I actually think the Empire is the best culture to start with. You have no obligation to start you kingdom there, as the -3 loyalty loss can be mitigated by assigning a governor companion with the right culture and perks. Easiest way to start the game is probably to start in the Empire then create your own kingdom in Vlandian territory.
Then recruit forest bandits or battanian youth and train them into fian champion. Repeat until all your towns and castles have a shit ton of them as garrisons. Then stack garrisons maintenance reduction modifiers.
Yes. In reality the biggest impact of the culture of your player character is which fiefs you can own without the -3 loyalty penalty. The unfortunate thing is that it means you should generally choose a culture that doesn’t match the faction you want to join which is pretty counterintuitive. If the faction you join is doing well, you won’t be given any of its starting fiefs. You will get the fiefs that it conquers, which won’t match its culture.
Going forward i will make more videos like this. simple but with some decent information. It pains me to tell you that i will not be capable of bringing the quality content you have grown to like but with studies, work and more there is very little time i can dedicate to making videos. Let me know what kinds of videos you want me to make going forward, i still want to share my experience playing the game with you in order to help you improve your game.
It would be great to have and overview of lower tier faction troops. There are a lot of videos comparing tier 5-6 troops, but the AI has uses a lot of low tier units, so learning how strong they are would be nice.
Between your thin skin and tantrums that everyone is racist for trying to help you with the inability to pronounce 90% of the syllables used in English correctly, it's been time to let the channel die for years.
Personally I would swap Sturgia with Empire, but it all comes down to personal preference. Not having the -3 loyalty is pretty nice when you're expanding without starting a kingdom and you can really launch yourself into unstoppable territory with 0 risk before you even declare a kingdom. I guess it's more for a speedrun than a casual WC, but I understand your logic. However, Sturgia for me is FFFFF tier simply because of their geography. Love their units though! Great video, glad to see you back in action Lyon!
I generally try to build a kingdom from nothing so the Empire is always a pain to get rolling in comparison to anything else. Joining an already existing one can be very different and the fiefs + culture bonus are quite good as well once you get a few fiefs. The geography for Sturgia is definitely an issue, very similar to the Aserai. But i generally have a very easy time while using them. It may have something to do with the way i play and build my MC that heavily relies on Infantry, fast sieging and quick turnover.
@@DestroyerOfOgis no, Let me guess you a Vlandian hater because you fought them and their army is 80% cav or something. Vlandian cav have ther best stats for cav than any other faction cav.
yeah. i thought about that but i have seen many do it blurred like the one i have done. In a way people can see something they don't like and click on it and tell me how stupid i am because my opinion is different
@@LyonExodusnot gonna lie. Clicked the video because the tier list showed the empire being the bottom while almost everyone says they’re the best to conquer the realm.
I’d say battania is like C tier for AI control because they always get conquered. Uuuuuh, and any faction that is against the boarder is the best faction to play over others. Like vlandia will have battania as a border empire… meaning they will have a lot of their troops mixed in. Any empire that has less “fronts” to defend is going to do really well. Terrain plays a huge factor that I don’t think you weighed it in very well.
I think any of Empire fraction is B-tier at least for 3 reasons: 1. Empire occupy half of the whole map so you can avoid rebellions etc but, most important, have high loyalty which affect everything 2. Easiest recruitment. Playing one of the tribes nation it is very difficult to conquer map just because of recruitment. For example, if u play Butter boys u need to cross whole Calradia to fight Khuzaits (ofc if u do some rp) 3. Empire's army. It is...perfect. Best infantry, best cavalry, one of the best shock troop, top 2 archer, it even has good mounted archer.
well yeah. remember it's just my opinion. I have always had issues starting from a single empire town and build a kingdom. you get declared by everyone and their mothers in comparison to any other location.
Best infantry sadly not because they don't have javelins. :/ But the empire is my preferred pick because the units are well balanced (bow, crossbow, horse archer alternatives) and they are covered in iron, they are all tanky. The position is a problem but, like you said, having so many towns of imperial culture is OP.
@@anto8375 javvies don't mean much m8. Pound for pound even after the equalizing patch legionaires are still the best unit in bannerlord as a infantry unit.
@Robert Jones overall, aserai has the best infantry. Then stugian heavy spearmen tied with legionaries in 2nd. The sword legionaries use isn't that great. Just my opinions though.
I would give vlandia a b atleast. They have insanely good shock troops and bannerknights are really good shock cav. Their sergeants are good at protecting the voulgiers and have decent weapons. Their sharpshooters can hold their own against infantry and can even beat fians due to them having way more range. Only big minus is that the culture bonus becomes useless very fast. Also they have a couple of towns that are very defendable(Jaculan, Rovalt) and pravend aleays seems to be the most prosperours city.
They don’t beat fians in anything other then range though lol. In a ranged fight settling both to advance even if 10% of the battanians fell before gettin gin range they still would absolutely roll them
Their sergeants is one of the worse melee in the game.. Their calvary is tragic. Their crossbow are good but lacking in ammo. Voulgier is also bad.. Overall valandian armor isnt that good as well. Valandian should be d and empire at B
@give me a break, I'm only 19 I also ranked vlandia as a D for the same reason. I like vlandia because of the culture they are based off of,but they are lack luster.
Vlandia is imo, one of the best locations to start. You are limited to one front (which is good). They aren’t in the center of the map… really easy to expand from them. And since being on the far west side, you will be invading into battania, getting fians and falcman. The voulgier is the best or very close second best shock troops in the game. Just look it up if you don’t believe. When you are playing this game… you aren’t only using one cultures units… you should be using the best ones from each faction as you are going around conquering. Vlandia does have great calvary imo. Idk, in very game I play… their always one of the top 3 biggest threats… always expanding and taking over the map. Almost always. And most of it has to do with their location. I’d say they are S tier.
