speed of troops recruitment... slow?

[unmerged(24704)]

its taken me a good part of 20 years to get half of my troops (only a hill fort, still no castle in europe 100 years into the game, rule has a tarished rep), which is around 200 men.

Is this normal? is there anyway I can speed up this process? should I be making troop sources 100% surfs if I want a fast drafting period?

sorry about the noob questions.

cheers

 

[Barbarossa II]

If you build training grounds and the other one (war acadamy?) then your recruitment speed will increase.

 

[unmerged(24704)]

but no one in europe has got that kind of structure yet.... even libraries are rare at the moment....

 

[Eber]

Troop speed is really not all that slow compared to the actual time period. It took ages for an effective army to be assembled for war, and I think Paradox did a great job with implementing this.

But as Barborossa said, just build training grounds and war academies to boost recruitment speed by 10% each. Training grounds come in rather early in the game. So being 100 years in, you should see them. War academies you should see as well.

Also if you are having to wait until half your troops get recruited again, that means that you are sending them to slaughter, maybe a more effective battle strategy is needed.

 

[Chaingun]

Also, I *believe* the recruitment amount is a percentage of the maximum amount. It means that if your maximum amount is 10000 in a province I don't think it would take 1000 years to recruit them.

Your best bet is to conquer some more territories that are richer (more specifically Pagans or Muslims), and therefore have a much higher amount of troops. Although, like you mention that can be hard if you merely have 200 men that regenerate over a time of 40 years.

 

[lenny]

but no one in europe has got that kind of structure yet.... even libraries are rare at the moment....

That sounds a lot like you are not playing with the 1.03b patch. If that is true, you should upgrade immediately.

As for troop recruitment: Build training grounds and war academies (need 15g provincial income). Also, a good steward helps, although I might be mistaken here. Maybe it's just indirect through the effect on income.

 

[unmerged(24704)]

thanks for the replies!!

what I'm doing at the moment (could be a very wrong thing) is send my troops over to a crusade, get a couple of rich lands, DISBAND the army (because the muslim home army will be at my door step by then), mobilze again and fight them off. I find this to be the quickest way to move from crusade trips to homeland (Anjou / Brittany) for me.

any suggestions?

 

[igaworker]

thanks for the replies!!

what I'm doing at the moment (could be a very wrong thing) is send my troops over to a crusade, get a couple of rich lands, DISBAND the army (because the muslim home army will be at my door step by then), mobilze again and fight them off. I find this to be the quickest way to move from crusade trips to homeland (Anjou / Brittany) for me.

any suggestions?

Can you say exploiter boys and girls? I knew you could!

 

[unmerged(24704)]

That sounds a lot like you are not playing with the 1.03b patch. If that is true, you should upgrade immediately.

As for troop recruitment: Build training grounds and war academies (need 15g provincial income). Also, a good steward helps, although I might be mistaken here. Maybe it's just indirect through the effect on income.

15 gold per province is a lot . at the moment, my richest provinces (anjou and toulouse) only yield about 5. Is this a manpower issue? maybe I should have a couple of generations of peace?

 

[unmerged(24704)]

Can you say exploiter boys and girls? I knew you could!

well, I somehow feel I get a huge penalty for doing it this way, as the number I re-mobilse is nowhere close to when I disbanded...

 

[unmerged(24704)]

That sounds a lot like you are not playing with the 1.03b patch. If that is true, you should upgrade immediately.

As for troop recruitment: Build training grounds and war academies (need 15g provincial income). Also, a good steward helps, although I might be mistaken here. Maybe it's just indirect through the effect on income.

Lenny, I am playing with the 1.03b patch, patched it straight after installation. maybe the next game I play, the advance system (I've even read the faq) will be kinder to me... :rofl:

 

[lenny]

15 gold per province is a lot . at the moment, my richest provinces (anjou and toulouse) only yield about 5. Is this a manpower issue? maybe I should have a couple of generations of peace?

Here you use another useful exploit: Pause the game, set taxes, tolls and crown duty to max, order construction, then re-set the slider to their previous settings and unpause. In that way you can build war academies in a lot of provinces. Sometimes you have to wait for a better steward or one of the "rich events", though.

 

[lenny]

Can you say exploiter boys and girls? I knew you could!

Admit it, you use the teleport exploit too. Don't we all do it sometimes?

 

[unmerged(490)]

It would be good to have some official statement as to whether or not disbanding troops out side their home province causes a % of them to be lost. (I know disbanding them outside your own territory does...)

 

[oxymoron]

It would be good to have some official statement as to whether or not disbanding troops out side their home province causes a % of them to be lost. (I know disbanding them outside your own territory does...)

It would be good to have a manual, which is worth the paper, it is printed on.

 

[unmerged(31324)]

iirc there is a % loss when you disband even on your own demesne.

as for the army recruitment. i find that if you have a good steward rating you have a better chance to recruit bigger armies. i accidentally found out when i forgot to assign a steward. my province making 500 knights became 200 knights in 1 month O_O; bah. make sure you have a good martial and steward rating i guess. also, it depends on what province you have. ie: rich or poor.

 

[unmerged(24362)]

The higher your province income and steward ratings ( of your ruler and steward combined ) the stronger the assembled forces in the province. If you have a long war campaign going on and the troops suffered loses, disband some of your armies from time to time and recruit them anew, while the province army is away, the province still recruits soldiers, so after some months ( or years ) of campaigning you can get some decent reinforcements.

 

[Blackberry]

its taken me a good part of 20 years to get half of my troops (only a hill fort, still no castle in europe 100 years into the game, rule has a tarished rep), which is around 200 men.

Is this normal? is there anyway I can speed up this process? should I be making troop sources 100% surfs if I want a fast drafting period?

sorry about the noob questions.

cheers

You can build a training ground from the beginning of the 1066 scenario, that will cost about 100 gold and will reduce the time required by 10%. Later you can build War Academies but your province needs an income of at least 15 before you are allowed to, that will reduce the time needed by another 10%.

Other then that you may just have to be used to not having 100% of your potential troops in your provinces when you go off to a fight, something I have grown accustomed to. As long as you have at least 10% of your total potential, you can call them up for duty.

 

[unmerged(24704)]

I've set my law setting to 'Feudal contracts', is this likely to be part of the explaination to my perpetual recruitment process as well?

 

[lenny]

I've set my law setting to 'Feudal contracts', is this likely to be part of the explaination to my perpetual recruitment process as well?

AFAIK, laws only influence troop composition, not recruitment speed.