Client King question

[heldelance]

When you recruit a client ruler, do you still have to pay their upkeep or is that only if they're on the field acting as an allied general?

The reason I ask is because the hellenic rulers are quite expensive (1000+ if I'm not mistaken) and I only belatedly realized that Celtic Lesser Kings can't become client kings for places they can't be recruited at (I like the Celt Lesser Kings best because they've got low upkeep and tend to be better at holding a village).

[A Very Super Market]

Yeah, you have to pay. Even in a town

[Nachtmeister]

What REALLY annoys me is that quite often they have the "Spartan" ethnicity --- that's even unrealistic for a normal hellenistic general (Spartan lonchophoroi cavalry...?!), but for a vollorix or the likes...
But the real point is the trigger-effect of the spartan ethnicity. You basically have to pray that they turn out as Ionians (the Euxeinos ethnicity does not say *anything* about governments at all) or Athenians because otherwise you are bound to have a rediculously bad governor, even if he is sharp/charismatic/vigorous and unselfish/optimistic/loyal. There's just no way a Spartan is going to develop well as a free polis governor. And still I get like 60% Spartan recruited generals...

[A Very Super Market]

Well, these guys have guaranteed influence of at least 4, so I don't think it will affect it that much.

[Nachtmeister]

Well, these guys have guaranteed influence of at least 4, so I don't think it will affect it that much.

No, it doesn't affect the mood of the inhabitants in the town, but it does affect the other areas of competence or incompetence (mining, trade, taxes etc.)...

[heldelance]

Well, it's not too bad once you've got a decent economy. You'll be able to recruit a new guy and just send the old guy in the frontlines.
It's what I did with the 15 Celt Kings I recruited that can't govern hellenic cities or the eastern provinces. They're serving as my linesmen and doing a pretty good job at it. One AWESOME thing about those guys is that they're only about 500 upkeep, have 64? soldiers and have stats as good as Cordinau Orcas, added bonus, they regenerate their losses. Perfect cheap (overall) elites.

[Nachtmeister]

Well, it's not too bad once you've got a decent economy. You'll be able to recruit a new guy and just send the old guy in the frontlines.
It's what I did with the 15 Celt Kings I recruited that can't govern hellenic cities or the eastern provinces. They're serving as my linesmen and doing a pretty good job at it. One AWESOME thing about those guys is that they're only about 500 upkeep, have 64? soldiers and have stats as good as Cordinau Orcas, added bonus, they regenerate their losses. Perfect cheap (overall) elites.

While what you say is very true, I very much dislike sending my generals-not-useful-to-me on suicide missions or to serve as regular front line support units if it is done in masses. It somehow just doesn't fit into (serious) roleplaying concepts...
BTW, they (vollorixes) CAN govern hellenic provinces! Just send them into a city with "provisional military government" and start building a type IV on top of that, click next round - and *voila*, you have a client ruler! Just sending them into an already established allied (type IV) settlement while they are "allied generals" will not transform them into client rulers and thus they will incur their usual governing penalties.

I recently role-played this: Conquered Ankyra (as KH), made it an allied settlement of course, but with real (role-played) "autonomy", recruited one general, built up a garrison, repelled a few AS attacks from Ipsos (which is very hellenic but also an eastern settlement), recruited more galatian forces and another general plus some mercenaries, and had the recruited general retaliate against Ipsos. He conquered it and annexed it to Galatia! However, be careful when you do this: "provisional military government" counts as "factional government", so you should not leave the general in the city during the turn in which you set up the pacification (penalties, can for example acquire the seemingly permanent "unhappy people" trait). Park him on a tile directly adjacent to the city, that way if he gets attacked he will immediately have the rest of the garrison as reinforcements.

[Atraphoenix]

I have client rulers, as an office in my mod. Not as a trait as an ancillary office.