Troop Tier List and Analysis

Overview

This guide will rank the quality of different troops in Bannerlord based on their stats and equipment.This guide is current with 1.4.0

What you need to know

*The reason why there is a different formula for cavalry is because cavalry is much more likely to get hit in the legs than other troop types.

†2.0x score multipler for maces, 1.5x for axes and spears, and 1.0x for swords (2.5x for spears for cavalry units). Why? Maces (blunt damage) has a lower penalty against armour, axes deal more damage against shields, spears because they do pierce damage (which also has a lower penalty against armour).

Melee Shielded Infantry Tier List

The Best: Sturgian Veteran Warrior, Imperial Legionary
The Good: Khuzait Darkhan, Vlandian Sergeant
The Okay: Battanian Wildling
The Bad: Aserai Veteran Infantry

Take the comparison between the Legionary and the Sturgian Veteran Warrior with a grain of salt, some of the things said are not true anymore and these descriptions will be updated when the next major update happens
Before 1.3.0, I would of said that the Legionary is better than the Sturgian Veteran Warrior. Now that the Sturgian’s armour has been buffed though, they are pretty closely matched. Against infantry. the Sturgian has a distinct advantage because of its throwing weapons, and against archers it has an advantage because of its big shield. This coupled with its high armour means that it is very survivable. However because it has a very short axe and doesn’t have a spear means that against cavalry it is at a tremendous disadvantage. This is almost the only reason why the Legionary is in the ‘best’ tier with it. In battles without cavalry though, such as in sieges, the Sturgian Veteran Warrior is the undisputable best. Not so certain anymore. Either way the Sturgian is still a good unit.

Compared to the Veteran Warrior, the Legionary is generally slightly worse. It does have a polearm, which means it is able to protect itself against cavalry, and it does sometimes spawn with a mace, which is arguably better than the Sturgian’s axe because it is better against armour. The major downside of the Legionary is that is lacks throwing weapons. Whether the Legionary or the Sturgian is better is situational depending on how much cavalry you expect to face. However, I’d argue that the Sturgian Veteran Warrior mixed with some spearmen (such as Sturgian Shock Troops) would in most cases be more effective than the Legionary. In conclusion, the Sturgian Veteran Warrior is easily the strongest shielded infantry if properly supported when fighting cavalry, however the Legionary is quite comparable to it, but is capable of fighting cavalry on its own. Which troop is better is mostly comes down to personal preference.

Thanks to SacredFox for pointing out the Legionary’s spear is throwable now. I’ll re-write this description and re-evaluate this section once the next major update happens.

Unlike the Sturgian Veteran Warrior and the Legionary, the Darkhan has both throwing weapons and a spear, making it a good compromise between the two. This does come at the cost of having slightly worse throwing weapons, a worse shield, and worse armour though. Despite this, the Darkhan is still a strong all round troop without any real weaknesses.

The Vlandian Sergeant is like a slightly worse version of the Legionary. It doesn’t have throwing weapons, and has similar quality armour to the Darkhan. Its redeeming factor is that it has quite good melee weapons. Like the Legionary, it has a 33% chance to spawn with a mace, which deals more damage than a sword against heavily armoured troops. However also has a chance to spawn with a 2 very powerful handed weapon, which would defeat the point of its shield if it didn’t also have a one handed spear. This means that although it has worse armour, it does have better weapons. If it wasn’t for its lack of a throwing weapon, this would be a very potent infantry. Even without them though, the Sergeant is still quite a potent troop.

The Battanian Wildling is in a similar position to the Sergeant, it is like a slightly worse version of the other top tier infantry. Although it has many of things that make the other troops good – such as an axe, a spear, a big shield, and throwing weapons, it has much worse armour, and its throwing weapons are also slightly worse. Its big shield is also a bit of an illusion, because some variants spawn with a smaller oval shield. This means that it is like almost certainly worse than the Darkhan, and debatably worse than the Sergeant because of its lower armour and slightly worse melee weapons. It is still a good troop, but it just isn’t as good as the others.

In most aspects, the Aserai Veteran Infantry is actually fairly good. It has awesome body armour, and both a spear and throwing weapons. However, what really holds it back is its awful, awful head armour (21). It doesn’t matter how well armoured everywhere else is considering it probably could be one shot to the head. Considering all its variants also have debatably one of the worse shields, it probably has the least survivability of any troop in this category. It is by no means terrible, but it is a little bit lacklustre for a tier 5 troop.

The Sturgian Veteran Warrior is probably the best shielded infantry for most situations, except when facing cavalry. The Legionary is slightly worse overall, but doesn’t have weakness against cavalry. Although slightly worse than both, the Darkhan is a good all rounder. The Sergeant is similar to the Legionary, but has worse armour in exchange for slightly better weapons, making it slightly worse than it. The Wildling is like the Darkhan, but slightly worse in terms of armour and throwing weapons. Finally, The Aserai Veteran Infantry doesn’t have anything good that really stands out about it, but has terrible head armour making it not very survivable.

