Which Weapons Are Best On Companions? NO MODS - Bannerlord Companion Weapons Testing Guide

[@Strat-Guides]

I'm trying to increase the exposure of this video with the algorithm, your help would be greatly appreciated! kzbin.info/www/bejne/gKG0hoeLaraEfMU&ab_channel=StratGaming

[@bazejs8084]

Bannerlord has some great potential for combat, but it looks like there is simply too small amount of coders working on combat system. TW is possibly simly too small company.

[@megas1227]

if you use spears vs cavalry best way is to let your troops charge and give the troops shields*

[@justletmeinnow100]

Great video, I would like to see the same video done with Realistic Battle Mod if you get the time!

[@Strat-Guides]

@@justletmeinnow100 I actually did that one first! If you check my videos, it's the one right before this one :)

[@Raor1820]

they should hire the modders @@bazejs8084

[@jason200912]

Summary Put on a glaive, longbow, 2 quivers of arrows. Quiver can be replaced with javelin if you want to level them up to 250 throwing and become a shield piercer

[@jason200912]

Billhooks are decent. 2h sword only as a placeholder if you got no loot.

[@clessayons]

What about sieges?

[@jason200912]

@@clessayons nobody has made a video testing it. I don't know for sure but I'm routing for falxman t4 because they have a shield destroying special ability

[@Myrth1]

The other important thing to summarise: thrust damage is utter trash Not that this is discovering anything new, just reinforcing how useless trust damage is

[@knowledgeispower9736]

Can't use longbow on horseback though

[@gregorysilas6329]

This video shows why khan’s guards are so OP. The glaive is highly effective in almost every scenario.

[@Loromir17]

So is bow, so is cavalry, not to mention horse archers can shoot through each other and get a bonus in autoresolve. A perfect organism.

[@nguyentran7068]

@@Loromir17 The price of having to spend an entire day traveling to recruit them lol

[@jason200912]

They defeat the t4 budget disposable army falxman as well. Though falxman are amazing at destroying shields and you can mass hundreds of them quickly

[@furimindusties5736]

The only problem I've had with the glaive is confined quarters and heavy shield infantry. Fantastic on horseback.

[@jason200912]

@@furimindusties5736 it's true for player control but someone would have to test how ineffective a glaive is during a castle wall defense vs a mace vs a two hander

[@liamaitken8864]

If you're ever wondering what content we want... This is it. Absolute masterpiece.

[@ben-asinus]

really, are you really sure? A lose formation with spears (or similiar weapons) is just the most stupid thing I have seen for a while. There is nothing wrong with spears in this game. Just do not use them in a lose formation

[@jacoblinde7486]

One of the things I appreciate about RBM is that it makes spears an incredibly viable weapon for infantry, as you showed in your last video. Spears were the most prolific weapon throughout all of human history, but vanilla Bannerlord would have you think they were totally useless.

[@Strat-Guides]

Yeah that part of Bannerlord always confused me.

[@Dakkalazy]

TaleWorlds just hates thrust polearms for some reason. Spears were really bad in vanilla Warband as well: the devs apparently thought that 'stops cavalry' is so OP on its own it justified making an entire weapon class garbage. Combat really didn't evolve much from Warband, swing weapons and archery still dominate in Bannerlord, it's a bit sad to see.

[@chrisrubin6445]

@@Dakkalazy spear thrusts should be the fastest possible attacks, they should also push people back

[@cdru515]

@@Dakkalazy I remember the nightmares of arena fighters getting stuck in walls and repeatedly, ineffectively, poking each other with sticks at close range. Like, hell, they would've done more damage by punching each other

[@jacoblinde7486]

@@Dakkalazy Every now and then I'll try using my spear on foot, and if you can land a hit on your enemy's face it actually does a lot of damage. The problem is that your thrust speed is so slow that your enemy will have closed the distance by the time you try and stab him.

[@samblack5313]

I am a companion enjoyer myself. If you build them like Fians and put them in your archery group under a strong captain, you're going to have a good time watching their name frequently appear in the kill feed. If you want them to be mounted archers, 1h without a shield seems to work great as their melee option. Allows you to keep 2 stacks of arrows, swing speed of the 1h means they often hit first when trading and seem to do really well both mounted and dismounted. Get the perks that buff 1h usage without shield. If you want to make shielded infantry units, avoid any weapons that are 1h/2h, BUT if you equip a 2h-only together with the shield/1h, they will switch between both nicely. I tend to choose a 2h sword/axe over a 2h polearm here because infantry often find themselves crowded and the pole gets chamber blocked a lot by other friendly infantry. If you want to make a mounted knight archetype, craft them a very long couchable thrust-only lance, as well as your 1h/shield. The remaining slot can be equipped with a 2h only swingable polearm, or if you want to make them a melee specialist and don't mind the 5 focus points, a 2h axe/sword (you will get some nice perks from adding that tree, but its 5 focus points). This has the added effect of making them a VERY versatile infantry and horse knight as 2h skills are infantry based. Build the polearm tree to be a mounted lancer, skew 1h towards infantry fighting so their shield doesn't weigh them down on foot, and the 2h is pure infantry, they're a true knight and formidable with or without a horse.

[@Rhombix]

This was an EXTENSIVE test with all possible scenarios considered and included in the test. Thank you for such thorough testing!

[@Kolaris8472]

As someone that's been playing this franchise for over 15 years, it's absolutely bonkers to me that Taleworlds still hasn't addressed spears and thrusting attacks.

[@uberwayz]

It's nice to see someone making game vids who actually know what they are doing. 99.9% of people who make these kinds of videos are terrible at the game. There's nothing worse than someone who is clearly terrible at something, giving you 'advice'.