@@WestbrickFansGotNoBrains dude you know, when i edited vlandian troops(i edited other troops as well) in files, they dominated everyone like in early patch. vlandia is weak for player to use, but even this lesser version of vlandia is strong for AI to deal with.
I know it's all opinion and preference, but I'd made 2 big changes (more dependent on using only that culture's troops and not just starting as that culture): 1: Khuzait deserves A tier imo, as not only is it super easy to buy higher-tier mounted units - thus dec reasing the need to even buy horses - but they are also basically Battanians on horses. Not as good with archery, but it makes your move speed on map insane and you can still steamroll most armies at range quickly and without loosing much. The glaives of the Khan's Guard are just as good as the Battanians 2H sword when it comes to killing quickly in melee. 2: The empire easily deserves a higher tier. Or, if anything, the Western and, maybe, Southern empire do - as both of those hold good geographical areas and hold sturdy and growing economies. But, in addition to that, thet boast a solid troop in every single tier which may not be the best in each, but hold some of the best armor and versatility to deal with any of the factions. The changes to the menavliaton and default formation setup make them still hold up in shield walls, and their heavy cav is some of the best overall. The bonus to garrison wages and influence make holding territory and keeping armies for your character much easier. It also doesn't hurt knowing that half the map won't have a loyalties debuff, so any land you gain in the civil war you will be able to keep easily, and in most cases are near the interior of the empire's land and thus not on the border's edge to other eventually-hostile nations. They don't have to be S-A tier, but I'd argue that they're at least better than Sturgia even with the many improvements to Sturgia - simply because the Sturgia culture bonuses are more situational and not as good, though the troops are similar with heavy armor infantry and a lot of throwing weapons
Yes Harry. You make a lot of good points and for many the Empire is a great starter. What i think i should have specified a bit better in that part was the importance i gave to starting a kingdom from nothing and how hard it is with an imperial settlement than any other. Starting with one of the pre-existing kingdoms is an all different story. But both me and some other players have a very hard time in comparison to any other kingdom when starting as empire that way. But i should definitely give the Empire another go in the next few days. One of the main struggles with them was the lack of ranged firepower as Palatines had 1 quiver and Crossbowman weren't as good as i expected. Now that should no longer be an issue. On the Khuzait i can't just give them an A because their culture bonus is a massive pain to deal with. you can mitigate it only by investing in roguery at the expenses of medicine, stewardship and INT on the MC. Which in my opinion is not A tier worthy. Their rooster is the best the game as to offer but the limitations are real and their towns, other than Ortongard and Chaikand struggle to get decent prosperity over time as the game doesn't do a good job in converting sheep into actual food. also the steppe bandits do have quite a good time controlling the villager population so production and delivery might, at times, be scarce.
@@LyonExodus Fair points, and true that the cultural bonuses/con of the Khuzait aside from mounted wages is weak compared to others, but I'd also argue it makes for a good trade opportunity for large parties who are able to move large herds around. I've made a lot of steady money doing that before - I just think the khan's guard are too op and they have solid troops from other types as well, to keep them at B for me lol. I've never really played fully as the Aserai so I can't speak for the comparison with them at A, I just know their towns are quite prosperous and the trade/caravan bonuses can be really good
@@ScarryHarry93 Khuzaits are monsters early game. Having the speed on the map is great early. And shooting the enemy from 2 sides with horse archers is the best tactic early game when you fight mostly infantry. In the late game they are pretty shit because the horse archer tactic does not work well when the enemy comes with more cavalry and archers + because of the culture bonus (what is the opposite of bonus?)
In my (professional) opinion starting to capture Khuzaits is hard but as soon as you capture 3 of their cities its getting soooo easy,i got 2 of their clans on my side and im dominating Aserai and Khuzaits easily at the same time. The toughest one fore me was the empire,as soon as i captured a city ( i got it after leaving southern empire),all 3 empires declared a war on me and i got crushed
I started as battania and I am getting close too the khuzaits and I fought em once and I already was done whit it those horse archers are so annoying the battle's draw out way too much thinking of starting as a empire then join khuzait
Unqid "We shall attack the closest castle to our lands and start an invasion point there" Player "Oh cool,is it Garontor Castle,Lavenia or Erzenur?" Unqid "TO JALMARYS WE MARCH" Player "But Sultan,we're at war with both Vlandians and W. Emp---" Unqid "Shhh...trust in me" *Unqid and 3 clan members have taken prisoner by Vlandians,Empire,God and LOOTERS*
In my current playthrough I'm a vassel of the southern empire and we have blitzed right through the Aserai, the only troops of I seem to fight are the low level spearmen. Who I tend to cleave through.
One think that matter for me quite a lot : Vlandia troops are really bad as attacker in siege battles, and Kuzhaits troops cant exploits their full potential in siege. During a siege as attacker, Vlandians nobles units will just be of no use and get destroyed, and their crossbowmen having a very limited amount of shot will start to climb the ladder even before they get all wipped out. For Kuzhaits, their hors archers can't be exploits at their full potentials during siege... And quite often, they will have a lot of ranged troops, so the infs attacking in close range will be of no match against your own inf. And even if they clean up your whole front lines, once their inf destroyed, they will have to go in close combat to finish the work at a moment or an other, and will just get wiped out. That's why, while fighting Vlandia or Kuzhaits, I try to be in a siege situation (as a defender or as an attacker) as much as possible.
I never understood rating own kingdom choice by its troops. Huge % of army are recruits from hostile villages, merc xbow, bandits, and prisoners. I'd be more interested in ai behavior and what policies the kingdoms are using.
Agreed depending on geography. Battania is great example. It doesn't matter that literally all of their melee and cavalry options suck when Legionnaires, Cataphracts and Banner Knights are right next door.
