Retinues of the King of France

[GillesDeRais]

My French King has been developing his retinues for a century (started in 1066), the currently 4500 standing men are an equal mix of Heavy Cavalry and Schock troops (heavy infantry).

I haven't found any downside to this setup so far, except the price; have you had bead experiences with heavy troops retinues.

 

[gornard]

No, but its usually slightly better to have units associated with your cultural building as they get significant bonuses. Heavy cav in the case of france.

 

[l3ol3o]

What I do is normally focus on the cultural retinue at first. After I start growing I will add in retinues to compliment what I already have. For example as France you already have a bunch of cavalry. I would build some skirmish/defense retinues to have some archers. You will also want some Shock also which is Heavy Infantry/Archers. A healthy mix seems to be best but always focus the bulk on your cultural retinue because of the bonuses they get.

 

[icedt729]

Some players like to do nothing but their cultural retinue (especially when they get Cataphracts or Knights) and just attach them to levies to get a balanced army. This is probably the most efficient choice mathematically speaking, but I'm not much of a min-max type player so I usually build a balanced retinue that is biased towards my cultural specialty.

 

[Octavio]

I often use my retinues in "minor" wars without having to use levies, so I usually keep my army mixed up, but with a slight priority on the cultural troops.