Unit size question

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

I always play on Huge. The battles are more epic and closer to (though still far from) realistic numbers.

True. If your computer can handle it, play on huge.

[helenos aiakides]

Once you start playing huge you will find it impossible to go back to small because huge is addictive

[Redmeth]

Around 20 battles on huge in roughly the same places (Romans vs Sweboz stretching to Gava-Alanna) will get you thinking about large.
Not to mention bridge battles...

[mcantu]

Also, on Huge the AI will completely drain its cities of population. Its very common to the Maks with cities under 400

[jhhowell]

Also, on Huge the AI will completely drain its cities of population. Its very common to the Maks with cities under 400

This is a problem with the AI, and is also precisely why Huge is the optimal unit size for me. Players should have to think hard about whether they want to raise more troops or let their cities grow. I know Rome had manpower problems from time to time throughout most of the EB time period, for example. If each unit is 40 men, that's trivial, almost any city will grow more than that each turn; at 160 men, large cities will still grow slowly while recruiting, but most cities will shrink. Obviously the AI doesn't have the slightest clue that this is a problem, unfortunately. I've seen the same problem in other mods, so there's probably not much people can do about it...

Anyway, I think it's important to have some form of manpower constraint on myself, and am willing to put up with the AI draining its own population. Players who find the latter especially bothersome no doubt will chose other unit sizes; ultimately it's about what makes the game most fun and interesting to you...

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

The AI gets population replaced when they recruit units, in EB. And the system is scaled for different unit sizes.

[Starforge]

Only comment I'll make regarding unit sizes is that it's too easy to "move" population from your homeland to outlying provinces to upgrade cities quickly when running on Huge.

Would be nice if the population numbers scaled as well as the unit sizes but ah well :).

[Tellos Athenaios]

The AI gets population replaced when they recruit units, in EB. And the system is scaled for different unit sizes.

Yep but it gets all messed up when people start to make changes to the garissons of certain cities in descr_strat... Also, based on unit class (mounted or infantry) the script determines the number of population to add to the town the recruits come from. However, the difference between a 160 men unit or a 240 men one is significant, and that's not accounted for. (There's apparently no way to check for the actual size of the unit.)

So if the AI keeps recruiting Pantodapoi, for instance, which many AI factions do, you'll see the population shrinking. However if they kept elite units, the population would actually grow more because of the amount of people restored by script.