Best and worse background

[Dermenore]

What background are the best for you? What background do you think are the worse (aka: you never take them)?
I would appreciate if you detail for the early, mid and late game. I don't think you take the same background at day 5 than as day 100.
I look in the "attribute average" on the wiki, with it "rating". It's interesting but it don't take into acount event, cost or match with build. For example, do you really think that thief are more usefull than milita or lumberjack?

[suejak]

Best background is sellsword because I just feel so safe and secure buying a sellsword. Common, cheap hire price, and great bases mean it's relatively easy to find one that can do a ton of 2020 builds at a high end with almost any star arrangement, and even be great without stars. Hell, even good traits with no stars make a good sellsword. And I'm triggering all the people who hate sellswords at the same time! This background enables me to do it all at once. Only downside is money and I'm rich.

Worst background is uhh, servant? I never hire servants. Haven't thought this one through. I don't think I hate any background.

I apologize for ignoring your early/mid/late parameters because I realized halfway through that I didn't want to type that much.

[Hykal]

Farmers are always good. I find Thieves make for decent tanks. Sellswords make for gold hybrids. The odd Indebted serve well in the first 30 days or so.

I haven't hire a gladiator yet. Anyone know what they're comparable to?

[IspartaPratapon]

Originally posted by Hykal:

Farmers are always good. I find Thieves make for decent tanks. Sellswords make for gold hybrids. The odd Indebted serve well in the first 30 days or so.

I haven't hire a gladiator yet. Anyone know what they're comparable to?

They are identical to sellswords except with less ranged attack.

[Whatever100500]

Thieves, Militia, Lumberjacks, Farmhands, Brawlers and Poachers are all roughly same top tier militia hires. Manhunters are slightly below because they can't have Iron Lungs.
Daytalers, Vagabonds, etc are mediocre in general, but can still be good with right rolls/talents/traits.
Beggars, Indebted, Cripples, Peddlers, etc are so bad that even perfect roll can't save them. Can't have most good traits either.

[suejak]

Ooh, deserter is a good one. I hate deserters.

[Vertibird]

Originally posted by Black Goat:

Peddlers are ♥♥♥♥, they can't even get good attack rolls and deserters are useless because they break at the first sight of blood.

Everyone's already mentioned the good ones.

Peddlers can be very good tanks. Not everyone has to be skilled attacker.

[Antifringe]

Personally, I organize the backgrounds into categories based on their melee attack, since that's the thing you're shopping for about 80% of the time. This sorts them out into tiers:


Noncombatant Tier (average MA 47 or less) : These are cripples, historians, peddlers, and monks. Only the peddlers are worth mentioning, with their high-ish Melee defense (about two level ups worth relative to their peers).

People really like monks, but I think they're bad. People massively overvalue events.

Peasants (52): Most backgrounds are here. Thief is a standout with very good Defense scores. Can make a good fencer with that initiative as well. Servant, refugee, and beggar are crippled by their Resolve and should be avoided. Messenger is slightly above average in this tier. Farmhands have health and stamina rivaling hedge knights and are personal favorites. Houndmaster has slightly elevated Melee Def (about one levels worth).

"Scrappy" Peasants (53-55): Slightly more "fight-y" than most commoners. This includes Brawlers, Miners, Lumberjacks, and a few others. Everyone knows Brawlers are good. Lumberjacks are excellent with their high health and stamina. Wildmen do this even better, but suffer from bad Defense scores. Miners have terrible fatigue but can be salvaged by using gimmicky "zero stamina" builds.

Militia Tier (57-60): These guys fight for a living, but aren't actually soldiers. Most of them have good Melee Defense as well, roughly double what peasant tier has. Beasthunters are kind of bad, having normal peasant tier defense, compensated with elevated (but still bad) ranged skill. Squire and Militia are both good, with Squire being the best. Deserters look great at first but that Resolve is unworkable.


Professional (60+): Adventurous Noble has the highest Resolve in the game and good Melee Attack, making him an ideal bannerman. You'll have to patch out his horrible Ranged Defense (it's so bad that it actually matters a bit). Bastards are bad, with poor Resolve and Stamina. Hedge Knight is king. Disowned Noble is okay, but I'd rather hold out for the Adventurous Noble instead. Sellsword is high tier in everything and top in nothing, which ends up being pretty good. Swordmasters are expensive and kind of gimmicky. Raiders are good. Middling Resolve, but not unfixable.

If you want archers, then it's easy:
Poachers if you absolutely must have an archer right now (you totally don't need an archer right now).
Witchunters are as skilled as poachers but cost a ton.
Hunters are best by a lot.
Sellswords are second best and are good at other things too.

Everyone else should only use ranged attacks on a situational basis.

[The Duck Knight]

one of my new favorites are shepards.
They often have a decent (for the money the cost) base stat in melee and ranged and can easily be used as throwing/1H+shield hybrids in frontline. a great pick for early and mid game.

