[PvK]

Good points from Endo.

Blacksteel infantry are more effective than chainmail infantry in general, particularly as of a couple of patches ago, though there are a few circumstances where not so.

However chainmail infantry is probably best to begin with at first because you can recruit them more quickly and numbers matter - if you have too few men in an army against independents, they will get worn down and may break and run, but if you have enough, they will tend to overpower conventional independents easily, and having more men makes more of a difference than having some men have blacksteel plate. Infantry without shields though is somewhat vulnerable to missiles - start them behind infantry with shields. It's valuable to include some of them because of their varied weapons.