Which Weapons Are Best On Companions (RBM)? Bannerlord Companion Weapons Testing Guide

RPM is a mod that completely changes the way combat works from small engagements up to massive field battles in this video we'll be testing dozens of weapons to see which perform well and which to avoid for the testing our side will consist of 20 companions with decent armor and comparable combat skills to the enemy the other side will be made up of only tier 6 units let's Jump Right In we start the testing on foot with the shield and a mislabeled weapon this is actually a one-headed mace optimized for weapon length and decent blunt damage because of the AI being more passive in RBM our companions struggle to land hits on the enemy with short one-handed weapons at times one companion will step forward to attack but take return damage from multiple enemies eventually we grind them down and end with 20 kills and 6 losses next we test a similar setup but with a very short and fast swinging speed mace our companions rarely swing their mace due to the short range and their passive nature means they don't close the distance to attack by the end our side kills 9 but lost all 20 troops I was curious to see if the charge command was causing the issues for our companions so I retested using engage instead and the results were well you can see for yourself now let's look at a custom crafted one-handed sword and compare the results with the maces the range is more than enough for our companions to land blows but the enemy seems to shrug them off eventually we grind them down and end with 20 kills and 16 losses significantly worse than the long mace and finally for the one-handed weapons we close out with pull arms let's start with the shortened pole arm around 150 length immediately we see a massive difference our companions are attacking constantly and Landing plenty of thrusts by the end we sustained only four losses beating out even the long one-handed mace one thing I noticed is that longer weapons tended to attack more often but charging the line meant not everyone would step forward at once creating small pockets of vulnerability so I retested while holding ground as you can see one enemy would step forward to attack and be met with two to four pole arms in reply provided the enemy doesn't envelop our lines holding ground seems to be far superior to charging we end up with zero losses incredible results I was curious if there were diminishing returns when testing even longer pull arms so I equipped the companions with 290 length and repeated the two tests the longer pull arms meant the enemies moving forward to attack were relatively safe from being hit but also meant that they were stabbed from much further distances so companions who would normally be passive were attacking constantly which washed out the effect we see the same results as before for deaths however on hold ground we see a massive difference our entire line attacked non-stop The increased length meant that the enemy line was always Under Pressure even taking hits from a companion three or four units down in the line from them in the end one companion died a quick note only one test was ran for each of these and there is some RNG involved so anywhere from zero up to one or two deaths are statistically equivalent in RBM a hit to the face or Gap in the armor can result in a one-hit kill and while the chances are low they can affect the results let's do a quick recap here so we don't get lost in the data when it comes to one-handed weapons whole arms are King even though one-handed maces do significantly more damage per hit their ability to break through the enemy line is lacking one-handed swords are awful and it would be best if units didn't have them even as a backup when using pole arm troops that have a length advantage over the enemy it's best to leave them on hold grounds since charging causes one or two units to move forward on their own exposing them to multiple enemies as for the ideal length of the pole arm it's hard to say as medium 150 and long 290 performed nearly identically personally I prefer longer pole arms as they are better counter to Cavalry and still do well against foot troops Moving On Let's test a few two-handed weapon options starting with the long Dane ax one important thing to note I equipped each companion with a shoulder strap shield which provided a ton of protection with no downsides the ax seem to have trouble Landing hits at times but their ability to block incoming attacks also increased blocking attacks can drain the enemy's posture fast than holding a shield in place so our companions ended up losing only a single troop let's see how well the fox holds up in RBM it's one of the best weapons in the base game but may not perform as well here the battle seems very similar to the two-handed ax test although the damage seems better with the Falks these companions are brutal in the end not a single loss was sustained for the last two tests we'll test long and short two-handed maces within seconds of the two lines meeting up there's already a Kill by our companions the length of this battle is much shorter than the previous two and ends without a single loss clearly two-handed bases counter heavily armored troops now let's see how a shorter faster swinging two-headed Mace will do the short mace gets off to a great start even faster than the long mace but then the battle stagnates a bit it seems like weapon reach is an incredibly important stat even for two-handed weapons there are still no losses but the battle lasted much longer it's interesting to see how much more effective two-handed weapons are in melee combat even when the enemy has a strong Shield wall the obvious weakness here is against ranged weapons but barring that the two-handed shark troops should be used when possible longer weapons perform better than shorter and maces outperformed everything although two-headed axes and swords still had good results we won't spend too much time on javelins but I did want to test a few scenarios we start with one stack of four javelins and no backup weapon the first volley blows a couple Shields to bits but no casualties they're able to get three to four volleys off and killed seven of the 20 enemies before they reach their line our companions switched to melee mode and crushed the remainder of the enemy suffering only a single loss I noticed the early kills only happened when a javelin hit the face so I repeated the test but still killed six before the lines reached next we swap the javelins out for ones that deal bonus damage to Shields and immediately see the difference after a couple volleys the enemies are left with only three Shields however these javelins do less damage and only four casualties were inflicted once in melee mode the javelins performed poorly and our companions are crushed finally we test with both javelin's and the long pole arm equipped once again we see several Shields destroyed and six troops killed before the lines meet once in melee range only some of the troops switched to the preferred long