Points to consider:
- He costs 6 turns
- He has both high morale and low morale auras
- His base armor is 3/2
- His hp is 28
- The matter of buff difference is not really that important here, since it's currently a problem with factionless units in general. Plus in defensive stats it would only increase +1/+0 armor, which would be inferior (in terms of defense) than battlefield blacksmith's +1/+1.
- AHeavy Foot Knights cost 4 turns (+6 for upgrade research)
- A Heavy Foot Knight has no auras
- A Heavy Foot Knight has 27 hp
- A Heavy Foot Knight's base armor is 5/3
- A Heavy Foot Knight is still the second unit in a 3-unit line
- Centurion, a unit that has WAY more auras and is overall A LOT more useful to their faction, is closer in stats to a Heavy Knight (The second unit in his 3-unit line) than Nordic Warlord is to Heavy Foot Knight. Especially in terms of armor.
- Huskarl, another nordic heavy infantry, also costs 6 turns
- A Huskarl has no auras
- A Huskarl has 7/4 base armor, making it almost tied to Elite Foot Knights when both are fully upgraded and buffed (11/7 vs 10/8, respectively)
- A Huskarl has 31 hp, the same as an Elite Foot Knight
- Idea A: Increase their armor by +1/+1 and hp by something between +3 and +6
- Idea B: Increase their armor by +2/+1
- Idea C: Seeing that Idea B is exactly what the new (actually the one we'll get in the next update, since it's unavailable in the current one XD) research for zerks does for them, I thought of maybe expanding this research to all (or most) nordic units, with some reduction in their base armor, of course, except for Nordic Warlord, which could remain with 3/2 or maybe even 4/2 and increase to 5/3 (or 6/3) after the research.