looks can be deceiving i guess. the best unit in terms of armor is the Banner Knight and it doesn't even crack the top 10, not that it needs to. Those guys are nasty
In that era it was the Romans (Byzantines) and those from middle east who had the heaviest armor. The Rus nobility would often import those armor from the "empire", which is why they have similar designs
Vlandian Banner Knights have good stats but weaker armor.Vlandians generally relies on their shields and lances to annihilate their foes,so Battanian archers are a definite go.Only problems are Sharpshooters,but they fires much slower
11th century Normans didn’t have the best armor because only chainmail no plate. The Byzantine elite had some of the best armor with lamellar + chainmail combo
vlandians need armor most of the Battanians need complete rework Imperial is still strong Khuzait is still strong Sturgia only need a lil bit armor Aserai need cav And the entire bannerlord needs a sword buff
to sum this up: Every unit needs a lenght check for their own weapon and try to keep that distance instead of walking 46 range units away from an enemy (lowest range of ANY melee troops weapon that isn't a dagger btw) because the AI is programmed to keep even the shortest melee weapon viable. Game does range check for the point of when they start to wind up and release a melee attack but they will still walk in way too close.
Sturgias armour is perfectly fine lmao. These angry idiotic mindless vlan fans probably brainwashed you with "Sturgia weak lmao" because that's the only thing they can say instead of touching grass.
Pikeman in other games: A unit that is a formidable force in a head-on collision. The cavalry sent into their formation is almost guaranteed to die. Pikeman in Bannerlord: "Um, well, we have big sticks that we can't use normally. The cavalry, which is running at us head-on, just wants to give us at least some chance to prove ourselves, but we will still lose because King Derthert decided to save money on us."
And then the actual use for spears in history: Foot combat. Also because they are cheap and required almost no iron or steel. Was simply superior and faster in close quarter combat compared to a sword. Imagine you are a swordsman and you have to face a spearman. This spearman will have a sidearm and be just as capable in close combat as you are. Guess what? That spearman can throw this goshdang spear in your face at any given time so you generally can't assess the situation at ALL since you have to cover behind your shield until you're literally in your own weapons reach or you'd simply die. Spears had a immense mental effect on anyone that did not have one. Spearwalls would kinda be inferior to an actual cavalry charge. Of course the horse would die or the first couple horses but for every dead horse or rider of that horse, the horse weight would just squash SEVERAL people. Death doesn''t reduce your bodies and bodyweights speed to zero. Also the horses most likely wouldn't be afraid either. They'd ride mid into death if their rider made them, but they didnt. Wrecking your horse would be equal to a knight as it would be to someone who can barely afford a lamborghini to just drive on top of a hill and let it roll down watching it crash. If a knight would cost 5 times the amount of an infantryman, the horse would cost 50 times the amount than the knight itself. The human was easily replaceable, the fully trained, well fed, armoured war horse wasn't. The greatest battle loot existing in medieval battles was actually a knights or a noble's horse. Though usually nobles got everything they had back and their wounds were treated to the point that doctors failing to save a ENEMY wounded noble would get himself and his own family executed because of that. Nobles in jail would receive the best food availiable only coming short to the own nobles. Heck they even would get anything including women sent to their dungeon if they demanded. The only thing a noble had to do was vow to not fight in the current war anymore and he'd been free to go after full recovery and hospitality of their enemies.
Its a default for the player to focus on having a lot of cav but when i watched 57 of my cav units try to 3 kill of the enemy cav for 3 minutes and the fact they had less combine kills than what my foot soldiers got from the battle overall then and there i decided that my army will have no more than 20% cav simply for the speed bonus and to act as distraction for the enemy while my foot soldiers carry the fight cuz it seems when my infr stomps the enemy lines even if the enemy has cav left they`ll just route. Or you could just put them in a big ol square and wait for the enemy cav units to suicide cuz its faster than trying to catch them - we all hate those few last cav units doing circles around the map even when the battle is clearly over.
Have the spears become more useable now in 1.9? Valandian Sergeant looks really cool and are really easy to tell appart to play without the floating circle, a shame they perform so poorly.
i'll update the videos if there will ever be updates for them, but if anything a 1h long tier list with plenty of graphs should be made after we are done. also if all goes well i'll try to get in contact with someone to create a personal balance mod (at least for T5 & T6 and possibly lords perks and builds) so more updates are planned for the future.
