I’ve been toying around with fighting thralls for a bit and am horribly disappointed. It is a struggle to get them to engage in battle. They don’t know how to draw their weapons, they sometimes actually back away form a fight, to watch me solo it and worst of all is the after battle fighting exercise routine. I kid you not, Janos spent 15 minutes fighting an unseen enemy, slowly advancing in one direction. I would mine out rocks or chop down trees when she would get blocked by them. Once, a sleeping wolf was in her path, so she killed it and kept going. the final stopping point for her was a lake. She just kept lunging at the water. The only way to get her to stop was to tell her to follow me. If I tried to reposition her in guard, she just kept going from wherever I placed her.
I also tried some testing with throwing axes and only twice cold I get her to throw one. Sadly I’ve been investing a lot of time getting my army equipped. I think for now, I’ll just resort to pets. They always have weapons equipped and seem to know what to do with them. They too will fail to notice when they are needed, but I think not having to make weapon choices makes their AI less confused. I can almost always count on a pet to pitch in when I go hunting with them.
If someone is proficient at making thralls fight dependably AND especially with throwing axes or bows, I’d love to hear your thoughts.