Best units in Bannerlord update for 1.5.9. up to 1.6.1.

Users who are viewing this thread

LyonExodus

Veteran
Just so you know fellow Lords: this post is still relevant in 1.6. & 1.6.1. as no much as happened to the units or AI. i will update this page when and if some changes happen, everything said below about weapons and Cavalry is still pretty much untouched.

Another reason is, at the time i made this stuff, a few months ago, i couldn't really find any "good enough" info on Unit Vs Unit performance, or as in the case of my testing 500 Vs 500. And also doesn't seem like many new people in the community can access them easily, since the only way to get them in the past was catching me on Twitch and insert a command in chat.

DISCLAIMER: Some of the units are heavily dependent on "Battle Size". for example: Crossbowmen perform the better the smaller the size, since their lack of ammo is less impactful, at least that's what it seems.

IMPORTANT: The Enciclopedia may be very deceiving when watching for INFANTRY Sidearms. Some of them can spawn with different weapons.

Spreadsheets go as follow:

INFANTRY:

Gear here a makes a huge difference, a slow swinging sword can't really be carried by an high level of 1 Handed ( Aserai Veteran )

Maces are the way to go. So damn good against armor and they deal Huge damage even against unarmored dudes.
INFANTRY that gets maces:
Legionaries (50%)
Seargents (33%)

The most important pieces of armor for an Infantry unit are HEAD and ARM, Those 2 are the "way" more likely to be hit during melee engagements. Body is not so important for "line Infantry" since against archers they have a shield and can slowly charge towards them.

Another thing to keep in mind is that THROWING weapons are generally really bad on Infantry lines. There are some cases in which they can make the difference but after all the 1800 Hours that i played this game they are almost always just a good way for your guys to get an arrow or another Jav to the face, and nobody likes that.
Good thing you can tell them to hold fire and keep their shield up using "shield wall", when the 2 are combined and Charge is added you get a -50 flat casualties reduction on average during 1St Engagements.

RANGED:

Now this was my very 1St Test i try to run, spreadsheet isn't the best i know.
There are 3 rounds in which the worst performing guys ( class dependent, so Crossbowmen will advance in some cases even when outperformed ) will get discarded, those are marked in RED.

When it comes to RANGED units battle size can make the difference. the smaller the size the more crossbows you want, don't think any of them will still beat the Fians Champ.

ARROW and BOW here can make or break a unit, look for example at the PALATINE GUARD, best armor of any Standard T5 archer and a really good bow, unfortunately all of this can't carry the lack of a 2X quiver, making the PALATINE one of the worst performing standard units at 1K Battle Size (They are probably way better at smaller sizes but why not go for the Crossbowmen at that point)

When it comes to ARMOR and SIDEARM i don't think those make much of a difference if the INFANTRY can't get to them, if i were to look at anything i would give priority to BODY and HEAD. also Empire Sergeants spawn with 50% maces so you may want them instead of Sharpshooters for that melee boost.

And don't forget to use LOOSE formations for archers or the backline won't shoot.

CAVALRY:

Now the Big Overrated Boys, i know you don't like it but they are, at least at 1K Battle Size.

Similar case to the Infantry guys THROWING weapons are really bad, they don't help out an already struggling AI and they tend to get the Cav rider stuck somewhere or shot down by arrows.

HORSE ARMOR IS IMPORTANT: As you can see from the Data the Cav that struggles the most are the ones with under 40 HORSE ARMOR. now combine that with a short weapon ( Battanian Skirmisher ) or Javs ( Sturgian Horse Riders ) and you get quite a ****ty unit.

SHIELD WALL IS THE WAY TO GO: When set on CHARGE the most success i found both on the field and during tests, was SHIELD WALL, HOLD FIRE, CHARGE.
To keep in mind "When set on charge is Highlighted for a reason. CAV moves very slowly when told to shield wall and move around MANUALLY.

For MANUAL management i suggest SKIEN (suggest to me by WhiteRhino, an active member of the Twitch community) or LINE.
SKIEN: This Formation will make them move a bit slower then line and tighter together, making them less likely to get STUCK in INFANTRY lines, and also has the little positive effect of making them more accurate.
LINE: If you don't like SKIEN.

Overall Cav is maybe the hardest Group to manage, giving me and many more people Headaches on the field.

THE CASE FOR THRUSTING LANCES AND JAVS:
They are bad, simple.
No, let's talk more about them:
They confuse INFANTRY UNITS and CAV alike, the weapon for FOOT UNITS is just too long, making them miss or deal close to no damage. a similar behavior can be seen with JAVS also.

