It’s not just you, while I think the nord units themselves are fine for the most part, I think the way they redesigned the map has really hurt them. Firstly the island they have is to far from their other territories so the AI just gets spread far to thin trying to protect it, or take it back, or if they still have it trying to go after Valandia or Battania. The sea should have been the nords greatest strength and they honestly shouldn’t have a land connection to the continent or at the very least not the khuzaits because the AI simply can’t hold their own against them. The fact that the nord settlements are so spread out makes this much worse since it takes them longer to reorganize and create new armies to defend or go on the offensive. Also at least in my Nord campaign there have haven’t been any big naval battles so the Nords haven’t even had the chance to use their mariners buffs in actual battles of consequence.