Brigade comparisons

[Olorin]

Recruitable troops do need a little tweaking when compared with companions. You get only 2 and it lowers the production of the PC permanently. I believe those 2 points counter balance with the advantage of having your troops at a PC for both attacking and defensive purposes. The other 2 costs are where I believe some adjustments are due. They come in as green. This is big. I have long thought companions should come in as green also. I realize that probably won't happen.
Is it possible to have them come in as regular and remove the training order altogether? The other cost is the actual recruiting and maintenance cost of these troops. Many have pointed out they are high. I imagine if their other values can be tweaked that these can be also? Maybe its already on your ridiculously long to do list?

This is something we have discussed. Brekk feels that leaving companion raising at 7, even all at one spot, gives a Kingdom the chance to raise an army quickly if they just lost a battle. This is because I was thinking of dropping how many Companions can be raised in one spot to, say, 3 or 4 so to be more in line with recruiting. You could still raise 7 maximum a turn, just need more than 1 group to pull it off. like needing 4 groups to recruit 8 brigades. This may be revisited if needed.

Next, the loss at the PC is just population now. Which fits really.

The recruitment and maintenance costs are under consideration, along with all the other brigades. So, yeah, it is piled on the plate already.

Last is the training level. I tend to agree with this. I think all troops raised should be green and require training, including companions. Either that or recruits should be able to train up to veteran status. I do not know if either of those is doable without code changes.

I suspect that making most companions start green would change the flow of the game considerably. Would increase the value of summoned brigades compared to others though. The question is whether it would be good or bad for the overall balance of the game.

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BTW, folks, Brekk makes all final decisions on this stuff. I can have recommendations, thoughts, ideas, arguments, and what have you, but ultimately it is Brekk's game. So if you are thinking I change things, I do not. I am an assistant, not the boss.

[Xerro]

I Recently started a game as the giant. I was noticing how oppressive my maintenance costs were for my 17 brigade group. the cost was 50000 gold and 48400 food. I ran in to a masked army group and got my butt kicked. It was turn 12. His 28 brigade group beat me bad. I got upset by this since I was close to my kingdoms entire budget and made other orders hard to execute I calculated their maintenance cost at 36500 gold and 32050 food. This group was much stronger and cost much less to maintain. Not a ratio a military kingdom wants. The other player had better traits also. The main reason that this contest was so lopsided was the HIGH maintenance costs of giant troops. The upkeep of giants need some close scrutiny. I wanted to post this ramble so you could consider their costs while you are making all the troops changes. Also I dont know if this is in your realm of posibilitys, but giant scorpians seem a little weak for a troop that takes elite troops to recruit. It might be better as a veteran recruit requirement.

[davekuyk]

I agree Xerro. I have found this to be true with any of the non-evil kingdoms - over time the troop cost becomes oppressive (good word for it). As the RA I had strong groups and was paying over 140k gold a turn, a similar amount of food (and STILL couldn't take a legendary pop center).

An interesting data point, I don't have time to compute, would be troop strength per food and gold - which troops are efficient and which are not.

[uncledarkseid]

Recruitable troops do need a little tweaking when compared with companions. You get only 2 and it lowers the production of the PC permanently. I believe those 2 points counter balance with the advantage of having your troops at a PC for both attacking and defensive purposes. The other 2 costs are where I believe some adjustments are due. They come in as green. This is big. I have long thought companions should come in as green also. I realize that probably won't happen.
Is it possible to have them come in as regular and remove the training order altogether?  The other cost is the actual recruiting and maintenance cost of these troops. Many have pointed out they are high. I imagine if their other values can be tweaked that these can be also? Maybe its already on your ridiculously long to do list?

This is something we have discussed.  Brekk feels that leaving companion raising at 7, even all at one spot, gives a Kingdom the chance to raise an army quickly if they just lost a battle.  This is because I was thinking of dropping how many Companions can be raised in one spot to, say, 3 or 4 so to be more in line with recruiting. You could still raise 7 maximum a turn, just need more than 1 group to pull it off. like needing 4 groups to recruit 8 brigades.  This may be revisited if needed.

Next, the loss at the PC is just population now.  Which fits really.

The recruitment and maintenance costs are under consideration, along with all the other brigades.  So, yeah, it is piled on the plate already.

Last is the training level.  I tend to agree with this.  I think all troops raised should be green and require training, including companions.  Either that or recruits should be able to train up to veteran status.  I do not know if either of those is doable without code changes. 

I suspect that making most companions start green would change the flow of the game considerably.  Would increase the value of summoned brigades compared to others though.  The question is whether it would be good or bad for the overall balance of the game.

---

BTW, folks, Brekk makes all final decisions on this stuff.  I can have recommendations, thoughts, ideas, arguments, and what have you, but ultimately it is Brekk's game.  So if you are thinking I change things, I do not.  I am an assistant, not the boss.

Isnt that what an Olorin would do?  Guide and advise, not dictate and demand?

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I agree Xerro. I have found this to be true with any of the non-evil kingdoms - over time the troop cost becomes oppressive (good word for it). As the RA I had strong groups and was paying over 140k gold a turn, a similar amount of food (and STILL couldn't take a legendary pop center).

An interesting data point, I don't have time to compute, would be troop strength per food and gold - which troops are efficient and which are not.

Ranger is a terrible  kingdom because of that. Played them once, will not again until their costs are changed .  No little flying scout can overcome that restriction.