How WEIRD Is The Banner Knight? Bannerlord Cavalry troop Units Guide

This is a 1.8. Bannerlord in Depth Analysis of the Noble Cavalry troop known as Banner Knight.
This video is part of a Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord Playlist where we analyze each unit not only based on their equipment but also on statistics taken after intensive testings.
The Data will be trimmed down and showcased both throughout the video and at the end to allow the viewer to know as much as possible about the unit in question.
A score will also be provided at the end based on Lyon’s opinion, this score shouldn’t be taken as hard evidence, as different playstyles may impact the way viewers evaluate units.
In this here video we are going to talk about the Vlandian Banner Knight.
A unit who for many takes the spot of best cavalry in the game but what if i told you this unit is hiding a secret from you?
And remember, criticism and constructive feedback are always appreciated.

[@paydonvoss4901]

This guy's voice sucks

[@notdcman]

Bruh his voice sounds off but like you dont gotta do him like that

[@DestroyerOfOgis]

stay mad vlandian

[@libertsiagian7685]

maybe not voice... maybe accent hahaha

[@LCInfantry]

A little whiny sounding, or congested

[@SirBojo4]

His voice is sexy I wanna make love with him!

[@kochbiel7312]

Thank you for all the data and testing. I appreciate the effort

[@stephen419]

great video. keep up the good work

[@iamdanieloliveira]

They are the best shock cavalry in the game IMO. Them being good at melee means they're not sitting ducks if their charge gets stopped by infantry or they get dismounted. In a large enough number you could just throw them at the enemy without having to fear them getting stuck and being killed by low tier troops as much. I personally wouldn't use tier 6 cavalry like that, but it's an option.

[@LyonExodus]

Yes, preatty much all noble cav can mop low tiers with very few casualties. And the difference between them and the Vanguards is night and day.

[@krieger8825]

If you have crossbowmen distracting while your Calvary flank their right wing, it's a slaughter

[@DestroyerOfOgis]

Out of all cavalry that got stuck in my infantry lines, the Banner Knights died the quickest lol. 0 casualties easy kills and useless bait for infantry.

[@clauseblitz4682]

For some reason the best shock cavalry are the Khan's Guard with Hold Fire. They are also the best Horse archer and somehow very good as Shock infantry with Dismount.

[@simpumba3798]

Im new to the channel but love these videos, a lot of channels try to rank units but they don't explain WHY they suck or why they perform well. These save me so much time from going back and forth to look at stats. If you don't mind me asking, how much do you test the scenarios for the outcomes for kills and such? I'm just amazed by the fact you cover so much info in such a short video, its short and sweet and right to the point with information. I'd love if you did sturgia! They're my 2nd favorite faction, and everyone says they're amazing, but I've found them to be so mediocre. Keep the content coming friend!

[@LyonExodus]

I am glad you find them useful. and you like the format. I am prepping the Sturgian scripts next, the first video should drop in the next 24 hours and then we are going to cover all of them from that point on. For the testings the most extensive are for cavalry, horse archers and archers. where a total of 3 different styles of tests are run. for infantry i keep it more simple and only go for the melee efficiency as performance Vs cavalry is good for most units, as long as you keep them togheter, with horse archers being the units were a spear can be the difference. For each style of test 7 different tests are performed for each unit, facing empire enemies, as they are the most common to encounter in a campaign. The units will face all the tiers of the Empire, from 1 to 5 at least 1 time. then 2 additional tests are performed against Empire militia. i'd love to go even more in depth with those tests but, speed up mods cannot be used, as they can mess with the combat mechanics and provide unreliable data. So for some units it can take up to 8m to run a single test, and it can get very time consuming. If i have to give a rough estimate it probably took me somehting like 70+ hours to get and classify all the info and get an idea about where the units rank in their class. I have done this before altough in a less in depth way, if you scroll trough the TW forums you might find a few older Infantry guides made by myself, but this is the first time i have tried to put them on video. Most important stats i look for for units are performance Vs lowe tiers and and low casaulties

[@maycontainnuts3127]

dismounting before battle to fight on foot is very saxon, i approve

[@certifiedredditgenius]

