Hi, playing a Bulgarian count in 840, can't find the way to get retinues troops. It says the max amount has been reached while I don't think I have any of them.
What am I missing ?
Thanks.
What am I missing ?
Thanks.
Retinues
- Thread starter Lee Hotchi
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Your retinue is capped. The cap depends on the number of your holdings, special buildings and most importantly technology. Press the military button at the top of the screen and switch to the retinue tab. There you can see your current cap and how high it has to be to allow you the different retinues.
Now click the button at the top showing your technologies. Highlight Military Organization. This is the technology you want to invest into to increase your retinue cap.
Now click the button at the top showing your technologies. Highlight Military Organization. This is the technology you want to invest into to increase your retinue cap.
If you want to improve your retinue cap in the early game, I think it's important to both push military organisation tech and also build "Training Grounds" in every castle you personally own. (Training grounds increase the base value, tech acts as a multiplier to the base value.)
If you hover your mouse over the retinue limit (in the military screen), the tooltip should explain how this limit is calculated.
However, as a count, it's unlikely that you'll be able to build a sizeable retinue. I generally don't bother until I'm a king (or, perhaps, a multi-duke). Before then, I save up money and claims - and eventually hire mercenaries for 5ish years of continuous war. (Just make sure your treasury doesn't go negative...)
If you hover your mouse over the retinue limit (in the military screen), the tooltip should explain how this limit is calculated.
However, as a count, it's unlikely that you'll be able to build a sizeable retinue. I generally don't bother until I'm a king (or, perhaps, a multi-duke). Before then, I save up money and claims - and eventually hire mercenaries for 5ish years of continuous war. (Just make sure your treasury doesn't go negative...)
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Yeah, as a count in 840. you may well have a retinue cap of something like 250, and all your possible retinues might have a size of 500 or more, so you can't build anything until you increase your cap.
Hi, thanks, it clarifies things but I still don't get it.
My current retinue cap usage is : 0
My retinue cap is : 107 (= 18 +495% because of tech)
So I understand I could have a 107 men retinue. But all buttons are grayed saying : "You cannot create this retinue, maximum retinue cap has been reached"
But my usage is 0/107
No comprendo ...
Retinue cap != number of men. Not even close. See the wiki for details. Typical feudal retinues cost about 700 retinue cap to give you 200-300 men. If you were tribal, technically you could afford the very weakest prestige retinue (150 LI) with your current retinue cap.
As jonjowett said, retinues are for the most part a feature that comes into play once you're a king or higher, and have had time to improve your tech and holdings.
If points of comparison help, at the 867 start, Emperor Basil can build up a retinue of retinue cap size 7800 or so (initially money will be a much greater limitation than retinue cap), or ~3000 men depending on details of composition. A large empire that a player has built up over 100 years will have double that, easily (looking at my Persia save
). I wouldn't worry too much about feudal retinues until your retinue cap is over 2000; a single unit of a couple hundred men just doesn't matter.
As jonjowett said, retinues are for the most part a feature that comes into play once you're a king or higher, and have had time to improve your tech and holdings.
If points of comparison help, at the 867 start, Emperor Basil can build up a retinue of retinue cap size 7800 or so (initially money will be a much greater limitation than retinue cap), or ~3000 men depending on details of composition. A large empire that a player has built up over 100 years will have double that, easily (looking at my Persia save
). I wouldn't worry too much about feudal retinues until your retinue cap is over 2000; a single unit of a couple hundred men just doesn't matter.- 1
You don't buy retinue by the man, but by units of 200, 450 etc, depending on the type of retinue you use. Different retinues have different costs, both in gold and in retinue cap. For example, a Skirmish retinue consists of 200 archers and 50 heavy infantry; that costs 77 gold to buy (and then costs money to reinforce) and uses up 550 retinue cap. If you don't have 550 retinue cap, you can't buy it. You can hover over the different retinue types available to you (along the right edge of the retinue window) to see what they cost.
Basically, you won't get anything for under 500-ish retinue cap, unless you're either tribal - which has different retinues - or have a very cheap cultural retinue.
ETA: Ninja-d!
So what exactly should I compare my 107 to ?
In your exemple, where does the 550 figure comes from ?
Think of retinue cap as a different kind of currency - it's what you use to get your retinue, what makes them want to serve you. If you have higher status or more land, you can attract more people. Retinues consisting of light infantry and/or archers are cheaper, heavy infantry or pikes cost more retinue cap per person. I don't know the exact calculation, but a lot of the cultural ones seem to work on a basic 2 or 3 cap for each man, depending on type, like 600 cap for 200 HI.
Look at your Military screen closely. All retinue types in the list have "+" button used to create the stack. If you hover the mouse over this button, info screen should pop up with info like
Heavy Infantry: 200 (number of troops in the stack)
Cost to create: 84
Retinue Cap Usage: 600 (actual cost per retinue cap)
If you are concerned about individual unit type weights, developers were lazy (or some could say consistent, but I'd go with lazy) and used the same values as generic maintenance cost
Combat - Crusader Kings II Wiki
So Light Infantry uses 0,7 cost per unit and Heavy Cavalry uses 6 cost per unit.
Think of it this way--you have 107 dollars (or Euros, or whatever unit of currency), but you're in a store where the cheapest thing costs 220 dollars. Your 107 gets you jack; you need at least 220 to buy anything (and more like 500 to buy anything worthwhile).