[@Strat-Guides]

Thanks! It's always good to back up claims with some testing/math. Makes it really hard to refute :)

[@alfascav1754]

Big ups for all the work that must go into running these tests, let alone the video editing. If you wanna feel real good about yourself, multiply the time it took you to run all these tests, by the views on this video and that is the amount of time you saved society as a whole. add up all your videos and tests, not to mention the spreadsheets, and you've easily saved people hundreds of thousands, potentially even millions of hours of testing.

[@Strat-Guides]

That's an interesting thought!

[@MercAgentVinny]

I really enjoyed this video, I actually started a new campaign and I can’t wait to give my companions the best possible gear, thank you for all this long testing and editing for these amazing videos!

[@Strat-Guides]

Nice, good luck on your new campaign!!

[@MusicFreak0426]

I’ve been wondering this a long time! I become deeply invested in my companions through the story that unfolds, especially my Distinguished Service companions. Only want the best for them.

[@JohnSmith-bs9ym]

There's a story? lol

[@mikev4135]

Great video! Concerning thrust only spears: I found that troops work very well with them and shields against cavalry when in shield wall. The cavalry charge is usually stopped dead right in front of the line and get slaughtered. I did this against the massive Khuzait and Aserai cavalry-heavy armies with great effect

[@Strat-Guides]

Yeah that's a great point - I still like to use polearm troops in a large mass. I think for a handful of companions though, you'll get more bang for your buck with a swingable polearm or 2H weapon. I probably should have stated that in the video lol I think maybe the video comes across as a unit testing, but was meant specifically for equipping companions with high level combat skills

[@borbarad2.0]

Thrust spears are only good en masse. Hundred or more and cavalry is done, jjust a few dozen and they amount to nothing.

[@mikev4135]

@@Strat-Guides Ah I see, my bad! Thanks for responding nonetheless!

[@Mithguar]

@@Strat-Guides To use only one combat skill, for melee I started crafting Very short polearms with bardiche blade. It can be used in 2 hands but when used with shield, it's moveset is only thrusts and it's short enough that it can be easily used in tight fights. It works really well in tight formation because you never get random swings from side that stop on your allies. You should test very short spears. I find shields important because enemy does use ranged weapons and you get slathered without them. As does enemy without shields against ranged troops.

[@yusufemircnd]

​@@Strat-GuidesWhy isn't Menavlion in the video?

[@pyroparagon8945]

Itll never stop being funny that the indisputed best weapon in pre-modern history, the spear, is almost completely unusable in mount and blade.

[@antred11]

Yup. :-(

[@wapata8]

Some of the most powerful combinations for leveling up a companion through my experience is having mostly any 1h + 2h and then a short spear just for taking down cavs on the battlefield. This way it level all the vigor skills at the same time. Another powerful combo is bow with 2 quivers, and either a heavy twohanded axe or swingable twohanded polearm. Prioritize athletics first to get to the last perk that increases health. Also amazing videos thank you!

[@VIpown3d]

Huge props for doing time stamps, Your youtube game is on point my guy

[@Strat-Guides]

They take a long time to do, but hopefully it saves you time in the future when you need to reference stuff :D

[@VIpown3d]

@@Strat-Guides it's worth it absolutely. It's the extra mile that makes your channel worth the bell icon

[@hist0rian]

rhomps might be the best pole arm for companions - strictly 2h only, can equip back shield and secondary 1-hander, long range and useable mounted or dismounted.

[@livindedbeat]

extremely late hopping on the BL train but i have been watching your guides and test videos a ton, the test videos are fun to watch and seeing how the AI behaves is extremely helpful

[@Mat-xw4ww]

Summarized: Sorted from best to worst. A. Infantry vs Infantry (Legionnary) 1h - Mace > Axe > Sword > Polearm 2h - Glaive without shield > Billhook > Northlander Axe > Thamaskene Sword > Pike > Glaive with shield (equally bad as pike, technically a 1h) Thrown - Javelins with 250 throwing skill > Javelins with Mace > Javelins only B. Infantry vs Cavalry (Swadia Banner Knights) 2h glaive > 2h axe > 2h polearm brace > 2h pike brace > 1h polearm C. Ranged vs Ranged (Fians and Sharpshooters) Bow - shoots from 150m. Crossbow - shoots from 175m. Bow > Thrown > Crossbow. Bow wins, the end. Crossbow is ass, avoid at all cost. D. Cavalry vs Infantry (how many charges taken to kill all vs no. of companions died) Unarmed - 4 charges, 2 dead. Couch lance - 3 charges, 2 dead. 2h axe - 4 charges, 1 dead. 2h glaive - 4 charges, 2 dead. Mount with higher charge damage is key with couch lance or 2h glaive for fastest kills. E. Cavalry vs Cavalry (kills vs no. of companions died) (2h glaive = 2h sword = 2h billhook ) > 2h axe > Couch lance and 1h mace > 1h polearm and shield > couch lance only > 1h glaive with shield. Couch lance only - 3 kills, 21 dead. Couch lance and mace - 21 kills, 3 dead. 1h polearm and shield - 4 kills, 21 dead. 2h sword - 21 kills, 0 dead. 2h axe - 21 kills, 2 dead. 2h billhook - 21 kills, 0 dead. 1h glaive with shield - 2 kills, 21 dead. 2h glaive without shield - 21 kills, 0 dead.

[@nam430]

Interesting to see how much rbm changes the combat compared to vanilla

[@Strat-Guides]

Yeah it's like playing a different game pretty much!

[@vetnome]

@@Strat-Guides yeah in rbm spear is the play vanilla swords, maces, axes and glaives are the play

[@jorgea.coronado4389]

is this video vanilla or rbm?

