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.

[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.

[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.

[Janius]

"No, and I play with alex.exe" got my vote

I consider retraining a cheat, so I just don't use it. But I do think that if the ai can benefit from it, it should be allowed to use it

[Dumbass]

It's too boring to have to create new units and merge them together.

[QuintusSertorius]

It's too boring to have to create new units and merge them together.

And having to ship an entire army back to your homeland (who's replacing them in the meantime?) isn't?

[Havok.]

i'm guilty on massive retraining

[johnhughthom]

It's not a crime to play the game the way you want to.

[QuintusSertorius]

It's not a crime to play the game the way you want to.

True enough.

[Mediolanicus]

I retrain in the beginning of campaigns, but it becomes more rarely when I expand.

On a side note. I play with BI.exe and I see the AI retraining constantly!!! Only the Eleutheroi don't retrain in my campaigns.

[Rilder]

Yes.

It annoys me to hell to have an army with under strength units, Half the time I fight a battle, retrain, send them out again, they fight, get sent home and retrain.

Not realistic most likely but eh.

[Cambyses]

Ive given pretty in depth reasons in another thread, but I would say its also pretty annoying to fight with small scrappy units of locally trained troops - especially in defensive garrison type cities that literally get besieged every other turn for many many years.

So, I do tend to retrain on defence, but rarely do so when sending out my conquering hordes, as its easier to merge units and buy mercenaries. On that note I often have a semi stack of reinforcements following along behind for just that purpose.

[Constantius I]

Yes I retrain all the time, I have 6 legions, two on active campaign, one in reserve in Rome, and three on defense in three "sectors" I created-Greece, Iberia and Cisalpine Gual. The two on campaign are relatively fresh, my reserve was recently on the front line but I moved them back to Rome to celebrate a triumph. I am going to transport the reserve back to the frontline soon, Carthage/North Africa, and put a battle worn legion back to Rome in order to retrain and act as a central reserve once again.


The System is brutally effective, making the game on vh/h really easy....

[Digby Tatham Warter]

And having to ship an entire army back to your homeland (who's replacing them in the meantime?) isn't?

I retrain quite alot, and I use a replacement army/force to hold the ground if needed.

I have also seen many elite units loose chevrons when retrained, usually in poportion to the casualties!

[Hektor]

Hi all!I retrain whenever it is possible.I know, its nit right to retrain on ALEX.EXE.But I play on VH/VH.And KI get a lot of bonus experiences with the battle.I play the Romancompany.In start Aedui, Scweboz and Arverni had war with each other.Now they are all my enemies.And I see all the time a lot of them with 3 silver Chevrons.The play slowly starts to be really difficult.One Question:how I can reduce the KI-bonus. Which file use.(Sorry for my English)

[Dumbass]

And having to ship an entire army back to your homeland (who's replacing them in the meantime?) isn't?

You still have tosend out a whole stack load of units though to yours frontlines to merge and bolster your units. I prefer shipping my guys back, it also ensures I don't expand too quickly.

[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.

[||Lz3||]

I should have voted "no I don't retrain and I'm using alex..." but I voted rarely...but I don't do it anymore..

If they're less than 15% of the unit or if there isn't any other similar unit nearby, I'll just disband them...

on a side note: In my last battle my FM had his 40 bodyguards killed and he was the only survivor... would that affect psicologically an ancient roman?

[Havok.]

I should have voted "no I don't retrain and I'm using alex..." but I voted rarely...but I don't do it anymore..

If they're less than 15% of the unit or if there isn't any other similar unit nearby, I'll just disband them...

on a side note: In my last battle my FM had his 40 bodyguards killed and he was the only survivor... would that affect psicologically an ancient roman?

He would surely belive that he was an object of a miracle, and he was destined to become Neo or he would blame Zeus, enter on a mighty crusade throughout the world to avenge his fellow comrades, in which at the end, he would cut off Zeus's beard and become the new All god of the world


Being logical now, i'd think that would affect anyone


edit:grammar

[johnhughthom]

I don't know about psychological effects, but I'll bet he got some darn good traits.

[Havok.]

I don't know about psychological effects, but I'll bet he got some darn good traits.

Hahahah true!

[Grriffon]

I have no qualms about retraining, but I also don't go out of my way to retrain units unless they have at least a silver chevron or above. Most of the time, after battles I will simply merge the remaining army and if any units are below say 30-40% I will either replace them (send to a near-by area I designate as a storage point for partial units) or send them home to be retrained.

Merging the survivors loses me a stack or two every now and then, but it's the easiest way to gain chevrons I've found so far. The triple gold Triarii I got during my Roman campaign were Gods of War. I cried when the Marian reform came around and I couldn't retrain them ever again, although they were so ridiculously awesome they almost never died anyways, and I still have 2-3 units of them kicking around down in Egypt.