Cost effectiveness: Peasants versus Principes

[NobleNick]

I have puzzled over this for a while, and invite comments:

Many walkthroughs and threads say that the most cost effective way to keep town order (PO) high with garrisoned troops is to buy peasants. Even the few places that I have seen that acknowledge that Peasants are half as effective as other troops, glowingly tout Peasants as the better buy.

I am running vanilla RTW. If I remember correctly, Hastati and Principes both have an upkeep of 170 denarii per unit per turn; and Peasant unit upkeep is 90 or 100 per unit per turn. For purposes of discussion, let's call it 90.

So, if Peasants are half as effective at garrison bonus as, say, Principes; then 2 units of Peasants count the same as 1 unit of Principes. Two units of Peasants cost 2 * 90 = 180 per turn; whereas the 1 unit of Principes comes in at 170 per turn.

So, I can have 2 units of Peasants that take up two unit slots, have XX effect on garrison bonus, and cost 180 per turn.

--OR--

I can have a unit of Principes that take only 1 unit slot, have exactly the same XX effect on garrison bonus, can beat the snot out of the two units of Peasants, and cost only 170 per turn.

I can see how using only one unit of Peasants, to avoid the "no garrison and no governor" penalty would be cheaper than a unit of Principes. But, other than the isolated situation where I would stupidly think that one unit of Peasants was enough to defend a town against the odd rebel army that comes through, why would I ever want to use Peasants? What am I missing here?

Thanks for any help you can give.

[Yosemite]

I use town watch.

[bdh]

So, if Peasants are half as effective at garrison bonus as, say, Principes; then 2 units of Peasants count the same as 1 unit of Principes. Two units of Peasants cost 2 * 90 = 180 per turn; whereas the 1 unit of Principes comes in at 170 per turn.

Garrison bonus is dependent on the number of troops in a unit. The garrison bonus of a peasnt equals that of a Principes.

[therussian]

Yes, pre marians I use town watch for my "inner cities". For my outer cities, I use Hastatis.

For post marians, in the inner cities, I use auxilia. For my outside cities, I use early legions.

[Peter]

i just build peasents until the town is in yellow order. And as i recieve 18000 denarii as income i build some praetorians here and there. Not much to discuss

[.Socrates]

I just used town watch the whole time.

[hellheaven1987]

Well, I always keeps one unit of peasant in each cities... I find out peasant is more easier to keep the population happy compare with Town Watch.

[Goscinio]

I've never build peasants to keep my people happy. I mostly don't have many units garrisoned in cities. If they start to rebel, I place some hastati or higher in them, but never peasants...

[Honeohvovohaestse]

Yes, but the population you take away will later reappear as the city grows, so the tactic only works for a limited period of time I believe.

[gardibolt]

That "half-as-effective-as-garrison" for peasants only applies to BI; in vanilla RTW peasants have the same impact as Urban Cohorts for garrison duty.

But peasants only cost 34 upkeep in BI, so they're even MORE cost-effective (though you may run out of slots before you've hit the 80% cap).

[NobleNick]

Garrison bonus is dependent on the number of troops in a unit. The garrison bonus of a peasnt equals that of a Principes.

That "half-as-effective-as-garrison" for peasants only applies to BI; in vanilla RTW peasants have the same impact as Urban Cohorts for garrison duty.

Thank you. These are the answers for which I was looking.

So, Peasants and Town Watch are good buys, even in vanilla RTW, if you need to trim costs and are willing to gamble that the towns so garrisoned will not be attacked. (It amazes me just how fast "local militia" melt before the onslaught of just about anything. You say that the enemy is throwing 1000 "local militia" against my 60 heavy Cav and 110 Equites? Not a problem... )

[John I Tzimisces]

Actually you CAN enable the is_peasant trait in RTW, you just have to do some modding that goes hand in hand with enabling night battles, I do believe...

[Tabell]

I generally use 4 units of town watch with a unit of cavalry and another of spear (auxilia or triarii). Very effective, just use the town watch as the vice and the cavalry as the hammer.

[Fabricio]

Town watch are made for that

[Hyungoku]

its how many men you have garisoned that matters, not the unit type.

peasants are perfect for keeping the squalor down.