Your settlement's militia army is made up of units needed to protect your territory in Manor Lords. See the best unit as well as a list of available recruits including retinues, militia, and mercenaries here!

Best Militia and Unit Types

Overall Rankings

Rating	Unit
S-Tier	Retinue
A-Tier	Militia
B-Tier	Mercenary

The Retinue are seasoned and trained soldiers. In terms of battle prowess, their only downside is they start out small in number but this can be remedied by adding a Garrison Tower to your Manor.

How to Build and Use the Manor House

Best Melee Units

Rating	Unit
S-Tier	Retinue
A-Tier	Militia Footmen Spear Militia Light Mercenary Infantry
B-Tier	Polearm Militia Light Mercenary Spearmen

The Retinue is still the best melee unit. Taking second place is the Militia Footmen, Spear Militia and the Light Mercenary Infantry due to their access to a shield. While stat-wise the mercenaries appear to be better, after going through the process of improving your armor, your militia becomes much more capable than any hired mercenary.

How to Make Weapons

Best Ranged Units

Rating	Unit
S-Tier	Archer Militia Heavy Mercenary Archer
A-Tier	Light Mercenary Archer

The same can be said for the assessment of the ranged units. The Archer Militia is tied with the Heavy Mercenary Archer only because it takes a while to procure the improved armor for the Archer Militia. The mercenaries are placed lower on these lists because of the cost of hiring and keeping them.

Taxes Guide: How to Increase Treasury

List of Recruits for Your Militia Army

There are three types of recruits that you can add in your army. These are Retinues, Militia, and Mercenaries.

When you expand your territory and try to conquer neighboring territories, you'll need to understand the types of recruits available to you.

Types of Recruits
Retinue	Militia	Mercenary

Retinue

The Retinue is made of up professional soldiers you automatically get when you construct your first Manor. These soldiers are fully customizable to suit your house colors. You initially get 5 soldiers and adding more soldiers will cost 50 Treasury per soldier.

The Retinue has an upper limit of 12 soldiers, however you can increase this limit by another 12 soldiers for every Garrison Tower in your manor.

How to Recruit Retinue

Militia

The Militia is formed from your male villagers. Each militia is made up of a maximum of 36 men, but will be dependent on the number of weapons you have available. They are not professional soldiers and thus will require weapons. If you have enough Helmets, each soldier will equip 1 as long as there is one available. Having a Burgage Plot Level 3 also enables them to equip Plate Armor if one is available.

Cannot Recruit Militia If Your Army Has 6 Units

As a note, there's a unit cap for the Militia, and you cannot recruit them if you already have 6 units in your army. Try to fill your army with Militia first so that you can expand your army with Retinue and Mercenaries later down the line.

Required Weapons

Militia	Weapons
Militia Footmen	Sidearms, Small Shields
Spear Militia	Spears, Large Shields
Polearm Militia	Polearms
Archer Militia	Warbows

How to Recruit And Build Your Militia

Mercenaries

Mercenaries are hired recruits which require payment every month with Treasury. They can be used as soon as they are hired and will leave as soon as disbanded. Mercenaries have units, each specializing in either melee or ranged combat.

Mercenary Units

Definition of Terms
ATK: Attack	AA: Anti-Armor	ARM: Armor
SHD: Shield	CHR: Charge	IMP: Impaling

All mercenary units have 10 Discipline and 10 Mobility

Unit	ATK	AA	ARM	SHD	CHG	IMP
Brigand	2	0	5	3	3	0
Light Mercenary Infantry	2	0	6	3	3	0
Light Mercenary Spearmen	1	0	8	8	0	10

Unit	ATK	ARM	SHD
Light Mercenary Archers	4	3	0
Heavy Mercenary Archers	4	8	0

All ranged mercenary units have an attack range of 60m

Mercenaries can be hired from any of the 8 available mercenary companies. Every month you can choose to hire from any 3 randomly chosen mercenary companies. Each company will provide their own units and will require payment in accordance to their supplied units.

Mercenary Company	Units	Cost (Treasury)
Local Thugs	Brigand x1	15
Brigands For Hire	Brigand x2	30
The Wayward Sons	Light Mercenary Archers x1 Heavy Mercenary Archers x1	45
Battle Brothers	Light Mercenary Infantry x1 Light Mercenary Spearmen x1	50
The Brotherhood of the Forest	Brigand x1 Light Mercenary Archers x1	60
Flock of Crazy Geese	Light Mercenary Archers x1 Light Mercenary Infantry x1 Light Mercenary Spearmen x1	90
Greencaps	Light Mercenary Archers x1 Light Mercenary Infantry x2	90
The Ravenous Vultures	Light Mercenary Infantry x3	110

How to Recruit Mercenaries

Recruits Missing Explained

Not Enough Families

The number of men per unit is determined by the size of your population and the amount of weapons you have ready. The more units you try to form, the more your population will be divided to try and form militia units.

How to Fix Recruits Missing

If the number of recruits required to form a militia unit exceeds the number of families you have in your settlement, you will get the “Recruits Missing” notification. To fix this, consider forming fewer units until you have enough families and weapons in your settlement. Alternatively, you could try making more burgage plots to attract more settlers.

How to Get More Families

Equipment Missing Explained

Not Enough Weapons

This simply means that you do not have enough equipment to fully equip a Militia unit. Each unit has a full capacity of 36 men from your village. If you have less than 36 available weapons and/or shields, you will get this notification when you try recruiting Militia units.

How to Fix Equipment Missing

The easiest answer to this is to create more weapons. You will have to mine or trade more raw resources, have the appropriate workshops then turn them into weapons. Alternatively, you can also import the weapons themselves if you have enough Regional Wealth.

Related Weapon Guides
How to Make Sidearms	How to Make Spears
How to Make Polearms	How to Make Warbows
How to Make Small Shields	How to Make Large Shields

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