Honestly nearly all of the issues plaguing Vlandia stem from AI problems. AI is good at aiming and one handed/shield combat on foot but they completely fall apart in other aspects (except glaive cav lol). Take the Vanguard for example, the fact that Vlandian armies have access to a lance in a non-noble troop line would be huge, if the 1.8.0 Cavalry AI weren't absolutely broken. The sergeant needs a bit armor sure but take away their spears and they perform so much better to the point that it's actually kinda viable fielding them at your army. Again, issue with AI. It's pretty obvious they won't touch the way spears work with such little time left until release but they need to at least buff the Cav AI back to pre 1.8.0 levels.
i mean you are not wrong but also not 100% right. the Sergeants aren't a competitive unit because of their armor, or lack of. 66% of a good sidearm is fine (see the Legionary) but when you have below average head armor and the worst body of the class even good sidearms won't carry you. the spear is a problem sure, but in an infantry V infantry situation they don't use it. and the stats were taken from a shield wall charge scenario like that. The Vanguards have the problem that they are a standard cavalry line, so just because of that they will not be competitive in comparison to the T6 Noble lines and their T5s as well. Then you have to factor in that the unit itself isn't that tanky with a very weak body armor, it won't do well against archers. Obviously the AI is an issue but since the faction already as the Banner Knights as cavalry why bother with a quite obvious lesser unit. The Sturgians cavalry design is (in my opinion) done right. With the Druzhinniks being the hybrid heavy cavalry while the Horse Raiders are the light skirmishers. But Vlandia has 2 units that do the same thing and one is just worse. The AI i agree with, but every cavalry unit as to deal with it, so if the Banner Knights can perform better than them they don't have much of an excuse other than being a standard T5 unit. The only units that really suffer from the AI are the Voulgier and the Pikeman. the Voulgiers were a very competitive unit in the 1.7. patches while the Pikemans have been a meme for a long time. I think the problem with Vlandia as a whole is a design issue. a Pikeman that clearly never worked and 2 cavalry lines that do the same thing with one simply being worse than the other. the Sharpshooters and the Sergeants just needs slight buffs to their armors and a shorter spear for the Sergeant but other than that they are fine.
@@LyonExodus Some very well points made especially about the lack of skirmish cav which I hadn't really considered since I rarely use them myself. I guess I'm just still salty and seething about the nerfed AI lol. I personally doubt the devs would edit the Vanguards to include throwables or something along those lines (horse crossbowmen hype??) since the cavalry charge is such a characteristic aspect of this faction. Also this is like your second video I watched and I love this format. Thanks a lot for the content looking forward to the next one.
Glad you are enjoying the content. i think it wouldn't be impossible to see a mounted crossbowman line. they have recently given Vlandian caravan guards a crossbow and an horse so that might be a possibility and one i honestly hope for. We can only hope at one point the spears and horse/rider AI will be up to standards and cavalry won't need an insane amount of armor and weapon skill in order to just function. But i think before the release Vlandia should see some changes in their templates as TW has been messing around with units a lot lately.
Fantastic video, both full of insightful commentary and useful data as well as favored with some hilarious commentary. It really sucks that long thrusting weapons like pikes suffer so much in this game... Im considering doing an all pike and crossbowmen play through doing kind of a "pike and shot" strategy.. and im dreading the outcome
I was playing bannerlord on pre launch and i immediately fell inlove to vlandia but playing vlandia on 1.8 is an absolute hellhole, I am reevaluating my strategy if i should stop role playing and just minmaxing my army or stay full vlandian units across the board lmao
If you can update to 1.9. or 1.0. there the Vanguards and Voulgiers are way better. But the rest is still very similar. If you ever feel like your infantry is underperforming remember that you can always dismount some Banner Knights and use them instead.
@@LyonExodus I guess the sharpshooters were still good when on mass but having the most shocking for me is how the sergeant went from amazing to meh. I mean in terms of cost though like 40 Banner Knights vs like 40 sergeants I would assume that 40 sergeants are cheaper but again The Banner Knights performance is way more efficient?
The Sharps lost a lot with the accuracy nerfs for crossbows of 1.8. before when you had 200+ they could really be something special. Now they are much less powerful but still decent. The Banner Knights altough more expensive to upgrade and pay for they should tend to die much, much less than the Sergeants. So i think in the end they even end up saving you money. Especially in the biggest sieges. Anyway, i still have to run the melee and dismount test on 1.0. But as far as 1.8. is concerned i would go Banner Knights as both Cav and Infantry for a Faction bound campaign. With some sharpshooters as well. I would definitely avoid Vanguards and Voulgiers on that version. Sergeants are fine, but if you can gather some banner knights instead it would be much more effective. And let's not talk about the Pikeman...
I don’t quite agree with versatility being a “con” for a unit. It depends on context. I’d rather have my sergeants not have throwing axes (which are hot garbage this patch, unless you have a max throwing captain, and even then, javelins are way better). But for the rest of the data, I can agree somewhat. But Vlandia has some of the best drip in the game IMO. Vlandia, Empire, and the Aserai have the best fashion.
i mean you can turn an Axeman into an Axeman with no throwing axes by telling them to hold fire. That's an option you don't have to use but in case you have to it's for sure a plus, not having it must be considered. Even tho it's not a bad CON to have, it just a limitation on what you can do with the unit itself so it doesn't fit certain armies or playstyles. For some units the Versatility also mean that they have 1 way of being used and that's it, they don't offer any other way to approach a battle other than smashing on the enemy or charging into them something like a Darkhan wouldn't be considered a versatile unit even though they can throw a spear. And also having a versatile unit doesn't automatically make that unit good, if your melee performance is still bad there is little to do and for a unit like the Sergeant that has possibly the worst spear in the game i'd gladly switch that for some axes.