Spearmen/Pikemen

The Best: Sturgian Shock Troop
The Good: Khuzait Darkhan
The Okay: Imperial Elite Menalivaton, Battanian Trained Spearman, Aserai Veteran Infantry
The Bad: Vlandian Pikeman

It may lack a throwing weapon, and have mediocre armour, but the Shock Troop’s weapon is incredible. Its “spear” is basically a 2 hander, 155 swing damage, although only 66 speed, but also a spear with 41 thrust damage, 90 thrust speed, and 205 length. Even just considering the “spear” portion of this weapon it is quite good, but in combination with its incredible swing it is amazing. Defensive wise, the Shock Troop has a big shield like the Sturgian Veteran Warrior. This in combination with its quick swinging, but low damaging one handed sword also means that this can also be a decent infantry in a shield wall, in addition to being strong against melee cavalry and other infantry.

(the Khuzait Darkhan is being covered twice because it is the Khuzait’s only infantry)
The Darkhan has a decent polearm, but its major advantages is that it has both a shield, and throwing weapons. This means that it is much more effective against horse archers and ranged cavalry than most others spearmen/pikemen in this list, as it is able to protect itself from arrows, and harass the cavalry slightly in the process. Although almost all melee infantry are bad against horse archers, the Darkhan is significantly less bad than some others spearmen.

The Menavliaton has a swingable polearm, which is an advantage compared to the Darkhan’s thrust only spear, although the Menavliaton’s polearm does swings quite slowly, making it slightly less useful. Its spear is also somewhat on the short side for a anti-cavalry polearm, anything much shorter and it wouldn’t be that good of a spearman. It does have some pretty awesome armour, but its lack of a shield means that it is particularly vulnerable to missiles, whether that is from horse archers, ranged foot units, or infantry throwing weapons. Even though this unit has much better armour than the Battanian Trained Spearman, and has a more versatile polearm, I don’t think that is worth trading for a shield.

(also being covered twice as it is Aserai’s only infantry with a spear)
If you’ve read the One Handed Infantry section, you’ll know why the Aserai Veteran Infantry is bad. It has very low head armour, even after they slightly buffed it (18 -> 21). Although it has very impressive armour everywhere else, that doesn’t really matter as the head has both a damage multipler on it, and also the AI seems to prefer to target it (see What you need to know section for more info), meaning it isn’t very survivable. However, it has both throwing weapons, and a shield, which when compared to the rest of the spearmen in this list, makes it quite good. It is pretty much a direct downgrade from the Darkhan and the Sturgian though, although you could perhaps argue it is better than the Menavliaton.

Compared to some other spearmen, the Battanian Oathsworn is pretty okay, but compared to the Wildling, Battania’s other tier 5 infantry, it isn’t so good. the Oathsworn has the same exact spear as the Wildling, and similar close ranged melee weapons, but a much worse shield that is a lot smaller, and also no throwing weapons. It has less total armour than the Wildling, but has slightly better armour than it(more head in exchange for slightly less leg, arm and body). The Oathsworn isn’t bad by any means, but the Wildling is better than it in pretty much everyway, even as a spearman, making the Oathsworn somewhat redundant.

The Vlandian Pikeman is not very good. It has many of the bad attributes mentioned above, but without anything really good to bring to the table. Low armour, no thrown/ranged weapons, no shield, and only a decent/good spear. Like the Oathsworn, Vlandian’s other tier 5 infantry option is better than it in almost every way, even as a spearman.

The Sturgian Shock Troop is quite impressive, definitely a good choice to have. Although it can double as an infantry, I’d argue that the Sturgian Veteran Warrior is still better at that. Either way if you are playing as a Sturgian, it is worth it to field both of these troops as they make up for each other’s weaknesses. However, since every other faction’s main infantry units have a spear, most of the dedicated spearmen units are pretty redundant, and you’re better off using two handed infantry instead. This is because two handed infantry are still quite effective against cavalry, but unlike these spearmen units, they are also quite effective against infantry too.
Note: this doesn’t apply for the Menavliaton, as it is the Imperial factions two handed infantry unit.

2 Handed Infantry

The Best: Vlandian Voulgier
Good: Battanian Veteran Falxman, Imperial Elite Menavliaton
Okay: Aserai Mameluke Palace Guard
Bad: Sturgian Ulfhednar

If you are looking for a good shock infantry, the Vlandian Voulgier is your best bet. It has a very solid primary weapon, decent armour, and normal skills for a tier 5 unit – 130 in everything – although only 80 in throwing. The Voulgier’s weapon is its major strength, 188 swing damage is ridiculous. This combined with a decent swing speed, length, and a strong thrust, makes the Voulgier very effective against other infantry, or melee cavalry. Like all two handed infantry though, defense is its major downside. They will be shredded by ranged weapons, even just thrown ones. To use them most effectively you should give them a separate command group, and keep them protected from ranged units until they are able to get into melee. Once in melee, I guarantee this unit will destroy just about every other unit there is. If you can properly protect them with shielded infantry, they can be very powerful, however if they aren’t, they will suffer quite a few casualties every battle and be quite lacklustre.

Although it has a worse primary weapon than the Voulgier, the Veteran Falxman does have lots of throwing weapons. You could argue that having so many is slightly pointless, as the goal of two handed infantry is to get into melee as fast as possible, but I certainly wouldn’t consider it a downside. In terms of armour, the Battanian is quite lacklustre for a tier 5 melee unit, especially considering it doesn’t have a shield. Although weaker than the Voulgier’s, the Falxman’s melee weapon is still quite powerful. It is incredibly long and has awesome damage, although it swings quite slow. Compared to the Elite Menavliaton, it is subjectively better, as it has a better melee weapon and throwing weapons, although it does have much less armour.

