The MIC System

[Spidey]

Okay, you knew someone was going to be confused. Let me say that appears to be me.

I love the idea of this new system. I read the sticky post with the explanation of the MIC system. I think it's great. But while I seem to understand it in theory, I'm having problems actually implementing it.

Playing Makedonia. Medium/Medium (I'm like to win --- sue me). I take the following provinces Sparta, Athens, and another Greek one.

After I take the province, a form of government appears. I don't get to choose it. It just appears. Somehow I had the impression I would get to choose the form of government.

In time, two different "chains" of military barracks appear. One for training my Makedonians and one for training the locals. Yet, I've played for years now (translate this into a lot of turns) and I'm not seeing a lot of "local" units being offered for Sparta. You know what I want: those death-in-red Spartan hoplites. But they're not appearing.

So I just start burning turns but nothing happens (well, except I find myself fighting everyone).

Am I doing something wrong? I really want to understand because I think I'm going to like this version of RTW.

Thanks.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Those local MIC's are for natives of the province that are different from your culture group. You won't find any greeks in them if you are a greek faction. But if you choose seleukids, your greeks are in your base MIC and your locals are in the local ones.

Did you repair those govt buildings when you take a province? Never repair a govt building when you first capture a province. Always destroy them and start your own.

[Spidey]

Those local MIC's are for natives of the province that are different from your culture group. You won't find any greeks in them if you are a greek faction. But if you choose seleukids, your greeks are in your base MIC and your locals are in the local ones.

Okay, so Macedonia and Greece (Athens, Sparta, that group) are obviously both Greek cultures. But aren't there unit differences between each faction? Macedonian cavalry units, for example. Spartan Hopolites. When we conquer another factions city, even within our own culture, do we get access to their units?

My guess is no.

Did you repair those govt buildings when you take a province? Never repair a govt building when you first capture a province. Always destroy them and start your own.

I thought I destroyed them. I'll check though . . .

Spidey

[blacksnail]

Spidey, that's the idea. Optimizing recruitment behind the scenes (to cut down on file size) and more effective use of regional MICs near one's homelands is one of our primary goals for future releases.

Also, check out this post.

[Spidey]

Thanks to Teleklos and Blacksnail for replying. I do apprediated it.

Okay, I read the other post and I'm still confused. So --- when you call up the level 1 building card and there are no units listed on the card, obviously that means you won't get any units when that building is complete. Does it also mean that, no matter how many buildings in the chain you build, that you won't get any local units?

My point is this: if when you pull that local unit building card, there are no units listed, then do you just assume it's not worth your time to develop this chain of buildings?

Wow. I hope made sense.

Also, I read in another post, I think by Teleklos, that he was still working on Spartan units. Could the reason that I'm not seeing any Spartan units in my local build be that they haven't been added yet?

Did that make sense?

Spidey

[blacksnail]

My point is this: if when you pull that local unit building card, there are no units listed, then do you just assume it's not worth your time to develop this chain of buildings?

Yes, for 0.80 that's a good rule of thumb. If you see no units at level 1 (particularly in a Homeland region), it is probably not worth your time and money to build up. Expansion and especially Outlying regions are much more likely to have regional units. Future versions of EB will, I hope, simply prevent the building of regional MICs where no regional troops are present. That's my goal for the next major version, at least.

There MAY be exceptions to this rule - recruitment is the most complex thing in this game, and even with some of our Top Secret EB Recruitment Tools it can be mind-numbing to find stuff like this - but those should be few and far between, particularly in the Homeland regions.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

If anyone wants to start a campaign as Koinon Hellenon and have King Areus start with a unit of spartans, it's easy. Just open up descr_strat.txt and enter them into his soldiers. Here is what I'm suggesting for 0.81:

character	Areus Eurypontidos, named character, leader, command 0, influence 0, management 0, subterfuge 0, age 55, , x 141, y 101
traits NaturalIntelligence 4 , NaturalCharisma 3 , NaturalEnergy 2 , Selflessness 3 , Loyalty 5 , Temperament 3 , TurnsAlive 6 , Spartiates 1 , AreusEurypontidosBiography 1 , CommandExperience 4 , GoodTactician 1 , GoodAdministrator 2 , NumancillariesAcquired 3 , YearsPassed 4
ancillaries brilliant_inventor , playwright , clerk
army
unit		greek cavalry generals bodyguard				exp 1 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit		hellenistic infantry spartiateshoplitai				exp 2 armour 0 weapon_lvl 1
unit		hellenistic missile cretan archers				exp 1 armour 0 weapon_lvl 1
unit		greek skirmisher akontistai				exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit		greek infantry taxeis hoplitai				exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0

Just replace your old text for his units with that one. It gives him a unit of kretan archers too. They just got back from krete after all and brought some soldiers from there with them. Try that even if you play as Maks - to play against them.

Backup your descr_strat.txt file before you start messing with it though - of course!!

[Spidey]

If anyone wants to start a campaign as Koinon Hellenon and have King Areus start with a unit of spartans, it's easy. Just open up descr_strat.txt and enter them into his soldiers. Here is what I'm suggesting for 0.81:

This should make things . . . interesting.

Also, what is the timeframe for the release of 0.81. I'm not asking for a specific date, just an idea. If it's coming in a few weeks, I'll just shift to the Roma campaign and wait for the update.

Thanks.

Spidey

[blacksnail]

I can't say anything about update schedules, but I can say you might want to shift to the Roma game for the time being.

[Gazius]

I personally think you should still be able to recruit local units even in the homeland. As Rome, I love being able to recruit Sarmatian heavy infantry. It does seem a little odd that I can recruit this with local MIC at level 1 though. In the peninsula at least, it seems like it doesn't actually matter what type of gov/local MIC you have, you can recruit everything that's available, though I haven't gotten far enough to thoroughly test this.

[blacksnail]

Romani are a bit unique in this regard compared to the other factions. Initially you build the Factional MIC in just a few regions, and the Regional MIC everywhere else.

This changes later in the game...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Beginning with the Marian reforms, you will be able to build Factional MICs across much of your conquered territory.

If you know your late Republic-era Roman history, the reason should be self-explanatory.

[blacksnail]

As Rome, I love being able to recruit Sarmatian heavy infantry. It does seem a little odd that I can recruit this with local MIC at level 1 though.

From which city?