best infantry

[lar unuruur]

i think, it is a good video on infantry, players may be interested in it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDDxzJ_GSMA

i myself got to conclusion, that best infantry is cavalry.
why? because how important can be speed on world map. cavalry can be dismounted before battle and used as cavalry charge stopping force when needed.

but from efficiancy standpoint in whole army, any infantry is a waste. not matter how hard i try, i feel infantry is a wasted space on battlefield. xbows can be used as shieldwall better than any infantry, because they can shoot and in right moment can raise shields.
fians are great in close combat with anything.

with fians/xbows/horsearcher army i can exterminate 3x times bigger force with around 10-15% losses. but if i take infantry in army, i have much more losses and longer battles. they can not do anything for very long time, while xbows can, yet xbows perform close combat on average with same results as infantry. and fians are simply best melee units than most if not any infantry. maybe except legionaries.

i struggle hardly to find use for infantry in bannerlord warfare.

[Voncrow]

How ironic because that's how I feel about cav. The player can easily use infantry to completely negate enemy cavalry, archers, and other infantry with the right amount of archers to back them up. You may have a point about party speed except for the fact that the mounted infantry bonus from having horses in your inventory is sufficent to outspeed AI parties. Furthermore, unless you decide not to, your army will eventually get big enough that move speed will always be less than enemy parties/ smaller armies. The fact is that infantry have better stats, cost, and equipment compared to non-noble cavalry of the same tier. Then you consider the hassle of keeping noble cav when their role can easily be replaced by any number of infantry units. Even if you generate less casualties, infantry is so replaceable that it's a none issue. Especially because your going to take significant casualties from sieges anyway unless you cheese it. The fact is that melee cav under performs compared to every other type of unit because of how terrible cav AI is. Using it is entirely preferential.

[flyingscot1066]

Sea Raider Chief best infantry.

[Hasbulat]

I use an army of fians and x-bowmen only, works fine.

[RJboxer]

No single unit army works.

You need mixed arms. If not, the AI is smart enough to smash you. And does. Skirmish alone would murder all your archers.. and that's just one tactic they use.

Can you make 500 Tier 5 xbows... and fight 800 mixed units.. all tier 1-3... probably. But same tiers? no. lol. No way And xbows would be your best shot.. because of those stupid shields. Those shields make xbows way way too OP IMO, and make them NOT fun to fight. I like to be on horse. and I cant kill an xbowman because he ducks down to reload. and his 84 foot shield covers his whole back like a Titanium armadillo... and My glaive wont damage him? Stupid.

As to fians.. they are my most favorite troop to fight against. They are trash. You just rush at them, and kill em. No trick. It's like fighting looters with less rocks.



As to cavalry vs infantry. I like OPs argument that they are basically infantry on horses. and can dismount. The problem with this is after your 20th battle.

I may be jaded since I am pushing 2000 hours, but after my army is stacked, I've raised my combat a ton.. and want to focus on taking over a second or third kingdom... I tend to "auto-resolve" many many many many many battles after my first 20 or so.
And single type armies work even worse in that scenario. So you need infantry in your army.. just to accommodate the Auto resolve algorithm

[lar unuruur]

Originally posted by RJboxer:

No single unit army works.

You need mixed arms. If not, the AI is smart enough to smash you. And does. Skirmish alone would murder all your archers.. and that's just one tactic they use.

Can you make 500 Tier 5 xbows... and fight 800 mixed units.. all tier 1-3... probably. But same tiers? no. lol. No way And xbows would be your best shot.. because of those stupid shields. Those shields make xbows way way too OP IMO, and make them NOT fun to fight. I like to be on horse. and I cant kill an xbowman because he ducks down to reload. and his 84 foot shield covers his whole back like a Titanium armadillo... and My glaive wont damage him? Stupid.

As to fians.. they are my most favorite troop to fight against. They are trash. You just rush at them, and kill em. No trick. It's like fighting looters with less rocks.



As to cavalry vs infantry. I like OPs argument that they are basically infantry on horses. and can dismount. The problem with this is after your 20th battle.

I may be jaded since I am pushing 2000 hours, but after my army is stacked, I've raised my combat a ton.. and want to focus on taking over a second or third kingdom... I tend to "auto-resolve" many many many many many battles after my first 20 or so.
And single type armies work even worse in that scenario. So you need infantry in your army.. just to accommodate the Auto resolve algorithm

thing is, out of curiosity, i experiment with composition. most successeful was pure fian army. it is on border of cheating. that is how i counter even very hevy cavalry aserai with them.

on the far far left i make at first skein so that right side of the skein is in line with front line, but left side is looking to north-west. second fian batallion is quite a bit away and also turned north-west but in line. third batallion is even further to the right, preferably on hill and they have square formation, but they have sight so when they hit, they hit all.
fourth batallion is very to the right, that is used to move to surround slowly incoming infantry wall. i start to move them in line like a lever so they are excatly behind incoming infantry while enemy infantry is "not" closer than 50 meters. but second battallion at whom enemy army charge with its shield wall starts to go back. so my front line(second ranged unit) maintain 50-70m distance as long as possible to allow my flanks do as much damage as they can before front lines meet each other.