It kills me to know that almost all Vlandian top tier troops are terrible considering that Vlandia is my favorite faction in the game also not to mention that almost all other factions now steam roll this one to the point to where late game this faction becomes almost useless if it wasn't for those of us that play under the this faction.
I love the Vlandian looks myself and the Voulgier is one of my personal favorite units since it was a very underrated one in previous patches. But with the later changes to both mechanics and units Vlandia stood the same and everything around it just got better. Right now i think a simple armor buff for most of the troops should make them competitors again.
Nah, I play for Sturgia and in my playthrough Vlandia always declares war when dumb ai fights Aserai. So, even being terrible in tactics the Vlandian AI captured half of Batania and Sturgia. Now they have the best cavalry, the best archers and axemen. They were pathetic at the start of the game and now I regret wiping out Khuzait instead of Vlandia
@@LyonExodus I feel that I'm the same way but almost all the top tier troops are garbage compared to others and you think that vlandia is one of the more war focused faction but they have the worst armors values in the game. Still love the faction I just wish that they'd do something about the armor values that would make them better at least a tad bit better and also fix the ai when it comes to cavalry and spears.
Vlandian units seriously need better shoulder armor equipment other than scarf and hood (and 2/3 legionary cape on Sergeants is a joke). Also not sure what's with Derthert's obsession with Tabard over Mail Hauberk. IMO the pikeman would have fared a bit better if the pike is swingable (which is a thing in Warband). But seriously, I remember in the alpha version of Bannerlord spears are really OP since the attack animation is just a quick poke but then people complained about it ruining sword fights so we get the way spear works today.
didn't know about the spears being OP in the alpha. i got into the game much later and they were already underperforming by then. The thing is that making their polearm swingable would just create a copy of the Voulgiers, i'd like Vlandia to have a 2H sword unit since they create a lot of 2H swords in their towns. But you are right, Vlandia needs an armor rework and i have no idea why they haven't attempted to give them one of the new should pieces. hopefully they will in the future.
Spears were ment to be OP since it was probably the most commonly used weapon in human history over the world - simple and deadly. People complaining they cant do their sword duels were probably butthutt multiplayer or they didnt understood that if you get close to a spearmen with side arm u have the advantage and vice versa. But now we have useless spears on majority of units in BL . And we shouldnt really care that units cant use the spears since cav is also using them does making 2 stupid AI soldiers try to fight it out with weapons they cant properly use.
throwing weapons and pikes aiming are bad, that's the problem. Take infantry captains for instance, there's little chance for them to upgrade compared to those with bows. I've made a little experiment, giving them polearm 300 and they haven't been that successful. It's pity that pikeman is such a bad unit and that all polearm troops rely on swing damage.
all faction but the Khuzait are done. i don't have the compilation videos for some of them, just the single units. Anyway. patch 1.9. changed basically everything regarding Cavalry and tweaked Horse archers a bit. While also changing the behavior of foot units when in formation. If there is going to be a Sturgian troop analysis of over 20m it's going to be for 1.9.
well troops in simulated battles don't care about equipment. Just tier (level) and type of the unit matters. Then other things such as the commanders tactics and some perks impact the outcome. Cavalry is also generally dominant is simulated fights and allows parties to move faster and either chase or escape. That's mainly the reason why the Khuzait were so dominant pre nerf since their culture bonus allowed them to move even faster.
Hi, i haven't uploaded videos in a while but i keep replaying to some comments here and there. For Sturgia i haven't uploaded a compilation video like this one but you can find all of their units as single videos on the channel. Hope this helps and keep in mind the information might be outdated, i haven't played the game in a while now.
Are axes and maces really that good in the release version? I gave waifu svana a mastercrafted shorter but very quick mace for sieges and she's just not able to kill anything despite almost 200 in one handed whereas my little sister with her default sword and sub 100 one handed is kicking ass and taking names. And that's not just a one time thing either, I've been looking at their kill counts over around 10 sieges and it's always the same same result. Are axes and maces being superior over swords just a meme now?
don't think so. Last time i tested Legionaries by removing their sword they performed better. it could just be that Svana being 7 feet tall makes her more vulnerable.
@@LyonExodus hmm perhaps. It's not like she's dying much either, just swinging and missing. But the height is a good point, maybe I should make a slightly longer axe or mace instead. Thanks for the reply.
Avoid Pikeman and Vanguards. Banner Knights can fill both Cav and Infantry duties and are far better Cav then the Vanguards. Sergeants are fine. Voulgiers are fine. Both of the infantry guys aren't amazing but they do their job. Sharps will run out of arrows quickly, so make sure you can win with your infantry as well. Your T1 recruits are among the worst in the game, so upgrade them with the steward perks as soon as you can. Build yourself as either the Cav or Infantry captain, make sure to get the Atheltics 250 perks that gives extra armor to units, your Cav or infantry will need it. If you use a companion for Cav make sure they don't have any Speed increase perks. Big shield, lance not longer than 200, 1H axe i like for sieges (same the Banner Knights have) no throwing needed. And if you feel confident in your guy, and he has a lot of armor you can go for a Voulge / Glaive and nothing else. If you use a companion as an infantry captain pick any perk that increases 1H skill and the Polearm perk Clean thrust for the Voulgiers. His loadout should be Shield and Mace/axe if you want to increse the 1H skill. Voulge / Menavlion when you need to increase it's Polearm. If they already have the perks you need a 1H Axe or Mace + a shield. Should make for a great infantrymen with a good Body and Head armor over 40. Don't bother investing into a crossbow captain, 1H perks and Athletics perks for your Sharpshooters are more than fine. Your companion can use a Bow 2 quivers and a 2H sword if they have low skill, a Drilled / Executioner Axe if they have 150 or more.
