submitted by /u/CanIGetTheCheck [link] [comments]
Something I see some players having trouble with is coming to grips with how obviously unbalanced the kingdoms are. But while it seems obvious that these nation states are rooted in historical tropes the developers went a little bit further.
The first one people usually do pick up on is that battania is a failed state. They're a people destined for apocalypse. The fians cannot save them. Which is analogous of the Celts, a people who were culturally wiped out for all intents and purposes. A culture relegated to bargain bin music bins in the 90s, with the occasional hippie chick poet using their motif as a decoratice style she grew out of when she hit age 25.
Battanians are kinda terrible at everything in the game. Their cultural strategy is almost exclusively useful in a single patch of land. They're highly specialized for their forested region but beyond that they're useless. No, seriously. Outside of fians and running good in the trees overland what do the Battanians excel at? Absolutely nothing. They're not even middling or average. Their melee units are mostly garbage, their cavalry is known for being awful, they do not shine in economy and even their wanderers tend to be trash.
And most people pick up on this even though it's not readily discussed. BUUUT there's the other side of this equation.
Because the Developers also view the Aserai as culturally superior. Not only are their units in general far and away better than everyone else's (in general is doing heavy lifting here) but their individual wanderers also reflect the superiority of the Aserai.
In almost every major category of wanderer the best wanderer for the job is going to be Aserai. Engineer? Doctor? Scout? Quartermaster? Aserai. Best trader? Aserai. Best leader? Aserai.
But there's more. Best economy? Aserai. Best naturally defended kingdom? Aserai.
So what gives.. why is Aserai just better? Well consider the time period that this game is reflective of. During this time the culture the Aserai are mirrored off of were developing mighty sciences while the Europeans had largely become intellectually and culturally dorment. The European cultural explosion that would come to utterly dominate the planet wouldn't be for centuries.
This theme pervades the game and might explain why so many things about it seem off balanced or why some developer decisions seem weird.
For example the thing sturgia is actually best at is never even really mentioned in game so much. They're good at raiding poor people. Sturgians are really REALLY good at ganking villagers and just generally being anti-civilisation.
This is why cavalry are largely unknown to the sturgians. If you're fighting a standing army as sturgians you're kinda doing it wrong. You can but you're going to be at a disadvantage for the most part. Conversely if you want to kill everyone in the village and steal all their stuff pound for pound accept no substitute.
The Empire was clearly formerly the best at everything and is now decrepit and falling apart from the inside. If you were to take a look at the state of things a day before the death of the emperor you'd find a society governed by systems but not innovation. For that you look to Vlandia.
Vlandia, of course, is the Empire updated and romanticized.
For the Khuzait the further they go west the weaker they get. This is actually built into the game via subversive means. In Khuzait lands they have tremendous access to the resources they need to build up their cavalry archer dependent war machine.
As they head west however their ability to replenish drops off precipitously and by the time they encounter the Battanians, which almost acts as a natural wall to the Khuzait they find they're in lands with almost no horses at all. Finally coming up against the Vlandians, who possess powerful cavalry forces of their own. Cavalry which is exceptionally good at countering other Cavalry.
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