So I've been brainstorming a few ideas with the purpose of buffing Sturgia's place in the current faction singleplayer meta, since most agree they're at the bottom, as well as giving them some more historical flavor and uniqueness from the other factions. I also include a few ideas that have been suggested before with a few additions of my own added to them.
First we'll start with their basic recruit, and for a nation as sparse as Sturgia filled with sea raiders, especially compared to other faction's recruits Sturgia doesn't have anything special. By having less armor than most other recruits and one of the weaker weapon selections, they're the weakest recruits tied with Vlandia. I think they need some spice added to them, in my opinion something like a stack of fishing harpoons, or broken fishing harpoons would catapult them into being some of the best recruits thanks to the added utility of a decent ranged option, especially en mass.
Moving on, their tier 2, 3 & 4 melee units aside from the line breaker are also barely average partly due to their poor attacking speed and habit of using spears when in direct melee combat and getting overrun. Their final infantry is also only average, getting beaten by Imperial Legionnaires but maybe with these other changes that can be overlooked. The Heavy Spearman and Axemen also don't really feel warranted being two separate units and the faction would likely be improved if their strengths were combined into one unit.
The main topic however I want to get into is the idea of adding another "noble tree" to Sturgia that's primarily Viking Rus, and adding another option to the current noble tree. I say noble in quotations because I wouldn't want this to share a pool with the current noble units, that'd kind of defeat the purpose, moreover I want this tree to be an addition to the current trees for Sturgia so they have even more unit variety.
For now my idea only has 2 branches, an infantry unit and a cavalry unit but that should be enough variety when taking into account everything the faction has. This new Nordic tree would also be what sea Raiders could be upgraded into, giving a bit more flavor to the faction.
For the sake of variety and to truly give Sturgia the best infantry, bringing back the Huscarl with this extra troop tree, and maybe even adding it to the existing noble line as an alternative option to the Druzhina. They'd get a good shield, great-axe, throwing weapons and some one-handed weapon to fill out that last slot. Basically Warband Huscarls but period appropriate and much more rare. This also has the side benefit of allowing Sturgia to fully upgrade a noble line without horses, which can be tough to get in the frozen north where traveling between towns takes a while.
Another Idea I had was for this separate troop line to also have the horse raider line of units, vikings were known to bargain for horses and the raider moniker also fits them perfectly. They'd split off at tier 4 and you'll be given a choice between the Huscarl line of troops or the raider line of troops However since Nords will be less likely to recruit they should be given better stats, armor and equipment to compensate. Even as they are now they're quite weak and don't really last long enough to properly pressure enemy forces before your infantry engage, which should be this unit's main focus.
As you might've noticed I suggested giving the Huscarl to the existing noble troop tree and to this extra Nord troop tree, which I think would be a neat feature. Having both trees be given access to this one unit allows a Sturgian player to field even more infantry if they wanted, or use one tree for Huscarls and the other for their cavalry depending on what they like. I personally enjoy the freedom it gives and feel as though it'd be a fun, unique aspect of the faction.
I have ideas for what could be the new common line of Sturgian cavalry using horse archers that'd branch off the current woodsmen, however since horse archers obviously use bows that would leave the woodsman in an odd place. They're meant to be a stop-gap before Sturgia receives access to their mediocre archers, further cementing how mediocre they are. However without javelin cav in this proposed tree to also possibly upgrade into, it feels weird having the Sturgian Recruit upgrade to a spear thrower unit, who then can only upgrade into archers.
I propose a new Woodsman loadout that would more seamlessly upgrade into the next troops and also possibly be more accurate to life. I think the woodsman should spawn with a bow and a long hunting spear, like those used for boars. With this loadout they woodsman is now a very versatile tier 2 unit that can pepper far away enemies with their weak bow and poke at cavalry with their spear. They'd still be quite poorly armored however so they need to keep a distance and can't afford to charge into combat.
On another note an upgrade to the current archers of Sturgia would be quite nice as I believe they're far too weak, even if they're supposed to be the worst archers in the game.
https://imgur.com/a/AFG01QJ
I'll preface this last idea with this historical art of Kievan mounted troops
Another new addition to their common tree I thought of would be a lancer type light cav or a horse archer, or both. Their loadout would include a bow, one quiver, a sword and spear. Maybe a shield instead of a sword if they prove to not be durable enough which can be possible. They'd occupy the same space the raider does on the current tree and fulfill the same function as the raider, but be more capable at it. I know a lot of the factions already have horse archers in their common troop tree so I think maybe leaning into the light cavalry aspect may be preferred but like I said in horse raider section, Sturgia needs a way to soften up their enemy before the infantry engages.
Overall Sturgia's cavalry should be nicely rounded with a light skirmisher, heavy shock cav and heavy skirmisher. Perhaps not the most historical make-up but cavalry was mostly supplied by the nobility at this time.
That's about it for my ideas on what could be done to Sturgia, a lot could be considered outlandish and I'd doubt if even any idea somehow got into the game, but I enjoy the process of brainstorming new additions to games I like such as Bannerlord. As a side not I'd also really enjoy it if Sturgia regained its bonus movement on snowy terrain since it's quite useful for actually moving around the north, maybe make it close to 50% actually.
