Best units?

[Lucipurr, The Silly One.]

Im struggling a bit to find the best army possible.
I go through units very fast, so things like the battanians noble archers arent really achievable.
Right now I tend to go pure heavy armor units like sturgian veteran warriors, but I feel there are much better options.

[Stabbity]

you can check the encyclopedia in game (press N) and look through the troops.

[∅Nixcraft∅]

sturgian shock and vet troops are best defense and the berserker is on par with the batt faux wielders. vlandians and aseri have the best shock cav, khans best horse archers. crossbows are preety op it seems so go with vlads on that empire is more jack of all trades

[T`Zarken]

I go for melee calv as much as possible followed by melee with shields. I have found that when i do a 2 to 1 outnumbered battle, my archers get slaughtered while most calv make it.

Also, swords over spears, I have calv to fight the clav, I need decent melee to overwhelm the enemy melee blob.

[Tactical Drongo]

Had a run with the Zhunites (or however it is written)

my mounted archers decimated most enemies, the melee cavalary trampled what was left

I have the feeling that one can, with the right tactics, play every kind of army effectively

[Cheezeburger]

I go with imperials because I like shiny :) Cataphract heavy calv as much as possible then the horse archer + legionairy infantry. I do however recruit noble lines from most factions though since they're typically beefier than stock troops.

[Gibson]

Originally posted by Stabbity:

you can check the encyclopedia in game (press N) and look through the troops.

Is there any way to see their armor and weapon stats though? I have looked at several units to try and compare and they have the same normal stats but I could not find any info about their gear. other than their visual appearance.

[Bloodwest]

"go through units very fast" you mean, you're constantly taking heavy casualties (unit losses)?
i could recommend better units in general but i don't think there is a magic pill for careless players. sturgian infantry is the strongest btw, probably the only troop tree which i wouldn't consider just a meatwall to cover rangeds. strugia's cav isn't the best though and their archers are relatively bad.

[Lucipurr, The Silly One.]

Originally posted by Xult:

I go with imperials because I like shiny :) Cataphract heavy calv as much as possible then the horse archer + legionairy infantry. I do however recruit noble lines from most factions though since they're typically beefier than stock troops.

Is there some easier way to find nobles? Only like 1/10 villages have them and they might have 2-3. By the time I get to level them they just die.

[Epicregent]

So, Sturgians are the "best" infantry faction. They hit hard, have decent armor, and great stats/weapons to really rack up the kills. However, I've noticed they tend to take casualties quickly as their elite units don't have the same armor of other factions, especially imperial. They have lackluster ranged options and only their noble line can produce shock cav.

The empire has the best armor for their units, and over the long run that counts for a lot. Sturgian berserkers don't feel as elite since they die easily. My army has wound up with a disproportionately large core of imperial legionaries since their so tanky the never die.

The Khazats are the best horse cavalry faction (obviously). Not only can they unlock ranged cav much earlier than other factions, their high tier ranged cav are much higher armored and faster than other factions ranged cav. I've got about 10 Khazat mounted archers in my army and I don't think I've ever seen them take a casualty in open battles. Their infantry is much less elite, Mostly due to lower than average armor, and less lethal weapons.

The Battarians have the one of the strongest light Archer core in game. Very mobile, Great Skirmishers, great shock troops. Not to much cavalry, but what they do have usually starts with their ranged attacks and then perform well as light shock cavalry as they use up their ammo. Their Falxmen will get as many kills as sturgian berserkers, but they have no staying power what so ever.

I haven't fought the vlandians much. From what I've read their shock cav is the best in the game. The one major battle I have had with them they had a corp of their crossbow men that DESTROYED my army. As far as I can tell, the only thing that keeps the crossbowmen from being the best ranged unit in the game is that they are rather slow.

The aseir are the other faction I don't have much experience with. From what I've seen, they traded armor for speed with their units.

[neppy]

Khuzait Horse Archer

[KalkiKrosah]

Originally posted by Zoey:

Originally posted by Xult:

I go with imperials because I like shiny :) Cataphract heavy calv as much as possible then the horse archer + legionairy infantry. I do however recruit noble lines from most factions though since they're typically beefier than stock troops.

