So, how do you equip your companions?

[graycloak]

Just figured I'd see what other people did with their companions and why.

I insist they all be cavalry, as I generally keep my whole party mounted for travel, questing and evasion purposes. (At least until fairly late game, I'll bring an infantry horde to storm a castle or town)
I've found that giving them fast horses just means that they get dead before the rest of my troops and I am starting to think that giving them lances at all is a bit of a waste; I don't have any equipped as horse archers now because I haven't found horse archers to be that effective.
Generally I get them all into plate/heavy plate as soon as possible but I don't obsess on stats; I'd rather have them color-coordinated and look good

ATM I have them all on barded warhorses in plate with kite shield, cavalry/knight lance and 1/2 handed swords...but I am thinking of ditching the lance and/or giving each of them a 2handed sword...opinions?

 

[BumpInTheNight]

Yah charge rating and HP/armor seem to be the chief stats for NPC horses and for precisely those reasons, they get clobbered before other troops otherwise with fast & light ones and just go down quick.  I also gave up trying to give them lances and instead shifted to maces, one handed swords, shields and some sort of thrown weapon for kicks.  The blunt weaponry + the option to order them to use blunt only gives you a nice extra cash flow of prisoners early on.  I also agree heaviest armor just works well since they spend way more time mounted then dismounted in combat, the helmet is about the only thing I try to keep unified just so I can easily pick them out of the crowd to assist if they're getting swarmed, typically those winged helmets do the trick.

 

[thethiefofdarknes]

I tailor to three tiers of companion:

Non-combat:
****ty levels and stats companion, usually their level starts around level 10 and takes way too much effort to make them decent. Better to focus on non-combat skills and tell them to bugger off in a major fight.
Equipment includes the heaviest armor possible, the fastest horse possible, best shields possible and weapons like lances, maces and spiked maces for them to occasionally gank a high level enemy and earn some exp. Otherwise they should hide in a corner and not die.

Elite:
Companions that are reasonably middle leveled 20~. Just enough to be decent yet low enough level to customise to play style. The key thing is that they don't have ****ty 40~ weapon proficiency and have enough to be effective in combat when spec. They function as elite body guards and are critical enough to prevent me from being overwhelmed so I can continue the slaughter.
Equipment include armor, heavy horses, lances, mace and throwing weapon.

Badass:
Extremely high level companions, way too high to level frequently. Usually they are good at everything and exceptional in one area. For that manner, equipment and role is determined by skills they already have. There's very little else to say except that they kick so much ass that letting them loose on their own will earn them many kills. Of note: try to get them to 30 strength in order for them to equip noldor armor.

 

[Scotterius]

I think the lower level ones are far more suitable for combat than the higher ones.  I do generally pick one and make it my Tactician, surgeon, engineer.  I usually equip them from armor drops, and my old sets of armor.  The armor point gain from buying armor isn't worth trading for the early gains you can get from it.  In the early game the money is better spent with town upgrades or velvet making centers.

I usually equip everyone with morning stars and shields.  Morningstars deal piercing damage, the length is a nice fit for cavalry and foot use and they are inexpensive.  I have thrown in military hammers for prisoner collection.  Just double tap F3, so that they switch to blunt weapons and send them in against small groups.

 

[joeman]

They all get balanced/fine war spears.  They kick ass.  I have 3 horse archers.  They get spear, shield, bow, and arrow.  They rest of them get 1 hander, shield, shield, and spear.  I equip them with fast horses.

It depends on how you play.  my army is archer based.  I use calvary mostly for distraction / hit and run type of tactic.  my archers make the kills.

 

[graycloak]

Where do you get the morning stars? I like them, but I never see them as loot or on the vendors. I'm on day ~180 or so now and I have seen exactly 1 of them...and it was a rusted junk.

 

[HUtH]

Sarleon troops have them.

 

[graycloak]

Ahh that would explain it...I'm a Lord of Sarleon this time around so not exactly looting a lot of Sarleon troops...

 

[Scotterius]

The vender's sell morning stars, they seem pretty common.  They are cheap though, you will have to scroll down the list.  The vendor's lists are random though.  They will show up if you keep looking.

 

[graycloak]

Yeah, I've started finding a few here and there; only have two that were "standard" or better quality so far though.

Current plan is to re-equip all 8 companions with a warhorse, good shield, morning star, mettenheim dueling sword and a warhammer or mace.
I've got them all in plate with ~60 armor for torso/head and low/mid 50s for legs.