[@sethanpayne6324]

@@jorgea.coronado4389how to figure out. If there is a green bar below your health, RBM

[@sethanpayne6324]

@@jorgea.coronado4389and this litterally says NO MODS

[@somecallmejorge2462]

As always thank you for the excellent analysis Strat! Taleworlds doesn't deserve you lol One telling thing about this video is just how much of a nightmare it is managing crossbowmen. Historically, crossbowmen use declined in China largely because of the Mongol invasion (a point that Vlandian players would do well to remember when facing Khuzaits). Later, they were employed in medieval Europe almost as pseudo-ballista. A "crossbowman" or arbalest in medieval Europe was actually a team of 3 people working together: one to reload, one to shield, and one to fire. They were very expensive, and didn't become predominant as a unit until much later in history precisely because of the cost-benefit analysis. From a historical perspective, it makes me wonder if Vlandian Sharpshooters could be micromanaged in 3 groups similar to a French or Spanish arbalest team: 1 group shielding, the other firing, the other reloading. I can just imagine the headaches of trying to make that successful lol

[@Strat-Guides]

I recall someone mentioning that crossbows have a very flat trajectory, so they wouldn't be able to be used behind infantry or similar cover. That does seem very limiting - and then needing 3 people to work a single weapon!? That's a huge limitation

[@Knoloaify]

@@Strat-Guides The thing is that historically bows often directly shot at troops (could still be a curve if it was a long distance, but the archers wouldn't be behind the melee troops). And crossbows CAN shoot in a bell trajectory, Todd's Workshop (a channel from a guy who makes and sell reproductions of ancient crossbows) has a lot of interesting information on crossbows. Also the "three people" thing, I dunno if that's actually true. Medieval manuscript tend to be surprisingly detailed when it comes to the things they depict, they clearly show the various ways and tools used to reload crossbows, but I can't find even a single picture showing such a "3 man team". So if it was done, it was probably done by a very limited set of people as a way to maximise rate of fire (if you have one guy reloading, you can use two crossbows, thus doubling your rate of fire). Hell there were even mounted crossbowmen, which would never have worked if crossbows required a "3 man team" setup. Overall rate of fire never seemed to be a huge issue since crossbows were consistently used alongside bows throughout the middle ages, even after facing off against the Mongols. In fact Hungary and Poland used crossbows against the Mongols to great effect, so I have my doubts about the assertion that the Mongols made the crossbow less popular in China because it was ineffective against them (rather it's more logical to think that the invaders that thrived on horse archery simply made bows more popular as they took power, influencing the people they took over). Why did people use the crossbow even though it was slower than the bow? Well for one the crossbow is much more accurate than the bow, that alone makes it a fearsome weapon. Also, the issue of rate of fire is irrelevant if the crossbowman has adequate protection (like a stationary shield, like the Genoese crossbowmen used) or is in a scenario where he already has ample cover (like shooting from behind fortifications, good thing a lot of ancient warfare was sieges).

[@theemeralddream7020]

@@Knoloaify a big advantage of crossbows is that using them is easy to learn, making them very useful for millitia and mercenary type troops to use. In german towns citizens had to own a weapon and armor in case of a city defense, and the most popular weapons were polearms and crossbows. In terms of crossbow usage against the mongols, I have to admit that I know very little about the chinese. But I do believe that the crossbow is more useful in defensive situations and the chinese had to re-conquer all of china, as they had lost to the mongols previously. Also of course, what you already mentioned, that they were ruled by mongols and had a lot of mongol people among their ranks, so they also were influenced to use more mongol-like tactics. Crossbows are not more accurate, but still more useful for sharpshooting, as you can load and draw a crossbow from concealment, wait for a target to arrive and immediately shoot them. In China, heavy cavalry got mor popular and replaced the crossbowmen. On the topic of 3-men teams, I found this on the wiki on genovese crossbowmen: The usual team consisted of a crossbowman and two assistants, one supporting the pavise, the other responsible for spanning a second bow, thus doubling the rate of fire.

[@takuoku2546]

although crossbowmen did decline because of the mongol invasion, crossbows in china was one of the most effective ways of countering cavalry. 1 difference between european and chinese crossbows are that european crossbows have a small prod(bow) that has very high draw weight(150~200lb) but only pulls back a little, while chinese crossbows are somewhat similar to modern crossbows as they use a very strong bow(150~300lb) for the prod, but the string is pulled back much further than a european crossbow, making them basically bowmen that shoots slowly but is much more deadly. in the 100 years war, it is said that the french army had 1/3 of it's army as crossbows and also the genoese crossbowmen were renowned as great merceneries, indicating that crossbows were actually useful. the battle of crecy is sometimes used to show that longbows were superior to crossbows, but the crossbowmen that fought in the battle forgot to get their stationary pavis shields and were also forced to advance into the english fire by the french knights. because the knights didn't see ranged weapons as a "noble weapon", and despised the mercenery crossbowmen, they run them over and charged into the english. Also I have never really heard of a 3man setup for crossbows before. I know sometimes they did something similar for guns but never really for crossbows.

[@somecallmejorge2462]

@@takuoku2546 might want to do some more reading: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossbow

[@bobooso1913]

Thanks for the guides, they've have been super helpful. Your formation video alone decreased my troop losses significantly. I honestly don't know how you haven't gotten burnt out or sick from making all of these but I'm happy to watch them until you do.

[@TacticatGaming]

I’ve watched this twice now and you’ve sold me on the glaive. God damn that thing rocks

[@Strat-Guides]

It's interesting because even at close range, they still manage to do massive damage!

