Units and public order

[Vincent Butler]

Do certain units improve public order more than other units? Like, maybe Town Watch does more than ELC, and such?

[Ludens]

Do certain units improve public order more than other units? Like, maybe Town Watch does more than ELC, and such?

It's been ages since I played R:TW, but I don't recall that being the case. Only unit size made a difference.

[ReluctantSamurai]

There was always a long-standing debate about whether peasants vs regular troops made a difference. Never 'officially' researched, tho'.....

A peasant garrison, for some reason, was only half as effective at reducing public unrest as regular troops in BI, but apparently not so in R1.

About the only thing that can be said about peasants is that they are probably the most cost effective garrison...just don't let the city rebel

If you can wade through the geek-speak math:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...rrison-Effects

[wooly_mammoth]

In vanilla always opt for peasant garrisons, due to how cheap and big they are. Keep in mind that a garrison can never account for more than a 80% public order bonus, so don't throw units in past that point because it's just a waste of money. In BI, the factions that can train peasants should still use them as garrisons due to how cheap they are (I didn't have public order issues with them throughout my BI campaigns). Factions that can't train peasants (like the Huns) will have to cope with pretty significant garrison costs to keep the population happy.

In the EB mod you can get away with extremely small garrisons at times (think one governor + 1 cheap unit), due to the large number of buildings that give happiness & law bonuses and the fact that governors with proper education can actually end up being really good at their job. It's very nice.

[Vincent Butler]

In vanilla always opt for peasant garrisons, due to how cheap and big they are.

Of course frontier towns need military garrisons, but otherwise that may work. Which if they do decide to rebel, you are in trouble. Right now I am Macedon, so I can field Phalanx and Levy Pikemen for garrisons. I always like a garrison to be able to defend itself or quell a rebellion.

[wooly_mammoth]

I always like a garrison to be able to defend itself or quell a rebellion.

Well, think of it this way. For public order only the number of the troops, not their quality matters. Rebellions are very rare all in all and enemy attacks will always focus on your borders. So, every good soldier you leave sitting idly in a garrison deep in your territory is just an added burden on your economy with no return value. I'd suggest using peasants for garrisons, field armies to protect frontiers as you expand and have moderate mobile forces moving through the heart of your lands to eliminate rebel armies as they pop up. They can unite into doomstacks if left unchecked and may on occasion attack you.

[Ludens]

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...rrison-Effects

I actually searched for that thread, but managed to overlook it completely. Thanks for finding it.

[ReluctantSamurai]

I always like a garrison to be able to defend itself or quell a rebellion.

Reminds me of an unusual situation I had during a Parthian campaign.

I was trying to stay on the fringes of the 'Big E' until I could boost my economy enough to compete. I had already snagged Hatra and Seleucia from the Seleucids, and gearing up to eliminate Armenia. Egypt had just captured Palmyra but got booted out next turn by a rebellion. To my surprise...the new city garrison was flying the Parthian Standard

Of course Egypt would have none of that and besieged the next turn, and having no walls yet, they assaulted. I was tempted to just punch the whole thing out anyway especially because there was no way I was in a position yet to crank out enough troops to compete for very long against the Ptolemaic war machine. And because 3/4 of my troops were peasants..."silver-plated" mind you, but still only peasants

Fought the battle anyway against a moderately strong enemy stack with no chariots except for the general....and won Lost most of my troops but killed the enemy general and routed the remainder of his troops, which was fun and amusing.....for about two turns, when Egypt declared a cease-fire with everyone they were at war with to concentrate on Parthia.

Can you say Reload Please?

Moral of the story...not all peasants are created equal