Eh, I noticed their larger than usual quantity of cavalry even before the changes happened. I also did not notice Battania being absolutely steamrolled- the opposite really. To me, they were always one of the factions with the potential to build momentum.
Based on that description alone, the "admissable" Battanian units are:
Which I think is an excellent reason to give them a unit branch that uses a great axe at T5, replacing the melee cavalry unit. After all, this discussion is about whether to give them a new unit. There's no reason in the game for giving them a regular archer, but there is a reason in the game for giving them a shock infantry troop with a great axe.
It says "EVEN their noblemen". The way that language is being used means that Battanians tend to fight using shock infantry tactics and the nobles are no exception, despite it not being usual for the noblemen -- which makes sense, considering the Fian Champions carry two-handed swords.
Of course they aren’t English, but that doesn’t mean they can’t have archers. As they are primarily focused on the Celtic peoples of Britain and Ireland, I think Classical Celts shouldn’t have such a significant impact as they aren’t medieval. The Welsh- which during this time refers to all the Britons (which represents at least at least a third of the inspiration pie if you will) had good archers, brilliant archers in South Wales. The Picts and later Scots (representing another third) also had very decent archers. The Irish also eventually started to use bows after the vikings came about (and would be using them by the year 1000ad). Also archers are iconic in people mind when it comes to woodland warfare- possibly due to Tolkien’s elves. The English, who made insignificant use of archery (except in rare occasions) only became an archer power because of the Welsh- in a similar way the Sturgians becoming the Vaegiers can be like the English taking up archery in that respect. We aren’t asking for open field archer tactics for the battanians (although I know the battle of a Crug Mawr saw the welsh do this against the Normans with around 2000 longbow men)https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofWales/The-Battle-of-Crug-Mawr/ what I will say is that having noble archers is bizarre without there being a strong archery tradition. If you don’t want common archers, what sense does keeping noble archers make- especially for a Celtic faction who often see their nobles and kings lead from the front as either horsemen or infantry. Archer nobles would be viewed as cowards, unless the common people join them in doing so. When it comes to the Celts, you must focus primarily on the nobles. As I’ve said in a different forum, the Battanians should be the ambush faction and although javelins are good for this- archers are better and would allow shock infantry to be as effective as they can be- still keep javelins to combine with the bows.
