YALQ (Yet another loadout question) for Warband (native)

I like equipping myself and the companions for mounted combat, but I can't quite make head and tails of the which loadout to choose.

The main problem for me is that changing every companions equipment frequently is both the best performing, and by far most annoying, solution, plus it would require A LOT of inventory space.

Main-character

For the main character, I prefer shield + light lance + bow, as I like couched attacks, switching to a 1h weapon for close-quarters. Sadly, during random encounters (ambush when entering city, biligerent drunks), this leaves me with an inefficient weapon. While not a real problem, except for very early in the game, it creates a choice between "not fun" combat situations and very frequent "not fun" item switching.

With heavy armor and charger mount, 1H/2H weapons become a viable, albeit subjectively less fun, option. However, when playing at full difficulty, survivability suffers a lot.

Companions

Mostly this comes down to what weapons does the AI utilize best. A lot of weapons seem interesting on paper, but are hampered by insufficient AI behavior.

• Shield + Light Lance + 1H + Thrown weapon. Seems to give the best performance overall, especially as it allows optimizing the 1H weapon for close quarters combat (short weapons like military pick, morning star).
• Shield + Doubled sided Lance + Bow/Light Crossbow. Good performance as horse archers: Generally, horse-archers seem to have the best survivability at the cost of dealing their damage slowly.
  I am however not convinced, that the AI is using short lances as much as reasonably well, and it doesn't look like the AI is switching to 2-handed use of the lance for horse-less combat.
  Also, on-foot bows/crossbows require micromanaging the troops, as they start shooting at distances, where it is unlikely fot them to hit anything.
• Shield + long 1H + Bow/Light Crossbow. Much better for sieges, but I am uncertain about the AI's ability to efficiently use the lower reach on horseback. Possibly the best compromise for party-skill characters?

I know, I know, similar things have been asked many times :) But somehow I still couldn't really find a viable answer to this :) Also, the threads were old and maybe people have changed their mind? :D

Submitted February 13, 2019 at 05:20AM by kdbell http://bit.ly/2S3mY8E