Every time bro

[LDominating]

Vlandia is a stupid faction that should be deleted and replaced with anything/
Completely remove CAVALRY bonus AND BE DONE WITH THIS ISSUE since the beginning of the game,ITS BAD ITS AWFUL!
OR MOVE EVERY CAVALRY bonus to start at T3!
Imperial and Sturgians get T3/4 and T5 cavalry dudes,not cool!
That or make Menavliatons,Spearmen(heavy and normal)aand all noble troops ignore the 20% bonus.

Either that or PLEASE nerf the Vlandians and Khuzaits!
Lower prosperity of towns by like 2000,reduce starting parties,reduce clan level of T4 to T3 and T3 to T2,reduce hearths in the villages!

These changes should have been in the first week!
And remove the shields from Vlandian Crossbowmen AAAAND freaking nerf the cut dmg of Glaives,I'm tired of how stupid these 2 are!

 

[Irfan Ross]

agreed

 

[Rush09]

Vladia is quite strong yeah, it becomes a regular occurence in each campaign where Vladia just takes the world. Strong overall roster, good geographic spot and good economy.
The Khuzait though have seen better days, haven't seen a campaign where they dominate in quite a few campaigns.

 

[LDominating]

Vladia is quite strong yeah, it becomes a regular occurence in each campaign where Vladia just takes the world. Strong overall roster, good geographic spot and good economy.
The Khuzait though have seen better days, haven't seen a campaign where they dominate in quite a few campaigns.

I know about Vlandia.

Khuzait,yea they've been only dominating Sturgia in my playthroughs and sometimes NE and might get either clapped be Aserai or SE or take a few fiefs before they get smashed!

But Battania and Sturgia can't do anything against Vlandia...
You destroy 1 army,here comes another!
And it's bad because with the armour shoulderpad nerfs,Vlandian troops became actually useful.
A Cataphract has 64BA,a Knight has 54BA.
A Khan's guard has 52..
A druzhinik has 57..
It sucks fighting Khan's Guards and Knights,with Knights you can probably spam Menavliatons or Oathsworns/Heavy Spearmen to deal with them but with Khan's Guards?
RIP!
On both campaign and simulated battle,it's annoying to fight these 2 factions.

It's bad that Sturgia is...so goddamn frustrating to play,snow AND forests with Lords that don't have Scouting at 75 for Forest Kin perk to help mitigate it.
It also sucks they lack clans and lords to launch a counterattack.
In my playthroughs,Vlandia loses 1 army to Sturgians and then they get like 2-3 castles before Vlandia forms another army,smashes the Sturgians and take up to Varcheg,then they declare war on Battanian only to get declared war by either NE or Khuzait and that's that...
Battania is either holding up to WE and taking a few fiefs here and there,but they can also freaking lose an army and poof 3 cities lost,but the outcome is usually the same,Battania gets deleted by Vlandia sooner or later.

The A.I isn't smart either,which could be made to be smarter with what I assume could be relative ease,instead of a dumbass war between Battania and Sturgia they could declare a 3 way war on Vlandia after it inevitably declares war on W Empire or Aserai...

 

[Rush09]

True, Battania and Sturgia have the short stick in the factions overview. I do put Sturgia at bottom though.

Battania has the best archer in the game but everyone else sucks. Their T5 infantry can't even hold their shields straight for shieldwall but they have good economy and their towns are all close to each other, they are easier to defend. Their problem is Vladia just being too good.

Sturgia is just a mess, their roster besides T6 Cav and maybe T5 Spearman is just bad, their economy is bad and their position is bad. Their towns have very little prosperity to generate money early own and half the towns in Sturgia are terribly positioned. Tyal is too far away from the rest, Varcheg and Omor are too open, very easy for Vladia, Battania and NE to take them. Without these three towns, Sturgia is reduced to only half their original towns and it usually happens very early in each campaign.

Also the AI doesn't know how to handle two wars in both sides at the same time for Sturgia. How many times they create an army near Varcheg only to send them to attack the Tyal area while a Vladian or Battanian army is going around in the area. And yeah, it's a shame diplomacy isn't in the base game (without mods).

 

[Yoshioki Ouchi]

I don't see an issue with some countries being inherently stronger than others. If anything, it creates a more interesting dynamic since you could play for the underdogs and try to help them out (or take them over) or use them as a staging ground for your own ambitions. Alternatively, you could join the winning team and try grow from under their shadow, or alternatively stay loyal and play what's essentially the easy mode of this game.