Although I already covered this unit in the Spearmen/Pikemen section, since it is the only troop that fills the 2 handed category for the Empire it is here too. The Elite Menavliaton is unique because of its high armour values. Since it doesn’t have a shield, its high armour means that it is somewhat more survivable than the other two handed infantry. However it does have much higher armour weight too, which slows it down. Its other downside is that it lacks throwing weapons, meaning that it is completely defenseless against ranged units as it has neither a shield, nor throwing weapons. Its melee weapon – the menavliaton – is okay. It is quick, with a good length, but isn’t very damaging. It also has a thrust which is useful against cavalry. Overall, I’d say it is slightly worse than the Falxman, despite having better armour, however it is certainly better than the Mameluke and the Ulfhednar.

For a two handed infantry, the Mameluke Palace Guard is kind of disappointing. Although its 2 handed axe is quite fast, it does a mediocre amount of damage and is quite short. Supposedly it can hit multiple units in a single swing, but I’ve yet to test this. If it can, then it may be a fairly decent unit. Otherwise it is just okay. Overall, although its armour is good, its weapon isn’t the greatest and since the weapon is the focal point of two handed infantry, the Palace Guard is only okay.

Considering that the Sturgian’s speciality seems like it should be infantry, I’m quite disappointed that the Ulfhednar is this bad. Its weapon is okay, Like the Palace Guard it is very short, and not very damaging, however it is faster than some one handed weapons. This is an advantage, but I’d rather have more damage and reach. The Ulfhednar’s major disadvantage is its armour. For a tier 5 melee unit, especially one without a shield, its poor armour makes it incredibly vulnerable. However, its poor armour is quite light, and that combined with its unusually high athletics skill (150) means that it will be able to close to melee the quickest. Given that Sturgia’s other infantry are quite good, and that the Ulfhednar’s weapon – which is supposed to be a major selling point for two handed infantry – is only okay, there is no reason to use this troop instead of the other Sturgian troops. Also, since the Sturgian Shock Troop has an awesome 2 handed melee polearm, and a sword/shield, it makes it almost a direct upgrade compared to the Ulfhednar.

The Voulgier has an awesome melee weapon while being decent everywhere else, making it a good choice for a two handed infantry, although two handed infantry are somewhat situational to begin with. Compared to the Sturgian Shock Troop though (which also has a 2 handed weapon), I’d say it is worse mainly because it is less flexible due to it lacking a shield. The Battanian Falxman and the Imperial Menavliaton are somewhat closely matched, the Menavliaton has much much better armour, but a worse weapon and no throwing weapons, meaning that the Falxman is subjectively better. Both the Aserai Palace Guard and the Sturgian Ulfhednar aren’t very good, and given that two handed infantry is situational as it is, this makes them even worse. In general for all two handed infantry, defending in sieges they can be very effective. But in most field battles, unless protected by other units, they will be worse than most shielded infantry, as they are incredibly vulnerable to ranged.

Ranged Unit Tier List

The Best: Battanian Fian Champion
Good: Khuzait Marksman, Aserai Master Archer, Vlandian Sharpshooter
Okay: Imperial Palatine Guard, Sturgian Veteran Bowman, Imperial Sergeant Crossbowman

Well, we all knew that the Fian Champion was going to be nerfed one day, and well I guess 1.3.0 was that day. Although this unit is still amazing, and is without a doubt still the best ranged unit, it is no where near as good as it once was. Instead of doing a crazy 98 damage, it now does 63-75, depending on what kind of bow it spawns with. Other than that, its bow is quite a bit less accurate, and a little slower than before. Additionally, its lowered bow skill (280->260) means that it is slightly is less accurate, slightly less damaging, and slower than before. However, 260 bow skill is still significantly higher than other ranged units bow skills.

Now that the Fian’s been nerfed, the Aserai Master Archer is actually quite comparable to it. Bow wise, the Master Archer’s bow is moderately worse than the Fian’s. This coupled with the difference in bow skill (100) means that the Fian is still without a doubt the better unit. Compared to the Marksman, it is better because it has 30 more bow skill, and a slightly more damaging bow, despite having 2 less arrows.

The Khuzait Marksman is quite similar to the Master Archer. its bow does 2 less damage, but it has 2 more arrows. However, it does have 30 less bow skill, which means that it fires slower, less accurately, and with less damage than it appears to.

Out of the 2 crossbowman from the main factions, the Vlandian Sharpshooter is the better of the two. Its crossbow has 7 more damage, and slightly more speed and accuracy than the Imperial Sergeant Crossbowman. Although the Sharpshooter does have less armour than it, it does have an absolutely massive shield. Although neither of these are tremendously important for ranged units, its shield does allow for some interesting strategies. You can have the enemy waste their ammo on the shields before returning fire, use them to protect two handed or small shielded infantry, or use them to draw fire while attacking during a siege. Compared to other ranged units, specifically archers, I would say that the Sharpshooter is a bit worse. Although it does deal more damage per second than most archer units, it has limited ammo, and seem to be at bit of a weird damage threshold. What I mean is that they do just over 100 damage, meaning that for most units with even some armour, they won’t be killed in a single shot. Meaning that they probably will have to shoot at least twice anyways to kill a unit, the same as most archers, except they will do it slower. This is further amplified because they only have 20 bolts, which is significantly less than most of the good archers, which have about 40. Since archers can also reload on the move, this means they can skirmish much more effectively than crossbowmen too (as they can retreat and still return some fire).

