Where are my spearmen?

[JuanZ223]

I'm playing as Byzantines and I upgraded my castles to fortresses and upgraded the barracks inside the fortress and now I can't recruit the most basic spear unit which is what I need to fight the turks and mongols.. Is there a way I can get em back?

[Stylix]

I'm playing as Byzantines and I upgraded my castles to fortresses and upgraded the barracks inside the fortress and now I can't recruit the most basic spear unit which is what I need to fight the turks and mongols.. Is there a way I can get em back?

In a word 'no'. Please click on the link below for an explanation:

KGCM Advanced Late Era Recruitment

[JuanZ223]

Oh thank you for the link, I thought it was a bug but its actually made to make the game more balanced, seeing as how I wont have spearmen I have to counter cavalry heavy armies a different way. Maybe with my own force of cavalry supported by a few archers and heavy infantry.

[Old Geezer]

You can sell you more advanced buildings and rebuild up to the level you want. I have done this so as to be able to recruit ballista. I noticed early on that Levy spearmen were no longer recruitable after upgrading some barracks and so I have kept some castles with the lower level barracks just so I can retrain them. It is a real pain not being able to have some of these available as they are quite effective at level 9 chevrons with upgraded armor and weapons. They perform significantly better than most of the billmen under most conditions.

I think that I will modify the descr_buildings file so that these obsolete units can still be recruited and retrained. (I really would like to still have mailed knights in the year 1240, A.D.)

[JuanZ223]

Yeah, but not having spearmen as byzantines leaves a big gap as far as training units goes. I have the Alemanoi heavy infantry, the Dismounted Lanktions and Dismounted Lancers to count on, the only ones that actually do good against cavalry are the Spearmen, but then again I can hire mercenary ones to bolster my armies. I only have 2 units of spearmen per Army so it doesn't really affect anything, not to mention they are horrible at fighting anything other than cavalry. I have relied on a cavalry heavy Army supported by Byzantine Guard Archers, Dismounted Lanktion/Lancers, and Alemanoi. Its forced me to level up my barracks and most important the Stables so I can have a stronger cavalry force than the enemy thus reduce my need for spearmen.

[Dave Scarface]

I'm playing as Byzantines and I upgraded my castles to fortresses and upgraded the barracks inside the fortress and now I can't recruit the most basic spear unit which is what I need to fight the turks and mongols.. Is there a way I can get em back?

I would like to bring my latest work the hotseat patch to your attention. Because building recruitment is completely reworked and most units are no longer cut at later building levels in this patch. Although balanced for hotseat I believe this hotseat patch might be better for some in single player. It basically makes many changes some improve single player as well. Here is the link below, the installer is also easy to use.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...02#post7607402

Dave

[Nefarious]

Yeah, but not having spearmen as byzantines leaves a big gap as far as training units goes.

As players, I think we sometimes forget the nature of factions. I know I do from time to time. Yet each is designed with a purpose in mind, as are their armies. KGCM is set up in a way that forces factions forward in their recruiting. And I didn't like that...at first.
I, for one, am admittedly guilty of following the rock-paper-scissors approach to army composition:
Cav beat Inf, Inf beat Spear, Spear beat Cav, etc.
We've all been told, whether through guides or forums or industry standards, that you MUST have a counter for whatever the enemy presents. In the field I simply had to have spear units guarding the flanks, archers and heavy infantry centered, and cavalry on the wings for flanking and envelopment. In sieges? Spears at the gates backed by shock infantry, archers on the walls protected by swordsmen, blah blah blah...
...bland. Sound familiar?

But then I tried something.
It wasn't a new idea, by any means, but it was a departure from what I'd been convinced was proper.
I started forming armies as they'd been designed.

No longer would I have the same army only differentiated by what uniform they wore. The stats are nearly identical from grouping to grouping, so appeal could only be graphical. Right?
Ever had this conversation with yourself?
Hmm, whom shall I play this campaign? Armored or Noble Swordsmen? Zweihander or Gotland Footmen? Perhaps I'll enjoy seeing Voulgier for this campaign. Or maybe Ill be completely different and command JHI's, instead. Yeah. That would be soooo different.

Some factions appeal to certain people. Personally, I prefer the Northern European factions. I'll dabble with the Moors from time to time, but I always return to my favorites:
Scotland, France, HRE, Denmark, and Ireland. And I now make it a point to compose their armies as intended.
1. Scottish shock troops backed by pike militia with Light cavalry for removing archers.
2. Simple French line infantry for pinning the foe, with heavy horse to annihilate them.
3. Danish archers joining the fray after the infantry has engaged.
Etc, etc, etc.

A standard rock-paper-scissors army can, indeed, take on nearly any opponent. And an archer-based army will decimate plodding infantry yet be slaughtered by heavy horse.
So what?
That doesn't matter to me, any longer. It's much more enjoyable now to play the Scots as hit-and-run. HRE is a hoot with the hammer and anvil infantry approach, as well. And seeing your prey's lines constantly adjust to the multitude of French knights flanking their position is, sniffsniff, beautiful in a somewhat sinister way.

If you prefer a faction for its looks then, by all means, enjoy yourself. I most definitely do that. Guilty as charged. But playing my preferred eye candy as they were designed in KGCM is more rewarding than I had imagined. One must plan ahead, rather than be confident in his stack's compositional superiority.

KGCM's recruitment system is not vanilla. Thank goodness and Dave for that. One can still develop their standard balanced stacks, but please don't.
Perhaps, like myself, you may start developing task-specific stacks. I actually have one half-stack of Light Cavalry whose job is simply pre-battle harassment. They withdraw/lose nearly every battle, but that's their job! They handle the problem units, then my proper army takes the field against a depleted foe. This is, in fact, quite historical and proper.
Scouts would often engage and harass enemies for days before they arrived at a battlefield. The actual battle was already won before it began.

Deploying rock-paper-scissors armies is playing vanilla. But deploying faction-specific armies is much more rewarding in KGCM.

Just an thought.
-Nef