As it stands, with the change to make bandits surrender more often, it is ridiculously easy to get Noble troops with Disciplinarian perk, why would anyone pick +5 Security when waiting over that? Earlier today, I caught up to 2 big groups of forest bandits and instantly gained 58 Fian-line troops... by doing pretty much nothing, and the upgrades itself also costs pennies for the best archers in game.
Recruiting surrendered bandits already gives the players a quick way to increase their fighting force, turning bandits into Noble troops just tilts the balance waayyyyy too much toward the player with the Lords' armies as weak as it is, and the Noble troops may end up way more common than the "commoner" troops. With that in mind, merely upgrading bandits into higher-tier commoner troops, like Vlandian Vanguard and Khuzait Heavy Horse Archer, is already more than strong enough.
But wait, Battania currently doesn't have a common archer line for the Forest bandits to upgrade to, even though their specialty is supposed to include longbow. I know they have Fian, but that doesn't stop other factions from having overlap, with the commoner troops as the weaker version of their specialty. Instead at Tier 5, Battania has 2 types of shield infantry, and 2 types of cavalry, which feels redundant, especially the cavalry. Is there any Battania village that produces horses? Why do they have so many types of mounted troops?
The 2 lines of infantry, I think the Clan Warrior line is supposed to represent more organized and armored Regulars serving the Nobility; while Wood Runner - Wildling is supposed to be lighter Irregulars that live in the woods, the wilder type of Battanian. However, the Wood Runner gets shield at Tier 2, and to me at least, end up being more suitable to serve as line infantry in a shieldwall, while the Clan Warrior just feels like a liability. Also, the Tier 5 Trained Spearman is very weirdly named. You go from Trained Warrior to Picked Warrior back to Trained Spearman???? Picked Warrior sounds more exclusive and elite, like hand-picked companions of a lord. And what happened to the Oathsworn like in MP? Did a mistake happened and names got swapped?
There is already a Ranger class in MP for Battania and a Ranger Armor, and there are a lot of references to Battanian woodsman in in-game lore, so I propose something like this.
This is just a rough idea that I think fits better with what we know about the Battanian.
Recruiting surrendered bandits already gives the players a quick way to increase their fighting force, turning bandits into Noble troops just tilts the balance waayyyyy too much toward the player with the Lords' armies as weak as it is, and the Noble troops may end up way more common than the "commoner" troops. With that in mind, merely upgrading bandits into higher-tier commoner troops, like Vlandian Vanguard and Khuzait Heavy Horse Archer, is already more than strong enough.
But wait, Battania currently doesn't have a common archer line for the Forest bandits to upgrade to, even though their specialty is supposed to include longbow. I know they have Fian, but that doesn't stop other factions from having overlap, with the commoner troops as the weaker version of their specialty. Instead at Tier 5, Battania has 2 types of shield infantry, and 2 types of cavalry, which feels redundant, especially the cavalry. Is there any Battania village that produces horses? Why do they have so many types of mounted troops?
The 2 lines of infantry, I think the Clan Warrior line is supposed to represent more organized and armored Regulars serving the Nobility; while Wood Runner - Wildling is supposed to be lighter Irregulars that live in the woods, the wilder type of Battanian. However, the Wood Runner gets shield at Tier 2, and to me at least, end up being more suitable to serve as line infantry in a shieldwall, while the Clan Warrior just feels like a liability. Also, the Tier 5 Trained Spearman is very weirdly named. You go from Trained Warrior to Picked Warrior back to Trained Spearman???? Picked Warrior sounds more exclusive and elite, like hand-picked companions of a lord. And what happened to the Oathsworn like in MP? Did a mistake happened and names got swapped?
There is already a Ranger class in MP for Battania and a Ranger Armor, and there are a lot of references to Battanian woodsman in in-game lore, so I propose something like this.
Volunteer | |||||
Clan Warrior: get the shield instead to serve as line infantry. Move the Falxman here, the Falx seems expensive, reserved for richer folks | Wood Runner: no shield. Hunter/survivalist type with bow, javelin and hand axe to act as skirmisher. | ||||
Trained Warrior | Raider | Woodsman with long bow and 2h wood axe | Skirmisher: can stay the same from here | ||
Picked Warrior | Falxman | Seasoned Woodsman | Veteran Skirmisher | Scout: Merge the 2 cavalry lines, light cavalry with javelin | |
Oathsworn (just a rename) | Veteran Falxman | Ranger: compare to the Palantine Guard, these guys would be less tanky and more offense oriented with stronger longbow and okay 2h axe, but still weaker than the Fian. | Wildling | Horsemen |
This is just a rough idea that I think fits better with what we know about the Battanian.