@@LCInfantryI liked the video. Plenty of depth. A lot of "best faction" videos don't compare the prosperity of native towns and he made plenty of points that were fresh and interesting to me despite gorging on bannerlord videos for months.
@@IroskTheOrc I had to watch the video again to see why I commented. We literally have to stare at one screen the entire video. His rankings makes no sense. He has battania as S tier because of fians and culture bonus, but they get sacked every single game…. It’s arguably the hardest faction to play because you are constantly gettin hit from all sides… almost zero recruits because units are being gobbled up by AI so much… and they got the crappiest cav and shield infantry. But then he has empire at bottom tier, when it literally has 3 of the best combat units and easiest units to upgrade. Has vlandia at near bottom…. But they always dominate. You can join vlandia, and then not do anything… because they will just wipe out battania no matter what… and get super strong. Sturgia gets dominated. Aserai just gets left alone. Kuzaits hold their own. One of the empire will come out on top. Usually, he has some good stuff. But this video is not one of them.
Looks pretty good mate. Its just funny, cause in my playthroughs Vlandia is almost evrytime crushing the Battanians and the western Empire, so i mostly spend my midgame as merc to push them back xD for... ok i just dont like Derthert. He betrayed too many tiimes :D
Battania works best when commanded by you as a player, but under AI control it gets screwed by its location. Once you build up a proper army, you can pretty much toss Sturgia around like a ball of yarn, and from there you can observe how much more effective Battanian troops are under your command than they are under the AI. You can't F1+F3 them like with a heavy cavalry army.
I'm a little confused by this video. Is this ranking what faction you should play as for your character's culture? Or which kingdom you should join to conquer Claradia? Because mentioning culture bonuses here and there is an okay reminder, but you can join any kingdom as a vassal regardless of your culture. One of my favorite things to do is make my character Empire culture then join a non empire faction and go take all the empire lands for myself because overall the fiefs with the most common culture is empire, and they don't care if you are northern, western, or southern. Joining Vlandia and taking a bunch of Western and Northern land is always a treat. But if it's a tier list based on culture bonuses, I agree empire sucks go with something like Batania or maybe Vlandia. But I'm not sure what we are tier listing here
it's a lot of things. mainly in this case is RP oriented. so i will assume as a Vlandian you will either join them or start your own kingdom using their towns. culture bonus plays a role, and quite a big one. but so do the army, starting kingdom strength, town potential, geography and more.
@@LyonExodus geography plays the biggest factor. Picking battania as the culture and then siding with vlandia is probably the easiest way to conquer calradia. You will be given Battainia cities and castles when you conquer… and since your culture is Battania… it will be easy for you to govern. As a vlandia vassal, you can just recruit battania fians and flaxman (from your own conquered territory). Your territory will be relatively easy to defend because you aren’t having to march across the map to defend from all sides. Eventually you have to take over the map… but vlandia has best starting territory. More of the AI ally troops will be condensed… meaning the AI will have easier time winning battles…. Because they will just have more numbers supporting them…. Instead of being spread out. If you play as Battania… you will always be attacked in the back by empire or sturgia, and vlandia. Battania is probably the worst starting location. All empires are pretty badly placed too. Sturgia has a tough time too because their two front lines are just so far apart in the beginning. In all my games anyways, vlandia’s AI always does really well. You don’t even have to try as hard as others.
I would have liked to see mention of playstyles too such as a blacksmith. Battania and the Empire are the best for blacksmiths thanks to abundance of wood in battania and pugios in the Empire.
can't really mention it since the last time i smithed any weapon was over an year ago. i just despise the feature between the grind of unlocking parts and how cheesy it can be to sell, smelt weapons.
In my playthrough, Vlandia and Western Empire has absolutely dominated Battania, Sturgia, Northen Empire and Southern Empire With Aserai domenating Khuzait I don’t have a single castle or town yet… Gonna start fight with Aserai in the desert, mainly so i only have to deal with the Aserai and no other factions at the same time
Personally I think empire is the best. They have plenty of towns and troops available. The others you kind of have to join another culture if you want towns with the same culture as you.
Empire is easy S-Tier. like you said all-round amazing troops + you can capture other towns without having issues with loyalty, such a big upside + picking a faction on the edge of the map to avoid war is a pussy move definitely the easiest to snowball because of the loyalty Edit: I swear, I wrote this comment before I saw that strat gaming gave the same advice, actually got the advice from flesson19 who did a video about why empire is the greatest
Disappear faster than a young dad going to buy groceries. I loled thinking this was a joke about a dad abandoning his family after saying he was going to the store. But I grew up in the 80s, so maybe it was something more benign.
not to mention they ALWAYS seem to hold their ground over the other 2. I prefer the ideals and lords of the Northern faction and have played a couple campaigns there, but the Western faction and Garios is always a tough enemy and never seems to go down easily, especially with just the AI doing it's thing. Guess fighting the Vlandians constantly sure makes for a hardened experience army.
@@ScarryHarry93 West is the worst imo. They have a direct border with Sturgia, Vlandia, Battania and Aserai all at once. South is best situated with it's only foreign frontiers being Aserai and Khuzait. North shares a tiiiny border with Battania but generally only has to deal with Sturgia and Khuzaits. In theory, the West is by far the most vulnerable empire. But I think in practise its balanced out by how hard the Khuzaits tend to roll the AI lords in auto resolve.
On the other hand, a Battanian player can turn the tables around, as Sturgia is by far the faction countered hardest by Battania. Their infantry focus is easily ruined by flanking and missile spam, leaving only their strong but less numerous cavalry to deal with.
You mean that combat module that forces you to use a mace otherwise you are dealing 3 cutting damage ? I guess the game is fine if you compare it to RBM.