@@AdaLollA yes, kind of. you can type 0:00 and if a viewer clicks on it they will be redirect to that timestamp. so something like 0:00 Sergeant. would work. If anyone does it i'll pin their comment so that's the first thing any viewer will see when they scroll down to the comments. I always like to give some viewers the chance to get pinned on longer videos, if it doesn't happen i'll add the timestamp myself to the description.
Oh. Huh... Hmh... Uhm. Welllll.... Uh. Okay? Hm.... I am roleplaying a Vlandian only Lord and after this video I really have no idea how to build up my army anymore...
no, the units are going to go out 1 by one. i simply have a gap in my schedule and i can't find the time to record the Crossbowman. So instead i made the recap of the Vlandian units + the graphs and some extras. this is something i plan to do for every faction at one point or another. Like i did a while ago with the aserai and the Battanians. It's basically a way to funnel some potential viewers who don't watch the single troop analysis videos.
Vlandian armour is absolutely whack, their armour consists of full Mail and visored helmets, they have excellent armour. But in the game, just to compare, both Vlandian Vanguard and Vlandian Sergeant, have, as far as I’m concerned, worse armour then the ‘Palatine Guard’. And the Mail shirt, despite being visually the exact same to the Legionary Mail, is far worse. All that Vlandia needs is an armour upgrade, because visually they should not be this bad.
can you provide a timestamp? But if i have to guess it sounds achievement. i am used to butcher words at times, there ain't much i can do but as far as i can tell i got way better with the later videos. this is a playlist of older videos i grouped up together so both the audio and my spelling are worse.
does the AI even use couch lance? if no, that would explain why they seem to suck so hard every time i try them. In Warband they did to great effect. there was nothing more terrifying as playing on foot with your Huscarl shield wall receiving a charge of 50+ Swadian Knights. My full horse Vlandian army gets wrecked by most others, same goes for Cataphracts.
They do, but not very often on 1.8. Also it doesn't help that Shield wall + Charge is still the best command combo to use even on the 1.8.1. patch if you don't want to manually maneuver them. From my tests on the new patch it seems like cavalry is no longer a joke, every unit as improved to decent standards and some of them might be a bit OP. I will have to keep testing and try a cavalry only campaign to get a feel for the changes. But for sure patch 1.8.1. improved the AI massively, now with their first charge against mid tier enemies around 50 end up getting killed with very limited casualties on the cavalry side. And every unit as improved at dealing with higher tiers. it seems like TW just made the thrusting animation faster, and that seemed to have done it. i am still waiting on the RTS camera to see how often they couch or if they even try when in shield wall, regardless, only time will tell.
So odd the Vlandian units look like they have the heaviest armor in the game (plate armor with visored helmets etc) and somehow it's the opposite
looks can be deceiving i guess. the best unit in terms of armor is the Banner Knight and it doesn't even crack the top 10, not that it needs to. Those guys are nasty
In that era it was the Romans (Byzantines) and those from middle east who had the heaviest armor. The Rus nobility would often import those armor from the "empire", which is why they have similar designs
Vlandian Banner Knights have good stats but weaker armor.Vlandians generally relies on their shields and lances to annihilate their foes,so Battanian archers are a definite go.Only problems are Sharpshooters,but they fires much slower
11th century Normans didn’t have the best armor because only chainmail no plate. The Byzantine elite had some of the best armor with lamellar + chainmail combo
I'm a Rhagaea simp. When i see her, my spear becomes couch lance available and it's length increases to 250
vlandians need armor
most of the Battanians need complete rework
Imperial is still strong
Khuzait is still strong
Sturgia only need a lil bit armor
Aserai need cav
And the entire bannerlord needs a sword buff
i'd add some sort of tweak on arrow DMG as well for the entire bannerlord section
Nah
Sword damage is fine, its spear thrusts that need buff. Thrusting in general need way faster animations
to sum this up: Every unit needs a lenght check for their own weapon and try to keep that distance instead of walking 46 range units away from an enemy (lowest range of ANY melee troops weapon that isn't a dagger btw) because the AI is programmed to keep even the shortest melee weapon viable. Game does range check for the point of when they start to wind up and release a melee attack but they will still walk in way too close.
Sturgias armour is perfectly fine lmao. These angry idiotic mindless vlan fans probably brainwashed you with "Sturgia weak lmao" because that's the only thing they can say instead of touching grass.
Pikeman in other games: A unit that is a formidable force in a head-on collision. The cavalry sent into their formation is almost guaranteed to die.
Pikeman in Bannerlord: "Um, well, we have big sticks that we can't use normally. The cavalry, which is running at us head-on, just wants to give us at least some chance to prove ourselves, but we will still lose because King Derthert decided to save money on us."
