Legion stockpile vs free garrison

[I got 1984'd]

So I gain 5 garrison if I assign a general to a colony....

Let's say I have stockpile of 10 legions and there are 5 legions on a planet (general), and I load up 10 legions onto a transport... Does that load up the garrisons also, or would the 10 legion stockpile be separate from the garrisons by the general?

[private1028]

You would lose your legions until you trained more. Garrisons seem to be handled different although I think they come from legions too. I've loaded transports with 20 legions and then when I assigned generals to planets have not gotten the +5 legion boost until after I trained enough legions at that world.

Good question though ... ??

[Red Earth]

You gain 5 legions from training the general. You don't have to assign them to a colony to get them. Also, you load up legions into a transport from a shipyard, not a colony. And garrisons stay on the planet. Can't get them back.

Here's something I only recently noticed. On the breakdown of all a colonies stuff it lists the number of legion garrisons. However if there is a general stationed there, it lists the garrison and the total legions available to the empire. If I hover over the number it says it's the number of legions available for loading onto transports or defending with a general.
I know you don't need a general for defense, you just garrison the legions, so I think it means if a colony has a general, it will defend with the entire available legion pool rather than just the garrison. I'll test it later (or someone can tell me this is how it works). I didn't see much value in deploying generals before, since I can't be sure what planet will be invaded committing legions to defending one felt like putting all my eggs in one basket. But if stationing generals mean I don't have to station any legions at a colony then I can defend more planets with fewer troops. Good stuff!

[abonamente]

I prefer to be mobile, so I build fast fleets to defend my worlds. Those fleets should be in the area of open conflict anyway, so it seems only natural. As a consequence, I have little experience with the legions stationed on my worlds - I do that only in the areas where things are not entirely clear yet, but I really need to move my fleets somewhere else. My understanding is that this is a 2 steps process:

1. build legions (=train troops) wherever you can (have military schools, academies); or groups of legions (=train a General and he'll train 5 Legions in turn). A Legion is a special, large and complex military unit, trained and equipped to invade/defend entire worlds. But to use them,

2. build garrisons or troop transporters (=home bases, military bases, fixed or mobile facilities able to accomodate the troops you trained and assembled as legions); the legions will be sent automatically (on colonies) or manually (on carriers, any number beyond the first one, automatically sent there), and permanently stationed there, until their destruction.

Apparently, depending on logistics (real world term, different from fleet logistics in game), you can station one or more legions in one place. On your worlds - as many legions as garrisons you've built, one per garrison/military base. On troop carriers, 10 for each transport module you attach to them.

By the way: at some point, Crusade was extremely buggy, so I am not sure if that was as intended, or just a bug, but in one game, every time I invaded a world, I could 'refill' the invasion ship with as many free legions I had at the time and according to the number of troop modules on that carrier. Didn't work in another game after that, so this needs confirmation.

[the_charch]

i have in the past had transports with one legion left give me the option to load more onto it when i relaunched it. there was also a period where a bug was actually increasing your legions each time you invaded a planet.

[I got 1984'd]

Thanks a lot for the answers. I experimented a bit. I had 0 legion to begin with, in the empire. I recruited a general and assigned him on a planet so 5 legions would also be garrisoned. So now I had 5 legions in the empire, total. I build a transport ship and loaded 5 legions onto it, and all the garrisons are gone.