First off, I am no history expert but I can assume Slavic people had good horse archers? Factor in, the Slavs would probably have allies among horse archer warrior cultures, and weren’t always in conflict. Plus, I think the Slavs would have mercenary horse archers willing to fight for them if they pay them.
They might had war with horse archer warrior cultures, but they also could of had allies among them.
The Slavs would probably have their very own dedicated elite unit of horse archers. They probably weren’t just militia or mercenaries.
are you arguing that slavs should get cav archers for historic reasons, even though you don’t know what they are?
or are you asking if historically slavs had horse archers? then a history forum might be a better match
There’s been plenty of civilizations have been changed over time in this game. So, I think it is worthy of discussion. The Vikings for example are a very different civilization from back in the day of Age of Kings. There has been some talk the slavs are not in a good spot.
I believe the Rus should hire some Tatar or Mongol auxiliaries/mercenaries from neighboring hordes in real history.
Also according to wikipedia, the Rus deployed “heavy” (heavily armoured, not the upgrade in AOE2 that does not change their tactics) horse archers to counter the Tatars’ lighter ones.
Iirc, the AoE4 Rus cavalry archers are supposed to be Cuman mercenaries, and are depicted as such in the game.
It gets a bit complex with AoE2 and what a tech tree addition “means”. If often using mercenaries means you get their unit (like Celt Paladins), then perhaps they should.
Mongols are in the game. Although theirs have different names.