Yeah the crossbows are one of my biggest gripes with RBM. Your bolts fly about 10 feet then drop like a rock. Early Medieval crossbows had a point blank range (meaning no correction for elevation) of about 70 yards.
@@Strat-Guides I'm not sure if it would drop drastically, but crossbows from the early period were often fired angled at 45° on volleys "similar to bows) where they could be effective up to 350 meters. Later steel crossbows had a maximum volley range of about 500 meters.
@@tylerhovind7187 Do you have a source for this, either contemporary or from modern tests? Sounds quite improbable from a ballistic point of view to reach such distances with heavy war bolts. As far as I know tests with replicas of 15th c. AD steel crossbows had shown a usual max range of about 340 to 350 meters, shot at 45 degree angle. There is a report of a shot over about 460 meters, but with a light bolt. Payne-Gallwey shot a bolt over more than 400 metres over the Menai street with a steel crossbow. All not that relevant for use in real combat, a realistic range might have been up to 250 metres against formations. There is (only) one source that says that the Genoese crossbowmen at Crecy (who used probably crossbows with composite laths) were outranged by the English archers, but that's not in other sources about the battle. Anyway, I find it highly unlikely that high medieval composite crossbows of perhaps 300 to 500 lbs draw weight could be used further than 150 to 200 meters under battlefield conditions. I find 70 yards "point blank" range quite high but I'm too lazy to do the math. I know of an estimation by Paterson (The Crossbow) of a possibly flat trajectory shooting of heavy crossbows of 60 to 70 yards (54 to 64 metres), so 70 yards is his highest guess. Nevertheless, I concur that crossbows are too weak in RBM. They should shoot a bit further and hit harder against armor. There might have been a reason that in 15th c. AD France there was "proof" armor, tested by strong crossbows, and "semi-proof" armor, tested by medium crossbows or bows.
@@Strat-Guides "960lbs crossbow vs 150lbs crossbow - TESTED!" by tods workshop does a great job of talking about the power medieval crossbows had as well as other dynamics.
Mildly surprised you didn't mention the bill weapons. RBM seems to massively favour any form of Pierce, effectively ignoring armour, and bills are basically just 2H axes that do Pierce instead of Cut. (I just started my first RBM/Banner King campaign this week thanks to your Merc Campaign setup vid and quickly realised that swords are only useful if you're stabbing, and polearm overhand stab at the face is king.)
I don't think I've used any of the bill weapons in RBM, I'll have to check it out! Thanks for the heads up. That's interesting because I can't think of any swingable weapons with pierce damage
@@butterflyvision3084 ^This, it's the Bill Head for a 2H Axe. There are a few Vlandian models around but the main general source is smithing them. Tier 4, needs 2 steel and a hardwood so it's also an economical build for when you need 100 of them for a Companion shock army!
idk what you're talking about vlandian sharpshooters are some of the best ranged units in the base game. everyone touts the Fians but i have much better results with the sharpshooters. but maybe its because of how i position my armies. i utilize my ranged units max range and the distance between my infantry and ranged units as a collapsing ground for enemy cavalry then once they're dealt with its just a matter of mopping up with ease. as my ranged can easily shred the enemy archers long before they ever get in range to fire.
in a siege they have more range which is a big deal. they do more damage per shot as well. open field battles on the other hand, that extra damage generally isn't worth it. RBM changes things as the tests showed, in that they no longer have the range or damage, making them bad all around. historically the professional units would have 3 or 4 reloaders for every crossbowman so they had poor rate of fire per man, but you only needed one experienced guy for 4 or 5 guys making it much cheaper overall and easier to get a big group going. bowmen need to be stronger, more experienced than the 1 guy and you can't offload part of the work to untrained loaders. this makes bowmen a bigger investment in manpower of a society (crossbows are a bigger investment infrastructure wise), but because they are stronger and have higher ratios of experience to make them viable also meant they could fight better as well. man for man they were better, but as things became more agrarian and focused on cities their cost was much higher to the point crossbows were the more dominant option. none of this matters in Bannerlord or other videogames, which is why they make crossbows be more sniper like (that does have some justification as well, but this post is dragging on).
Crossbow dmg is great early on. Even the weakest crossbows can 1tap the best armored unit climbing a ladder. Bow is infinitely superior once you level it up though
Thanks so much for this methodic analysis. I would never have thought that unarmed cav would do this good against T5 units. And I guess I'll hit the smithy to cook up some nice long maces for my troops.