My personal opinion would put empire at tier A because of the coverage and abundance of troops. Aserai at S because there aren't any major weaknesses. Sturgia and Khuzait at B tier due to being 1 dimensional. Battania at C because all they have are fians that are good. Their infantry is standard as well. Vlandia would be D all the way. Their troops are trash.
Battanian infantry is very solid, glass cannons for a more aggressive playstyle. A Battanian army will destroy anything that isn't significantly cavalry-oriented, and a Battanian player can steamroll Sturgia with no trouble because shield walls make them slow and weak to flanking/skirmishing, which Battania excels at. (This also solves their main geographic issue of being surrounded on all sides by enemies.)
@Shaojie Zhang I disagree. Their main infantry is average, and their skirmishes are largely useless unless you can get the flank like you said. Their cavalry is utter garbage, but their fians are absolutely fantastic. I'll admit that I haven't played much since 1.1 dropped, so I might be wrong. Also, it might be my personal play style that makes them incompatible to me.
@@blakethegreatone2058 It's definitely playstyle, which is fine. The troops need to be used correctly - if you use them like Sturgian heavy infantry, they're average, like you said. They're fast and hit hard. They're not necessarily better than other infantry, but I don't think they're worse.
Bring enough Fians and you can win anything, lol. Cavalry is the Battanian's biggest challenge. They have one big advantage in that they can spam arrows and javelins - if you can hold cavalry up with a shield wall and falxes at a choke point like a bridge, the missile spam will crush them. But barring that, you start to have trouble. Fians are very good at protecting themselves against cavalry, which is nice, but without any real cavalry to answer to any other culture, Battania struggles against Vlandians and Khuzaits. Moreso the former than the latter, as Battanians will just outshoot Khuzaits. Despite having better heavy cavalry, Sturgian focus on infantry will be their doom, since their shield walls are extremely easily flanked and dismantled by Battanian archers and skirmishers. Other cavalry-intensive forces generally need to be answered simply by bringing enough archers, probably putting them in a loose formation. Though I don't normally like using Battanian infantry to screen their archers (more unorthodox and aggressive tactics suit their infantry better) it's probably necessary to do so against cavalry, even with Fian's significant melee capability. Overall, cavalry needs to be dismantled quickly rather than being diverted, because they will otherwise be too significant a distraction to the archers and let the rest of their army close in. Keep them off the archers and keep them stuck in one spot so the archers can work - for Battanians, everything centers around missiles and infantry.
Woah, hold up, your saying those mountain barbarians are better than the glorious Empire? We in the empire find this decision unsatisfactory we deserve at least A tier we got the coolest looking units out of all of them ;)
@@UnbrokenWillll absolutely Celtic. The clans use Celtic symbols, many of the place names are in Welsh language, Fians are based off an Irish ancient soldier, Bryn Glas (battanian village) is also a real life Welsh village which has medieval history
@@DanJWR22 that’s interesting and cool … are the vladians based on the Teutonic order ? Or Holy Roman Empire ? The only culture I know for sure is the khuzait being Mongols and empire being Roman .
@@UnbrokenWillll Battania Germanic/Celtic/Scottish, Aserai is Mamluks and every other Islamic place, Sturgia is Rus and Scandinavian viking cultures, Vlandia is Hungary/Holy Roman Empire and Empire is pretty much Eastern Rome only.
Does anyone know of a mod that allows you to recruit in newly conquered cities (from not my faction) units from the kingdom of which I am? For example: When Vlandia conquers the city of Sturgia, I can recruit Vlandia units in the former city of Sturgia.
@@neonsplit2941 you made the mistake of thinking he thought about it. Some people are just sad and mean. best thing to do is phasing them out. They don't deserve to be heard.
I actually think the Empire is the best culture to start with. You have no obligation to start you kingdom there, as the -3 loyalty loss can be mitigated by assigning a governor companion with the right culture and perks. Easiest way to start the game is probably to start in the Empire then create your own kingdom in Vlandian territory.
Then recruit forest bandits or battanian youth and train them into fian champion. Repeat until all your towns and castles have a shit ton of them as garrisons. Then stack garrisons maintenance reduction modifiers.
Amen
Yes. In reality the biggest impact of the culture of your player character is which fiefs you can own without the -3 loyalty penalty. The unfortunate thing is that it means you should generally choose a culture that doesn’t match the faction you want to join which is pretty counterintuitive. If the faction you join is doing well, you won’t be given any of its starting fiefs. You will get the fiefs that it conquers, which won’t match its culture.
Going forward i will make more videos like this.
simple but with some decent information.
It pains me to tell you that i will not be capable of bringing the quality content you have grown to like but with studies, work and more there is very little time i can dedicate to making videos.
Let me know what kinds of videos you want me to make going forward, i still want to share my experience playing the game with you in order to help you improve your game.
Don’t worry about it dude. Real life comes first. Gotta keep the lights on.
It would be great to have and overview of lower tier faction troops. There are a lot of videos comparing tier 5-6 troops, but the AI has uses a lot of low tier units, so learning how strong they are would be nice.
Between your thin skin and tantrums that everyone is racist for trying to help you with the inability to pronounce 90% of the syllables used in English correctly, it's been time to let the channel die for years.
Personally I would swap Sturgia with Empire, but it all comes down to personal preference. Not having the -3 loyalty is pretty nice when you're expanding without starting a kingdom and you can really launch yourself into unstoppable territory with 0 risk before you even declare a kingdom. I guess it's more for a speedrun than a casual WC, but I understand your logic. However, Sturgia for me is FFFFF tier simply because of their geography. Love their units though! Great video, glad to see you back in action Lyon!
I generally try to build a kingdom from nothing so the Empire is always a pain to get rolling in comparison to anything else.
Joining an already existing one can be very different and the fiefs + culture bonus are quite good as well once you get a few fiefs.
