Combat

[Choombi]

The simplest solution to your problem is to disband your light infantry retinue and replace it with another, preferably your cultural as they tend to be better than generic, if not then use cavalry.
Expensive and annoying, but light infantry, as said before, is garbage and only good for sieging and fooling the AI into not picking a fight with you even though it should.

 

[Aries666]

The simplest solution to your problem is to disband your light infantry retinue and replace it with another, preferably your cultural as they tend to be better than generic, if not then use cavalry.
Expensive and annoying, but light infantry, as said before, is garbage and only good for sieging and fooling the AI into not picking a fight with you even though it should.

I'm Ethiopian so my cultural retinue is light infantry . I was only using them because I find that early in a game they provide a big cheap boost to your troop count preventing the AI from coming after you.

 

[infernalbargain]

I'm Ethiopian so my cultural retinue is light infantry . I was only using them because I find that early in a game they provide a big cheap boost to your troop count preventing the AI from coming after you.

At which point I'd consider changing your retinue if you're strong enough to field 15k. Light Infantry is strong is skirmish phase, but will get utterly wrecked by generic levies in melee phase. Skirmish phase focused army compositions can be very strong and allow you to slaughter armies with minimal casualties. However, they are fragile. If you don't secure the victory in skirmish, your army will get slaughtered instead with very little middle ground between the two outcomes. That inconsistency and need for detailed management is why I prefer melee centered compositions where the simple stack size comparison is more reliable.

 

[Thorkel the Tall]

This thread have some points/test of different retinues, and it dosn't show light infantry to all that crappy:

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...-in-2-5-2-practical-tests-and-results.941226/

 

[Thrake]

Higher difficulty add a good morale bonus to the AI, could it be that?

 

[Aries666]

Higher difficulty add a good morale bonus to the AI, could it be that?

I am playing ironman but unless that affects difficulty I haven't changed it.

 

[ahhheygao]

Cultural Light Infantry retinues give you really good bang for your bucks early on (and as you've already noted, their inflated quantity can help scare off smaller AIs), and they're cheap enough as permanent coast guards/border patrols against raiders (your retinue has 100% morale, so when raiders attack a province, you can still raise your 0% morale levies of that province/vassal to join the fight and they won't melt away).

That said, they're terrible against any decently composed or heavily melee armies... and most generic levy mixes are heavily melee. Ditch them as soon as you're able.