As much as I like the empire. That same flavor of Roman style on three "different" factions tends to whittle my enthusiasm for them. It's just one big faction with a different shade of color. I just wish that the troop composition reflects what ideology each have. One being that of a senate, one is hereditary imperial bloodline and one is a meritocratic military rule. Small changes that is specific to each can give quite a lot of flavor to the empire.
You might like the mod Calradia Expanded Kingdoms. Each imperial faction has its own flavor, you get one extra empire (republic) faction and each other faction is split in two, giving factions like the Nords, Vagir, Rhodok and Khergit. Troop progression also makes a bit more sense in skill and gear.
IRL, the west and east Roman empire had many many differences until the fall of the west and the rise of the Byzantines. I was confused that they didnt do more with the southern and northern empire, as they made up a lot of what became the Vaegirs
I like empire because the troops is abundant and easily replenished. I feel more comfortable to auto the battle with the knowledge I can replenish them easily.
Like the other comments, I wish that the Empire versions are different - may be an example would be: - Western Empire: Really good legion troops (Garious would surely have that) and melee troops - Southern Empire: Maybe better than normal Cataphracts (as they are serving the Empress who is the wife of the former Emperor) - Northern Empire: A less combat focused and more politically focused faction - maybe if they were different, it might emphasize something like better anti-cavalry (they do border the Khuzait) The point is that there would be differences between the factions
Empire is a great first playthrough... If you are naturally good at and drawn to war... If you're not, I don't recommend the Southern empire at very least. Once the Empress gains some territory, she wants it all.
You are 100% wrong about Menavliatons. They are THE best if not the 2nd best shock troop in basically every test you can do for them since 1.0 and the update to infantry formations and AI. In practice they are absolute beasts when paired with some shields to keep them from getting rocked by archer fire. If you are going archer heavy they are less effective since you want boards to soak up missile fire. If you are going hammer anvil style they are literally the best unit on the field and will take home the highest kdr from all your troops everything being equal. People use them wrong and let them sit around getting shot in their 200 fian formations, of course your unit with no shield doesn't work in that playstyle. They have been tested and tested and your anecdotal feelings about them is just incorrect.
I think it's because he thinks the Menavlion is a spear. But it's a glaive with stupid high damage. I think they're overkill and a bit slow if you use them as a player while mounted but for the AI they're pretty good at one shotting units that don't block them.
Yeah I definitely raised my eyebrow when I heard him say that, makes me think he just guessed how they worked by looking at their unit card instead of actually using them in battle. In his vlandia video he was singing the praises of the voulgiers even though they're basically just weaker menavliatons.
@@lokenontherange huh, didn't realize it was a glaive. I usually didn't have them because I indeed thought it was a spear as I usually prefer a simpler and more flexible formation. But I may have to incorporate them into my formation more often now.
Yeah, the nice thing about the empire, is because of how relatively good all the troops are, you can make a dedicated army of pretty much any type out of imperial troops, and it will be effective.
@@Dare_To_Game yeah, that's something I like. I prefer homogeneous armies for RP reasons and empire checks the most boxes and leaves little to be desired.
@@Vityaz69 I just can't get my moneys worth if i need them to counter other mounted archers. Both khuzait ones just outclass them and the mamlukes have the armor and shield advantage. Their horses just seem too bad to hang with high tier troops
In other words empire is decent everywhere except in twohanded linebreaker. I prefer a nieched kingdom like the Sturgian. Going in with an army of heavy axemen is very satisfying.
With the Imperial Legionaries they can be very effective against cavalry if you don't thin your line too much and you take the perk that reduces charge damage for your captains your Legionaries will halt a decent charge or at least trade in a balanced way. Legionaries switch to their pilum when against cavalry for its reach and I have noticed them decimating heavy cavalry charges if the line was thick enough that the charge didn't break the line. My last Empire game I decided to switch to exclusive Legionaries in 3 groups and man it was a nice time. Did lose a little but it cost the enemy dearly for what I lost.
