What Are The Best Men-At-Arms Units In Crusader Kings 3?

Summary

• Men-At-Arms are essential for professional soldiers in Crusader Kings 3.
• Different MaA units offer unique advantages, like Crossbowmen’s improved stats.
• Units like War Elephants and Kataphraktoi are powerful, albeit expensive.

While there’s no strict goal in Crusader Kings 3 beyond doing whatever you want, chances are you’re going to be taking part in more than a few wars. Bolstering your levies is all fine and dandy, but untrained soldiers will never hold a candle to professionals. That’s where your Men-At-Arms come into play.

Every Army has a quality marking, comprised of levies, Knights, and Men-At-Arms. Levies contribute very little to this, while MaA contribute the most. That said, it can still be daunting to figure out which MaA to recruit to your regiments, and how best to take advantage of them. All of them can prosper with enough work, but these ones will make you incredibly powerful from the get-go.

10

Crossbowmen

Archer Unit

Crossbowmen are a High Medieval era unit, unlocked by researching the Advanced Bowmaking innovation. While they have less favourable terrain and more unfavourable terrain than regular Bowmen, they have significantly improved stats and can counter plenty more enemies.

Crossbowmen also don’t cost much more gold to maintain than Bowmen, letting you replace them for a relatively light price. Make sure to construct the right buildings in your own realm to station them, bolstering their stats even further.

9

Armored Horsemen

Heavy Cavalry Unit

There are two primary types of Cavalry units – light, and heavy. Both serve their purposes, especially when it comes to cultural units, though the regular Heavy Cavalry unit, the Armored Horsemen, tends to edge past the Light Horsemen. They cost significantly more to purchase and maintain, though they’re well worth it.

After researching the Arched Saddle Early Medieval innovation, you can make Armored Horsemen. They hold much the same terrain advantages as the Light Horsemen, as well as the same counters. They’re in most regards just better, and the cost reflects that.

8

Huscarls

Heavy Infantry Unit

In most regards, cultural and regional units are more powerfaul than those that are available to everyone. One of the more widely available units, the Huscarls, are incredibly powerful for how early they can be acquired, and maintain their usefulness throughout most of the game.

Available to anyone with the Coastal Warriors tradition and accessible from the Tribal Era, Huscarls are a Heavy Cavalry unit with a great amount of favourable terrain, and not a single negative one. They have very high attack and defense as well, and can save a great degree of soldiers even when you lose a battle.

7

Hobelars

Light Cavalry Unit

While Armored Horsemen rule the battlefield when it comes to regular units, the Hobelars are a Light Cavalry unit that can really hold their own. Exclusive to realms within the British Isles (not just Celtic cultures), Hobelars can be recruited after researching the ds, Hobbies.

Hobelars are relatively affordable compared to other High Medieval units, and have an incredible Pursuit stat, letting them decimate enemy ranks even after the battle is won. They are intended to be used in rather specific areas though. They’re incredibly powerful in hills and forests, though suffer in most other terrain. Use them tactically.

6

Mubarizun

Heavy Infantry

Heavy Infantry in general can be quite powerful, though the Mubarizun are in a league of their own. They are exclusive to cultures with the Mubarizun tradition, which is most common among Arabic cultures. These Heavy Infantry units are all-rounders, featuring no unfavourable terrain, but none that they excel on either.

They are always a solid option, no matter where the battle takes you. Even better, they can counter other Heavy Infantry units, a rare feat, while also being available from the Tribal era. They are marginally expensive, but they’re well worth the investment.

5

Konni

Light Cavalry Unit

Konni are a fascinating unit because they should never be a MaA unit you rely on as your primary damage-dealer. Instead, it is their incredible Pursuit stat that makes them excel. Pursuit determines how many survivors of a battle you can kill before the army has a chance to escape. Konni easily have the highest Pursuit stat in the game.

They are available with the Konni Raids tradition, available in many Slavic cultures. Having just two Konni regiments to pair with the rest of your Army will significantly cut down on the number of battles you actually need to participate in, and all without being overly expensive.

4

Cataphracts/Kataphraktoi

Heavy Cavalry Unit

Cataphracts (or Kataphraktoi depending on your in-game culture) are a Heavy Cavalry unit that are just obscenely powerful. They are available from the Tribal era, though only to those with the Eastern Roman Legacy tradition, mostly commonly found around the Byzantine Empire. They’re one of the more expensive units to maintain in the game as well, though with good reason.

Excusing Gendarmes and War Elephants, there is nothing more powerful than the Kataphraktoi in terms of pure attack power. They have less unfavourable terrain than Gendarmes as well, while having a slightly improved Pursuit stat. They’re all around incredible, and with the right buildings to boost them can annihilate any opposition.

3

War Elephants

Unique Elephant Unit

In terms of pure attack power, nothing comes close to War Elephants. With a Damage stat of 250 by default, the next most powerful unit are Gendarmes at 125. That’s right, War Elephants have double the attack power. As a result of that, they are also one of the most expensive units in the game to maintain, though that’s hardly surprising.

War Elephants are only available around India and South East Asia after researching the Elephantry innovation, though this is available right from the Tribal era. War Elephants have incredible counter bonuses as well, decimating Light and Heavy infantry with their massive stature. If you’re playing in this region, you’ll want to make sure War Elephants are in your army.

2

Horse Archers

Unique Horse Archer Unit

Horse Archers are of a unique unit type, owing to the fact that, despite appearing as a Cavalry unit, function more like Light Infantry. They are an immensely powerful unit though, countering both Light and Heavy Infantry, and having fairly even stats around the board. They can attack and defend, save units when they’re defeated, and wipe out enemy ranks after you win.

And on top of all that, they’re not obscenely expensive to purchase and maintain either. They require the Horse Lords cultural tradition to recruit, which is more common the more eastwards you travel, especially among Steppe cultures. The Asawira are basically an absurdly powerful version of Horse Archers, though are only available after through the Brilliance Dynasty Legacy path.

1

Varangian Veterans

Heavy Cavalry Unit

Historically, the Varangian Guard were distant soldiers who served in the Byzantine Empire, most typically Norsemen who had no political association with the area. In Crusader Kings 3, Varangian Veterans are basically formers members of the Varangian Guard, and are somewhat specific to acquire.

You need to Coastal Warriors tradition and to have a North Germanic heritage in your culture, at which point you can hire Varangian Veterans. Available from the earliest time period in the game, cheap to recruit, and with great stats for such an early period, Varangian Veterans can easily carry you through the whole game.