Best cavalry in Viking Conquest

[Regent]

Greetings all

Only recently I discovered the devastating effect of a flanking cavalry charge. Unfortunately Frankish horsemen are extremely expensive to hire and maintain. Since training your own cavalry is a painfully slow process I would rather ask for advice then go find our by trial and error.
So in your opinion, who are the best cavalry troops in Viking conquest? As far as I understand the only horsemen in the game can be trained from Irish or Pictish recruits (with all others being pony's). Or have I missed someone out?

[Tuidjy]

The only cavalry that is cost effective for cavalry charges in Viking Conquest is companion cavalry. The heaviest other cavalry - Frankish, Frisian, Irish, Pictish, Old Captains, etc... is much too expensive to hire or upgrade, and you WILL lose people in melee.

If you are good at managing companions, even in sandbox, you can easily have 6 companions mounted on horses, with a balanced Ulfberth sword, a reinforced shield, a Ray spear to be used as a makeshift lance, and 12 horseman javelins. And they cannot die. As far as I am concenred, my six (Clovis, Morgant, Beda, Bodo, Ceawlin, and Asbjorn) cover all of my cavalry needs.

If you insist on using mortal cavalry, I'd say that Pictish and Irish cavalry would be your best bets.

The pros and cons of each:
- Irish bodyguards can be obtained with just one upgrade from Tier III Irish Warriors, which you can recruit for peanuts from a town that loves you.
- Pictish nobles are guaranteed heavy armor, which improves their survivability.
- Irish bodyguards have slightly better power throw, so they are more likely to get a few kills with javelins.
- Irish bodyguards have slightly better power strike, so they deal slightly more damage in combat.
- Pictish nobles are slightly more proficient with their swords, which makes them slightly faster in melee.
- Irish bodyguards have better athletics, which makes them move better and tire slower in melee.

All of these are minor, except for the first two. Basically, Irish are cheaper and much easier to train, and Picts are more durable.

[Weizen1988]

Nevermind, Tuidjy's got it.

[Tuidjy]

By the way, the most powerful non-companion cavalry are the Old Captains. Guaranteed heavy armor, decent equipment and uniform 380 proficiency in every single weapon. Unfortunately, there is no way to hire them in numbers - they go to taverns by themselves. And at the end of the day, a lucky javelin from an Irish laborer kill an Old Captain just fine... and there goes one thousand in gold.

[Regent]

Originally posted by Tuidjy:

The only cavalry that is cost effective for cavalry charges in Viking Conquest is companion cavalry. The heaviest other cavalry - Frankish, Frisian, Irish, Pictish, Old Captains, etc... is much too expensive to hire or upgrade, and you WILL lose people in melee.

If you are good at managing companions, even in sandbox, you can easily have 6 companions mounted on horses, with a balanced Ulfberth sword, a reinforced shield, a Ray spear to be used as a makeshift lance, and 12 horseman javelins. And they cannot die. As far as I am concenred, my six (Clovis, Morgant, Beda, Bodo, Ceawlin, and Asbjorn) cover all of my cavalry needs.

If you insist on using mortal cavalry, I'd say that Pictish and Irish cavalry would be your best bets.

The pros and cons of each:
- Irish bodyguards can be obtained with just one upgrade from Tier III Irish Warriors, which you can recruit for peanuts from a town that loves you.
- Pictish nobles are guaranteed heavy armor, which improves their survivability.
- Irish bodyguards have slightly better power throw, so they are more likely to get a few kills with javelins.
- Irish bodyguards have slightly better power strike, so they deal slightly more damage in combat.
- Pictish nobles are slightly more proficient with their swords, which makes them slightly faster in melee.
- Irish bodyguards have better athletics, which makes them move better and tire slower in melee.

All of these are minor, except for the first two. Basically, Irish are cheaper and much easier to train, and Picts are more durable.

Thank you! You are like a living M&B VC encyclopedia :D