If we leave roleplay scenario, which this video seems to lean heavily on, aside, very few things in this video end up making sense. Cataphract is THE best shock cav in the game, due to having infantry-level armor while being a cav unit. They don't have a couchable lance unlike banner knights, so they don't kill as many units if you charge them in and leave them to their own devices, but that's just the virtue of cav AI setting you up for a failure and requiring lots of micromanaging in Bannerlord. Vlandian noble line troops, which this video compares them to, do get more weapon skills and easier upgradeability than cataphracts, at the cost of using vlandian golden standard paper armor at every tier. Legionary IS specialized, since 2 out of 3 of his sets use blunt damage in conjunction with one of the best armors in the game on an infantry unit. Sturgians, while still being overall better infantry, don't have access to blunt damage, and MUST rely on their shock infantry to do main bulk of their damage against high tier enemy troops. Elite menavleaton, in an open field battle scenario, will wipe the floor with any other T5 shock infantry, as community tests show. They do lose their effectiveness when not utilized in a vacuum somewhat, but calling them a bad unit just for that is a stretch and a half. As of 1.0 version, there's no such thing as "bad against cav", due to afforementioned cav AI being incompetent at just about anything. Outside of player fighting the Empire, there's no scenario where these troops can face a cavalry formation under player's micro. I do completely agree on everything said about their global map positioning, tho. That info reflects how a typical campaign would go relatively well.
I always have a ton of Empire troops even though I never play the Empire. Maybe I will with my next sandbox. Although that has never stopped me from stacking cataphracts DEEP and steamrolling the empire with them. Very satisfying.
While the other factions generally specialize in an army style, the Empire is more of a jack of all trades, they aren't great at anything but they can do every role just fine [edit] never mind, made this comment while half way through the video, then you mentioned it too XD
The empire infantry will struggle against Vlandian infantry. Vlandians have a really high concentration of mace infantry, which means heavy armor is actually a weakness. They eat through shields reasonably well, too. I have found that Vlandian troops offer the most trouble so far, at least for my troops. That was before the switch to what I have now. I essentially have the empire version of the foreign legion. Mostly Kuzait horse archers, sprinkled with Aserai, a ton of Empire and Vlandian cav, a bunch of Sturgian infantry sprinkled with Aserai and empire troops, and a mix of empire/Battanian/Kuzait/Aserai archers.
Wtf man, when was the last time you tried empire troops? Manavliatons outperform legionieries most of the time. At least in open field battles, but even for sieges I do 50/50. Legionaries are meatshields while manavliatons are dps. Never tried running just manavliatons, maybe then they would suck.
They're too soft to be deployed alone. Legionaries mixed in allows for some damage soaking and means you won't be shot to pieces by ranged factions. Deploying them alone will also see them take excessive damage from javelins. Personally I'd say always mix in Menavliatons with Legionaries and vice versa. The only time you wouldn't is in siege defence where their weapon is a tad impractical most of the time.
This. The empire is strong when you deploy troops together. A mixed formation of legionaries and menavliaton together backed up by archers is destruction machine. No other faction comes close in terms of balance
I had been playing this game almost 20 hours and i could say its really well done, i didnt knew anything and the hints and the curve of difficulty is correct, i had been playing with the empire, i never seen this kind of videos but my troops are 25% of everything and thats the best way to use the empire, i use Infantry to support long range infantry, i say stay to those two and grab the ranged and cataphracts just to flank and distract the enemy so the ranged infantry keeps shooting. Until now i fight against the desert factions, the sturgians and the one like the mongols and only that last one takes out a bit of my troops only if they attack me with a bigger army than mine and full of mounted archers, you know, i just recruited their own mounted archers and problem solved hahah, long live the empire!. Let me tell you about my journey, i knew i could be a merchant just because of some videos i saw, so, the first 5 to 10k were hard to get because i had to be carefull of not having to much troops or to few. I faced looters from time to time but the first 4 hours were just me travelling. After a while i gathered 50 men and had 15k, i had some offers to be a mercenary but i wasnt interested on becoming a mercenary for the sturgians, so i started doing caravan quests because having 50 elite men was enough to survive the attacks, thanks to those quests and the fact that i combined trading with following the caravan y ended up having 70men and 70k but the cost of having those men were to high so i never had more than 70. Some day the empire offered me to become a vassal and i accepted, it was the southern empire, well.. I would prefer the northern or western but it was enough. Faster than anything the queen declared war to the mongol style civilization and almost wiped out the entire civilization after an hour or two, for some reason i was granted with a castle, and after a few hours another one, it was to much for me, those castles were empty, almost no defenses so i putted some soldiers on each castle! That wasnt enough and one army tried to conquer my first castle, i got there fast only to find an army of 650 and i had 100 sodiera. That wasnt enough so i escaped, but my allies came! So together we defended the castle. After that for some reason the war ended just when we were close to conque= the entire civilization Today the queen starts wars to anyone, the empire is weaker, i was granted with 2 more castles so i have 4 castles and 8 farms and in some moment i was granted witth a city capital but the rebels taked it 2 times.
