Way of the Foot Soldier:
Since no ones put anything here i, Shadow, will be the first (yay for me!).
Fighting on foot is by no means easy, you lack the speed of cavalry but your able to attack single opponents more easily, not held back to doing horse archery or mere ride by attacks. if your interested in something challenging then keep reading, if you want to keep doing ride by attacks or horse archery go to their area's.
I'll start off with advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages: you can quickly change direction. can easily take advantage of enemies weak points. can participate in "melee pits" or snipe people from afar with a bow/crossbow. Disadvantages: slow move speed compared to horses can be run over more vulnerable to archers
Thats it for A/D, now onto some builds and weapon A/D
There are many different builds for melee fighters, ill list a couple.
Knight: A knight is a person with heavy armor, a good shield, good sword (usually) and an incredibly tough body, their the people who are first to charge in and those who defend the weak.
Knights usually opt for high str and some agility, choosing iron flesh, power strike, shields and athletics (to compensate for heavy armor). Knights are very tough but are also slow, you cant do many evasive moves and so much rely on blocking so there isnt really any strategy or tips to it, just block every attack that comes your way.
Swordsman: A Swordsman is he who lives by the sword and dies by the sword, those who are powerful with many swords and quick on their feet.
Swordsmen usually opt for a balance of str and agi atleast in the end, or opt for higher agi for more move speed choosing athletics, weapon mastery, power strike and sometimes iron flesh. Swordsmen are incredibly fast sword fighters and so must use that speed to their advantage, ill list a few useful things below.
Backstep: No i dont mean back pedaling where you run backwards being chased by hordes of mindless enemies like a mob of rats after a meal (thats you btw), i mean a sudden dodging manuever. To back step first wait beyond the enemies range (so they cant hit you) for them to start an attack, just before they use it (they'll come at you) step backwards to avoid it, after which you can move in to attack, a 2h sword is ideal for this but it can be done with any weapon, even a bow.
Side Step: side stepping is less useful, its best used against spears. same as above but sideways.
U walk: U walk, its like it says, a U :) simple as that, but doing it isnt that easy, its designed to take down multiple enemies by moving in a U shape. start at either end and walk along the U attacking at the closest point and repeating it. the U will mess with the enemies AI making it harder to hit, with high agi you'll step out of the way of EVERY attack before it hits.
Arrow Dodger: pretty simple thing to do, move side to side, if you see archers aiming at you. while moving side ways just before they fire or after, move the other direction , the arrow will be aimed to the direction you were going so more chance to dodge.
Tips: DONT GET SURROUNDED! run long before they can do it. try to pick off enemies. try to start melee pits, thats where heaps of melee enemies come together to rape eachother, circle around the enemy with some of your men (cavalry?) and BUMB RUSH THE FAGGOTS!!
Barbarian: Oooo now THIS is a fun one! Barbarians are the equivolent of the spartans but faster, stronger and mostly naked (faster n stronger, i didnt say more skilled... that depends on YOU).
Barbarians usually opt for very high agility and some str, the reason here may seem odd but its obvious, their HALF NAKED!!! they need to dodge, though they also need a decent str early on (11 at least) for their weapons. Barbarians prefer athletics skill over all others, with weapons mastery 2nd and power strike 3rd.
Barbarians fight similar to Swordsmen but dont have the luxury of any armor or the use of a shield, this means they need to use the above techniques far more often to survive, id recommend the use of a 2h sword or a long 1h with a shield, you'll want as much range as you can to keep away from all those mindless drones swinging at you wildly.
Lancers: As the name suggest, use polearms. i wouldnt recommend it on an unmodded game, its pretty simple use the swordsmen techniques and formations at your starting point, you'll want VERY high power strike and athletics, you want to kill on your first hit because your so godam slow with attacking. and if you dont kill cavalry with the first hit your gonna get run down like a car dodger out on Hume highway during rush hour (AU, NSW a main highway).
Brought to you by Shadow, might update it some time and if anyone wants to add anything go ahead and feel free to add your name down here next to mine, or above/below. I'd also appreciate it if someone cleans up this mess, cant be bothered going through it yet lol.