Is there a downside to building unlimited assault armies?

[CaptainChaos]

I can't see a cost or anything. Originally I thought it might reduce unemployment by drawing from the population but I don't think it's even doing that. Is there any reason I wouldn't build a few hundred of these to keep around?

[yuzhonglu]

Upkeep cost.

[Old Ben]

When you recruit them it shows you the cost and the upkeep cost. Eventually there is research to help reduce the upkeep cost. A couple good stacks plus Generals is all you need when you invade another empire, you don't need tons of them. If you see you are running low during invasion, just recruit more at a nearby system.

[CaptainChaos]

Ill check that again thanks. I didn't see the upkeep perhaps I missed it.

[R131]

Originally posted by CaptainChaos:

Ill check that again thanks. I didn't see the upkeep perhaps I missed it.

Hover your mouse over energy credits and it is there under consumed.

[CaptainChaos]

thanks. Army upkeep says nothing. But yes, total upkeep under credits had a value. Not sure how much maybe 1 for 1 or 2 for 1 something like that.

[Xaphnir]

There's also a mineral cost to building them.

[mister_lobos]

normal assault army (with no tech, trait or whatever modifiers) is 100 minerals to train and 1 credit upkeep per month... slave army, clone army and undead army are less upkeep, the rest cost more upkeep.
if you don't have a use for them, then there is no point in training them... 1 credit per month may not seem like much, and it's not, but if you have 20+ armies sitting around doing nothing for a couple years it is a waste.

i only build as many as i need to take out the next planet i plan to attack.

"want to know more?" (movie reference... guess the movie)
https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Land_warfare

[Sero]

Then again you do want to recruit armies before you start the war since they take ages and it usually is quite far from your core system to the enemy so if you only start recruiting armies when you have captured the system the planet is in the armies probably won't make it before the war is over.

[BlueBangkok]

As others said, you should keep an eye on the upkeep cost but otherwise, it's worth it to pre-spam armies if you want to go to war. It takes ages to bombard enemy planets and if you do, it will get ages for them to recover after the conquest. It's much better to simply spam them with armies and take them immediately.

[Ryika]

In the late game, both upkeep and recruitment costs are basically meaningless, which is why you can just spam them to your heart's content.

Building the biggest, strongest armies you can is still the best option though, since only a certain number of armies can take part in a fight at any time, and you'll lose a much higher portion of your armies if you send in weaker armies - plus, fights will take a lot longer.

[CaptainChaos]

This was great thanks everyone. Very informative as always!

[mss73055]

Advanced armies are both cheaper and more effective.
Just a royal pain to replace them every time.

[Doom monkey]

Originally posted by BlueBangkok:

As others said, you should keep an eye on the upkeep cost but otherwise, it's worth it to pre-spam armies if you want to go to war. It takes ages to bombard enemy planets and if you do, it will get ages for them to recover after the conquest. It's much better to simply spam them with armies and take them immediately.

lol i was going to say the opposite, sure it's a pain but you can crank our armies on each world, so if you don't mind the micro, and you have 20 worlds, you can build 20 at once.

You can usually get armies to the front before or shortly after you reach the first or second world you want to invade.

[BlueBangkok]

Originally posted by Doom monkey:

Originally posted by BlueBangkok:

As others said, you should keep an eye on the upkeep cost but otherwise, it's worth it to pre-spam armies if you want to go to war. It takes ages to bombard enemy planets and if you do, it will get ages for them to recover after the conquest. It's much better to simply spam them with armies and take them immediately.

lol i was going to say the opposite, sure it's a pain but you can crank our armies on each world, so if you don't mind the micro, and you have 20 worlds, you can build 20 at once.

You can usually get armies to the front before or shortly after you reach the first or second world you want to invade.

Yes, but honestly building 20 armies at once is such a pain for someone as lazy as me that I would rather build a few in advance and then attack.
The game could really use an Army Manager.

[Malkuth]

You really don’t need one. Even a stack of 10 will wipe AI out in most games. Very rarely do I see more than 4-5 armies on enemy planet. Usually it’s 2.

Until late game at least.

So easy to build, Q up 3 on 3 planets have them meet at front lines and merge.

If the AI was a little better that 10 credits can add up, if your maxing out fleets to keep up with a good AI. But right now... not an issue.