How to raise levies?

[bylandt11]

I'm playing my first campaign (El Cid). In the unit queu there are never levies available. I can't find any reference in the manual or the info button on how to raise them.

[tomchick]

Standing armies, levies, and mercenaries are three distinct types of military units in the game, but you "recruit" all of them from the -- you guessed it! -- recruit panel!

There are important differences among them, and you'll learn to identify the three types by the prominent icon in the lower left corner. But they can all be gotten from the same place. Note there are other ways to get units as well, such as regional decision cards (called RGDs in the manual for some reason), diplomacy, and buildings.

[Grognerd]

Yeah the units marked with the "Levy" symbol generally are cheaper to recruit, but have higher maintenance (but not as bad on Money as Mercs). Plus they barely gain XP. And they give back more in rebates.

So, the idea that is being nudged here is that Levies exist for a particular war or campaign, then you disband them. As opposed to SAUs, which are your standing army units you'll keep on the map in both peace and war.

Mind you, you don't HAVE to disband your levies after a war, but the rules do encourage that.

[bylandt11]

Thank you for the replies. I was looking for spear armed levies like in the tutorial and didn't realize there are other types, like slingers.

[Oubley]

Originally posted by Grognerd:

Yeah the units marked with the "Levy" symbol generally are cheaper to recruit, but have higher maintenance (but not as bad on Money as Mercs). Plus they barely gain XP. And they give back more in rebates.

So, the idea that is being nudged here is that Levies exist for a particular war or campaign, then you disband them. As opposed to SAUs, which are your standing army units you'll keep on the map in both peace and war.

Mind you, you don't HAVE to disband your levies after a war, but the rules do encourage that.

Are you able to explain this in more detail?

I started as Ulster and the levies don't seem to be triggering any kind of upkeep cost.

It has me sort of frustrated cause i was expecting when I attacked an independent that it would then trigger some kind of cost but still nothing.

The levies don't even seem to pull from the peasant/freeman pops as far as I can tell.

So what is the cost?

Or is there some section somewhere that indicates an amount of free units upkeep?

[tomchick]

An army's upkeep cost is listed in the tooltip under your coat of arms on that army's panel. That cost will be an accumulation of the upkeep costs of its component units, which are listed in the tooltip for the unit when you recruit it, or in the detailed info tooltips for the individual units.

Furthermore, armies don't pull from your populations! Instead, you pay the listed cost for a unit in money, manpower, metal, and/or equipment.

Field of Glory: Kingdoms comes with a thorough and helpful manual where all of this is explained. While you can probably find answers from helpful folks here on Steam, you can also get faster answer by reading the relevant section of the manual, where all this is explained. But feel free to ask here as well!

[Oubley]

Originally posted by tomchick:

An army's upkeep cost is listed in the tooltip under your coat of arms on that army's panel. That cost will be an accumulation of the upkeep costs of its component units, which are listed in the tooltip for the unit when you recruit it, or in the detailed info tooltips for the individual units.

Furthermore, armies don't pull from your populations! Instead, you pay the listed cost for a unit in money, manpower, metal, and/or equipment.

Field of Glory: Kingdoms comes with a thorough and helpful manual where all of this is explained. While you can probably find answers from helpful folks here on Steam, you can also get faster answer by reading the relevant section of the manual, where all this is explained. But feel free to ask here as well!

Actually I skimmed the manual 1st, it wasn't in there from what I saw, it only mentioned the icons of levy/merc/standing army.

if it's in the manual it's probably because it's listed under "retinue" and not levy or levies.

And I think we're talking 2 different things.

If you're referring to the awful tooltip with hidden info of the army, ya , that lists the armies cost.

I'm referring to the fact I raised a bunch of levies and even though each unit had a cost (also using the terrible tooltip design) my nation treasury nor manpower was changing at all.

From my understanding you get X amount of free levy units (aka retinue in this game????)
that number is buried in the nation coat of arms at the top center under another to or 3 clicks of buttons. And you'd have to know that game is using retinue/levy interchangably.

Thanks for the help, sorry if I sound like an ass, but finding the UI to be a little asanine and I'm pretty sure the words aren't even being used correctly from traditional usage (retinue/levy), not to mention I think some of this stuff might be bugged, but hard to tell with wonky UI.

Originally posted by tomchick:

you pay the listed cost for a unit in money, manpower, metal, and/or equipment.

This is why I inquired, it wasn't applying a cost even though units on the recruitment section listed a cost.

[Jay50]

Same here, I'm in turn 12 playing as Holland. I have one army of 8 units (3 are standing army units, 5 are levies). The tooltip says the maintenance is only 2 money and 1 manpower upkeep. Why is this so low?