Almost everything I said about the Vlandian Sharpshooter is true here too. The Imperial Sergeant Crossbowman, like the Sharpshooter, is at a weird damage threshold. It does a maximum of 96 damage in one shot, while it needs at least 100 to kill a unit. Although it technically does more damage per second than most archers, this doesn’t matter because it is going to take at least 2 shots to kill a unit in most cases anyway, likely the same as most archers, except the archers can fire those 2-3 shots quicker than a crossbowman can. This problem is further amplified due to the Imperial only having 20 bolts, while most good archers have about 40. The Imperial is special because it has a shield, but since it isn’t any bigger than most infantry shields, there isn’t really any special tactics it can do with it, unlike the Vlandian Sharpshooter. Compared to the Palatine Guard, the Imperial Crossbowman is slightly better. This is because the Palatine Guard only has 4 more ammo than the Crossbowman, has a crappy bow, and doesn’t have a shield.

The Sturgian Veteran Bowman is slightly worse than all the other archers (except the Palatine Guard) as it has slightly less ammo, and its bow has less damage. However, it does have 140 bow skill which means that it has slightly better damage, accuracy, and speed than it seems. Although since most archers have 130, this isn’t enough of a difference for it to really change anything. Compared to the Palatine Guard it is likely better, as it has much more ammo. Compared to the Sergeant Crossbowman, I’d say it is about the same, because although the Sergeant has much more armour meaning it can survive a few missiles or a melee, and debatably a better ranged weapon, the Veteran Bowman can skirmish much more effectively, as its armour is so light it can easily advance or retreat depending on the situation. This makes the Sergeant’s increased armour not necessarily an advantage, as the Veteran Bowman can run to safety instead. In sieges, I’d say the Sergeant Crossbowman is better, but in field battles, I’d say the Sturgian Veteran Bowman is better.

Strictly as an archer, the Palatine Guard is bad in comparison to the other ranged units, but as a general purpose troop, it could be quite strong. It has 130 one handed skill and athletics, which is the same as some of the best infantry, and has armour compared to them too! It lacking a shield isn’t a big deal, as you only really need a shield to protect yourself from ranged units, but if you are an archer yourself and can fire back, that doesn’t even matter. It lacking a spear is a bigger downside though. I know none of the other ranged units have spears either, but the major selling point of this troop is that it could fill in for infantry. Without a spear to combat cavalry though, this makes it quite situational. That in combination with its somewhat poor bow and low ammo count kind of makes only an okay unit overall. But in certain scenarios, such as if you know that you aren’t going to be facing any cavalry (like in sieges), this could be an excellent troop, as you could replace infantry with it. Otherwise it is good for cheesy strategies like having a mostly archer army, but as a regular old ranged unit, there are better choices.

Even after its nerf, the Fian Champion has a very powerful bow, lots of ammo, and high bow skill. The Aserai Master Archers is a powerful second choice, it has a moderately high bow skill, a good bow, and lots of arrows. The Marksman is quite similar to the Master Archer, but slightly worse due to its lower bow damage and skill. The Vlandian Sharpshooter and Imperial Sergeant Crossbowman are so close to being able to one shot units, but in most cases will need 2 bolts anyway, making the higher per shot damage over bows not that big of an advantage. The Sturgian Veteran Bowman has a slightly worse bow and lower ammo than the other archers, but is still decent. The Palatine Guard can be situationaly good, but in general is worse than the other ranged units because of its crappy bow, and very low ammo.

Melee Cavalry Tier List

The Best: Imperial Elite Cataphract
Great: Aserai Vanguard Faris, Vlandian Banner Knight, Sturgian Druzhinnik Champion
Good: Khuzait Heavy Lancer
Okay: Battanian Horseman, Vlandian Vanguard

The Imperial Elite Cataphract is very impressive. Both the rider and the horse are extremely well protected. The rider has 211 total armour, the highest I’ve seen so far for any unit. The horse not only has the highest hp (290), but also the most armour (75). This makes the Banner Knight look like tissue paper in comparison. The Elite Cataphracts lance beats out the Banner Knight’s too, it is longer (225vs184), and does more damage (40vs37). This long lance means that it can be very effective against other cavalry. The only two downsides of the Elite Cataphract is its slow speed (44), and its lance being two handed only, and non-couchable. This slow speed and un-couchable lance means it probably can’t deal as much damage as the other cavalry, however its survivability means it can live longer to do that damage.

The Aserai Vanguard major advantage over every other cavalry in this list is its horse’s speed (66). This coupled with it having a very high riding skill (260) means it is incredibly quick. This speed combined with its decent couchable lance (170 length, 36 damage) means that it can theoretically deal the most damage of any of the melee cavalry. This unit is most effective at chasing down horse archers, and outmaneuvering and chasing down cavalry, although it is still more than capable at going after infantry. It also has jereeds (javelins), although considering how fast this unit is, it doesn’t seem like it would need them. Although fast, its horse has a very low health (200). It does slightly make up for this by being well armoured though(58). Since 1.3.0, this units one handed skill and athletics have been buffed to 100 and 60 respectively. This means that it is no longer terrible while dismounted. Overall, this unit is quite a strong choice. It may not be quite as durable as some of the other cavalry, but makes up for that with its high horse speed.

