Acquiring certain AOR units

[Du Fu]

If I wanted, for instance, Cretan Archers or Rhodesian Slingers, obviously I can occupy the settlement in question and recruit from the main building. However, can I also:

A) Subjugate the province instead and recruit them that way?

Or

B) Can I just sail there and hire them as mercenaries?

[SilUns]

Yes and no, in a sense.

In general, the units you can levy from a subjugated faction (client or satrapy) are a random selection from what they could recruit normally in that region (so it depends on the buildings they have.) So, if the unit you are looking for is a faction unit or an AOR unit which they can recruit, you might get it (and the units on offer refresh every turn, I believe.)

Local mercenaries are the same (and shared) for everyone in a given region, so yes, you can just go get them, but they may not be immediately available (you'll see them greyed out in the pool, though.) They are also technically different units than the AOR units you get from settlements even if some of them are very similar, there can be differences.

[john909]

Mercenaries is the most reliable way and there are no limits (in AoR you have a unit limit).