Hey man, thanks so much for your Bannerlord content. I started watching your videos a year ago, before I owned the game. I finally bought it a month ago and I’m using a lot of the stuff you do in your videos. I’m having so much fun. You’ve saved me a lot time and frustration.
3:10 There is also the RBM tactic of force moving your short-weapon units into the enemy lines so they "charge" attack like in vanilla, their move command forcing them into shoulder to shoulder fighting so short 1Handed weapons excel, this however brings into question how viable it is to constantly micro your short-handed units to get their full use out in battle.
Oh and I forgot, this also works very well vs long polearms since the face-to-face fighting greatly restricts their attack moves making their attacks do little to no damage if not outright blocking them from attacking.
YEESSS! I’ve been trying to figure out the best weapons to level up, highest DPS and keep my companions alive and been waiting for you to make a video like this for so long! I’ve tested so many of your weapons from previous videos and tweaked some a bit to suit companions more. I haven’t even watched the video yet but because it’s you MR STRAT, I know it’s gonna be awesome and super helpful. Please keep these essential videos coming and cheers for all the great ones you’ve made so far!😎✌️
It's truly amazing how huge the difference between the vanilla combat and RBM is! I really like the latest changes in vanilla formations, but nothing beats RBM for me :) Fighting in a formation is super fun and such videos about tactics, weaponry and armor, the importance of different stats for AI in battles are hugely valuable for me! Thanks a lot! :)
Great video as usual. As spears performed so well, I might start a Roman themed campaign with my companions serving as 'Triarii', a staunch backline of heavy spear elites, kept in reserve.
Couched Lances need massive improvement. If you play Warband: AWOIAF (Game of Thrones mod), those things will put the fear of God in you. It's appropriate to the medieval setting, heavy cavalry dominated the battlefield.
It's very frustrating to see an armored enemy just shrug off a couched lance hit to the chest, RBM takes a step forward in many regards, but also takes a ton of steps back when it comes to other things.
Great informative video as always. I want to point out that I indeed knew that maces were the best in the survey, I was surprised it wasn't the most voted one
Yeah for sure, they are strong! I prefer the mace on the player loadout and the polearm on the companions though as they are really consistent and die much less often with the polearm (even if they do less damage on any given hit)
I'm not that big of a mb bannerlord fan i dont even have it, but i love watching your videos, you really have a talent of explaining and coming up with good concept,I can't explain it, but your videos are awesome, you really deserve more
Thanks so much for doing this! Incredibly helpful, you're truly filling a niche with this content. When I give companions javelins, I specifically give them a very long javelin, b/c I know they're gonna use them in melee lmao. One issue is that the absolute longest javelin is swingable, but with a super slow swing speed of like 12. Idk if they try to swing it in 1h mode, but I wouldn't be surprised, and that would be so useless. I also wonder about giving cav javelins, I have done it but can't tell if it's worthwhile or not. Someone else mentioned 2H bill axe, which is a great weapon, but I'd also be curious about cav with 2H lances that are only 2H, can't be wielded 1H. There's a way to smith such a weapon in RBM, I'm pretty sure. It's a combo of a certain lance body and one of the dismounting "wings", I think. Although if theyre given a shoulder strapped shield and the 2H-only lance, sometimes they seem to prefer to just equip the shield and have no weapon instead of using the 2H-only lance. I think it's because there's a way to use the 2H only lance with a shield, but only while couch lancing, so they maybe hold the shield and then when they get enough speed, pull out the lance, too. Again, kind of inefficient. Oh and then 2H swingable polearms, like glaives, on cav and infantry, I'd be curious how they did and whether they used the glaives as a couch lance (if it's smithed to make that possible) or only swing them. Lastly I'd be curious about full length 2H pikes + shoulder shield versus long 1H polearms + shield. (Maybe the super long pikes, like 450+ length are from the "better pikes" mod, though, instead of base RBM, and they're not craftable.) They have slower thrust speed which lowers damage based on RBM calculations, but the extra length could make up for it? It's really frustrating that companions and troops seem to never thrust 1H morningstars, b/c in RBM that does so much damage, far more than swinging the Morningstar. The only problem with not fighting cav with cav is that it requires so much micro to keep infantry positioned perfectly for each charge. Basically have to make a box around one's archers, I find.
@computerrealm4528 yeah I'll do more of the tactics videos late this year! I'm working on a couple songs of syx guide right now but will probably cover bannerlord again next
Awesome! Nobody knows frustration until you've had both your two-handed axe and your poll arm fly out of your hands while mounted followed by a one shot to your horse and instantly become unmounted within the first 30 seconds of combat lol @@Strat-Guides
It's so much fun! One thing to keep in mind - damage scales with skill level more than the weapon, so make sure you have a high polearm skill if you want to be effective in the mid and late game!
