Combat often feels better paced with middle tier troops, but we're heavily incentivized to stack high tiers as they survive longer and are ultimately cheaper to maintain in the long term than having to recruit and upgrade lower tiers more often. They also allow you to trivially win the majority of engagements with the AI that field more mixed parties, meaning the map is littered with free piles of loot for high tier parties. I only end up utilizing low-mid tier troops as my main force when my medicine level is very high in the later game.
Shock infantry and shield infantry balance seems backwards, because shock infantry damage output is so high even in cramped conditions that they're my bread and butter whereas shield infantry are the cannon fodder I put in front just used to sponge up arrows.
Damage from speed hurts cavalry more than it helps them. Cavalry overall performs better in shield well in most situations, used defensively. This favors the most heavily armored cav, and that's the Cataphract and to a lesser extent maybe Druzhinnik.
Javelin cav are extremely inaccurate with low ammo counts, and unless micromanaged as effectively nerfed horse archers you have to toggle hold fire off and on with constantly, they often basically waste their time hurling javs at targets in vain while getting picked off. I think they are overall the worst performing troop type currently, despite javelin damage being very high it's just hard to utilize practically. Many of them would be better off with two instead of one stack of javelins, instead of having both a spear and a sidearm - and often cavalry sidearms in general are too short to be effective while mounted. Combine that with their lower durability relative to heavy cav, and they're just in a bad spot.
Foot archers that aren't forest bandits or fians have extremely poor performance compared to horse archers. They are substantially less mobile and more vulnerable, but horse archers use bows that deal about the same damage(or higher in the sad case of Sturgia). Foot archers are also comically bad at hitting mobile targets such that they get destroyed by horse archers despite the accuracy malus, and horse archers' elevated position also allows them to shoot over foot troops so even stationary they are superior.
Troops with complex loadouts often end up worse than basic loadout units unless heavily micromanaged, and even then... probably not worth the trouble. Spear and throwing weapon units are especially prone to using the wrong tool for the job. Infantry with spears and/or throwing weapons would perform better if they did not use spears or throwing weapons at all when the charge command is used. Using throwing weapons typically breaks up formations and gives local superiority to the enemy infantry, as throwing infantry hang back and hurl projectiles unless set to hold fire. Infantry that attempt to use spears against enemy infantry, well, it doesn't work, spears are absolute garbage except against cav and even then that's only for stopping charging cav, against already stopped cav swinging weapons are superior. The AI will often, reasonably, prepare and use spears when cav is around, but the problem is that the mere presence of a few cav can cause a mass of infantry to use spears when they should use swinging weapons.
Just in general, the root of this loadout issue is that troops often behave in reaction to a small force of one type of unit to the detriment of their effectiveness against a more numerous type of unit. Another example is how infantry lines will turn their shields towards a few horse archers, exposing their backs to many times as many archers actively firing on them. Sometimes the player can mitigate this problem with commands(hold fire, face X direction), other times there isn't much they can do.
Beating the dead horse at the end here... Fians and Khan's Guards are still extremely overpowered in the player's control, because they are both stronger in melee than most if not all infantry or cavalry units, while also being the best foot and horse archer respectively. They have no weaknesses. However, Khuzait and Battania are both in pretty rough spots without these units, as Battania lacks competent cav and Khuzait lacks shock infantry. Overall, I'm not against some factions lacking certain unit types as it could make their overall combat style and composition more interesting, but the way things are the nobles that serve to mitigate that weakness are so strong there is almost no point to using their other units at all. Battania is best with 90% fians and 10% cav fodder to distract/intercept other cav, and Khuzait you may as well just use 100% Khan's Guards.
Shock infantry and shield infantry balance seems backwards, because shock infantry damage output is so high even in cramped conditions that they're my bread and butter whereas shield infantry are the cannon fodder I put in front just used to sponge up arrows.
Damage from speed hurts cavalry more than it helps them. Cavalry overall performs better in shield well in most situations, used defensively. This favors the most heavily armored cav, and that's the Cataphract and to a lesser extent maybe Druzhinnik.
Javelin cav are extremely inaccurate with low ammo counts, and unless micromanaged as effectively nerfed horse archers you have to toggle hold fire off and on with constantly, they often basically waste their time hurling javs at targets in vain while getting picked off. I think they are overall the worst performing troop type currently, despite javelin damage being very high it's just hard to utilize practically. Many of them would be better off with two instead of one stack of javelins, instead of having both a spear and a sidearm - and often cavalry sidearms in general are too short to be effective while mounted. Combine that with their lower durability relative to heavy cav, and they're just in a bad spot.
Foot archers that aren't forest bandits or fians have extremely poor performance compared to horse archers. They are substantially less mobile and more vulnerable, but horse archers use bows that deal about the same damage(or higher in the sad case of Sturgia). Foot archers are also comically bad at hitting mobile targets such that they get destroyed by horse archers despite the accuracy malus, and horse archers' elevated position also allows them to shoot over foot troops so even stationary they are superior.
Troops with complex loadouts often end up worse than basic loadout units unless heavily micromanaged, and even then... probably not worth the trouble. Spear and throwing weapon units are especially prone to using the wrong tool for the job. Infantry with spears and/or throwing weapons would perform better if they did not use spears or throwing weapons at all when the charge command is used. Using throwing weapons typically breaks up formations and gives local superiority to the enemy infantry, as throwing infantry hang back and hurl projectiles unless set to hold fire. Infantry that attempt to use spears against enemy infantry, well, it doesn't work, spears are absolute garbage except against cav and even then that's only for stopping charging cav, against already stopped cav swinging weapons are superior. The AI will often, reasonably, prepare and use spears when cav is around, but the problem is that the mere presence of a few cav can cause a mass of infantry to use spears when they should use swinging weapons.
Just in general, the root of this loadout issue is that troops often behave in reaction to a small force of one type of unit to the detriment of their effectiveness against a more numerous type of unit. Another example is how infantry lines will turn their shields towards a few horse archers, exposing their backs to many times as many archers actively firing on them. Sometimes the player can mitigate this problem with commands(hold fire, face X direction), other times there isn't much they can do.
Beating the dead horse at the end here... Fians and Khan's Guards are still extremely overpowered in the player's control, because they are both stronger in melee than most if not all infantry or cavalry units, while also being the best foot and horse archer respectively. They have no weaknesses. However, Khuzait and Battania are both in pretty rough spots without these units, as Battania lacks competent cav and Khuzait lacks shock infantry. Overall, I'm not against some factions lacking certain unit types as it could make their overall combat style and composition more interesting, but the way things are the nobles that serve to mitigate that weakness are so strong there is almost no point to using their other units at all. Battania is best with 90% fians and 10% cav fodder to distract/intercept other cav, and Khuzait you may as well just use 100% Khan's Guards.
