Silly Questions

[painter]

How may I retrain Alan Light Cavalry? A family member can recruit them at Adana and there are currently two units in the mercenary pool, but I still can't retrain my existing Alan Light Cavalry.

Also, does anyone recall if the Mongols or the Timurids ever spawn at the foothills just to the north of Baghdad? I seem to recall it happening but the campaign script appear not to support it and neither could I locate any old save games that showed it.

[Wegen7 die Große]

1: IIRC you have to recruit them as mercenary's and you cannot retrain them.
2:Yes both will come either north of the caspian or in the or south of the mountain ranges in Armenia.

[Silverheart]

Why dont you just recruit a new unit Alan Light Cavalry, and use it to fill up the losses in your other ones.
Then disband the other unit.

I recall that happening, too.
The initial Hordes never come there, though, only the reinforcements that arrive later on (and even those only appear at Baghdad sometimes - the rest spawns in the middle of the mountains or north of the Caspian Sea)

[Ishan]

How may I retrain Alan Light Cavalry? A family member can recruit them at Adana and there are currently two units in the mercenary pool, but I still can't retrain my existing Alan Light Cavalry.

Yeah i remember but i never got the chance to research on it more. Though i have a proof that mercenary are re-trainable.
Here another guy that noticed this.
If i have the time i might look into this and give a technical reason for this.

Also, does anyone recall if the Mongols or the Timurids ever spawn at the foothills just to the north of Baghdad? I seem to recall it happening but the campaign script appear not to support it and neither could I locate any old save games that showed it.

They don't spawn near Baghdad but this city is a horde target so if a Mongolian army is nearby they will surely attack this settlement if having low or mid garrison.

[painter]

Thanks for your replies.

I am able to retrain my mercenary Unhorsed Knights and Mercenary Crossbowmen but I seem not able to do the same for my Alan Light Cavalry at Adana. I would like to be able to retrain my Alan Light Cavalry as it allows me to preserve their experience.

As for the Mongols spawning, I did not meant spawning at Yerevan or Sarkel. I meant just north of Baghdad and to the east of Mosul. The only exit out of the mountains from there are via three river crossings that will not be improved with bridges. If the Mongols and the Timurids ever spawned there and you have a goodly amount of longbowmen that may plant stakes, their invasions may just end before it even starts. I seem to recall the Timurids spawning there once but I am unable to locate proof and wonder if it was a figment of my imagination.

[Ishan]

I am able to retrain my mercenary Unhorsed Knights and Mercenary Crossbowmen but I seem not able to do the same for my Alan Light Cavalry at Adana. I would like to be able to retrain my Alan Light Cavalry as it allows me to preserve their experience.

Ok back with some results seems Alan Cavalry is re-trainable for me. Firstly leading to the conclusion that all mercenaries are re-trainable to full numbers in this case from 25 to 40(normal UI scale).
However i didn't checked a few things but out of these 2 two reasons one works for them. The pool basically has the refill value of 0.085 meaning around >10 turns to refill this has nothing to do with retraining logically but i think it connected somehow that is after it refills we can retrain them.

The refill pool value is higher for Mercenary spearmen so that's why i was able to retrain them almost instantly.

Other reason can be the building level. See in the screenshots and you will get the idea.

Spoiler for Before: 

Spoiler for After: 

As for the Mongols spawning, I did not meant spawning at Yerevan or Sarkel. I meant just north of Baghdad and to the east of Mosul. The only exit out of the mountains from there are via three river crossings that will not be improved with bridges. If the Mongols and the Timurids ever spawned there and you have a goodly amount of longbowmen that may plant stakes, their invasions may just end before it even starts. I seem to recall the Timurids spawning there once but I am unable to locate proof and wonder if it was a figment of my imagination.

You meant these 3 points right?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

That's a good idea painter +rep, however i don't recall they spawn there i have to look into the files.
I will let you know if i find something on this.

