Recruiting foreign units.

[DDRJake]

With Art of War around the corner and looking real nice, I'd like to request one thing be revisited: the recruitment of foreign units on their cores in your provinces.

As it stands, this is a clunky outdated mechanic which is not documented anywhere in the game and requires in depth knowledge and a spreadsheet to use effectively. Let us scroll through units or otherwise make it more workable, because the current implementation of: only able to recruit the lowest total-pip unit of the foreign country is just woeful.

 

[Red John]

B-b-but expl-exploits!

Nah, I agree. It's pretty stupid as it is.

 

[Novacat]

Im guessing it was a leftover prototype mechanic that was never expanded or fully removed. With the rebalance of pips the only countries that even need foreign units nowadays are hordes, because Paradox is too stubborn to give Hordes proper unit upgrades. Although I suppose it could be useful for non-Western countries to recruit late-game western infantry/cavalry due to the superior late-game pips.

 

[itsuart]

Would be very nice.

 

[Kalderus]

Please don't remove the ability to recruit foreign units entirely though. Currently, it's the only way eastern hordes (i.e. Mongolia) can keep on par militarily with Eastern/Western/Ottoman nations, since although they can reform, westernization is almost impossible as these hordes (mostly since by the time they could ever establish a border with Western nations, they probably have too high a total basetax to westernize any faster than a century), and reforming without westernization, particularly into the Chinese tech group is mostly pointless, due to losing the superior rulers that overcome the tech malus.

 

[durvas]

What conditions can you do this under? I'm pushing into Europe and I can see some provinces have it available and some don't.

 

[Kalderus]

What conditions can you do this under? I'm pushing into Europe and I can see some provinces have it available and some don't.

The province needs to be your core and have a core of a nation with a higher tech group, and that nation needs to still exist (this includes being your vassal or personal union partner). Since you can only recruit the lowest pip unit of said nation, and since for most of the game, the lowest pip unit will be artillery, you need to keep up in miltech with that nation and select the same cannon as them, allowing you to pick either their infantry or cavalry, depending on tech level.

 

[Castrolol]

Personally I would just give hordes a (well deserved) unit tree and make it possible to recruit foreign mercenaries from owned territories (possibly with a modest maintenance, build time and/or cost increase). The current system is beyond awful and should be purged.

 

[pgroves]

As Portugal being able to recruit Muslim cavalry in it's Morrocan provinces is very handy, though...

 

[Haccoude]

As Portugal being able to recruit Muslim cavalry in it's Morrocan provinces is very handy, though...

Which exactly what being able to recruit foreign units should be about, the ability to recruit limited numbers of both Infantry and Cavalry, when it is superior to your own. A mechanic that actually represents something historical like Venice recruiting Eastern Cavalry in the form of the Stradiots, rather than the current system where the units are eiher worthless, or you want your entire army to be made of them.

 

[Zak Preston]

Same problem with my Aztecs invading Europe in late 1750's: my units are inferior to Western monsters and I have to choose fights very cautiously.

 

[pgroves]

Same problem with my Aztecs invading Europe in late 1750's: my units are inferior to Western monsters and I have to choose fights very cautiously.

That's a totally different issue, though!

 

[pgroves]

Which exactly what being able to recruit foreign units should be about, the ability to recruit limited numbers of both Infantry and Cavalry, when it is superior to your own. A mechanic that actually represents something historical like Venice recruiting Eastern Cavalry in the form of the Stradiots, rather than the current system where the units are eiher worthless, or you want your entire army to be made of them.

Some cap on the number of "foreign" units you can create would be sensible - maybe relayed to the manpower of the province's which have foreign cores, or something along those lines