After posting some incorrect information concerning recruiter times I guiltily spent the weekend playing around with recruiters, forts and morale. Here are some observations on replenishing military units and company morale that I would like to share with the forum.
Replenishing Military Units:
Recruiters take 9 months to generate the troops required to a complete a fort (archers, infantry, or chariots). Recruiters generate all military units at the same rate and this includes the tower sentry, which is also spawned by the recruiter. This rate assumes all weapons are available to the recruiter and workers correctly man all buildings. In addition, towers require worker access and a road back to the recruiter.
There is a definite priority or order of military unit generation by the recruiter. The order (highest to lowest) is tower sentry, charioteer, infantry and archer. So for example if you have an unfinished archer fort and then build a chariot fort and three towers, the tower sentrys will be recruited first, followed by the charioteers, and finally the archers. All military units, as previous indicated, will be generated at the same rate. If you have incomplete forts of the same type the order of their manning is based on the fort’s distance from the recruiter. Thus if you have two incomplete chariot forts the one closest to the recruiter will be completed first. You can change the order forts will be manned by the recruiter by sending the forts troops out in the field. Thus for example, if you have an incomplete chariot, infantry, and archer fort, you can send the chariot troops out in the field and the recruiter will switch from generating charioteers to generating infantry. I have found that walling in the forts has no affect on the order of company generation. In fact, if the chariot fort in the last example were walled in (walls or gardens) the recruiter would still generate a chariot but when it reached the academy it would disappear. This is also true with forts of the same type. If you wall in the closer of two infantry forts the recruiter will generate the infantry but it will disappear when it reaches the academy.
Although you can remove the troops from a fort to change the recruiters order of generation there is a price to pay. And that price concerns the morale of the troops.Company Morale:
Combat success and time away from the fort influence company morale. This discussion will only focus on morale as influenced by time spent away from the fort. But there are some generalities that can be applied to morale as affected by combat success. Morale can be considered to be either positive or negative. In addition, within each morale category (positive or negative) there are many different levels.
Positive morale is ordered as follows (from highest to lowest): Perfect, Excellent, Extremely Strong, Strong, Very Bold, Bold, Daring, Quite Daring, Encouraged, Above Average, Average, Below Average, Quite Poor, Poor, Shaken, and Badly Shakened. The morale of each company can be found on the “Overseer of the Military” screen. Negative morale is ordered as follows (from lowest to highest): Panicked, Terrified, Extremely Scared, Very Frightened, and Frightened. You can successfully command companies to leave a fort only if the companies have a positive morale. When companies sucessfully leave the fort there is a 4 month grace period in which the morale does not change (assumming no combat). After the 4-month grace period the morale will drop to the next lowest level at the rate of one level per month. Example: You dispatch a chariot company with a morale level of “Strong”. Assuming the chariot company is not in combat, it’s morale away from the fort will remain “Strong” from January through April. After April the morale will drop one level to “Very Bold” in May, and one level to “Bold” in June, … The lowest positive morale level a company can have in the field is “Badly Shaken”. If as the result of combat or if the company stays in the field for one more month it’s morale level will become negative and will drop to the lowest possible morale level which is “Panic”. A “Panic” morale level will cause the company to retreat back to the fort.
Reaching a “Panic” morale level by one company affects all troops in the field. Important: All other companies will have their morale level lowered by one, even though they are not the company that ‘Panicked”. So if there is another company at “Excellent” its morale level will automatically drop to “Extremely Strong” as a result of having one of its other companies panicking.
Companies that “Panic” must run through the negative morale cycle (Panicked, Terrified, Extremely Scared, Very Frighten, Frightened) before they reach the bottom of the positive morale cycle (Badly Shaken, Shaken, Poor, …). This is also accomplished at the rate of one morale level per month. When they reach the lowest positive level they can be successfully commanded to leave the fort. When you attempt to move a company that is in the negative morale cycle out to the field two things happen and both of them are bad. First you will receive a message “Companies morale too low to respond”, besides receiving this message you will also have the bad fortune of having your companies morale drop further by two levels. For example, your troops negative morale is at “Very Frighten” and you attempt to move your troops out of the fort. Your morale would then drop two levels to “Terrified”. Secondly, the drop in two levels not only affects the company that was selected, but all companies. Thus, if there were other companies with a positive morale of “Above Average” their morale would drop two levels to “Below Average”.Some interesting aspects:
1. Assuming the same skill level, there are circumstances where it may make sense to destroy a fort and start over. An example would be an invading force reaching your city in 12 months. Assuming money and material were not issues it could take nine months to generate a “Perfect” fort versus 21 months to raise the morale level of an existing fort from “Panic” to “Perfect”.
2. Realizing that trying to move troops with a negative morale to the field results in losses of two levels for all companies, it makes senses to always inquire the Overseer as to the morale of the company before you take action.
3. Assuming you are not in combat, you have a 4-month grace period before your company morale will drop a level. This grace period will allow you to move your companies into defensive positions prior to the attack without any loss of morale.
4. It also makes good sense to not allow a company to get into a “Panic” situation. This is easier said then done, but can translate into something as simple as making sure you are adequately manned when sending troops into combat.
Would appreciate comments on this subject and as to the validity of my observations.
Hope this helps
Regards,
Vriesea
[This message has been edited by Vriesea (edited 05-02-2000).][This message has been edited by Vriesea (edited 05-03-2000).][This message has been edited by Vriesea (edited 05-03-2000).]
posted 05-01-00 21:16 ET (US)
Slow down girl!
one question though, are you sure that the Recruiter trians all troops at the same speed?