Is there some easier way to find nobles? Only like 1/10 villages have them and they might have 2-3. By the time I get to level them they just die.

Yes, there is an easier way. There's major factions (Aseria, Khuzait, Sturgia) and then there's minor factions (Wolfskins, Karakhuzaits, The Hidden Hand). Find a minor faction affiliate of the units you want to acquire. Find one of their "Lords" riding around the map. These minor factions are relatively small in size (roughly 30-40 strong) and have noble units in their armies. Find them and attack them in order to capture their units. If you keep them prisoner long enough they will eventually defect and you can recruit them to your own army. You can use this to supplement recruiting them the old fashioned way through village merchants and gang leaders.

[T`Zarken]

Originally posted by KalkiKrosah:

Originally posted by Zoey:

Is there some easier way to find nobles? Only like 1/10 villages have them and they might have 2-3. By the time I get to level them they just die.

Yes, there is an easier way. There's major factions (Aseria, Khuzait, Sturgia) and then there's minor factions (Wolfskins, Karakhuzaits, The Hidden Hand). Find a minor faction affiliate of the units you want to acquire. Find one of their "Lords" riding around the map. These minor factions are relatively small in size (roughly 30-40 strong) and have noble units in their armies. Find them and attack them in order to capture their units. If you keep them prisoner long enough they will eventually defect and you can recruit them to your own army. You can use this to supplement recruiting them the old fashioned way through village merchants and gang leaders.

In my 109 strong army I have over 50 prisoners at all times that are all teir 4 - 6.

Every 1 - 3 days I get to recruit 1 - 4 of them. It is because of this that my army of 109 only has 6 teir 2 - 3 troops, and 3 of those are cavalry.

[Cheezeburger]

Originally posted by KalkiKrosah:

Originally posted by Zoey:

Is there some easier way to find nobles? Only like 1/10 villages have them and they might have 2-3. By the time I get to level them they just die.

Yes, there is an easier way. There's major factions (Aseria, Khuzait, Sturgia) and then there's minor factions (Wolfskins, Karakhuzaits, The Hidden Hand). Find a minor faction affiliate of the units you want to acquire. Find one of their "Lords" riding around the map. These minor factions are relatively small in size (roughly 30-40 strong) and have noble units in their armies. Find them and attack them in order to capture their units. If you keep them prisoner long enough they will eventually defect and you can recruit them to your own army. You can use this to supplement recruiting them the old fashioned way through village merchants and gang leaders.

Ah one other sneaky tip, if you have high enough leadership to get the disciplinarian trait(and i think you may need a mod to get it working, bugged perk?) you can convert the various bandit lines into the noble lines of their respective faction :)

[Vash]

So far i have found the Empire cataphract cav to be the best option as they tear though all other shock cav and demoralize any force they slam into. I have about 40 of them atm.
They do better then Vland as they have better armor, weapons and mounts. Vland tend to lose they're mounts fast and fair much worse in my encounters. I also find empire elite tree more common place so easy'er to set up a large force early.

Legionary are a sound strategy against all but Sturgian Veteran Warrior's as i lost a stupidly massive force of them to a 1/3 sized force of these nightmares. next play through im gona try using just these bastards, right now im working on a 50/50 approach as legionary armor is best.
Further more i find the Sturgian axe wielding bastards the best option for clearing walls and sieges in general.

While Batt, bowmen(when you can find them) are insanely good, The Vland Crossbowmen are devastation. While less armor then empire, they have higher stats, better weapons and can hold they're own in melee better. I have 30 of each group and im finding this to be magical.

The Khuzait Darkhan looks to be a nasty contender but i haven't had any interaction with them yet.

Im also experimenting with the Batt, Spearman, as they have better shields than empire, a spear for anti cav, and a sword for infantry. In all my games these guys kick the crap out of the empire.

[Chex 86]

i have yet to see the norse not die.