The best use of companions?

[Supply Side Jesus]

I wanted to start discussion to see how others use companions and share what I do.

In my games, I pick two types of companions - ones that lead party and ones that are always accompany my party. I never assign governors, as bonuses are small and culture penalties are too significant. Late in the game I might assign useless family members to become governors, if culture matches.

Ones that are intended to lead party I look for stewardship, tactics, and scouting with one of the complimentary roguery, trade or leadership.

=Independent party=
Stewardship is needed for +party size. It takes too slow for companions to raise, so it is a must. (Note: Would be nice to speed up skill gain for NPCs)
Tactics is needed to make auto-resolve AI vs. AI work, without it they are useless. It almost never increases, so what you recruit is what you get. (Note: Please fix this, NPCs tactics gain is glacially slow).
Scouting increases map speed, which is huge advantage, but it would raise eventually, so its fine to have companion with no Scouting as long as there is room to grow.
I think weapon skill and equipment is irrelevant, but I am not certain about this.
I don't think perk bonuses from weapon skills work, at least I have not noticed that one companion is better than another.
I think traits determine AI behavior, so I avoid brave and look for devious.

X of the Wastes and X Gray Falcon seems to be best suited for this role.

=My party=
I used to get one role each companions (foot troop, archer, cavalry, mounted archery) but recently changed my mind, as they don't seem to out-perform max-tier unit. The only exception is mounted cavalry with throwing weapons.

My plan forward is to have 3-4 companions in group 3 all armed with glaives or two-handed star falcons or executioner's axes (swing-only, massive damage), heavy armor, fastest possible horse (so they get ahead of the group during charges) and throwing javelins. No shield. The rationale behind this setup is that companions are essentially immortal, you can use them to charge and do massive damage to any group. The setup maximizes 1-hit kills (both mounted javelins and weapons I pick will deliver 1-hit kills on most targets).

I pick based on weapon skill, riding and throwing. Athletics also relevant in sieges. These are usually X the Black and X the Golden type of companions. Your brother also fits this role, but he is better as independent due to high tactics and scouting.

What do you do in your games?

[Supply Side Jesus]

I wanted to add that I don't use companions to level stewardship or medicine skills, these will be for my primary character. I do use companion for scouting in my main party, but usually it is one of the independent companions that were defeated and now riding with me.

I don't have a companion for siege/engineering - it just doesn't make any difference at the moment. This will change once TW get around implementing this skill.

[Morkonan]

One can opt to use Companions to assume Roles or not. IMO, it's a play-choice. Assuming all roles, oneself, which is something along the lines of what happens when Companions aren't filling other "Roles" means the Character will level a bit faster in general and you'll always have those Skills available even if you don't have a Companion filling that Role. It also means the player can pick up character-specific perk bonuses for their character very easily. One will get more character levels/exp faster when not allowing Companions to accrue those Skill levels in assigned Roles. But, I have yet to see anything detrimental for not leveling one's character that quickly... (I assign Companions to Clan Roles, usually, and I think my highest leveled character was 23+ or so. Other players level much faster to a high level, but in terms of game-outcome I don't see any player-performance issues dependent on character level at all.)

But, if you don't care about not getting some of those bonuses and don't mind using Companions for certain Roles, then there isn't much of a downside unless they get killed.

The RNG Companions in-game right now don't seem to be as powerful as Companions on Warband on the field. It'll take some time to build up a truly powerful Companion that can, for instance, act as a "siege breaker" and clear out the wall defenders single-handedly. I would not recommend taking on Companions for their fighting skills, alone. (Maybe if one comes across a low-cost one very early in-game.)

IMO, the best use for Companions, and the only one that should really be a default consideration for players, are as Governors. Caravans are a bit wonky, atm, and often a waste of resources. Roles are basically a player-preference sort of consideration. And there's not much call for their combat abilities until one can really beef them up with gear/perks.

PS: Later, when we get pregenerated Companions, there will likely be some very strongly reinforced preferences regarding how to use them.

[Supply Side Jesus]

Can you explain to me why you think Governors are useful and outline what skills and perks you pick for such companion?

[Odis]

I simply just use most of my companions to either lead parties or use them to refine Charcoal for smithing.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by Supply Side Jesus:

Can you explain to me why you think Governors are useful and outline what skills and perks you pick for such companion?

I don't really know how "useful" they are right now, to be honest. It's that the Player Character can't be a "Governor" that's the issue. So, if you don't assign that to a Companion and you can only have one spouse... Well, the implication is that a Companion can or should fill those roles else there is no application of a "Governor Bonus" available for fiefs. (Making the Perks involved meaningless.)

As to my own experience with Companion Governors - Anyone can do it and they don't appear to screw it up, no matter how useless they are, and there appears to be some kind of effect... I've assigned useless troglodytes as Governors and the fiefs did fine. :)

The Perks should be obvious - Anything with Governor bonuses "should" apply. Does it right now? /shrug All I do know is that fiefs seem to be more stable with an assigned Governor.

I've assigned trade specialist RNG Companions as governors and haven't necessarily always seen any marked increase in profits/taxes/trade-related incomes or the like. But, it's difficult to really know when some Perks are only partially implemented, some not at all, some fully functional. I would say that the "obvious" ones should be obvious - +Trade-related perks should be good to maximize an economy, Perks related to squashing crime, etc, should help with unrest.

One thing I do know appears to work are the Culture bonuses/penalties for Companion Governors. Well, inasmuch as the bonus/penalty is displayed. Whether or not that's meaningful right now is anyone's guess. :)

[JohnR]

I usually just use my companion slots to complete quests to reduce prosperity penalties in settlements/bound villages. Mainly because I have no interest in doing them myself.

[Rhodzey]

I use companies that match the culture of a settlement. I wait until they have 50 horse riding 1st as ya get the perk that gives +1 prosperity to settlements if governer and then ya get loyalty from having the same culture. High loyalty also increases prosperity. I have all my castles at 1400 prosperity now and my 3 towns, Charas, Sargot and Orysia are all 5000+. :).

[Edmund Greyfox]

Having a governor of the right culture increases loyalty, and a governor also increase militia growth. If you use one that's an engineer you can also get a bonus to the speed new construction is completed. The old perk tree for steward had one that never worked that allowed you to have an extra companion for each fief you owned, so i think the original thought was that you could hire a companion of the right culture as a governor for each place.

I used to hire companions for most of the jobs, but i'm experimenting with doing more of them myself. I think part of it depends on how high you want a particular skill to be, how long you're willing to wait to raise it to that level yourself, and whether you want to use the smithing mechanics to get your companions some extra levels so they can put more focus points into whichever skill they are focused on.