Units that improve public order?

[Gubernaut]

Hey I noticed having army units in a town helps with public order but do all army units give the same order bonus or are some better than others? Does it depend on that units experience or armor or weapon level?

[CHE]

Originally posted by Emton:

Hey I noticed having army units in a town helps with public order but do all army units give the same order bonus or are some better than others? Does it depend on that units experience or armor or weapon level?

In M2TW, the evidence I've seen while playing and in forums, shows that only the number of soldiers makes the difference, not the numbers of units, nor the type of units.

[Gubernaut]

Oh ok so then in that case it might be good to use peasants? Cause I was thinking maybe peasants are crap and I should use nicer units but there's lots of peasants in a stack and they're cheap so I'll try that.

[CHE]

Originally posted by Emton:

Oh ok so then in that case it might be good to use peasants? Cause I was thinking maybe peasants are crap and I should use nicer units but there's lots of peasants in a stack and they're cheap so I'll try that.

You're talking about peasants specifically, not peasant archers as well, eh? Sure, can use peasants, yes.

However, there are some drawbacks to using peasants, which you may not be aware of. I'll elaborate here:

In cities, only militia units have free upkeep, not peasants. (In castles, there are no free upkeep units.)

Also, if you are going to defend the settlement against invaders, or send the settlement's garrison out to attack a rebel army, peasants are much less effective in combat compared with other units. Peasant archers are useful, though: their fire arrows can reduce the morale of even the most well-armoured opponents.

For cities, I try to get the maximum number ot militia that I can get with free upkeep, and preferably no more. I prioritise constructing buildings (and ensuring a high % of my faction's state religion), rather than using much of a garrison that costs upkeep, to increase happiness. Buildings cost money to build (much like militia that have free upkeep cost money to produce initially), but after that, they are free to maintain.

Settlements on the frontline are a different matter - these often require extra units to discourage rivals from declaring war on my faction, and to defend against actual attacks.

Playing this way enables me to free up units for mobile armies (and navies) - to move to defend against armies that could overwhelm my garrisons (and navies that might blockade my ports), and to use as attacking armies. Playing this way also allows me to maximise my income.

[Gubernaut]

Allright I always try to max out the free upkeep units. Just thinking for some of these settlements where I can't get a governor yet, to load it up with units to keep the place from rioting. Also at the recruitment window does it show which units are militia (get the free upkeep)? Or how am I suppossed to know (besides constructing one of each unit just to see)?

[Neithan]

A city can support any militia units for free that can be trained there (and all units trained at city barracks count as militia). The maximum number of free militia units is determined by your city walls, when you click on the "walls building" you can see how many free upkeep slots it supports. Although not sure atm, if there is even some other building, maybe a guild, that might add another free upkeep slot. But I think it's just the walls.

So, if you can recruit archer militia in a city, it can be supported for free there, but if you move it to another city that has not yet the required building (level of barracks) to recruit that archer militia, it would need upkeep there.

Btw. the Merchant Cavalry you can get via a merchants guild is a militia unit, too, and can be keept for free at a city with that guild. Although they are not really that good cav, they still can come in handy, and I like to have 4-5 (as much as the city supports) of them ready as a "quick reaction force", way cheaper than keeping some professional cav units for that (although those perform better), and way faster than having to recruit those on need. Ofc. that town should be behind your frontline, or you would need other (militia) units anyway to effectively protect it.

[CHE]

Originally posted by Emton:

Allright I always try to max out the free upkeep units. Just thinking for some of these settlements where I can't get a governor yet, to load it up with units to keep the place from rioting. Also at the recruitment window does it show which units are militia (get the free upkeep)? Or how am I suppossed to know (besides constructing one of each unit just to see)?

Oh... I only conquer a settlement if I have a general ready to enter the city and govern it for a while (until the people are happy). In your case (having no general there), I'd do the same thing: use many units to keep the people happy until I'd built enough happiness buildings and ensured enough % of the land was my own religion (using religious agents, religious buildings, etc.).

If it is a conquered settlement, then buildings of another culture might cause a problem, too. This is certainly the case in Rome Total War. You can see whether or not this is the case in the settlement window about public order. You might want to consider destroying those buildings.

[CHE]

Originally posted by Neithan:

A city can support any militia units for free that can be trained there (and all units trained at city barracks count as militia). The maximum number of free militia units is determined by your city walls, when you click on the "walls building" you can see how many free upkeep slots it supports. Although not sure atm, if there is even some other building, maybe a guild, that might add another free upkeep slot. But I think it's just the walls.

So, if you can recruit archer militia in a city, it can be supported for free there, but if you move it to another city that has not yet the required building (level of barracks) to recruit that archer militia, it would need upkeep there.

Btw. the Merchant Cavalry you can get via a merchants guild is a militia unit, too, and can be keept for free at a city with that guild. Although they are not really that good cav, they still can come in handy, and I like to have 4-5 (as much as the city supports) of them ready as a "quick reaction force", way cheaper than keeping some professional cav units for that (although those perform better), and way faster than having to recruit those on need. Ofc. that town should be behind your frontline, or you would need other (militia) units anyway to effectively protect it.

Yeah, even the weakest cavalry are useful for chasing down routing units, to capture them. So I generally like to have 1 or more in every army (including any garrisons which might face combat).

[deemarksu]

I think generals unit is the only that can add special bonus to improve public order, actually they can also improve population growth and income as well. It depend on which trait they got. Trait also affect on bad side as well.