Besides, there tends to be a chaotic equilibrium over the decades so 5-6 factions usually end up checking each other in the long run. Like, in my own unification playthrough, Vlandia was strong in the west but was unsuccessful expanding beyond Western Calradia/Warband-Land while the Western Empire united all the Empire culture cities and dominated Eastern Calradia; the Southern Empire took over most of the Khuzait lands and basically replaced them; Sturgia alternated from being a dominant force that dug through the Western/Southern Empire and Vlandia to being pushed back into the corner. The Aserai were pretty weak for most of my playthrough since Battania absorbed an independent Senala and I managed to rise to power thanks to them granting (almost) every fief in the region to me that they conquered from the Aserai--despite the region being separated by multiple countries since Battania was, allegedly, weak and halved but fully capable of dominating the Aserai in a long distance campaign lol. Perfect for me since, by the time I went independent, the Battanians couldn't really do anything to punish me since they had Strugia, Vlandia, and the West to deal with...

...which is all to say; it's fine that there's an imbalance between countries. They're balanced well enough for 5-6 to last in some form or another over 30-40 years and the imbalance creates interesting strategic scenarios. It's much better than the 8 countries just being static with hardly any shifts over the decades, that's for sure.

 

[Rush09]

True but why does Sturgia need to be the underdog or Vladia the superpower in each campaign? It just hurts replay value. And balancing the factions more would hardly create a static situation. I mean the three empires factions are equal in unit composition and between them you can get different outcomes in each campaign.

 

[Yoshioki Ouchi]

Geography is the firs thing that comes to mind; Vlandia's in a safe corner while Sturgia has some safety but no real room to expand without being surrounded by hostiles. Even if Vlandia's units were all terrible, their cities all poor, they'd still have a huge advantage simply because they have ideal geography whereas Sturgia, even if they were giga-chads with the best of everything, eventually have to deal with being too spread out and potentially surrounded if they leave their safe space around Varnovopol and Sibir.

I've only played one and a half playthroughs so far, so I can't say my witnessing the Western Empire dominate twice, the Northern Empire stumble and recede twice, and the Southern Empire go from dominant in the corner to skewered by the Aserai is representative of what typically happens or not.

If they're sufficiently balanced, then it becomes very difficult for the A.I. to establish a lasting foothold without sacrificing something else. Basically, if Aserai took Ortyisa and consistently got ganked by Vlandia, the West, and/or Battania, then they'd likely never expand into that region without some very good RNG. Likewise with Danustica in their eastern front. If Vlandia always got targeted by an "unofficial coalition" once they expanded into Battania and Western territory, they'd never really go far in expanding east unless these guys' respective neighbors intervened while they were busy with Vlandia. Basically, what I'm trying to say is, it's very possible to create a static balance if it's "too balanced" so some degree of inequality is inevitable in order to trigger (ideally high varied) domino effects.

I think it'd be a significant improvement towards randomness by itself if noble clans defected more often, and "schemes" (like sabotaging walls, inciting riots, alienating noble clans to diminish their loyalty, arranged timed defections, etc.) were implemented to make things a little less deterministic.

 

[JunKeteer]

It's most definitely a map issue. If there was an 'easy' way to just swap positions of BT to VL lands or whatever variation with the other kingdoms to test; will more than likely see the same for whichever one got the short stick being where Sturgia/Batt currently are.

 

[Yoshioki Ouchi]

Yeah, I think if starting fiefs were shifted a little--like Battania's based in Ostican and Rovalt with its eastern border being Dunglanys and Pen Cannoc, with Sturgia absorbing Seonan and Marunath--then you'd see a very different game play out, although I'd still put my money on Vlandia since the Pravend/Jaculan/Sargot/Charas circuit is extremely desirable.

 

[SPARTAN0DEATH]

Vlandia is a stupid faction that should be deleted and replaced with anything/
Completely remove CAVALRY bonus AND BE DONE WITH THIS ISSUE since the beginning of the game,ITS BAD ITS AWFUL!
OR MOVE EVERY CAVALRY bonus to start at T3!
Imperial and Sturgians get T3/4 and T5 cavalry dudes,not cool!
That or make Menavliatons,Spearmen(heavy and normal)aand all noble troops ignore the 20% bonus.

Either that or PLEASE nerf the Vlandians and Khuzaits!
Lower prosperity of towns by like 2000,reduce starting parties,reduce clan level of T4 to T3 and T3 to T2,reduce hearths in the villages!

These changes should have been in the first week!
And remove the shields from Vlandian Crossbowmen AAAAND freaking nerf the cut dmg of Glaives,I'm tired of how stupid these 2 are!!

Vlandia is a stupid faction that should be deleted and replaced with anything/
Completely remove CAVALRY bonus AND BE DONE WITH THIS ISSUE since the beginning of the game,ITS BAD ITS AWFUL!
OR MOVE EVERY CAVALRY bonus to start at T3!
Imperial and Sturgians get T3/4 and T5 cavalry dudes,not cool!
That or make Menavliatons,Spearmen(heavy and normal)aand all noble troops ignore the 20% bonus.

