English early XL army

[Peasant Phill]

I'm playing XL mod (way more challenging than vanilla MTW) and I know that there are some new units that I can train (in early the norman knights).

How should I use these new men?
Can I train them as foot knights to or do I need to dismount them before battle?

Are there some changes (in unit stats) in made in XL (in comparison to vanilla MTW/VI) that I should know about?

[Ciaran]

To answer your last question first, yes there are. The most important is that all units have their morale increased by two, which makes for more fierce battles, the units fight much longer before routing. That´s the most prominent one, I think there are a couple other changes, too.

I haven´t yet played with the English, therefore I´m not sure whether Norman Knights can be trained both in the mounted and the dismounted variety, feudal and Chivalric Knights have both versions available. Generally, I´d go with the mounted variety, as far as I know you can dismount pretty much every horse unit in all kinds of battles (i.e. sieges and field battles) in XL.

[Geezer57]

Both mounted Norman Knights (8/5/3/4/9) and Norman Foot Knights (4/5/3/3/8) are trainable in Early with XL mod. I've pretty much given up on Feudal Knights (8/4/3/4/9) in this mod, as Normans are better for very little extra cost, while simplifying my unit inventory.

I'd recommend building both the mounted and foot variety based on your army needs and preferences - keep in mind the foot variety are much cheaper to build and support when you make your build decisions.

[Peasant Phill]

Both mounted Norman Knights (8/5/3/4/9) and Norman Foot Knights (4/5/3/3/8) are trainable in Early with XL mod. I've pretty much given up on Feudal Knights (8/4/3/4/9) in this mod, as Normans are better for very little extra cost, while simplifying my unit inventory.

You mean that I only should use FK if I'm on a tight budget. (That happens actually a lot more than in vanilla MTW)

I'd recommend building both the mounted and foot variety based on your army needs and preferences - keep in mind the foot variety are much cheaper to build and support when you make your build decisions.

So NK replace FK and NFK replace FMAA ( as long as you can afford it)

[Geezer57]

You mean that I only should use FK if I'm on a tight budget. (That happens actually a lot more than in vanilla MTW)

The money differences are very small, especially so for annual support. My thought is that by picking the (slightly) better combat unit exclusively, the simplified unit inventory (being able to readily merge units, etc.) offsets any minute florin savings.

So NK replace FK and NFK replace FMAA ( as long as you can afford it)

Not exactly - I'd choose NFK to replace FFK, but FMAA are an entirely different (less capable, but much less expensive) class altogether. There's no reason I can see why both NFK and FMAA couldn't be used effectively together. NFK and FFK are much more alike, and having a little of both makes less sense. You'd benefit instead by having all of just one (preferably the stronger unit) type, with the ability to merge depleted units together into something stronger. Lots of depleted drib-drabs don't make for an effective fighting force.