[@MusMasi]

its my fav weapon for personal melee use in open battle

[@TacticatGaming]

@@Strat-Guides I have to admit i've written the glaive off for close range combat purely out of logic. It doesn't make sense a long glaive would be an OP close range weapon, but this video proves it's not only good but arguably the best.

[@Strat-Guides]

@@TacticatGaming You forgot one thing - TW Maths :D

[@TacticatGaming]

@@Strat-Guides I always forget TW MATHS lol! I'm about to try two handed glaive builds on my all companions playthrough though. They are going to be insane.

[@phantom3969]

in defense of the pikes, they are actually pretty good against cav on flat ground i run some tests with my custom pikemen and they perfromed very well, killing most of the horses on the charge, then overwhelming the rest with ease

[@SirAtesh]

5:47 Gandalf and Rohirrim vs Uruk Hai.

[@Strat-Guides]

Lol it does kind of look like that!

[@cloudsora]

In Vanilla and RBM I've always had an overwhelming success using the glaive, glad to see it wasn't just rose tinted glasses.

[@zero3556]

3:30 man, those guys were perfectly synchronised to send that legionaire in front of the camera straight to hell

[@juil.]

Let me introduce you to my companions; 69 khans guards

[@Uhdksurvhunter]

Still one of my favourite content creators! Never stop

[@kudumsuz5075]

In warband,Rhodok Sharpshooters turn their back while reloading so shield in their back can protect them. It is sad to see bannerlord didnt take it

[@Strat-Guides]

Yeah that would have been really nice! They would actually be useable I think

[@friendshipcharging7657]

Rhodok sharpshooters were terrifying

[@jason200912]

The rhodok sergeants were also even stronger than the Nord huscarls too. And at half the price.

[@MichaelYoungShin]

I don't remember that. Are you sure it wasn't a mod?

[@Brodwyn]

They just bent down to reload, same (pretty much) as Bannerlord. They never turned around

[@Saka_QL]

Great video, glaive results were exactly what I expected after seeing Khan's Guard annihilate everything in my Khuzait run. Given that they also have bows, they don't want for shields either against ranged troops; they literally have no weaknesses.

[@MusMasi]

you can accomplish a lot with Khans Guard even heavily outnumbered, especially if you conserve their ammo( have them do most of their shooting when they are stationary) and don't waste and they get two stacks of arrows, also because they are fast and mounted you can recover and reposition them much safer when you get hit with the random respawning locations of reinforcements.

[@MusMasi]

yeah the khans guards glaives are shorter than a lot of other swingable polearms, but in a way that does make them more versatile in some ways they are surprisingly good in sieges, as both archers and in melee, yeah no weaknesses.

[@Strat-Guides]

Yeah that's exactly it - bows were the most effective weapon in this test (aside from impale javelins lol) and the glaive was 2nd most effective. I guess it also explains Fians with bow and 2H only because they are equally strong!

[@mattiOTX]

Spear brace is designed to kill the horse. Which is why thrusting spears need other supporting troops. You do spear brace or thrust to kill the front of the cav charge and force the rest to slow down and get bogged down in your heavier weapons. When I'm running an army I normally make around 15 to 20% spearman because once I slow down the charge my line breakers brutalize the riders.

[@GoldenValleyPictures]

Yes!!! I am getting back into Bannerlord and I grateful for your guides.

[@pyrrhusofepirus8491]

Honestly, realistically it’s actually difficult to make spears really effective in a game like this, and I don’t even think it’s unnecessarily realistic in real life. If you’re decked out in armour, and have close range weapons and a nice shield, it’s really difficult for the spear to do much, especially in a press. RBM made spears effective by making all ai not matter the armour level complete cowards with the intuition and adrenaline fuelled aggression of a blob fish. I think they should give spears and pikes a ‘hold-out’ button, which allows them to hold the spear or pike out at length which damages any who comes forward in a small cone, like Yari Wall in Shogun 2. In formation with multiple men in the line, would make them absolutely devastating to low to medium armoured opponents and light to medium cavalry. But if the line is broken or flanked, they revert back to their normal, poor performance and get mulched or switch to a secondary weapon.

[@internetguy2760]

This is a good idea, though I was thinking that an optimal fix for the spear issue would be to simply make it so that the shaft and point of spears have a hit box that deploys when at the ready (the animation before releasing mouse button 1 to attack) that while not necessarily dealing damage, would act as a wall that couldn’t be phased through as it would be in vanilla. The strength of the spear wall would depend on the weight of the spears as well as the weight of the armour of the attacking troops. This would encourage the player to use deeper pike formations to counter infantry and cavalry alike, since the overlapping of spears would create a wall with fewer gaps. There still exists the issue of the spears hit box making it difficult to attack with in tight formations without being interrupted by a friendly unit getting in the way, so to fix this, I would remove the hit-box from the back of the spear and the part where the user holds it so that they may attack with it without being impeded by the guy behind him.

[@deezboyeed6764]

I like the way conquerors blade does it, pikes do more damage at the tip and closer enemy is the less it does. Add in the fact if you brace the speed the enemy is moving adds damage.

[@soleo2783]

Spear have too low base damage and swing way too slow, they overrated the range way too much when balancing them.

