Sturgia - How to to build troops.

[Oliver (Dead Girls)]

How do you play as Sturgia.
I realized archers are a waste of space, useless.
But should I go full infantry and try and build my troops as Nord Huscarls from Warband.
Make a infantry commander with full points into troop HP and swing speed.

What do you all think?

[LEGACY]

if it's a Sturgia troops only playthrough, then I disagree with archers being a waste of space.
I'm not that fond of cavalry, so I would focus mostly on the archers and heavy axemen.

if I had space for 100 troops about 20 would be heavy axeman and 20 veteran bowman
the rest would be lower ranks, ready to be upgraded and replace any elite troops that die.

[Kernest]

I agree that Sturgian bowmen are trash, but siege battles in particular are a pain without both melee and ranged superiority. I can't even imagine doing them without ranged units, or only with other parties' ranged units.

My typical solution is to use bandits or unit(s) from other culture(s).

I do however upgrade a lot of units into Sturgian Brigands, and then onto Hardened Brigands and Horse Raiders. I'm a cavalryman mostly myself.

[Xequilibrium]

Originally posted by Oliver (Dead Girls):

How do you play as Sturgia.
I realized archers are a waste of space, useless.
But should I go full infantry and try and build my troops as Nord Huscarls from Warband.
Make a infantry commander with full points into troop HP and swing speed.

What do you all think?

Well.. I would ignore their skirmishers. Sturgia is made for infantry. Their druzhnik are decent on the battle field and not bad in sieges because their high athletics. On field battles archers are not nesscary but on sieges u really need them. Altho their the worste archers in the game they kinda needed in a siege.

Also try to build your infantry line out of axemen en linebreakers. The spearmen arn't all that great.

So basicly say of you have 150 spots i would take like 40 dhruznik 50 axemen 25 linebreakers something like 35 bowmen.

[Teralitha]

Originally posted by Oliver (Dead Girls):

How do you play as Sturgia.
I realized archers are a waste of space, useless.
But should I go full infantry and try and build my troops as Nord Huscarls from Warband.
Make a infantry commander with full points into troop HP and swing speed.

What do you all think?

There is nothing like the amazing huscarls from the original game. Ive played sturgia for years. I can tell you what works well.

Archers are not useless, but what are useless are the T4-T6 infantry. Sturgia warriors and soldiers are kings of the battlefield, backed up by a mix of ranged units. In a max field of 500 troops, you want to have a set up of around 300-350 infantry, 100-150 archers and 30-100 druzinicks. (They are expensive) The arcehrs dont have to be all sturgian. I always have a mix of sisterhood crossbows with sturgian archer types. Dont bother with brigand horse troops either. They are pretty weak but they are also alot cheaper in wages if you are strapped for money.

I also sometimes mix sturgian archers with battanian infantry. Not because they necessarily better than sturgia ones, but they seem to be easier to gather large numbers and train. Good cheap cannon fodder for settlement defense if you need it in a hurry.

Its not all about stats. its about how you use them. Sturgia archers carry 2 quivers, so they outlast any other ranged unit in a long fight, and they are fast moving. Sturgian infantry have larger shields so its harder to take them out with ranged. the druzh are pretty simple, short agile spears that do alot of damage. They can beat heavy lancers in a prolonged cavalry fight and are great at decimating enemy archers, you never send them to charge infantry unless there is nothing left.

Always choose weapon perks that boost combat speed or weapon speed and handling. Everyone thinks sturgia troops are trash but they are actually sleeper OP and few ppl know how to use them properly.

Against khuzaits though this setup is difficult, you need to shift to more cavalry heavy when going against khuzaits in the field.

Even though its easy to gather tons of varyags and cost the same soldiers they are not better than soldiers, you only keep some around to upgrade into druzzies.

No matter what region I expand into, I always return to sturgian land to recruit troops there if I can. Hope this helps.

[Oliver (Dead Girls)]

Do you run shield wall Sturgia army?

[Teralitha]

Originally posted by Oliver (Dead Girls):

Do you run shield wall Sturgia army?

Uh... I use a shield wall whenever it would be useful to. IE I dont use them often, but I do use them.

[Landsknecht _]

Sturgia is the most fun faction to play:

Massive inf
massive cav
some archers

inf is in shield wall most of the time when closing in on enemies. They absorb most of the damage. As soon as inf lines meet you can send your cav to mow down their archers. I personally use sturgian archers a lot to support the inf.

[Marty Chonks]

Here, watch this vid, if you haven't already, that pretty much sums up all the necessary info on sturgian troops and viable tactics: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj_2JWaPBko

That said, i play with mostly sturgian shieldwall upfront (mostly heavy spearmen + axemen and some varyag vets) but battanian fian champions behind them (...cuz why not? fian champ is the most op unit in the game imo). However, especially for early game, it is quite nice to gather a lot of varyag veterans, they are a solid unit for only 8 denars a day (big shield/ a spear to fight cav./ one handed sword for inf. / ok-ish armor and stats + some throwing axes), and you can upgrade them to decent cav. later if you want.

It is easy to get a lot of them (or their lesser form) quick in the 3 castles triangle: Ov - Mazhedan - Karg...something. Coincidentally, these castles are often passing hands and for that reason easy to take as a first possession being an independent clan, when the armies move away after a siege.

[Landsknecht _]

Originally posted by Sheepify:

Originally posted by Landsknecht _:

inf is in shield wall most of the time when closing in on enemies.

I suppose that's one way to make sure the fights are not over in under 2 minutes, but I gotta ask... Why?!

What do you mean? In order to protect your men from missiles and arrows. I even keep them in shield wall formation so the enemy inf is kept busy while my cav is cutting down archers and then crashing into enemey inf from behind. Man, sturgia is so much fun.

[Landsknecht _]

Originally posted by Sheepify:

Originally posted by Landsknecht _:

Man, sturgia is so much fun.

*Laughs in provable Battanian skirmisher superiority winning the fight in tens of seconds of actual engagement* :)

wait, battanian skirmisher superiority? What am I missing? Battanian troops suck monkey balls with Fians being the exception.

[Landsknecht _]

Originally posted by Sheepify:

Originally posted by Landsknecht _:

wait, battanian skirmisher superiority? What am I missing? Battanian troops suck monkey balls with Fians being the exception.

Try just running Battanian skirmisher party.

Cheap, easy to replace, T2 unit onward easy to level up, fight as well as most infantry, and come with extra throwing stuff that means kills even before actual melee fighting starts.

They are massive cheese even without such complex tactics as "split them in two groups approaching the enemy on opposing flanks."

Throw in some horse skirmishers to disrupt TacticalGeniusAI™ behavior and you'll be surprised how well they perform, even without perk-cheese turning them into the near-unkillable mouth-frothing murdermachines Battanians deserve to be.

Definitely will try this out. I always thought they are the worst units in the game but maybe you brought epiphany upon me.

[Teralitha]

Nice video, ive seen that one before. He doesnt take into account perks at all though. personally I always command my troops in first person view, overhead view feels like cheating to me.