Why is Sturgia so desperately poor? (1.4.1)

[TurtleFactz]

In my latest campaign, Sturgia has almost been completely eliminated and Khuzait own 1/3 of the map in less than two years. But I looked at their territories and noticed something throughout said campaign, which is that every city and village is dirt poor. Villages have 10-20 militia at most, there are lots of "village needs grain stock" and "extortion by deserters" quests. Every city has very little or negative prosperity growth and whenever a village gets raided or anything gets sieged, Sturgia never goes to defend it (instead sieging a western empire castle half the map away for some reason).

If you read the story for Sturgia and the various clans within it (the proto Vaegir for example) they organized into a kingdom on the basis of their fur trade and wealth. Yet so far in every patch since EA release they've been the poorest Kingdom.

"The Sturgian forests are forbidding and cold, but great wealth lies within. Wild honey can be found, and bog iron, but the real prize has always been fur. For centuries, brave traders ventured there to buy the pelts of fox, rabbit and ermine from the tribes of the woods. As the empire expanded eastward, that trickle of traders became a flood. Great towns sprung up on the rivers. Fortune-seekers came from the coast, from the steppes, and most of all from the Nordlands. Tribal elders made alliances with the newcomers, sealed by wedding vows, and with their share of the trading profits hired mercenaries to subdue other tribes. Sturgia became a collection of principalities, then a kingdom, the great powerhouse of the north."

In reality within the game though fur seems to be completely irrelevant, only ONE village even produces iron and honey doesn't exist. Sturgian lands have nothing to offer in-game.

 

[MinhTien]

Yeah, this has been pointed out a lot. Sturgia lacks basic foodstuffs to thrive. Trading caravans simply don't do enough to make up for that.

Meanwhile the grain-producing regions in Battania and Empire land are rich AF. At one point in my game, WE had several towns with 10k+ prosperity, every settlements had huge garrisons and militia forces.

 

[TurtleFactz]

I think that's the primary issue, grain is the be all and end all of resources. If your city doesn't have grain being produced nearby it can't really function.

 

[Capillati]

In my latest campaign, Sturgia has almost been completely eliminated and Khuzait own 1/3 of the map in less than two years.

That`s pretty much everyone`s playthrough )

 

[E.M.Baguette]

That`s pretty much everyone`s playthrough )

True. In my 1.4.1 campaign Khuzait owns 1/3 of the map and Sturgia is weak, but is still alive. Battania and Southern Empire are about to be totally destroyed. Northen Empire was the first faction to fall.
I spent all campaign playing as neutral trader.

Day 444:

20200518164927-1 hosted at ImgBB

Image 20200518164927-1 hosted in ImgBB

ibb.co

 

[DanAngleland]

I've thought it strange since the early access began, and I realised that the northern-most regions remain snow covered all year round. It doesn't make sense to have villages and even cities here! Even the best Sturgian lands seem to only have a small portion of the year without snow on the ground, so little food can be produced, which I assume is the problem behind this poverty.

 

[TurtleFactz]

Unless you live north of the arctic circle, there shouldn't be snow all year round.

I realize this is Calradia but maybe making that a bit more realistic would help Sturgia some.

 

[PeteSKTemplar]

You reminded me my experience visiting once Rome in January that me and my friends had just Tshirts, only few also wool had a sweater but Romans wore winter jackets as if it was - 30 degrees of Celsius. Perhaps this problem had Imperials considering North above (Black) sea as too cold

 

[Maximum997]

True. In my 1.4.1 campaign Khuzait owns 1/3 of the map and Sturgia is weak, but is still alive. Battania and Southern Empire are about to be totally destroyed. Northen Empire was the first faction to fall.
I spent all campaign playing as neutral trader.

In 1.4.1 factions just go wars with everyone. Nothern empire is surrunded. So they got eliminated every single time first.

 

[ileboii]

Yeah, this has been pointed out a lot. Sturgia lacks basic foodstuffs to thrive. Trading caravans simply don't do enough to make up for that.

Meanwhile the grain-producing regions in Battania and Empire land are rich AF. At one point in my game, WE had several towns with 10k+ prosperity, every settlements had huge garrisons and militia forces.

