How much troop (and what type) do you guys garrison your town/castle with ?

[whats]

In my current game, roughly half a year after starting, majority of the towns around the world have reached ~500 troop capacity, with the "better lord army" option turned on, most lords run around at ~110 and the king at ~500. A campaign from the AI may see upward to 1300 soldiers siege.

How would you garrison your town/castle against that kind of raiding parties ?

I read in another thread that it is easier to stock them with militias as the AI does not check troop quality but only troop quantity, but I was hoping that stocking better troops in the garrison would be worthwhile. Only problem with that end up being the maintenance cost. (my city currently with 60+ of sharpshooters and knights with assortment of other things, totaling 250 troop, is costing me ~2600 silver per week)

 

[Elmetiacos]

Ideally Hired Blades, Sword Sisters and Nords, plus perhaps Mercenary Crossbowmen if necessary, but it depends who I'm a vassal of.

 

[Shik]

I typically only station around 200 in a castle - I don't have enough denars to support massive amounts of troops for an extended period of time.

Mostly Rhodok Sharpshooters, Rhodok Sergeants, and a few low tiered soldiers that I'm working on training up.

I also like to keep a few Cavalry soldiers in the castle - mostly Mercenary Cavalry - I use them for cavalry support and sometimes when I need to reach a destination fast, I just use 100% cavalry.

 

[whats]

I guess my other question is.. how do you maintain a high income ?

 

[Shik]

I guess my other question is.. how do you maintain a high income ?

Loot villages, ransom lords, fight sea raiders.

Taking prisoners is also a decent source of income if you've got decent prisoner management.

Go into the forest, start beating up some Forest bandits with your mace, capture 50, head off to Tihr and collect your reward of 2500 denars.

 

[Captain Erik]

looting Rhodok villages  , there are 3-4 of them close together, each trip would get me around 5000, i normally visit those villages every 1-2weeks, so the village could recover a bit and more loot for me    i like looting Rhodok cuz their army is slow and weak....maybe capture some lords and prisoners on the way back if you are lucky. and Rhodok villages seems to be the richest, with some of those red fabric stuff and oil.

Edit: this might be more diffcult if you use the fix for Rhodoks made by Fei Dao.

 

[Grendal]

I've finally got my game to a point where I have a couple of castles which I try to keep garrisoned with 300 troops of various types. This level seems to be keeping the castles immune to assault.

One quick way I've found to cash up is to steal cattle from enemy villages - drive the herd to a friendly town, slaughter the cattle, then sell the fresh beef.

 

[Deathlordjaffar]

It depends on how close the castle is to who you're at war with. My castles deep in my territory or far away from the Khergits have about 100-150 men, whereas my one that's close enough to be harrassed has about 300, and my border town has 700. All my garrisoned troops are top tiers of some level, and my non-campaign army consists of less than top tier troops, and maybe a few top tier cavalry for the occasional large bandit party or roaming lord. My expenses are pretty high (9500 or so per week), but I still have about 200somethingK just from fighting, looting, and whatnot.
Does anyone know if bandits or deserters will besiege a castle? I've never seen or heard of it, and it doesn't sound like something that would be implemented, but it makes sense. Why wouldn't an 80 strong band of Deserter Rhodok Sharpshooters(the onyl decent Rhodok troop) take on a freshly captured castle with 15 low level men?

 

[Nedews]

I have 100-200 rhodok crossbowmen in my castle. But I always run to it when it get's besieged with my 100 sharpshooters.

Anyone know what happens to heroes when castle are taken?
That hero that likes crossbows (Can't remember his name) was in a castle that was taken and the travelers won't tell me where he is.

 

[Sepher]

I have 100-200 rhodok crossbowmen in my castle. But I always run to it when it get's besieged with my 100 sharpshooters.

Anyone know what happens to heroes when castle are taken?
That hero that likes crossbows (Can't remember his name) was in a castle that was taken and the travelers won't tell me where he is.

They get distributed around the towns... I think the closest town to where you got your butt handed to you may have more. Otherwise, it seems pretty random.

The worst is when you loose the hero that has all of the path finding skills. Slowly trudging around the map from town to twon... gah..

 

[MountainBlade]

In my current game, roughly half a year after starting, majority of the towns around the world have reached ~500 troop capacity, with the "better lord army" option turned on, most lords run around at ~110 and the king at ~500. A campaign from the AI may see upward to 1300 soldiers siege.

Is this a mod or an option? Where can I find it?