[@melanoc3tusii205]

"I don’t even think it’s unnecessarily realistic in real life. If you’re decked out in armour, and have close range weapons and a nice shield, it’s really difficult for the spear to do much, especially in a press" Well, in practical fact what we see is that this is not true. Spears have quite consistently been major favorites of all varieties of troops, including heavily armoured elites (like archaic greek hoplites), including when in no particular formation and when used in single combat. In Bannerlord spears trade damage and speed for range. In reality, spears hit like a truck and are exceptionally fast when held in two hands, while also having significant effective range. The uselessness of the weapons in Bannerlord can be primarily attributed to the lacking damage of the spears and secondarily to the lack of self-preservation of the AI. As for RBM, the AI seems pretty good to me - no idiotic football scrum like the vanilla game. The behavior there is perhaps animated by different factors, but resembles actual historical formation combat much more than the base game, as people were not in fact suicidal maniacs who would charge heedlessly into the enemy and mix about until friend could not be told from foe. We know this, because we have significant evidence as to how individual melee combat works, and significant evidence as to how long historical battles lasted and how many casualties resulted from them. If the former dynamic was applied without modification to the scenario of a large battle, with Hollywood style scrums, the latter would not last a fraction of the time that battles did and would produce egregious casualties - a duel can vary in length, but in general is extremely lethal and over very fast, often in a few seconds. Since charging a line of enemy warriors is even worse than a duel as regards lethality, being more constrained in movement and allowing for them to outnumber you, people generally did not do this. Instead they occupied the liminal spaces between individual combat and a standoff, where pressure would be exerted on the enemy but chance of serious harm was more infrequent, allowing the historically recorded combat casualties of often less than five percent. Typically an additional ten percent casualties would be inflicted upon the defeated side while they ran away and were run down and stabbed in the back.

[@pyrrhusofepirus8491]

@@melanoc3tusii205 Personally, I’ve always been extremely sceptical of applying standard models and expectations to how warfare will go, especially when it comes to warfare that largely involves melee troops, mostly because there are so many contexts that must be applied beforehand. Who is fighting? Are they a culture that glorifies death in battle and reckless bravery like the Celts or Germanics? Can they be confident that their home will be burned if they flee or are defeated? Where are they fighting? Is this a place thats important to either or side? Do they have a place to retreat to? Why are they fighting? Is this simply basically a large scale judicial duel between city states or is this between people that hate each other? How well armoured are they? Can they afford to be more risky and aggressive? What general is in command etc. And it’s not like these people had any particular hesitancy towards killing, especially the further back you get wherein plundering, sacking or even an outright massacre after a battle wasn’t uncommon. So making everything predictable and everyone is on the exact same wave length no matter the circumstances just seems equally as unrealistic to me imo. What I’d like to see is a why to make some units more aggressive then others, far more willing to wade into combat without fear. Whether it be a Doppelsoldner, religious warriors, simply brave men or possibly even actual psychopaths who knows. On spears, spears are popular because A. They’re good, range is good, in good order they’re menacing and out of order they’re still good and B. They’re cheap as all hell, the only bit of rough value is the spearhead, the shaft is replaceable as all hell so of course you’re gonna use this weapon. But once armour is applied and a shield things get very tricky. If you’re a regular spearmen going up against a 15th century knight or men at arms with a sword and shield good luck

[@pendantblade6361]

I haven't played Bannerlord in a whole but it's always nice to get up to date info.

[@Strat-Guides]

For your inevitable return I hope :) What have you been playing lately?

[@Wheels-of-terror]

This kind of video reminds me of when bannerlord first came out and everybody was testing what units were the best in the game, spent hours watching those.

[@ExperiencePlayers]

Thanks for doing a vanilla version

[@romarrandymorales7482]

The glaive makes me feel like I'm using a Guandao like General Guan Yu, the god of war himself!

[@CKGaming420]

Heyyy SG. Big fan man. You’re the reason I started playing Bannerlord on console. And you’re the reason Bannerlord was the first and so far only game I’ve purchased on steam. Honestly I thought you were done playing this game because of how old your guides are. But now I see one made at least 9 months ago. Is there any way I could ask of you to remake your mods guide/breakdown. I’m trying to replicate some of your gameplay but I’m having a hard time getting all the mods to work properly. I’ve even rolled back my beta version a few times but I was wondering if you could make a mod breakdown for 2024. Plz and thanks for reading.

[@RenegadeLK]

This is going to come in handy thanks! Also loved that ending XD.

[@Strat-Guides]

Glad it was helpful! Haha yeah I'm a huge troll IRL and my kids get the brunt of that :P It's payback for making me watch the same episodes for 2 months straight :D

[@Dreamw4lk3r]

Been playing Glaive when the game just released. Stats don't lie and your testing shows it.

[@Cheese-Grater]

Glad there was a third huge red arrow in the thumbnail, otherwise I wouldn't have known what's trash

[@Strat-Guides]

I tried one and two arrows, but it didn't look balanced and I have some OCD tendencies :P

[@Cheese-Grater]

@@Strat-Guides Fair enough lol

[@eno2870]

Interesting. I've never seen all the weapons tested like this before, and I had no idea that your choices could lead to such radically different results. I've always given myself and my companions the longest 2h glaives I could craft, along with the best bow they could wield. They generally got swords as a sidearm for close quarters combat. Suppose I should have known that maces would be better. The game has always been exceptionally biased against thrust attacks, so any time you're using something where the AI could potentially poke someone they're going to be losing a lot of damage output.

[@O.LEO.N]

Love this channel. It's become so essential for newer players. THANK YOU!

[@Strat-Guides]

I'm glad my videos are helping!

[@SullySadface]

I've never even seen a glaive. I been looking, too. Didn't even realize the billhook is blunt, that thing rips people apart in the tourneys.