This information is out of date as of 1.2.11: Couch lances isn't working well which means the best melee cavalry is Elite Cataphract. They have excellent horses, great armor (especially helmet) and one of the best one handed skill and fastest cavalry sabre over 115 length. This means they will out strike everyone comfortably from AI cav melee distance. Banner knights will get struck before their maces can come into play. Mendevillion are one of the best shock infantry ingame due their armor and speed/damage of their weapons. They will only get outdone by Fian Champion is the clinch fight and Khan's Guards in encounter fight. Both are noble units. Legionary are best shield infantry because high armor and the mace. While an Sturgian Axe Man will get their cut damage reduced greatly, the legionary mace will not be bothered. And the pilum may not be thrown, but it provides much needed thrust attack when cavalry smack into them while not being long enough where it can't do full damage. Until couch lance is fixed, most actual lances are useless so the name of the game is fast spears that are long enoughnfor them to thrust hit their opponents before the couch hits. Even if couch gets fixed, lances cant break shields and the riding is high enough than no one falls off. So it comes down to the melee scrum for melee cav where cataphracts reign supreme
@@Dare_To_Game Sorry for the late reply but could you please specify a bit more? There is no "normal" difficulty the hardest being realistic. Do you mean the "warrior"?
@@matesajben5274preety sure he means warrior as normal difficulty, since its the middle ground. Altough even bannelord difficulty isnt that much from a difference
The only thing Banner Knights have on Cataphracts is that they can couch lances. The problem is the AI almost never does that so it's not super relevant. Cataphracts are heavier armoured, do about the same damage, and have much better armoured horses. In practical terms, they're by far the better unit. If the game gets patched so that couching becomes more common that would change but as it stands Banner Knights are just slightly worse across the board.
I have once raider bandit play and have war with hole empire and have mln deneras from raiding caravans and vileges in and level rougery to 300 becuse how large empire is.
I enjoyed this video very well the strength and weaknesses but there is still one question I have for certain army if I want to have them if I want the imperial bucellarii, what kind of horses would I need to recruit them any horses named in the specific, and maybe not too expensive hopefully?
It isn't a specific named horse. ALl cavalry troops require horse to convert to cavalry, and it will be one of two kinds either the "Mount" or "War Mount" It will say what is required when you hover over the icon in the troop party screen.
There's a lot of misinformation here. Cataphracts and menavlions in practice competes for top spot. Are you perhaps using pre release beta performance? I know they were really bad prior to full release due to ai issues. For one, the Menavlions are wielded like glaives and voulges, and as such they wreck shielded formations just about as well as other shock troops. In fact they will even break the line breakers. Those "spears" aren't poking spears, they swing for insane damage. Don't believe me or the other comments? Try it in a custom battle then. What the hell is going on with this level mistake. Sorry to say, but this is an objectively bad review of the faction.
Banner Knights better than Cataphrats? Only if the banner knight successfully couches the lance, which is rare for the AI. Armor, weapons, skills are all better than the banner knights.
@@achillesrodriguezxx3958I see it as both a Roman and Byzantine mixture in terms of the crisis of the 3rd century and legions as well as Byzantine in armor etc.
I find it interesting that you use the crossbows over the archers, when in all the tests I saw and the ones I conducted myself in almost all scenarios archers seem to be superior to crossbows in bannerlord.
@@brodiemeachem5355 Again when conducting tests they only deal more damage to heavily armoured enemies. The problem it that they are not (with the just stated exception) better, because, yes a single crossbow shot usually deals more damage than a single bow shot, BUT the bow is reloading faster, has a better arch of fire (not as straight, thus it can shoot over own units a bit better) and even if the enemy just sits back and takes the projectiles, the crossbows have less ammunition. They have usually between 18 and 20 bolts while archers usually have at least 24 arrows (steppe arrows). AT LEAST, there is for example no crossbow unit I know of, which carries two sets of bolts, whilst there are many archers, which have 2 sets of arrows (which makes at least 48). Thus the crossbows really are only superior in two aspects. When shooting attacking/advancing high tier units and in the scenario of you needing a back up shield wall (pavese shields are good). Don’t get me wrong when properly balanced I am usually team crossbow in many games, but it’s simply the truth that in Bannerlord bows reign superior.
