Strategy for building native and reigonal units?

[Intranetusa]

In order to build the largest number of units in each province, is it a good strategy to:

1. Build level 4 command centers for all conquered province, then build up to the highest level of Auxillary MIC

2. After you get the highest axillary MIC, destroy the lvl 4 command center and build a level 2 command center so you can create your best regional units.

This might take a long while and be bad for public order, but is it good for getting a large number of troops?


Also, should I always build the highest level of regional MIC, because some levels have 'no new units' but the level above it/after it has units?

ie. regional-local MIC
lvl 1-2 has units
lvl 3 has no units
lvl 4 has an elite unit

So I should always build to the highest level?

[satalexton]

theoretically yes, but economically no.

In the same way how smart players don't build up every city's barracks to save mnai, you should choose certain settlements as native troop centres, usually one or 2 per region.

face it, all the money you spent going through the various barracks and government, not to mention the turns u wasted, you could of easily financed a campaign to take another region.

[||Lz3||]

so far I've found the reginal mics as a waste of money... <.<

building up to 5th level costs like 40k mnai , so I can get some "little above average" units when for that money I can crush half the region with my factional troops... emm

I pretty much only use them for roleplaying or stuff...

[Fondor_Yards]

It all depends on where you are and what faction your playing as. If your someone like Carthage, Pontus, Seleucids, then that 4th/5th level could give you a number of very nice units. Cordinau Orca, Gaesatae, both types of Indian Elephants, and Brihentin are very good lvl 5 regional units.

[Tiberius Aurelius Cotta]

it really depends, tbh

what faction, what playstyle, the size of thr city, etc...

as above, i prefer to use factional troops when necessary, and use only 2 or 3 cities as main troop centres per region... That way, when i've long finished assimilating that region, i can work on boosting population, and not have to regret wasting money for troops i no longer need... Not to mention, not all troops are good in each situation

[Tiberius Aurelius Cotta]

it really depends, tbh

what faction, what playstyle, the size of thr city, etc...

as above, i prefer to use factional troops when necessary, and use only 2 or 3 cities as main troop centres per region... That way, when i've long finished assimilating that region, i can work on boosting population, and not have to regret wasting money for troops i no longer need... Not to mention, not all troops are good in each situation

[QuintusSertorius]

Saving money is very rarely a concern of mine once you get into the mid-game. If anything it's finding places to sink money that's an issue.

In my Pergamon game, I've just got large parts of Anatolia, the Bosphorous and a bit of Thrace and I'm rolling in money. No need to expand, I could support five or six armies just from that, though I currently have just three.

[The Celtic Viking]

Bypassing the limitation on the possible MICs based upon gov. type in the way described in the OP is considered to be a cheat, just so you know. If you really want to do it anyway, you can of course do so - it's all up to you to decide how to play. I'm just sayin'.

[Apgad]

Use the recruitment viewer to see which provinces give you the best local troops (both quality and quantity, depending on what your gameplay requires). I usually develop 1 province militarily for every 6 or so. This provides the local defence force and cleans up rebels for the others, which can then focus on building the economy.

I try to keep sections of the map more or less autonomous, so that I can use my factional armies where I need them guarding and expanding my borders. Once pacified, areas like Iberia, Gaul, Britain, North Africa can all look after themselves, with minimal investment in building MICs.

Other than this single recruiting centre (Gov 4) I use the highest available government, so that I have the widest range of economic building to develop.

[konny]

Bypassing the limitation on the possible MICs based upon gov. type in the way described in the OP is considered to be a cheat, just so you know. If you really want to do it anyway, you can of course do so - it's all up to you to decide how to play. I'm just sayin'.

Yep. It would in most cases also not be realistic to do so. Usually you should stick to factional troops as your core army and only use regionals as auxilary. The historical counterparts of your faction wouldn't trust briefly subjugated people to be armed again to full extend and form a major part of the army. Only when establsihing an allied client state you should benefit from the complete line-up of the regionals.

That's the way EB is meant to be played. There are of course a few exceptions, when factional troops or the required governments only come after a reform; but that's only true for a few factions.

[hoom]

There are not too many provinces where you get good lvl 5 Regionals (most provinces only offer recruitable generals at lvl5) but there are plenty where lvl3/4 Regional unit types are very useful.

I use the Recruitment Viewer to work out what sort of Government to build when I conquor a province.
Not often a Type 4 but I remember an EB member saying that the progression from 3/4 up to 1/2 is the preferred method (gradual cultural integration) so I fairly often build up a type 3, then switch over to whichever of type 1/2 is available.

Once you get outside of your factions 'comfort zone', its all Regionals anyway.

[TheGlobalizer]

I'm not sure I would go so far as to call it a "cheat" -- the gameplay clearly permits this scenario, no modding or cheat codes are necessary -- but I agree that it's ahistorical and unrealistic.