The Banner Knight is very similar to the Elite Cataphract, although still an excellent troop, it isn’t comparable to the Imperial cav. It has the second most armoured horse (64), with the third highest health (240). The rider, although well armoured in comparison to most infantry, pales in comparison to the Elite Cataphract (170vs211). The Banner Knight’s lance is worse than both the Elite Cataphracts, and the Khergit Heavy Lancer’s in terms of length. It has 184 length, versus the Cataphract’s 225 length, and the Heavy Lancer’s 193 length. This means it is a slightly worse choice against cavalry, as a longer lance gives quite an advantage. Since it is couchable though, it still can likely out damage the Cataphract’s lance. However, since it isn’t as survivable, the Cataphract might out damage it over the course of a long battle. Because of this, I’d say that the Elite Cataphract is better in nearly every aspect, but the Banner Knight is still a strong runner up.

Although I wish that the Sturgian tier 6 unit was an infantry instead, the Druzhinnik Champion is still quite a capable cavalry unit. Its lance is the same as the Aserai Vanguard’s except it is 1 unit longer, which is still 13 units shorter than the Banner Knight’s, and 54 units shorter than the Elite Cataphract’s. Although its horse is slightly faster than both (54 speed total), and more manueverable (74 total), it is less armoured (55 total) and has less health (210 total). This means that as a cavalry, it is perhaps a little weaker than the others. However, the Druzhinnik probably has the strongest dismounted performance of any of these units, as it has 220 one handed skill, 60 athletics, and a large shield. Even though it has a less durable horse than the Banner Knight, because of its higher rider armour, and better dismounted performance, I’d say it is equal to the Banner Knight, or even slightly better.

Melee Cavalry Tier List Part 2

(I reached the max character limit in the other section)

For being a tier 5 cavalry, the Heavy Lancer is excellent. Compared to the Banner Knight, it has a slightly worse horse, a better lance, better rider armour, although much lower skills. Its lance is 9 units longer than the Banner Knight’s. It is the third longest lance of any cavalry on this list, it is only shorter than the Elite Cataphract’s (33 shorter) and the Battanian Horseman’s. This gives it an edge against most cavalry, which tend to have lances from 170-184 units long. Its horse is about the same as the Druzhinnik’s. It has 250 health (vs 210), 78 maneuver (vs 74), although it has 4 less speed, and only 38 armour (vs 55). If it wasn’t for its significantly worse skills (160 polearm vs 250, 160 one handed vs 220, 150 riding vs 200), it be on almost equal footing to the Druzhinnik. However because the Heavy Lancer is a tier 5 unit from the main Khuzait tree, and it isn’t upgraded from rarer special troops like the Druzhinnik is, I’d say it is almost equal. However because of the cost of buying expensive war horses, you could argue that that money is better spent on higher quality units. Either way, the Heavy Lancer is still a strong cavalry unit.

When I was researching the Battanian Horseman, maybe due to how bad the Battanian Mounted Skirmisher was, I was fully expecting it to suck. What I was not expecting, was it actually being better than the Imperial Elite Catatphract in a single regard. The Battania horseman’s lance is actually 10 units longer than the Cataphract’s (235 total). Since most cavalry have a lance between 170-193, this length advantage is absolutely amazing. This is because it lets the longer weaponed cav hit the other cav, cancelling its attack, before it can be hit itself. This is assuming the ai cavalry doesn’t decide to stop moving and just awkwardly start swinging at the other guy though. Although nearly everything else about the Battanian Horseman is lackluster, this alone is enough to make it okay. As for the rest of the Battanian’s stats, it has debatebly the worst horse, 250hp, 44 speed, and 56 maneuver. It does have a pretty sweet shield though with 520hp, although I’m not sure how large it is. Its stats are average for a tier 5 unit, 130 riding, polearm, and one handed. Overall, it isn’t very good, but its long lance redeems it from being terrible.

Considering that heavy, powerful knights are supposed Vlandia’s focal point, the Vanguard is kind of dissapointing. Earlier I said the Battanian Horseman had arguably the worst horse, but compared to the Vanguard’s saddle horse, it is looking okay. With only 200 hp and 52 horse armour, compared to the Battanian’s 250hp and 40 horse armour, the Vanguard seems to be a little bit worse off. Although it does have 4 more speed, and much more armour on the rider. The Vanguard has 7 more leg armour, which is arguably the most important for horsemen, 26 more arm armour, although 4-11* less head armour. When it comes to weapons, the Vanguard’s lance does 5 more damage than the Battanian’s. Although that sounds miniscule, remember that is more like a 10 or 15 damage difference due to the speed bonus from cavalry. Even without this damage difference, the Vanguard’s couchable lance definitely would out damage the Battanian’s non couchable lance.

*The Battanian Horseman is a bit bugged, it has 2 different helmets for each variant, which means one of the helmets doesn’t spawn in, but I don’t know which.

The Elite Cataphract is effective against pretty much everything, it has incredible armour, both on the troop itself and the horse, with its only downside being its horse’s speed, and uncouchable lance limiting its damage a little bit. The Banner Knight is like the Elite Cataphract, but has significantly worse armour in exchange for more damage potential due to its couchable lance and higher speed. The Druzhinnik is quite similar to the Banner Knight, but has a worse horse and lance, although is better while dismounted. The Aserai Vanguard Faris has an amazing horse compared to both of them, and doesn’t really have any major downsides. Also, since its lance is couchable, and it has the fastest horse, it can technically deal the most damage. The Battanian Horseman, although overall kind of lackluster, has an extra long weapon, giving it an edge against other cavalry. Although its lance is non-couchable, and its slow horse means it isn’t going to be doing very much damage. Finally, the Vlandian Vanguard doesn’t really bring anything new to the table, but its bad horse makes it arguably worse than the Battanian. However it does have a couchable lance, meaning that it can do more damage than the Battanian.