@@brodiemeachem5355community tests show archers have more dps than crossbowmen. Even if we dont count the fians, any other archer out damages the crossbows. And while crossbows start shooting at a longer range for some reason, they dont actually do any significant damage from said range
As much as I like the empire. That same flavor of Roman style on three "different" factions tends to whittle my enthusiasm for them. It's just one big faction with a different shade of color. I just wish that the troop composition reflects what ideology each have. One being that of a senate, one is hereditary imperial bloodline and one is a meritocratic military rule. Small changes that is specific to each can give quite a lot of flavor to the empire.
the empire should def have diffrent troop trees for the diffrent lands
That would have been much cooler. Given the very distinct ideologies, it would have been great to see that reflected in the troops and armor.
Having even just three different noble lines would’ve been great
You might like the mod Calradia Expanded Kingdoms. Each imperial faction has its own flavor, you get one extra empire (republic) faction and each other faction is split in two, giving factions like the Nords, Vagir, Rhodok and Khergit. Troop progression also makes a bit more sense in skill and gear.
IRL, the west and east Roman empire had many many differences until the fall of the west and the rise of the Byzantines. I was confused that they didnt do more with the southern and northern empire, as they made up a lot of what became the Vaegirs
I like empire because the troops is abundant and easily replenished. I feel more comfortable to auto the battle with the knowledge I can replenish them easily.
Like the other comments, I wish that the Empire versions are different - may be an example would be:
- Western Empire: Really good legion troops (Garious would surely have that) and melee troops
- Southern Empire: Maybe better than normal Cataphracts (as they are serving the Empress who is the wife of the former Emperor)
- Northern Empire: A less combat focused and more politically focused faction - maybe if they were different, it might emphasize something like better anti-cavalry (they do border the Khuzait)
The point is that there would be differences between the factions
Maybe the northern empire combines features from the sturgiand
The southern empire is the one that borders the khuzait, not the northern empire
Empire is a great first playthrough... If you are naturally good at and drawn to war... If you're not, I don't recommend the Southern empire at very least. Once the Empress gains some territory, she wants it all.
Ye, the constant conflict is making it difficult to gain and maintain large amounts of wealth.
This is exactly why I joined her for my first playthrough and I'm not disappointed
You are 100% wrong about Menavliatons. They are THE best if not the 2nd best shock troop in basically every test you can do for them since 1.0 and the update to infantry formations and AI. In practice they are absolute beasts when paired with some shields to keep them from getting rocked by archer fire. If you are going archer heavy they are less effective since you want boards to soak up missile fire. If you are going hammer anvil style they are literally the best unit on the field and will take home the highest kdr from all your troops everything being equal. People use them wrong and let them sit around getting shot in their 200 fian formations, of course your unit with no shield doesn't work in that playstyle.
They have been tested and tested and your anecdotal feelings about them is just incorrect.
I tested it and they beat all of the other top tier shock troops
I think it's because he thinks the Menavlion is a spear. But it's a glaive with stupid high damage. I think they're overkill and a bit slow if you use them as a player while mounted but for the AI they're pretty good at one shotting units that don't block them.
@@lokenontherange best part is that it the weapon is still a spear with swing damage and thrust damage.
Yeah I definitely raised my eyebrow when I heard him say that, makes me think he just guessed how they worked by looking at their unit card instead of actually using them in battle.
In his vlandia video he was singing the praises of the voulgiers even though they're basically just weaker menavliatons.
@@lokenontherange huh, didn't realize it was a glaive.
I usually didn't have them because I indeed thought it was a spear as I usually prefer a simpler and more flexible formation.
But I may have to incorporate them into my formation more often now.
Awesome video. I like these deep dives into the factions. Very enjoyable overall.
Glad you like them!
I love the Empire, cataphracts and bucelarii are a potent wombo combo.
Yeah, the nice thing about the empire, is because of how relatively good all the troops are, you can make a dedicated army of pretty much any type out of imperial troops, and it will be effective.
@@Dare_To_Game yeah, that's something I like. I prefer homogeneous armies for RP reasons and empire checks the most boxes and leaves little to be desired.
