Garrisons

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Azeltir

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Whenever I own a castle, I am struck by paralysis by analysis concerning whom I should garrison within its walls. I am currently playing as a Nord rebel, and have a force consisting of Nords, Vaegir archers, and a few recently acquired Khergit veteran horse archers. Who should I "leave behind" in my newly acquired castle, and how many of each type?

Ben
 
I usually leave archers, crossbowmen and foot soldiers (since my army is mostly mounted).  When the AI garrisons castles, it usually starts off with about 30 troops, and I try to also.  I'm not really comfortable until there are over 100 though.  As the game progresses I will supplement the garrison with mercenary horsemen (formerly hired blades until they lost their horses) for later pickup to replenish my army, and with recruited prisoners (mostly archers) if morale allows.  You can run out of slots in your castle if there are too many types, and sometimes I will shuttle troops between castles/towns to concentrate certain types in certain areas and upgrade them during travel.  Hired blades can still make great castle defenders, and would be a terror to face at the top of a ladder.
 
Azeltir said:
I am currently playing as a Nord rebel, and have a force consisting of Nords, Vaegir archers, and a few recently acquired Khergit veteran horse archers. Who should I "leave behind" in my newly acquired castle, and how many of each type?

Leave men behind in function of what you're going to do in the near future. Are you going go on conquering other castles and cities then leave behind only the minimum amount of men you feel comfortable with. Are you going to do some quests for a lord, village elder and the likes then you might want to leave most men behind and bring only the fastest troops for instance. You could even leave them all behind and train up some new recruits and pick only the fights you want.
Are you going to ...
 
leave elite troops, that excel in archery, first of all, crossbow marksman (Rhodoks Marksman lvl 25), infantry, hired blades (.950),
you can also leave forest bandits - they're archers, come by in great numbers, recruitable from prisoners, and have a cheep upkeep.  :grin:
 
I too will echo the advice given here.

As much as I promote the idea that "archers are useless in battle".  They serve a useful purpose as Garrisoning troops.

Garrison only high level archers in your castle.  Rhodoks are the best.

Go out and recruit as many Rhodoks as you can and take them back to the castle and sit there and train them until they all become Sharpshooters.  Then garrison them at that castle. 

If you are constricted by low party size then leave some of your regular troops at the castle and go out and get the Rhodoks in sufficient amounts to fill your party and take them back to the castle.  Sit and train them until you have a garrison of fifty to one hundred defenders in the castle.  Then your castle should be safe from sieges, for the most part.

The amount of time you are away from the castle is key when it is not garrisoned effectively.  Do not spend more then a day  or two away from the castle or you may be sieged by enemy armies.  Go out and come back as quickly as you can.
 
I have found Vaegir Marksman to be very effective castle defenders, having a 246 proficiency in the bow allows them to fire at a far greater rate than any other archer in game. They also come packing mail hauberks, nordic helmets and great axes most of the time thus allowing them to finish off infantry in melee.

Rhodok Sharpshooters have range, but lack of speed when it comes to fire as well as significantly weaker armour when compared to Vaegir Marksman. 
 
I just dump all my nonmounted units there, as I play an all cavalry army(you'd be amazed at how useful it is to have 90 men but stil 6.5 move speed with a half full inventory).
 
I tend to put all my top-tier troops in the castle, and take the lower life forms out for training in the field till they level up. When all my troops are at top tier then I go out recruiting/releasing prisoners and keep up the training. If I get a quest that needs a decent war party then I'll pop back to the castle, stock up on top tier troops, dump the weaklings into garrison, and go off with the King to kick some ass  :mrgreen:
 
My last game I mostly used Swadian Knights for my castle garrison, essentially dumping troops in the castle once they hit knight so as to not waste precious Training oomph and avoid paying them their expensive full wages.

Eventually of course I noticed I was paying far too much on wages even so, actually looked at the garrison, and realized I had over 120 knights stuffed into the castle. This was my queue to go and brutalize a city.
 
Macsen said:
I tend to put all my top-tier troops in the castle, and take the lower life forms out for training in the field till they level up. When all my troops are at top tier then I go out recruiting/releasing prisoners and keep up the training. If I get a quest that needs a decent war party then I'll pop back to the castle, stock up on top tier troops, dump the weaklings into garrison, and go off with the King to kick some ass  :mrgreen:



I did the same thing in .903. When I wanted I had an unstoppable party of hired knights.

Can't really do that in .952 though.


 
What proportions and numbers of troops do you suggest? I find it a little difficult to estimate how many I can support and summarily bid conservatively, ending up with boats of cash. In .951 I had 100,000 denars before I bombed my save for .952.

Ben

EDIT: Oh my, I seemed to have off-by-one'd the version numbers. My apologies, and it is now fixed.
 
I'd say, don't spend too much time analyzing the ifs and buts, just have a blody good time playing the goddamn game (-:

Your main point to consider, wages wise, is that you pay half the costs for garissoned troops, so if you're afraid of running short, keep the most expensive ones in castles.

From the point of view of castle defense, archers and troops without polearms seem to work the best, but the difference is not game-breaking.

Personally, I just use the castle as a convenient storage. If a whim strikes me to have an all - cavalry or all horseman army, or if I want to tuck away some sword sisters I groomed and nurtured since they were basic peasants. As a general rule - store troops you  you can do without at the moment.   
 
A low-level village fief seems to raise about 1000 denars per week in tax revenues.  This can go up to maybe 3 or 4 thousand with all improvements.  So just keep an eye on your weekly expenses and balance that against the number of villages you control.  Unfortunately there is not book keeping, sometimes I miss a profit and loss sheet, but hey, we are a bunch of barely literate warriors in this era so no biggie.
 
Castles can also provide strategic functions. They can act as a watchtower, alerting you to enemy presence, a distraction for enemy Lords to siege while you do something else and a defensive fortress or barracks housing mobile strike forces ready for you to command.
 
alexthegrand said:
leave all archers there. Archers defend castles better than anything.
Nope,They hit the wall infront of them with almost all there shots and when they are attacked they are weak and easily killed(by troops going up the ladder not other archers)
 
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