Spontaneous unit replenishment

[Barbarossa82]

I've been playing RTW since it came out and I've never seen anything like this before. Hardly massive in game terms but nevertheless interesting.

Playing as Spain, I've used my initial unit of Scutarii in many battles, and eventually they were down to just 1 man with three gold chevrons. After the unit's last battle outside Narbo Martius, I decided to send the lonely Scutarius down to Corduba so he could be retrained into a full unit. He had just crossed the Pyrenees when I saved the game and exited.
Reloading the campaign the next day, the Scutarii unit is 2 strong. That's right, 2 men instead of the 1 it had when I left it. I put this down to my faulty memory, thinking maybe it had 2 all along.
However, a couple of turns later as the unit approached Corduba, I checked them once more and they had FOUR men! Where were they coming from?? I never got to see if the unit would regenerate further as they were attacked and annihilated by rebels before reaching the safety of the city.
Anyone else noticed units spontaneously gaining men, or know why it happens?

[Craterus]

Maybe this guy was gaining followers, since he was such an awesome warrior and all...

[Watchman]

I once read somewhere modding-related that the minimum number of men you could initially give an unit was 6. Could it be that the game over time "respawns" reinforcements to massively depleted units to put them at at least that mark ?

'Course, Craterus' theory isn't without its merits either.

[Viking]

I don`t even know how a one-man-unit managed to survive in the first place.

[Ciaran]

They don´t survive a battle, if a unit goes under a certain number of men (eight, I think) it is automatically disbanded after the battle. However, if you merge units of thhe strategic map it can very well happen that you´ve got units with one man in them. But then again, I´ve never seen a self-replenishing with those.

[Barbarossa82]

They don´t survive a battle, if a unit goes under a certain number of men (eight, I think) it is automatically disbanded after the battle. However, if you merge units of thhe strategic map it can very well happen that you´ve got units with one man in them. But then again, I´ve never seen a self-replenishing with those.

I had not merged the unit since I only had one Scutarii unit at that time - it had been there at the beginning and I didn't have a ability to train more until after the unit had been depleted to 1 man. I think the auto-disbandment you're talking about only happens if there is more than one unit of a given type in a stack, and it merges them if there is less than 8 (or whatever the actual threshhold number is) men in one or both of the units.

[Severous]

Ive had small units within stacks...but not had them gain strength like outlined above.

Wonder if this unit being the only unit in the stack was significant. ? Captain, like a leader, gains bodyguards ?

[x-dANGEr]

That can't happen Barbarosa. Simply, if the battle was finished with the unit having less than 8 men, it will be gone, and won't show on the strategic/campaign map.

[Alexanderofmacedon]

Maybe this guy was gaining followers, since he was such an awesome warrior and all...

It's very possible...

[Uesugi Kenshin]

That can't happen Barbarosa. Simply, if the battle was finished with the unit having less than 8 men, it will be gone, and won't show on the strategic/campaign map.

Actually I think that is only for routed units, I have had units survive a battle with fewer than eight men left, and not enough wounded men healed to make an eight man unit.

[Barbarossa82]

That can't happen Barbarosa. Simply, if the battle was finished with the unit having less than 8 men, it will be gone, and won't show on the strategic/campaign map.

Erm, it did happen. I didn't imagine it . I have actually seen units with less than 8 men as a result of battles several times - in fact just this morning I fought a battle where a unit of Macedonian Light Lancers started the battle with 5 men and finished with 1 (after the battle the remaining 1 was merged with another unit, although that couldn't happen to the Scutarii I mentioned becuase it was the only unit of its type I had).
What I have never, ever seen before is such small units inexplicably gaining men.

[Severous]

Hi

RTW V1.5 Large Scale (Equites = 54 men)

Ive been moving around a unit of Equites that have 3 men.

All alone in their stack of one unit.

They didnt replenish nor disappear.

Thats the result I expect. Would not expect replenishment.

Barbarossa observed the replenishment effect on an initial unit. Wonder if thats got anything to do with it.?

[Viking]

Since cavalry has smaller unit sizes, fewer men is required for a unit to survive from the battlefield to the campaign map. Unit size(larg, small etc.) probably also got something to say.

[x-dANGEr]

Oh well, you seem to be so sure about it. But I just never experienced it. Maybe you can post screenies for us to study them, though.

[Barbarossa82]

I'll see what I can do - I don't have a savegame involving the Scutarii I mentioned, but I'll try to replicate the conditions that led up to it.

[Cras]

the unit can consist of 1 man, when he is part of a larger army. If you take this unit and separate it, it will automaticly gain 1 person, the captain.
dont know how they can grow to 4 though.

after a fight, you can see how many men have healed their wounds. For instance you would have 50 men when the fight ended, but when you check the stats after the fight you have 55 and 5 healed
perhaps some need longer to heal and rejoin the army? That would be pretty impressive and funny

[Atilius]

Concerning how the "minimum" unit strength is enforced:

It's possible to get any number of units of the same type in the same stack with fewer than the "minimum" (6 on normal) number of men. I frequently merge units to bring one up to strength and then march the remainders off to a city to retrain them. However, if my stack of remainders runs into an enemy stack, before combat all units of the same type which are under the "minimum" strength are automatically merged. Immediately after a battle the same thing happens, so after a battle you can have at most 1 unit of each type with fewer men than the "minimum".

[Atilius]

[Edit: Remove double post]

[x-dANGEr]

That is if you merge your units. But he didn't, considering that it was the only Scutarii unit in the army, how did he get it to 1 man without merging or anything!!

[Barbarossa82]

It was because it was the only unit of that type in the army that it was able to survive with just one man. If a unit is reduced to a small number of men during a battle (I don't know what the threshhold is but it seems like about 6), then it will be merged upon completion of the battle if there is another unit of that type for it to merge into. But if it is the only unit of that type, it cannot be merged. It survives as a single unit with a small number of men, at least if it did not rout during the battle. If they end the battle routed, I think they may get disbanded.

Below is a screenshot of two units in my current Macedonian campaign who are in the same situation as the Scutarius from my Spanish campaign. The Cretan archers and macedonian archers both finished a battle with 1 man left, but were not routed (due to their high experience level I guess). There are no other units of that type for them to merge into, so they survive as 1-man units.

[Atilius]

x-Danger and Barbarossa82,

I was only trying to clear up what appeared to be some confusion about the conditions under which you can have fewer than the minimum number of men in a unit. As for the spontaneous unit replenishment, I have no idea.

I can only conclude that Barbarossa82 has been leading an exemplary life and is receiving divine favor.