Quote Originally Posted by Sensei Warrior
I think Adrian II might be of the 'newer isn't always better' group of players. He lovingly treats all of his units with the same type of reverence we would treat a nine star general in terms of training and reoutfitting.
Indeed. But there is an extraneous reason for that, too. Forgive my fragmented answers, but I am writing this in the middle of a long day's work.

After I bought my first M:TW VI years ago and played it for while, I had to give it up due to all sorts of other pressing business. So I gave my copy to someone else. A year ago I bought a new one because I had more time on my hands. This new copy however had a bug, or maybe my computer has a tweaking issue - anyway, it turned out I couldn't fight battles with an army of over 960 troops because the battle screen would go pitch-black.

Instead of crying all over the tech and modding forums about my issue, I decided to make do. This has been very instructive. Since I couldn't field armies of 960+ soldiers I had to concentrate on quality instead of quantity in my armies. I never have more than 960 soldiers in any province, even if a province is about to be attacked by 2500 ululating Mongols. If they do attack, they will face five Valour 5 CS units, four Valour 3 Pavise Arbalest units, backed up by an assortment of battle-hardened flankers and Cavalry. Raise these stats by 2 because of the General's bonus and you get the picture. It's a slaughterhouse. I may have to withdraw due to exhaustion, but not before having kicked 2000 Mongols buckets without losing so much as one hundred men myself.

Lately I have take to ''Rebel-training" my Guns as well. It is amazing how much damage a Valour 3 Culverin (plus General's bonus) can do. But it is time-consuming to always be moving decimated guns crews across your campaign map.

One type of unit that really benefits from training-and-merging is Chivalric Knights. Man, the beauty of a Valour 4 CK unit charging across the battlefield and routing enemy unit after enemy unit in a single charge (higher Valour = higher attack and defense value) is a sight for sore eyes. And sore is what they usually are at 1 am, after the day's work is done...