How can the Sturgian Archer line be rebalanced?

[Totalgarbage]

Sturgians have the worst ranged troop line ...by far. Now, they don't need to have the best or necessarily good archers, but they should have some competitive alternatives. The Veteran Bowman's only niche is that they are better in melee than other archers, but are still worse than crossbow troops due to not having a shield. They also have (iirc) the worst arrows in their loadouts of any T5 unit. Their bows do very little damage already, and if archers get nerfed like most players want, they will be completely useless without any changes to the troop. Now, their armor would be the highest among commoner archer troops if they didn't have that atrociously weak body armor. Unfortunately, probably around 70-80% of hits do damage to the body, so they de-facto have one of the worst armor sets. Here are some possible fixes to make the Sturgian archer line a bit better:

- Higher weapon proficiencies
- Better body armor
- Higher damage bows
- Better arrows
- Getting a shield by replacing a stack of arrows in their loadouts
- Getting a 2 handed weapon

Note that I'm suggesting only 1, maybe 2 of these changes to be adopted, not all simultaneously. I think giving them better body armor would give them a niche in being a tanky archer with low damage but high battlefield sustain than can later go fight in melee. Giving either a better bow, arrows and/or proficiencies would make them better at killing overall. Giving them shields would give Sturgians essentially a foot skirmisher that can shoot while approaching the enemy and then joins the shield wall (although Sturgia already has some of the best infantry lines already, so while adding shields would be more thematic to the viking part of their Kievan Rus identity, it would also be largely redundant) but would also greatly decrease their battlefield presence in large battles where archers deplete their ammo. 2 Handed weapons would (hopefully) make them better in melee compared to crossbowmen, but they would be a less damaging and more fragile Heroic Line Breaker with a crap bow that would go into melee only in large battles when their ammo is depleted.

What do you think? Do you think that one or more of these changes should be adopted, do you have another suggestion, or perhaps think that keeping their archers underwhelming suits Sturgia's role of being an infantry faction better?

 

[anoddhermit]

2x Stacked bodkin arrows. Their lower damage per second would still be a big downside but this gives them a longevity boost and I think it adds a kind of attrition them that suits Sturgia.

 

[HalfMetalJacket]

They should have better bows and better arrows, if only to help them compete with other archers.

But otherwise I would tend take away their second quiver- make them more unique and someone has to be the '****tiest' archer. I see no reason why the Sturgians can't foot the bill on that, they already have good infantry and cavalry anyway. The difference is that instead of making their equipment quality bad for no good reason, make the very nature of their loadouts unsuitable to extensive skirmishing.

In the place of the quiver, give them good shields, give them better body armour and let them be reasonably good melee fighters. That way they have a niche, while still expressing the faction's strengths and weaknesses.

Giving them all two handers would make them way too strong, so I'm against that. At best, maybe one out of three archers can have one, but still I like shields more.

 

[Ananda_The_Destroyer]

Horses.

 

[The Great Grub]

i find that the stugian archers perform rather well. Sturgia are more focused on their melee infantry rather than cav or archers so it makes sense that their archers are not god tier. I will say they are still very effective at mowing enemies down and for siege defences (i just tp to a settlement if a siege is about to happen so i can actually test defensive sieges without losing a ton of troops breaking in)

 

[anoddhermit]

i find that the stugian archers perform rather well. Sturgia are more focused on their melee infantry rather than cav or archers so it makes sense that their archers are not god tier. I will say they are still very effective at mowing enemies down and for siege defences (i just tp to a settlement if a siege is about to happen so i can actually test defensive sieges without losing a ton of troops breaking in)

You would think the faction focused on infantry would have better infantry though. Sturgian infantry is nothing special and they don't have a noble infantry unit. Currently they have average infantry, weak cav, and even weaker archers.

 

[Muon_Suzuki]

I think it would be interesting from my point of view to make them something like infantry support with bows, an infantry mobile unit that could fire a volley at the infantry and then help the vanguard in close combat, or stand in a shield wall, get closer to enemy archers and either start a mutual firefight or engage in close combat, and then retreat.

The only problem is that the difference in unit booking is poorly implemented in the game, Heavy Legionnaires can easily run and catch up with almost any light squad, and light infantry either have to fight or suffer very heavy losses without doing anything.

I believe that the system of the difference in the speed of movement from the value of the weight of the armor also requires a significant change.

 

[Muon_Suzuki]

also, in order to balance this mechanics and there was no such situation that Light Infantry endlessly runs away from their more armored colleagues, you can introduce such a game designer crutch as "Endurance Strip" well, or stamina, call it as you like.

 

[Halvdan]

It makes sense to give them a larger stack as sturgia rely on fairly defensive tactics hiding behind their shield walls.

They're not a particularly mobile Force so it would make sense that while hiding behind a wall of round Shields they would be pouring arrows down from behind the line. The problem is now they don't have enough arrows to be used defensively which doesn't sit with the rest of the military's build out.