And in addition the geography doesn't support Sturgia, like at all. All caravans have to either:

A. Go around a huge lake to reach Varnovapol and Balgard.​

B. Go to a remote peninsula to reach Revyl.​

This makes things so much more unefficient for caravans to deliver food (and other goods) to many of the Sturgian cities timewise versus other Kingdoms. Of course they may get sudden spikes in caravan deliveries now and then, but only when prices are high enough. And that point Sturgia may not even exist anymore.

This applies to Aserai too, but in my experience Aserai do survive (even thrive) in most of my playthroughs for whatever reason.

 

[PeteSKTemplar]

Coastal cities should have civilian sea routes even perhaps military ones to avoid going around crazy long time.

 

[Chrisjon]

only trade goods that matter in the game at the moment is food, and mostly grain, everything else is completely irrelevant, if you dont have good food, your cities will die out. including your garnison etc.

 

[TurtleFactz]

only trade goods that matter in the game at the moment is food, and mostly grain, everything else is completely irrelevant, if you dont have good food, your cities will die out. including your garnison etc.

The people of Calradia are obligate carbivores and must have their grain.

 

[Trauko]

In this patch, the mercenaries are razing villages like there is no tomorrow. I started a new save and noticed that.
Its not a bad thing, but if a faction has a couple of mercenaries (or all of them like often happens) its gameover for the opposing faction, because they will burn every village they see and its all downhill from there.

 

[ileboii]

In this patch, the mercenaries are razing villages like there is no tomorrow. I started a new save and noticed that.
Its not a bad thing, but if a faction has a couple of mercenaries (or all of them like often happens) its gameover for the opposing faction, because they will burn every village they see and its all downhill from there.

Mercenaries focusing on more to raiding sounds good actually, almost as if that's what they're supposed to do instead of listing to every single army.
If only the food economy was balanced a bit better.

 

[Rush09]

I'm still playing with the 1.4 patch and I know that Sturgia had quite a few changes with 1.4.1 but in my latest campaign I noticed a couple of things fighting for Sturgia as a merc. In my latest campaign Sturgia has manage to outlive both the Northern Empire and Western Empire and I've already failed at the main quest so has been more than 10 years since start yet Sturgia had lost nothing and even advanced a bit. Then, everything change when the Khuzaits declared war. The Sturgians if only fighting Empire, Battanins or Vladians can handle quite well, but the Khuzaits just teared them.

I've noticed that Khuzait lords are really fast in the campaign map even with 100+ soldiers making it very hard for Sturgian Lords to catch them individually, even in the snow. Then when it comes to armies, Khuzait armies even with inferior numbers can crush Sturgian armies with ease. Add the poor garrisons in Sturgian towns due to poor conditions in the north and you get a mixture really bad for them.

 

[xdj1nn]

And in addition the geography doesn't support Sturgia, like at all. All caravans have to either:

A. Go around a huge lake to reach Varnovapol and Balgard.​

B. Go to a remote peninsula to reach Revyl.​

This makes things so much more unefficient for caravans to deliver food (and other goods) to many of the Sturgian cities timewise versus other Kingdoms. Of course they may get sudden spikes in caravan deliveries now and then, but only when prices are high enough. And that point Sturgia may not even exist anymore.

This applies to Aserai too, but in my experience Aserai do survive (even thrive) in most of my playthroughs for whatever reason.

That's because Aserai has ****-loads of fish producing villages. As stated before, the issue with sturgia is the lack of food

 

[TurtleFactz]

That's because Aserai has ****-loads of fish producing villages. As stated before, the issue with sturgia is the lack of food

Their backstory is similar to early Canadians basically trapping animals and trading fur, where's all the meat?

 

[xdj1nn]

Their backstory is similar to early Canadians basically trapping animals and trading fur, where's all the meat?

good question hahaha

 

[PeteSKTemplar]

Their backstory is similar to early Canadians basically trapping animals and trading fur, where's all the meat?

Bugs I guess a lot of them though usually those do not like cold climate