New building proposal: Military settlement

[Zarax]

In full XC tradition to depict cultures in full depth here's a new building proposal: The military settlement

Klerukoi/Katiotai were an important part of the Diadochii military apparatus, a vital source of reliable troops.
These soldiers were taken from land grants given to military settlers.
While most of them were of course hellenic soldiers, there are some important exceptions which made part of factional military elites.
Carthage practiced this too, by placing loyal lybian, iberian or liby-phoenician settlers to help keeping control of a certain region.

Establishing a klerukeia is not a simple or quick process but is very much akin to colonization.
The advantages are clear, as once you have military settlers established in a territory you can rely on a steady flow of loyal and reliable troops.

This however has a cost: a military settlement takes very long time to build up and has the nasty habit of importing the native culture as well.

What are the differences between a colony and a military settlement?

1) military settlements takes longer to build: 12 turns for each level. Don't forget you're also importing the native military traditions there.

2) military settlements have no economical bonus: forget tax bonuses, a military settlement gets a -1 farming penalty as the native peasants are replaced by part time ones.

3) military settlements imply importing large numbers of the natives in a territory, which implies a +1 culture for the native culture in that settlement per level.

Military settlements by faction:

Carthage:
Iberian
Lybian (no culture bonus but a -1 trade bonus per level)

Macedon:
Thracian

Seleucid:
Galatian

Ptolemaic:
Galatian

I'm open to suggestions as always!

[CaesarVincens]

I like the sounds of this, but what exactly does it do? Allow you to recruit these types of troops where ever? And would it be just one level or multiple levels?

Another thing I've considered is creating a building that would distinguish between economic and military cities.

[Suppanut]

This concept was on the same foundation with PMP's idea on Auxiliary LV4(at least for diadochi factions) with some local units to recruit elsewhere but your idea are better develop than me. How about merge this idea together to save building tree by made military settlement as LV4 and LV5 of Auxiliary barrack?

Here is description of LV4 auxiliary for all greek factions which we have created for PMP long ago.

{army_barracks_Greek} Military Colony

{army_barracks_Greek_desc}
Each state usually recruits its army from subjects who are loyal to it, and the same would be said for each Hellenistic kingdom that was born from ashes of Alexander's empire. The armies of the successor states would draw their manpower mainly from Hellenic people who settled within their kingdoms, they trusted these people the most because they shared their roots with the ruler. But Hellenic people alone, no matter how extensively colonies were founded, could not suppress the local population to the whim of their Hellenistic rulers due to the low amount of colonists (cleruch) in all the vast lands Alexander left to all Hellenic people compared to the shear number of natives. As they realized that they could not rely on cleruch alone to hold their grip tight, the successor states issued a decree to attract non-Greeks, usually Thracians or Galatian Celts, who could be trusted more than the locals since they were given land to settle as well as some privileges over the locals in exchange for their military services when they were needed as well as keeping the locals in line. Although the locals, and also some Greeks, never liked all these, supposed, savage people, their service given to their ruler in the army is far beyond the price that was paid. \n\nThis colony provides training grounds for auxiliaries - not only men recruited from the local natives, who are equipped and trained to fight in their own traditional fashion, and are available for recruitment depending on the region, but also non-natives who commonly fought for this faction who may have a different culture from this region and fight in their own homelands' fashion.

{army_barracks_Greek_desc_short}
This colony is military colony that the ruler issued a decree for to give land and some privileges to non-Greek settlers in exchange for their military service when they are needed.


On Ptolemaic, I think they also employ large amount of Thracian to fight in supporting role too.

And also thank you for data about Carthage militiary colonist, I will change what I done with that part in PMP.

[Zarax]

I like the sounds of this, but what exactly does it do? Allow you to recruit these types of troops where ever? And would it be just one level or multiple levels?

Another thing I've considered is creating a building that would distinguish between economic and military cities.

The basic purpose would be to give you the same recruitment choices as you would in their native AOR, each level would give you the same recruitment choices as the corrisponding aux barracks.
Think of it as an extremely expensive version of the aux barracks which will give you a solid unit choice...

About the economic/military policy building: I thought about that too, the problem is that it's unlikely AI will manage it properly...

[CaesarVincens]

Indeed, the unfortunate AI strikes again.

I don't see the point of waiting upwards of 20 turns just to get second level AoR units however. One level makes sense, maybe two levels for some.

The way I see it the way it would work would be something like this:

First level (something like intention to colonize or some thing like that) (usable by whichever factions)
Then that could be upgraded into the other colonies with the proper requirements. (faction specific)

[Zarax]

Well, military settlements historically took long to set up, only the diadochii and Carthage used them in a realistic way.

Think more about a money sink than a tactically useful building line.
You could reap the full benefits in about 18 years, which is good enough with proper planning.
What you're gaining here is the possibility to extend an useful auxiliary AOR all over the map, something that cannot be easily disregarded.

[CaesarVincens]

No for sure, but it's a balance between historically accurate and playable.

So, keeping that in mind, how about having my proposed first level take something like 6 turns, and have economic penalties or something, then have the next level take the 12 turns and have the full effect? Or else, have two levels of military colony, a basic and a full level, and have them each take 12 turns.

[Zarax]

Well, what I proposed here is already quite a compromise, if you think about it factional colonies do not allow you to build any faster (8 turns + the barracks usually ends up to be more than 12 turns per level) although they have slightly better bonuses...

[CaesarVincens]

That is true. I will keep that in mind.

The reason I want to reduce the total time is that for most factions the AoR units are not necessary, and if there already is an AoR in the region, why bring in at great cost and time new AoR units? I think that most of the time, the player won't invest in this until later, especially with its penalties, if it takes a full 36 turns to get to the top level. That's why I think a two tier (or two-and-a-half tier) approach would be better.

[Zarax]

Well, military settlements are strategic options just like the colonies.
You don't set them up while you're on the offensive but rather to consolidate a possible front against a certain threat.
The big advantage is that they can extend your roster in areas where you cannot afford to colonize due to unrest factors while giving you a lot more flexibility.

Of course its usefulness is very limited for rush players but for those who like slower gaming it's much less of an annoyance to wait 36 turns rather than having to ship troops from half map away...

BTW, about AOR: I think we should partially reverse DBH's decision about greek AOR. They should still be able to recuit auxiliaries from there but just the cavalry ones. I think I'll work on a more functional roman auxiliary system in the next days...

[CaesarVincens]

You're saying Romans? The Romans should be able to recruit Greek auxiliaries? I do want an expanded/specialized Roman AoR, so that'll be nice.

I'll keep thinking about the military colonies, I'm sure we can come up with a good balance.