At first, when Bannerlord came out, I thought it would be really cool to have three factions share the same troops. However, after several playthroughs as an Empire Merc/Noble, I thought it would be awesome to have some unit diversification between the northern, southern, and western empire factions. They should all share the same base few tiers of troops, but then according to the different factions, the troop should change. This would give the player motivation to pick a specific empire faction to side with based on more things than lords and geography. Below are some suggestions that I have:
I'm not sure how balanced all of this would be, but I think that the different Empire factions are to bland at the moment, at least on the battlefield. It would be interesting to see different kinds of units on the battlefield, while all being from the same culture
- Southern Empire: The Menavilaton (T4) and Elite Menavilaton (T5) (shock infantry) are replaced with Nordic Guard (T4) and Varangian Guard (T5). Both of these troops fill the role of shock troops
- Also Southern Empire: I think that there should be a new troop splitting of the Imperial archer named "light horse archer" or something like that. This reflects the geography, as the southern empire is located between the Aserai and the Khuzaits. (the imperial archer would now upgrade to the "Imperial Veteran Archer" and the "light horse archer.")
- Western Empire: Some sort of elite longbowman, replacing the Palatine Guard. The western Empire should have noticed Battania's success in this area, and adapted this as their own. Maybe the Unit has some Battanian vibes to it.
- Also, going with the Leader-insipired troops, I think it would be interesting to have a non-noble cavalry ("evolving" from the Veteran Infantryman). With light armor, like this. Garios (the leader) is a experienced general, and having light Cav would be recognized as important.
- Northern Empire: Has a troop "evolving" from the Veteran infantryman, a sort of lightly armored and dismounted cataphract. Smaller Kite shields, Axes and swords. Lucon (a former senator) is the Ruler of the Northern Empire, (could be put into lore that he trains elite infantry to be his guard once he hopes to take the Calradic throne).
- Better Crossbows, troop tree would be something like this, less focus on Bowmen.
I'm not sure how balanced all of this would be, but I think that the different Empire factions are to bland at the moment, at least on the battlefield. It would be interesting to see different kinds of units on the battlefield, while all being from the same culture