I have another army of consisting of just 2 levies, and their upkeep is 33 money, 1 metal and 13 manpower, which is what I expect.

So why does my main army have such large 'discount' to upkeep?

thanks!

[Jay50]

to continue on my previous post: after combing the two armies my total upkeep became 2 money and 1 manpower for some reason.

I also lost my intrinsic +2 metal production for some reason. Any idea why this happens?

[Grognerd]

Originally posted by Oubley:

Originally posted by Grognerd:

Yeah the units marked with the "Levy" symbol generally are cheaper to recruit, but have higher maintenance (but not as bad on Money as Mercs). Plus they barely gain XP. And they give back more in rebates.

So, the idea that is being nudged here is that Levies exist for a particular war or campaign, then you disband them. As opposed to SAUs, which are your standing army units you'll keep on the map in both peace and war.

Mind you, you don't HAVE to disband your levies after a war, but the rules do encourage that.

Are you able to explain this in more detail?

I started as Ulster and the levies don't seem to be triggering any kind of upkeep cost.

It has me sort of frustrated cause i was expecting when I attacked an independent that it would then trigger some kind of cost but still nothing.

The levies don't even seem to pull from the peasant/freeman pops as far as I can tell.

So what is the cost?

Or is there some section somewhere that indicates an amount of free units upkeep?

Yeah, and someone has mentioned earlier, there is always the Free Unit Support to factor into, which give a big discount to a set number of your most expensive units. And it can get a bit tricky to figure out which units will benefit from turn to turn, as the maintenance of a unit can vary depending on whether it is parked in home territory or not.

Here is the rule section from the manual:

14.7.2. Army Upkeep

Every faction has a variable number of units with reduced costs
(these are sometimes described as your retinue). This will be
related to the faction, ruler scores and attributes and military
experience. The actual number can be found on your nation tab.
The reduction is 20 money, 2 metal and 5 manpower per unit.
The reduction is allocated to the most expensive units you own.

[Note this reduction is only applied to SAU or levy
units and mercenaries cannot gain from this effect.]

In addition, if a unit is based in a friendly province there is
a 25% reduction in upkeep costs regardless of the size of the
army (this reduction is applied to the base costs, i.e. before
the reduction above). In addition to this there is a further 25%
discount for Standing Army Units if you are at peace and they are
stationed in your home nation.

In combination this can make SAU type units relatively cheap
to retain in peace time.

By default each faction has 10 such units but this may be
reduced according to the traits of your current ruler. The Seljuqs
are allowed 15. If you form one of the available Kingdoms (10.1.3)
such as France or Sicily your basic allowance will be increased
to 15.

On the other hand there is 25% in costs during the harsh season
if the unit is outside your own nation

[archonsod]

Originally posted by Oubley:

It has me sort of frustrated cause i was expecting when I attacked an independent that it would then trigger some kind of cost but still nothing.

Was it a one province independent? One of the problems you'd get there is you either lose - in which case at best nothing changes, or you win - in which case the province is now part of your territory so nothing changes (well, upkeep wise).
Where the costs will start to bite is invading another country with multiple provinces, since those won't automatically flip once you beat the defenders and you get to experience the full joy of the upkeep costs sans home territory / peacetime discount.

[Oubley]

Originally posted by archonsod:

Originally posted by Oubley:

It has me sort of frustrated cause i was expecting when I attacked an independent that it would then trigger some kind of cost but still nothing.

Was it a one province independent? One of the problems you'd get there is you either lose - in which case at best nothing changes, or you win - in which case the province is now part of your territory so nothing changes (well, upkeep wise).
Where the costs will start to bite is invading another country with multiple provinces, since those won't automatically flip once you beat the defenders and you get to experience the full joy of the upkeep costs sans home territory / peacetime discount.

Yes, it was independent. if I'm understanding the variables correctly, there was a retinue limit of 10 that I found via the nation coat of arms section on one of the "links", and I was only at like 4 units, then massed produced a bunch so. The drop in manpower and iron put me back in "good" zones so at a nation level was sort of "optimized" now. and balanced out. Because I was still in my home province when attacking the independent, there wasn't much of any type of distant upkeep hits (as you said).

Essentially the biggest thing is the "free/reduced" upkeep number. That probably should be listed somewhere in the recruitment section (maybe it already is?) . When I raised the units, looked at the upkeep, got a bunch of levies and nothing seemed to change. Then took a bunch of skirmishers then coin changed. So that started me on the journey of what is different.

Second biggest thing was the standing/levy/mercaary but I figured that part out quickly.
Later I found there is an icon in one of the UI's, but I think when I initially raised them it was from somewhere where the icon really isn't shown and all the unit borders are the same.

I'm all good now. Learning the ropes.