[LorDBulA]

I'm not sure I would go so far as to call it a "cheat" -- the gameplay clearly permits this scenario, no modding or cheat codes are necessary

Only because we are unable to force it using RTW engine.
This is not intentional.
It is an exploit.

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

Bypassing the limitation on the possible MICs based upon gov. type in the way described in the OP is considered to be a cheat, just so you know. If you really want to do it anyway, you can of course do so - it's all up to you to decide how to play. I'm just sayin'.

I disagree on that. The gods of EB (aka the EB-team) have positioned a lvl 3 local MIC in Thessalia at the game's start which allows you the recruitment of Classical Hoplites as Makedonia. Mind you, Thessalia has a lvl 1 homeland government from start on. So, how can you expect anyone not to "cheat", when there is a cheat given from the game itself?

Another issue as Makedonia is the recruitment of Cretan Archers in Krete. You can either put up a lvl 4 gov, and then build up the local MIC to lvl 3 for Classical Hoplites, or you can build a satrapy and build a native MIC 4 for Toxotai Kretikoi. So either Hoplites or Archers? In Rhodos you have to opt for at least lvl 3 government to recruit Rhodian Slingers from a native MIC. In turn, local MICs do not give you Hoplites this time.

In Odrysai, you have to build a lvl 3 gov to be able to recruit Thraikioi Prodromoi, Rhompaiaphoroi, Triballoi, Kuarothoroi and even Thrakioi Peltastai. If you switch to a higher government, it would be all gone. Mind you, it is a homeland province. Agrianikoi Pelekuphoroi on the other hand come with a factional MIC, so you can comfortably recruit them in Makedonia proper without having to make your core province a client kingdom first.

For me, government is not a degree of hellenization, it is a form of government. The degree of hellenization is expressed through the buildings in your city, first of all the palace. Then temples and sanitization buildings. Markets are also important, festivals etc. The chief city of a region is a symbol for all the cities of the region, so the other cities would be equally hellenized. Tylis in my current game is a thoroughly hellenized city, and there is nothing barbarian left. But it's still a client kingdom. So how comes it I can "cheatfree" recruit Kuarothoroi and all the other goodies there?

One day it will be fully incorporated into the Makedonian Kingdom, and I will still recruit Kuarothoroi there. They will be as hellenized then as they are now.

[konny]

One day it will be fully incorporated into the Makedonian Kingdom, and I will still recruit Kuarothoroi there. They will be as hellenized then as they are now.

Setting aside the fact that Makedonia is able to draft the Hoplites militia in Thessalia, the Kuarothoroi are a good example: A fully Hellenized nobility in those lands would no longer wear trousers and fight in their traditional way. They would have appeared as Hetairoi or Hypaspists on the battlefield.

The problem that we have with the RTW enginge is that we cannot plausible create a gradual change in the population of a given region after so and so many years of foreign occupation. That way the population is frozen at spring 272 BC. Would the game start in 372 BC, for example, there wouldn't be any Gauls in Galatia or Odrysai; and there would also be no way of getting them there. Wild migration scenarios are simply not possible in EB, like following the path of the Goths with the Sweboz.

RTW vanilla went the exact opposite way, assuming that once you conquer a province the entire native population is displaced and the province is completly settled by your own people the very next day. The game engine does not allow for a middle way because it is not possible, for example, to tie recruitement to cultural penality or the turns passed since conquest or since a specific building was errected.

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

Setting aside the fact that Makedonia is able to draft the Hoplites militia in Thessalia, the Kuarothoroi are a good example: A fully Hellenized nobility in those lands would no longer wear trousers and fight in their traditional way. They would have appeared as Hetairoi or Hypaspists on the battlefield.

Not the militia Hoplites, but the classical Hoplites. They are militia in a way, but I want to point that out in case of a misunderstanding.

I agree that Hellenes wouldn't want to fight in trousers. But they are already Hellenes in my game, given the fact that the city is completely Hellenic. The only thing is that there is an allied state government. So because of the government in place you don't consider it a cheat to recruit Kuarothoroi there.

The other way round: would I just conquer that Gallo-Thracian settlement, install a homeland government, but leave the town completely alone, only building up my factional MICs I could recruit Hysteroi Pezhetairoi there after the March of Time, and you still wouldn't consider it a cheat.

So what's left to me is to roleplay that aspect. In my actual game, Tylis is a fully hellenized city. There is also a Hellenic port city, and probably a few other Hellenic cities. But there are still lots of Celtic and Thracian vici and market places scattered over the countryside, with Thracian and Celtic population and nobility. Odrysai is a Keltohellenothraikian client kingdom of Makedonia. And when I decide to end this political entity, the reason I still have to invent, there will still be these vici and the Thracian and Celtic nobility.

That doesn't mean I didn't understand the hardcoded limits that cannot be bypassed. I live quite good with them, and I have absolutely no problems with executing that particular "exploit".