Ranged Cavalry Tier List

Best: Aserai Mameluke Heavy Cavalry, Khan’s Guard
Good: Khuzait Heavy Horse Archer, Imperial Bucellarii
Okay: Sturgian Horse Raider
Bad: Battanian Mounted Skirmisher

The Aserai Mameluke is a very good unit. After the Fian got nerfed, the Aserai Mameluke now actually has the best bow of any ranged unit. This combined with it being mounted makes it very powerful. Its horse is perfect for a horse archer, it is very fast, which lets it easily run away from melee units, and it has quite high maneuver too. The only real major downside of this unit is its lack of ammo – only 23 arrows. Since this unit also shoots so quickly (94 speed), this means it is going to be running out of arrows very fast. This isn’t too much of a downside though, as the Aserai Mameluke is still a decent cavalry unit. Although it lacks a long melee weapon, it has lots of armour, a shield, and a somewhat durable horse. If it does get dehorsed, it has 130 one handed skill and 80 athletics, meaning that it is still a rather capable infantry too.

Although no where near as good as the Aserai Mameluke in terms of its bow or horse, the Khan’s Guard makes up for this weakness with a very, very high bow skill (260). This means that although it has a much worse bow than the Aserai, the difference in bow skill likely makes up for its bow’s lower damage and speed. Its higher riding skill (200) also means that its horse isn’t quite as bad as it seems. Like the Aserai, the major downside of this unit is its lack of ammo, only 24 arrows. However, also like the Aserai, it can still be a potent melee unit even after running out of ammo. Its glaive is very powerful – 145 damage – with enough reach to be usable from horseback. If dismounted though, this unit isn’t the best, as it doesn’t have a shield, it is easy pickings for ranged units once dismounted. Compared to the Aserai, overall as a horse archer, it is slightly worse, but as a melee unit on horseback after running out of ammo, it is much better, but as a dismounted unit, it is worse. The reason why I think it is important to compare them as melee units is because with only 23-24 arrows, and the speed they fire at, they will be running out of arrows quite quickly. In conclusion, since this is a tier 6 unit, and the Aserai is only tier 5, I would say that the Aserai is better choice, as they are easier to recruit, and cheaper.

Although no where near as good as the Aserai Mameluke Heavy Cav in terms of its bow or horse, the Khuzait Heavy Horse Archer is still quite a good troop. In terms of equipment, it is almost the exact same as the Khan’s Guard, same bow, same horse, but twice the amount of arrows. However, it does have much less bow skill than it (130 vs 260). Because of this, it does no where near the damage the Khan’s Guard does. If it wasn’t for the Khan’s Guard also being effective after it runs out of arrows, I’d say this unit is better than it. But because the Khan’s Guard is a direct upgrade compared to the Heavy Horse Archer for the first 23 arrows, and is still a strong melee cavalry after it runs out of ammo, I’d say that this unit is worse. However, because it can be upgraded from regular recruits, unlike the Khan’s Guard, means that it is subjectively better.

This unit is difficult to place, on one hand, the Heavy Horse Archer is a direct upgrade to it in almost every sense, but on the other hand, this unit is significantly better than the Sturgian Horse Raider.
This unit is really on the cusp of the good and okay categories. Its bow is only marginally worse than the Heavy Horse Archer’s, but it does also have 8 less ammo. However on top of this, it has a terrible horse for a horse archer. With only 44 speed, almost all enemy cavalry will easily catch up and force them into a melee. Although the rider is very well armoured, and the horse is quite durable, this is not the position you want your horse archers to be in. Against non-mounted units though it is perfectly fine, probably just as effective as the Heavy Horse Archer, minus 8 arrows.

Although it has a quite quick and maneuverable horse, I don’t think that that makes up for it having javelins instead of a bow. Although javelins are much more damaging, they don’t have very much ammo. Although 10 javelins might be enough to last a shorter battle, eventually they will run out and have to resort to melee. For a mounted unit, the Sturgian’s weapon is very short, only 89 units long, making it somewhat bad. Furthermore, both the rider and the horse have poor armour, the rider having 117, and the horse having 10. Meaning once the Sturgian throws all of its javelins, it is going to go down quite quickly. I’d argue that against expensive, well armoured units the Sturgian is most effective. This is because its high damage javelins can be used to their full effect. Against cheap and poorly armoured units though, its javelins extra damage is mostly wasted and the lack of ammo becomes a major drawback.

If this unit had more ammo maybe it would be okay, but it only has 5 javelins. After that, it is down to melee, where I’d be surprised if this thing lasts long. Although it does have a shield and a sword, it has awful armour – only 68. For some reason this unit got nerfed very hard in 1.3.0. It went from having 103 total armour to 68, and also its throwing skill got nerfed to 15 for some reason, and its bow skill increased to 150, despite not even having bow. With only 15 throwing skill and 5 javelins, and awful survivability in melee, this unit absolutely sucks. Considering that this is a tier 5 unit, that you need to use a horse to upgrade to it, this unit is absolutely awful, probably the worst tier 5 unit in the game.