in the end all my four fian batallions surround enemy army in circle. it is a pity sight for aserai, AI have no idea what to do. they hold their horses at first, but horses are melted by both rear flanks. then they charge at my flanks, then i use either skein or tight circle.
fians just DESTROY cavalry. try it! their two handers exterminate cavalry vey effectively and then return to shooting. battle is slow, but very efficient.

something similar is done with xbows. xbows are amazing units, they are good in melee. even very good sometimes if commanded right. they start shoot very early and far. but volleys must be concentrated enough to deal damage. incoming horse archers and cavalry charges are countered by commanding shields up again and tight formations. xbows chop horsmen almost as efficiently as fians. but fians are just superb.

in short: AI have no idea what excatly to do with my formations. they go, they go back and forth, can not decide. while they are not decided, all the time they suffer from arrow/bolt volleys. and sustain very heavy losses. half cavalry lost their horses by that time and becomes slow infantry.

hardest is pure infantry. high losses always.

and i almost never siege. i can assist to sieges. but what i do, i block superior enemy armies to interrupt sieges of my lords. so kingdom take sieges on themselves, but i support them with my forces so they can do their job.
but when i siege, i always destroy walls completely and have all engines in place and do "sent army" choice. losses are around 10% too. at max. sure, i do not try siege very hard garrisons, i let die other lord`s units, not mine.

[lar unuruur]

and on topic why and how i found cavalry is best infantry a little more.
cavalry for me was far more flexible units than infantry, similar how xbows are "infantry with crossbows", as xbows are effectively functional at all stages of battle, cavalry is flexible because what kind of unit i need on different terrains.

let us take example of desert/plains battle.
very possibly, i will need cavalry in its main role. great, i can use it.
but say i fight in bogs or tight forests. now i have choice to just dismount cavalry, raise their shields, go sometimes even in tighter forest and for kuzaits it is an end. they are done in this scenario. not only they are slowed by bumping into trees, they meet shields of dismounted cavalry.

so, with shielded cavalry i have multipupose unit, same as with xbows.

but if i have pure infantry, 50 to 75% of the time they do nothing to melt enemy down. and they are not flexible enough or not efficient enough in melee to compensate that "doing nothing" time.
cavalry i can move to the position very, very fast and dismount them there and use as very mobile infatry if i suddenly need. with pure infantry i can not do that.

main infantry problem is - every unit is almost efficient at melee job as melee unit itself. but never other way around. infantry is not superb at anything.

i do not like that. i would like to see infantry in its historical place.

[𝔗𝔢𝔞 ❀]

Yeah, I do like the Vlandian knights on foot for taking castles or taking prisoners (banner knights lose their maces, strangely enough). They don't walk fast, but short weapons, good stats and a nice shield saves the day.

[Major0Noob]

they're suppose to be armoured, armour's cosmetic though...
in native militia are basically dismounted knights for 1/5 the wage. you can fight then run & restock to beat armies worth 10x more. only after 3 times moral's a problem

after i used mods to buff armour the legionaries destroyed me.
inf have a simple ability to stand and fight, turning the formation into a blender of swords/spears.

the native 2-hit-KO really screws them over.

[𝔗𝔢𝔞 ❀]

Originally posted by RJboxer:

No single unit army works.

You need mixed arms. If not, the AI is smart enough to smash you. And does. Skirmish alone would murder all your archers.. and that's just one tactic they use.

Can you make 500 Tier 5 xbows... and fight 800 mixed units.. all tier 1-3... probably. But same tiers? no. lol. No way And xbows would be your best shot.. because of those stupid shields. Those shields make xbows way way too OP IMO, and make them NOT fun to fight. I like to be on horse. and I cant kill an xbowman because he ducks down to reload. and his 84 foot shield covers his whole back like a Titanium armadillo... and My glaive wont damage him? Stupid.

As to fians.. they are my most favorite troop to fight against. They are trash. You just rush at them, and kill em. No trick. It's like fighting looters with less rocks.



As to cavalry vs infantry. I like OPs argument that they are basically infantry on horses. and can dismount. The problem with this is after your 20th battle.

I may be jaded since I am pushing 2000 hours, but after my army is stacked, I've raised my combat a ton.. and want to focus on taking over a second or third kingdom... I tend to "auto-resolve" many many many many many battles after my first 20 or so.
And single type armies work even worse in that scenario. So you need infantry in your army.. just to accommodate the Auto resolve algorithm

Nah, fian armies work (you may beat them, but AI has real trouble), so do knight armies (which are just fine for sieges if your character leads them in). Reckon armies of forest bandits and sea raider chiefs would also work well. Puppeteers? No, definitely not, but Vlandian sharshooters (with anti-cav perks to drop horses on the battlefield) can take a castle or city by themselves (you do call them OP), and can also fight up close if they have to do so. I reckon some unit types are strong enough, especially when great ranged, to do whatever you need with an army solely composed of them.

[Hasbulat]

Originally posted by RJboxer:

No single unit army works.

You need mixed arms. If not, the AI is smart enough to smash you. And does. Skirmish alone would murder all your archers.. and that's just one tactic they use.

That not true. At least with current patch. Fight AI and accuracy of the melee cavalry are very weak.

Good ranged units, especially fians and vlandians sharpshooter work perfect without any support of other units. I use additional the horse archers, prefered the nobles of Khuzaits.

But again, now ranged units are strong enough to be victorous in each situation.