You are right, that Spearman form Sturgia may stop an horse and get the RIDER killed in an open and CHAOTIC BATTLEFIELD. but also remember, he will probably get destroyed when engaged VS INFANTRY, so... does he really help? I would say no.

HORSE ARCHERS:

I don't have a spreadsheet for this one since i think for many people it's pretty obvious.

Khuzait: They are the way to go, 2X Quiver, Decent Bow and some Horse Armor.
Khan's Guards: Khuzait but better, also they get a GLAIVE which is the best weapon for Cav AI ( Fun fact, a group of KHAN'S when set on hold fire, can kill most Cav units in a 1V1 )
Aserai: 9\10 guys. best in pretty much everything that is important but the lack of the 2nd quiver really drags them down. but you also get a shield and a decent sword for later in the fights.
Bucellarii: Why are they so bad? many reasons, just stay away from them unless you really want a cheap Horse Archer option in your party\army.

Hope this was helpful to many of you. This is all the data i shared in the past few months on my Twitch Channel and that i have gathered playing this Good Game for over 2200H by now.

To the Devs, hope you can find the data and the info useful and keep up the great work. 1.5.10. was brilliant.

To any of you who are interested in checking my Twitch Channel: I am live 6\7 days a week playing Bannerlord at the best of my abilities.
 
Last edited:
Seriously, wtf was with the complaints about the Sturgian Shock Trooper? They were practically Sturgia's deadliest killing infantry.

Now all we have are these piss weak spearmen.

Also I really wished that all infantry were equally useful in vanilla, albeit in different ways. Sure, you might have a top contender for the one with the heaviest armour and shield, but variety is a lot more fun.
 
Now i know the info is from 1.5.9. but nothing major changed since 1.5.10. got released. most notable was the Druzhinniks Champions getting a "rebalance" ( can't understand why but ok )
IMHO in any version of MB2, the strongest unit is BFC (Battanian Fian Champion)
coz they have nice armor, very fast, have a big range damage and one shot melee damage
I tested different unit builds, but the most effective are BFC
 
I always surprised when I open these kinds of threads that the OP is trying to tell, not ask what the best troops are.
IMHO in any version of MB2, the strongest unit is BFC (Battanian Fian Champion)
They're good but the t4-6 HA are all more powerful in actual campaign battle because they can be repositioned more quickly, letting them get in many more shots. Also, the t5 Archers and xbow men are almost as good. In 9/10 battles you wouldn't notice the difference between 100 t5 archers and 100 t6 fians.

The best troop is any one that lets you kill the enemy first in the situation you're in.
 
I always surprised when I open these kinds of threads that the OP is trying to tell, not ask what the best troops are.

They're good but the t4-6 HA are all more powerful in actual campaign battle because they can be repositioned more quickly, letting them get in many more shots. Also, the t5 Archers and xbow men are almost as good. In 9/10 battles you wouldn't notice the difference between 100 t5 archers and 100 t6 fians.

The best troop is any one that lets you kill the enemy first in the situation you're in.
+1
Hopefully they will rebalance armour so that 2h melees can shine also. Atm they are just not worth their money. Range tops everything atm.
 
IMO tier 5 Vlandian crossbows are one of the best with the right perks and can form shieldwalls and fight very effectively in melee. That said with the right perks most armies don't make it to melee even in massive battles.

-picked shot -50% upkeep!
-deflect +30 one hand skill
-flexible fighters +15 vigor skills (One hand again)
-donkey swiftness +30 crossbow skill
-military planner +50% ammo besieging

With deflect and flexible fighters they are some of the best melee troops in the game. When I play I usually group all of my crossbows into a single group. I run them in loose formation to maximize my shots and as the enemy gets closer I hold fire and form a shieldwall. Works like a charm and even in massive battles I barely loose any troops as the enemy moral is shredded before the melee even begins.
 
IMO tier 5 Vlandian crossbows are one of the best with the right perks and can form shieldwalls and fight very effectively in melee. That said with the right perks most armies don't make it to melee even in massive battles.

-picked shot -50% upkeep!
-deflect +30 one hand skill
-flexible fighters +15 vigor skills (One hand again)
-donkey swiftness +30 crossbow skill
-military planner +50% ammo besieging

With deflect and flexible fighters they are some of the best melee troops in the game. When I play I usually group all of my crossbows into a single group. I run them in loose formation to maximize my shots and as the enemy gets closer I hold fire and form a shieldwall. Works like a charm and even in massive battles I barely loose any troops as the enemy moral is shredded before the melee even begins.
Uh... the party leader doesn't grant Captain perk buffs I thought?

If I've read correctly you have to have a companion assigned to their formation and then give them control of the formation.

Which is often a very bad idea..

