How Do I Save Sturgia From Itself

[Father Soup]

TLDR: Father Sturgia wont give up on any of the 4 wars we're being forced to fight even though we're losing and I'm attempting to try and capture some of the lands we've lost, how should I proceed?

I'm on Day 1606 of trying to save this absolute dumpster fire of a Kingdom. I understand their landmass is spread out more than a Sophomore on Prom Night, and I understand their troops more often than not are too busy ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ the wildlife to actually be of any use. But how the hell do I save this kingdom. I'm too far in to just start over with a better kingdom. I've built my character up and around this culture and its people.

RaganBad has now declared war on 4 different kingdoms and I've been at war with 2 for at least 200+ days. I reloaded an earlier save to when he didn't declare war on the 4th nation so I could ATTEMPT to take back the numerous castles and towns the Sturgians have lost, but my 1000+ army keeps getting ♥♥♥♥♥♥ down by Battanian and Vlandian armies numbering in the 2000+ because the other two Sturgian armies are too busy jerking off in the woods to try and capture some of the lost land.

I'm carrying the faction hard, having done most of the work capturing Lords and lands only for it to be given away to 1 dude who keeps losing it, but is it even worth it? Is Sturgia doomed to be a losing faction for any playthrough I play?

Could really use any tips/tricks. Playing on Realistic everything (+ some mods to TRY and help me out)

[Clovis Sangrail]

You can't save Sturgia. I tried once. Raganvad is an idiot.

But you can replace Sturgia.

Start with Revyl and work your way east.

Taking castles is optional. You can bypass them and get them later.

You can name your kingdom New Sturgia.

[Angelus Mortis]

Pretty sure you can't save them. The faction seems to be programmed to lose on purpose.

[Stevie Lee]

You kill Raganvad and become king if your clan is dominant. I think he lives to be very old, so follow him into every battle and try to kill him, even if he is fighting looters. A good headshot should do the trick (I've done this to other nobles, not faction leader-- but I have had faction leader die in battle then I became king so it should work).

[Father Soup]

y'know, for being the poster boy of Bannerlord, it's a pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥ thing to basically program them to lose, lmao.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by Grayson:

...
Could really use any tips/tricks. Playing on Realistic everything (+ some mods to TRY and help me out)

Every single time I have tried to play as a loyal Sturgian Lord, Sturgia has failed me...

Raganvad is a moron. Or, rather, whatever Campaign "AI" TW has in place has no "I" for Raganvad/Sturgia behavior or anything relating to it.

The last play I tried with Sturgia, they had fifty-eleventy bajillion monies in Tribute currently due because Raganvad was nothing more than a life-support system for a surrender-monkey. They were at permanent peace. Forever-Peace. Eternal Peace... "Yo, I heard you liked Peace, so I got you some Peace to go with your Peace" Peace. Or, the ultimate in forced Peace - "Raganvad requires 10 Sturgian Trotters to avoid surrendering to Looters" Peace.

And, after examining every single Sturgian Lord's Party, not one had more than 4 mounted units. And, that one Lord that did have four mounted units likely got them by promoting a prisoner. And, they probably captured one of the local beard-growers and just tied him to a horse...

Most Lords only had a max of two mounted units. "2" as in a grand total of two mounted units. In auto-resolve combat, that is the equivalent of "there was an attempt."

Before that? Sturgia was a training grounds for all the other rulers before they attempted to go to war with real factions. The few remaining Sturgian Lords romped around their old, no-longer-held, fief of Varnovapol. They became a GNDN faction - "Goes nowhere, does nothing." No fiefs, no nothing, just a lot of very intense bead-growing going on where Sturgia used to have stuffs.

Before that?

"___, a Lord of Sturgia, has been captured by Sea Raiders."

^-- This is/was the most commonly repeated message a player sees reported in Bannerlord.

Late in the game, they were more often captured by Looters than anything else. Because... Not only is Sturgia the most vulnerable series of holdings since Snow White's purity, Sturgian units sucked... badly. Very badly. "Badly" as in "Yo, I heard you liked Suck, so...." Badly. They are largely still full-of-suck, but at least now they can claim they have units that are no longer quite so full-of-suck. (Their high-tier melee infantry is good. They just don't have much to do except run in the opposite direction of all the enemy armies coming their way.)

Stugia is spread across the entire top of the map, directly exposed to many enemy factions and quite literally all of them with the exception of the Aserai. But, even so...

In my very first playthrough, the Aserai declared war on them and took Tyal.... W.T.F.?

