Highwaymen and others who live outside of the law, brigands are a common foe for a budding mercenary company. Mostly encountered near settlements of the northern noble houses and will often be your opponent during civilian contracts.
Hand-to-Hand Attack does 5-10 with 50% and 10% (has -10)
Strengths
Usually fight in larger groups together with brigand marksmen
Tactics
Easy to kill with a flail without a helmet
The ones armed with two-handers are usually the highest threat out of the whole group and are susceptible to ranged attacks
If they do not charge instantly, kill their brigand marksman with your ranged brothers and as a result force them to charge, then weaken them with your ranged brothers and form a shield wall
If they do not charge even after their brigand marksman are killed, try to move a brother on one of their wings, they will loosen their formation and you can charge in
Can be easily provoked into moving to attack your brothers, limiting them to one strike and leaving your brothers fresh to attack twice, placing a brother with two spaces between them and a brigand is effective
Hand-to-Hand Attack does 5-10 with 50% and 10% (has -10)
Strengths
Gains +5 , +5 after day 40
Usually fight in larger groups together with brigand marksmen
Tactics
Easy to kill with a flail without a helmet
The ones armed with two-handers are usually the highest threat out of the whole group and are susceptible to ranged attacks
If they do not charge instantly, kill their brigand marksman with your ranged brothers and as a result force them to charge, then weaken them with your ranged brothers and form a shield wall
If they do not charge even after their brigand marksman are killed, try to move a brother on one of their wings, they will loosen their formation and you can charge in
Can be easily provoked into moving to attack your brothers, limiting them to one strike and leaving your brothers fresh to attack twice, placing a brother with two spaces between them and a brigand is effective
Brigand Leaders wear relatively high-tier armor and helmets and are often ones of the last enemies on the battlefield: surround and puncture them with daggers to have higher chances of looting their armor
If the leader charges at you, focus fire with ranged weapons: crossbow mastery headshots deal high amount of HP damage and cause morale drops
If isolated, eliminate other brigands first and take care of the leader last
While dealing with other brigands, use mace's stun to incapacitate leader or at least disarm him with whip to prevent high armor damage
Good target for nets
Nomads[]
Nomads are free people of the south who chose to live outside of the control of any city state.They travel the barren desert from one source of water to the next, hunting and scavenging, and living the freedom that they chose. Faced with surviving in this harsh environment, many nomads turn to banditry. It’s not all of them, of course, but as a mercenary in this world it’s who you’ll be dealing with most of the time. Nomads have a roster of their own, roughly similar to that of northern brigands, but with their own equipment and a unique skill. Home in the desert and experienced in desert warfare, they use the environment to their advantage. Quite literally, in that they may throw sand in the faces of their opponents, inflicting the ‘Distracted’ status effect. A distracted target will inflict less damage and have less initiative for a single turn. Nomads populate the vast southern deserts surrounding the city states of the Gilders.
Kill them quickly to trigger morale checks on other nomads.
Worse gear but slightly better stats than brigand thugs
Adargas can be broken in a single turn of shield destroying by nearly all weapons, very useful if you can strike down a shieldwalling nomad after he has already acted
Outlaws armed with whips will constantly attempt to disarm your more threatening damage dealers.
Can use wait to chain up turns at no initiative penalty through Relentless.
Uses Throw Dirt copiously, greatly hampering the damage of your front line
Tactics
Their armor is weak but their ability to avoid getting hit is exceptional for an enemy fought in high numbers, especially after day 40 and if they come with a shield
Bring weapons that have bonuses to accuracy, a Warbrand might serve you better than a Longsword against them
A good brother with a Handgonne can be devestating against nomads for the same reason. A couple of Swordlances to be used from the back line are also highly recommended.
If your brothers have quick hands, you can pull their weapon out back again after the disarm and still have 6 AP left for an attack.
Be mindful how you position yourself due to Backstabber
Will at times wait for a bit before joining the outlaws on the front line depending on their gear.
Judge their threat level based on what they are wielding.
Keep lightly armored brothers well away from them if they are armed with a Two-Handed Scimitar
Nomad specialists are southern equivalent of the hedge knight, swordmaster and master archer. They are found in the larger camps of their people and sometimes in the Arena.
Almost identical to a Master Archer, but can be encountered in considerable numbers inside of nomad camps.
Fighting at night greatly reduces their effectiveness, but due to their sheer skill and possibly hefty numbers some shots will still land.
Dogs can save you their loot if the stalker decides to run away after the front line is dead.
Barbarians[]
In combat, a barbarian warband doesn’t bother with formations, and they have no backline with polearms or dedicated archers. They are a horde of ferocious warriors in a constant shuffle of everyone trying to bring their weapons to bear against the enemy. They’ll shower you with throwing weapons, they run towards your line, and they make ample use of the ‘Adrenaline’ perk to overwhelm you before you can even strike back. They don’t fear death the same as other humans do, so they are not easy to break. They populate the far northen part of the map.
Hand-to-Hand Attack does 5-10 with 50% and 10% (has -10)
Strengths
Mindless (no resolve checks)
Tactics
Choose your highest damage and best armored high level brother against him
Resilient makes using bleeding and poison against him inefficient, bring weapons that destroy armor. Two handed hammers and two handed maces are optimal.
Releasing an armored Wardog or Warhound will distract him for a turn or two, giving you valuable time to break his armor
Keeps the armored unholds in check, and is capable of doing it from a decent distance
Tactics
Crack the Whip cant be used when engaged in melee
City State Forces[]
Gilders are the denizens of the southern city states. Like the Northen Noble houses, their combat style is somewhat reminiscent of the legions of the Ancient Empire. Gilder forces can be encountered through contracts during the Holy War, or by angering one of the city states and engaging them straight on the world map.