One of my favorite units in the game but there is no formation for spearwall. Big oof
@@dragonfox402 ikr like wtf, give us spearwall. why tf cant I have one of the most recognizeable formations
And then the actual use for spears in history: Foot combat. Also because they are cheap and required almost no iron or steel. Was simply superior and faster in close quarter combat compared to a sword. Imagine you are a swordsman and you have to face a spearman. This spearman will have a sidearm and be just as capable in close combat as you are. Guess what? That spearman can throw this goshdang spear in your face at any given time so you generally can't assess the situation at ALL since you have to cover behind your shield until you're literally in your own weapons reach or you'd simply die. Spears had a immense mental effect on anyone that did not have one.
Spearwalls would kinda be inferior to an actual cavalry charge. Of course the horse would die or the first couple horses but for every dead horse or rider of that horse, the horse weight would just squash SEVERAL people. Death doesn''t reduce your bodies and bodyweights speed to zero. Also the horses most likely wouldn't be afraid either. They'd ride mid into death if their rider made them, but they didnt. Wrecking your horse would be equal to a knight as it would be to someone who can barely afford a lamborghini to just drive on top of a hill and let it roll down watching it crash. If a knight would cost 5 times the amount of an infantryman, the horse would cost 50 times the amount than the knight itself. The human was easily replaceable, the fully trained, well fed, armoured war horse wasn't. The greatest battle loot existing in medieval battles was actually a knights or a noble's horse.
Though usually nobles got everything they had back and their wounds were treated to the point that doctors failing to save a ENEMY wounded noble would get himself and his own family executed because of that. Nobles in jail would receive the best food availiable only coming short to the own nobles. Heck they even would get anything including women sent to their dungeon if they demanded. The only thing a noble had to do was vow to not fight in the current war anymore and he'd been free to go after full recovery and hospitality of their enemies.
Its a default for the player to focus on having a lot of cav but when i watched 57 of my cav units try to 3 kill of the enemy cav for 3 minutes and the fact they had less combine kills than what my foot soldiers got from the battle overall then and there i decided that my army will have no more than 20% cav simply for the speed bonus and to act as distraction for the enemy while my foot soldiers carry the fight cuz it seems when my infr stomps the enemy lines even if the enemy has cav left they`ll just route.
Or you could just put them in a big ol square and wait for the enemy cav units to suicide cuz its faster than trying to catch them - we all hate those few last cav units doing circles around the map even when the battle is clearly over.
Have the spears become more useable now in 1.9? Valandian Sergeant looks really cool and are really easy to tell appart to play without the floating circle, a shame they perform so poorly.
Haven't been able to test infantry yet. But if i have to work under the assumption that thrusting improved than they also should be better
@@LyonExodus plz do testing. Subbed
why do these high quality videos have such low views? This deserves at least 100k
It's still a new channel, so few subscribers. Like and share to help others find this jewel.
Thank for the comment but give it a few weeks. it was released just 20m ago.
My bro gonna ve the smartest bannerlord enjoyer soon
Chapters have been added to the description.
Be sure to have a check at 24:30
Bruh your final score slapped me in the left ear xD
my condolences to your hearing apparatus
@@LyonExodus btw the graphs make it really easy to visualize the data, wish the older videos had them too
i'll update the videos if there will ever be updates for them, but if anything a 1h long tier list with plenty of graphs should be made after we are done.
also if all goes well i'll try to get in contact with someone to create a personal balance mod (at least for T5 & T6 and possibly lords perks and builds)
so more updates are planned for the future.
The Pikeman needs a big buff and maybe the infantry does as well.
Honestly nearly all of the issues plaguing Vlandia stem from AI problems. AI is good at aiming and one handed/shield combat on foot but they completely fall apart in other aspects (except glaive cav lol). Take the Vanguard for example, the fact that Vlandian armies have access to a lance in a non-noble troop line would be huge, if the 1.8.0 Cavalry AI weren't absolutely broken. The sergeant needs a bit armor sure but take away their spears and they perform so much better to the point that it's actually kinda viable fielding them at your army. Again, issue with AI. It's pretty obvious they won't touch the way spears work with such little time left until release but they need to at least buff the Cav AI back to pre 1.8.0 levels.
i mean you are not wrong but also not 100% right.
the Sergeants aren't a competitive unit because of their armor, or lack of. 66% of a good sidearm is fine (see the Legionary) but when you have below average head armor and the worst body of the class even good sidearms won't carry you.
the spear is a problem sure, but in an infantry V infantry situation they don't use it. and the stats were taken from a shield wall charge scenario like that.
The Vanguards have the problem that they are a standard cavalry line, so just because of that they will not be competitive in comparison to the T6 Noble lines and their T5s as well.
Then you have to factor in that the unit itself isn't that tanky with a very weak body armor, it won't do well against archers.
Obviously the AI is an issue but since the faction already as the Banner Knights as cavalry why bother with a quite obvious lesser unit.