@@Strat-Guides They have good guns in the Warhammer mod The Old Realms. Sadly RBM is not compatible with that mod, living without RBM is tough for me now.
great video, but PLEASE do a video guide on troops for RBM/De re militarai, I've got no idea what troops to use nor do I wanna spend countless hours testing lol
What worked for me best when playing as a cav character is using a skein (wedge or v-formation) and have everything spec’d into charge damage. A horde of 150 cavs in open terrain in that formation made the grass flourish 😂
Was playing rbm and high middle ages and the absolute best strategy is heavy cav cycle charging. Get cataphracts or druzniks (hold fire) then get them to follow you. Charge their archers first by dragging the cav behind you while they are grouped up . ai loves to build archer lines that are too wide. Then just barely skirt (outside of pike range) the wings of the infantry since the ai is player biased and will turn to face you so they can receive a rear charge and die to charge damage. With an army of 250 ive killed armies of 900 as long as we are fighting on a relatively flat area
That’s why I equipped my companions in my vanilla rub through with two handed axes on their horses. They dominate cavalry engagements and then after Ikilled the enemy cav it’s bow and arrow time. I use axes mainly despite them being a little inferior to the glaive on horseback because there is a chance of killing two people with one swing. So optimal would be to equip them with glaive for cavalry fights and Dane axes for infantry fights. But I am to lazy to min max every fight, so I mostly stay with the axes :)
I was able to get a stable mod list working for 1.1.0. If you check this video out, I cover the full mod list in detail: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-MI6m0DonhBM.html&ab_channel=StratGaming Be aware, the RTS Camera mod needs a different file than what is on the files tab. Go to the forum tab and scroll down, look for a post with a link to a github fix for RTS camera on 1.1.0.
one handed axes in RBM are absolutely atrocious to use. It is almost impossible to land a hit with them. most hits are "handle hits" because the authors expect you to hit enemies with the small axe head, when bannerlord lacks the ability to space your hits so precisely, and on top of that, there's a sweet spot mechanic where you can only do full damage if you hit them with the very end of the axe (which again is very hard because bannerlord isn't precise with spacing) so 1 handed axes are pretty much useless in RBM, and the authors know about this but refuse to change it with the excuse that it is realistic.
Hello Strat Gaming, recently I am watching your videos and you have helped me a lot to better understand the game and enjoy it more but I am trying to play with the set of mods that you use and I can't, many crashes and incompatibilities with the versions. Any advice to be able to play with the mods that you use? Do you play a specific version of the game or do you play the most current?
Thanks for watching my videos! That's a tough topic - I typically spend 5 - 10 hours testing mods before I run a full campaign just to give you an idea of how difficult it can be to get a stable list going. I will usually start with a patch that has been out for a while (1.0.3 for example, I ran a couple campaigns on that patch even when 1.1.0 was out) and find mods that match that patch. Sometimes you can get away with mods that don't match the Bannerlord patch, but usually add them in one by one to make sure they don't crash. Once you have a list that actually works and you can launch the game, load up a fresh campaign and just sit in a town for a year or two on high speed. That will typically flush out many crashes that come up. I've had lists that were perfect until 40+ days into the campaign and then crashed, so maybe let it run while you're doing other work or chores etc. It's no fun to spend all that time playing only to lose your save a year into the campaign. Final note - just use someone else's curated list (like mine). It's not always 100% because it can sometimes be an issue with something in your specific install, especially if you've used mods before, but at least it's a great starting point.
@@Strat-Guides Thank you very much for answering me with so many details, I will follow your advice, I will try in a previous version to use the mods and I hope to be able to play like you, greetings and thanks again Strat!
You should do a quick video going over how to get Bannerlord 2 mods working. I had beta mods working through vortex but it doesn't seem like steam mods are working. Are you working through vortex for modding still?
I usually get as much as I can from Nexus (manual install, I don't use Vortex but it should be the same). There are a handful that are only on steam workshop but they are the smaller ones
@@DSlyde I made the change, I appreciate you bringing to my attention! As someone who is doing this stuff day in and day out, it can be hard to see things from your side so it helps when you point them out
Cavalry is strongest again loose packed archers or so i found with your infantry in a tight shield wall to prevent cavalry charges from killing troops(my experience is from Warband but from what ive seen of the AI in combat they behave very similarly)
going to try RBM for the first time , is that mod from Sharkan? does it only change battle or also anything else too? you was earning tactics points very fast is it a mod?