[@iamdanieloliveira]

Companions (and troops in general) cannot switch modes with their 1H/2H weapons, so they'll always be stuck with whatever the default is. If they have a shield, default is 1H + shield; if they don't, default is 2H. That's why TW doesn't give shock troops/pikemen shields. But if you give companions 2 different weapons (e.g. a 1H/2H couchable polearm + a 2H swingable polearm + shield) they will switch between them according to the situation (couchable + shield on horse charge / swingable polearm when fighting close range on horse or foot). Also, shields are not useless, you just gotta use the correct loadout with them. They allow you to charge into archer formations and soak a ton of charge and couched lance damage. Give your companions a good shield and a short polearm (same loadout as the legionary) and put them in square formation and they'll defeat any charging cav with minimal damage. Add a swingable polearm and you'll have a hybrid of legionary and menavliation, the nightmare of any cav unit.

[@AetherGaming101]

It's like you read my mind after the last video. "RBM is cool and all, but my work week doesn't give me time to science vanilla." Thanks for the breakdown!

[@Strat-Guides]

Don't work, I got you :D

[@darthcheesecake3392]

I've always liked Glaives. Good to see that the game agrees.

[@Glo0ze]

Let me start with Great video as always Strat ! love your content!

[@captainnyet9855]

crossbows have a ton more advantages over bows, but yeah; none of them translate very well into videogames so they usually just end up being slower bows. (and then gat unhistorical buffs to compensate such as improved damage and/or range); I think a lot of the problem with Crossbos (and early firearms, for that mtter) is the media focus on "field battles" where two sides just kind of walk up to each other and start killing is giving people a skewed perspective of what war is like; just as an example; crossbowmen deployed behind any kind of wall or just pavises can far more effectivly use that cover than any archer can; at the same time crossbowmen can pick off enemies poking out of cover much more effctively (being able to hold an aimed shot indefinitely); they are also far more useful in crampe spaces, where bows (especially longbows) cannot be used effectively or can be used from tight formations (making them very good for the kind of "breaching" actions that happen in urban warfare. Bows also cannot be used effectively with all sorts of heavy armour while crossbows can be used with almost no regard to armour. the amount of real life situations in which crossbows completely outmatch warbows (irrspective of training) are not easily listed, but when you try to "stat" the weapons for a game you will just end up with the bows having better damage output.

[@mercb3ast]

The advantage of crossbows is simplicity. They just work. Take a peasant, give them an hour or two instruction on how to use it, how to aim it. You've got a functional crossbowman who is operating at like 90% efficiency. Take a peasant, give them a bow, teach them to use it and aim it, and in 15 years you will have a functional archer who is operating at 90% efficiency. The best way to model it would be to have all Xbows cap out at say tier 2 or tier 3. They should be a weapon of mass. Easy to field hordes of low tier crossbows that punch way above their weight. However, if you can take a stack of tier 4 archers, or tier 3 xbows, the archers are going to be better in pretty much every way. Range, rate of fire, accuracy at range etc.

[@jamoecw]

the spear brace test should be tested again on flat ground to see if the AI doesn't aim too high (you can see them adjusting upwards as the cav get closer, so they 'tried' to hit something). crossbows should be tested in a siege situation, as everyone should know they suck on open field but AI crossbow troops can pick you off before you can get in range if you are being stupid or unlucky (usually both). the cavalry tests should be done by increasing the number of enemies until they lose. this should help separate out weaponless cav as they would get stuck more and perform worse when stuck since they rely on charge damage. it also helps to show who will live when they do AI things. overall great video Strat, these really show how the under the hood stuff translates to when the rubber meets the road.

[@WikkeSchrandt]

I fucking love your comparison videos

[@世界知名伟人]

I'd prefer one-handed mace/axe. A companion could be a good captain only when he's alive. And your test doesn't include siege scenarios, which might not be in favor of long weapons like Glaive. Siege cases are as important as open field cases in late game.

[@antred11]

1H polearms do not have to be avoided in general. As infantry, you need to pick shorter ones. Something that is only like 114 long or so works quite well. You can often take out enemies with a single hit to the head if you got the right perks. But yeah, the longer ones are trash.

[@HellyeahRook]

Hey Strat, commenting for the algo. I have learned so much from you! Thank you for releasing so much content for this gem of a game. Can't wait until your next live stream. I have been enjoying your Tamerlane play through, thank you for telling me you did a bandit run already.

[@jordantigner289]

Another excellent video and exactly what I was looking for! Thank you for your hard work.

[@MarkD5678]

the pike vs cav test @6:15 you bring up that the pikes are aimed too high for the brace to work. I wonder how much better the pikes would have fared had they been bracing on flat terrain or from downhill? My guess is the initial charge-vs-brace would have favored the pikes but quickly turning to the cavalry's favour once things moshed up

[@Strat-Guides]

It definitely would have helped some for the first charge! The problem is after that, they become pretty much useless. I noticed this before when I was testing the pikeman from Vlandia - tons of damage at the start of battle but completely useless after that.

[@MusMasi]

@@Strat-Guides You can make swingable pole arms that can be braced as well, they are not as long or as high damaging, I managed to get 220 length, 120-130 swing cut damage with over 76 swing speed with all the parts unlocked.

[@CoeGr]

1:38 Aren't companions supposed to be randomised? Because I have that guy, he's one of my closest companions.

[@trashitty9854]

I feel like I been waiting for years for the combat system to actually respect spears

[@Strat-Guides]

The only way is to use RBM sadly :(

[@GuidenYT]

Spears in real life: *One of the greatest weapons in human history* Spears in Bannerlord: *wet noodle* (Unless you're on horseback)

[@Strat-Guides]

Lol reminds me of my kids smacking each other with pool noodles

[@MusMasi]

@@Strat-Guides the pool noodles do more damage though

[@jackhazardous4008]

Are polearms just spears, because billhooks use the two handed stat and are classed as an axe. Where does the omnipotent glaive fall? (I'd have to travel to the opposite side of the map for that)

[@lilconfused686]

God bless our soul for putting more effort into making the videos than the devs put into the game

[@Strat-Guides]

lol!

