Which upgraded melee unit is the best in M&B ?

[Harr-the-Ruskie]

Not sure which one to choose :-

Swadian Knights;

Sword Sisters;

Hired Blades.

What are pros and cons of each ? Anyone ?

 

[DaLagga]

Personally, i like the Vaegir Knights. With those two handed swords they cut enemies down very quickly, despite having lighter armor for knights. Swadian knights tend to suffer from only having 1handed weapons, which causes them to miss more often than not while passing by. Sword sisters are really more of a novelty unit...vaegir knights are better in almost every aspect. They even ride coursers (very bad for a heavy unit), and have pretty light armor themselves. Not to mention they're VERY hard to come by, and replenishing their numbers takes time and patience(not worth it IMO). Hmm...Sergeants are pretty good units if you want to go for unmounted melee. Pretty various weaponry, and very heavy armor, they're like little tanks. I haven't experimented enough with "neutral" units to comment though. So personally, i think that a group of vaegir knights make the best melee units in the game...but thats just my opinion as most people seem to prefer the swadian variety...to each his own though.

 

[Ancient Whale]

I could swear I've seen many Swadian knights with two-handed swords...

 

[Ilex]

I could swear I've seen many Swadian knights with two-handed swords...

There are (and there are man at arms equipped with two handers).
EDIT: Why doesn't this topic starter post include Vaegir knights and dark knights? -> Is this thread about best troop of choices you consider or the best unit of the game?

 

[JohnathanStrange]

I think it's more a matter of personal preference for me: lately I've grown tired of riding to battle and prefer infantry combats and therefore prefer Vaegir Guards. Next week...who knows?

Your list is kind of short but interesting. My opinions, which are influenced not so much by weapon choices or armor or "stats":

Sword Sisters are really really cool. I usually have them in my party. Biggest drawback is that that you can't recruit replacements, you've got to win their freedom. Love the white coursers.

Hired Blades are really my choice when I'm a "neutral" character since I can recruit and train them straight outa Zendar. "Have Blade. Will Travel." Their Stats are fairly good too, for that matter.

Swadian Knights: never cared for Swadian units, not now anyway! Maybe 2 weeks from now, I'll go back to having Swadian sharpshooters and Knights again. The Swadian Knight stats are fairly decent also.

IF I had to choose for efficiency or power, I'd probably give the Swadian Knights the edge because they're easier to recruit (more places to hire from), have decent units all along the upgrade path (the Swords Sisters for example are fairly lightly-armoured through most of their upgrades), and seem to be the most heavily armored and well-mounted at the end (Sword Sisters are often helmetless and Hired Blades sometimes show up on foot).

Oddly enough though, I don't use them. I like variety over efficiency. Just my opinion.

 

[Tera_Dragon]

Sergeants are pretty good units if you want to go for unmounted melee. Pretty various weaponry, and very heavy armor, they're like little tanks..

How do you get sergeants?

When I had mainly Vaegir knights I'm sure all of them used two handed axes...

 

[Orion]

dont complain about them using 2 handed axes... 2H axes own!

i gave a 2 handed axe to marnid and he kick some dark knight ass, until he was knocked out by being charged so many times... marnid sux on a horse, so I didn't buy him one

personaly... I don't like having a big army. Reminds me too much of a big, drunk mob. The only people in my group (not big enough to be called an army) are 10 Vaegir archers, Marnid, Borcha, and my self. 13 people. I can do all the merchant quests by my self like Troublesome Bandits (easy to kill with my heavy Great Axe & war bow) and the escort caravans, cause I have just enough people. Big armies dont suit me, and I'd much rather have Marnid by my side than 5 knights.

 

[Rando]

I gotta say Hired blades are the best on that list. Ive never managed to keep a group of sword sisters past 3 battles and the Knights are good but I go with the Hired Blades because of their equipment. One of my priests had 12 hired blades (i had no leadership) that all had on Plate coats, Chargers, and I believe sword of wars (they had on greaves and helmets but I don't recall what they were). I haven't really played much with the vaegirs but when I did they were killed before acheiving noteworthy classes (I think I got a veteran once).

 

[slavetrader]

swadian sharpshooters. alright alright.. they aren't meleefighters, but they can do surprisingly well in close combat (and seem eager to throw away their crossbows and take out the fightingpicks). the best archerunit combined with a good meleefighter really make this a unit i always try to get (even when not swadian).

from the purely meleeunits I like the knights of the both side.

 

[rout]

For my new foot only party I have mostly swad shooters and they are pretty good, sometimes devastating mounted riders with polearms (glaives I think).
I have also recently raised a bunch of swad sergeants (top end foot soldiers), but I cant say how effective they are yet as I have them at the bottom of a very ranger-oriented stack.

 

[Destichado]

Hired Blades. Simple.

Swadian and Vaegir knights are lvl 23, Sword Sisters are lvl 23, and Hired Blades are lvl 24.

Rescuing Dark Knights, on the other hand, yeilds you lvl 33 troops.

 

[Ingolifs]

Level doesn't really mean much. How many times in the arena have you beat Dranton? Dranton's level 42, but i bet you've beaten him many more times than he's beaten you. It's the equipment that really makes the difference.

 

[Seff]

...Or how good the player is at using the weapon.

 

[Kniggit]

i dunno about you guys, but the best upgradable melee combat unit is a guy called Sir William (me)

First he was a peasant

then he was a swad militia

then he went to bieng a swad crossbowmen

then he went to bieng a sea raider

now he is in full reinforced black, he is the kinght of the light. yet he still insists on the full black for espionage reasons.

This guy takes awhile to get up there, but once you got him to be a Light Knight, there is no stopping him.

Best part is, he doesnt die

Ian

 

[Worbah]

Sergeants are pretty good units if you want to go for unmounted melee. Pretty various weaponry, and very heavy armor, they're like little tanks..

How do you get sergeants?

When I had mainly Vaegir knights I'm sure all of them used two handed axes...

Swad Infantry upgrades to sergeants

 

[Tzaeru]

someone tell me what are best FOOT soldiers that I can get to my own party..

I am using at the moment Vagir Guards. They are pretty ok, but dunno are they best.

Oh, and then what are best archers? I have those Swedian Sharpshooters, pretty bad arses they do a lot damage and hit almost always

 

[Sir Saladin]

Those sea raider viking guys are the toughest foot soldiers, but the only way to get them to join you is if they are fighting for some other group, its pretty hard because they don't normally lose to the other computer opponents.

 

[Tzaeru]

I just run around whit my brown horse and hope that they come.. or then I just mod some other foot troops to uber. hehe

 

[Orion]

i should try some infantry-only stuff. I just not learned what the Seargents were lol. Heavy swadian infantry I'll go try those out... too bad the peasants u get from Zendar can only be upgraded along 1 path. They should be able to stay infantry and get bows also. I'd love to see a peasant archer with a huge longbow owning cavalry, then watch as he pulls out his trusty pitchfork to help those cavalry units buy the farm.

oh punage. You jsut got punned, j00 n00b!

 

[zaleukos]

Dismounted Sword sisters are pretty nice. They use crossbows if you order them to hold position. Overall the AI does much better on foot.