What does "garrison" mean in Stainless Steel, and why do my "no-cose garrison" units cost a fortune?

[Gaku]

The units say they cost no upkeep when they're in garrison. The backgrounds are blue (oddly, for all but ~two in any given town). Yet my upkeep still goes through the roof. Why am I having to pay for all these garrisoned units when it clearly says they're free, and even the indicator backgrounds are blue?


addendum: Even though the mod has improved on the game substantially, I'm still incredibly fed up with this game as a whole... I'm basically going to give it one last shot before I uninstall the game and write this off as one of the worst $25 I've ever spent on a game.




TW:M2 rant: Somehow the developers didn't even manage to add little conveniences that people have been taking for granted since at least CIVILIZATION--TWO. Really, they think the only possible options for NPC turns is to watch every single unit or none at all; there's no option to only watch hostile units? How about speeding up the movements during AI turns? And then there's no obvious way to cycle through units that still have movement points left? (Hello - spacebar.) Since I have to wait several minutes between turns - when I step out and actually do stuff because why am I going to sit here and stare at the screen while nothing happens - I forget where my units are when they're way the hell across the map, and so I forget to move them - for years. Why should players be expected to memorize every single unit AND ENEMY UNIT from one turn to the next? Or when one of my units still has movement left, and I think it doesn't because I've FORGOTTEN OVER THE LAST 30 MINUTES WHILE WAITING FOR IT TO MOVE 4 TURNS, and then the unit wastes it's remaining partial movement AFTER my turn ends. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. GENIUS. /rant

[Hazzard]

First of all, it sounds like you haven't played the tutorial, I would do that before anything else.
If the unit has a blue background they shouldn't be charging upkeep, but there's a limit for each settlement. You can tell from looking at the building details how many each settlement can support.

[Gaku]

Ok, later today I'll play back through the tutorial to see if there's some cryptic hidden nugget that could explain this issue. I've got other things to do before I have time to do that.

In case you didn't catch that issue, it doesn't work the same way as it does in vanilla. For example, there have been cases where I've had 6 spearmen + a bunch of other troops, and every single unit except the last two spearmen were blue and therefore supposedly free. So, logically I move out the two in gray, and everything else should be free, right? WRONG, once I move out the two in gray, two of the formerly-blue spearman suddenly become gray, on the same turn, nothing else having changed. I'm sure that's addressed somewhere in the tutorial, right? So unless the upkeep is something like "all but the last two are free", then it makes no sense and the blue backgrounds are apparently meaningless.

[Deteriorate]

Have you considered clicking on the Units tab and it brings up a list of all armies with their commander's portrait and you can simply start at the top of the list and go down. clicking on each portrait will take your screen to where that army is.. It sounds like you are doing a lot of things the hard way.

On the upkeep, depending on your level on city, only certain troops have be supported. A town is one unit, a large town is two, a city is 3 etc etc. higher up militia barracks give additional 1 unit upkeep.
Also units will only be free upkeep if you can train them there. So if you have Mailed Knights which are free garrison in a Castle, and you send them to a Wooden Castle where you can not train them, they are not free.

Look around for a guide and learn the play the game, there are lots and you will enjoy the game

[Henry X]

This reminds me of when my brother didn't read the instruction manual and complained about the game.

Seriously, read the manual, play the tutorial and discover how many scripts are running in the background. There's a reason the game runs in a window.

And if it's that bad you can't remember what you're going to do, then write down your plans. And it's easy to cycle through armies; there's a menu designed solely for that purpose. Granted, it's not sorted by movement points.

[Strengelicher]

The units say they cost no upkeep when they're in garrison. The backgrounds are blue (oddly, for all but ~two in any given town). Yet my upkeep still goes through the roof. Why am I having to pay for all these garrisoned units when it clearly says they're free, and even the indicator backgrounds are blue?


addendum: Even though the mod has improved on the game substantially, I'm still incredibly fed up with this game as a whole... I'm basically going to give it one last shot before I uninstall the game and write this off as one of the worst $25 I've ever spent on a game.