[@cmdr]

Very good job Strat! As always.

[@Strat-Guides]

Thanks!!

[@gabrielperez9757]

Thank you so much for this. I really need this, it’s very helpful

[@avivio0]

It is just astonishing how far native combat is from RBM, we really should be thankful for modders.

[@Strat-Guides]

It's hard for me to play without RBM now :(

[@1udio232]

@@Strat-Guides hell yeah. I tried vanilla after year playing with rbm - that bullshit for me

[@madmattox4962]

Personally my favorite infantry troop is the Aserai Mamluke palace guard.

[@HistoricalWeapons]

They should have a shorten polearm option

[@Strat-Guides]

I wish the AI treated them differently too. Even when you craft a shorter polearm, they treat it the same :( RBM does a great job with polearms and thrust damage though

[@HistoricalWeapons]

@@Strat-Guides I mean holding it during combat close to the head

[@_TheCakeIsALie_]

you are the goat of M&B bro, thank you!

[@Dakkalazy]

In my personal experience of running companion-heavy and companion-only armies, I've noticed pretty much the same results. My preferred loadout for pretty much ALL companions is a 2-handed weapon, bow, and 2 quivers of arrows. Glaives and custom-made polearms absolutely slaughter while on horseback and in open field, but they perform a bit worse when used in sieges and other tight-quarters battles because the excess 200+ length makes them bounce off obstacles when fighting in cramped spaces. A good middle ground is a custom-crafted two-handed sword or an axe (bardiche-style). You can reach something like 149-151 reach, and 130-150 swing damage on those.

[@Dakkalazy]

Addendum: two-handed swords are particularly good in a cav vs. cav battle, because the way they are held by you (or AI), has them swinging from the shoulder at head level, which excels at slaughtering enemy cavalry during the stuckage/moshpit phase of the clash - the AI just doesn't defend at all and eats the hits on their face/shoulders pretty much all the time. Swingable polearms and long bardiche axes are way better as cav vs infantry though due to the different animation and wider hitbox.

[@ShAnNoN931000]

This video was so helpful specially the part where AI couldnt use properly the polearms i never noticed that since i use to skip those battles or havent paid attention to the one i fight my self

[@David-we1sd]

"Stay here and charge" "but i may die?" "it's for science!"

[@RemusKingOfRome]

Another Great video. Happy easter Bunny ! :D

[@mastafluff1988]

This is great info, I've been playing for a a bit but still a newb

[@bibby659]

It's strange that the companions suck with spears, but then you look at Vlandian pikeman who can pierce the best armor and even almost instantly kill you if you're on horseback. Though it is nice to know that Glaives are the best in any scenario for the most part, sort of already thought so from my own experience with them and two handed axes.

[@PearlHarbor1941]

I really like the idea of getting 20 medieval NFL quarterbacks to pick off the enemy

[@odd-eyes6363]

Can you make a video telling the full story of your Harald viking campaign?

[@asdfqwer-b9m]

I am playing a companion only strategy recently. Then you post this and the previous video. When you start the javelin test, I was wondering what if they have the impale skill. Then 10s later, you discuss the lvl250 skill. What a coincidence. This test has a limitation that the enemy troop type is single. For instance, two handed weapons seem very good to counter shielded one handed troop, but vulnerable to archers. Shielded troops are bad at melee fighting, but can defend archers well and interrupt cavalries. Archers have range advantage, but impale javelins have breaking shield mid range advantage. So in real combat, with a mixture of all types of troops, there exists no best type of companion build up. However, we can determine a build that is overall the best. Based on your video, I think bow + two-handed swing polearm are the best. Bows can do damage at long distance, so they don't stand there and wait for the enemies to approach. When enemies approach and start a melee combat, two-handed swing polearm has big advantage. Do you think there is anything to improve to have a overall better build?

[@sethyboy0]

Hmm. My basic bitch loadout for companions is 1h, shield, pole arm, javelin unless they have skills in something else. Glaives won’t work with that but should fit well with any shieldless companions. I’ve personally loved swing polearms for their usefulness as a 2h weap for horseback duels but didn’t know the AI also did so well with them. Dunno how much more testing you wanna subject yourself to but a couple situations worth looking at are cav harassing distracted enemies (or archers) and lower tier weapons. As much as thrust weapons suck they’re easy to aim and use the speed of the horse to punch way up with early game scavenged gear. Mad ramblings aside thanks for the video and have an algorithm comment.

[@nickthompson1812]

For the no fun route, I prefer to basically make them Fian Champs but with 2H swords that can only be swung (no pierce).

[@Alte.Kameraden]

My opinion is, if you have companions acting as foot infantry, give them a shield and a strong blunt one handed weapon, maybe specialize them in some throwing weapons as well. If they're an archer, give them a swingable polearm or two handed axe/sword, then give them a crossbow/bow with two quivers. If they're cavalry, a shield + Lancer/Spear and a good sword, or blunt one hand weapon are great combinations.

[@EnRandomSten]

I think a shield wall of either the 1h spear or the shorter 2h one in the front row and glaves in the back row would be pretty good against cav. In my experience, spears tend to work better for slowing down cav so your other 2h weapons can kill the riders while pikes are better against low tier cav with poor horse armour.

[@Strat-Guides]

Yeah that's a good point - it's better to have a well balanced group than just all one type. I do still like spear braces in smaller numbers to handle that first charge, then something stronger to take them down when they get stuck.

