why do factions have so many top level troops?

[Sudoshi]

Every army i run into i look at the list of soldiers and in the case of rhodoks, 95% of the 100 or so melee troops are sergeants, and all of the xbows are sharpshooters. Same with swadians, its just a ton of knights. this is extremely annoying, is this how its supposed to be? because it seems that the more powerful a soldier is the less of it there should be...

 

[Aeon221]

This is a feature, not a bug. Lords shouldn't be wandering around with recruits. They have the money and the time to develop professional armies, and anyway it's no fun playing Slaughter the Peasant.

If you don't like their troop composition, either reduce the quantity of high tier troops in their recruit pool or kill them until they can't afford to fill their army unless they get all low tier guys -- yes this can and does happen, it's why factions will start to fail-cascade once they've lost enough troopers.

 

[Kamos32]

Though if I do recall a certain older version was especially bad about giving the Lord elite troops to quick.

 

[Zaakjes]

The longer a lord's party stands, the stronger the units get. Your game certainly needs some more wars, I think.

 

[Thundertrod]

You might have a older version of the game were that bug was very pernouced.
It still happens in 1.32 if you use diplomcy mod, but not in native

 

[Orion]

It might seem counter-intuitive, but the first few battles are always the hardest against lords. After you've beaten them once, they have to raise a new army from the ground up. Encountering them again is child's play, usually, though if a faction is at peace or is not actively engaging in any wars they currently have, their lords will recuperate eventually.

Regarding castles and towns, I believe it's more for balance and challenge than anything else. It would be rather disappointing if I could tromp through an entire faction in a matter of days, trouncing the garrisons because they're all middle- and low-tier troops. Cities and castles are of great value, so it only makes sense that a lord would leave behind his highly valued troops to defend them.