Mount&Blade: Warband/Sarranids

The Sarranids are a new faction introduced in Warband. Their troop tree is very similar to Swadians and Vaegirs, but their equipment is different. Usually Sarranid units are less armored but much faster than their Vaegir and Swadian counterparts.

Tactics
The Sarranids, like the Swadians and Vaegirs, are markedly adaptable with access to all three troop types. Even more so than the Vaegirs, Sarranid infantry make use of a wide variety of weapons, and can be seen wielding swords, maces, spears, picks, jarids, and two-handed axes. Sarranid Guards have the Sarranid Battle Axe, which is rare but slightly better than the Great Axe used by Nord Huscarls. However, their skills are quite poor. Sarranid infantry have a Power Strike of 0 until they reach Guard, even then having a Power Strike of only 3, the lowest of any top-tier infantry. Sarranid infantry also have a lower Shield skill than any other infantry except the Vaegirs and are tied with the Vaegirs for lowest Ironflesh, and their light Sarranid Guard Armor provides the least protection of any top-tier infantry unit's armor, meaning that their survivability is generally poor. Guards do have a chance of spawning with jarids as a throwing weapon, which can give them an edge while closing in. Their weapon proficiencies are good, being on par with to slightly better than the proficiencies of most other infantry besides the Nords. They also have a decent Athletics skill and because of their light equipment will move a little faster than most other infantry. Still, in most situations they are outclassed by other factions, and while playing as part of the Sarranid faction it may be best to ignore their infantry line entirely and recruit from other factions. Although they don't have horses, Sarranid Guards are tagged as mounted units and so will not slow you down on the world map.

The Sarranid Master Archer is the fastest ranged attacker in the game, but is otherwise quite weak. Sarranid ranged attackers can work well in numbers where the volume of projectiles can overwhelm the enemy, and they are slightly more skilled than Nord and Swadian ranged attackers. However, even the Sarranid Master Archer makes use of the low-end Nomad Bow which does less damage than the higher-end weapons of other factions' elite ranged attackers. In addition, their Power Draw skill is slightly lower than other archers. Sarranid archers can do well in large groups, but the ranged attackers of other factions will generally be far more effective.

Their most important line is their cavalry. The sword-wielding Sarranid Mamlukes are potentially the best mounted unit in the game, being the only unit comparable to the powerful Swadian Knight in overall quality. Mamlukes are fast, tough, and make quick work of other unit types. Their main flaw is that they usually use one-handed weapons, which weakens their initial charge compared to the Swadian lancers. They sometimes spawn with a heavy lance, but swords are clearly their primary weapons. However they and their war horses are hard to get rid of and they are deadly when up close with their scimitars, so Mamlukes are probably the most dangerous unit to be scrapping against in a battle.

Troop Tree
(Attributes given are base stats only, actual in-game attributes will be randomly higher by an amount dependent on the troop's level.)