Do you retrain?

[QuintusSertorius]

Simple enough question, I'm wondering how many people retrain their units, rather than merging or even just replacing with freshly-recruited ones.

It's well known that the AI rarely retrains with the exception of with alex.exe. So in a lot of ways if you're playing with any other executably, it's effectively an exploit in favour of the human player.

It's also, IMO, pretty unrealistic too, given you can restore a veteran unit with a handful of survivors right back to it's old effectiveness. And in only a season, doing the same with potentially several units at once.

So do you do it?

[johnhughthom]

In my Romani campaigns I disband my legions after 16 years and don't retrain them during their lifespan. I would recruit an "emergency legion" if necessary rather than retrain, but have never had call to do so.

[Chris1959]

I used to a lot for my legions, but I've just re-started a new camaign on 1.1, with loads of mini-mods so I will now use fresh drafts to re-inforce.
I would like to disband legions after a term of service but it takes to long to re-recruit, an area that is good in MTW2.

[QuintusSertorius]

When I retrain a veteran unit, I almost always lose chevrons. Especially when there are only a handful of men left; I've seen silver chevron units drop to 1 or 2 bronze.

In the handful of times I've retrained, I've never seen loss of experience, no matter how depleted a unit is.

I would like to disband legions after a term of service but it takes to long to re-recruit, an area that is good in MTW2.

Too long? When you've got all your Italian towns able to recruit either Romans or Italian allies, it takes two, or at most three turns to create a full stack consular army.

Which you can always do in advance of disbanding the old army.

[mucky305]

Yes, but only in originating provinces and only factional troops (allied troops are disbanded in their home province). I generally merge and then retrain (if above 50% strength) or disband (if below). It works well and helps to model the veteran core of troops that tend to stay.

[polluxlm]

When you have 90 provinces and 20 armies it's simply too much of a hassle to bother with those things. Easier to just send your full army home.

Exploit? If I had the ability to have bureaucrats fix all that shit for me, like the kings had, yes then it would be.

[sanitarium]

It's well known that the AI rarely retrains with the exception of with alex.exe. So in a lot of ways if you're playing with any other executably, it's effectively an exploit in favour of the human player.

It's also, IMO, pretty unrealistic too, given you can restore a veteran unit with a handful of survivors right back to it's old effectiveness. And in only a season, doing the same with potentially several units at once.

I wouldn't say it's an exploit just because the AI doesn't use it, it's still a legitimate game mechanic. It'd be kind of like calling naval invasions an exploit since the AI rarely if ever does them (at least, not coordinated invasions).

When I retrain a veteran unit, I almost always lose chevrons. Especially when there are only a handful of men left; I've seen silver chevron units drop to 1 or 2 bronze.

[ServiliusAhala]

Rarely, and never legions, only the few units which i grow "emotionally attached" too, when they do something extraordinary. Like routing Gesetae.

[lobf]

When it's a low stress time, I retrain. I don't want to bother with having extra units around and having to disband them. Sometimes it's just bothersome, so I retrain. I figure the governor of the city could easily call up just enough men to put the army back to full strength.

In wars, though, I don't retrain, as it is kind of exploitative.

[phonicsmonkey]

I'm going to stop retraining as it is making the game way too easy for me.

Last night I easily whupped the ass of a 3.5k strong Getai force with a thousand strong KH army of silver-chevronned hoplites (of various persuasions).

It's fair to say the novelty of having experienced troops has worn off...I just don't see the Alex.exe retraining its men enough to put up a fight against mine..

[Tiberius Aurelius Cotta]

i do... why not??? if i'm near one of my MIC's and my home territory, then i will...

i don't like having depleted units when i know i can bolster them back sharpish without a hassle. If i'm far away from a home MIC, then i'll probably send new armies in... though for me setting up non-factional MICs and choosing the extent to do so gets more annoying...

[Kromulan]

I generally merge old with new, but if my campaigning army is in a spot where they can retrain, I'll "top off" the less-experienced units. My veteran units tend to gradually attrition to the point of uselessness, then get merged with other worn-down units.
Once you're in my army, buddy, you'll never see home again!

[Hooahguy]

of course i retrain- unless i cant.

[kingsword]

Depends, if it's one of those one-province, ultra-rare elites, yes. Generally easier to merge common units.

[socal_infidel]

I tend to only retrain garrison units. I try to avoid being sieged in the first place by sending a reinforcement army. But in the event I am sieged, I just retrain the units regardless of their experience.

With field armies, I usually just merge units (I'll retrain if they have no experience). For severely undersized units after merging, I disband in a province and consider them veteran settlers entitled to a well-deserved retirement from active duty. It can be quite sad to see some veterans go. I had two units of depleted Dahae Riders left (after starting out with four or five on my campaign) with oodles of experience that I had to disband in Persepolis after they had accompanied the King of Kings on his journey from the steppe.

[STuNTz2023]

i tend to retrain often, sending an army to replace the one im bringing back home.

[spqr_arcani]

Yes, retrain as much as possible.
I find myself doing this often during pre-Marian.

I top off less experienced units with more experienced units of the same type,
provided the unit I'm topping off with doesn't get integrated with the less experienced one.
(i.e. there are a few left to retrain).

Then I send the remains to a city where they can retrain.

This has the unrealistic effect of giving both units more chevrons
(the topped off unit gets experience from more experienced one, and the one topping off
gets more chevrons because of dilution).

My PC is too slow and I just want to finish the game as fast as I can.
Even with this I still only have a few units that have gold chevrons by
the time I got Marian Reforms.