Why Combat Companions Matter in Bannerlord
If Bannerlord had a friendship bracelet system, half your bracelets would go to the companions who keep you alive. The game likes to pretend you are a one person cavalry blender but even the sharpest glaive eventually needs backup. Good companions change everything. They stabilise early game chaos, hold your fragile line together and let you charge into battles like you have plot armour.
I always think of them as the glorified group project partners who actually do their part. They bring the stats, the steel and sometimes the surprising clutch moments that make you whisper please never leave me out loud.
How Combat Roles Shape Your Companion Picks
You can turn companions into almost anything. The trick is knowing what their stats point them toward.
Some thrive in heavy cavalry. Others want to sit in the back line and funnel arrows into anyone daft enough to approach. A few are built like siege engines disguised as people. You start spotting patterns fast, and once you do, the warband starts feeling less like a random collection of oddballs and more like a team.
The Best Combat Companions in Bannerlord
The Swift (Battanian Rangers and other high athletics archers)
These are the sprinters of Calradia. High Athletics and high Bow make them ideal for skirmishing and flanking. I love dropping one of these into a bandit fight and watching them casually jog circles around enemies who look like they skipped leg day for twenty years.
Why they shine:
They stay alive. They reposition fast. They feel like cheat codes in forests.
Best roles: Mounted archer, foot archer, mobile scout in early game stacks.
The Swordsister (Vlandian sword and shield specialists)
Whenever you find a companion who spawns with strong One Handed and Shield skills, hang onto them like they are rare loot. These fighters thrive in shield walls, and they make brutal infantry captains because they refuse to fall over.
Why they shine:
Reliable, durable and perfect for anyone who wants an infantry line that actually holds.
Best roles: Infantry captain, bodyguard, frontline anchor.
The Horse Thief (High Riding and Polearm companions)
Some companions come with Riding so high it feels rude. Pair that with decent Polearm and suddenly you have a natural lancer. Give them a decent horse and they become the kind of cavalry unit that deletes bandits before you have even drawn your weapon.
Why they shine:
Great mobility, powerful charges, strong captain potential for cavalry units.
Best roles: Shock cavalry leader, mounted scout, early game cavalry duelist.
The Crusher (Two Handed bruisers from Sturgia and Vlandia)
These companions exist for one purpose. Violence. They tend to have Two Handed and Athletics stats that let them run into fights and hit people so hard it becomes a personality trait. Not elegant, but deeply satisfying.
Why they shine:
They break lines. They terrorise bandits. They do not care about armour because they simply remove problems.
Best roles: Shock infantry, breach specialist in sieges, companion you unleash when everything looks grim.
The Silent Arrow (Khuzait or Imperial bow specialists)
Even among archers you sometimes get a standout. High Bow, high Control and a passive temperament that screams I only speak in headshots. These companions are perfect for mid to late game formations where accuracy matters more than volume.
Why they shine:
Consistent damage from range and high survival rates when placed correctly.
Best roles: Elite archer captain, defensive garrison leader, rear line support.
Building Your Companion for Battle
Gear That Actually Matters
Do not overthink it. Give them gear that plays to their strengths. Heavy armour keeps melee fighters alive. Fast bows keep skirmishers dangerous. Horses with armour keep your cavalry companions from falling over whenever a looter breathes on them.
Try not to hand them the worst items from your inventory unless you want them to develop resentment. They will not tell you but you will feel it when they die in one hit.
Perks Worth Locking In
Archers benefit from Bow Control perks. Infantry thrive on strong Athletics and weapon perks. Cavalry want Riding boosts and polearm damage bonuses. The nice part is that once you give them a direction, they snowball into monsters on the battlefield.
The Seven Swords Takeaway
Companions make Bannerlord feel less like a solo grind and more like a travelling circus of very capable, mildly chaotic murder specialists. A well built group changes everything from early game survival to late game dominance. Once you start shaping them into proper combat roles, the whole campaign starts feeling smoother, faster and weirdly sentimental. You will lose one eventually and it will hurt far more than you expect.
