Best way to take Nord castles?

[SAUS]

I am curious what people have found to be effective vs nords. I always find they make it a pain no matter what I do. It is hard to cheese them with ranged units only because their shields block their whole body so well and javelins and stuff make them always a threat. Then their close combat skills make them exceptional at just killing or at least trading with your own infantry. I want to not have to lose all my men while killing them since I plan to take many castles in a single run through their territory (I have max surgery, but a full party of wounded men are not great at taking castles ).

Any ideas? I will accept castle-specific strategies, as well.

What are the best kind of troops to use against them? I want to avoid using rhodok troops because I will got after them next, but if it is the only way, then I will still go with it.

So far, the only thing I have down are the towns. You kill off their archers / block their javelins, then they bunch up away from the ramp. You moves all your archers into their courtyard to get nice shots at them. Keep some on the wall away from them and then just pelt them with everything you've got. The castles aren't so nice, though.

 

[annallia]

Top tier infantry, anything but Khergit or Vaegir. Over the years I have found that Nord castles are just not worth the archers, instead just a mass of top tier infantry, preferably something with shields unless you want them to get mowed down by axes/javelins while approaching the walls.

That being said I usually send in a portion of my infantry, just enough to make a hole. Then I go up with my companions and we clear the walls of archers (while my infantry focuses on working its way inward) and I order the rest of my infantry to charge. Once the walls are clear my companions and I if possible find an alternate way down than the respawn guys are taking and we come in from behind, this however requires timing, if you do it too early the respawn will hit while you are marching in and then you get surrounded and turned into cat food.

 

[SAUS]

Okay I will try a heavy infantry / cavalry army. I think maybe my current army could fit this. It's mostly mercenary cavalry with a decent size chunk of crossbowmen and random other heavy cavalry mixed in (some swadian, some sarranid). I will just move the crossbowmen to the back or even swap them out in favour of more infantry. It will be nice when the nords are dead and I can use huscarls against enemy castles lol.

 

[annallia]

If you go cavalry stay away from Sarranid cav. I mean they are quite spongey but they like to go 2h so they get eaten up by the javelin spam.

 

[SAUS]

If you go cavalry stay away from Sarranid cav. I mean they are quite spongey but they like to go 2h so they get eaten up by the javelin spam.

Right. They do that, too. Not as bad as the vaegirs at least lol. I kind of went a different way than expected in my run, so maybe it won't be a problem. I am killing Rhodoks first, so I might be able to go with all Rhodok sergeants and sharpshooters. Some knights will be good for field battles, though. Maybe Swadian knights if I kill them before Nords (which is likely).