Foreign Culture Retinues

[shypixel]

Apologies in advance if this has been addressed, I waded through 5 pages of the search looking...

I would really like to be able to hire foreign retinues under certain conditions. If I hold around 2/3 of the territory of a given culture, I should be able to hire one of that culture's retinue units. Perhaps if I owned 100% of its territory I could recruit another.

There are numerous examples of this happening throughout history and during this time period, the ERE making exceptional use of elite units from its diverse culture groups.

I think it appropriate that if the Kaiser controls Italy, he could call up an elite pikeman unit, and that an Irish lord of Wales could make use of those famous bowmen. Keeping it limited would make it a flavor item, without screwing with balance too much. Even make them cost more, gold and cap usage.

Doesn't seem like a hard thing to implement, but I am not aware that you can track the percentage of a culture's territory you hold for modding purposes...

 

[Lorehead]

Mercenaries?

 

[shypixel]

Different mechanic though, and more directly tied to the unique flavor of the realm you've built.

 

[Comradebot]

It'd need some kind of balance. If not, every retinue in the world would soon just be Cataphracts.

 

[Kaiser Ludwig]

Not really, though, only the EREs retinue would be that, regardless of the culture. Or more specifically, restrict it to king+ level title of culture.

 

[shypixel]

I would really like to be able to hire foreign retinues under certain conditions. If I hold around 2/3 of the territory of a given culture, I should be able to hire one of that culture's retinue units. Perhaps if I owned 100% of its territory I could recruit another.

...

Keeping it limited would make it a flavor item, without screwing with balance too much. Even make them cost more, gold and cap usage.

Allowing 1 or 2 foreign units per major culture would have a minimal impact. Empires or Kingdoms that contain significant portions of entire cultures are already large enough that they can field large numbers of individual 500 man units.

If anything, this could serve to keep retinues smaller in very large empires, with a higher cap price. You could even give a minor prestige bonus to encourage spending the extra cap points. And keep in mind, that as you flip cultures, you will eventually lose access to them.

The cataphracts would not be an issue. You would only get one, possibly two units from greek culture, which according to the above could only be used by one ruler at a time. (Would be nice if you could get Archers from Trebizond)

Thinking this might be moddable by holding rather than cultural make-up, but I don't think that would really be what I wanted...

 

[Lorehead]

Allowing 1 or 2 foreign units per major culture would have a minimal impact. Empires or Kingdoms that contain significant portions of entire cultures are already large enough that they can field large numbers of individual 500 man units.

So, if I understand you, what you’re suggesting is: in addition to the cap on your retinues, there are also caps on your cultural retinues. If the Roman Empire’s restored its borders and only a third of it is Greek, only a third of its maximum retinues can be cataphracts?

 

[shypixel]

So, if I understand you, what you’re suggesting is: in addition to the cap on your retinues, there are also caps on your cultural retinues. If the Roman Empire’s restored its borders and only a third of it is Greek, only a third of its maximum retinues can be cataphracts?

Not quite. You would still have your normal cap, and recruit your native cultural revenue normally. The change would be in allowing you to hire 1 or 2 foreign culture units (at a higher cap usage price) if you controlled a majority of that culture's territory. So an Italian holding greece would have his normal pike units, and a max of 2 cataphract units.

 

[Grubnessul]

Wouldn't it be horribly overpowered to have longbows standing behind Italians pikes and housecarls with squires and Kataphraktoi on the flanks? I like only having one type of unit, although the destruction on changing your culture is annoying.

 

[DLFebin]

Wouldn't it be horribly overpowered to have longbows standing behind Italians pikes and housecarls with squires and Kataphraktoi on the flanks? I like only having one type of unit, although the destruction on changing your culture is annoying.

Well, you will not have bonuses from cultural buildings anyway (if system stays like now, i.e. buildings are tied to culture of the ruler, not of the province). It's all about combination of units, IMO that's what OP wants. Or with limited bonuses, idk.

 

[shypixel]

Yeah, I can't think of any way to keep the normal cultural bonuses they would have had, and I'm not sure it's a great idea.

It would primarily be a flavor element, though it would provide access via retinue to some types you would not otherwise get. ERE and others can get no light infantry, most can get no horse archers.

Limited access to these other soldier types would really be the only meaningful impact on gameplay. It could have a special name, like Frisian Infantry Retinue. But seriously, the impact on the mechanics of gameplay would be very small, but the impact on the story-telling, narrative driven part of the game would be cool.

 

[OldRanger]

I agree it could add to flavor and narative, and just be fun.