Both the Khan’s Guard and the Aserai are good choices for horse archers. The Khuzait Veteran Horse Archer is a good third choice, better than the Khan’s Guard for longer battles, but otherwise worse. The Sturgian is okay, I wouldn’t say it is as strong as a horse archer, but its shield means it can better protect itself while throwing, although once it runs out of ammo it will probably die in melee quite quickly. The Battanian Mounted Skirmisher (tier 5 unit) is probably worse than a peasant with stones…

Minor Faction Troops (work in progress)

Work in progress. Any information about a unit without a description has a chance of being wrong, as I haven’t double checked their stats yet. (sometimes units have a duplicate armour set or what not, which trips up my program that gets their stats.)

Although the Triarii has some of the best skills of any tier 5 infantry I’ve seen so far (200 one handed, 160 polearm, 100 athletics), it is only good/okay everywhere else. I would say it is about on par with the Vlandian Sergeant. The Triarii has better skills, but worse weapons, they both have similar armour, and both lack throwing weapons. Because trying to get a reasonable amount of these units is hard, and because they aren’t particularly impressive, I wouldn’t say that this unit is worth the effort.

Like all the minor faction troops it seems, the Lake Rat Wrecker has better skills than most major faction troops. The Wrecker has 140 athletics, 160 one handed, 200 polearm, and 140 throwing. The Wrecker seems to be a spearmen, wielding a decent spear and a nice big shield, along with plenty of throwing weapons. They spawn with two sets of javelins, for a total of 10. Compared to the Sturgian Shock Troop, I’m really not sure which is better. The Wrecker has better armour, and an incredible amount of throwing weapons, however gives up much of its melee effectiveness for this. Unlike the Shock Troop, which has an powerful 2 handed polearm, along with a decent sword, the Wrecker only has a decent spear.

Continuing the theme of high skills, the Arboreal has 200 bow skill, 200 one handed skill, and 140 athletics. It has a decent bow, in between the Khuzait Marksman’s bow and the Palatine Guard’s bow. However its higher than normal bow skill means that it has slightly more damage, speed, and accuracy then is listed. This means that purely in terms of ranged capability, the Arboreal is probably on the same level and Marksman and the Master Archer. However, its very low armour means that against other ranged units, it will die quickly, and will also be very vulnerable if cavalry or infantry can manage to get into melee with it. Overall it is a pretty solid unit, I’d keep any you manage to get, but I don’t think it is worth going out of your way to get them.

The Veteran Brotva breaks the trend of high skilled minor faction troops. Although it has 180 athletics, 150 polearm, 150 throwing, and 180 two handed, it has a very low 30 one handed. This is surely a mistake, as it doesn’t have a two handed weapon. Its throwing weapons are also somewhat lacking, it only has 3 of them and they only do 70 damage each. It has slightly crappy armour for an infantry, and nothing to really show for it. In conclusion, it is comparable to the Battanian Wildling. its okay, but there isn’t a reason to go out of your way to get this troop.

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No decription yet. Also this is not a mistake, this units armour really is this bad. Most of the time it doesn’t spawn with a helmet, and never spawns with gloves/arm slot.

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Changes (1.2.1 -> 1.3.0 -> 1.3.1 -> 1.4.0 – > 1.4.1)

Disclaimer: I’ve only included what I think are meaningful changes. For example, I’m not going to include that the Fian Champion now has 60 riding skill instead of 25.

Also this list only has the changes that affect troops in this guide

Also, these changes right now only include changes to the troops or their armour and doesn’t include whether the stats of their weapons have been changed. I don’t know if the weapon stats in this guide are still accurate, as I have no idea how to get those (short of going into the game and manually getting them, and I am reliant on Bjarke’s spreadsheet for them.

Battanian Fian Champion
Athletics: 220 -> 200
Bow: 280 -> 260
Noble Long Bow (98dmg, 99acc, 91spd) -> Woodland Long Bow (75dmg, 94acc, 88spd) & Woodland Yew Bow (63dmg, 92acc, 91 spd)

Imperial Palatine Guard – No Changes

Sturgian Veteran Bowman
One Handed: 130 -> 120
Bow: 130 -> 140

Imperial Sergeant Crossbowman
Bow: 130 -> 80
Crossbow: 80 -> 130

Vlandian Sharpshooter – No meaningful changes (20 riding -> 80 riding)

Aserai Master Archer
One Handed: 80 -> 130
Bow: 130 -> 160

Khuzait Marksman
One Handed: 80 -> 130
Polearm: 130 -> 80

Imperial Legionary – No changes
Vlandian Sergeant
Athletics: 60 -> 130
Two Handed: 80 -> 60

Sturgian Veteran Warrior
Throwing: 80 -> 130
Polearm: 130 -> 80
More likely to spawn with Northern Lamellar Shoulders (10 more average body armour, 4 more average arm armour)

Khuzait Darkhan and Battanian Wildling – No changes

Aserai Veteran Infantry
One Handed: 130 -> 160
Throwing: 60 -> 50[

Imperial Elite Cataphract
Riding: 220 -> 200
One Handed: 220 -> 200
Two Handed: 25 -> 60
Polearm: 280 -> 260

Aserai Vanguard Faris
Athletics: 25 -> 60
Riding: 280 -> 260
One Handed: 60 -> 100
Polearm: 220 -> 200
Throwing: 220 -> 200

