Hey man, huscarls kick [wagon]. Directly translated, it means "house-men", though... But yeah, the only downside to Nords is that they don't have any mounted troops. That's why you have a healthy mix of Rhodok and Nord troops, with some Vaegir archers thrown in there. I should really start to bother putting troops in my garrisons though. :P It's a bit frustrating to run back and forth between your castles and cities all the time. House troops back then were the elite of the elite. They were Lord's personal bodyguards in battles. And just stuff recruits into castles, the AI puts more weight on numbers than the level of the troops.