I don't know about the wiki, but I took some numbers from the wiki and did a weighted calculation on each unit compared to the light infantry. I found that without upgrades the only units that surpass light infantry in the skirmish phase on a per unit usage of retinue cap are archers. Heavy infantry, pikemen, and heavy cavalry are worth the retinue cap usage during the melee phase, and since those units are harder to break tend to make it to the melee phase and dramatically defeat light infantry once there. Light cavalry are never worth the retinue cap usage without cultural building upgrades. I didn't check very cultural specific units such as war elephants, war camels, and horse archers although just by looking at their stats it is safe to say war elephants and war camels will do about the same as heavy cavalry, while horse archers will perform like archers. When defending, light infantry do the best in the skirmish phase, while archers and pikemen do the best in the melee phase. Although upgrades can dramatically change the overall effectiveness of any cultural units, technology tends to be a wash as you can upgrade light infantry at roughly the same speed as other units, which only lowers the effectiveness of other units on a per retinue point usage basis. I was surprised that the calculations showed that most of the retinue are quite balanced by the respective cost of the units within the retinue. The outliers were pikemen which out performed heavy cavalry and heavy infantry on both the attack and defense, and archers which decimate enemy forces during the skirmish phase while holding their own on the defensive. Big take away was that light cavalry are just awful and should be avoided when considering which retinue unit to build, but put as much emphasis in building the cultural specific retinue, archers and pikemen. Helps when either or both are the culturally specific retinue. Needless to say, focusing on the unit type that your cultural buildings upgrade, and the technology that upgrades those units would seem to be a valid strategy for building extremely effective and efficient retinue armies for conducting battles in the game. Flank commanders are definitely very important when determining the strength of an army too, as are the combat strategies used by the commanders. An all archer retinue can easily be defeated by heavy cavalry because of the charge tactic which immediately changes the combat into the melee phase if facing an enemy army with sixty percent or more archers. Although I have yet to see an army of light cavalry out perform light infantry in any important phase unless the retinue cap of the light cavalry is significantly higher than the retinue cap of the light infantry army.

I usually spam culture and Cavalry troops when I can. Not because it's good, I just like horses and making England Polish.

I find that knowing the basics about army composition & retinues plus tactics influences the type of buildings I upgrade first in my holdings. Gotta get those archers as the Welsh ;)

Plz anyone iam in the tutorial in-game And I can't conquer someone bc my fleet can only handle 1000 units while all my units are like : ,1029, 2009 ,1048 How do I split them to 1000? When I try splitting them it say it cant Plz any one help me

@JuggernautSPQR

3 жыл бұрын

Right so depending of where (from whom) your armies come from you can or cannot split them. You can't split troops belonging to one vassal or one holding. So let's say all of Italy is a kingdom, and the king is your vassal, when you raise his 6000 troops you will not be able to split them because they are from the same person. So your best bet probably in this case is to hire more ships ;)

@Hazem_Pasha

3 жыл бұрын

@@JuggernautSPQR thanks :D I deserve a sub !!!

@JuggernautSPQR

3 жыл бұрын

@@Hazem_Pasha no problem, happy to help :)

By the way what is the dlc that allows you to name your land?

@JuggernautSPQR

6 жыл бұрын

I believe it's the customization pack.

@justinlim7074

6 жыл бұрын

Juggernaut thanks dude

@JuggernautSPQR

6 жыл бұрын

No problem man, thank you for watching ^_^

If you have the option, as Irish, to just get heavy infantry. Why not do that? Skirmish is nice and cheap, but do the archer help so much?

@JuggernautSPQR

4 жыл бұрын

because skirmish gives you more troops. Don't get me wrong the heavy infantry will do a lot better in combat true, but the skirmishers will give you more troops, they use less of the retinue cap ;) and more troops = more power = much more difficult for people(factions) to rebel against you

@daddyleon

4 жыл бұрын

@@JuggernautSPQR Ohh, I see.. So essentially: - if you want most power/least factions or least money = skirmish. - if you want best army = heavy infantry or horse archers is this it, abouts?

@JuggernautSPQR

4 жыл бұрын

@@daddyleon Yeah that's exactly it :) Other options (pike and heavy cav) aren't totally useless but you don't really need them. Super late game I like to put in a few units of cav as they help kill enemies when the enemy army has retreated.

@daddyleon

4 жыл бұрын

@@JuggernautSPQR Is killing the routers better in the late game, then or...is that suboptimal but just personal flair? Also...should you merge the retinue army with a larger one to make a juicy stack? Or is it better to have them participate in the same battles but unmerged? And..Does it matter where you put your leader in order to get the +15% bonus?

@JuggernautSPQR

4 жыл бұрын

@@daddyleon always merge them in one stack when fighting, as far as commanders go, well yeah you want 3 commanders in the army and you want the best commanders possible . As far as chasing down feeling enemies are concerned it's just a convenience for the late game, not much more than that. Essentially it means you need to chase them down fewer times.

I disagree with most of these conclusions. Keep exploring the game, and one tip I'll drop is that tribal rulers can get very large retinues quite easily and early. Army composition matters and control is much more attainable than suggested.

@JuggernautSPQR

4 жыл бұрын

It is but it doesn't really mater was my point. I've got around 7000 hours in the game I have nothing left to explore ;) I mean yes with retinues you can make composition mater but that large retinue will be mostly light infantry and they simply don't have the same weight as western retinues. The main attribute for retinue is not combat but political power, they make the game more forgiving politically, you can piss of more people :) Especially when it comes to newer players I still hold that what I said goes. But it's CK2 you can always add to any statement "actually its more complicated or you can actually do this too.." That said though thanks for being civil about it and not yelling booo you suck gtfo or whatever hahaha ^_^

For the holdings, i try to focus on getting Heavy Infantry (Castles) and spears (cities) I personally like to be spear/archer focus with a cavalry support with my retinue. So for example: 3 spear, 1 archer & 1 cavalry for the flanks. 4 spear & 1 archer for the center.

@JuggernautSPQR

6 жыл бұрын

03germas hm, spears aren't that good, they are good at defense and they work better than light infantry but Heavies and archers are king which is why the skirmish retinue is soooo good, and it's the cheapest.

@Inucroft

6 жыл бұрын

True, but I enjoy their staying power, as I found with an earlier run through that Heavy Inf/Archer combo get routed in the Skirmish phase against the larger Nomadic Hordes. I found the staying power of the Spears mean they are able to hold it better together during the Skirmish phase allowing them to have a good chance in the melee. That, combined with the bonus damage against cavalry, is why i pref spears. Mind, this is my personal prefrences, and might not be the most cost effect.

@JuggernautSPQR

6 жыл бұрын

Ah, yes that makes sense, nomads fight with mostly horses and the pikemen get a bonus vs horsemen so yeah against them specifically they will do rather well.