retraining troops....

**professorspatula** · 02-27-2005, 01:32

Regarding 0 training time, I think that would be acceptable for the mere levy units: peasants, militia etc who are relunctantly called upon in times of desparation. Perhaps if public order suffered a large blow if you repeatedly summoned up levy armies, it would offset some of the advantages of being able to produce so many units fast. Although in RTW public order goes up instead because you're reducing the population, thus reducing squalor and need for a large garrison.

Having fully trained and elite soldiers trainable in 0 turns I don't agree with, and you could just walk over the enemy depending on whether or not you have a) lots of money at the time and/or b) advanced troop buildings in that area. You could just churn out dozens of legionaries or cataphracts or whatever and blitz the AI without a second thought. The AI would also need to be able to handle mass producing units and I don't think it could ever be as sneaky or forward thinking as the player in that respect.

**Spetulhu** · 02-27-2005, 02:35

So you think retraining makes the game too easy? Don't use it. Just combine all the leftover men into full-size units after a battle.

**Quietus** · 02-27-2005, 04:21

IMO, A player should be able to build more troops per turn.

It is the building construction that is really faulty. Some should at least cost 10x what they are now. And at least 3x longer to build. With that kind of limit, the player won't be able to "churn" out troops at a high rate. If a player skirts the constructions, then the player will be only able to train low level troops.

Players will be faced with a dillema: economics (constructing buildings) or military invasion (troop training ), but not both.

**afrit** · 02-27-2005, 15:06

Regarding the zero training time issue: my solution was to make a mod where you can choose to train one unit at a time at the usual cost, or pay 4 times more per unit and train several together.

I think the game is just right in the early phase. Several factions present a (reasonable) challenge in the first 10 turns or so. But once your immediate neighbor is beaten, it becomes repetitious and tedious.

My solution would be to implement a zone of recruitment like in RTR to slow the human blitzer (the AI factions would be exempt) and to beef up one of the AI factions to make it a decent opponent (e.g if you're playing gauls, beef up the Seleucids and Carthaginians, and weaken Egypt).

**Fridge** · 02-27-2005, 15:16

It's the game's main problem rearing its ugly head in yet another form... the retraining wouldn't be so much of a problem if the AI did the same as the player. In my current campaign I keep coming up against armies, checking them out and shitting myself cos the computer has a load of very dangerous units - cataphracts and the like, with loads of gold chevrons. Then you realise there are only about 6 men left in the unit. If the AI would take those units back to a city and retrain them, you'd end up facing 108 triple-gold cataphracts - a bit of a challenge. As it is...

**screwtype** · 02-27-2005, 19:17

Originally Posted by Fridge

If the AI would take those units back to a city and retrain them, you'd end up facing 108 triple-gold cataphracts - a bit of a challenge. As it is...

No you wouldn't, because the newly trained cataphracts wouldn't have that level of experience.

**McGowan** · 02-27-2005, 21:51

I'm afraid they would Screwtype, perhaps in your haste to quit playing the game, you failed to notice that retrained units retain their experience.

As for the question at hand... The one turn, multi-unit retraining is MUCH superior to MTW in my opinion. I am still annoyed at the fact that one can only build one unit per turn per province. The way I would have designed the game would have been to implement a limit to the number of men able to be taken from a province for military service per turn, and b) increase the manpower costs for the units themselves. But hey, they didn't ask me...

**NicSO** · 02-27-2005, 21:59

Originally Posted by McGowan

I'm afraid they would Screwtype, perhaps in your haste to quit playing the game, you failed to notice that retrained units retain their experience.

As for the question at hand... The one turn, multi-unit retraining is MUCH superior to MTW in my opinion. I am still annoyed at the fact that one can only build one unit per turn per province. The way I would have designed the game would have been to implement a limit to the number of men able to be taken from a province for military service per turn, and b) increase the manpower costs for the units themselves. But hey, they didn't ask me...

Not 100%, try to retrain 5 +3 expirience soldiers....

**The Stranger** · 02-28-2005, 13:45

Originally Posted by Quietus

IMO, A player should be able to build more troops per turn.

It is the building construction that is really faulty. Some should at least cost 10x what they are now. And at least 3x longer to build. With that kind of limit, the player won't be able to "churn" out troops at a high rate. If a player skirts the constructions, then the player will be only able to train low level troops.

Players will be faced with a dillema: economics (constructing buildings) or military invasion (troop training ), but not both.

this way the game would get even more boring.

**Quillan** · 02-28-2005, 14:12

The AI does retrain occasionally, but not consistently, it would seem. In my last campaign, some of the hardest fighting I had as the Julii was when I got around to going after the Britons. They had 4 armies of 16-20 units, each full strength with 3 silver chevrons. I don't know what the trigger is for AI retraining, but they had done it at some point.