Your Companion Composition

[Sigma-Rho]

How does everyone setup their companions and the roles they fill?

I usually stick them on a horse and give them a sword, shield and lance and call it a day but I'm sure there are more practical recommendations, thus why I'm asking you how you setup your companions. Is it better to divide them up and keep some on the ground or keep them true to what their starting advantage is ie: crossbow, 2hd wpn, etc... I don't like to keep people like "Simon Brewer" as ranged because they never seem to get as good of XP as the guys that are mounted.

 

[oroboros]

i put 14 of them on some heavy warhorses/destriers, give them the heaviest possible armours, heavy heater/kite shields, best 1-h swords i can find and afford and best bow for them use with their skills. In battle i tell them to follow me, ride untop of a hill and rain death unto the enemy, withdraw, place them in front of my cav, behind my archers/infantry in one line and again let them shoot. If i give the order to charge i command them to hold fire so that they then act as heavy cav. In sieges i let them do whatever they want. if the enemy is to nearly breakt through or there is a siege tower scene for defending i place them right into the opening on the walls. for siege attack i let them shoot until the enemy has been softened up and then let them initially charge (along with cav/inf) and hold their fire until they break through, then comes me the mighty hero of a somewhat cowardly warlord 

EDIT:
I don't use more then 14 ever. I've tweaked my favourite ones so that they are good in archery and 1-h, overwrite their earlier weapon profs. Now I try to only use 6 of them as I've read that DrT is going to implement the bodyguard system with 6 guys or something. This 6 I've partially tweaked to have the necessary skills like path-finding, spotting and such. It's actually more fun and challenging to use less companions, at least for me. And it's not such a burden to equip them all.

 

[toxic-nova]

Jep, I do nearly the same. I make them all to cavalry units. Only archers stay archers. But they become all horse archers.
I don't like crossbows because the good ones haven''t any sense on horseback.
Everyone else get a throwing weapon, a lance, a one handed sword and a shield. If they are experienced fighters they can become real heroes.

 

[gongo]

I consider their skills ed develop in that way.....I have a priest (healer and engeneer) without armour only with shield and sword...and i put him in the bottom of the list so him won't fight...however it's good to give them a horse and make them fight as first choise (if they have good skills) cause they don't die, and you don't lost soldiers

 

[MariusThePaladin]

One healer at top priority, one trainer, one trader, and maybe additional one tactician, if you could find a place to grind their level. All the remains are cavalries. 

At first, I equipped all of them with cheap horses, cheap helmets,cheap shields, cheap lances for warrior only, and 1-handed weapons that can be use to block, in case that they only have a knife with them.

Then, as I got richer, I upgraded my cavalry characters' armour, then weapon. After that I give the old cavalry equipment's to the non-warriors.

 

[geala]

Depends on the culture of the companion. It's my fist campaign in AD 1257, so I cannot say much, but in the other mods I used they were equipped and fought like they would have done "in reality". Now in AD 1257 I have a little bit a problem with them. I'm a (poor) Gaelic mercenary captain in Ireland and would prefer mostly Gaelic companions, lightly armoured and fighting with javelins and lances, but I have two Germans, one from Aragon, two Cumans/Mongols, a Serb (?) and just one Irish (who was good with a crossbow instead of the more typical javelins, I changed this).

 

[Darthvegeta800]

Oddly I have yet to encounter any compagnions whatsoever... >_>; Are they an option you need to select?

 

[Sigma-Rho]

Oddly I have yet to encounter any compagnions whatsoever... >_>; Are they an option you need to select?

Make sure you go up stairs in all of the taverns you visit, they like to hide up there which is pretty damn annoying considering that you walk up stairs like a 80 year old grandmother. I hate to admit this but it's the main reason why I never play the nordic factions, I can't stand having to check the Tavern every time I go into town and walk up those damn stairs!

 

[vodka1983]

Oddly I have yet to encounter any compagnions whatsoever... >_>; Are they an option you need to select?

Make sure you go up stairs in all of the taverns you visit, they like to hide up there which is pretty damn annoying considering that you walk up stairs like a 80 year old grandmother. I hate to admit this but it's the main reason why I never play the nordic factions, I can't stand having to check the Tavern every time I go into town and walk up those damn stairs!

just click tab a bunch of times and reenter the tavern till they are on first floor.

 

[geala]

Oddly I have yet to encounter any compagnions whatsoever... >_>; Are they an option you need to select?

Happened to me too. But there are some 20 or so, you can see them in the troops.txt (and change them, for example make them looking nicer  ). But there are so many towns in the world that they are difficult to find. You can ask tavern keepers for possible companions. Sometimes they can tell you where one is. If you have a lot of money then you can send them letters. And/or if you like you can cheat and use crtl + leftclick to beam to towns and search the taverns.

 

[Makememove]

Ok - since there are no rivalties between them in 1257, I allow myself to have a maximum number of 10 companions. I choose them according to their abilities and also regard it as important that I like them.

All companions should get a strengh level of at least 14 over time so they can use heavy armour.

1. companion becomes healer, with the important skills first aid, healing and surgery.
2. A trader with a high trading skill
3. a tracker with high skills in tracking, spotting and pathfinding.
4. an engineer and tactician
5. a looter (if I´m not the looter myself)

Important: Every compagnion is getting as good as possible as a trainer (remember, the trainer points are added!!!!! Important for late game)


As for weapons, when I started playing Mount/Blade, I made my companions always heavy knights with lance, sword/mace, destrier and shield. The problem with that was, however, that they always preferred to use their lance, even when unmounted. So now I use them as archers: thes get longbows, but keep sword and shield. so I can use them as a heavy cavalry against archers and weak infantry, but when they unmount they are capable bowmen. This is especially usefull when laing siege to an enemy castle - you always have strong and good archers that can be used as an elite infantry troop, too.
I recommend to use them as one unit, too.(9 - companions)
My healer gets a different number so he can stay back.