The Sturgians cavalry design is (in my opinion) done right. With the Druzhinniks being the hybrid heavy cavalry while the Horse Raiders are the light skirmishers. But Vlandia has 2 units that do the same thing and one is just worse.
The AI i agree with, but every cavalry unit as to deal with it, so if the Banner Knights can perform better than them they don't have much of an excuse other than being a standard T5 unit.
The only units that really suffer from the AI are the Voulgier and the Pikeman. the Voulgiers were a very competitive unit in the 1.7. patches while the Pikemans have been a meme for a long time.
I think the problem with Vlandia as a whole is a design issue. a Pikeman that clearly never worked and 2 cavalry lines that do the same thing with one simply being worse than the other.
the Sharpshooters and the Sergeants just needs slight buffs to their armors and a shorter spear for the Sergeant but other than that they are fine.
@@LyonExodus Some very well points made especially about the lack of skirmish cav which I hadn't really considered since I rarely use them myself. I guess I'm just still salty and seething about the nerfed AI lol. I personally doubt the devs would edit the Vanguards to include throwables or something along those lines (horse crossbowmen hype??) since the cavalry charge is such a characteristic aspect of this faction. Also this is like your second video I watched and I love this format.
Thanks a lot for the content looking forward to the next one.
Glad you are enjoying the content.
i think it wouldn't be impossible to see a mounted crossbowman line. they have recently given Vlandian caravan guards a crossbow and an horse so that might be a possibility and one i honestly hope for.
We can only hope at one point the spears and horse/rider AI will be up to standards and cavalry won't need an insane amount of armor and weapon skill in order to just function.
But i think before the release Vlandia should see some changes in their templates as TW has been messing around with units a lot lately.
Fantastic video, both full of insightful commentary and useful data as well as favored with some hilarious commentary.
It really sucks that long thrusting weapons like pikes suffer so much in this game...
Im considering doing an all pike and crossbowmen play through doing kind of a "pike and shot" strategy.. and im dreading the outcome
get the medicine perks as soon as you can. they might make it work
Crossbow 250 perk for cheaper ranged troops might help, but the pikemen really need a hell lot of micro to even remotely function
I was playing bannerlord on pre launch and i immediately fell inlove to vlandia but playing vlandia on 1.8 is an absolute hellhole, I am reevaluating my strategy if i should stop role playing and just minmaxing my army or stay full vlandian units across the board lmao
If you can update to 1.9. or 1.0.
there the Vanguards and Voulgiers are way better.
But the rest is still very similar.
If you ever feel like your infantry is underperforming remember that you can always dismount some Banner Knights and use them instead.
@@LyonExodus I guess the sharpshooters were still good when on mass but having the most shocking for me is how the sergeant went from amazing to meh. I mean in terms of cost though like 40 Banner Knights vs like 40 sergeants I would assume that 40 sergeants are cheaper but again The Banner Knights performance is way more efficient?
The Sharps lost a lot with the accuracy nerfs for crossbows of 1.8. before when you had 200+ they could really be something special. Now they are much less powerful but still decent.
The Banner Knights altough more expensive to upgrade and pay for they should tend to die much, much less than the Sergeants. So i think in the end they even end up saving you money. Especially in the biggest sieges.
Anyway, i still have to run the melee and dismount test on 1.0. But as far as 1.8. is concerned i would go Banner Knights as both Cav and Infantry for a Faction bound campaign. With some sharpshooters as well.
I would definitely avoid Vanguards and Voulgiers on that version. Sergeants are fine, but if you can gather some banner knights instead it would be much more effective.
And let's not talk about the Pikeman...
The Cataphract charges at the end though,it breaks my heart as a historian
Can you do a video about the imperial bucellari? I wonder if they are better than khuzait heavy horse archers
That video is planned for the near future after the Sergeant Crossbowman.
00:01
JOKES ON YOU, RHODOKS FOREAVEER
Ok ill be real with you, for some reason I've only ever been able to take out pure Aserai armies with pure Vlandian armies and that really bothers me
good job
I don’t quite agree with versatility being a “con” for a unit. It depends on context. I’d rather have my sergeants not have throwing axes (which are hot garbage this patch, unless you have a max throwing captain, and even then, javelins are way better).
But for the rest of the data, I can agree somewhat. But Vlandia has some of the best drip in the game IMO.
Vlandia, Empire, and the Aserai have the best fashion.
i mean you can turn an Axeman into an Axeman with no throwing axes by telling them to hold fire. That's an option you don't have to use but in case you have to it's for sure a plus, not having it must be considered. Even tho it's not a bad CON to have, it just a limitation on what you can do with the unit itself so it doesn't fit certain armies or playstyles.
For some units the Versatility also mean that they have 1 way of being used and that's it, they don't offer any other way to approach a battle other than smashing on the enemy or charging into them something like a Darkhan wouldn't be considered a versatile unit even though they can throw a spear.
And also having a versatile unit doesn't automatically make that unit good, if your melee performance is still bad there is little to do and for a unit like the Sergeant that has possibly the worst spear in the game i'd gladly switch that for some axes.
I actually really like the huskcural mail and stuff from sturgia
"I am showing them the cape!"
"Job done!"
