Quote Originally Posted by Ciaran
What kind of fortress level do I need for that? At the moment, I´ve got a keep there and I can´t build anything with an anvil.
You must be one of these people who bought the bargain-bin edition, without the tech tree. You might find it in .pdf format, by browsing the CD but this isn't much help when you're in mid game and want to look something up!

For the record, Metalsmith isn't available until you upgrade the keep to castle level (2000 florins) but will be worth it as it opens up other building possibilities as well.

In my opinion, you don't really require to upgrade the attack level of your troops unless and until one of the AI factions has somehow out-teched you and is beginning to flaunt units with higher level armour upgrades than yours have.

The good thing is that careful circulation of the more common unit types around your empire and through the metalsmith province for retraining allows you to steadily re-equip your forces with the improved weapons without increasing your overall army maintainance costs. Improved armour or weapon rating seemingly has no bearing on the training cost of brand new units (though I sometimes think it should when I see screenshots with enormaous bank balances ).

I know there is a cost (proportion of full price) when you retrain a cadre back to full strength but I have been unable to tell whether we are charged full unit price when we merely re-equip a full strength unit. If anyone can clarify this from personal observations, I'd be very grateful.