If I recall, it's made by Philosoraptor. It's an amazing mod! It's mostly battle stuff and also has a unit overhaul component to it. No mods for XP gain, but you can get them. I've used XP Tweaks before and it was really easy to use!
I've found stabbing with any weapon to be much higher damage in RBM regardless of the weapon type and since polearms are usually stab/pierce damage only, they excel. Even stabbing with a mace (like a morningstar) will do x4 the damage of swinging it, regardless of troop type it's used against, kinda nonsensical.
sadly one of the limitations of the mod; it changs the stab formulas to make spears viable, but it sadly also buffs the shit out of other stab attacks.
It seems like in RBM (and real life) spears are king. I give all companions lances and horses to fight, and if the enemy has pikes, all troops dismount and fight as a shieldwall. Similarly, custom short pitchforks seem to be the best companion weapon for civiilian melees unless you just have a unit thats a beast with 1h or 2h already.
That Long lance you were testing with against the AI, was it a Couch Lance? I would imagine if they were couch lancing the long spear would've done been more effective. Also it would be interesting to see how well Spear Bracing does at countering the Cavalry Charge, do the AI even spear brace? One more thing, with your soldiers in the Javelin test who were still throwing Javelins at close range did you command them to hold fire? It would be interesting to see if when holding fire if they switch to their spear or just use the javelin as a melee weapon instead.
Yeah it was a couch lance capable polearm. They do spear brace and it can be pretty effective, but you lose the protection of the shields so there's a trade off. I should have tested that :( I did test them on hold fire and it was the same thing - some kept the javelin in melee mode and some switched. It's like the AI has RNG to determine which weapon they will use LOL
Also RBM looks really cool I will definitely be using it next time I play Bannerlord on PC. I love how a lot of your results actually mirror real life findings that reflect how pre-late 17th Century battles were fought. Spears being the dominate weapon for infantry and the Cavalry being able to form devastating charges when not directly countered.
@Strat Gaming That's a shame although I understand. The AI may even weigh shorter range weapons higher for very close range combat. Do you know if there is any way to get the cavalry to charge without them all bunching up in a line about 4 cavalry wide? I feel like a Couch lance charge would be more lethal if the other cavalry weren't just bumping into the cavalry ahead of them or targeting already dead targets. This is a problem I've noticed in Vanilla Bannerlord too and it makes large cavalry formations almost pointless.
Yeah cut damage is really weak against armor in this mod. I'm not sure about tweaking the files, you would need to check the forums on that one. I'm a pleb when it comes to modifying files lol
@@Strat-Guides Awesome brother! I am really curious about the long lance-like polearm from your smithing guide vs a very long Vouge (Tier 4 Voulge head/Tier 4 Pine Shaft). My guess is that over a battle the Voulge-head polearm beats out the couching-lance one. Particularly if they end up on foot (sieges). Cant wait to see the data!!!
@@Strat-Guides Im also now switching over my companions with crossbows to Noble Long Bows instead of their Bound xbow, as i am guessing that crossbows just arent going to get the same kill rates in actual battle. Cant wait to see the data!!
The most tactical mods I’ve used. Make Calradia Great Again. RBM. Xorbacks legacy.I find that fighting on foot is actually useful. Shield wall is more powerful than Calvary. But when playing a Calvary character you find more loot.
Somebody on RU-vid did some massive battles (can´t remember the channel name) and his "spear" wielding troops got absolutely smashed by faster swinging weapons while the Khan´s Guard pretty much wasted everything. In my experience the glaives on my companions are great and if you don´t want them hurt give them a long spear and have a few footmen in front with shields in f.ex. hideouts. The problem with bannerlord though is that you can´t always choose the most OP weapon as the skills for governors are in other weapon trees ... bow is great though for all.
I felt like when the tests were close (like short vs long pole arm) maybe you could have included the time to kill/how long the battle took. Also were these weapons custom made or just from expanded armories and weaponry?
I've seen the AI do it before, but for this testing, they didn't. It makes me think there might be a skill threshold where that starts to happen - if they have a high enough skill maybe they know better which weapon to use, but for lower tier they just pick randomly? It's a good question and I don't know the answer for sure
Just curious on your reason for leaving out custom one handed axes? Because they also do cut damage you figured the longer swords would be better to cover it, regardless of bonus to shields?