[Silverheart]

Ishan, what kind of map is that? O_O
There´s just rebel regions everywhere! Has no faction made a move except yours?
And gunpowder units in turn 21?

Call me a noob if you want, but I´m confused and intrigued...

[painter]

@Ishan
Um, not quite.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The highlighted movement range of the spy shows the three exit points. As you can see, there are no other exits. Any Mongols or Timurids that somehow spawn there will be forced to fight their way out through one of the river crossings.

I have scanned the campaign_script.txt for "character", looking at the XY coordinates. The coordinates must be in the range of (X: 285 to 294, Y: 72 to 80) for them to land within the confined area. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be any.

I suppose this query is at an end until either I find some proof via a saved game or a screenshot or somebody else who has experienced the same says something. For now, I still need to take Baghdad and prepare to stake the two river crossings below Baghdad. That will be much later today.

[Double A]

If you want to retrain mercs, you need then and a family member in a settlement.

And I don't think so, it's either somewhere north of the Caspian (Mongols only) or east of Baghdad. Unless by foothills you meant that triangle surrounded by a river, mountains, and the map edge, cause that's what I'm taking about.

[Ishan]

Ishan, what kind of map is that? O_O
There´s just rebel regions everywhere! Has no faction made a move except yours?
And gunpowder units in turn 21?

Call me a noob if you want, but I´m confused and intrigued...

It's one of old copies of my mod & i used cheats to get ahead & test what we are discussing right now.
I have a lot of random things in it too many to tell:-

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

@Ishan
Um, not quite.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Ah ok i get the right points i'll check this in the CS and tell you if i find something worth telling.

If you want to retrain mercs, you need then and a family member in a settlement.

No AA i checked family member or any other general is not required in a settlement so out of the equation seems it's only replenish rate dependent.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[painter]

Thanks Double A. I've tested it and putting a general, who happens to be a family member, in Adana didn't helped. And I can still retrain my Unhorsed Knights at Edessa without having a general around.

But then I just hired an Alan Light Cavalry on a lark, moved it into Adana and then used it to replenish one of my units and surprise surprise! That recently hired unit can be replenished!

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The top four Alan Light Cavalry came with Adana when I bought it from the Turks. The sole Alan Light Cavalry on the bottom row was hired by my family member and it was used to replenish one of my older Alan Light Cavalry unit. It was then available for retraining.

So the thing I learned here is that mercenary units that came with the castle or the town when purchased is not the same as hiring the mercenaries outright.

Thank you Double A for putting me on the right track. +rep

[Ishan]

So the thing I learned here is that mercenary units that came with the castle or the town when purchased is not the same as hiring the mercenaries outright.

Yes & did you mention this before? perhaps i didn't read your post properly. When a settlement is purchased they are given from the buildings(settlement) and mercs in those regions from the BMDB\EDU file. The mercs from there are treated as regular units and can't be replenished without a proper building for it in that\any settlement.

[Double A]

Thanks Double A. I've tested it and putting a general, who happens to be a family member, in Adana didn't helped. And I can still retrain my Unhorsed Knights at Edessa without having a general around.

But then I just hired an Alan Light Cavalry on a lark, moved it into Adana and then used it to replenish one of my units and surprise surprise! That recently hired unit can be replenished!

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The top four Alan Light Cavalry came with Adana when I bought it from the Turks. The sole Alan Light Cavalry on the bottom row was hired by my family member and it was used to replenish one of my older Alan Light Cavalry unit. It was then available for retraining.

So the thing I learned here is that mercenary units that came with the castle or the town when purchased is not the same as hiring the mercenaries outright.

Thank you Double A for putting me on the right track. +rep

Woah. You are either the most effective person at blitzing ever, or you are cheating quite a lot.

[painter]

Yes & did you mention this before? perhaps i didn't read your post properly. When a settlement is purchased they are given from the buildings(settlement) and mercs in those regions from the BMDB\EDU file. The mercs from there are treated as regular units and can't be replenished without a proper building for it in that\any settlement.