@@Vityaz69 I just can't get my moneys worth if i need them to counter other mounted archers. Both khuzait ones just outclass them and the mamlukes have the armor and shield advantage. Their horses just seem too bad to hang with high tier troops
In other words empire is decent everywhere except in twohanded linebreaker. I prefer a nieched kingdom like the Sturgian. Going in with an army of heavy axemen is very satisfying.
With the Imperial Legionaries they can be very effective against cavalry if you don't thin your line too much and you take the perk that reduces charge damage for your captains your Legionaries will halt a decent charge or at least trade in a balanced way. Legionaries switch to their pilum when against cavalry for its reach and I have noticed them decimating heavy cavalry charges if the line was thick enough that the charge didn't break the line. My last Empire game I decided to switch to exclusive Legionaries in 3 groups and man it was a nice time. Did lose a little but it cost the enemy dearly for what I lost.
Square formation with legionaries completely eat up cavalry charges when i bait them correctly
If we leave roleplay scenario, which this video seems to lean heavily on, aside, very few things in this video end up making sense.
Cataphract is THE best shock cav in the game, due to having infantry-level armor while being a cav unit. They don't have a couchable lance unlike banner knights, so they don't kill as many units if you charge them in and leave them to their own devices, but that's just the virtue of cav AI setting you up for a failure and requiring lots of micromanaging in Bannerlord. Vlandian noble line troops, which this video compares them to, do get more weapon skills and easier upgradeability than cataphracts, at the cost of using vlandian golden standard paper armor at every tier.
Legionary IS specialized, since 2 out of 3 of his sets use blunt damage in conjunction with one of the best armors in the game on an infantry unit. Sturgians, while still being overall better infantry, don't have access to blunt damage, and MUST rely on their shock infantry to do main bulk of their damage against high tier enemy troops.
Elite menavleaton, in an open field battle scenario, will wipe the floor with any other T5 shock infantry, as community tests show. They do lose their effectiveness when not utilized in a vacuum somewhat, but calling them a bad unit just for that is a stretch and a half.
As of 1.0 version, there's no such thing as "bad against cav", due to afforementioned cav AI being incompetent at just about anything. Outside of player fighting the Empire, there's no scenario where these troops can face a cavalry formation under player's micro.
I do completely agree on everything said about their global map positioning, tho. That info reflects how a typical campaign would go relatively well.
I always have a ton of Empire troops even though I never play the Empire. Maybe I will with my next sandbox.
Although that has never stopped me from stacking cataphracts DEEP and steamrolling the empire with them. Very satisfying.
It's hard not to end up with a lot of Empire troops, since they are all over the place.
Fantastic content, as usual. Keep up the great work.
Glad you enjoy it!
While the other factions generally specialize in an army style, the Empire is more of a jack of all trades, they aren't great at anything but they can do every role just fine
[edit] never mind, made this comment while half way through the video, then you mentioned it too XD
Yeah, but you are right. They work very well in every aspect, but not typically the best in any area.
Kid named Imperial Elite Cataphract:
Kid named Imperial Legionnaire:
They also give you more room for strategic planning given heavy infantry and good cav and mixed archer lines are nuts
I love this game so much, it's crazy. I just want the conversion mods to start rolling out soon.
It's not crazy. Mount & Blade has forever been one of my favorite games.
Strengths: Aeterna victrix.
Weaknesses: Barbarians never learn.
The empire infantry will struggle against Vlandian infantry. Vlandians have a really high concentration of mace infantry, which means heavy armor is actually a weakness. They eat through shields reasonably well, too. I have found that Vlandian troops offer the most trouble so far, at least for my troops. That was before the switch to what I have now. I essentially have the empire version of the foreign legion. Mostly Kuzait horse archers, sprinkled with Aserai, a ton of Empire and Vlandian cav, a bunch of Sturgian infantry sprinkled with Aserai and empire troops, and a mix of empire/Battanian/Kuzait/Aserai archers.
Wtf man, when was the last time you tried empire troops? Manavliatons outperform legionieries most of the time. At least in open field battles, but even for sieges I do 50/50. Legionaries are meatshields while manavliatons are dps. Never tried running just manavliatons, maybe then they would suck.
They're too soft to be deployed alone. Legionaries mixed in allows for some damage soaking and means you won't be shot to pieces by ranged factions. Deploying them alone will also see them take excessive damage from javelins. Personally I'd say always mix in Menavliatons with Legionaries and vice versa. The only time you wouldn't is in siege defence where their weapon is a tad impractical most of the time.
