Although choice of setting is subjective, i do think some settings enhance the story. I like your Taiga because it has "fiercely independent" peoples, and fighting in dense forests and icy mountains would give you many options for interesting battles, hidding places, mobile towns (if they are semi-nomadic). It does remind me a little of the Asturs, historical characters in the Cantabric mountains on the north of Spain - fierce tribes that lived in the mountains and fought all types of invasors, even the Romans.