Did you change the unit upkeep cost?

[Zvornik]

The first thing you noticed when you played your first campaign in EB is the major upkeeping cost of units. In my opinion it is ridiculously high and immediately put you in debt. No disrespect to the makers of the mod but I think you should not have made the upkeep so high, it takes away a lot of fun in the game.

I understand that the reason behind this is to keep it realistic. But realistically the settlements would have made much more money than what they do in the mod (so that would balance the upkeep cost out)
Anyways, I manually changed all the upkeep costs and reduced them by about 50%-70% and it's a lot more fun to play now.

I just wanted to make this poll to see if anybody else agrees, and if anyone changed the numbers like I did.

[torongill]

I raised my Romani factions upkeep costs and lowered all the other factions'. I intend to lower them once I stop playing the Romani.

[lmt96]

I'm happy with the upkeep cost. Once you're strong, the upkeep cost won't be a big thing to consider.

[wiande]

Well if you're new to EB1 then it's normal to be amazed at first, but it's an habit.
It's pretty normal to start in debts

If you play well, after 50 turns you won't know what to do with your cash

[Dargaron]

I leave the upkeep costs where they are. I hate getting all this gold later in the campaign and not having enough family members to command more armies.

[Ferdiad]

Upkeep costs are fine, mid to late game and you will be rolling in cash.

[GreyFox]

I think the costs are balanced. Each army is meaningful and the loss of one can be catastrophic.

[coldfusion21]

I think the recruitment and upkeep is just fine once you start to expand, but what i have done is modify the descr_strat file to give each faction with 3 or less regions 40000 money from the start so you go in debt the second turn.

And another thing to make it a bit interesting was to make every capital and 4 strategic regions a place where you can retrain every unit.

[Wulfburk]

No, if you want to lower the upkeep costs why dont just go babk to Vanilla???!

[AndariusHaliusScipio]

The problem is that the high upkeep is only realistic much later in the game. If we went by EB standards of upkeep in reality, Rome would have been easily crushed under before it could even rise. In-game, if you controlled all of Italy between Etruria and Samnium, you would be able to barely support one army. In reality, the Romans raised four armies every year, and the soldiers weren't paid; they took part in the loot gained from yearly campaigns.

Pretty much the single reason why the Romans ultimately defeated Pyrrhus is because they could easily replenish their losses whereas Pyrrhus could not, and would have to replace his elite, professional soldiers with Italiots who fought and trained just like the Romans.

And it's a whole different situation with the Gauls, Germans, Sarmatians, etcetera, who barely constitute a single settlement and surrounding farmland (or hunting grounds) and then field tens of thousands of warriors without completely destroying their tribal economy or infrastructure.

[Atilius]

In reality, the Romans raised four armies every year, and the soldiers weren't paid; ...

What reality are you referring to? Livy claims Roman soldiers began recieving pay during the siege of Veii in the late 5th or early 4th C BC and Polybios tells us that infantrymen were paid two obols (probably meaning 1/3 of a denarius) per day.

[Ferdiad]

What reality are you referring to? Livy claims Roman soldiers began recieving pay during the siege of Veii in the late 5th or early 4th C BC and Polybios tells us that infantrymen were paid two obols (probably meaning 1/3 of a denarius) per day.

So was two obols alot?I know nothing of the avereage richness of a roman.

[torongill]

Actually one full stack might be pretty much a consular army, if we keep in mind the numbers of the citizens of the regions. I submit to you that with large cities and one huge(Roma) cities mainland Italy(Arretium, Ariminum, Roma, Capua, Arpi and Tarentum) comes to around 80k citizens able for service. At the same time, in 225 Polybius states that the Roman alliance had a manpower pool that ammounted to 70 000 cavalry and 700 000(yeah, seven hundred thousand) infantry. And out of this they fielded four legions with their corresponding alae, ammounting to 40 000 armed men, those being divided between the two consuls. So two full stacks having an average of 160 per unit is more than enough to represent to ratio between fighting men and able-bodied citizens. And with large cities you can really support two stacks, on VH/M. Yes, the naval units are a ruinous expense, but then again, there's no script to have their price evolve.

[Anubis88]

Well, 2 obols was like Atillius said about 0.33 of a denarius... The pay of the soldiers was raised a lot, until in Caracalla's age they received 675 denariuses per day! 1 denarius is simmilar to a drachma... I can't tell you tough how much could be bought with that. I'm guessing not that much, since it was the most common coin in Rome

[Delta146]

Well, 2 obols was like Atillius said about 0.33 of a denarius... The pay of the soldiers was raised a lot, until in Caracalla's age they received 675 denariuses per day! 1 denarius is simmilar to a drachma... I can't tell you tough how much could be bought with that. I'm guessing not that much, since it was the most common coin in Rome

Wikipedia says the estimated purchasing power in terms of bread for one Denarivs is about $21 USD. Not sure how correct this is.

Also, I think the value of the Denarivs dropped massively over the course of the empire because they kept debasing it, so from what I've read, by Caracalla's time 675 Denarii was worth far less than the same amount back in the Republic.

[Spike]

Wikipedia says the estimated purchasing power in terms of bread for one Denarivs is about $21 USD. Not sure how correct this is.

Also, I think the value of the Denarivs dropped massively over the course of the empire because they kept debasing it, so from what I've read, by Caracalla's time 675 Denarii was worth far less than the same amount back in the Republic.

so that's why Roman army never willing to invade Mesopotamia and Baktria
if they got paid with US army standard, maybe they'll fare better

[lmt96]

so that's why Roman army never willing to invade Mesopotamia and Baktria
if they got paid with US army standard, maybe they'll fare better

Haha nice joke! I think the main reason is the Pahlavân's cavalry army. A good evidence is the battle of Carrhae.
Haha 100th post!! Drummer & Fifer hehe

[Entropy Judge]

Haha nice joke! I think the main reason is the Pahlavân's cavalry army. A good evidence is the battle of Carrhae.

Interestingly enough, a subordinate of Crassus's, using pretty much the leftovers from Carrhae, managed to defend Syria from Parthian invasions for the next few years, even defeating them in battle.

[Ferdiad]

Ah okay I just wondered how profitable serving in the Legions was.

[torongill]

actually the polybian mud crawler was paid around half a denarius a day(5 1/3 asses, 1 denarius = 10 asses), from which the price for corn and clothes is deducted. Centurions were paid 10 2/3 asses per day.