Garrisons and public order... help?

[Flavius Gonzo]

So, I could use some help with some of you experts on how many units to garrison in a given city... there are a lot of things I don't yet understand.

I know that the public order bonus due to garrisons is capped at 80%. I also know that the number of necessary units to get to 80% varies based on the population of the town. Beyond that, I need help, there are a lot of things I don't understand.

1) Does the type of unit matter, or will all unit types have the same effect? (I.E, will a group of peasants give less of a bonus to public order than a group of Hastati?)

2) Does the number of soliders in a given unit matter, or only that a unit is present? (I.e, will a group of 50 Hastati give the same public order bonus as a group of 80 Hastati?)

3) Is there a rough way to calculate the number of units necessary to get to 80% based on a given population? The only way I can figure this out right now is starting about 80% and moving groups out of a city one at a time... this is getting tedious.

Thanks in advance for the help. This game is incredible, even with the bugs (which are definitely pretty prevalent!)

[Old Celt]

The type of troops used does not matter, only the quantity. A group of 120 peasants is better than 80 hastati. You should garrison with the lowest upkeep troops you can in accordance with the risk of that settlement being attacked. If you are in a front line area, you should have a few combat units for defense, if not, then you can garrison with all peasants or town watch.

[Flavius Gonzo]

So, if I'm understanding correctly, than 2 units of peasants (at 120 soldiers each) would bring the same public order benefit as 3 units of town watch... right?

I hear you on garrisoning with higher grade troops in border areas, that makes sense.

Any ideas on how to calculate how many men to have stationed in a given city based on it's population in order to achieve the full 80% effect?

[Kekvit Irae]

If you do not mind a lot of math, this thread is most likely what you are looking for

[Craterus]

I thought it was quality of troops, so I'm leaving half-decent troops in a town when I could be using Peasants as Garrisons.. Damn..

[Flavius Gonzo]

The game is so complex that it's easy to make mistakes like that. That's what makes it so fun though!!

I think there can be advantages too for garrisonning higher quality troops. In addition to the city being better defended, you have combat capable troops available to ride to another city in the area if it is attacked.

BTW, for anyone who doesn't want to follow the link to the other thread, the gist of it is that your total number of solidiers should be about 11% of your total population to get the full 80% public order bonus for the garrison. (There was also some discussion on whether or not its worth it to to get to 80% vs. other methods of improving public order...)

Thanks for the link KekV

[Craterus]

I'm talking about garrisons for cities in the centre of my empire..

[Old Celt]

Yep, it's all about quantity. Units that are larger (120 vs 80 members) give better total effect. If you can consider an area completely safe from attack, you could garrison with nothing but peasants, but because of rebel threats, I almost always have 3 or 4 units that are combat able, like a single cav, 2 archers and a respectable infantry unit. Else, you might have a long trip to get troops to destroy short rebel stacks.

[Marcus Maxentius]

Once my garrison gets to about 10 units and it still doesn't say 80 percent. I give up because it's a losing battle. I need empty slots in my troop-centers. For me, it's worth the cost to just have games if I don't have a high influence governor in the city to raise public order. It's slightly more expensive than recruiting the same amount of town watch, but it's happens instantly.

[I_dunno]

I just continue to add troops till the place is safe,it dosen't matter to me what they are.

[lars573]

I modded the size of town watch to 120 to help keep order. But it had a slight and unforseen side effect. Now the AI Roman factions have stacks full of town watch that they try to expand with, and get owned in the process. They also have a habit of de-populating their cities.

[MajorFreak]

be careful with this. CA long ago realized that use smarty pants would try and adjust the default unit size to make things easier...that's why they scaled garrison affect to the unit size you chose. (sneaky buggers, always one step ahead of us)

[Conqueror]

A unit of phalanx pikemen has as many men as a unit of peasants, so they are very good for garrisoning cities that have problems with public order but also in danger of being attacked.

[MajorFreak]

true true, but what's their relative cost/turn?

[IliaDN]

When I played Parthia and conqured even some Carthaginians provinces I had all those rvolts quite often so I just garrisoned city with some good cav and some onagers(about 5 cav units and 2 units of onagers)-so in case of revolt I could re-capture city in the same turn it revolted and exterminate population so city stood calm for some turns.So this can be a prof part of a garrison other units may be cheap(peasants for example)just to mantain order.
And if city is rarely revolting better to garrison it with cheap peasants, and have one or two generals in nerby provinces - so it would be possible to hire some mercs in case of enemy's attack.

[Brutus]

Don't wardogs (nice low upkeep) also have a good effect on public order?