Either that or PLEASE nerf the Vlandians and Khuzaits!
Lower prosperity of towns by like 2000,reduce starting parties,reduce clan level of T4 to T3 and T3 to T2,reduce hearths in the villages!

These changes should have been in the first week!
And remove the shields from Vlandian Crossbowmen AAAAND freaking nerf the cut dmg of Glaives,I'm tired of how stupid these 2 are!

Skill issue? I will agree with the glaive though those are a bit over the top.

 

[Captain Obvious]

Sounds like a skill issue

 

[LDominating]

Sounds like a skill issue

You're so funny bro.
It's the reason why campaign have become so repetitive and the game without mods is garbage!
Because people like you "Hur durr,SkAlL IsSue" instead of actually writing a post on the forum.

This isn't my 1st time writing such a post and everytime there's 1 funny guy like you that does the same yet the rest share the same experience!

 

[Ananda_The_Destroyer]

Nah give the cav all long glaive like weapons (could be longer 2 handers) and the AI to be able to pull them out at the appropriate range so they can slaughter the garbage outright like knights should! And take away the faction banks so they have to actually live off of fief incomes and loot and then when they don't have any money they don't any parties and they GTFO of the game.

 

[LDominating]

Nah give the cav all long glaive like weapons (could be longer 2 handers) and the AI to be able to pull them out at the appropriate range so they can slaughter the garbage outright like knights should! And take away the faction banks so they have to actually live off of fief incomes and loot and then when they don't have any money they don't any parties and they GTFO of the game.

YEA!
DOWN WITH THE COMUNISM!
FINE STEEL MENAVLIATON FOR CATAPHRACTS!

RHOMPHAIAS FOR B.SCOUTS!

NORTHERN DECORATED AXE FOR DRUZIHINIK!

 

[LordDaem]

You say that, but when the Vlandian's come up against the Aserai, the Aserai absolutely demolist the Vlandians!

In my last game, I was playing as a Vlandian vassal, somehow got voted as leader of the faction (despite only being a tier 3 clan) when Derthert died and suddenly, all hell broke loose when the Aserai declared war and we ended up with a peace settlement of 5000 denars a day!

 

[Irfan Ross]

In my numerous playthroughs Aserai and Battania always dominates.

 

[Lokey7800]

Its like Ouichi dono stated, geography plays a key role but scum saves do as well. I chose the Aserai because I felt as though even though I was a new player I could hold the bottle neck near the west and push the SE back in the east. The Aserai also take forever to assemble when not fighting in the desert but I ended up holding the SE and Valandia them back long enough and captured enough of their generals for them to sue for piece and I would always make a last ditch ploy for one of their castles, take it , sue for peace set the town or castle up with some men give it back to the kingdom then repeat which gives them access to better troops. On my first play through taking Khuzaits castles were nigh impossible but when I tell you every time I made it to Garantor Castle I see two groups of 1200 with small groups of 100-200 Valandians steamrolling right at me....nope not this play through. They could never push past the bottle neck and neither could we, but I personally took half of the Khuzait lands myself and the South just kept getting dogpiled after I took Danustica from them.

But how I used the scum save was If SE declared war and I reloaded it they might declare war on another faction or another faction might declare war on you or instead you might have to vote on a policy. Some saves would make things worse or better and some did no change at all. By the time I was made Sultan we had throughly conquered the west (albeit one castle) and southern empire, most of the Khuzait lands where ours but I literally had no interaction with Sturgia but they were still a solid faction by the time I was 70. But on my current play through I finally figured how to acquire castles in the direction of the map I desire plus the Aserai dont need me on the front lines as they took over most of the south without me and have been able to hold off the Khuzaits. I focused on Valandia and the West so I have castles and towns along the coast up till Jaculan starting from Quyaz. Compared to my first play through Valandia was not as hard to push back as I can face them with similar numbers and win, unlike before I would barely succeed with having double or triple their number (also wasn't using tactics and was preferential to calv only but I digress).

The only thing that I did that was noticeably different was that during our recent campaign of the WE I was attempting to get my second wife pregnant on a second scum save they tried to make me ruler. I had just worked out how to get castles as a Vassal and was unsure if the same methods would work the same a ruler and both his wife and son had been killed so I though "hmmm if I marry my sister to him there is a chance she or her kids will be the next ruler" and I thought it would be kinda cool to potentially have to fight my nephew for the right to rule....sooooo I reloaded and gave Unqid half if not most of my gold once I got the twins, married my sister and since then I have not had to come help them once on this play through. We have been at war with the Khuzaits for like 57 days at this point I'm just stockpiling food and money till my chance to strike out on my own. Mind you I would deff benefit from a diplomacy mod because all these constant seiges from Valandia and raids from Battanians have lowered my prosperity to the point that my town looks horrid, I seriously thought my game was glitching.

