Comments - DonMosca

You must recruit them talking to Ingvar in the Mercenary Guild. When you enter in the Mercenary Guild, enter in the castle and go upstairs until the last room. In that room you will see Ingvar and you should be able to buy the avalaible hired recruits.

Ah, have you started with fog of war? Drahara is the faction in the desert zone, the Hakkon faction is in the zone where the desert stop. Hakkon has at his end a big forest and one circle of mountains (there is another faction inside of the mountains). Hakkon and Drahara shares frontier, so if you do not find Hakkon after passing Drahara you have gone in the wrong direction. This Mercenary Guild is in the lake near this frontier, the lake also is near of the Tolrania faction. If you see the town Galwe of Tolrania, or the enemy outpost of the Third Legion, or the Abandoned Stronghold, you are near of the lake.

Yes, the early of Perisno is hard if you do not know what to expect. As a giant it is maybe even harder for the lack of intelligence and charisma at the start. I advise to increase pathfinding and spotting, you will need both. Zaira is a cheap companion with both skills (450 denars).

Also, good troops at the start are the hired recruits, found in the Mercenary Guild that is between Drahara and Hakkon, near of the lake. They cost 100 denars each and you can choose his gear and race (any race except Male Giants for now, sadly). You must talk with one NPC at the top of the castle. Even at tier 1 they are very cost effective if you choose good gear for them (you choose it talking with the hired recruits in the party menu).

If some enemy party follows you, probably they can defeat you. Checks his party strenght right-clicking over them and compare it to yours; it is a good way to know how tough they are. With time it will be less relevant because you will know the strenghts and weakness of the troops.

The new horse archer AI is not super op and you do not need to employ horse archers yourself to beat them.

I am a vassal of the Bakhal Giants in my actual game, playing with the faction giants with no shields in the second row, protected for mercenaries and custom troops with shield in the first row. In the open field, fights with horse archers are hard for my composition as it must be, but with correct positioning (rivers, hills...) i have won a lot vs Drahara nobles.

In other game, playing with Hakkon troops using infantry with shields and crossbowmen (1/3 of the army infantry, 2/3 crossbowmen) i crushed horse archers with no problem at all.

Also, as Ketesh says, heavy cavalry works too. There is a reasonable troop variety to face horse archers.

Truly a great mod. I adore the lore and the created places, the personality of the factions, the variety and the personalization that this mod offers in troops, gear and mounts. Thanks you for all your persistent and selfless work.