So, I'm new to using retinues. What is your advice for the types of troops to use in my retinue?
Retinues
- Thread starter Jim41
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Depends which retinues you have available.
If you have anything heavy cavalry take it. If you can get horse archers, take those too.
If you have anything heavy cavalry take it. If you can get horse archers, take those too.
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Retinues with lots of light infantry (light skirmish, or some of the cultural ones) are great for creating huge stacks of standing army for blitz-sieging on day 2 of a war, or for winning fights in skirmish phase (usually with a little bit of light calvalry or archer help). The Longbow Retinue can also be used for winning wars in skirmish but it takes a little finesse.
The cultural Heavy Infantry and Pike retinues are great if they are available. You want to add a little bit of archers to them from some levy to give them shieldwall.
If you just want the most bang for your buck in pitched battles and you don't have access to HI or Pike retinues, just get the standard defensive retinue. It's more cost efficient than the cavalry ones.
The cultural Heavy Infantry and Pike retinues are great if they are available. You want to add a little bit of archers to them from some levy to give them shieldwall.
If you just want the most bang for your buck in pitched battles and you don't have access to HI or Pike retinues, just get the standard defensive retinue. It's more cost efficient than the cavalry ones.
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People who crunch the numbers on these things inevitably say that pikemen are the best - being the Scottish and Italian cultural retinues and the standard defensive retinue.
Horse archers are also very powerful, and heavy cavalry are somewhat difficult to acquire in numbers otherwise and can be quite decisive.
I always do elephants, though, if at all possible, sometimes even game-ily converting to an Indian culture, because...elephants. I especially like to do this as Burgundy, imagining them majestically grazing in the Alps.
Horse archers are also very powerful, and heavy cavalry are somewhat difficult to acquire in numbers otherwise and can be quite decisive.
I always do elephants, though, if at all possible, sometimes even game-ily converting to an Indian culture, because...elephants. I especially like to do this as Burgundy, imagining them majestically grazing in the Alps.
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The thing I'm hearing most is that if you've got cultural retinues, use them exclusively. Mix them with some regular castle levies, put them on one flank with an appropriate commander and you should get the right tactics to win the flank.
Otherwise defense retinues are great bang for your buck.
Otherwise defense retinues are great bang for your buck.
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Shock - Heavy Infantry 200, Archers 50
Defence - Pikemen 250, Archers 50
Cavalry - Heavy Cavalry 50, Light Cavalry 200
Skirmish - Archers 200, Heavy Infantry 50
Light Skirmish - Archer 150, Light Infantry 400
Housecarl - Heavy Infantry 200
Swedish
Generally speaking, you do get more bang for your buck with the defensive retinue, plus the shock value from the archers (can) help with sieges, though not as much as they used to. That said, it can depend on your leader's traits. "Heavy Infantry Leader" also applies to pikemen.
Heavy Cavalry is the most damaging unit right off the bat, but its cost both in maintenance and use of retinue points make it a costly investment.
Shock, Defense, and Housecarl are both good. I think Defense is probably the best overall, because it's fairly cheap in terms of points and gives you a decent number and type of troops, but I don't have the math to back this up.
Heavy Cavalry is the most damaging unit right off the bat, but its cost both in maintenance and use of retinue points make it a costly investment.
Shock, Defense, and Housecarl are both good. I think Defense is probably the best overall, because it's fairly cheap in terms of points and gives you a decent number and type of troops, but I don't have the math to back this up.
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The defensive one give a good amount of troops, have decent stats in all combat faces and give access to good tactics, even if you are not scottish or italian.
In skirmish is very likely that you will get shield walls tactics, that in general benefit everything that is not cavalry and for mele you can trigger some of the pikemen tactics that turn battles in massacres killing thousand of enemies (especially during a charge)
The housecarl are powerfull... but you get only 200 for every retinue and cost around 800 each one. The cavalry retinues are good also, but they cost even more and you get even less troop.
The defensive one, i think is the most balanced of all (600 cost, 250 pikemen and 50 archers).
In skirmish is very likely that you will get shield walls tactics, that in general benefit everything that is not cavalry and for mele you can trigger some of the pikemen tactics that turn battles in massacres killing thousand of enemies (especially during a charge)
The housecarl are powerfull... but you get only 200 for every retinue and cost around 800 each one. The cavalry retinues are good also, but they cost even more and you get even less troop.
The defensive one, i think is the most balanced of all (600 cost, 250 pikemen and 50 archers).
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I would like also to add that the choice of retinue depends on how do you want to use them. If you want a standing army, you need to experiment and/or read some more advanced tips. But if you want the retinue to strengthen your levies, take the most powerful units available, preferably cavalry. If you want to have a small (<3000) army to deal with rebels, go for knight retinues if available or archers/pikemen.
However, I am not that much an expert when it comes to retinues so you can as well disregard what I wrote.
However, I am not that much an expert when it comes to retinues so you can as well disregard what I wrote.
Pure housecarls, but I don't use the retinue without levies to bulk out the army.
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I used to obsess about retinues (and even modded them to be somewhat more viable), and have since given up. I'll just pick whatever cultural retinue I get, and try to keep my demesne troops somewhat similar or complementary. So if I'm French/Norman/German I'll pick Knights, and then always build Stables first, then Barracks, and not build any Archers/Light Infantry. If I'm playing Norse, I'll pick Housecarls and then build Barracks first, then Stables.
This also helps when building cultural buildings in your capital, as the bonus for Heavy Infantry helps both the ones you get from that building, *and* the ones from your Barracks, *and* your retinues.
The days of rampaging around with standing armies is gone, unfortunately... Or rather, by the time you get to that point, you've "won" the game and can raise 50k troops from your demesne/vassal levies anyway.
This also helps when building cultural buildings in your capital, as the bonus for Heavy Infantry helps both the ones you get from that building, *and* the ones from your Barracks, *and* your retinues.
The days of rampaging around with standing armies is gone, unfortunately... Or rather, by the time you get to that point, you've "won" the game and can raise 50k troops from your demesne/vassal levies anyway.
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Heh. The elephant retinues are probably literally the worst (not sure if the sims back me up on this but it's close).
That said, if you have an Indian culture, then building the elephant buildings in your best feudal holdings makes sense as long as you do NOT build ANY Militia Training Grounds or Stables. Then pool the resultant pike/infantry/elephant levies into one flank, and it should do very well.
Should get at least 1 Shock for everyone of your Huscarls. More likely to fire up Shieldwall in Skirmish. Defensive in nature and gets you to Melee which favours your HI.
Without any archers in your retinue mix, you may even fire General Skirmish, which is meh...
Take Shock before Huscarls basically.
Without any archers in your retinue mix, you may even fire General Skirmish, which is meh...
Take Shock before Huscarls basically.
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...-in-2-5-2-practical-tests-and-results.941226/
This should be helpful since not much changed regarding retinues in recent patch as far as I know.
This should be helpful since not much changed regarding retinues in recent patch as far as I know.
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You only need 1% archers for shieldwall and afaik adding more doesn't make it any more likely. Going all housecarl is fine if you're mixing with levies, or add a small amount of shock for archers if you're not.
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I personally recommend to use only retinues or at least in a single flank so you can actually control what tactics might be triggered.
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