Good question! 1h axes in my experience don't perform well. The only saving grace for swords is the thrust and axes don't have that ability. Throwing axes do good damage to shields, but so do javelins and javelins have much more utility (range, stack size, damaged, melee mode, etc). In RBM, it's actually quite difficult to break a shield with melee weapons but with ranged weapons it's not hard at all. Also because of the increased blocking skill, it seems harder to hit someone once they lose their shield lol
Well that's very interesting, I always thought they performed better than swords for my custom troops, I am on an older version of RBM however. I will try taking away all the one handed back up axes I gave my troops and leave them with just their spear. See if they improve, stay the same, or do worse. I do really like the authentic feel of my troops having side arms though. But I suppose I can get over it for performance.
I did some non in-depth testing, and my troops performed either just as well, or better with just spears for infantry, instead of having a one-handed axe for a side arm in line, shield wall, and square formation.
I love the RBM also but i wish the bow and crossbow troops would try to fire a bit better. If i try to move the archers into range so they dont fire at the ground i have to move them so close they could talk to eachother. Even mounted archers are really bad. I won with 30-40 tier 2-3 inf vs 30 tier 5-6-7 Aserai camel archer. Just use the square and wait until they are out of arrows so they charge you line.
It's from RBM! It's really handy for troops that need two hands like ranged units or shock troops. You can even use some of those shields in the civilian setting
I'm running RBM with the De Re Militari mod, I'm starting to feel that they gutted the Aserai overall with the mod, levy troops have 1 handed axes and javelins doesn't seem to hit decently, and they have significantly worse armor than the empire. The Faris is changed into a cataphract and the noble mount which supposedly is the faris before doesn't hit any javelin at all
I needed the info for a campaign I was about to run (mostly companion army with RBM active). I'll probably repeat the testing for the base game if there's enough interest!
I don't recall if I tested them or not - not everything makes it into the guide because I try to keep them as short as possible without losing important info. I may have missed 1h axes. I know in the base game, there's no distinction between weapon types as the game only cares about damage and swing speed, so if you have 2 weapons with the same stats, you wouldn't be able to tell them apart if you look at the damage done. I think it might be different in RBM though.
Interressting... i am yet have to actually bring myself to play with the RBM mod. Mainly because it changes so much and makes Swords practically useless. granted, in real life swords are pretty useless against everything with metal armor. but i love swords and love vanilla where i can mow through the ranks with my big Zweihander. But i have to admitt i am pleasantly surprised they made spears good in RBM from what i can see from your testing. one handed Spears suck in vanilla game. i wish you could poke with the spear while blocking at the same time like in real live. that would make shield wall and defensive stance really viable for infantry and all the the shieldbraking skills actually useful.
It's really hard to make that adjustment because of how bad they made spears in the base game lol but I can say that using spears on foot is really fun! Yeah blocking and thrusting at the same time would be nice
there were swords made for people in armor against other people in armor, or people in armor against people not in armor. these swords were not the same as normal backup weapon swords. unarmored versus people in armor i don't know if they had a sword for that, but that is definitely more of a spear thing because you want to keep people away from yourself if you are unarmored, especially if the other buy has armor. an estoc for example was pretty poor against unarmored people and was generally only good for thrusting, but when halfswording was great against armored opponents, and even worked well while wrestling with them. that stuff is outside the scope of the game though.
@@jamoecw Oh i am fully aware of all the techniques for swords versus armor like Halfswording (= turning the Sword into a spear) or Mordhau (= turning the Sword into a mace or hammer, depending if you want to strike with the pommel or the crossguard) but thats not the point. you said it right. those are not reflected in the game and as long as the base game or RBM do not introduce that "stance", Swords are useless in RBM against high tier troops. In real life i would also rather bring a can opener (= means halberd or polehammer with spike) to a fight, than a Zweihander. And a mace and dagger for backup instead of an arming sword.
@@ricwalker6600 yeah the game is a bit simplistic. it would be cool if you could flank a pike formation and start chopping the heads off the enemy pikes or drive spikes in the ground before battle to keep cav from charging you. native tried to sort of balance the weapons so each was useful throughout the game, though they made the other weapons a bit lackluster later on, and the AI sucks with spears (the no weapon cav test really highlights it).
Do you think a two handed axe enjoyer should try RBM? I hate the fact that my swords and axes are pretty much useless until I hit around 200 in skill. Even then, axes don't hit most of the time because of how RBM works. Keeping max distance is essential, thus I am losing the purpose to go in up and close and cleave a few people.
RBM does good at broad strokes, but fails at the specifics. really it is getting the engine to work for battles rather than for the weapons themselves. it really depends on what you want more out of your Bannerlord experience. if you want to lead armies RBM is great, if you want to carve up a bunch of guys then vanilla is better most of the time.