The geography for Sturgia is definitely an issue, very similar to the Aserai. But i generally have a very easy time while using them.
It may have something to do with the way i play and build my MC that heavily relies on Infantry, fast sieging and quick turnover.
Sturgian geography vs. Vlandian cavalry, 2 worst things in the game 😭
@@DestroyerOfOgis but Vlandian cav is one of the best cav in the game
@@Jamtoaer One of the worst*
@@DestroyerOfOgis no, Let me guess you a Vlandian hater because you fought them and their army is 80% cav or something. Vlandian cav have ther best stats for cav than any other faction cav.
I suggest not putting the final list into the thumbnail so people will actually watch the video :P great explanations none the less!
yeah. i thought about that but i have seen many do it blurred like the one i have done.
In a way people can see something they don't like and click on it and tell me how stupid i am because my opinion is different
I mean, the people who weren’t gonna watch the whole video can just skip to the end anyways.
@@LyonExodusnot gonna lie. Clicked the video because the tier list showed the empire being the bottom while almost everyone says they’re the best to conquer the realm.
@@NotTheBomb never had a good time with them. But i also tend to play in more challenging ways than most so that might be the reason
@@LyonExodus in your defense I didn't even try to look past the blur, so it definitely worked on me
Glad to see you back, missed your videos
I’d say battania is like C tier for AI control because they always get conquered.
Uuuuuh, and any faction that is against the boarder is the best faction to play over others. Like vlandia will have battania as a border empire… meaning they will have a lot of their troops mixed in. Any empire that has less “fronts” to defend is going to do really well. Terrain plays a huge factor that I don’t think you weighed it in very well.
I think any of Empire fraction is B-tier at least for 3 reasons:
1. Empire occupy half of the whole map so you can avoid rebellions etc but, most important, have high loyalty which affect everything
2. Easiest recruitment. Playing one of the tribes nation it is very difficult to conquer map just because of recruitment. For example, if u play Butter boys u need to cross whole Calradia to fight Khuzaits (ofc if u do some rp)
3. Empire's army. It is...perfect. Best infantry, best cavalry, one of the best shock troop, top 2 archer, it even has good mounted archer.
well yeah. remember it's just my opinion.
I have always had issues starting from a single empire town and build a kingdom. you get declared by everyone and their mothers in comparison to any other location.
Best infantry sadly not because they don't have javelins. :/
But the empire is my preferred pick because the units are well balanced (bow, crossbow, horse archer alternatives) and they are covered in iron, they are all tanky.
The position is a problem but, like you said, having so many towns of imperial culture is OP.
@@LyonExodus this problem can be avoided if you start at the middle of the Empire, Zeonica, for example
Anyway,love your videos,pls keep it up!
@@anto8375 javvies don't mean much m8. Pound for pound even after the equalizing patch legionaires are still the best unit in bannerlord as a infantry unit.
@Robert Jones overall, aserai has the best infantry. Then stugian heavy spearmen tied with legionaries in 2nd. The sword legionaries use isn't that great. Just my opinions though.
I would give vlandia a b atleast. They have insanely good shock troops and bannerknights are really good shock cav. Their sergeants are good at protecting the voulgiers and have decent weapons. Their sharpshooters can hold their own against infantry and can even beat fians due to them having way more range. Only big minus is that the culture bonus becomes useless very fast. Also they have a couple of towns that are very defendable(Jaculan, Rovalt) and pravend aleays seems to be the most prosperours city.
They don’t beat fians in anything other then range though lol. In a ranged fight settling both to advance even if 10% of the battanians fell before gettin gin range they still would absolutely roll them
Their sergeants is one of the worse melee in the game..
Their calvary is tragic. Their crossbow are good but lacking in ammo.
Voulgier is also bad..
Overall valandian armor isnt that good as well.
Valandian should be d and empire at B
@give me a break, I'm only 19 I also ranked vlandia as a D for the same reason. I like vlandia because of the culture they are based off of,but they are lack luster.
Vlandia is imo, one of the best locations to start. You are limited to one front (which is good). They aren’t in the center of the map… really easy to expand from them. And since being on the far west side, you will be invading into battania, getting fians and falcman.
The voulgier is the best or very close second best shock troops in the game. Just look it up if you don’t believe.
When you are playing this game… you aren’t only using one cultures units… you should be using the best ones from each faction as you are going around conquering. Vlandia does have great calvary imo.
Idk, in very game I play… their always one of the top 3 biggest threats… always expanding and taking over the map. Almost always. And most of it has to do with their location. I’d say they are S tier.
@@WestbrickFansGotNoBrains dude you know, when i edited vlandian troops(i edited other troops as well) in files, they dominated everyone like in early patch. vlandia is weak for player to use, but even this lesser version of vlandia is strong for AI to deal with.
I know it's all opinion and preference, but I'd made 2 big changes (more dependent on using only that culture's troops and not just starting as that culture):
1: Khuzait deserves A tier imo, as not only is it super easy to buy higher-tier mounted units - thus dec reasing the need to even buy horses - but they are also basically Battanians on horses. Not as good with archery, but it makes your move speed on map insane and you can still steamroll most armies at range quickly and without loosing much. The glaives of the Khan's Guard are just as good as the Battanians 2H sword when it comes to killing quickly in melee.
2: The empire easily deserves a higher tier. Or, if anything, the Western and, maybe, Southern empire do - as both of those hold good geographical areas and hold sturdy and growing economies. But, in addition to that, thet boast a solid troop in every single tier which may not be the best in each, but hold some of the best armor and versatility to deal with any of the factions. The changes to the menavliaton and default formation setup make them still hold up in shield walls, and their heavy cav is some of the best overall. The bonus to garrison wages and influence make holding territory and keeping armies for your character much easier.