That is actually extremely interesting. I am fully prepared to admit that the Cataphract is a better cav unit but I love the Banner Knights so much more, they just look so damn cool and couching lances? I'm in. My experience however, is that Banner Knights are complete glass cannons. They kill more than any other unit but die more than any other unit, especially in auto resolves. Even with high medicine, it seems like they die far more often than get wounded. By contrast, late game Cataphracts are much more cost effective because you rarely have to replace them and a lot more armies use them, prisoners meaning recruits. Cataphracts, in my experience, are better for sieges for that same reason. Even with a weak garrison and militia, it seems like I always lose at least a few Knights. That seems wild that they apparently excel in melee so much. Not hard to beat the Sergeant tho lol. Also, cheap ass Derthert doesn't equip squires with a war horse so its a pain in the ass to either collect a lot of horses for more or only hire one or two Gallants from the random few villages that actually have them. Man, with how much he sucks at running a kingdom (including keeping his vassals happy), its truly impressive how he usually steamrolls in my playthroughs

[@Geobeetle]

DUDE. _How_ have I not figured out that castle villages are the ones with noble troops... I've just been going around to random villages and hoping they have noble troops.

[@LyonExodus]

mate you have no idea how many simple things i didn't figure out in my first 3000 hours. This game doesn't do a great job at teaching you some crucial mechanics

[@bendover9620]

I once charged 20 of these at a bunch of looters and 2 of them died...

[@bingobongo1615]

I once defeated 500 enemies with my elite 350 guys - i lost no cavalry just two archers but 7 legionaries and 4 heroic linebreakers… Game is pretty random at times. The only units that always die in my army are the mounted sisters and those two polearm imperial dudes.

[@HistoricalWeapons]

Such is real life nothing is guaranteed

[@Jack-kb5nb]

I like to use them to mess up Cav groups before the have the chance to charge or to halt charges. Their amazing armor makes them amazing at trapping Cavs, and then letting they change into into infantry clashes helps stagger, knock down, or even just kill the enemy and create opportunity for archers or my infantry to surge

[@savic101]

0/5 they don’t have a banner in their equipment

[@LyonExodus]

Derthert and his false advertisement. He did it again and i didn't noticed

[@aurex8937]

They're great for sieges and look pretty cool.

[@Harrier_DuBois]

I did find myself dismounting half of my army's cav a lot in my Vlandia campaign, mainly because my nobles just brought so much them. But if only 25% of your force is cav, just keep them mounted, they are good cav.

[@vietnguyenhoang5795]

Banner Knights are kinda like Sturgian Heroic Line Breakers.They kills a lot but also dies a lot,risking everything in their attacks.If it is indeed successful,it will be very surprising to see a formation of regular infantry not to break when meeting the charging Banner Knights head on(without polearms and supporting missile troops,of course).I used them quite a lot back then because Elite Cataphracts are not really good at raw damage(they have uncouchable lances,still good with unshielded Legionnaires and Heavy Axemens but somehow cannot 1shot looters lol).It's like when you are using a mix between armor breaking shock troops and raw damage shock troops(I used the Vlandian Voulgier for shielded infantry and Heroic Line Breakers for chopping up bandits and minor faction troops).If it is not successful,they will certainly get a ton of damage to their horse/knees,which is obviously where they are weak at(28 foot armor is inferior to most T3 troops).

[@Flesson19]

They do look cool

[@LyonExodus]

OP/5 When it comes to drip

[@mortache]

I absolutely hate that their tier 4 has no war horse. I can avoid having to buy any horses by recruiting the Torguud, Faris, or Imperial Heavy Horseman directly from villages.

[@LyonExodus]

Unquid or Derthert? Who is the cheapest lord in Calradia?

[@booradley6832]

Do you know how much Unquid has to pay for cleaning staff to get the sand out of his carpets that adventurers drag in all the time? They're on 24 hour retainer at this point, and that isnt cheap. Cut the man a break. Not everyone can just build a couple shacks out of sticks and horse hide, declare it an empire and call themselves "Khans" like that word means anything to anyone in the world who actually has a written language. Make Monchug pay reparations for destroying the camel and date trades and we'll talk.

