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

where is the menavlion?

Crossbows are good for siege battles, that 's where they shine.

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.

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.

Why... taleworld why. Just give spears some love. They dominated the battlefield.

Spears being shitty in every M&B game is a feature lol...

the sppear issue is a real thing IRL. once you manage to get past it's length advantage it's mostly useless by fighters with point blank weapons. and all of these guys love to close distance if they aren't archers

i just use the my little warband mod and make my own troops normally for my front line infantry i got for 1 handed weapons then a shield then something they can throw and then a spear, then i also make the line breakers with 2 handed axe 2 throwing things and a pike to counter cav, and for archers i got for a bow 2 quivers of arrows and a 2 handed axe or sword the combo of the 3 work wonders to nuke anything

i use the exact same 2 handed axe in my current campaign

Hmm, i wouldn't say that elite units are biggest threat, since they usually are in smallest numbers.

You said something about falx blades doing something to the ai? What exactly does it do?

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

What about secondary weapons? i usu give them throwing axes

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

Without doing a whole round of formal testing, etc? How do you see this changing up with the 1.2 combat changes if any ?

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

you completely failed all the cav charge tests as you put the melee troops in a useless formation obviously line isn't going to do anything agaisnt cav, the cav are 1v1ing the foot soldiers in line. The cav are on a horse, have a huge charge bonus, the cav wins thats 1v1 every time, obviously. You need deep formations like square, where the cav charge in and can't come out, they are also hit by multiple footman as they charge in and get stuck swinging into multiple different soldiers themselves spreading out their damage.

Swing damage against heavy armored should be trash and thrust/pierce should be the only way but it's the opposite, great job taleworlds.

what about high level axes instead of maces? does it change stuff? i feel like the "underperformance" of swords is partially due to thrusting
then again, you did use a sabre or something like that, can it thrust?

Very useful video.
Great simple and clear summary too.

if there is no mods, how do you get so many companions?

Doesn't matter if they all get domed while pushing a battering ram

Why didnt you have your troops charge? its not really a fair test for your troops to always hold their line while the AI charges you.

I don't know why but your "Otherwise you'll get this.. garbage" sent me for some reason.
Thanks for the guides lmfao

What version of the game do you play?

I see a missed opportunity for Combined Arms - 5 Melee Infantry, 5 Foot Archers, 5 Melee Cavalry, and 5 Horse Archers, plus whatever the Player is.

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

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

How do you make the AI take over the player character?

86 cut on a 1H is FAR from the best. Great start to the video. Try 112.

hei Chief , i love your contents and how you expertise this game . But i also inspired by your Tamer lane Play and created my companion army . In rbm mod spar on companions is Op and mace is less effective . What do you suggest companion weapon suggestions on rbm mod ? I expect your reply A>S>A>P

liked and already subscribed year ago .

It's weird how spears suck in this game. I know they are very basic, but I expected them to perform better against calvary than they always seem to do for me. And against infantry they just blow

godtier video !

One test per weapon?

I always found spears to be kind of disappointing in Mount and Blade Bannerlord. I suppose having the ability to thrust in two directions is a slight improvement over Warband, but they took two steps backward by completely removing the ability to swing spears. In Warband, if you held your spear with two hands, you were allowed to swing them to deal blunt damage. Short spears were omnidirectional, while long spears could only be swung upwards. The damage was not as high as what maces and hammers had to offer, but it did make them viable as primary weapons, and didn't render you completely helpless in close quarters.

Man I wish it was viable to grind out impale on companions lol

comment our friend 'AL'.
So, My habit of crafting couchable glaives - probably pretty damn good. One thing I like to use companions for is raiding hideouts. A good load out for that is weapon, shield, 2 javs. OR weapon, shield bow, arrow. The shield is important as getting shot is a major threat. Of course when I forget to change loadout and they go in with the big glaive its quite funny.
A family that slays together - stays together!

What about a double or triple line of Spear Braces against a cavalry charge?

lol just started a new playthrough imma get all my companions to 250 throwing to get that perk to spread them all

Is it worth equiping all companion with swing piercing weapon like crafted scythe weapon instead of mace type weapon?

BUUUUT... you had the high ground

Bro everyone knows that companions should be armed with crosbow / bow and be kept as far as possible from the combat

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

Great video. I wonder now how our cavalry or infantry will perform with and without shields against enemies bows/crossbows and javelins.

some nit picks to the testing, maybe there should have been different scenarios of testing. The testing here was done where the companions stayed on a hill (even if at the beginning it was only a little hill), so maybe a test where its tested on flat, up the hill, down the hill and possibly forest scenarios would be a good idea, this ofc is more work. The normed testing should be done on flat terrain, bc both sides have the most "fair" starting conditions.

This is more accentuated at the archer battle, were form personal experience the archer on the higher ground win more often than the ones lower, but i guess the results wouldnt be that far off than what's shown in the vid.


Topic spears:
TW really fucked up with how they implemented spears. In the warband days, spears still had some usage, bc they could be swung like a polearm, whilst not entirely realistic diminishing it to only 2 attack directions was a awful choice. Don't know why the went the fire and sword route for spears. Like they could have added some other mechanics (push, pull, sweeping) to it, so the spear would be more versatile and at least in MP more difficult to predict the next attack, what the AI does with the weapon is a different thing, bc the AI is dumb.

But the weakness of the spear doesn't only come from the low dmg and bad hitbox, it also comes from how TW programmed the battles, which are too fast paced and where the AI doesnt actually hold formation, the AI should be more careful how its attacking.

Maybe a mechanic that allows players or AI adjust their reach of the spear would help, since shorter "spears" like javelins actually do better dmg. Another thing should also be a spear wall, similar to shogun 2 or pike/spear walls from Rome. In real life the spear was one of the most common and historically longest used weapon on the battlefield, like even in the age of gunpowder it was still in use(not talking about ww1 or ww2).


Topic Bow and Crossbow
Personally i think crossbows shouldnt have a elite troop type, maybe a option to have them be more heavily armoured, so to be better at combat. But the main point for crossbows and later for guns, was that 1. They were ez to use, 2. One didn't need to have trained with crossbows for a extended period of time, 3. they didnt need to be built for the individual.

So what to do ingame, well i would make crossbow troops cheaper, bows should be more costly we are talking about people that have been training the bow since they were children vs a peasnt with a crossbow.

The ingame stats is a different matter, but roughly, the more slowly a crosswbow is loaded, the more powerful it is, so bows should have more fire power and crossbows more dmg.

also... shields

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

The crossbow works great if you level up and build specifically for it. Same for the bows. Personally I prefer crossbows because they waste less ammo when aiming. They also armor peirce. Bows can do some armor damage but nothing compared to a crossbow. Especially in sieges.