Larger units

[Alex-ander]

I spent some time playing Wessex and was doing quite well.

But now the new patch is out i will probably restart. But i have two questions first,

I found the default small unit size hard to get used to. I know its historically accurate small units. But how do i increase the default unit size.

If i play with larger units does the campaign AI compensate by allowing you more money or am i going to be constantly short of money.

[cherryfunk]

Just change your settings in the Video Options screen to Large or Huge units. I added a 1% population growth bonus to all the Provincial Information Buildings (in the EDB file) to compensate and it worked very well with Huge unit sizes...

[Aradan]

You can play on Large pretty well with the default VI2 files. if you want Huge, then yes, do as cherryfunk suggests.

[Alex-ander]

Just change your settings in the Video Options screen to Large or Huge units. I added a 1% population growth bonus to all the Provincial Information Buildings (in the EDB file) to compensate and it worked very well with Huge unit sizes.

I tried playing on large unit size as Wessex but i always seemed to be short of monery. I am not sure if it was due to the larger unit size. But next time i will try editing the Provincial Buildings to increase population growth.

Where is the Provincial Information Buildings file i could not find it.

[Keyser Soze]

Provincial information buildings are in EDB (export_descr_buildings.txt)

[Atli]

To cherryfunk or anyone who has added the population growth bonus recommended to play with huge unit size (I'm too used to it): Would you be so kind to upload your modified EDB? Or explain where do I have to add the bonus lines?
I added the line "population_growth_bonus bonus 1" to every list of bonuses under Provincial Info Bldgs, like this:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

recruit "viking peasant" 0 requires factions { hun, }
recruit "saxon peasant" 0 requires factions { barbarian, }
recruit "gaelic peasant" 0 requires factions { alemanni, celts, }
recruit "welsh peasant" 0 requires factions { goths, }
law_bonus bonus 2 requires factions { sarmatians, }
law_bonus bonus 1 requires factions { hun, saxons, franks, }
law_bonus bonus -2 requires factions { nomad, }
trade_base_income_bonus bonus 1 requires factions { sarmatians, }
population_growth_bonus bonus 1

then started a campaign, but didn't notice any difference, so I must have done something wrong.

[athanaric]

To cherryfunk or anyone who has added the population growth bonus recommended to play with huge unit size (I'm too used to it): Would you be so kind to upload your modified EDB? Or explain where do I have to add the bonus lines?
I added the line "population_growth_bonus bonus 1" to every list of bonuses under Provincial Info Bldgs, like this:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

recruit "viking peasant" 0 requires factions { hun, }
recruit "saxon peasant" 0 requires factions { barbarian, }
recruit "gaelic peasant" 0 requires factions { alemanni, celts, }
recruit "welsh peasant" 0 requires factions { goths, }
law_bonus bonus 2 requires factions { sarmatians, }
law_bonus bonus 1 requires factions { hun, saxons, franks, }
law_bonus bonus -2 requires factions { nomad, }
trade_base_income_bonus bonus 1 requires factions { sarmatians, }
population_growth_bonus bonus 1

then started a campaign, but didn't notice any difference, so I must have done something wrong.

I believe it should read like this:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

population_growth_bonus bonus 1 requires factions { all }

alternatively, you could replace "all" with the names of every faction, of course.

[Aradan]

No, you can simply omit the "factions { all, }" part. If you do add it, make sure you don't forget the comma and the space after it.

[Atli]

Many thanks for your help. I did what you said and it works.

But now I'm wondering: what was the usual strength of armies in that period? I've been reading in the Wikipedia (I have no better source now) about famous battles of the vikings in the British Isles; in most cases the size of the armies is unknown, but in some cases they mention "many thousands" (battle of Tettenhall).

[Antagonist]

But now I'm wondering: what was the usual strength of armies in that period? I've been reading in the Wikipedia (I have no better source now) about famous battles of the vikings in the British Isles; in most cases the size of the armies is unknown, but in some cases they mention "many thousands" (battle of Tettenhall).

It's pretty much always going to be debatable, modern historians almost always treat force estimates from primary sources with considerable skepticism, but even then very few accounts relating to Britain or Ireland ever claim more than four-figure numbers for single armies. It's pretty clear that the 2-3000 men you get with Huge unit size would be considered a formidable host. Larger numbers gain somewhat more credence towards the end of the era, when increased consolidation meant an individual king (the Anglo-Saxon king of England, for example) could call on more manpower, but armies are still generally pretty small in absolute terms. 15000 total (both armies combined) seems to be the upper limit for what is generally accepted even for the greatest battles of the era such as Stamford Bridge and Clontarf.

Antagonist