does playing 1 turn reduce the amount of ai stacks?

[boratlike1]

i just simply cant recruit enough men to keep up with the ai, every turn i get about 3 full Boi stacks come into my territory even though they have less provinces. combine this with the fact that the ai is absolutely **** i get all my border countries sending in stack after stack every turn and i just cant keep upp. would starting a 1 turn campaign significantly reduce these stacks because i am finding this unplayable at the moment. i would be able to keep up if it didnt take so long get recruitment ability up in cities, which i dont have a problem with, but i dont understand how the ai can expand so quickly and produce units out of newly conquered cities so quickly

[Bcman]

It reduces the AI stacks by a ton

[Crymson]

You should only use zero-turn recruitment if you actually want battles galore. I don't see the appeal. In one-turn, I sometimes don't fight any battles at all.

[Love Mountain]

Yep, by about a thousand. You still fight a lot however, due to the garrison script.

[ur-Lord Tedric]

Yep, by about a thousand. You still fight a lot however, due to the garrison script.

Whilst I know I'm a supporter of the Garrison script - that statement just isn't true!

When you siege a settlement you get to fight one battle (sometimes not even then) - the Garrison script adds no more battles - it simply makes your Operational methods more meaningful and helps the AI a bit because it has problems defending. The AI is fairly good at the 'migrating tribe' or 'Greek (sic) empire expansion', so it's Strategy is okay; and with more meaningful RSII battles even its Tactics are a whole lot better; but at the Operational level it is not so good. The 'best' thing the AI does at the operational level is put watch-towers where I want to put forts - now that is irritating!

[Agrippa19]

Whilst I know I'm a supporter of the Garrison script - that statement just isn't true!

I have to agree with Sukiyma. I really hate the garrison script and I feel it demands you have a full stack ready for every siege. It would be great if it only applied to cities like Carthage, Syracuse, Athens, Alexandria and other major cities. Everyone is just too much. While I really love this mod I feel that even in 1-turn there are armies everywhere. I don't know how others feel but I'd really love if I could just disable all those spawned armies and have the old feeling of planned strategy back. I know a lot of players enjoy the challenge the spawned armies and garrison script imposes but I really find it annoying.

I also can't help but notice that every unit in enemy armies has quite a few exp and armour upgrades and when I take their cities they have no blacksmiths that could have given them those bonuses.

[Crymson]

I have to agree with Sukiyma. I really hate the garrison script and I feel it demands you have a full stack ready for every siege.

That's the point. A human opponent would defend his or her cities properly. The AI cannot. If you'd like unrealistic snowball expansion, then consider trying vanilla instead.

It would be great if it only applied to cities like Carthage, Syracuse, Athens, Alexandria and other major cities. Everyone is just too much. While I really love this mod I feel that even in 1-turn there are armies everywhere. I don't know how others feel but I'd really love if I could just disable all those spawned armies and have the old feeling of planned strategy back. I know a lot of players enjoy the challenge the spawned armies and garrison script imposes but I really find it annoying.

Aside from the garrison troops and the occasional scripted army (i.e. the Cimbri invasion), there are no "spawned" armies. Large AI empires are simply capable, just as you are, of producing troops on a large scale.

I also can't help but notice that every unit in enemy armies has quite a few exp and armour upgrades and when I take their cities they have no blacksmiths that could have given them those bonuses.

Just as you have buildings that give troops bonus experience, so does the enemy. Fully-developed barbarian settlements can spawn level-five infantry. This is needed, as they could otherwise not stand up to the armies of the more civilized factions, all of which can pump out troops with level-three experience and have better units in general. I have never seen barbarian units given level-two weapons and armor, so I can't comment on that.

But attacking with siege towers and all that is a lot more fun rather than just sending spies or using ballista to break the gates and everyone of my soldiers run through. Fair enough if 4 or 5 inexperienced units were spawned but a whole army? And the when I do decide to blitz there could be 4 spawned armies which only appear after I've taken their cities and my own forces have been pretty battered which leaves me in a fairly unrealistic position as now I have to deal with armies that just appeared out of nowhere.

This mod does not allow for blitzing. Again, if you're looking to take over territory fast, this mod isn't for you, and neither is RTR. Both are mods meant to be realistic. In reality, any attempt to take over a large portion of territory would require quite a bit of manpower and planning. Manpower and planning will be likewise necessary for you if you'd like to be successful.

Once again, those armies are not spawned. They already exist, and you are in their territory. It is natural that they will be close by.

[Agrippa19]

If you'd like unrealistic snowball expansion, then consider trying vanilla instead.

This mod does not allow for blitzing. Again, if you're looking to take over territory fast, this mod isn't for you, and neither is RTR.

Well just about everything you said was incredibly unhelpful. I'm not looking to rip the AI apart or have my empire established within 50turns. In fact I usually dont move fast at all and atm within 250 turns I only have 55 regions. What I'm complaining about most is my borders eg. In Massalia I had 3 legions (1-turn) guarding there and Nemausus. After one legion was beaten at Nemausus I still had 2 more at Massalia which destroyed 2 Averni armies completely. While I can retrain my armies easily at Massalia every turn, 2 more Averni armies attack Massalia every 2nd turn while maybe every 1 or 2 turns another stack will attack Taurasia and there could be another 1-2 stacks threatening to attack somewhere else. Every time I could destroy 3 of these armies completely yet they are replaced straight away and attacking relentlessly turn after turn.

