This week's dev diary discusses the rework to the game's Feudal Culture:
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/dev-diary-41-feudal-culture.1732326/#post-30243481The dev diay is *very* beefy with a crap-ton of details, so I definitely encourage anyone interested to check it out. The short version, however, is that Feudal is being split into two sub-cultures.
The first one is
Monarchy, where the ruler is absolute. It's intended as an uncomplicated culture, ideal for new players (which I still very much am, so I'll definitely be checking out this one), and that rewards keeping things simple. It benefits a playstyle focused on the Ruler’s armies and defense.
The other sub-culture is
Aristocracy, where each of your empire’s cities is host to a noble House, led by its governor (any Hero you've recruited to your nation). That Hero/governor is then able to field cheap and effective armies under their banner. It sounds like this sub-culture might be a bit more "fiddly", but that it's also more flavorful, with varied armies under the command of different liege-lords.
Both sub-cultures will still share the same overall unit roster; there are a couple exceptions, which I'll mention below. One change to Feudal units is that a few lower-tier units can now be "promoted" to a higher-tier unit under the right circumstances. In fact, the highest-tier unit, the Knight, can *only* be obtained via promotion from a lower-tier unit; they cannot be recruited.
[Militia are weaker, but very cheap to both obtain and maintain. Good for (re)filling an army quickly, and/or scrambling a defense.]
[The Defender is your standard meat shield frontline combatant. Can be promoted to Liege Guard when playing as the Aristocracy sub-culture.]
[Archers have been buffed slightly with the Ogre update, as they now now inflict "Sundered Defense". In addition, they can now be promoted to Longbows when playing as the Monarchy sub-culture.]
[Bannermen serve as the Feudal Culture's support unit, providing both a passive AoE buff, plus a fairly strong touch ranged heal that they can use every other combat turn.]
[Aspirant Knights are shock cavalry, though apparently they generally serve better as skirmishers. They're especially effective against isolated enemy units. Only Aspirant Knights can be promoted to full Knights.]
[The quintessential symbol of Feudal warfare.]
In addition, each sub-culture has a high-tier unit variant unique to them: Monarchy has the Longbow, while Aristocracy has the Liege Guard.
[Longbows not only have longer reach than normal range units, they also have the "Longshot" ability, which allows them to reach a target 7 tiles away(!).] 
[In addition to sharing the "Heavy Shield" ability with their Defender counterparts, Liege Guards also have the "Sword Bond" ability, which allows them to draw a certain amount of damage away from their lord.] 
« Last Edit: March 21, 2025, 04:54:10 AM by Martok »
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