Hand-to-Hand Attack does 5-10 with 50% and 10% (has -10)
Strengths
Massed Nimble makes them more durable than the statline would let one believe
Backstabber with fast adaptation and mostly spawning with weapons that have bonuses to hitchance means they'll land hits often.
Often come supported by other types of Gilder troops, and if they are fielded in large enough numbers a certain percentage of them will be polearm conscripts.
Tactics
Frontline conscripts act as meat shields for the rest of their army.
They may have nimble, but their hitpoints still very low. Bring weapons that do well against flesh to make short work of them.
Double gripped three headed flails can kill them very quickly if they come with bad headgear
Adarga shields are very fragile and the conscripts lack shield expert, making them very easy to destroy with the appropriate skills.
Hand-to-Hand Attack does 5-10 with 50% and 10% (has -10)
Strengths
Will always have sufficient numbers of frontline conscripts to keep the enemy occupied while they wreak havoc.
Nimble means they are harder to bring down than Billmen in most situations.
Tactics
Whilst frontline conscripts cannot do much damage, the massed AoE swordlances of the backline can cause things to get out of hand very quickly, especially if combined with gunners
Hand-to-Hand Attack does 5-10 with 50% and 10% (has -10)
Strengths
Always come supported by Conscripts.
Overwhelm and Fearsome work very well with Handgonnes. The former will debuff a large amount of targets each round whilst the latter can be triggered on an entire enemy group at once, causing further debuffs and possibly a full on rout.
Gunners don't pay much heed to friendly fire, beware of that if you are fighting with them.
Tactics
Snipe with ranged brothers or otherwise target them with abilities that can reach behind the front line, lacking nimble makes them more fragile than the Conscripts that surround them. This is made easier due to the low range of their weapons.
Bring kites for the brothers using shields.
Be mindful of your positioning and of theirs.
Use Rally the Troops to counteract Fearsome.
Fighting at night in case you have no archers, crossbows or guns of your own is also an option, as is using a Night Owl elixir to negate their firepower whilst maintaining yours.
Fire Mortar marks an area of 7 tiles for impact and 1 turn later does 20-40 with 70% and 20% in that area, anyone hit becomes Shellshocked, never misses, causes a morale check and can fire every 2 turns if reloaded by an Engineer (has a range of 3-999 tiles)
Strengths
Cannot be attacked or damaged
Mindless (no resolve checks)
Has no fatigue at all
Immune knockback, grab, stun, root, poison, bleeding and injuries
Hand-to-Hand Attack does 5-10 with 50% and 10% (has -10)
Strengths
He can throw any combination of up to 2 Flash Pots and/or Fire Pots each combat
Tactics
Will wait until the lines are closed before making their move, most likely going around the flanks
Can use Footwork to ignore zone of control
High initiative, Relentless and light armor means they can stack lots of Overwhelm and has higher mdef than the statline would indicate due to Dodge.
Nets are essential
Lacks resilient, so you may be able to get great value out of poison
Since they don't have Steel Brow, a three headed flail could be devestating if they come with the head wrap and not the face mask
If you don't care about their armor, cleavers are probably the best choice here
However, due to how fatigue efficent both the robes and face mask are for nimble brothers, you probably do. This makes battling assassins much harder since they will have to be kept occupied by tanks through the entire fight.
Will use Adrenaline if he's up against a target who is faster in the turn order, so don't bother trying to stack overwhelm on him unless he's already tired out
Noble House Forces[]
Professional soldiers working on the payroll of one of the three Northern noble houses. Their patrols are a common sight and they protect supply caravans and the more well fortified towns and castles. Can be encountered through the Noble War, Holy War or by just being hostile to one of the houses through one of several ways.
Hand-to-Hand Attack does 5-10 with 50% and 10% (has -10)
Strengths
Stays in formation and deals high damage from the back row.
Polehammers and billhooks are capable of destroying most mid tier armor in a single attack, rendering their targets vulnerable to attacks from the rest of the formation or killing them outright
Backstabber means they will have an considerably easier time hitting enemies surrounded by a footmen shield wall.
Readily uses repel to protect their vulnerable units and hook to draw enemies into being surrounded, if they have the appropriate weapon.
Tactics
Since they have no shields and have mediocre armor at best, they are very vulnerable to all attacks that can reach them
Focus on those with billhooks and polehammers over those with pikes.
Attempt to shoot them with your archers and crossbowmen if the enemy group has no arbelasters of their own that will demand your attention.
Attempt to disrupt or break through the footmen in front of them, after the billmen fall the encounter becomes far less dangerous.
Attempt to flank them after the engagement has started so there are no footmen to guard them there.
The Split skill of two handed swords and Bardiches can be used to great effect.
Hand-to-Hand Attack does 5-10 with 50% and 10% (has -10)
Strengths
Really powerful and dangerous, if they hit they can 2 shot a brother if you encounter them during the War of the Noble Houses and it's your first crisis
Tactics
Tend to mainly stay at the wings of the formation
Archers with bow mastery can try to shoot them without having to move
Focus on the ones armed with heavy crossbows since they are both the most accurate and are capable of doing the most damage to you
They are highly dangerous, and confrontation should be avoided, unless your company is up for a challenging fight with great loot. Also notice, that you will have a negative opinion penalty with a town or house, which hired a mercenary company if you decide to attack one, except when they attack you during a Deliver Item contract. Anyway if you attack one mercenary company, other mercenary companies will not pay attention on it - you will not have negative opinion with them.
Various mercenary companies can be found roaming around on the Global map and are also actively looking for and accepting Contracts from settlements. You are not the only mercenaries out there!