I know the question seems silly because Retinues make dealing with rebels easier and they can be used to blitzkrieg someone else in war because you can have them raised and on the enemy's border at the start of the war but they do lower levy count. I just wanted to make a full pro's and con's list and then try a comparison.
Pro's:
Customizable
Cost nothing when at full power
Ideal for beating rebels and small vassals
Can be used to prepare army even at peace time.
Some cultural regiments are awesome.
Con's
Lower total levy count.
Can bankrupt you if they are large and take heavy losses
Some cultural units are not that great or difficult to wield effectively.
Since I think everyone is familiar with the Pro's I'll go over the cultural aspect first.
The whole question of retinue's came up in a multiplayer game with myself and like 6 friends. We all started off in Byzantium. Our glorious emperor owns the duchies of thrace and latinum (rome), the rest of us are great kings one of us being Aragon/Andalusia, one being Wallachia/Hungary, one being England/Wales, one as Africa/Egypt, and myself as Anatolia/Armenia. Yes we've basically created the Roman Empire, repaired the Schism, everything. Currently we're just fighting the Mongols which have somehow pulled doomstacks of 175k of our their collective asses. But I digress.
The cultural problems came to the fore when I was able to crush a much larger mongol army with my own retinue which is 50% cataphracts (heavy cav+horse archers) and 50% defensive retinue (pike/archer). When the King of England/Wales arrived he found that making his own army of 1/2 his own cultural retinue was suicide. Since most other retinues come with large amounts of archers he ends up with like 50%-66% of his army as archers and got roflstomped by the cav focused armies of the mongols. This has made me question if the cultural retinues are that great some of them seem unwieldy such as the English/Welsh one that is all archers or the pikemen one because it is so defensive it seems like an awkward turtle. At the same time I have to question of my cataphracts are worth it. I am using 1600 retinue units to create a regiment of 500. Can 500 of these cavalry really beat 1600 levy troops? On the one hand I have a retinue of 12k so 12 regiments of cataphracts and 12 regiments of defensive units. I have no complaints it kicks major ass BUT on the other hand its costing me 28,800 so are those 12k troops that great I don't believe it would defeat an army of 28800.
The rest of my concerns are self explanatory I got to laugh at king of Egypt/Africa when his retinue lost like 80% of its troops in a huge battle and he ended up going bankrupt and having his mercenaries rebel because he was trying to replenish his levies.
Perhaps I'm doing it wrong and my massive quality over quantity levy has become a problem? I don't know does anyone have any thoughts on my concerns about retinue's depleting levies or about the cultural retinue's? Also do the cultural retinues get bonuses from your cultural buildings built in your capital because that would make the cultural retinue's much more viable for all nations.
Pro's:
Customizable
Cost nothing when at full power
Ideal for beating rebels and small vassals
Can be used to prepare army even at peace time.
Some cultural regiments are awesome.
Con's
Lower total levy count.
Can bankrupt you if they are large and take heavy losses
Some cultural units are not that great or difficult to wield effectively.
Since I think everyone is familiar with the Pro's I'll go over the cultural aspect first.
The whole question of retinue's came up in a multiplayer game with myself and like 6 friends. We all started off in Byzantium. Our glorious emperor owns the duchies of thrace and latinum (rome), the rest of us are great kings one of us being Aragon/Andalusia, one being Wallachia/Hungary, one being England/Wales, one as Africa/Egypt, and myself as Anatolia/Armenia. Yes we've basically created the Roman Empire, repaired the Schism, everything. Currently we're just fighting the Mongols which have somehow pulled doomstacks of 175k of our their collective asses. But I digress.
The cultural problems came to the fore when I was able to crush a much larger mongol army with my own retinue which is 50% cataphracts (heavy cav+horse archers) and 50% defensive retinue (pike/archer). When the King of England/Wales arrived he found that making his own army of 1/2 his own cultural retinue was suicide. Since most other retinues come with large amounts of archers he ends up with like 50%-66% of his army as archers and got roflstomped by the cav focused armies of the mongols. This has made me question if the cultural retinues are that great some of them seem unwieldy such as the English/Welsh one that is all archers or the pikemen one because it is so defensive it seems like an awkward turtle. At the same time I have to question of my cataphracts are worth it. I am using 1600 retinue units to create a regiment of 500. Can 500 of these cavalry really beat 1600 levy troops? On the one hand I have a retinue of 12k so 12 regiments of cataphracts and 12 regiments of defensive units. I have no complaints it kicks major ass BUT on the other hand its costing me 28,800 so are those 12k troops that great I don't believe it would defeat an army of 28800.
The rest of my concerns are self explanatory I got to laugh at king of Egypt/Africa when his retinue lost like 80% of its troops in a huge battle and he ended up going bankrupt and having his mercenaries rebel because he was trying to replenish his levies.
Perhaps I'm doing it wrong and my massive quality over quantity levy has become a problem? I don't know does anyone have any thoughts on my concerns about retinue's depleting levies or about the cultural retinue's? Also do the cultural retinues get bonuses from your cultural buildings built in your capital because that would make the cultural retinue's much more viable for all nations.
