Thanks everyone!
Good spot, will be fixed within the next couple of updates!
Not sure what you mean. Its definitely not a design decision. I mean they have been one of the best factions in the game (skirmish) for quite a while now. With nearly a 56% winrate in the last couple of thousand games. Thats even better than Battania and as good as Vlandia. Also in BEAST and other tournaments they were over performing regularly.
I know this update was largely skirmish focused, but I'd like to toss in some thoughts here too.
Sturgia revolves entirely around Varyags and Berserkers. I suspect their good winrates in Skirmish is from solid Varyag + Druz play with timely uses of Berserker.
The problem with captain mode is this is not always valid. Some maps are simply too big to force engagements.
If you have played any of the large open maps with Khuz vs. Sturgia in the last update there's really very little you can do. With the higher arrow loads, better bows, and more Khans on the field, you can't force an engagement, you can't outlast the arrow volleys, you're not guaranteed to beat the increased count Khans in melee, and you honestly just can't do much against a competent team. Unless your enemy makes an enormous mistake there is no way to counter "perfect play" by a mobile archery-heavy opponent.
Sturgia's troops are on average slowish, and have a very low troop count (I think the lowest?). Naturally, this means they struggle against Khuzait. You have to press an engagement to win against archer and cav heavy Khuzait, but Sturgia strangely lacks the tools to do that.
The Warrior speed increase and Brigand T. Axes were both very good moves, but these don't solve the Khuzait issue at all. Brigands are now slightly better against unarmored unshielded enemies at short ranges, which Khuzait does not have save some Rabble loadouts which have such a high troop count it doesn't matter much. Brigands are still a criminally underpowered unit, with no high-ammo jav option, and I believe the weakest melee weapons of any skirmisher. If you take throwing spear, it means your troops need to hold fire the entire game to be effective against cavalry, meaning you should have just taken Varyags.
The Warrior has a very slightly higher speed which could help him close with archers, but the shield is so small that he will never make it there. If you try, cavalry will intercept you, and there's no way for him to take Shield and Spear to protect himself. If you do manage to close, Khans will absolutely destroy you, and even Steppe bows stand a chance in hand to hand with you because you most definitely took a few arrows getting there with your adorable toy shield, and the fact that you survived means you took Improved Armor and do not have a great melee weapon.
This leaves you with either using Brigands with T. Spear to defend from cavalry and possibly survive closing with archers, but they only have 1 more troop than Varyags and significantly less armor, so you may as well use Varyag. Varyags will have a hard time closing with Khans just due to speed, and Khans with reinforcements have almost as many troops. You are in no way guaranteed to kill them once you close (player captains will exploit and annoy), and if you have lost a single troop in the arrow barrage on the way there you're starting to look at very possible melee defeat.
So, what are we going to do, use Druz maybe? Well, horse armor was reduced overall, meaning arrows are more dangerous to horses. To top it off, all but 1 Khuzait unit has a polearm. You're not going to be charging into a 14-Man Khan formation when they all have Glaives and are backed up by pikes and spears. Glaive Cavalry has always been just a hard counter to any other cavalry AI vs AI, and Druz has a fairly low troop count.
Raiders are very hard to play against Khuzaits. Small shields, unarmored horses, they struggle to wipe up even completely undefended Steppe Bows. Make a mistake and your unit can be very quickly wiped by glaive cav, spear inf, or khan's guard. Hang around in the wrong place and any of the bow cav will at least unhorse your troops.
Hunters got a very real buff this patch, and that is awesome. The problem is that on any large map a single Glaive cav can still confuse your troops into shooting each other and kill enough solo that they're not a significant battlefield presence any more. Hunters can outrange some of the Khuzait bows, but their armor is low and troop count is low so they can't exchange fire with them for any span of time and expect to survive. I think the playerbase has to catch up with the concept of hunters being more viable now, especially with Poacher, but they're still just so vulnerable and the AI is so easy to exploit. The lack of a Shield+Spear option on Warriors makes it hard to have enough troops to really protect Hunters from Khuzait cavalry effectively.
This is an edge case of course. On smaller melee-focused maps, or against other opponents, Sturgia's only real strategy of Varyags and Berserkers is very dominant. Perfect play almost guarantees success, it really all just comes down to players exploiting at that point.
All in all, I enjoy playing as or against Sturgia the least because there is just very little flexibility. You are forced to play Varyag in most situations, and are occasionally allowed to play Berserker. You will win or lose based on which map you're on and which faction you're up against, assuming both teams are competent. A 56% percent win rate is not surprising, since its a 1/6 chance you'll be up against the one faction that can really screw you over and you're likely to win against the other factions.
I am also slightly worried we're entering another Archer meta but I'll leave that for another time.
There's some solutions for sure, but I think the core of it is that the Warrior and Brigand are just not up to snuff. This makes Sturgia very predictable and easy to counter with Khuzait.