A Question About Upgrading/Training Troops

[Sensei Warrior]

I seen a number of posts where people refer to sending troops to different provences for training typically to get Weapon upgrades since only 10 provences have the Iron Resource. I will give a hypothetical situation and then pose the question.

You are playing the English. You have a desire to make your Billmen as powerful as possible. You have a Master Spearmaker in Mercia (I think thats their requirement). You have a Cathedral in Wessex. A Master Armorer in Flanders and Master Weaponsmith in Navarre (I think that one has Iron).

You build a unit in Mercia and then send it to Wessex, Flanders, and then Navarre. The question I have is: When you have finished sending your unit around would it have:

All of the valour bonuses from Mercia? They would get one from the provence and one for the Master Spearmaker.

The Morale bonus from Wessex?

The gold armor from Flanders?

The gold weapon from Navarre?

Outside the minimum requirements for the unit, would there have been anything to stop this from happening? If Navarre didn't have a Master Armorer would you still have been able to upgrade your weapons and keep the upgraded armor? Is their any buildings I forgot? I vaguely remember the Military and College of Surgeons doing something? If I did forget a building or two, do those buildings work the same way?

Now that I look at it, it isn't a question but alot of questions. I know someone out there must know the answers, and if they don't I suppose I will have to answer it on my own, its just going to take awhile. I am nothing but long winded.

[Martok]

You build a unit in Mercia and then send it to Wessex, Flanders, and then Navarre. The question I have is: When you have finished sending your unit around would it have:

All of the valour bonuses from Mercia? They would get one from the provence and one for the Master Spearmaker.

Yes. Yes.

The Morale bonus from Wessex?

Yes.

The gold armor from Flanders?

Yes.

The gold weapon from Navarre?

Yes. (It's a Metalsmith, by the way, not Weaponsmith. )

Outside the minimum requirements for the unit, would there have been anything to stop this from happening?

Nope.

If Navarre didn't have a Master Armorer would you still have been able to upgrade your weapons and keep the upgraded armor?

If they already had upgraded armour from somewhere else, then yes.

Is their any buildings I forgot? I vaguely remember the Military and College of Surgeons doing something? If I did forget a building or two, do those buildings work the same way?

Sorry; here I cannot help you! I don't play the English that often, and it's therefore been a while since I last looked up the requirements for Billmen.

[Sensei Warrior]

Thanks Martok. All the years I've played and I never sat down to figure it out. One provence, invariably the one with the Cathedral and the metalsmith , is the one I try to jam all that junk into. I didn't realize that it would be just as easy to tour them around a bit instead.

[Peasant Phill]

Don't forget to produce your billmen with the master spearmaker (I th. Your billmen will get an additional valour point. So build a master spearmaker in Wessex for V2 Billmen. Add the max armor, the max weapon and the max morale upgrade (cathedral) and your billmen will be unbeatable.

[caravel]

You won't get the morale bonus IIRC. A man is trained with the morale and valour that the province gives him. Retraining makes no difference to this. Equipment upgrades can be given by retraining in another province though.

So basically you should have the master spearmaker in Mercia. This trains Valour 2 Billmen. The Cathedral should also be there to give the maximum morale bonus. Armour and weapon upgrades can be obtained from any other provinces, that meet the prerequisites for training billmen, by simply moving the unit(s) there and retraining them.

[Sensei Warrior]

Thanks guys.

Caravel, if I got this right, you say the bonus to morale is only given to the unit in the initial provence it was made in, thus Mercia having a Cathedral as well Master Spearmaker. I know if you built a Military Academy and a College of Surgeons they gave some type of bonus as well. I can't remember what it is, I think it had something to do with the Generals traits (maybe +1 Acumen or +1 Command).

Anyways, do those buildings give the bonus to any units that are trained in that provence or are they more like morale and only give the bonus to units created in that Provence?

By the way I hope everyone had a, or is having a Happy Holiday.

[Sensei Warrior]

You won't get the morale bonus IIRC. A man is trained with the morale and valour that the province gives him. Retraining makes no difference to this.

... but don't forget you can also (re)train for morale/valor bonuses too, which are often even more valuable than armor/weapon upgrades.

Ok, I just noticed this. It's a small technicality I know, but who is right in regards to retraining a full unit. The unit of Billmen I just created I sent to the Provence with a Cathedral. Will retraining him there give a morale bonus?

[Soljah]

I didn't even know you could upgrade/retrain troops, how do you do it? or is a mod?

[Sensei Warrior]

No it is not a mod, it is a normal function of the game. No worries when I first started playing I didn't know it could be done either. Anyways onto how to do it.

First you need a unit you want to repair/retrain. For this exercise we will say it is a unit of Spearmen that has been reduced to 1/2 its number from a backstabbing attack by the unhonorable Argonese.

Next the Spearmen need to be in a Provence where Spearmen can be made. By in a Provence I mean in it at the start of the year not moving to it. If you have to move to it you'll be able to do this on the year after the piece is moved to the Provence.

Then left click on the train unit button for the Provence. It is to the right of the Building button in the lower left hand side of the screen.

Left click on the stack that has the injured unit. Go down to the bottom of the screen where it lists all the units of the stack.

Left click and hold on the icon of your injured spear unit. While holding the button drag it over to the train unit window and set it in one of the empty queue boxes at the bottom of the screen. You'll notice the unit disappears from the stack and appears in the training queue with numbers telling you how many men and how much valour, like they do in the battle screen.

When you click the end year button and go to the next year you'll see the unit has been replenished back up to its full number.

You can do the same exact thing for units that are injured or full, but are in a provence that has an armor/weapon upgrade (has an armorer or metalsmith in it). When the unit is 'retrained' it will come out with an armor/weapon symbol on its icon noting that the unit has upgraded armor or weapons.

Once you figure out how to do it you'll know when to do it. It opens up a whole series of strategies for you to think about. Good luck and by the way Welcome to the Org

[Geezer57]

You can do the same exact thing for units that are injured or full, but are in a province that has an armor/weapon upgrade (has an armorer or metalsmith in it). When the unit is 'retrained' it will come out with an armor/weapon symbol on its icon noting that the unit has upgraded armor or weapons.

The Sensei covered almost all of it in his post, but don't forget you can also (re)train for morale/valor bonuses too, which are often even more valuable than armor/weapon upgrades. Morale comes from religious buildings most often, and valor can be gained from provincial bonuses and/or Master level buildings. Use the Gnome Editor and check the building requirements in the UNIT_PROD.TXT file, the first building listed for a particular unit (if developed to Master level) will give a +1 valor boost (if Master level isn't a requirement for that unit). Provinces that boost valor for certain units can be found in the guides and other locations.

Morale will keep you units fighting longer in combat, so you get more use out of them. One point of valor adds +1 to attack and defense, and +2 to morale, so is the most efficient way to boost your units.