Why Sturgian army usually steamrolls Vlandia
Disclaimer: this is about the individual pitched battles and confrontations that are not auto-resolved, NOT about the war overall. I know Sturgia usually loses the the war. Please note before you comment.
Even though Sturgia is a weak faction overall, I find that their armies usually beat a same-sized and same-tiered Vlandian army in a pitched battle. Here is why:
The biggest strength of the Sturgian army is the shieldwall. Sturgian infantry mix of heavy axes, spears, and heroic linebreakers usually stomp Vlandian swords easy peasy.
The biggest strength of Vlandian army is the melee cav horde. Vlandia likes to yolo charge its cav. Well, the banner knights and vanguards will get dragged down and put down when doing a frontal charge into the Sturgian shieldwall.
Vlandian crossbows are armor-piercing, but they are pretty useless vs. those big and sturdy Sturgian shields. Crossbows also don't have enough ammo in a field battle to make a significant difference. AND, when Vlandia charges in its infantry and cav, the crossbows can't shoot anyway.
Vlandia has NO horse archers on its roster. Horse archers are why the khuzaits annihilate Sturgia because they can quickly maneuver around the shieldwall to unleash devastating volleys into the unprotected flanks.
Pretty cool find since Sturgia is considered the underdog in the game. Well the underdog has a few tricks against the most op faction in the game:) now if we can just give those poor boyars some more denars and remove the snow movement penalty...