It also doesn't hurt knowing that half the map won't have a loyalties debuff, so any land you gain in the civil war you will be able to keep easily, and in most cases are near the interior of the empire's land and thus not on the border's edge to other eventually-hostile nations. They don't have to be S-A tier, but I'd argue that they're at least better than Sturgia even with the many improvements to Sturgia - simply because the Sturgia culture bonuses are more situational and not as good, though the troops are similar with heavy armor infantry and a lot of throwing weapons
Yes Harry. You make a lot of good points and for many the Empire is a great starter.
What i think i should have specified a bit better in that part was the importance i gave to starting a kingdom from nothing and how hard it is with an imperial settlement than any other.
Starting with one of the pre-existing kingdoms is an all different story. But both me and some other players have a very hard time in comparison to any other kingdom when starting as empire that way.
But i should definitely give the Empire another go in the next few days. One of the main struggles with them was the lack of ranged firepower as Palatines had 1 quiver and Crossbowman weren't as good as i expected.
Now that should no longer be an issue.
On the Khuzait i can't just give them an A because their culture bonus is a massive pain to deal with. you can mitigate it only by investing in roguery at the expenses of medicine, stewardship and INT on the MC. Which in my opinion is not A tier worthy.
Their rooster is the best the game as to offer but the limitations are real and their towns, other than Ortongard and Chaikand struggle to get decent prosperity over time as the game doesn't do a good job in converting sheep into actual food.
also the steppe bandits do have quite a good time controlling the villager population so production and delivery might, at times, be scarce.
@@LyonExodus Fair points, and true that the cultural bonuses/con of the Khuzait aside from mounted wages is weak compared to others, but I'd also argue it makes for a good trade opportunity for large parties who are able to move large herds around. I've made a lot of steady money doing that before - I just think the khan's guard are too op and they have solid troops from other types as well, to keep them at B for me lol. I've never really played fully as the Aserai so I can't speak for the comparison with them at A, I just know their towns are quite prosperous and the trade/caravan bonuses can be really good
@@LyonExodus thankfully the palastine archers got 2 quivers now, might be the best T5 archers right now
@@ScarryHarry93 Khuzaits are monsters early game.
Having the speed on the map is great early.
And shooting the enemy from 2 sides with horse archers is the best tactic early game when you fight mostly infantry.
In the late game they are pretty shit because the horse archer tactic does not work well when the enemy comes with more cavalry and archers + because of the culture bonus (what is the opposite of bonus?)
In my (professional) opinion starting to capture Khuzaits is hard but as soon as you capture 3 of their cities its getting soooo easy,i got 2 of their clans on my side and im dominating Aserai and Khuzaits easily at the same time. The toughest one fore me was the empire,as soon as i captured a city ( i got it after leaving southern empire),all 3 empires declared a war on me and i got crushed
I started as battania and I am getting close too the khuzaits and I fought em once and I already was done whit it those horse archers are so annoying the battle's draw out way too much thinking of starting as a empire then join khuzait
Unqid "We shall attack the closest castle to our lands and start an invasion point there"
Player "Oh cool,is it Garontor Castle,Lavenia or Erzenur?"
Unqid "TO JALMARYS WE MARCH"
Player "But Sultan,we're at war with both Vlandians and W. Emp---"
Unqid "Shhh...trust in me"
*Unqid and 3 clan members have taken prisoner by Vlandians,Empire,God and LOOTERS*
In my current playthrough I'm a vassel of the southern empire and we have blitzed right through the Aserai, the only troops of I seem to fight are the low level spearmen. Who I tend to cleave through.
One think that matter for me quite a lot : Vlandia troops are really bad as attacker in siege battles, and Kuzhaits troops cant exploits their full potential in siege. During a siege as attacker, Vlandians nobles units will just be of no use and get destroyed, and their crossbowmen having a very limited amount of shot will start to climb the ladder even before they get all wipped out. For Kuzhaits, their hors archers can't be exploits at their full potentials during siege... And quite often, they will have a lot of ranged troops, so the infs attacking in close range will be of no match against your own inf. And even if they clean up your whole front lines, once their inf destroyed, they will have to go in close combat to finish the work at a moment or an other, and will just get wiped out. That's why, while fighting Vlandia or Kuzhaits, I try to be in a siege situation (as a defender or as an attacker) as much as possible.
I never understood rating own kingdom choice by its troops. Huge % of army are recruits from hostile villages, merc xbow, bandits, and prisoners. I'd be more interested in ai behavior and what policies the kingdoms are using.
Agreed depending on geography. Battania is great example. It doesn't matter that literally all of their melee and cavalry options suck when Legionnaires, Cataphracts and Banner Knights are right next door.
In his defense, this video doesn’t require much work to make. Wasn’t much depth to it.
@@LCInfantrythat's not defending Lyon, that's straight up attacking him lmao
@@LCInfantryI liked the video. Plenty of depth. A lot of "best faction" videos don't compare the prosperity of native towns and he made plenty of points that were fresh and interesting to me despite gorging on bannerlord videos for months.
@@IroskTheOrc
I had to watch the video again to see why I commented.
We literally have to stare at one screen the entire video.
His rankings makes no sense. He has battania as S tier because of fians and culture bonus, but they get sacked every single game…. It’s arguably the hardest faction to play because you are constantly gettin hit from all sides… almost zero recruits because units are being gobbled up by AI so much… and they got the crappiest cav and shield infantry.
But then he has empire at bottom tier, when it literally has 3 of the best combat units and easiest units to upgrade. Has vlandia at near bottom…. But they always dominate. You can join vlandia, and then not do anything… because they will just wipe out battania no matter what… and get super strong.
Sturgia gets dominated. Aserai just gets left alone. Kuzaits hold their own. One of the empire will come out on top.