Sturgia sucks.
They will continue to suck.
Because someone has to, I guess, and it may as well be them.
Taleworlds hates Sturgia. It's obvious, by now, isn't it? Someone at TW was once called out by a Sturgian because they did not have a beard, so now they've taken their revenge against Sturgia by purposefully hamstringing them every single chance they get. This happened. I know it is true because... I mean... Just look at Sturgia's performance... They suck.

Killing Raganavad, as someone suggested, might be a good idea. But, I honestly don't think it's going to have a huge effect on any AI decisions involving Sturgia. If the player's Clan comes to power? Maybe. A very firm "maybe."

Other players have stated they have "won the game" playing as a Sturgian Lord. They are either lying or are using high-quality illicitly-obtained pharmaceuticals.... Probably. :)

[aerational]

Answer, bring them horses and food.

They have a serious lack of horses and food variety, this means less party speed, less cavalry upgrades, less troop morale. Makes a HUUUUUUUGE difference. If you want to see Sturgia do well, just spend all your time traveling the world stocking up on horses and food and then come unload it all into their towns.

Spread it out too don't just dump it all in one place... and also don't just rip them off. Focus more making sure they have good supply as opposed to making top dollar for everything.

This is about the 50th time I've explained why Sturgia is crap in SP no matter what they do to the troops... and it will be the 50th time nobody listens. They have no food and no horses... the only two actual strategic resources in the game.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by Aerational:

Answer, bring them horses and food.

They have a serious lack of horses and food variety, this means less party speed, less cavalry upgrades, less troop morale. Makes a HUUUUUUUGE difference. If you want to see Sturgia do well, just spend all your time traveling the world stocking up on horses and food and then come unload it all into their towns.

Spread it out too don't just dump it all in one place... and also don't just rip them off. Focus more making sure they have good supply as opposed to making top dollar for everything.

I tried that. I really did, in my last playthrough. (Several patches ago, 'tis true, yet...)

I started the game trying to explore different merchanting strategies. One was trying out the "Horse Trader" strat. I ran all over the map getting all sorts of horses and then brought them to Sturgia.

Once I saw Sturgian Lords did not have any cavalry, I redoubled my efforts and accepted losses in my horse-trading because I was a loyal Sturgian... They still didn't get any cavalry.

My assumption at the time was that certain Sturgian cavalry units may require, somewhere, a base horse type that was/is in short supply, like "Sturgian Trotters." (They were only found in Vlandia/Battania at that time, more or less.)

Note: A recent patch claims to have added Sturgian Trotters to Sturgia... Let's hope that helps them as no Village in Sturgia produced horses the last time I played.

[Stevie Lee]

Originally posted by Stevie Lee:

You kill Raganvad and become king if your clan is dominant. I think he lives to be very old, so follow him into every battle and try to kill him, even if he is fighting looters. A good headshot should do the trick (I've done this to other nobles, not faction leader-- but I have had faction leader die in battle then I became king so it should work).

Just confirmed this works! Killed Derthert via headshot while chasing looters and now... it feels good to be King!! ha ha

[Edmund Greyfox]

It's sort of doable, but it's not fun because Sturgia could replace all it's lords with monkeys and still make better decisions.

I played Sturgia in my last game and they managed to take over a good chunk of Batannia, the northern Empire, and even the northern portions of the Western empire before i gave up. The real issue to me was that they would put together armies all the way back in Sturgias home area, and then take 4-5 days to march to where the fighting was actually happening. They also refused to consider kingdom policies that would raise loyalty, so half their strength was always tied up taking rebel towns back. Finally, Ragnavad decided that only he and one other clan should get all the fiefs, which is why i finally quit.

[Core]

In my latest, vanilla 1.5.6, sturgia took 2 khuzait castles, epicrotea, 3 north empire castles and is raging on at 5.6k strength without my intervention.

[Father Soup]

you're not even getting started yet my friend. You'll see.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by Core:

In my latest, vanilla 1.5.6, sturgia took 2 khuzait castles, epicrotea, 3 north empire castles and is raging on at 5.6k strength without my intervention.

Nobody was home?

[Kenneth]

Originally posted by Core:

In my latest, vanilla 1.5.6, sturgia took 2 khuzait castles, epicrotea, 3 north empire castles and is raging on at 5.6k strength without my intervention.

In north empire's defense, they're shafted since they have to fight against factions from all sides, so it's a given theirs would be easy takes from all the contention for their properties

[Teralitha]

In 1.5.7 Sturgia survives much better. I think they put a limit to how many wars they can have at the same time.