Recruitment System

[Abokasee]

I (Like most people Id imagine) what the recruit system will be like

M:TW 2 Style (Recruit multiple troops depending on level of settlement)
Normal (Recruit 1 at a time)

Also, what will replace honour/valour etc

Will there be any mercanaries (Id imagine them in South america and other continents, but not europe)

[Mouzafphaerre]

.
Multiple. If I like one thing about M2, that's it.
.

[Furious Mental]

Multiple definitely, after all we're talking about an age of 500,000 person armies. Shifting to a republican or constitutional system of government should allow for easier conscription and permit the rapid raising of vast armies.

[Sheogorath]

I'd like to see a system where you could raise a certain percent of a territories population for military service, have them start out as a unit of basic musketeers/what have you, then gradually, as they gain more experience, gain perks like moral boosts, increased accuracy, etc. Since there really wasnt a lot of variation amoung the basic equipment of a single nations 'units'.
It'd be really neat if you could name regiments/units as well. I'd be able to call my best British units the Dai Gurren Brigade.
Man, I'm such a nerd >_>

[Zenicetus]

I'd like to see recruitment separated from settlements somehow. You'd still need to upgrade the buildings related to different units, but it should be a large regional or national recruitment pool that you draw from.

I'm thinking of this mainly to benefit the AI. One of the main problems with the current TW engine is the way the strategic AI often doesn't build balanced armies. It seems to draw from whatever the closest settlement has to offer, and if that settlement's most advanced military building is for artillery, then you'll end up facing an artillery-heavy army. It's like the AI can't think past the current turn, and draw units from a wide area that might take more than one turn to build and then merge across distance into the appropriate army. If the recruitment comes from a large national pool instead of local settlements, the AI might build better armies. Either that, or keep the current system (M2TW/multiple style) and teach the darned AI how to build a decent army. But this might simplify things.

We're just tossing around ideas though. I'm sure CA has already locked in whatever system they'll be using for ETW.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

A combination. More or less like Zenicetus said, the recruitment would operate on a national or territorial basis. The way this would work would be that you could call up a relative mix of units, getting better and changing in type depending on your buildings, but couldn't control which units beyond the structures you built making new ones available, which would be thrown into the mix on a relative basis. On the other hand, you would be able to recruit "elite" troops from specific settlements, such as a capital or historically important region, and be able to build them like in previous TW games.

So, more or less, you "build" elite troops and "call up" weak-medium troops to make up the bulk of your army.

[pevergreen]

you can build directly on your generals now, too.

[Abokasee]

A combination. More or less like Zenicetus said, the recruitment would operate on a national or territorial basis. The way this would work would be that you could call up a relative mix of units, getting better and changing in type depending on your buildings, but couldn't control which units beyond the structures you built making new ones available, which would be thrown into the mix on a relative basis. On the other hand, you would be able to recruit "elite" troops from specific settlements, such as a capital or historically important region, and be able to build them like in previous TW games.

So, more or less, you "build" elite troops and "call up" weak-medium troops to make up the bulk of your army.

Like Russia can just call on loads of serfs and its cavalry etc are acually trained?

[Noir]

The multiple recruitment is one of the very few areas that the campaign game has been enhanced imho from the older games; the 1 unit per turn is very limited in that recruitment logistics can't be represented in the game; with the recruitment pools that have different replenishing rates that may be in turn linked to other parameters there is the potential to actually allow for recruitment logistics and also cut down a considerable portion of micromanagement in the process.

I think from what has been said as yet (armies will be recruited around the generals) that ETW will take this a step further - and i think that this will be in the right direction.

Noir

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Like Russia can just call on loads of serfs and its cavalry etc are acually trained?

Yep, exactly.

[Csargo]

I think the recruitment will have to be different from M2TW. In Medieval times the people would be gathered up to start a military campaign, then disbanded after the campaign was over. During this era I believe there were standing armies then in war time the people would be mobilized to help out. I believe it was the Prussian's who had the men of military age trained 1-2 months a year, then whenever needed they would be mobilized. I think CA will have to completely rework this system.

[magnum]

Voted for 'Something Diferrent' because I'm open to any new ideas on improving recruitment. I think that the MTW2 system was a vast improvement over previous 1-a-turn systems of previous TW games. If some bright developer at CA comes up with an even better way of doing it I'll happily try it out. If not, I can definately live with something along the lines of MTW2.

[Brenus]

I vote something different. Even if the Regiments were still named after areas (France was divided into sixteen (later eighteen) military districts. Each district had a permanent garrison with the three services branches (infantry, cavalry, and artillery) represented (1776).