TW:M2 rant: Somehow the developers didn't even manage to add little conveniences that people have been taking for granted since at least CIVILIZATION--TWO. Really, they think the only possible options for NPC turns is to watch every single unit or none at all; there's no option to only watch hostile units? How about speeding up the movements during AI turns? And then there's no obvious way to cycle through units that still have movement points left? (Hello - spacebar.) Since I have to wait several minutes between turns - when I step out and actually do stuff because why am I going to sit here and stare at the screen while nothing happens - I forget where my units are when they're way the hell across the map, and so I forget to move them - for years. Why should players be expected to memorize every single unit AND ENEMY UNIT from one turn to the next? Or when one of my units still has movement left, and I think it doesn't because I've FORGOTTEN OVER THE LAST 30 MINUTES WHILE WAITING FOR IT TO MOVE 4 TURNS, and then the unit wastes it's remaining partial movement AFTER my turn ends. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. GENIUS. /rant

Maybe the game is not for you. Play something easier. After all, games are there for us to enjoy, not to get stressed out.

[vin2579]

Maybe the game is not for you. Play something easier. After all, games are there for us to enjoy, not to get stressed out.

Game takes a bit of time to learn if you have never played a total war game before, in my case I found it easy enough to learn (thank you 1.7 k hours in rtw) but even I learn new things every so often, my point is if someone is willing to post and ask how something works it doesn't mean they just give up on the game.

[AllianceDeath]

Hitting space speeds up armies significantly... it shouldn't take 4 minutes for a turn end to go through, unless your playing with fog of war off and watching all enemy movement.

[Gaku]

On the upkeep, depending on your level on city, only certain troops have be supported. A town is one unit, a large town is two, a city is 3 etc etc. higher up militia barracks give additional 1 unit upkeep.

Also units will only be free upkeep if you can train them there. So if you have Mailed Knights which are free garrison in a Castle, and you send them to a Wooden Castle where you can not train them, they are not free.

Ok, so here's a picture of exactly what I'm talking about. I've deleted all units (except generals) in all cities/castles except this one. I said at the very beginning that this didn't seem to match the way it works in vanilla. Maybe now someone can tell me what's going on here because clearly the blue backgrounds are meaningless.

Have you considered clicking on the Units tab and it brings up a list of all armies with their commander's portrait and you can simply start at the top of the list and go down. clicking on each portrait will take your screen to where that army is.. It sounds like you are doing a lot of things the hard way.

That is slightly more convenient if I already know who I'm looking for. In the case of a diplomat whose journey started 40 minutes ago, this is useful if/when I finally remember that I sent him off in the first place.

Look around for a guide and learn the play the game, there are lots and you will enjoy the game

I've read several. Although it has improved my strategy, I still stand by my complaints. (By the way, thanks, mods, for taking away my posting capabilities. makes it really easy to respond in a timely manner and really makes me want to stick around your forums. ) There are many things that don't make sense from a design standpoint, given that 4X games have been around for so long and have already addressed these exact issues. It's not like they needed to reinvent the wheel when they created this game.

Hitting space speeds up armies significantly... it shouldn't take 4 minutes for a turn end to go through, unless your playing with fog of war off and watching all enemy movement.

Yeah I always double-click to make them move faster. Oddly, even when I turn off "show AI moves", it shows me the enemy diplomats making slow gestures at my cities for no apparent reason. My computer is not the fastest in the world. I can literally go make a sandwich and come back to find that my next turn hasn't yet started.

[vin2579]

Maybe now someone can tell me what's going on here because clearly the blue backgrounds are meaningless.

This right here is a problem with your being confused, see since your playing as Novgorod all the backgrounds for your units are "blue" the units getting free upkeep in that picture are the two units of spear militia that are "off hue blue" that is the color IN YOUR CASE SINCE YOU ARE PLAYING AS NOVGOROD for free upkeep.

Don't forget that towns and cities can only have free upkeep for units that are available for recruitment IN THAT CITY OR CASTLE.

Oddly, even when I turn off "show AI moves", it shows me the enemy diplomats making slow gestures at my cities for no apparent reason.

That is the AI diplomats attempting to bribe your town/castle/general/governor... it happens in vanilla as well.

My computer is not the fastest in the world. I can literally go make a sandwich and come back to find that my next turn hasn't yet started.

In my case I watch videos or browse the internet while I wait until my SS turns to complete, multi-tasking!

[vin2579]

Also here is a few tips I have picked up for finding out if a unit(s) are getting free upkeep or not

#1. Free upkeep units will ALWAYS be on the right hand side.

#2. Free upkeep units will SAY "No upkeep while garrisoned" on the information panel if you scroll over the unit IN YOUR TOWN OR CASTLE

Both examples are in my screenshot below...

[gsthoed]

Yeah I always double-click to make them move faster. Oddly, even when I turn off "show AI moves", it shows me the enemy diplomats making slow gestures at my cities for no apparent reason.

It's a known issue http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...turn-all-about
not yet solved