Usually, he has some good stuff. But this video is not one of them.
"Vlanda has no future" 💀
Vlandia has nothing anyways
Looks pretty good mate. Its just funny, cause in my playthroughs Vlandia is almost evrytime crushing the Battanians and the western Empire, so i mostly spend my midgame as merc to push them back xD
for... ok i just dont like Derthert. He betrayed too many tiimes :D
This is me everytime too. Kind of hate Vlandia because of it
Battania works best when commanded by you as a player, but under AI control it gets screwed by its location. Once you build up a proper army, you can pretty much toss Sturgia around like a ball of yarn, and from there you can observe how much more effective Battanian troops are under your command than they are under the AI. You can't F1+F3 them like with a heavy cavalry army.
I'm a little confused by this video. Is this ranking what faction you should play as for your character's culture? Or which kingdom you should join to conquer Claradia? Because mentioning culture bonuses here and there is an okay reminder, but you can join any kingdom as a vassal regardless of your culture. One of my favorite things to do is make my character Empire culture then join a non empire faction and go take all the empire lands for myself because overall the fiefs with the most common culture is empire, and they don't care if you are northern, western, or southern. Joining Vlandia and taking a bunch of Western and Northern land is always a treat. But if it's a tier list based on culture bonuses, I agree empire sucks go with something like Batania or maybe Vlandia. But I'm not sure what we are tier listing here
it's a lot of things. mainly in this case is RP oriented. so i will assume as a Vlandian you will either join them or start your own kingdom using their towns.
culture bonus plays a role, and quite a big one. but so do the army, starting kingdom strength, town potential, geography and more.
@@LyonExodus
geography plays the biggest factor. Picking battania as the culture and then siding with vlandia is probably the easiest way to conquer calradia.
You will be given Battainia cities and castles when you conquer… and since your culture is Battania… it will be easy for you to govern. As a vlandia vassal, you can just recruit battania fians and flaxman (from your own conquered territory).
Your territory will be relatively easy to defend because you aren’t having to march across the map to defend from all sides. Eventually you have to take over the map… but vlandia has best starting territory. More of the AI ally troops will be condensed… meaning the AI will have easier time winning battles…. Because they will just have more numbers supporting them…. Instead of being spread out.
If you play as Battania… you will always be attacked in the back by empire or sturgia, and vlandia. Battania is probably the worst starting location. All empires are pretty badly placed too. Sturgia has a tough time too because their two front lines are just so far apart in the beginning.
In all my games anyways, vlandia’s AI always does really well. You don’t even have to try as hard as others.
I would have liked to see mention of playstyles too such as a blacksmith. Battania and the Empire are the best for blacksmiths thanks to abundance of wood in battania and pugios in the Empire.
can't really mention it since the last time i smithed any weapon was over an year ago. i just despise the feature between the grind of unlocking parts and how cheesy it can be to sell, smelt weapons.
In my playthrough, Vlandia and Western Empire has absolutely dominated Battania, Sturgia, Northen Empire and Southern Empire
With Aserai domenating Khuzait
I don’t have a single castle or town yet…
Gonna start fight with Aserai in the desert, mainly so i only have to deal with the Aserai and no other factions at the same time
Personally I think empire is the best. They have plenty of towns and troops available. The others you kind of have to join another culture if you want towns with the same culture as you.
or you could start your own kingdom
Empire is easy S-Tier. like you said all-round amazing troops
+ you can capture other towns without having issues with loyalty, such a big upside
+ picking a faction on the edge of the map to avoid war is a pussy move
definitely the easiest to snowball because of the loyalty
Edit: I swear, I wrote this comment before I saw that strat gaming gave the same advice, actually got the advice from flesson19 who did a video about why empire is the greatest
the empire has Rhagaea and Ira. Nuff said for S+ tier
Disappear faster than a young dad going to buy groceries.
I loled thinking this was a joke about a dad abandoning his family after saying he was going to the store.
But I grew up in the 80s, so maybe it was something more benign.
i leave it up to interpretation
there should be a 1v1 big armies for multiplayer yk
Between the 3 Empire factions, I would put Western Empire slightly higher than the rest just because I prefer Garios over the other two.
not to mention they ALWAYS seem to hold their ground over the other 2. I prefer the ideals and lords of the Northern faction and have played a couple campaigns there, but the Western faction and Garios is always a tough enemy and never seems to go down easily, especially with just the AI doing it's thing. Guess fighting the Vlandians constantly sure makes for a hardened experience army.
@@ScarryHarry93 West is the worst imo. They have a direct border with Sturgia, Vlandia, Battania and Aserai all at once. South is best situated with it's only foreign frontiers being Aserai and Khuzait. North shares a tiiiny border with Battania but generally only has to deal with Sturgia and Khuzaits.
In theory, the West is by far the most vulnerable empire. But I think in practise its balanced out by how hard the Khuzaits tend to roll the AI lords in auto resolve.
Ironically sturgia mitigates the lack of good archers early on by conquering battania
On the other hand, a Battanian player can turn the tables around, as Sturgia is by far the faction countered hardest by Battania. Their infantry focus is easily ruined by flanking and missile spam, leaving only their strong but less numerous cavalry to deal with.
@@shaojiezhang8276 As a Sturgian I can confirm that our weakness is Battania. And Khuzait, fighting an army of ⅓ horse archers is hell.
Fr i always see sturgian armys that have more fians than a battanian army
In my opinion, if you have enough money, any kingdom is good to join.
the good thing with empire is that you can get city from other empire faction with no malus to the culture liege
But battania is way too op
did taleworlds fixed banner lord issues with troops balance & armor or do i still need to stay with rbm ?
RBM>
You mean that combat module that forces you to use a mace otherwise you are dealing 3 cutting damage ? I guess the game is fine if you compare it to RBM.