Maybe I somehow still don't understand how captain perks work, I've been considering them mostly useless for the player character and aiming for party leader based buffs.
 
Uh... the party leader doesn't grant Captain perk buffs I thought?

If I've read correctly you have to have a companion assigned to their formation and then give them control of the formation.

Which is often a very bad idea..

Maybe I somehow still don't understand how captain perks work, I've been considering them mostly useless for the player character and aiming for party leader based buffs.
I think the same. There is a discussion about govenour perks which will be applied from the player character if there is no npc govenour but I think it is not implemented. Your captain perks will only be applied, when you are in a army and can select one formation to lead(so if you are a army leader, your captain perks are useless again. )
 
I think the same. There is a discussion about govenour perks which will be applied from the player character if there is no npc govenour but I think it is not implemented. Your captain perks will only be applied, when you are in a army and can select one formation to lead(so if you are a army leader, your captain perks are useless again. )
Governor perks don't effect the MC or his settlements, MC doesn't apply his captain perks to his party. MC only benefits from PERSONAL \ PARTY LEADER and SURGEON \ SCOUT \ ENGI \ STEWARD perks if any of the roles is unassigned
 
IMO tier 5 Vlandian crossbows are one of the best with the right perks and can form shieldwalls and fight very effectively in melee. That said with the right perks most armies don't make it to melee even in massive battles.

-picked shot -50% upkeep!
-deflect +30 one hand skill
-flexible fighters +15 vigor skills (One hand again)
-donkey swiftness +30 crossbow skill
-military planner +50% ammo besieging

With deflect and flexible fighters they are some of the best melee troops in the game. When I play I usually group all of my crossbows into a single group. I run them in loose formation to maximize my shots and as the enemy gets closer I hold fire and form a shieldwall. Works like a charm and even in massive battles I barely loose any troops as the enemy moral is shredded before the melee even begins.
with the mod i was unable to test how impactful captains perk are but for companions Bows tend to be way stronger then xBows so i always build them as archers, another reason is that it's useally easier to stack archers than xBows. other then Valndia most ranged units at low tier are archers. also the Bounded Xbow is close to impossible to find while anyone can get a Noble Long Bow
 
They're good but the t4-6 HA are all more powerful in actual campaign battle because they can be repositioned more quickly, letting them get in many more shots. Also, the t5 Archers and xbow men are almost as good. In 9/10 battles you wouldn't notice the difference between 100 t5 archers and 100 t6 fians.
whhhhhhat?
thanks for making fun %)))
 
Best units currently:

1- Khan’s Guard
2- Fian Champion
3- Sharpshooter
4- Other T5 archers, xBows, and horse archers units.

Ranged units clearly dominating the battlefield as usual in this game since the release.
 
Another thing to keep in mind is that THROWING weapons are generally really bad on Infantry lines. There are some cases in which they can make the difference but after all the 1800 Hours that i played this game they are almost always just a good way for your guys to get an arrow or another Jav to the face, and nobody likes that.
in my experience, having ur infantry with throwing on shield wall hold fire until the enemy is 50 m away for infantry and 75 m away for cavalry. you let them fire that one massive volley of javelins it will drop a bunch of enemies while breaking gaps in their line. this is especially effective with Legionary and Darkhans because they have a special 1 charge throwing weapon that do extra damage (pilums break shield and throwing spear just really high damage)
 
in my experience, having ur infantry with throwing on shield wall hold fire until the enemy is 50 m away for infantry and 75 m away for cavalry. you let them fire that one massive volley of javelins it will drop a bunch of enemies while breaking gaps in their line. this is especially effective with Legionary and Darkhans because they have a special 1 charge throwing weapon that do extra damage (pilums break shield and throwing spear just really high damage)
agree and that's the reason i said: "in some cases" since this was a general guide for players old and new i didn't want to go too far into it. Leaving simple but effective instruction was the goal.
 
agree and that's the reason i said: "in some cases" since this was a general guide for players old and new i didn't want to go too far into it. Leaving simple but effective instruction was the goal.
Speaking of exceptions, why do you think Bucellarii are so bad? They don't seem too different from Khuz HA on paper for armor and equipment except for 40 vs 48 arrows. The only downside I can see is having to go through 3 tiers of mediocre archers to get them. Am I missing something else?
 
Speaking of exceptions, why do you think Bucellarii are so bad? They don't seem too different from Khuz HA on paper for armor and equipment except for 40 vs 48 arrows. The only downside I can see is having to go through 3 tiers of mediocre archers to get them. Am I missing something else?
Their horse armor is somethign like 16 or 18 instead of the 38 Khuz HA get.
 
Back
Top Bottom