First we'll start with their basic recruit, and for a nation as sparse as Sturgia filled with sea raiders, especially compared to other faction's recruits Sturgia doesn't have anything special. By having less armor than most other recruits and one of the weaker weapon selections, they're the weakest recruits tied with Vlandia. I think they need some spice added to them, in my opinion something like a stack of fishing harpoons, or broken fishing harpoons would catapult them into being some of the best recruits thanks to the added utility of a decent ranged option, especially en mass.
Moving on, their tier 2, 3 & 4 melee units aside from the line breaker are also barely average partly due to their poor attacking speed and habit of using spears when in direct melee combat and getting overrun. Their final infantry is also only average, getting beaten by Imperial Legionnaires but maybe with these other changes that can be overlooked. The Heavy Spearman and Axemen also don't really feel warranted being two separate units and the faction would likely be improved if their strengths were combined into one unit.
The main topic however I want to get into is the idea of adding another "noble tree" to Sturgia that's primarily Viking Rus, and adding another option to the current noble tree. I say noble in quotations because I wouldn't want this to share a pool with the current noble units, that'd kind of defeat the purpose, moreover I want this tree to be an addition to the current trees for Sturgia so they have even more unit variety.
For now my idea only has 2 branches, an infantry unit and a cavalry unit but that should be enough variety when taking into account everything the faction has. This new Nordic tree would also be what sea Raiders could be upgraded into, giving a bit more flavor to the faction.
For the sake of variety and to truly give Sturgia the best infantry, bringing back the Huscarl with this extra troop tree, and maybe even adding it to the existing noble line as an alternative option to the Druzhina. They'd get a good shield, great-axe, throwing weapons and some one-handed weapon to fill out that last slot. Basically Warband Huscarls but period appropriate and much more rare. This also has the side benefit of allowing Sturgia to fully upgrade a noble line without horses, which can be tough to get in the frozen north where traveling between towns takes a while.
Another Idea I had was for this separate troop line to also have the horse raider line of units, vikings were known to bargain for horses and the raider moniker also fits them perfectly. They'd split off at tier 4 and you'll be given a choice between the Huscarl line of troops or the raider line of troops However since Nords will be less likely to recruit they should be given better stats, armor and equipment to compensate. Even as they are now they're quite weak and don't really last long enough to properly pressure enemy forces before your infantry engage, which should be this unit's main focus.
As you might've noticed I suggested giving the Huscarl to the existing noble troop tree and to this extra Nord troop tree, which I think would be a neat feature. Having both trees be given access to this one unit allows a Sturgian player to field even more infantry if they wanted, or use one tree for Huscarls and the other for their cavalry depending on what they like. I personally enjoy the freedom it gives and feel as though it'd be a fun, unique aspect of the faction.
I have ideas for what could be the new common line of Sturgian cavalry using horse archers that'd branch off the current woodsmen, however since horse archers obviously use bows that would leave the woodsman in an odd place. They're meant to be a stop-gap before Sturgia receives access to their mediocre archers, further cementing how mediocre they are. However without javelin cav in this proposed tree to also possibly upgrade into, it feels weird having the Sturgian Recruit upgrade to a spear thrower unit, who then can only upgrade into archers.
I propose a new Woodsman loadout that would more seamlessly upgrade into the next troops and also possibly be more accurate to life. I think the woodsman should spawn with a bow and a long hunting spear, like those used for boars. With this loadout they woodsman is now a very versatile tier 2 unit that can pepper far away enemies with their weak bow and poke at cavalry with their spear. They'd still be quite poorly armored however so they need to keep a distance and can't afford to charge into combat.
On another note an upgrade to the current archers of Sturgia would be quite nice as I believe they're far too weak, even if they're supposed to be the worst archers in the game.
https://imgur.com/a/AFG01QJ
I'll preface this last idea with this historical art of Kievan mounted troops
Another new addition to their common tree I thought of would be a lancer type light cav or a horse archer, or both. Their loadout would include a bow, one quiver, a sword and spear. Maybe a shield instead of a sword if they prove to not be durable enough which can be possible. They'd occupy the same space the raider does on the current tree and fulfill the same function as the raider, but be more capable at it. I know a lot of the factions already have horse archers in their common troop tree so I think maybe leaning into the light cavalry aspect may be preferred but like I said in horse raider section, Sturgia needs a way to soften up their enemy before the infantry engages.
Overall Sturgia's cavalry should be nicely rounded with a light skirmisher, heavy shock cav and heavy skirmisher. Perhaps not the most historical make-up but cavalry was mostly supplied by the nobility at this time.
That's about it for my ideas on what could be done to Sturgia, a lot could be considered outlandish and I'd doubt if even any idea somehow got into the game, but I enjoy the process of brainstorming new additions to games I like such as Bannerlord. As a side not I'd also really enjoy it if Sturgia regained its bonus movement on snowy terrain since it's quite useful for actually moving around the north, maybe make it close to 50% actually.