This. The empire is strong when you deploy troops together. A mixed formation of legionaries and menavliaton together backed up by archers is destruction machine.
No other faction comes close in terms of balance
You need Legionaries to soak ranged (Kuzait horse bows, Vlandian xbows, battanian Fians)
Menavlition excel in close combat due to their 2H reach.
I had been playing this game almost 20 hours and i could say its really well done, i didnt knew anything and the hints and the curve of difficulty is correct, i had been playing with the empire, i never seen this kind of videos but my troops are 25% of everything and thats the best way to use the empire, i use Infantry to support long range infantry, i say stay to those two and grab the ranged and cataphracts just to flank and distract the enemy so the ranged infantry keeps shooting.
Until now i fight against the desert factions, the sturgians and the one like the mongols and only that last one takes out a bit of my troops only if they attack me with a bigger army than mine and full of mounted archers, you know, i just recruited their own mounted archers and problem solved hahah, long live the empire!.
Let me tell you about my journey, i knew i could be a merchant just because of some videos i saw, so, the first 5 to 10k were hard to get because i had to be carefull of not having to much troops or to few. I faced looters from time to time but the first 4 hours were just me travelling. After a while i gathered 50 men and had 15k, i had some offers to be a mercenary but i wasnt interested on becoming a mercenary for the sturgians, so i started doing caravan quests because having 50 elite men was enough to survive the attacks, thanks to those quests and the fact that i combined trading with following the caravan y ended up having 70men and 70k but the cost of having those men were to high so i never had more than 70.
Some day the empire offered me to become a vassal and i accepted, it was the southern empire, well.. I would prefer the northern or western but it was enough.
Faster than anything the queen declared war to the mongol style civilization and almost wiped out the entire civilization after an hour or two, for some reason i was granted with a castle, and after a few hours another one, it was to much for me, those castles were empty, almost no defenses so i putted some soldiers on each castle! That wasnt enough and one army tried to conquer my first castle, i got there fast only to find an army of 650 and i had 100 sodiera.
That wasnt enough so i escaped, but my allies came! So together we defended the castle.
After that for some reason the war ended just when we were close to conque= the entire civilization
Today the queen starts wars to anyone, the empire is weaker, i was granted with 2 more castles so i have 4 castles and 8 farms and in some moment i was granted witth a city capital but the rebels taked it 2 times.
This information is out of date as of 1.2.11:
Couch lances isn't working well which means the best melee cavalry is Elite Cataphract. They have excellent horses, great armor (especially helmet) and one of the best one handed skill and fastest cavalry sabre over 115 length. This means they will out strike everyone comfortably from AI cav melee distance. Banner knights will get struck before their maces can come into play.
Mendevillion are one of the best shock infantry ingame due their armor and speed/damage of their weapons. They will only get outdone by Fian Champion is the clinch fight and Khan's Guards in encounter fight. Both are noble units.
Legionary are best shield infantry because high armor and the mace. While an Sturgian Axe Man will get their cut damage reduced greatly, the legionary mace will not be bothered. And the pilum may not be thrown, but it provides much needed thrust attack when cavalry smack into them while not being long enough where it can't do full damage.
Until couch lance is fixed, most actual lances are useless so the name of the game is fast spears that are long enoughnfor them to thrust hit their opponents before the couch hits. Even if couch gets fixed, lances cant break shields and the riding is high enough than no one falls off. So it comes down to the melee scrum for melee cav where cataphracts reign supreme
Thank you for your guides they are really fun to watch. What do you consider the "appropriate" difficulty level?
At least "normal", but i always crank it up. Makes it more fun, especially after your first playthrough.
@@Dare_To_Game Sorry for the late reply but could you please specify a bit more? There is no "normal" difficulty the hardest being realistic. Do you mean the "warrior"?
@@matesajben5274preety sure he means warrior as normal difficulty, since its the middle ground. Altough even bannelord difficulty isnt that much from a difference
Pronounced Buk-Kuh-Lar-Ree-E (Bucelarii)❤
The biggest advantages to the empire is the they are adaptable and numerous like I kill a 700 army and 2 more show up
I wish 3 different faction of the empire has special units. These 3 imperial faction is just same with different purple hues....
On a side note, My Little Warband is out so you can start a Bannerlord stream with custom troop trees👍😆 Wishful thinking
We will have to see for sure. I find Mount & Blade to be an annoying game to record gameplay/stream for. Very micro managy and slow moving.
