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Demi-units
I came up with an idea which I thought that even my limited understanding of modding would allow me to do some DIY changes but suddenly realise that it won't work the way I intended it to.
The idea is to make it possible to build under-sized (yet still scaleable) versions of some common unit types, for a number of purposes.
1) Topping up minor losses in a series of full-size equivalent units, such as after seige casualties were inflicted on a stack but without the expense of a full size unit for the same purpose and with fewer excess 'leftovers'.
2) Not exactly suitable for battlefield use but ideal for making longer-lasting castle garrisons, encouraging the AI to fight assault battles more often.
3) Ideal for one-province, low income factions. Achieve the required loyalty level in smaller increments and avoid excessive maintainance costs.
4) A 1-man RK unit (or up to 5 men) would be ideal as a dedicated 'governor candidate' unit - affordable for those in a financial pinch. Enough to keep him alive yet not overly powerful in battle. If made cheaper than 100 peasants, maybe the AI will build some of these instead? Reduced building requirements (fort only?) but can't be merged to make a bigger squad, also affecting the 16 unit/stack limit.
5) Any other use you can think of.
I now realise that (1) cannot be made to work. Whilst it would be easy enough to clone a unit type, copy it into a custom slot and alter the men per unit, it has to be given a unique name label and this means it can't ever be merged into the type it was cloned from.
The other uses I suggest will all work but the AI will be disadvantaged by being unable to exploit the 'undersized garrison' trick. If it is also programmed to be miserly in unit production, it might over-build all the undersized versions of units, to reduce both initial outlay and maintainance costs or under-build and not gain what the player might gain from them.
In battle, the demi-units might formate incorrectly, with big gaps in the line triggering flanks-unprotected morale penalty, which will be compounded when the outnumbering penalty kicks in, as soon as the player's full sized units close range with them.
Your comments on this are welcomed.
While looking into this, a couple of things did confuse me and that was the entries for :-
1) unit support costs
2) Base Unit strength.
For support costs, the value is obviously NOT florins per man per year.
Examples:
Code:
Arbalester "3" = 22pa, for 60 men
Genoese Sailors "4" = 30pa, for 60 men
Spears "4" = 50 pa, for 100 men
Archers "5" = 37pa, for 60 men
NapthaThrowers "5" = 7pa, for 12 men
CatapultCrew "10" = 10pa, for 8 men
TrebuchetCrew "10" = 25pa, for 20 men
My best guess for the formula was (7.5 x Support Cost Factor) x (Number of men in unit before scaling / 60), rounded down to nearest integer.
'Base Unit strength' is even more obscure. A lot of the sixty-man units are set at 80 but here's some examples which show the amount of variation
Code:
Arbalester 1 (60 men)
HighlandClansman 16 (60 men)
Spearmen 80 (100 men)
Chivalricknights 80 (40 men)
BallistaCrew 20 (8 men)
MangonelCrew 25 (24 men)
CatapultCrew 28 (10 men)
TrebuchetCrew 1000 (20 men)
It's anyone's guess what's going on there. Maybe it has an effect on autocalc results?
