They have incredible melee cavalry, however. Swadians: Their foot troops are a lot like the Rhodoks, just a bit crappier in skill and equipment. Definitely best to use archer-heavy armies with these guys, and use the horses and infantry only to support them. Their infantry and horses are all quite weak in comparison to other factions, but some people like them for their versatility. Vaegir: These are supposedly the best archers, though that is argued (bows run out of ammo a lot sooner than crossbows, for one factor). I find them quite weak in sieges, attacking or defending, because of a general high-damage low-armour setup. Their longbowmen are decent (3rd best after Rhodok and Vaegir), but can defend themselves in melee best of any, I think. Very strong melee, and infantry generally have a few throwing weapons. Poor against strong infantry, patricularly Nords.

Excellent against cavalry in the field, and at sieges due to their excellent crossbowmen.

Strong and steady crossbowmen who aren't half-bad in melee, very sturdy spearmen infantry. There are better resources than this forum to answer your question, google the mount and blade wiki or the taleworlds forums and you'll find a wealth of information.įor a few cents, instead, here is what you're in for: I wait a long time before going independent king though, so at that time I often have a large and good army, several companions and I'm high in levels myself, so I can often cope with trouble that I wouldn't be able to cope with on a new character.

When building my own kingdom, however, I will nearly always try to go for Swadian lands since their soldiers (Cavalry especially) is tonnes better then the other options, and as long as I can defeat any other single army on the field, taking their cities and castles will become much easier. Rhodoks is only bordering two potential enemies at first and will be better able to cope (Most of the time). That means that Swadian villages often have trouble with enemies plundering them and that is a hard blow to counter for a starting player. My other point is that Swadia is very central and I haven't seen a game where Swadia survives and flourishes unless I join Swadia, since it will often be under attack from every possible direction. In my experience the best country to start as is Rhodoks because their infantry is very excellent (And Swadian Knights are very expensive), so unless you want to join another faction I'd start in Rhodoks and build up from there.

Mount and blade beginners guide