[@AzoiatheCobra]

Ok. I get that some CAVs can be used as infantry. My question is: when dismounted which captain perks will affect them?

[@LyonExodus]

i haven't tested it. need the mod to be updated to version 1.1. but i will eventually make a video for it.

[@colhammer1]

Goodmorning, 1st among cavalry! Vlandia has a winner!

[@LyonExodus]

Yeah. Expected them to be a strong cavalry unit, decent in melee. Didn't expected them to be THAT GOOD in melee tho.

[@colhammer1]

@@LyonExodus good for in a siege.

[@wittyjoker4631]

The cav shouldn't be left to slug it out in melee. You charge in and through wheel about and do it again.

[@internetuser6602]

The medieval tanks

[@noctusfury6918]

It really annoys me when units don't use their polearms and use their sidearms instead. 😑💢😮‍💨

[@strellettes8511]

Honestly makes no sense that brigandine over mail isn't the highest value armor in the game. Brigandine is far stronger than scale mail

[@LyonExodus]

the Highest value armor are the new Aserai ones, their price is way too high for them to even spawn and no units use them, but they are there and aren't even that good

[@michalbucko7584]

dont have brigandine over mail armor in vlandian towns... im lvl 39 now and towns has 8000+ prosperity :(

[@LyonExodus]

It's one of the hardest to get as it's an expensive armor for the game and Vlandia has basically not even a single good smithing location. To increase the chances i recommend to buy a smithy in a Vlandian town that has a village of either iron or wood nearby. it won't be a good shop, but it should increase the chances of armors and weapons being made

[@michalbucko7584]

​@@LyonExodus seven smithing workshops+iron selling to shops and nothing...very frustrating...i mean its a bug...pravend and rovalt has 11 000 prosperity

[@LyonExodus]

@@michalbucko7584 it's not a bug unfortunately. it's how the game works. sometimes the only way to get some items is by using the console. It's a very complicated game mechanic that makes some items very hard to get crafted but every time they tune a part of it they end up making another item not spawn.

[@Bell-et1lg]

Wait you can convert them from bandits?

[@LyonExodus]

you need a perk for it. But you can

[@agungsuryapangestu2446]

But i love them....they only knight on this game TT

[@LyonExodus]

I think everyone loves a good group of Banner Knights. cool and strong units, what more can you ask.

[@urded1145]

Is there even a reason why I would keep playing Vlandia?

[@LyonExodus]

Most of their units need a rework when it comes to armor and equipment, i'd say for 1.8. they are possibly the the weakest. But someone needs to put a stop to Derthert cheapness

[@MMRRSasuke]

@@LyonExodus I find them great for sieges tho

[@LyonExodus]

you mean the entire faction or just the Banners? Most stuff seems good for sieges as ,at the end, it's mostly T2 poorly equipped units you end up fighting, so the diffeence between units is not much in the end, in most cases.

[@MMRRSasuke]

​@@LyonExodus In General Vlandia for me works better in sieges IDK why but the crossbowmen having shields and being cracked at aiming just works super well since you can make them go melee once walls are empty

[@LyonExodus]

Fair enough. Crossbows are very good at aiming at the battlements but, like a bright candle, they last half as long. Then you got that melee upside in comparison to archers.

[@avensis444]

Stop using cavalry as cavalry

[@LyonExodus]

For some it definetely applies

[@shocklogic8107]

I think your forgeting something sir.

[@LyonExodus]

Enlight us Sir.

[@shocklogic8107]

The Pike men.

[@LyonExodus]

Oh don't worry we haven't forgot. he is late. We reserved a 1m short appearence for him in the recap video.

[@DestroyerOfOgis]

worst and most overrated cavalry unit

[@agroplode9680]

Highwaymen will beat anybody for the spot of worst.

[@DestroyerOfOgis]

@@agroplode9680 battanian cavalry > vlandian cavalry

[@agroplode9680]

@@DestroyerOfOgis now its the mushrooms talking :)