Best City/Castle Garrison

[Stildawn]

Hi All

Im just after a simple city/castle garrison model to follow...

My main goals are:

- A Garrison that can fight and win by itself (without me running back to help)
- Preferably not uber expensive (though if that is required then so be it)

The other day I defended Curaw with around 70 men, half huscarls half marksmens and myself with 2 companions against over a thousand strong Vaegir army... We won quite easily... Had about 40 men left after they were all dead... Now that worked awesome but I did a little experiment and left the 70 dudes there and took off with myself and the two companions and just waited a bit away... After a while the Vaegirs attacked again with another 1000+ army and they took the city... Does me personally being there make that much difference? I was only 3 guys...

So yeah Im just after a garrison I dont have to babysit...

 

[Jormungar]

The calculation is kind of screwed up. Although a huscarl is much more expensive than a recruit, the amount of "strength" a huscarl has is not proportional to its cost. The second tier of units (e.g. Swadian militia) are the most cost-effective here. With a sizable training skill, you can train quite a bunch of them in a single day and fill up your garrison. If you're going to be there to actually fight the battle, though, these units won't be very good at all. Keep in mind that if you have a large garrison, they'll also be less tempted to attack it.

You'll generally have a better situation if you defend it yourself with your own good troops. You'll probably want to have a few good soldiers (Nord Warriors, Rhodok Veteran Crossbowmen) for this purpose.

 

[Stildawn]

So your saying to create a cost effective non babysit garrison I should just pump it full of crap troops? As the large number will make the AI not attack?

 

[KingLuke]

I believe the AI looks at numbers, not troop quality. You could probably just shove a bunch of recruits in there and not have a care in all of Caladria. 

 

[Stildawn]

Haha ok.. And what sorta numbers we talking about? Ill have to do the math.

 

[LBaeldeth]

If you're leaving it to the autocalc, it's definitely quantity over quality that matters. Level 2-3 troops, and I'd suggest a minimum of 500 given that AI army groups can exceed 1000.

However, the best strategy really is to go defend it yourself, in which case you can have a smaller garrison (as your party will add to the numbers) and they should be higher level (to perform better in actual battle).

 

[Stildawn]

In my current game my empire has got to a point that riding back to a seige castle would be fruitless as its usually such a distance... Hence why Im after a "No babysitting required" garrison...

 

[w00d]

actually my strat is simple, leave your closest castle / town the least defended. I know its exploiting a weak AI but that is my strat. What i do i leave the closest castle with 50 odd men, , it does not matter who or what they are, so the cheapest is fine. The other towns i own i will chuck anything from 75 -150 men, against the cheapest of whatever is available.

you will find that straight like an arrow, your least defended castle will be the one they target, which happens to be the closest to you. You ride back, crush that 1400 man army at the walls and then repeat etc ...

yeah yeah cheap human player!

 

[Thundertrod]

Basicly auto calc is the levels, A hurscarl is L28 a nord archer T3 is L15, in a battel with a players 1 Hurscarl will make short work of  two archers.
But in auto calc 1 hurscarl get scored 28 two nord archers get scored 30 so the two archers win the auto calc battel.

That is were T2/3 troop come in handy since thay offer the most levels per unit of upkeep.

 

[Egalmoth]

Mh... 70 Huscarls and 180 Nord Veteran Archers would be a good garrison for a Castle?

Thinking of putting more soldiers in my garrison but they are quite expensive at this point.

 

[Stildawn]

Basicly auto calc is the levels, A hurscarl is L28 a nord archer T3 is L15, in a battel with a players 1 Hurscarl will make short work of  two archers.
But in auto calc 1 hurscarl get scored 28 two nord archers get scored 30 so the two archers win the auto calc battel.

That is were T2/3 troop come in handy since thay offer the most levels per unit of upkeep.

Can I get this confirmed... As I can fully do the maths with this knowledge...

 

[Bears]

I use about 80 men in my garrison. Keeps me and the town rich.

 

[MatthaisRagnarsson]

actually my strat is simple, leave your closest castle / town the least defended. I know its exploiting a weak AI but that is my strat. What i do i leave the closest castle with 50 odd men, , it does not matter who or what they are, so the cheapest is fine. The other towns i own i will chuck anything from 75 -150 men, against the cheapest of whatever is available.

you will find that straight like an arrow, your least defended castle will be the one they target, which happens to be the closest to you. You ride back, crush that 1400 man army at the walls and then repeat etc ...

yeah yeah cheap human player!

The AI is too stupid to realize it's mistake, it deserves it.