How is the cost of units calculated?

[Andy5]

I was wondering if there is a formula for calculating the recruiting and upkeep costs of units.

Obviously a unit that is highly trained, equipped with metal armour and has high morale should cost more to recruit and maintain than lowly spearmen with no armour, low morale and little training. Furthermore, the number of men in the unit should reflect the ongoing cost.

Obviously mounted units cost more to maintain but some societies such as Sarmatians and Parthians were from the Steppes where horses were abundant and men learned to ride from childhood. Saramatian and Parthian mounted units should cost less than say with the Greeks.

I know this is reflected in RTR but I would be interested to know how it is calculated.

[Tiberius Nero]

There is no strict formula afaik; generally yes, elites and cavalry cost a lot, levies a little, and mid range units are somewhere in the middle, but it does not always follow that the more expensive units are also spectacularly more effective. Basically the prices have been worked out so that unit types which would have been plentiful historically cost less and ones that would be of lower availability cost more; this is the reason for Ptolemaic Phalangites costing more than their Macedonian counterparts for example, as people of Hellenic background wouldn't have been that plentiful in Egypt to recruit from. So the main factor is approximation of historical reality rather than pure gameplay. That is my understanding of it, at least.

[Dom9127]

The fact that cavalry take two turns to train means that the AI usually choses not to train them, even if they are a horse archer faction.

[Mikail Mengsk]

And that's bad! Everytime I win battles thanks to my cavalry superiority, i'd like to see some enemy cavalry too!

IS there any way to make the AI training more cavalry?

[Andy5]

If Dom9127 is right then I will increase the cost of recruiting cavalry but reduce the recruiting time to 1 turn and see if the AI starts recruiting more cavalry. I noticed Samartian horse archers are only one turn and the AI produces plenty of them.

Is it possible to recruit units in 0 turns like MTW2? This might help the AI factions that struggle ie Parthians and Sarmatians?

[Tiberius Nero]

0 turn recruitment is possible, some mods (RS, SPQR) use this with the objective of generating many big battles.

[AqD]

If Dom9127 is right then I will increase the cost of recruiting cavalry but reduce the recruiting time to 1 turn and see if the AI starts recruiting more cavalry. I noticed Samartian horse archers are only one turn and the AI produces plenty of them.

Cavalry isn't cost-effective in autoresolve battles. Sarmatians use them because they can't recruit any *useful* units.

Is it possible to recruit units in 0 turns like MTW2? This might help the AI factions that struggle ie Parthians and Sarmatians?

My mini-mod does that; AI does use more cavalry, but it's only because I raised the number and defense....
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Marijuana seed

[Andy5]

Cavalry isn't cost-effective in autoresolve battles. Sarmatians use them because they can't recruit any *useful* units.

How difficult would it be to give the Sarmatians an infantry unit perhaps the thracian or gallic warband to recruit? Would another type of unit be more historically accurate?

[AqD]

How difficult would it be to give the Sarmatians an infantry unit perhaps the thracian or gallic warband to recruit? Would another type of unit be more historically accurate?

It's easy to give them AOR infantry - but then they wouldn't recruit mass HAs anymore.
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Harmed by avandia