 

[Tall Paul]

I used to think it was the just the number of troops in a castle or city that determined whether it would be targeted or not, and the tier of the troops was ignored, but now I don't believe that. I set a couple of traps, with some castles with 120 recruits in them next to ones with 60 sharpshooters. I was hoping they would attack the latter sites, and of course get slaughtered, but they went right for the rookies, again and again.
It seems to me now that putting 60 or so top tier missile troops in a castle is almost a guarantee of safety. It rarely will get targeted. I guess you would have to have at least one more attractive target available though. Perhaps it is a good idea to keep this more attractive target as being close to where you are currently campaigning, but I never bother going to defend my castles or cities anymore. Haven't lost one in ages.

 

[Kasnar]

WITHOUT CHEATS! im so proud of myself

My garrison (wich the only fief i own is veluca and im khergit)

Has 40 huscarcls
75 lancers
25 horse archers
21 veteran horse archers
30 hired blades
55 vaegir marskmen....


when i head out i only use khergit soldiers cause i like to keep the whole "Mongol" attitude but i like to make sure my city isnt taken (wich the AI doesnt ever assault citys...sometimes a renegade lord besieges them but not for very long.)

 

[Lord Bryggan]

For Prince Valdym I took all the kingdoms except for the Khergits, and gave away most of it.  When I fought the Nords (the last Kingdom) I took Tihr last, which was a big mistake.  Due to the many failures, plus the extraordinary amount of casualties taken, I asked for it myself.  Prince Valdym said 'no', and gave it away.  I then rebelled.

As a Lordless rebel I took Tihr again before it was garrisoned properly, then moved north and east.  I used about 15 Vaegir knights and 15 Vaegir marksmen  (my original crew) and added about 20 Swadian knights (cuz they were closer), and the rest were huscarls (my army was about 120).  I would take a castle or a city with my huscarls in the vanguard, marksmen secon, knights third and nord recruits making the fill.  Once the castle or city was taken I'd dump the huscarls and the marksmen into the castle/city, then tour the local villages and recruit... um, recruits.

For a city I'd garrison 100 or so, castle I figured 60ish would do it.  This could take some time, so in between recruiting time I'd use my time scout out any enemies while I was at it.  With 30 knights (including me and 6 companions) i could attack all that I met with little difficulty, and knock them back to size (by which I mean a size that would not besiege and take a castle garrisoned by 60 recruits).

During the whole time that I retook every bloody castle and city that I had given to the Vaegirs, I only lost one city.  I had moved my little collection of about 18 lords (lost a lot of honour refusing their ransoms) to Veluca, which finally had its dungeon made.  Veluca was more centrally located than my old spot of Sargoth, and I like to keep all my prisoners in one spot so I can taunt them every once in awhile.  Well, I was traveling along the nordic shores when I got the message Veluca was being besiged, but decided to recruit in every village along the way before taking out the army of 60 or so I expected sitting outside of Veluca's walls.

Some where along the way I got the message saying Lord Harish (an original member of my Valdymish rebellion, and who was actually 'fond' of me) captured Veluca- then I got the list of rescued prisoners.  I almost cried (well, maybe I did, but just a little, and in a very manly way.

I stumbled into his 5 lord army, and after a lot of running around and losing most of the recruits I had slowed my rescue time to go get, I defeated them all, then retook Veluca with just my knights.  But I digress.

Personally owning 4 of the 5 kingdoms, plus my personal army, I paid about 10,800 denars a week.  Then the idea of fighting Khergits with all the defeated faction's lords seemed unappealing to me, I offerd Sanjar Khan my oath.  He never, ever declared war on me, whether with Valdym or without him, and I was tired of war.  Right now I fight bandits and trouble makers, going village to villlage ensuring peace and a mighty fine income.  I'm tempted to lower my garrisons, but I may become disillussioned with Sanjar and may have to break my oath.  Whaddya expect from an urchin-***-mercenary?

Oh,a nd they had big garrisons- look at this (though by the time I fought Prince Valdym I had taken most of his lands (which I gave him) so his army dwindled to 300).

 

[guyinthecrowd]

Just started and have all my troops in my one castle, and it's about 100 guys.

 

[1stKh@n]

i have 163 troops in my castle and i have 150 troops

 

[Mkilbride]

Rebel Lord, two Castles, about 450 in one, 250 in the other, mostly high tier troops too, so if I took about 300 of them(They could all be Knights!, I could pretty much pwn any Kingdom in the land, lol)


Overall, I don't station troops to protect castles, I more or less do it so I can go round up a ton of recruits and actually have Semi-hard battles, LOL.

Seriously, I have over 150 Knights and 170 top-tier archers...it's just no fun with such troops.