 

[Bluko88]

Sorry to contribute to moderate necro here

I don't think I've had a campaign where Vlandia doesn't do well. Almost guaranteed to be one of the last Kingdoms standing OR dominant Kingdoms (unless you deliberately target them). Even with the changes to simulated battles in 1.2 (nerfing cavalry in woods, etc.) they seem to do pretty well. Maybe melee cavalry has a stronger weight in simulated battles than other cavalry? Probably why Battania struggles a lot too.

To be fair Vlandians are sort of supposed to be the "Normans" of Calradia

What's funny is despite doing so well in simulated battles, they are pretty garbage in player battles. They have terrible infantry (Vlandian Pikemen are complete waste), cavalry are pretty subpar, crossbows can hit like a bag of bricks but crossbowmen always run out of ammunition pretty quickly.

Geography is the firs thing that comes to mind; Vlandia's in a safe corner while Sturgia has some safety but no real room to expand without being surrounded by hostiles. Even if Vlandia's units were all terrible, their cities all poor, they'd still have a huge advantage simply because they have ideal geography whereas Sturgia, even if they were giga-chads with the best of everything, eventually have to deal with being too spread out and potentially surrounded if they leave their safe space around Varnovopol and Sibir.

Yes I am convinced geography is the biggest contributing factor. Which funny enough is rather true to reality. Though for Bannerlord it's more the routes to Towns and the amount of forestation present. Sturgia without a doubt is the worst Kingdom geographically, very spread out, and choke points that always get Revyl, Varcheg, or Tyal cut off. I've almost never seen Sturgia do well I think as a result. Think it's sort of the same problem with Battania.

Battania is easy for the player to defend since the Towns are all very close to each other, easy to get reinforcements, but of course for the A.I. it's the opposite. It's very easy for a big army stack to come and effectively take half of Battania. I think the only times I've seen Battania do well is when they spill into the Empire.


Honestly the campaign map could probably use a serious redesign, but I don't think that'll happen now. Warband's map is rather simplistic, but the map of Calradia in Bannerlord is a effectively different continent. I'm not a big fan of the false land bridges that the Aserai/Sturgians have, they make zero sense being in literal seas. It's funny had they stayed truer to Warband probably would have resulted in a more balanced experience, I'd prefer every Kingdom to have a reasonable chance of doing well. But the geography as is heavily favors the Aserai, Vlandians, and Khuzaits.

 

[Yoshioki Ouchi]

Honestly the campaign map could probably use a serious redesign, but I don't think that'll happen now. Warband's map is rather simplistic, but the map of Calradia in Bannerlord is a effectively different continent. I'm not a big fan of the false land bridges that the Aserai/Sturgians have, they make zero sense being in literal seas. It's funny had they stayed truer to Warband probably would have resulted in a more balanced experience, I'd prefer every Kingdom to have a reasonable chance of doing well. But the geography as is heavily favors the Aserai, Vlandians, and Khuzaits.

Bannerlord's Calradia looks like an extended version of Warband's. Like, if you read Charas to be where Shariz was and Lageta upwards to be where the Kherjits and Vaegirs were, then everything eastward is essentially a new continent or subcontinent expanded from the original.

The rock bridges aren't great but I'm guessing they're there because there isn't a functional system for taking boats or using sea lanes so they're probably meant to be stand-ins for boat travel in the absence of such a system. If they were replaced with sea lanes/boats, I think they'd be pretty reasonable "connection points" (I don't really have terminology for this kind of thing lol).

Ultimately, in terms of power balance, I think it's good as it is and my preference for change would be more "start dates" where different factions control different amounts of the map from the start to indicate passage of time/different events. I don't know the history very well but I vaguely know about there being a Neretzes's Folly and him getting beaten up by a coalition of Vlandia/Sturgia/Battania, so a start date where the Empire is one solid faction could be fun. A start date where one of the three Empire factions has been destroyed and its lands taken by neighbors (maybe North destroyed and most of it taken over by Sturgia and Southern Empire?) could be fun. Perhaps a later one where there's just one Empire faction (Western or Southern?) with Vlandia becoming a dominant faction (maybe conquer Battania?) along with the Khuzaits (or a Kherjit offshoot faction?) expanding westward. Beyond that, Vlandia being split into Swadia and Rhodoks would be cool as well. Aserai and Sarranid splitting would also be interesting. Older factions being displaced by younger factions further in the timeline, or existing factions having a significantly different balance of power (favoring Empire and Battania, presumably) in older start dates, would be ways to shake up the general trajectory of playthrough timelnes.