You can use early cavalry troops without mounts for cheap spear infantry at 3g.
Long live the Empire!
Ah...an empire stan. I should have known.
The only thing Banner Knights have on Cataphracts is that they can couch lances. The problem is the AI almost never does that so it's not super relevant. Cataphracts are heavier armoured, do about the same damage, and have much better armoured horses. In practical terms, they're by far the better unit. If the game gets patched so that couching becomes more common that would change but as it stands Banner Knights are just slightly worse across the board.
I feel like the Empire are like the Aseri a jack of all trades no real strength but good at all.
Two-thirds of Legionaries use a mace, which means you take a LOT of prisoners. That helps them pay for themselves.
I have once raider bandit play and have war with hole empire and have mln deneras from raiding caravans and vileges in and level rougery to 300 becuse how large empire is.
I enjoyed this video very well the strength and weaknesses but there is still one question I have for certain army if I want to have them if I want the imperial bucellarii, what kind of horses would I need to recruit them any horses named in the specific, and maybe not too expensive hopefully?
It isn't a specific named horse. ALl cavalry troops require horse to convert to cavalry, and it will be one of two kinds either the "Mount" or "War Mount" It will say what is required when you hover over the icon in the troop party screen.
There's a lot of misinformation here. Cataphracts and menavlions in practice competes for top spot. Are you perhaps using pre release beta performance? I know they were really bad prior to full release due to ai issues.
For one, the Menavlions are wielded like glaives and voulges, and as such they wreck shielded formations just about as well as other shock troops. In fact they will even break the line breakers. Those "spears" aren't poking spears, they swing for insane damage. Don't believe me or the other comments? Try it in a custom battle then.
What the hell is going on with this level mistake. Sorry to say, but this is an objectively bad review of the faction.
It's his opinion stfu
Banner Knights better than Cataphrats? Only if the banner knight successfully couches the lance, which is rare for the AI. Armor, weapons, skills are all better than the banner knights.
Even Vlandia is a better place to start you campaign
Empire is the best place to be early on. Easy acess to enemy lords since you're in the middle of the map
YEET
YOTE
I wish the empire was a little bit more explicitly Roman. The aesthetic would be much more appealing to me that way.
Yeah, that's why the CA Eagle Rising Mod is so enjoyable.
Technically the calradic empire is more based on the byzantine empire
@@achillesrodriguezxx3958I see it as both a Roman and Byzantine mixture in terms of the crisis of the 3rd century and legions as well as Byzantine in armor etc.
I find it interesting that you use the crossbows over the archers, when in all the tests I saw and the ones I conducted myself in almost all scenarios archers seem to be superior to crossbows in bannerlord.
Crossbows have better range and damage so they’re good to have when you can sit back with a shield wall and cav and make the enemy attack first
@@brodiemeachem5355 Again when conducting tests they only deal more damage to heavily armoured enemies. The problem it that they are not (with the just stated exception) better, because, yes a single crossbow shot usually deals more damage than a single bow shot, BUT the bow is reloading faster, has a better arch of fire (not as straight, thus it can shoot over own units a bit better) and even if the enemy just sits back and takes the projectiles, the crossbows have less ammunition. They have usually between 18 and 20 bolts while archers usually have at least 24 arrows (steppe arrows). AT LEAST, there is for example no crossbow unit I know of, which carries two sets of bolts, whilst there are many archers, which have 2 sets of arrows (which makes at least 48). Thus the crossbows really are only superior in two aspects. When shooting attacking/advancing high tier units and in the scenario of you needing a back up shield wall (pavese shields are good).
Don’t get me wrong when properly balanced I am usually team crossbow in many games, but it’s simply the truth that in Bannerlord bows reign superior.
@@brodiemeachem5355community tests show archers have more dps than crossbowmen. Even if we dont count the fians, any other archer out damages the crossbows.
And while crossbows start shooting at a longer range for some reason, they dont actually do any significant damage from said range
Menav troops absolutely shred cav
The cataphract is the best cavalry unit.
Khans Guard: 😮
Flaw number 1 no imperial red
I find the empire to be a little too easy.
Very fair criticism. Empire playthroughs are as vanilla as you can get.
empire is rly balanced why they didint nerf it aserai tho
How the hell did you get 700 troops not in an army?
He must be very very deep into the game. Look at the year... or it's a mod?
I hope that it was a joke when it was said that the manievlation was a bad unit?