Marnid and Borcha equipment?

[Hansundfranz]

With which equipment do these guys fight best?

In my first serious attempt had them as horse archers and they did terrible, Even with fast horses and against bandits they never managed to stay out of trouble and get killed very fast.

In my 2nd attempt I developed them swords and they still get killed fairly easily (probably like that no matter what) but at least they made some kills.
So swords, ,lances what kind of weapons are best for them?

Armour is pretty obvious I think, just hand them down your old stuff.

How do you level them?
I read that many prefer to put the points on the heros into the non combat skills and use maninly combat related skills on themselfes.
Well doesn´t this make them level up even slower, sice tehy get exeperience for killing on the battlefield.

Please give tips for early, middle and late game

 

[Slaists]

my approach: give them crossbows (does not need power-draw, horse-archery, etc.) and use them dismounted (if needed, take their horses away before the combat). try to armor them up as high as possible. i actually threw some points into their weapons mastery which helped raise their crossbow skill up faster. now, at lvl 20 and with crossbow skill 220, marnid is quite a killer... besides crossbows, i give them a shield and a sword. this combo seems to keep them alive the longest.

i prefer to raise their int and boost the party skills, but if you like to have them perform well also with the swords: put some points into "iron skin" and athletics.

PS. don't expect these two to perform well killing-wise from the start... even with crossbows: their starting skill is as low as the one of a peasant...

 

[graphia]

I don't know, I've found Borcha to be quite an effective horse archer once you give him good equipment. I mainly use them for wound treatment and pathfinding though because who cares if they get knocked out?

 

[Jund]

I usually put Marnid on a good horse and focus him on polearms/shield. He performs pretty well with good gear.

 

[Poil]

Just give them clubs, shields, blunt lances and ok horses and they'll do fine. Plenty of prisoners.

 

[xXxkittyfighterxXx]

they are really good with polearms with a crossbow

 

[Handel]

The horse archers AI is quite lame!
I give Borcha a double side lance and a horse for charging (not for running) and give the best xbow and a 1h melle weapons to Marnid. They both are going pretti well with this combo.

 

[BoltScar]

Borsha always had better equipment than Manrid in my party, I like him. Now both have full black armor, but Borsha has the great helm with 27 armor. Borsha has bastard sword while Manrid has a morning star, and both have steel shields. Both have Chargers and both use bow + arrows. I trained them so they could be good at shooting arrows from their horses and its pretty useful, because they snipe and then they charge with their weapons.

Borsha usually kills more than Manrid, but Manrid kills more with bow than Borsha.

I also like to keep a party with 10 sharpshooters, 10 knights and 2 sargeants. I have such a low leadership because I'm just level 24.

EDIT: Oh btw I normally use a polearm with steel shield and a bow with arrows, but I have a bastard sword just in case I fell of my Charger and a double axe just for fun sometimes. I also have a sniper crossbow to equip with bastard if I fell from the horse. You can see here why I use polearm.

Anyways, this is how I equip and train them, hope it helps ya.

Regards

 

[Sir Prince]

Yes, I would suggest training them in the weapons.

 

[guspav]

I have tried them as crossbowmen, mounted archers, mounted skirmishers and melee fighters and the last one has so far been the most efective choice: give them a good 1 hand melee weapon (sabers or bastard swords work great), a shield, an ok horse (with chargers they are awesome) and good armor and you'll see them leveling up pretty close to the main hero (at least in my 2 last games happened this way)

 

[jrawlings]

I have tried them as crossbowmen, mounted archers, mounted skirmishers and melee fighters and the last one has so far been the most efective choice: give them a good 1 hand melee weapon (sabers or bastard swords work great), a shield, an ok horse (with chargers they are awesome) and good armor and you'll see them leveling up pretty close to the main hero (at least in my 2 last games happened this way)

So you take them off their horse right before battle? Or do you order them to dismount?

 

[Sir Saladin]

Borcha was an engine of destruction for me when I gave him a sword of war and a suit of plate mail, I threw in the war horse for only an extra "OK just pay me what you have." That bastard.

 

[Skanky Burns]

I wish they could pay off their equipment to me. You give them 10,000 denar worth of equipment and they will give you whatever they have (generally around 15 denar). Yet the next day when they get paid, they don't feel the need to give you any of that money. How rude, I say!

 

[Sir Saladin]

It is insulting to me that my only friends in the whole world of pillaging and plundering would rip me off like that, my only consolation is that I will see them in Hell.

 

[guspav]

I have tried them as crossbowmen, mounted archers, mounted skirmishers and melee fighters and the last one has so far been the most efective choice: give them a good 1 hand melee weapon (sabers or bastard swords work great), a shield, an ok horse (with chargers they are awesome) and good armor and you'll see them leveling up pretty close to the main hero (at least in my 2 last games happened this way)

So you take them off their horse right before battle? Or do you order them to dismount?

No ,they were fighting horseback actually