Witchhunters are often overlooked alternatives to hunters/poachers if you play on a map without a good spot to recruit hunters/poachers. Also great as pole-X/crossbow hybrids in backline or bannermans.

I don't like sellswords, raiders, swordmasters and...well...mostly nearly all top tier backgrounds, I think they are far to expansive for the little bit of better stats they have compared to mid-tier backgrounds.

[Grosnours]

For range attacks (archers, throwers, handgonners), there are only a few profile that fit, presented from the best in ratt to the worst :
- Hunters (59 max, the kings by far, but pricey)
- Nomad ranged (56 max, they are like nomads but come with ranged weapons when hired and have higher ratt stats They are also very expensive)
- Sellsword (52 max but they are so expensive it's a questionable choice)
- Bowyer (52 max cheap and have the famed bow event, one is a must have)
- Squires (50 max, a bit pricey and a bit of a waste considering they are quite good with matt)
- Witchunters (50 max)
- Beast Hunters (49 max)
- Poachers (49 max, cheap)
- Sheperds (49 max, cheap)

I'd recommend avoid using Nomad ranged, Sellswords or Squires if you want to run a company with a reasonable wage cost.

[Lampros]

Farmhands. No comparison.

[hurdygurdyman]

Don't listen to the haters, Monks are a must have. Inexpensive (I think they uniformly cost 120 crowns; I can't recall ever seeing a Monk cost anything else), They are open to most if not all the good traits, if you get good stats and stars you can have a viable late-game DPS killer, great resolve makes for excellent bannermen and tanks, and they offer a multitude of beneficial events to all origins and play styles.

[Lampros]

Originally posted by Antifringe:

People really like monks, but I think they're bad. People massively overvalue events.

I cannot agree, as my playthroughs revolve entirely around Events. I run around with 5-6 guys fighting for the first 500 or so days of my Lone Wolf playthroughs - with 6-7 guys sitting in reserve for Combat Drill, Brawler Teaches, Farmer Old Tricks, etc. When they are done, they all have 70-plus Melee or the like. It may be too tedious (and at times difficult) for most people, but at that stage you have Hedge Knights for the price of Farmhands, and a mechanic that creates this outcome is not value-less.

TLDR: Events are so powerful that it is possible to make them the centerpiece in your campaign.

[Grosnours]

Monks are excellent cost effective sergeants/backliners but flagellants are also very competitive for the same spot, minus the events of course. Well you do also have events with flagellants but they might turn out a bit less positive...

[Cat®]

I try to get as many King's Guards, Belly Dancers, Barbarians, and northern Assassins as I can get my hands on. What? What do you mean that is not in the spirit of the question? YOU'RE NOT IN THE SPIRIT OF THE-

For early game I try not to be too picky. I sometimes take miners because they are alright, except for toilet fatigue; which wont matter if a battle is decided in round 2. I generally stay away from beggars, servants, and daytalers for no particular reason. I find that if you can get butchers, fishermen, farmers, etc; you're not suffering enough to lower your standards. I find indebted are pretty alright chaff if you need someone to hold a shield or a pitchfork and you aren't too concerned with them. If you can afford an early nomad at level 2-3 that's also a great pick, they're consistently useful aside from one bad event.

For midgame it's the usual suspects of poachers, hunters, bowyers, caravan hand. At this point I want at least one caravan hand, one cultist, and one monk. For the health of the party. While I don't hate deserters, I find them rather useful, I do try to avoid them just because I am not a fan of second-line pikes at this point. I want people to graduate into conventional two-handers and deserters aren't suited for that. Nomads are good here too, especially the ranged ones. I got a swordmaster in my current run here and he did good stuff.

For lategame it's hedge knight, wildmen, witch hunters; all the good stuff. Who cares anymore it's the lategame, baby. I do however here have a hard limit on nobles, if I have more than 0 nobles I have to dismiss a noble. Because they're whiny jerks. At this point I am also triggered at suejak's post because in my current playthrough my one sellsword bailed on me. I hate those guys.

That said the more unique backgrounds the better.

[Lampros]

Originally posted by Cat®:

At this point I am also triggered at suejak's post because in my current playthrough my one sellsword bailed on me. I hate those guys.

Well, he would have cost you the longer you played anyways! ;)

I don't normally use more than one Sellsword, and in recent games I've ignored them altogether. Funny I just bought one to have a gunner/pikeman hybrid, and he rolled...

Three stars in Melee Skill, Ranged Skill AND Melee Defense AND max score on Melee Skill and Ranged Skill.

The best "premium" Background recruit I've ever seen - though I would have much preferred to see that kind of luck on Hedge Knights or even Farmhands (but Farmhands don't need outstanding stats out of the gate, as they will accumulate tons anyways through Events).

For now he's sitting in reserve (just discovered that Combat affiliation Backgrounds can access Combat Drill - contrary to what Wiki says), and he already got 2 archery contests and 2 Combat Drill Events.

I will be so ticked off if he gets that Event and leaves... (I sure am not paying the increased wages!)