Quote Originally Posted by Wigferth Ironwall
The problem with Inns is that mercs are usually one shot units. After one or two battles all you have is a remnant. Especially with Cav.
Don't ever underestimate the worth of Cavalry cadres.

I've had units of 8 men which scored more kills and captures in their second and subsequent battles than they ever did when they were a full unit of 40.

Valour seems to count for a heck of a lot in this game and a 40 man unit reduced to less than 20 typically has gone up to V1 or V2 (due to the averaging of internal values for individual men) and, when down to less than 10 men, it's gone up V4 or more. Add a general's bonus to take them up to V8, for example and they're surprisingly effective.

High valour units seem to have the ability to intimidate low valour AI units, on occasion - triggering rout or withdrawal before even making contact. Once in a scrap, they kill more and rout them sooner. Chasing routers, they pick up numbers of prisoners totally out of proportion with their unit size.

In some cases, the AI behaves as if a very small unit is no threat to it at all. Given the choice, it will engage or archer into a unit wich is further away and of lower worth, apparently because it has more men in it. Good time to pounce!

Fair point though - a badly broken merc Cav unit which contrived to still be at V0, I would disband myself, on the basis of high maintainance versus low combat effectiveness. Apologies if this is what you actually meant.