This is all when the Gauls have no more than maybe 18 settlements at most. This is 1-turn and if every settlement was recruiting they still shouldn't be able to fill even 1 full stack per turn. Yet they have at least 5 every time I toggle_fow. And I'll the time I'm destroying those armies for more to come along.

Aside from the garrison troops and the occasional scripted army (i.e. the Cimbri invasion), there are no "spawned" armies. Large AI empires are simply capable, just as you are, of producing troops on a large scale.

Well would you like to believe everything I just wrote doesn't actually happen? Ridiculous comment of course there are 'spawned' armies. Call them what you like but they weren't manually recruited by the AI and they have at least 2 armies gifted to them each turn. I appreciate some players like to be challenged but I just don't think this amount of endless hordes of attackers is realistic and all I was looking for was a way to disable these armies so that there are less battles and armies than what there even is in 1-turn. And for the entire beauty of the mod, the graphics, the units, the environment, traits and faction depth I think 'trying vanilla' as you'd put it was a pretty pathetic solution.

[Darth Bane1]

Just attack in the first turn... Garrison script gets not activated...

I also can't help but notice that every unit in enemy armies has quite a few exp and armour upgrades and when I take their cities they have no blacksmiths that could have given them those bonuses.

That's because it's a scripted army. When you take one faction the regions too fast away then such a army will appear. It prevents you from steamrolling the AI and this should be this way. Otherwise it gets too easy...

[Agrippa19]

But attacking with siege towers and all that is a lot more fun rather than just sending spies or using ballista to break the gates and everyone of my soldiers run through. Fair enough if 4 or 5 inexperienced units were spawned but a whole army? And the when I do decide to blitz there could be 4 spawned armies which only appear after I've taken their cities and my own forces have been pretty battered which leaves me in a fairly unrealistic position as now I have to deal with armies that just appeared out of nowhere.

[Seshomaru]

But u can remove the Garisson Script anytime u want.Just search for it in .../data/scripts/show_me/background_scripts

[Sertorio]

RS2 is "Stackie" that much i can grant, but not quite sure about spawn stacks, apart from the garrison scripts and the Roman recruitment system. Maybe Tone or DVK can shed some light on this subject ?

PS: Don´t forget that the AI probably recruits since day one, and that might tend to be cumulative. Can it be it ? Have you tried disabling fog of war just to check that out ?

[Agrippa19]

Yes when I was playing last I just had to toggle_fow to see where they were coming from because of how frustrating the stacks were. It just doesn't seem like they are breakable unless you go all out attack and take every city. Last time I had 3 averni armies in my territory, I toggled_fow and there was 2 more near the border and one random standing army in the north where the boii have a border with the averni, and maybe 2-5 units in every city. Those two factions are not at war btw. So a rough estimate would be they have 150 units within their army that turn, and this is 1-turn m/m settings and they have only 18 settlements max.

That turn I fought a huge siege battle where 2 full averni armies fought and got completely annihilated at massalia and i autoresolved another where 1230 of them died. So that's about 45 units completely eradicated in 1-turn alone. Next turn another full stack besieges a Nemausia, a half stack wanders about massalia I fight both battles and kill everyone,end turn. The next turn 2 full stacks attack massalia and another 2 and a half attack Nemausia! I toggle_fow and still all the the gallic cities have their regular garrison and theres a half stack in central gaul.

So in 2 turns alone they had about 75 units out of 150 killed yet somehow managed to recruit another 90 in 2 turns from 18 cities? Too many for mercenaries and their cities were by no means emptied to make up those armies. It's as if they are appearing out of nowhere and raising an army of your own and fighting a battle means absolutely nothing you are constantly reinforcing the borderline.

I couldn't even begin to explain the situation in the east where the Greeks have taken most of eastern europe and asia minor. They have about 40-45 settlements and always have anywhere from 3-6 stacks attacking my line in greece alone. When I first invaded Greece I went in with 5 legions. One attacking through Illyria hiring mercenaries as garrison defence down the west coast while 4 were landed in the peninsula by sparta. I admit I completely blitzed them at first and conquered everywhere as far as Philippi without giveng them a chance but still probably beat 10 full stacks, and 4 of them were filled with elite units. More than what should be enough to win that campaign. Then about 4 or 5 armies appeared behing my own lines , which was probably the garrison script and started besieging the cities which had only minor garrisons behind my front lines. They were all taken, and then Greece started to send in wave after wave of full stacks from asia and the dacian lands they conquered. I don't know how they recruit them so quickly. I was beaten back down to Pella and had virtualy no army left while the greeks could have had maybe 7. I also destroyed every greek barracks I could thinking strategy yet that doesn't matter as armies are still appearing. I got sick of it and just autoresolved every battle till I got back to Phillipi as really I'm only trying to get a feel of what the late campaign feels like with the legions and hired mercenaries but still there are 4-6 armies appearing every turn? I just can't understand where they're coming from.

[tone]

You're sure you're talking about one turn on M/M?
Other than the one situation where you get the emergency levy army stack (where one of the significant settlements belonging to the AI is taken but this happens once) and the garrison script, there is no scripting of enemy units. The mod is designed to be quite tough and the player can always play at easy level if not used to it, but most people are generally asking for more challenge.

[tone]

You're sure you're talking about one turn on M/M?
Other than the one situation where you get the emergency levy army stack (where one of the significant settlements belonging to the AI is taken but this happens once) and the garrison script, there is no scripting of enemy units. The mod is designed to be quite tough and the player can always play at easy level if not used to it, but most people are generally asking for more challenge.