Best retinue

[rrowpt]

i just got the leagacy of rome dlc so i was wondering wich retinue is best

[that guy]

Pure pikemen is currently the best retinue.

[Doc]

Depends on who you are.
But never light infantry.

For example:
Altaic should always use Horse Archers, because their cultural tactics make optimum use of that composition of units.
Western European should use Heavy Cavalry, because their cultural tactics make optimum use of, er, Heavy Cavalry.
In cases where you don't have cultural tactics (or are Scottish or Italian, either of which make optimum use of pikes), then yes, pure pikes are the best...although HI are still the counter to pikes, and so you should mix in at least some HI (I use a 2:1 ratio).

[Zsrai]

The short version is basically Pikes/Defence retinues, or at least Heavy Infantry (especially if you have HI cultural buildings). Light Cav works well enough on a flank, and everything else starts getting worse from there. The top 3 are literally Pikes, Pikes (Scottish and Italian cultural versions, can't remember what order) and then Defense (which is mostly Pikes).

Originally posted by Doc:

Depends on who you are.
But never light infantry.

Light Infantry are great... to scare off your vassals from firing off their factions when you have a swarm of them. Otherwise they are hot garbage, true.

[Valentine Michael Smith]

honestly, by the time you can actually start using retinues you've pretty much already won.

[Zsrai]

Originally posted by Valentine Michael Smith:

honestly, by the time you can actually start using retinues you've pretty much already won.

Nah... but once you can use them as a whole army? Yeah you're right. You can get a couple of units to be a flank and still be far from winning though, depending on your tech.

[HellFalcon]

Light infantry is the best if you are playing as Ethiopians.

[Fredericks of Cursewood]

For most cases, the special cultural untis are the best retinues. They get some additional bonuses compared to the generic units.

http://www.ckiiwiki.com/Retinues#Cultural_retinues

[domuka]

stick with pikes. they havent changed unit stats since they nerf the archers. if you're anything but nomad, play pure pikes as you can win battles 1.5 your number. if nomad, go pure light until you grab a desert area then go camal. better yet, if you can grab constatinople and move your capital there, you can create pure heavy cavs and wreck the entire world (armies 3 times your size melt even if they are defending on mountains...)

[Zsrai]

The best Nomad Horde, before pure HC armies, is actually a 1 to 1 split with the pure LC and the LC/HC mixed unit (the 150/100 split IIRC). It's just enough HC to prevent the bad LC tactics from firing.

[Tjuh]

Pure defense as others have said, excellent for fighting and assaulting.