My personal opinion would put empire at tier A because of the coverage and abundance of troops. Aserai at S because there aren't any major weaknesses. Sturgia and Khuzait at B tier due to being 1 dimensional. Battania at C because all they have are fians that are good. Their infantry is standard as well. Vlandia would be D all the way. Their troops are trash.
Battanian infantry is very solid, glass cannons for a more aggressive playstyle. A Battanian army will destroy anything that isn't significantly cavalry-oriented, and a Battanian player can steamroll Sturgia with no trouble because shield walls make them slow and weak to flanking/skirmishing, which Battania excels at.
(This also solves their main geographic issue of being surrounded on all sides by enemies.)
@Shaojie Zhang I disagree. Their main infantry is average, and their skirmishes are largely useless unless you can get the flank like you said. Their cavalry is utter garbage, but their fians are absolutely fantastic. I'll admit that I haven't played much since 1.1 dropped, so I might be wrong. Also, it might be my personal play style that makes them incompatible to me.
@@blakethegreatone2058 It's definitely playstyle, which is fine. The troops need to be used correctly - if you use them like Sturgian heavy infantry, they're average, like you said. They're fast and hit hard. They're not necessarily better than other infantry, but I don't think they're worse.
Finally an unbiased video that doesn't put Sturgia at last tier and knows how overrated Vlandia is. Based Lyon 🗿
I like battanians for that speed bonus in forest
Fr
Come back, king
Battania is undoubtedly the best t play as.
But it's also the worst.
It will be fun.
It will not be easy.
We need the infantry tier/overview bro.
Good video
Battanians are fun to play until you get rolled by Vlandians 😂
Bring enough Fians and you can win anything, lol.
Cavalry is the Battanian's biggest challenge. They have one big advantage in that they can spam arrows and javelins - if you can hold cavalry up with a shield wall and falxes at a choke point like a bridge, the missile spam will crush them. But barring that, you start to have trouble.
Fians are very good at protecting themselves against cavalry, which is nice, but without any real cavalry to answer to any other culture, Battania struggles against Vlandians and Khuzaits. Moreso the former than the latter, as Battanians will just outshoot Khuzaits.
Despite having better heavy cavalry, Sturgian focus on infantry will be their doom, since their shield walls are extremely easily flanked and dismantled by Battanian archers and skirmishers. Other cavalry-intensive forces generally need to be answered simply by bringing enough archers, probably putting them in a loose formation. Though I don't normally like using Battanian infantry to screen their archers (more unorthodox and aggressive tactics suit their infantry better) it's probably necessary to do so against cavalry, even with Fian's significant melee capability.
Overall, cavalry needs to be dismantled quickly rather than being diverted, because they will otherwise be too significant a distraction to the archers and let the rest of their army close in. Keep them off the archers and keep them stuck in one spot so the archers can work - for Battanians, everything centers around missiles and infantry.
They nerfed my precious Sharpshooters?? D:
yeah. quite badly
Battania because of Fians
Number one being your own kingdom, duh.
in my campaign the aserai have 10 000 power because theyre never atacked...
lol the list is literally upside down.
Not even. The list is too harsh on cavalry, but Battania is absolutely S-tier.
This
Woah, hold up, your saying those mountain barbarians are better than the glorious Empire? We in the empire find this decision unsatisfactory we deserve at least A tier we got the coolest looking units out of all of them ;)
You play Battania because they're S tier
I play Battania because I like their Celtic culture, weapons and aesthetic
We are not the same
Are battanians based of celts or Germanic tribes ??? Always thought it was Germanic tribes
@@UnbrokenWillll absolutely Celtic. The clans use Celtic symbols, many of the place names are in Welsh language, Fians are based off an Irish ancient soldier, Bryn Glas (battanian village) is also a real life Welsh village which has medieval history
@@DanJWR22 that’s interesting and cool … are the vladians based on the Teutonic order ? Or Holy Roman Empire ? The only culture I know for sure is the khuzait being Mongols and empire being Roman .
@@UnbrokenWillll Battania Germanic/Celtic/Scottish, Aserai is Mamluks and every other Islamic place, Sturgia is Rus and Scandinavian viking cultures, Vlandia is Hungary/Holy Roman Empire and Empire is pretty much Eastern Rome only.
Does anyone know of a mod that allows you to recruit in newly conquered cities (from not my faction) units from the kingdom of which I am? For example: When Vlandia conquers the city of Sturgia, I can recruit Vlandia units in the former city of Sturgia.
can't tell for sure but kaoses Tweaks used to have an option for it. But i think it used to either not work or crash the game.
Improvement Garnison mod is a must have which can do that.
I love your accent lol
Where r u from dude
IT
You forget Pikemen spam wins over all other strategies!
For any new players just kidding 🙃
Agreed
Empire is S for sure
Vlandia is the best. Vlandia>>>Empire>>Khuzait>>battania>/=Sturgia>Aserai
as for character creation culture Empire is the Best
the best town is Ortysia
This list is basically upside down 😂😂😂😂
Vlandia might have a better chance since tons of Aserai and Jawwal migrants have flooded Vlandia, Battania, and Sturgia since around 2011. 🤣
"Sturgia belongs to the Sturgians"
- Raganvad
Arab Top 1🔥🔥
F
its english or italian, hard to understand, talking faster not gonna help either pasta man
You don’t think there was a nicer way to say this?
@@neonsplit2941 you made the mistake of thinking he thought about it.
Some people are just sad and mean. best thing to do is phasing them out.
They don't deserve to be heard.
You're probably a salty Vlandia fan that is mad because you aren't in S tier LMAO.
@@DestroyerOfOgis im pretty sure no one expected to be S tier and im a Vlandia fan
@@Jamtoaer vl*ndia
Lol