I had not mentioned it before as I had thought the only thing that mattered was that they had the same name. I have learned my lesson now.

Woah. You are either the most effective person at blitzing ever, or you are cheating quite a lot.

Only if you count an indiscriminate use of save and reload as cheating; which I do. It has saved my bacon many times.

tl;dr: Other than save and reloads, I made light use of console cheats and I am pretty okay at blitzing.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

VH/M vanilla campaign. I dominated France through diplomacy by buying Angers and Toulouse. Also, I managed to get Venice, Sicily and the HRE excommunicated and the pope didn't bothered me with my conquest of Spanish lands. And when I did the Jerusalem crusade at turn 30, I sent three generals, two stacks and hit Alexandria, Cairo, Gaza and finally Jerusalem, effectively taking out Egypt. That pretty much explains my largest land grabs and puts me in a position to keep on taking more without using the console cheats.

As for the console cheats, I did used a few for minor tweaks but I believe that I could have made as much progress without using any at all. With a possible exception of toggle_fow.

My armies are mostly mailed knights and longbowmen and I try to keep my casualties light at about 10%, which enables me to push quite deep or do crazy stunts before being forced to replenish them. I rarely ever used auto-resolve.

[painter]

Okay, I wasn't imagining things. They did in fact spawned within the box. At least for the first wave.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

It took me many reloads before they finally did so, and I saw them spawning at some locations not specified within the campaign_script.txt. I don't have an explanation for this.

Hopefully the second and last wave will appear up there too and that the actual river crossing terrain favours me. And I need to rush my men back up before they declare war!

[FootSoldier]

Interesting - but can you tell exactly where the Mongols will spawn? In my Turkish campaign the first wave spawned by the lake between Yerevan and Mosul, and the later waves south and west of Baghdad.

Did you sort the Alan Light Cavalry retraining when gained as a garrison? I've always been able to replenish them in town or castle as mercs. Now I've got some as garrison when I bought Smyrna (8 units, in fact). What building will I need to retrain these?

[painter]

I can't tell where exactly they will spawn. It seems to be linked with the RNG for the first wave. Iianm, the second wave gets another RNG roll and the third wave follows the second. It will be awhile for me to check on the second and third wave however.

As for the Alan Light Cavalry, the first four came with Adana when I bought it from Turkey. As Ishan said, they were spawned not as mercenary units, so I will need to retrain them with the appropriate building; except that England doesn't have any such structure. As it is, I plan to test causing my mercenary ALC severe casualties and then merging my garrison ALCs into the mercenary ALCs. If all goes well, I hope to preserve some of the experience and regain the ability to retrain them.

[FootSoldier]

Ta ... um ... the bit I didn't get is which building is required to retrain ALC if you get them as a garrison? I'm in process of turning the Smyrna fortress into a city ... is it a stables?

I understood from the discussion that these ALC as garrison were controlled by a building level in Smyrna when I bought it from the Byzantines. And, that they are not, therefore, simply retrainable like ordinary merc ALC. If this is so, do I need:
- the right building ( a stables?)
- and availability of ALC in the merc pool? (or will all the 8 garrison units be retrainable simply with the right building?)

[painter]

I've been looking in the "export_descr_buildings.txt" and I have not been able to locate any entry with "Alan Light Cavalry". I presume this means that the ALC are not trainable by any faction with any buildings and that the only way you can replenish ALC units is by retraining in towns or cities that are in Bulgar, Sarkel, Kiev, Caffa, Ryazan, Smyrna, Iconium, Trebizond, Caesarea, Nicaea, Adana, Tbilisi, and Yerevan.

[Visorslash]

A note on the blitzing.

It's very easy to blitz Vanilla. Especially as the Isles faction. I did better than what he did as Scotland on VHVH in less turns.