What’s the best faction in your opinion?

Just curious to know peaple’s opinions at the very end of warband’s life cycle (since bannerlord MIGHT come out in a few months)

Don't think it makes great sense to say "this faction is best". It really depends on how you play them against whom, and also on your personal style of leading and fighting. And of course on the circumstance (Siege? Open field? Are you outnumbered, or outnumbering?) as well as the composition of your army...
Most say Vaegir are strongest, Khergit are weakest. I've played all factions, and I did p0wn outnumbering armies of Vaegir without any losses in my full Khergit army often enough. Nowadays, what I like most is mix them, and take the best where it is: Nord Huscarls (mainly field), Vaegir Marksmen (mainly field), Rhodok Sergeant (siege or vs. cav), Rhodok Sharpshooters (siege or vs. cav) and of course Swadian Knights (field only). Actually I think Khergits are the most deadly ones, but they require much more effort to lead into battle. I'm a bit too lazy for that.

>Swadians listed twice
>No stronk Vaegirs, the best faction
Czuka

Definitely Swadia. On field cavalry is just stronger than infantry in warband. Rhodoks have arguably the best infantry but Swadia has the best cavalry and you're much stronger with an army of Swadian Knights than with an army of Rhodok infantry.. With around 40 you're basically invincible on the battleffield, you can barely lose.

You're supposed to scale the numbers with the wages, if you want a fair comparison. For the same wages as 40 Swadian Knights you can align 80 Rhodok Sergeants, and in a direct fight, 80 RS would defeat 40 SK. And Swadian Knights are a terrible choice for sieges as well. That's the reason why saying "this unit is best" or "this faction is best" is nonsense...

I'd even be ready to state: for each composition of an army you can name, there exists another composition of equal wages that would defeat the army you named.

Percival said:

Quintus Sertorious said:

Definitely Swadia. Cavalry is just stronger than infantry in warband. Rhodoks have arguably the best infantry but Swadia has the best cavalry and you're much stronger with an army of Swadian Knights than with an army of Rhodok infantry.. With around 40 you're basically invincible on the battleffield, you can barely lose.

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Yep Swadian Knights armor is pretty great. BTW I like your name, I too like that period Roman history 

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Thanks, Quintus Sertorius was a Roman politician :p

EirikrRaudi said:

You're supposed to scale the numbers with the wages, if you want a fair comparison. For the same wages as 40 Swadian Knights you can align 80 Rhodok Sergeants, and in a direct fight, 80 RS would defeat 40 SK. And Swadian Knights are a terrible choice for sieges as well. That's the reason why saying "this unit is best" or "this faction is best" is nonsense...

I'd even be ready to state: for each composition of an army you can name, there exists another composition of equal wages that would defeat the army you named.

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And true, if you want to know the real effectiveness of the soldiers you also gotta take into account the costs and the performance in sieges.

This might be kinda backwards, but I'd say Rhodoks because of how disproportionately painful it is is to take their castles and towns. That is on good campaign level anyways,  they'll always have 80sih Sharpshooters. Likewise, using sharpshooters against other factions in sieges is very effective. Sergeants are also much easier to train up then Huscarls, who are so high level that most people won't be able to train them until very late game. I don't like to pull infantry all over chasing sea raiders to level them.

I left Bariyye for Hakim as pension resort. I spared scenery Tevarin Castle for Harlaus. I plan to take last city of Vaegirs, Rivacheg and spare Buluga Castle for Yaroglek. Nords have Thir, Chalbek and Hrus castles I think. Khergit just entered the Coalition War I aim to leave Thulbuk to get Sanjar busy with nasty steppe bandits. For Rhodoks..... Graveth's 500 Rhodoks took my 50 Knights from my 160 Party. I have conquered Vyincourt and Uxkhal when they have less than 200 men. For map domination I have 50% Swadian 50 % Vaegir knights on the field. You can conquer Rhodoks cities and castles with 1000 men campaigning army mostly with Phyrric victories. But when every faction gang upon you It is the Swadians Who shines in the end Times. Mobility in campaign map is much more important that is why I choose Swadians. Also even you lose a city or castle that you failed to reach on time you can easily reconquer it with its raw garrison with knights. In my end game I aim to leave a castle or city for each faction. The game simply gets boring without them. After I do it they still do petty wars but never able to take their last castle or city. And my Empire border will finally have pax Calradia. Funnily I grind money with Khergit Lancers in early game as they were cheaper but tough enough to hunt sea raiders. But late game is all about policing your land. Your capital would be dhirim ideally. And you can raise around 10- 15 knights daily in peace time just circling around swadian villages. And storing - garrisoning them in Dhirim.

Rhodoks.  Seargeant beat **** out of even huscarls, they tank very good and get you prisoners. Sharpshooters are armed with slow, but deadly, heavy crossbows.