Hot Provinces and Armour

[Maloncanth]

Hot provinces hurt armoured units, we know this.

Does anyone know if there is a gradient of hot provinces? ie some that are semi-hot and others that are very hot?

Does anyone know how to identify hot provinces by something other than rote memory and if not, does anyone have a list of hot provinces in VI and/or XL? I know for example, that Egypt is definitely hot but I'm not sure where the line between hot and not-hot lies in Spain or the Near East.

I've also heard that Armour 3 is the commonly accepted limit for taking units into the desert. Does anyone know if the amount of armour above 3 matters? ie does having 4 armour differ from having say 9 and if so, at what increments of armour value does the hot province penalty increase?

[Deus ret.]

Does anyone know if there is a gradient of hot provinces? ie some that are semi-hot and others that are very hot?

I think the closer a province's terrain is to sand desert the hotter it gets. I.e. Palestine (rock desert?) is not as hot as the Sinai, where sand desert prevails.

Apart from that, use your imagination and take certain climatic changes since the middle ages into account - would you like to walk around and fight in South Spain in full armour? Well, probably not in the summer, but since you can't influence the season of the battle, it might be a better idea to leave those armour 8 knights at home.

I'm pretty sure there is a difference between the detrimental effect of climate on a armour 4 unit and on an armour 9 unit, and I'm even more certain that there was a thread about that not too long ago, but I'm afraid I can't find it atm....

[caravel]

I believe the sand desert and rock desert terrain types produce "hot battles". The rest is determined by the amount of armour.

[EatYerGreens]

Hi Maloncanth.

The trick is to read the 'terrain-type' information on the province parchment (before you invade it).

Terrain Types
Lush
Steppe
Temperate
Arid
Rock/Sand Desert


I think the desert terrains are a definite but I'm not aware if fatigue factor begins to kick in at Arid, or in Temperate or if, in fact, there's a steady progression right through the entire range.

Increasing levels of armour count as "encumberance" so, even in Lush terrain, Silver/Gold armoured troops will tire at a faster rate than their lesser compatriots. They can certainly hold their own in a protracted slugging-match but don't let them run around too much - get lighter-equipped units to do that. In a way, it's a good thing that different provinces you own will be at different levels of progress, with armourers.

Also bear in mind that some unit types are classed as 'armoured', even in their basic, un-upgraded form, so they will reach the threshold sooner than other types. So, for example, FMAA are more heavily penalised by armour upgrades than peasant-class units, like Gallowglasses/Clansmen/Spears/Militia.

I'll leave others to expand on the 'desert armour limit' part in more detail. I recently had to use bronze-armour (+2) FMAA in the desert and they really suffered badly (mobility as well as casualties). Rather than demolish a perfectly good armourer in the province they came from, I'm getting another province (Navarre w. Metalsmith) teched up to make them but with no armourer at all.

[caravel]

I was sure arid has no affect. Most of Iberia is Arid and I've never had any problems with Spanish armoured units there.

[Deus ret.]

Also bear in mind that battles in wintry landscape (=snow) result in endurance/melee penalties equal to those in deserts.

As for the sand/rock desert part, I had the impression that my knights didn't tire as quickly on rocks as compared to sand where they became next to useless after a couple of minutes. Instead, their endurance was limited and soon dropped to two bars, but at least they regained stamina up to those two bars when idle (for a while, that is), whereas in a sand environment they would continue to tire even while just standing around.

[Ciaran]

If you have to use heavily armoured units in the hot climates, make sure they´re in the first wave (i.e. among the sixteen units initially on the battlefield), even when they´re off the field the heat penalty seems to hit. I once had a couple of Chivalric Knights as reinforcements in a desert battle, by the time they reached the field they were already dropping from sheer exhaustion.

[ULC]

Same here but I was in Khazar fighting off the Horde for 6 hours, fighting off all 45,000 thousand of them with a mere 12,000 soldiers and a handful of trees. My CFK were totally exausted after killing 2,500 horses, so I began their slow withdrawl. when the reinforcment halberdiers came, they had 2 bars! I lost the battle eventually, 3,000 dead to 22,500 ( I got bored so I just retreated to let them go rebel).

[gaiusjulii]

I have a personal barriers which I use with armoured units, I go no further south than Cordoba in spain and Constantinople and georgia as a rule. you might be able to go further south but these I know have no or very little heat penalties

[caravel]

You can go as far as Lesser Armenia, Armenia and Rum in the east. Going further into Antioch, Edessa and Syria brings you into rock and sand desert. In the west Morocco and Algeria are as far as you can go. Further than that, into Tunisia, again brings you into rock desert (though it should really be arid ground as well). Again I'm not sure of the effects of Arid ground on armoured units but, if there is any effect, it is much lower than the effects of rock and sand desert.