Most of us would agree that having 3 separate imperial factions that play mostly the same except who they're fighting, and fight exactly the same on the battlefield, a bit lame. While the best way to make these factions more discernable is to make their faction politics play different than each other according to the lore, I think their army rosters needs a bit of uniqueness as well.
My suggestions would be to :
a) Make minor clans only hireable by the factions in their nearby vicinity (e.g. Jawwal only being hireable by faction that owns the southern part of Aserai, Skolderbrotva only by the faction that controls the north etc.)
b) Give the different empire faction locations different noble troops; Northern Empire should get a shock troop based on the Varangian Guard (I think they already exist in the game's lore as Vaegir guards), give the Western Empire a crossbow & shield infantry unit based on the Rhodoks (who are based on the Genoese/northern Italian troops iirc) and make the Cataphracts exclusive to the Southern Empire.
What do you think?
My suggestions would be to :
a) Make minor clans only hireable by the factions in their nearby vicinity (e.g. Jawwal only being hireable by faction that owns the southern part of Aserai, Skolderbrotva only by the faction that controls the north etc.)
b) Give the different empire faction locations different noble troops; Northern Empire should get a shock troop based on the Varangian Guard (I think they already exist in the game's lore as Vaegir guards), give the Western Empire a crossbow & shield infantry unit based on the Rhodoks (who are based on the Genoese/northern Italian troops iirc) and make the Cataphracts exclusive to the Southern Empire.
What do you think?