😭
Very good :-D
It kills me to know that almost all Vlandian top tier troops are terrible considering that Vlandia is my favorite faction in the game also not to mention that almost all other factions now steam roll this one to the point to where late game this faction becomes almost useless if it wasn't for those of us that play under the this faction.
I love the Vlandian looks myself and the Voulgier is one of my personal favorite units since it was a very underrated one in previous patches.
But with the later changes to both mechanics and units Vlandia stood the same and everything around it just got better.
Right now i think a simple armor buff for most of the troops should make them competitors again.
Nah, I play for Sturgia and in my playthrough Vlandia always declares war when dumb ai fights Aserai. So, even being terrible in tactics the Vlandian AI captured half of Batania and Sturgia. Now they have the best cavalry, the best archers and axemen. They were pathetic at the start of the game and now I regret wiping out Khuzait instead of Vlandia
@@LyonExodus I feel that I'm the same way but almost all the top tier troops are garbage compared to others and you think that vlandia is one of the more war focused faction but they have the worst armors values in the game. Still love the faction I just wish that they'd do something about the armor values that would make them better at least a tad bit better and also fix the ai when it comes to cavalry and spears.
Vlandian units seriously need better shoulder armor equipment other than scarf and hood (and 2/3 legionary cape on Sergeants is a joke). Also not sure what's with Derthert's obsession with Tabard over Mail Hauberk.
IMO the pikeman would have fared a bit better if the pike is swingable (which is a thing in Warband). But seriously, I remember in the alpha version of Bannerlord spears are really OP since the attack animation is just a quick poke but then people complained about it ruining sword fights so we get the way spear works today.
didn't know about the spears being OP in the alpha. i got into the game much later and they were already underperforming by then.
The thing is that making their polearm swingable would just create a copy of the Voulgiers, i'd like Vlandia to have a 2H sword unit since they create a lot of 2H swords in their towns.
But you are right, Vlandia needs an armor rework and i have no idea why they haven't attempted to give them one of the new should pieces.
hopefully they will in the future.
Spears were ment to be OP since it was probably the most commonly used weapon in human history over the world - simple and deadly.
People complaining they cant do their sword duels were probably butthutt multiplayer or they didnt understood that if you get close to a spearmen with side arm u have the advantage and vice versa.
But now we have useless spears on majority of units in BL .
And we shouldnt really care that units cant use the spears since cav is also using them does making 2 stupid AI soldiers try to fight it out with weapons they cant properly use.
throwing weapons and pikes aiming are bad, that's the problem. Take infantry captains for instance, there's little chance for them to upgrade compared to those with bows. I've made a little experiment, giving them polearm 300 and they haven't been that successful. It's pity that pikeman is such a bad unit and that all polearm troops rely on swing damage.
Are you done with the Sturgian troops guide?
It would be nice
all faction but the Khuzait are done. i don't have the compilation videos for some of them, just the single units.
Anyway. patch 1.9. changed basically everything regarding Cavalry and tweaked Horse archers a bit. While also changing the behavior of foot units when in formation.
If there is going to be a Sturgian troop analysis of over 20m it's going to be for 1.9.
@@LyonExodus I would love to see them
Dam I don’t get how the vlandians still dominate in all the playthroughs I’ve played
well troops in simulated battles don't care about equipment. Just tier (level) and type of the unit matters. Then other things such as the commanders tactics and some perks impact the outcome.
Cavalry is also generally dominant is simulated fights and allows parties to move faster and either chase or escape.
That's mainly the reason why the Khuzait were so dominant pre nerf since their culture bonus allowed them to move even faster.
The reason you see Vlandia being really strong on campaign map is that they start with 11 clans while all other factions start with 8 or 9 clans.
Plz do sturgia next 😢
Hi, i haven't uploaded videos in a while but i keep replaying to some comments here and there.
For Sturgia i haven't uploaded a compilation video like this one but you can find all of their units as single videos on the channel.
Hope this helps and keep in mind the information might be outdated, i haven't played the game in a while now.
Are axes and maces really that good in the release version? I gave waifu svana a mastercrafted shorter but very quick mace for sieges and she's just not able to kill anything despite almost 200 in one handed whereas my little sister with her default sword and sub 100 one handed is kicking ass and taking names. And that's not just a one time thing either, I've been looking at their kill counts over around 10 sieges and it's always the same same result. Are axes and maces being superior over swords just a meme now?
don't think so. Last time i tested Legionaries by removing their sword they performed better.
it could just be that Svana being 7 feet tall makes her more vulnerable.
@@LyonExodus hmm perhaps. It's not like she's dying much either, just swinging and missing. But the height is a good point, maybe I should make a slightly longer axe or mace instead. Thanks for the reply.
i wanna make a vlandian army only. I can have 400 units. what should i use?
Avoid Pikeman and Vanguards.
Banner Knights can fill both Cav and Infantry duties and are far better Cav then the Vanguards.
Sergeants are fine.
Voulgiers are fine.
Both of the infantry guys aren't amazing but they do their job.
Sharps will run out of arrows quickly, so make sure you can win with your infantry as well.
Your T1 recruits are among the worst in the game, so upgrade them with the steward perks as soon as you can.