[@EnRandomSten]

@@Strat-Guides actually come to think of it. You can recreate the tactics of hussite revolts by using mixed formations of short and long weapons. You can even create pseudo wagon forts by having your cav stay in shield wall and dismount to create a wall of horses that the enemy cavalry cant charge through without losing massive speed. Its a pretty unique way to play but its fun

[@dontragedia4999]

Something you could test is the difference the amount of troops makes in choosing a weapon, especially when you get in the hundreds and all the combatants generally end up smushed together. Also on the matter of two-handed axes I am curious if the shorter and faster ones would fare better against infantry.

[@notsorrystory]

Honestly I think we can already assume shorter is better for smooshed forces.

[@dontragedia4999]

@@notsorrystory yeah, but how much better could decide wether it is imperative that you have specialised weapons or that it is an insignificant difference.

[@notsorrystory]

@@dontragedia4999 fair point

[@xtinctplays363]

Strat I love your videos and after watching them I have been using a lot of real tactics in my campaigns as well. However, I would like you to make a playlist on a campaign. You really are skilled at Bannerlord (to me at least) I think I would find your campaign enjoyable. I also believe that many others will too.

[@Strat-Guides]

Thank you for the kind words! I've actually got some campaigns on my second channel (Strat Plays) that you might find interesting :) they are longer form videos, but I still edit it around 50% of the recordings and only show the interesting stuff

[@VyktorAbyss]

Great video! Deserves a lot more attention. I think spear and especially pikes need deeper lines than a single row to be effective.... the minimum for pikes was at least 3 rows deep and often was upward of 5 rows with the longer pikes. Not sure if Bannerlord has deeper rank attacking, but definitely a flaw in that particular test.

[@Strat-Guides]

In my experience, only the front row will ever attack with melee unless it's against a mounted unit (sometimes they can clip through allies and attack). It's a shame too, because a wall of spears would be really fun. Thanks for watching!

[@aatroxnoxus8299]

The cavalry charge without weapon was funny ! Even more when it performed roughly like with a spear xD

[@Strat-Guides]

Yeah lol it was pretty much the same thing! I like how they try to punch people when they ride by too

[@MusMasi]

Riding Perk, Banner and Captain perk can increase the charge damage immensely

[@nickthompson1812]

@@Strat-Guides lol I didn’t even notice. That’s just pettiness at that point. Insult to injury

[@fortusvictus8297]

I notice the difference in troop tiers has more to do with survivability and equipment loadouts than offensive damage. Even tier 2-3 troops do significant damage, they just can't take it. Going to Tier 4-5 costs a lot of money but most of what you gain is durability and perhaps a special weapon ability for certain types of troop.

[@MusMasi]

Crafting is good, you can make a long swinging reasonably heavy damage pole arm that is two handed only and that can also be couchable if you want, for use by your cav and still have them with a shield and one handed weapon in their loadout if you want, this can be useful if you ever use them in sieges. For horse archers I prefer a shorter glaive so I can use two stacks of arrows and their glaive is still good in melee on foot, even in sieges.

[@Glo0ze]

Couchable Voulge all the way!

[@Петр-е7р3т]

it is, baby. Holy 200 swing damage one shot anything@@Glo0ze

[@minmaxtax]

Would love to see a in depth video like this on which banners are best to use for each troop type

[@Dyrim]

Feeling very good about my decision to go full khan's guard in my latest playthrough

[@Khaane]

The long glaive is also amazing as horse-rider, but only two-handed use, not one handed with the shield.

[@ew6lapse88]

Very useful video. Great simple and clear summary too.

[@Chapdadddy]

I just got back into a new playthrough after a long hiatus from Bannerlord, and I missed u strat

[@ivan200804]

Amazing job! I'm going to start a new campaign after I'm done with my Great War campaign.

[@grousewithakeyboard]

This helped a ton, Thank you!

[@turbrojewk9435]

Gotta love seeing javelins one shot an entire line of legionnaires

[@danielmyers-cowan3416]

It's not as clear cut as archers>crosssbowman. The increased dmg and penetration from crossbows make them a lot more effective against shield walls, while the shield dmg is a lot lower than javelin the stack size means ypu can get a lot more total dmg with a crossbow. Plus the crossbowmen with pavises might be the most cav charge resistant ranged troop out there. Mixed formations of crossbowman and pikemen are super helpful for vlandian playthroughs, let's you pull most of the agro with your own cav but if the enemy cav gets opportunistic they can't do much to the crossbows without support.

[@TheBeardedDoog]

Would love to see an update with the new blocking mechanic in 1.2 beta! Do the tests hold up??

[@MrMagpie36]

Yeah this video is mostly redundant now.

[@oneminute6838]

Thank you for making this, it was very interesting to see how each weapon holds up. Makes me wonder though how the bad performing weapons perform with good perks.

[@Strat-Guides]

The sad part is these tests were done with high combat skill companions, so this was "best case scenario" lol they still do poorly :(

[@MusMasi]

@@Strat-Guides :(

[@danyelpaladintheimpetuous1438]

Thank you so much for the guide! 🥰

[@VikingSyndrome]

1. How do long pikes perform while not on top of a hill. 2.Are you the one on the side of the attacking troops in the bow videos, since there's one with difference armour and weapons. 3. What are the stats of the companions during the tests?

[@jauneork278]

Just give spears a brace like function where all the spears in the formation are held out at length and then thrusted further into anything that comes within reach. Including infantry. They could also do this to pikes. Giving pikemen more versatility and use. I also feel that soldiers in lines of 3+ should be ai written to pull out spears if they are a few lines behind and start swi ging at enemies from range while the front lines slug it out with 1h weapons.

[@gregoriousthemeh]

Great idea, thanks for your hard work.