Vlandian Banner Knight
Riding: 220 -> 200
Polearm: 280 -> 260

Khuzait Heavy Lancer
Riding: 210 -> 150
One Handed: 160 -> 130
Polearm: 160 -> 130

Sturgian Druzhinnik Champion
Riding: 220 -> 200
One Handed: 280 -> 220
Polearm: 60 -> 260
Leather Round Shield (480hp) -> Heavy Round Shield (500hp)

Battanian Horseman and Vlandian Vanguard: No Changes

Aserai Mameluke Heavy Cavalry and Khuzait Heavy Horse Archer – No Changes

Khan’s Guard
Athletics: 25 -> 60
Riding: 220 -> 200
Bow: 280 -> 260

Imperial Bucellarii
Athletics: 130 -> 100
Polearm: 80 -> 60

Sturgian Horse Raider
Leather Round Shield (big, 480hp) -> Bound Horseman’s Kite Shield (med, 225hp)

Battanian Horse Raider
Polearm: 130 -> 80
Bow: 60 -> 150 (doesn’t even have a bow)
Throwing: 60 -> 15 (but does have throwing weapons)…
Highland Plated Noble Helmet (46 head armour) -> Battanian Fur Helmet (24 head armour)
Despite being awful already, the Battanian Horse Raider somehow got worse…

Sturgian Shock Troop
Athletics: 100 -> 125
One Handed: 100 -> 140
Polearm: 100 -> 140

Imperial Elite Menavliaton – No meaningful changes (60 crossbow -> 40)

Battanian Oathsworn (formely Battanian Trained Spearmen)
They changed the name!

Vlandian Pikeman – No changes

Vlandian Voulgier and Battanian Veteran Falxman – No changes

Aserai Palace Guard – 130 athletics -> 140
Sturgian Ulfhednar
Athletics: 130 -> 150
One Handed: 130 -> 80
Two Handed: 80 -> 130
Throwing: 80 -> 130

Nothing relevant to this guide.
The imperial Legionary’s polearm is now throwable (thanks to SacredFox for pointing this out)

Vlandian Sergeant
x3 Heavy horseman’s kite shield (430hp) -> x3 Reinforced oaken kite shield (430hp) (no stat changes, but they might be different sizes or something)

Sturgian Veteran Warrior
x1 Fine town boots -> x1 Strapped mail chausses (6 avg leg armour increase)

Khuzait Darkhan
x1 Eastern lamellar armor (34 body,12 leg,4 arm) & x2 Eastern plated leather vest (24,4,2) -> x3 Eastern brass lamellar over mail (44,16,16) (17 avg body increase, 9 avg leg, 13 avg arm)

Battanian Wildling
x3 Heavy round shield (500hp) -> x3 Iron reinforced highland large shield (480hp)

Imperial Legionary None

Aserai Veteran Infanty
x3 Wooden Adarga (240hp) -> x3 Reinforced oval shield (360hp) (also is slightly bigger I think)

Vlandian Voulgier – None
Battanian Veteran Falxman – None
Sturgian Ulfhednar
x3 Battanian savage armor (1 body, 8 leg, 1 arm) -> x3 Decorated northern hauberk (32,12,12)
Mamluke Palace Guard – None
Imperial Elite Menavliaton – None

Vlandian Banner Knight
x2 Coat of plates over mail (46 body, 14 leg, 18 arm) -> x2 Northern brigadine over hauberk (46,34,20)
Imperial Elite Cataphract
x3 Reinforced cavalry small shield (265hp) -> x3 Knights kite shield (550hp) (slightly bigger too?)
Aserai Vanguard Faris
Athletics 60 -> 90
Riding 260 -> 170
One Handed 100 -> 170
Throwing 200 -> 140
(other irrelevant stat changes too)
Wooden adarga (240hp) -> Ornate adarga (420hp) (same size?)

… A lot more
This update had absolute tons of equipment changes, I can’t honestly be bothered to list them all.

Author’s Note

This guide is still a work in progress, next I plan to add a garrison troop comparison.
Sorry to disappoint people who have been waiting for this, but I don’t think I will be adding a garrison comparison or a cost effectiveness comparison. I’ll continue to update this guide to keep the information current, but beyond that I don’t think I’ll be adding any new comparisons.

This guide isn’t being updated anymore, I will update it again when bannerlord fully releases, or when there aren’t massive balance changes to troops every update. Right now it feels like I need to rewrite
25-50% of the guide almost every update, which is too much work for me.

For anyone who is more curious about how the stats directly compare, you can view my spreadsheet here (Note this spreadsheet is very outdated. It was last updated in 1.0.10): [link]
Note you have to make a copy so you can change the selected troops types and their weapons

A very, very big thanks to Bjarke for creating a spreadsheet with equipment stats in it, it was tremendously helpful. His spreadsheet also has a lot of other useful pieces of information too, I suggest you check it out. You can view his spreadsheet here: [link]

Thanks to the following for pointing out mistakes, giving suggestions, or offering criticism.
Mef_Twitch, Randomishnessss, Rhapsody, Jilreign, Cherenkov Radiation, Lieutenant_Devil, Aldernade, Bahlder, rpgarcher, Archaon The Never-Chosen, haha123123, DefianceNZ, Rightist, Clive Hawkings, Abyssian, Xanth, Flamespot, Isla, Thornelemental, JamesD02, Epicregent, Adriael, Kabet, Pilsen Gaming, BlueTalon, Enduriel, SacredFox.