HUH?
Nords weak on the battlefield?
"Whatcha talking 'bout Willis?"
(sorry for those of you who are too young to know that show, and sorry for reminding that terrible show to those of you who are old enough).
I play Nords at the moment - they're real beasts... I just had a nice clash, me with 130~140 nords (roughly 35/50/50 huscarl/vet/warriror) against king graveth (or whatever the rhodok king's name is) with 550 soldiers. after 2 or 3 mini battles (battle size 240) I lost about 30 men - they lost all of theirs...
Strategy tips:
0. Don't train huntsmen/archers/vet archers - EVER. they're worthless. you can throw some of them as garrison on castles if you want to (I like using forest bandits though, cause they're cheap and not bad at all archers).
1. If facing many archers/crossbowmen - try to use the terrain to hide your soldiers - a good place to put them will be just behind the top of a hill - so when the enemy gets to the top - your men need to cover a very short distance to get to them (hand to hand combat against archers is FUN).
2. Against cavalry you'll want them to be on top of a hill and standing close to each other - so when the enemy cavalry charges they'll slow down because of the slope and will be stopped completely after charging/hitting 1-2 soldiers. about 3-4 seconds later their horse will be dead and 1-2 seconds later they'll be dead too...
3. Against infantry/generally good advice: If the enemy's "Row of soldiers" gets to your "Row of soldiers" - neither of you has a good advantage. If the row is broken into several "mini-waves" the soldiers of the broken row are usually quickly surrounded and killed.
4. Nords lack cavalry - make yourself and your NPCs heavy (swadian style) cavalry - after getting your men into place (according to tips 1-2) - use the cavalry (you+NPCs) to break the enemy ranks: The enemy tends to stay in a single row formation - which allows his archers to slaughter your men because all of them have a good line of sight. By hitting their flank with your cavalry and then charging their center from behind you'll cause confusion and panic - their infantry will break formation and start chasing your cavalry, their archers will also target you (and you're harder to hit, cause you're moving fast on a horse). once the enemy is scattered - they're now effectively blocking each other's line of sight and will come in smaller groups to your men (tip #3), this is usually be a good moment to call an infantry charge (usually the distance to your soldiers will be small by now) and fall back with your cavalry behind your infantry.
Hope this helps - I'm getting quite close to winning the game with the Nords and most of my tactics/strategy is based on the above tips.