Do you retrain?

[satalexton]

i tend to do both, usually as romans, merging is a must when you're far from any points you can retrain, so for every 2 army i lead there's always at least a half stack of replacements trailing behind to represent reserves+baggage train, or garrisoning a fort/settlement as a staging point.

[Cyclops]

I retrain especially when I'm actively at war.

Elites and crappy garrisons aside I tend to disband the army if I can, especially missle units. I'm aiming to get "faction specific" units with high experience rather than hordes of gold chervon sphendonetai.

As the Sweboz currently I disband everything once a campaign is done, with FMs as garrisons and merc strike forces on demand. That'll change post reforms when I can RP justify it.

[||Lz3||]

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

unfortunately... he was only a "leftenant" meaning that practically he wasn't even there...

once I had a FM with 3 silver chevrons but still had the "Green" trait cause he hadn't commanded any battle for himself...
role playing is hard... my FL has 10 management, 10 influence and 9 command stars...but he's already 57 so I don't think that he can still command armies... although Blücher could... umm what do you think Quintus?

and sorry for the offtopic

[phonicsmonkey]

I retrain in the early stages of expansion when I can easily pop back to my recruiting centre for a top-up. Later on I tend not to, and instead send new units to the front and merge them with older units in my armies which will also start to include regional mercs.

I'm using alex.exe, but I haven't seen so far substantial evidence of the AI retraining its troops.

[LorDBulA]

I do retrain units but I also merge them very often.
So on average I dont have many very experienced units.

[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.

[QuintusSertorius]

unfortunately... he was only a "leftenant" meaning that practically he wasn't even there...

once I had a FM with 3 silver chevrons but still had the "Green" trait cause he hadn't commanded any battle for himself...
role playing is hard... my FL has 10 management, 10 influence and 9 command stars...but he's already 57 so I don't think that he can still command armies... although Blücher could... umm what do you think Quintus?

and sorry for the offtopic

Aemilis Paullus was in his late fifties when he won Pydna. Really for Roman generals, who had to be at least 40 to even command an army, 60 was "old" to be in command.

[johnhughthom]

How old was Crassus at Carrhae, or Pompey at Pharsalus?

[QuintusSertorius]

How old was Crassus at Carrhae, or Pompey at Pharsalus?

Crassus was in his early sixties, Pompey in his late fifties (he was six years older than Caesar).

[Meothar]

I don't consider retraining as cheating. In fact, sending new troops from your homeland into the war is easier because your main armies almost never have to stop their conquest.
My way is having a half stack (Led by a young fm) behind the army as "reserve" and merge. When the reserve stack is empty, I form a new one in the homelands and send it to the front. I don't like the micromanagement of smaller armies of single units, so I gather first and march afterwards. Also, the command of the reserve is a good task for promising fms that have yet to learn about real war and logistics when they finish academy.

[dominique]

There must be a trick you've got that I don't because if I don't retrain, the AI is on my arse big time.

Ok the AI doesn't retrain but it has near limitless money and always stack away all the mercenaries. I just stopped an Arverni campaign in 266. Rome attacked me almost right away while I was stuck against the Aedui. I was lucky, I finished the Aedui quickly, I moved in Italy and in 4 turns I had 5 heroic victories... I razed Arretium and Arriminium, but even then, Rome sent stack after stack of mercenaries so I couldn't keep them. I must have destroyed over 60 000 mnai (and it's surely and understatement) worth of mercenaries, but I couldn't retrain my units fast enough to keep my advance. I had to cover a debt of -36000 and fight like a devil just to keep the damn Romies south of the Po. Since I was taxing like crazy just to keep my stack running, my towns stayed small. The last battle I fought, there was pedites against me. So the AI was able to buy off ALL mercenaries in Italy, because I couldn't buy any, AND was able to max his MIC. With 4 towns. This game was going nowhere. I was disgusted. I quit.

So hell yes I will retrain.

Unless somebody gives me his trick.

[QuintusSertorius]

Don't play on Very Hard campaign difficulty? The whole "every AI faction gets an extra 10,000 mnai a turn, as well as what the script gives them" business is reason enough for me not to play on VH. Because endless stacks of troops isn't "fun" it's boring. There's only so many times you can fight the same battles before it becomes pure tedium.

[tapanojum]

I ussually don't retrain and have a small stack with 1 or 2 units of common troops in my armies such as front rank troops and heavy skirmishers, which I use to replace any losses after battle.

Sometimes, if a battle is taken place near a city which can has access to a lot of my core units, I will by retraining there just because it's less of a hassle. In my Massalia game, Rome betrayed me and attacked Massalia. I relieved the siege, then after the battle retrained everything in the town and was ready to go on the advance all within 1 turn.

[konny]

I always retrain, even though I agree that new recruits should not be of the same experince as the old unit...

[roman]

In my last campaign (Sweeboz BI.exe VH/H) i have witnessed AI retraining, but only if i "knock" their army back in to one of their towns.

As far as the topic of this thread, yes i do retrain but it all depends on the unit. After a battle i will use similar units to top each other off to max, then send remainder back to be retrained. That only applies if retraining base is less then 4 turns away, other wise i will switch to the local units for my armies main stay. (Sweeboz example: spear/pike as army core early one, Alpine phalanx later one as i moved down south, and Baltic and Belgea spear men on my East/West expansion).
The only exception is one or two elite units i use per stack that can be acquired in only a few regions (Sweeboz ex: Celtic two hander unit and Basternista falx (sp:?) shock infantry). Those i will track back unless i find a better local sub.

I don't consider retraining an exploit by any means though, auto_win is border line (had to do it just to transport my army to Gaut land island in Baltic and put a diplomat on British soil).

[tapanojum]

I use auto_win a lot actually if I know for certain there is no way I could lose the battle. Auto_calc gives MUCH higher casualties than what I would normal have, even with auto_win I notice a higher amount in casualties then if I were to just do the battle myself. A lot of times, the front rank troops barely even get hurt while my cavalry or other rear end units take the damage. Doh!

[Havok.]

I use auto_win a lot actually if I know for certain there is no way I could lose the battle. Auto_calc gives MUCH higher casualties than what I would normal have, even with auto_win I notice a higher amount in casualties then if I were to just do the battle myself. A lot of times, the front rank troops barely even get hurt while my cavalry or other rear end units take the damage. Doh!

Cheater!

[Hax]

Yes, BUT!

I retrain only when my units are at full strength and can only increase in experience (to represent they are being sent to better training facilities to enhance their abilities).

[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...

[Obelics]

it depends on the level difficulty and the faction, on my first campaign i retrained, i played VH/VH with Parthians and KH, and i must say peraphs they were my first 2 campaign they were the more funny ones.

Now, i play from time to time, i never retrain and i play on VH/M, but i have to say it's not the same fun, i have to turn back on the old way sooner or later...
actually i started a 1.1 pahlava campaign on VH/M and i stopped it at 218 a.c, i never retrained, but still i got full of 2 silver chevrons horse archers. so i conclude that it's not that the problem, same with the Romans, or with other faction, if you merge well, you will got full chevroned units the same. I know you can disband your units, but it will be even more boring, cause it will became a work of book-keeping... the real problem, is the game-engine.

I have to try to resume my 2 current 1.1 (roman and pahlava) campaigns and ugrade that with SAGE on VH battle. That was the only time i got really fun in the past, and i will start to retrain again - have a struggle with the luck! you have the human intelligence, and the AI have the best of the best units (+7attack/+7defence)