not in custom battles I still belive that Denmark, England, Hungary have the best army overall.. Their Middle-tier troops which armies are generaly composed of are pretty strong while their top-tier units can really do some bad-ass slaughter.. Ireland, Sicily, and Papal States are probadly in the buttom..

That said could I also place all the christian iberian factions at the top, if you play them well can they also do some slaughter..

 

[MrFloppy]

I use a mix of English and HRE units. Best archers and best crossbowmen between some guys with shields and some with spears. Against infantry this is imba and even against heavy cavalry these ranged units have a chance (thy to spear bracing)

If you want it easy use heavy cavalry ... but that's like native and no fun.

 

[chantrain]

according to the troop tree, the french have the best cavalry. based on the stats the french gendarme are the best

 

[hyme]

Hmm.. Even I can remember all the strenghts and weaknesses of all factions, but I have a dream-team though..

Cavalry: Hungarian Banderium
Infantry: Danish Huscarls
Archers: English Longbowmen

And if I was to make a "bad-team" of top-tier units it would probadly be like:

Cavalry: Irish Ridire
Infantry: Royal Almohad Guard
Archers: Papal Archer

If we are talking in game and not in custom battles I still belive that Denmark, England, Hungary have the best army overall.. Their Middle-tier troops which armies are generaly composed of are pretty strong while their top-tier units can really do some bad-ass slaughter.. Ireland, Sicily, and Papal States are probadly in the buttom..

That said could I also place all the christian iberian factions at the top, if you play them well can they also do some slaughter..

hey i play the irish, by the way English Longbowmen in a siege are well too over powered. 89 of Irish Muire vs ~50 longbowmen and my troops can even get up the ladder. they all die off before they can even fight the enemy.

 

[Eram]

English Longbowmen were famous to be the best bowmen of the world. So in a Siege Defense, England is very strong.

 

[Aetheus]

Got a general question to all - which faction has the best crossbowmen?

 

[Lord Rust]

Polish Nobles are the infantery i've had the most problems with, little bastards use roman tactics.

Strong throwing weapons before the melee, paired with them being a damn good infantry unit to begin with makes them mean as hell.
Also, I believe the holy roman empire has the best crossbowmen, they were given the crossbowmen he apparantly designed for milan when he didn't add that faction (they wear milanese mail, they are a traditional italian unit etc, milanese crossbowmen were hailed to be some of the finest of the period).

I think the longbowmen are quite well balanced myself, they -were- imbalanced for the period, it would be horribly inaccurate if english longbowmen were on par with other ranged units.

 

[MrFloppy]

Got a general question to all - which faction has the best crossbowmen?

HRE as I said.

 

[Temuzu]

Ummm does any other faction have pikemen than scotland?Cause i think i havent seen any.So the best infanrty against the cavarly is scottish pikemen!

 

[Arbor]

The best unit in my opinion, is the Polish Noble. It uses a throwing spear before going in to hand to hand combat. I've tested them against almost every unit, and they always seem to do fantastic. I managed to get 80 in my party from getting them out of imprisonment, and training them up from recruits. While horribly tedious, they have proven to be titans among men.

 

[Heaven Knight]

I just can't find the topic someone wrote about that video that Scots went very well against a light cavalry troop...i tested 10 Scottish pikeman against 15 English knights and actually they're the best defending even for heavy cavalry but a code to make 2 line but separate the pikeman and the hand to hand infantry would be nice because the pikes kill only the horse, it's great for prevent your infantry from being stomped. The Scottish pikeman at least the nobles can defend themselves against infantry too...


Edit: Temuzu, the serbian King's Guard are great against cavalry...almost as well as scots

 

[Temuzu]

I just can't find the topic someone wrote about that video that Scots went very well against a light cavalry troop...i tested 10 Scottish pikeman against 15 English knights and actually they're the best defending even for heavy cavalry but a code to make 2 line but separate the pikeman and the hand to hand infantry would be nice because the pikes kill only the horse, it's great for prevent your infantry from being stomped. The Scottish pikeman at least the nobles can defend themselves against infantry too...


Edit: Temuzu, the serbian King's Guard are great against cavalry...almost as well as scots

That was my video mate,here ya go : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cupMA8qhRbs
5 stars for educational video?

And I havent been playing anywere alse than england yet,so i havent got the chance to look for other pikemen

 

[nizyn]

I'll say, than the best infantry units are Polish Nobles. When sieging, they manage to kill achers, with almost no losses at their side. (Proud of being Polish, I say ) The best archers are English Longbowmen (longbow is very strong in this mod. 30 base points for hit. Better and cheaper than War Bow. A bit slower, but better.), but I saw Scottish and Polish archers are almost as good as Englishmen. I don't know, which cavalry unit is the best. But I'm recruiting French, English, German and christian part of Iberian peninsula heavy cavalry.

 

[Arbor]

I'll say, than the best infantry units are Polish Nobles. When sieging, they manage to kill achers, with almost no losses at their side. (Proud of being Polish, I say ) The best archers are English Longbowmen (longbow is very strong in this mod. 30 base points for hit. Better and cheaper than War Bow. A bit slower, but better.), but I saw Scottish and Polish archers are almost as good as Englishmen. I don't know, which cavalry unit is the best. But I'm recruiting French, English, German and christian part of Iberian peninsula heavy cavalry.

Polish Nobles are probably by far the best infantry. I think the best cavalry is French Gendarmes.

 

[Heaven Knight]

I'll say, than the best infantry units are Polish Nobles. When sieging, they manage to kill achers, with almost no losses at their side. (Proud of being Polish, I say ) The best archers are English Longbowmen (longbow is very strong in this mod. 30 base points for hit. Better and cheaper than War Bow. A bit slower, but better.), but I saw Scottish and Polish archers are almost as good as Englishmen. I don't know, which cavalry unit is the best. But I'm recruiting French, English, German and christian part of Iberian peninsula heavy cavalry.

Polish Nobles are probably by far the best infantry. I think the best cavalry is French Gendarmes.

They're good because they have throwing weapons, but in hand to hand the HRE and the Scottish Noble infantry are between the best...try in quick battles in the six way these nations best infantry : HRE, Scotland, England, Poland, Serbia ( their kings guard may look weak but those spears can be a problem at least for cavalry ) and Byzantine Empire and find out who has the best infantry in this death match but if you want to know which cavalry is the most powerful try the Teutons, English and French.

PS: the only problem is when the battle morale kit as for reinforcements , you will re spawn when they arrive


Edit : correcting some mistakes

 

[Revoltie]

What about Housecarls?

 

[Heaven Knight]

it's up to you to chose which nation are u going to chose...

 

[Revoltie]

I think the housecarls are a pretty good infantry, they can keep up a good time, mainly because of their shields.
I guess english longbowman are still the best archers.

But I am passionated by Horse Archers, I means, 20-30 Horse archers can easily take a troop of heavy infantry double their size.
The problem is the Heavy Cavalry, cause the Horse Archers try to fight them hand-to-hand...
I Still think the best combination for a troops is Serbian Horse Archers at the backup while a lot of Danish Housecarls charge like mad ****.