Ranking Shield Infantry After 700+ Test Battles - Bannerlord Shield Troop Tier List

0:00 - Intro
0:43 - Imperial Legionary Testing
6:32 - Vlandian Sergeant Testing
10:48 - Battania Oathsworn Testing
14:27 - Battania Wildling Testing
16:47 - Aserai Veteran Infantry Testing
18:51 - Khuzait Darkhan Testing
20:24 - Sturgia Heavy Spearmen Testing
21:53 - Sturgia Heavy Axemen Testing
23:23 - Final Data Analysis & Tier List (Most Important Part)

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[Appathetic_Substance_Abuse]

Just putting it out there folks, there's a Polearm perk that gives your infantry 30 extra melee skill points in shield wall formation.

[Petergriffin]

Imagine dominating every melee troop, and then being annihilated by archers.

[matheusmterra]

Oooh!! I missed these vids so much! Specially now that I'm hopping back into Bannerlord to finally try a World Conquest campaign.

[CrazyCriceto]

I didn`t finish watching the video yet. But it`s great that you added a test of how a unit performs when outnumbered! It`s kind of the most common situation in the game.

[Djakonpl]

I’d love to see a video where you build a perfect army, a combination of all possible troops in the game. Keep up the good work my man <3

[micahbonewell]

It's really dumb to me that the two most infantry focused civs, Battanians and Sturgians, have the worst infantry.

[cheezybastard]

Imperial Crossbowman S Tier. I have actually done a foot troop only campaign using the Crossbowman as my shieldwall and using Battanian Wildlings as my skirmishers.

[Adawudd]

The only reason why I get motivated back to bl is u fr. thx a lot for ur vids. Never stop!

[KingoftheWelsh]

Another great vid. Bummed to see the Sturgian units struggling so hard at their intended role, and shocked at just how OP legionaries are.

[Varandil]

I'm currently running a Sturgia playthrough (mostly, using Fians for my archers) and am pleased to see your results match up to my own conclusions.

Started with a mix of Heavy Axemen and Spearmen but quickly noticed that the death rate among the Axemen was significantly higher, so dropped them. Definitely think it's down to the axes being too short. I now run all Heavy Spearmen in the wall, with Linebreakers in the same formation, backing them up - generally somewhere around a 2/1 or 3/1 ratio.

vs other infantry, they massacre them in a 2-3 deep Line formation (depending on width of enemy line)
vs cavalry, they massacre them in Square formation
vs ranged, they are practically invincible in Shield Wall while my ranged and cavalry counter

[zunrael]

Glad to see I wasn't delusional about the Aserai Infrantry, they are my favorite faction :D

[jonrussell]

Quality video, mate. I absolutely love the final column. I always found infantry vs infantry only evaluations for tier lists to be so incomplete.

Question: For Battanian infantry, wouldn't it make sense to evaluate them with skirmishing rather than charge? Whenever I have done a battanian only campaign, I almost always let the enemy charge into me while I skirmish and kite. I don't think they were designed to blind charge.

[diomed]

Right when I need it! Also I think for dismoUnted cavalry it make sense to test Styrgian dryzhinnik. They probably have best stats among any shield infantry.

[ForeignSpazm]

My man really does put in the work! 100 hours! This is why when it come to the strats and stats you’re the Aficionado. Every upload you can’t miss folks!

[r.u.s.e]

Thank you so much for all the testing! I'm glad to see my respect for the Veteran Infantry was well founded lol

Though I am a bit confused at the choice to leave out the Banner Knight and Druzhinnik Champion since you included the Khans Guard and Cataphracts.

[rcutler]

Love to see you get back into the testing

[katel]

This made me think alot, because i was playing Sturgia only the other day and i ran into an elite Empire army. Favoring a 60-40 mix of Heavy Axemen (for their throwing axes even though they kinda suck) and Heavy spearmen (to tank damage/stop some horses maybe) in my frontline; backed up by linebreakers for killing power. Finally some Champion horses to counter elite cav, and sturgian archers (worst archers in the game, but still has the potential to deal alot of damage).
Anyways..

The battle was starting and both armies fielded an equal amount of men. My army of around 900 troops would at first glance have the advantage against the enemies 700, but the enemies had the quality advantage; 90 legionaries and 60 elite menavilion was the scariest among them, my weak archers would have to pull their weight. Menavilion being the faster troops (they charged) let me take out a solid chunk of them with bows and throwing axes before we crossed swords. When they reached us i held shield wall for as long as possible, giving archers time to pick at their flanking units. Then when entering line formation all my elite infantry got cut down; Similare numbers/and similare quality as both armies was only fielding about 300 each.

I won the battle, but it turned into a grindfest and a phyric victory at best. Looking at the stats, my Heavy axemen did nothing; About 50 of them barely getting any kills, made me rethink fielding them at all. This video made me think of this, because the Heavy axemen does a horrible job against legionary infantry.

Looking closer at the issue the Axemen seem to be missing alot, especially when they are backing up and trying to attack while doing this; This could be some issue regarding the length of the axe combined with attacking while backing up.

[Peter-Slash]

I think the only thing this points to is every faction (except empire) needs a massive infantry buff. Battanian and Sturgian infantry sadden me the most.

[skrmsp]

Bannerlord Data Video. Give it straight to my vein!

[nickt]

Dude, thank you for putting in the time to do this! This was amazing.