How do I retrain a unit?

[CompanyofHeroes_thankSpielberg]

Hi, I am a veteran of Rome Total War (RTW).
I am new to Rome II.

I am at the beginning of a Roma campaign in Rome II. Just had a big battle and some of my Hastati units are only 24 men. I return the whole stack to Rome, where there is a Field of Mars level one, which can train Hastati and Velites.

However, while the stack is in Rome, it says my Hastati units (of 24 men) cannot be retrained.

So how do I retrain units in Rome II? By "retrain" I mean replenish a damaged unit's number of troops to full, and retaining the battle experience, which is lost (I think) if I do merge units.

[leonidus]

It is retrained automaticly and gradually when your army is in your or allied region. You can increasy the rate of replenishment by placing your army in a city or in fortified mode...

[Welsh Dragon]

Originally posted by Jeremiah:

Hi, I am a veteran of Rome Total War (RTW).
I am new to Rome II.

I am at the beginning of a Roma campaign in Rome II. Just had a big battle and some of my Hastati units are only 24 men. I return the whole stack to Rome, where there is a Field of Mars level one, which can train Hastati and Velites.

However, while the stack is in Rome, it says my Hastati units (of 24 men) cannot be retrained.

So how do I retrain units in Rome II? By "retrain" I mean replenish a damaged unit's number of troops to full, and retaining the battle experience, which is lost (I think) if I do merge units.

I can understand the confusion. What you're encountering is a difference in terminology and mechanics between Rome 1 and 2.

In Rome 2, re-training a unit basically means replacing a unit with a different later unit.

For example, playing as Rome in Grand Campaign, once you research the Tech "Cohort Organisation" you lose the ability to recruit Hastati and Prinicipe, but gain the ability to recruit Legionaries, (kind of like Rome 1's Marius Reforms, but it happens when you research it, not at a certain date.) Any existing Hastati and Prinicipe in your armies can then be "re-trained" into Legionaries, at a price.

It's a feature that's not used very much (it's basically Rome and a few factionss get to replace their Peltasts with Light Peltasts, though why you'd want to I've never been sure.)

As for how to replace casualties, for that you need to look at another Rome 2 mechanic, replenishment. If an army ends its turn in your lands, any units that aren't at full strength will automatically replenish some loses. The actual replenishment rate varies, and can be effected by a variety of factors. Not sure if they retain the battle experience, or whether it goes down to represent new recruits coming in. But basically it means over time any unit that hasn't been completely destroyed will replenish to full strength if in friendly territory. It just may take a while.

Good news is you can increase the replenishment rate in a variety of ways, including techs, character traits/skills, having a food surplus, putting the army in fortified stance, recruiting new units to that army (as that also boosts replenishment a little,) and probably some others I'm forgetting. It's possible to get it up pretty high later in the game, depending on the faction and the way the campaign develops.

As for merging, I think it averages out the experience level between the two (or more) units being merged, but not sure on that.

Hope that helps.

All the Best,

Welsh Dragon.

[MANWHATADONGA]

Merging units do average out,depends how many men in units.If replacing, your experience goes down.