Frustrated by unit availability/how they become available

[stabizius]

Am I being thick (please say no ) or is it a well guarded secret how units unlock? The info on each building basically tells me nothing, and I have no clue why I can recruit certain units at certain places.

Playing as Franks btw, if that makes any difference.

[DisgruntledGoat]

Every building shows you what units it unlocks. So yes you are being thick. Use the building browser.

[stabizius]

Then you have to excuse my thickness, because I still dont get it. If I right click a building option (like large city) it lists stuff that it will enable as local garrison, like elite germanic archers, but I cant recuit them. I have no idea why I can recruit them in a smaller city and not large city despite the building browser saying I can.

[veverčák]

Then you have to excuse my thickness, because I still dont get it. If I right click a building option (like large city) it lists stuff that it will enable as local garrison, like elite germanic archers, but I cant recuit them. I have no idea why I can recruit them in a smaller city and not large city despite the building browser saying I can.

Because garrison units and recrutable units are two different things. If you want to muster them you need to look at "unlocks recruitment of:" line, which is the last one on the card right after "provides garrison of:". As with most UI you could strugle for while, but it should gets better after while. It is really not terrible UI IMHO.

[Evan]

I kind of see where the OP is coming from. Although the information isn't hidden and its easy to find, it feels like its hidden. I'm not really sure how to explain it better than that, but something just feels "off" about how the information is presented.

[Aenima]

I think that the confusion may be of how you're trying to find things out - I just went into the encyclopedia (on the internet, not in-game, although I'm certain it's the same) and buildings don't seem to show recruitment info there, ie this

Instead, you don't look in the encyclopedia but in the campaign itself. So just hover your mouse over a building and the details about what it will do will come up in the bottom left, including what troops it will make available.

Hope this helps.

[Bramborough]

I think the disconnect is that higher-level buildings don't show the recruitable units from their lower-level predecessors. For example, the Saxons' Level IV keep enables recruitment of Chosen Nordic Warriors, while the Level III version unlocks Hearth Guards. Once the Level IV building is built, its panel does not state "Enables recruitment of Hearth Guards". But of course Hearth Guards are still recruitable in that province, because of that particular building line.

The other wrinkle is military tech development, which upgrades units and makes early ones no longer available. For example, at different tech levels, a settlement can recruit Nordic Levy, OR Nordic Spearmen, OR Elite Nordic Spearmen, but never all three (or even two). Once Nordic Spearmen become available, then Nordic Levies are gone; existing Levies might stay in your armies (if you don't upgrade them), but you won't be able to recruit any more.

The best way to deal with this is to just become familiar with the in-game Building Browser and Tech Tree, and refer to them often. Much better than the truly awful Encyclopaedia (the one area in which Attila is worse than R2...which is saying something, because R2's encyclopaedia was pretty bad in itself).

[ggsimmonds]

I think the disconnect is that higher-level buildings don't show the recruitable units from their lower-level predecessors. For example, the Saxons' Level IV keep enables recruitment of Chosen Nordic Warriors, while the Level III version unlocks Hearth Guards. Once the Level IV building is built, its panel does not state "Enables recruitment of Hearth Guards". But of course Hearth Guards are still recruitable in that province, because of that particular building line.

The other wrinkle is military tech development, which upgrades units and makes early ones no longer available. For example, at different tech levels, a settlement can recruit Nordic Levy, OR Nordic Spearmen, OR Elite Nordic Spearmen, but never all three (or even two). Once Nordic Spearmen become available, then Nordic Levies are gone; existing Levies might stay in your armies (if you don't upgrade them), but you won't be able to recruit any more.

The best way to deal with this is to just become familiar with the in-game Building Browser and Tech Tree, and refer to them often. Much better than the truly awful Encyclopaedia (the one area in which Attila is worse than R2...which is saying something, because R2's encyclopaedia was pretty bad in itself).

The reason for the disconnect was discovered in post 3.