pole arm While others kept the Javelin in melee mode even worse some tried to throw javelins at the enemy at point-blank range causing them to get many stunned and taking hits the results are still great with no losses in the end we won't spend a ton of time on this next section but I wanted to see how bow and arrow compared to crossbow and bolt starting with bow and arrow we see our companions release a volley starting at 180 meters uphill or probably around 200 on flat ground against shielded opponents they kill only three before the lines meet and destroy a couple Shields but they got mopped up in melee we repeat the test again but against boat troops at 80 to 100 meters distance the equipped bows are the same on both sides but our companions have much better armor and end up with only a single loss now let's look at crossbows the first volley goes off around 130 meters which is a massive difference from the 180 with bows two shielded troops are killed before the lines meet so the damage is fairly comparable against the same boat troops however the damage is much less at the same 100 meters and our crossbows are ordered closer eventually all the enemy units are killed but we've lost six companions in the process unfortunately I cannot recommend using crossbows and RBM as their range and damage are much less until you get to that near Point Blank distance stick with bow companions instead now for the part I was most curious about mounted companions let's start our testing against foot troops without weapons which will be a baseline to compare against for later the first charge kills off two troops with no losses on the second pass four more are killed and still no companion losses by the end all enemy troops were flattened out without a single loss keep in mind these are tier VI enemy troops with long pole arms and massive two-handed maces without any losses the only way to compare these results will be to measure how many charges it took to defeat the enemy in this case it took five Cycles let's try out some two-handed weapons first starting with the two-handed ax the first charge kills off four and takes four charges in total to finish the job it's slightly better than no weapon but not by that much maybe the armor was too thick for the ax to do meaningful damage so we test with the long two-handed mace instead again the first charge killed off four and it takes only three charges this time to dispatch the enemy next let's try out the same short pole arm we used on foot about 150 length the first charge kills off five which is a huge increase from the unarmed charge by the end it took about three charges to kill off most of the enemy and they began to Route so we won't count running them down as a pass we swap out the short pull arm for the long 290 length and we see the same five kills on the first pass and like before it takes about three charges to send the enemy running it's interesting to see no difference between the short and the long pull arm as I would have expected more damage from the longer one and for the final test against foot troops we give the same long pull alarm Cavalry a one-headed mace as a sidearm to see if they still use the pole arms for both charges every companion used the pull arm which is great to see in the past I've seen companions use tiny one-handed weapons while mounted preferring that over the long pole arm sitting on their back I decided to Dismount our companions to see if they would Swap and sure enough they used the one-handed mace however looking back at the results from earlier I would prefer them to still use the pole arms so when building melee Cavalry companions give them only a pole arm to use with no sidearm moving on to the last section Cavalry vs Cavalry this was the most frustrating section to test because the length of the battles let's start with the most obvious case pullarm equipped companions that can couch Lance in the first Clash not a single troop went down from either side both Party leaders were on foot and fell quickly but then the circus ensued both sides chased each other around the map more resembling a game of tag between toddlers than actual combat it took nearly 9 minutes for the enemy side to fall and we lost only one companion let's see if we can fix this problem by equipping the two-handed mace the first Clash had similar results but tons of damage was being done while the two sides were stuck and even one enemy went down the actual battle looks similar so the AI doesn't act differently based on their gear but the results were quite a bit different the battle was over after only three minutes this time which is one third the time of the pole arms we still only lost a single companion as well and because it seemed like the majority of the damage was done when the two Cavalry ran into each other and got stuck we repeat the test but place our companions in a tightly packed Shield wall formation the enemy takes significant damage when trying to wiggle through our formation and don't take much return damage the battle lasts a little longer this time just over four minutes and with two companion losses instead of one it seems they deal more damage when the enemy Cavalry are stuck but also are more vulnerable to being couch lanced let's repeat the test again but with pole arms because our companions are actively using their Shields they're able to avoid most of the couch Lance damage but also deal significantly less damage in return after five charges not a single unit on the field was dead so we dismounted and continued the test on foot immediately we see a difference one to two Cavalry gets stuck with each charge and stabbed to death by the end not a single companion went down and all enemy Cavalry were dealt with to summarize the mounted session it's pretty clear the weapon Choice isn't as big of a factor when fighting against foot troops even without a weapon still yielded amazing results but with the pole arm or mace they'll get the job done even faster for Calvary vs other Calvary pull arms will work but the ensuing battle could take a long time two-headed mesas perform well but also at the risk of taking more losses and finally dismounted pole arm Cavalry provided the safest and most effective counter to other Cavalry with all that said the best use of Calvary is to avoid other Calvary and Target only enemy foot troops that are not tightly bunched up on the flip side the best way to counter enemy Cavalry is to use tightly bunched formations of foot troops and don't move when the charge hits if you want to see these tests put to use in a real campaign click this video right here to see the Roberto geese card mercenary and companion oling campaign a massive Thanks goes out to the channel members and patreon supporters who help make less popular topics like this still viable thank you so much Roberta geesecard what am I saying

Channel: Strat Gaming Guides

Views: 109,057

Keywords: Strat Gaming, Mount and Blade 2 Bannerlord

Id: 6RkUVGtyjaw

Length: 12min 21sec (741 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 01 2023