Build yourself as either the Cav or Infantry captain, make sure to get the Atheltics 250 perks that gives extra armor to units, your Cav or infantry will need it.
If you use a companion for Cav make sure they don't have any Speed increase perks.
Big shield, lance not longer than 200, 1H axe i like for sieges (same the Banner Knights have) no throwing needed. And if you feel confident in your guy, and he has a lot of armor you can go for a Voulge / Glaive and nothing else.
If you use a companion as an infantry captain pick any perk that increases 1H skill and the Polearm perk Clean thrust for the Voulgiers. His loadout should be Shield and Mace/axe if you want to increse the 1H skill.
Voulge / Menavlion when you need to increase it's Polearm.
If they already have the perks you need a 1H Axe or Mace + a shield. Should make for a great infantrymen with a good Body and Head armor over 40.
Don't bother investing into a crossbow captain, 1H perks and Athletics perks for your Sharpshooters are more than fine. Your companion can use a Bow 2 quivers and a 2H sword if they have low skill, a Drilled / Executioner Axe if they have 150 or more.
i think lyonscore of pikemans was -5/5
don't know man. some men in a black suit with a T and W on their ties made my computer crash.
I am not legally allowed to speak my mind on the Pikeman
chapters would be invaluable for this video
if nobody creates them trough comments i'll add them myself later
@@LyonExodus can we create the chapters as viewers? sorry i didnt even know that...
@@AdaLollA yes, kind of.
you can type 0:00 and if a viewer clicks on it they will be redirect to that timestamp. so something like 0:00 Sergeant. would work.
If anyone does it i'll pin their comment so that's the first thing any viewer will see when they scroll down to the comments.
I always like to give some viewers the chance to get pinned on longer videos, if it doesn't happen i'll add the timestamp myself to the description.
Has Aserai changed a lot in 1.8? And if yes is it for the better or worse?
they did change in 1.7. in both directions.
I have made the single troop analysis and the 20m recap video as well if you want to check it out.
@@LyonExodus already did, thats why i wondered if anything changed after the patch
then not. the long weapons AI problem is still there even after the hotfix of a few weeks ago.
Oh. Huh... Hmh... Uhm. Welllll.... Uh. Okay? Hm.... I am roleplaying a Vlandian only Lord and after this video I really have no idea how to build up my army anymore...
If you are still on 1.8. just stay away from Voulgiers Vanguards and Pikemen, the rest is decent to great
so now instead of doing 1 video per units it will be entire factions at a time?
no, the units are going to go out 1 by one. i simply have a gap in my schedule and i can't find the time to record the Crossbowman. So instead i made the recap of the Vlandian units + the graphs and some extras.
this is something i plan to do for every faction at one point or another. Like i did a while ago with the aserai and the Battanians.
It's basically a way to funnel some potential viewers who don't watch the single troop analysis videos.
AI spamms hundreds of Xbows, or like 70% of their armies.
Do sturgia!
Vlandian armour is absolutely whack, their armour consists of full Mail and visored helmets, they have excellent armour. But in the game, just to compare, both Vlandian Vanguard and Vlandian Sergeant, have, as far as I’m concerned, worse armour then the ‘Palatine Guard’. And the Mail shirt, despite being visually the exact same to the Legionary Mail, is far worse.
All that Vlandia needs is an armour upgrade, because visually they should not be this bad.
What on earth is an "akivement"?
can you provide a timestamp?
But if i have to guess it sounds achievement. i am used to butcher words at times, there ain't much i can do but as far as i can tell i got way better with the later videos. this is a playlist of older videos i grouped up together so both the audio and my spelling are worse.
Hes saying equipment
Ooooh its equipment, you're a genius. I thought it was some word I never heard of 😂
Shame these units aren't very good since they look cool and all.
i hate that the only few units that can pike brace in bannerlord are the absolutely awful ones lol, taleworlds, please T.T
they are good, for about 6 seconds...
does the AI even use couch lance? if no, that would explain why they seem to suck so hard every time i try them. In Warband they did to great effect. there was nothing more terrifying as playing on foot with your Huscarl shield wall receiving a charge of 50+ Swadian Knights. My full horse Vlandian army gets wrecked by most others, same goes for Cataphracts.
They do, but not very often on 1.8. Also it doesn't help that Shield wall + Charge is still the best command combo to use even on the 1.8.1. patch if you don't want to manually maneuver them.
From my tests on the new patch it seems like cavalry is no longer a joke, every unit as improved to decent standards and some of them might be a bit OP. I will have to keep testing and try a cavalry only campaign to get a feel for the changes.
But for sure patch 1.8.1. improved the AI massively, now with their first charge against mid tier enemies around 50 end up getting killed with very limited casualties on the cavalry side.
And every unit as improved at dealing with higher tiers.
it seems like TW just made the thrusting animation faster, and that seemed to have done it.
i am still waiting on the RTS camera to see how often they couch or if they even try when in shield wall, regardless, only time will tell.
E io che mi lamentavo degli Aserai
a confronto sono dei
Can someone let me know if they've updated and fixed the Ai's spear and pike combat?
Tell me when they become usable again.