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Your army is only as good as the soldiers in it, and in Bannerlord, the gap between a great unit and a merely good one is what decides battles.
After the latest updates, the game rewards patience, positioning, and troops that keep fighting even when your plan falls apart. Here are the best troops in Calradia right now, ranked by role, plus how to bolt them together into one terrifying army.
If you only remember two names, make them these.
| ▶ Tip: Recruit and upgrade Fian Champions early whenever you're in Battanian territory, since their archery skill caps out higher than almost any other archer line in the game, making them worth the detour even if you're not planning a Battanian-focused playthrough. |
These two sit at the very top of the pile, and most elite armies are built around one or both of them.
Fian Champions are ranged monsters who can also hold their own in melee, while Khan's Guards are the finest horse archers in the game, raining death while staying just out of reach.
Here's your quick reference for the strongest unit in each role:
| Role | Best Unit | Faction |
| Best archer | Battanian Fian Champion | Battania |
| Best shield infantry | Imperial Legionary | Empire |
| Best heavy cavalry | Imperial Elite Cataphract | Empire |
| Best horse archer | Khuzait Khan's Guard | Khuzait |
| Best crossbow | Vlandian Sharpshooter | Vlandia |
| Best charging cavalry | Vlandian Banner Knight | Vlandia |
The Imperial Legionary is the wall your army stands behind.
Those Fortified Kite Shields cover so much surface area, and the heavy helmet and lamellar armor make even a clean hit a gamble for the enemy, that a Legionary line simply refuses to break.
Pair that with the Imperial Elite Cataphract, still the closest thing Bannerlord has to a default answer for any battlefield problem, and you've got an unbreakable front with a hammer to swing.
Cavalry charges connect more reliably now too, which only makes the Cataphract nastier.
Put it all together and the winning recipe looks like this: a solid core of Imperial Legionaries (or another strong shield infantry) to hold the line, with Battanian Fian Champions behind them for devastating ranged damage.
For open-field dominance, add a wing of Khuzait Khan's Guards as mobile horse archers, alongside Elite Cataphracts or Vlandian Banner Knights to shatter what's left.
Build for resilience first, damage second, and you'll field an army that survives the bad fights and wins the good ones.
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