Religious zealots joining the cause
 

Does anyone know what determines how likely it is that flagellants or light infantry or other religious zealots will join your cause?

Is it purely a lucky random event, or does it have any relation to your dominion strength, either in the province or overall?

Re: Religious zealots joining the cause
 

I wouldn't quite call this a lucky event, since it's more like "random people declare themselves part of your army in a random useless province 15 turns away from the front lines and expect a paycheck". It is, however, considered a "good" event for some baffling reason, so fortunately will not occur too often under the customary Misfortune scale.

Re: Religious zealots joining the cause
 

Apparently its ALWAYS more of a hinderance than a boon for YOU.

I would say its more problem on a large map than a small one. On a small one it can be a major point in winning the game.

Re: Religious zealots joining the cause
 

The militia tend to be equally worthless troops regardless of the size of the map: They quickly rout before even most of them can be killed off, then scatter into random provinces and chew up your upkeep forever because it will cost even MORE at any given time to try to round them up.

Plus they materialize without a commander, so somebody has to go and round them up.

The flagellants are slightly better....if you had a bless effect. If you don't, they're just as useless as militia, but their higher morale makes them easy to kill off.

Re: Religious zealots joining the cause
 

I agree with Norfleet. These volunteers are a real pain in the neck. I suspect this is even true in real life http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

I find the trick is to recruit a low-cost local commander, bring them to the front and then send along as a missile screen to some battle, preferable with only one nation or two nations to run to.

I wish it would be possible to disband troops. A good solution would be one troop->one point of unrest. I find this realistic, even.

Re: Religious zealots joining the cause
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">In real life, people who volunteer without being accepted can be declined paychecks. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

The event would, of course, be a good thing....if they didn't demand upkeep.

Re: Religious zealots joining the cause
 

Volunteers still needs basic equipment, food, shelter, ....

I still think volunteers been expensive, annoying and useless is quite realistic. But undisbandable is strange. In fact, I really like my disband->unrest idea http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Religious zealots joining the cause
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">That's sort of reflected in their "supply" cost. As for equipment, they seem to come with that.

Re: Religious zealots joining the cause
 

No, the supply is just like resources: It's how much food the province can produce, but you still have to buy it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif And for the equipment, even if the volunteers originally buys their own, it needs to be maintained.

OK, I'll shut up now http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Re: Religious zealots joining the cause
 

Maintenance? Ermor doesn't even maintain the equipment on its own troops. Why would it bother to maintain the equipment on a bunch of slackers? Just let 'em get all rusty like everyone else.

Re: Religious zealots joining the cause
 

Couldn'ta said it better myself, Norfleet. Honestly, this event is ALWAYS more of a hindrance than a boon.
Back on topic, I know I've gotten the militia event in both low and high dominion provinces(Not sure whether it's happened in neutral or hostile dominion, though), with pretty much any combination of scales and nations you'd care to name. It also seems to happen as frequently in undeveloped friendly provinces as in ones with temples.
I'm not sure whether or not all this holds true for flagellants, though.
Either way, no matter how I tweak my national scales, I can't seem to dodge these bullets.

Re: Religious zealots joining the cause
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">You're acting as though the sudden presence of several more troops has a detrimental effect on your chance of success. This idea is asinine, since their upkeep is miniscule at best.

Re: Religious zealots joining the cause
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I also agree the militia which join for free are a big pain. They suck up gold and food supplies plus they run away so easily during combat. I've had important units get diseased because they popped into a territory wasting food supplies.

Re: Religious zealots joining the cause
 

It sounds like there is are enough votes for saying that the volunteers are not a "good event".
It also sounds like there are enough for it not being totally evil. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
So I guess volunteer troops should be considered a neutral event which will occur purely on the basis of the order/chaos scales.

[ May 23, 2004, 22:16: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

Re: Religious zealots joining the cause
 

I often get Holy-3 priests leading my volunteer militia, but then, I'm one of the players Norfleet doesn't think exist, who flabbergastingly takes positive luck scales pretty often.

I admit though that I was precipitated into war by getting about three militia armies in a row, and wanting to get them killed off or put to use rather than freeloading off my empire during peacetime. They were and continue to be pretty useful though as cannon fodder, distracting the enemy, messing with their plans and absorbing their attacks. I have not found it tough nor a waste of time to go pick them up and send them back into the fray.

The gold cost isn't all that much unless you are like Ashen Ermor and have practically no gold income. 30 militia x 7 gold / 16 = 13 gold/turn, no?

Still, I would agree with a suggestion to create a new unit for them that was the same but had lower gold cost... or, better yet, slash the cost of all militia and light infantry in the game by a factor of 2-4, so they are all worth about what they cost.

And/or tweak the melee AI (or combat mechanics) so that units don't let themselves get overrun by superior-but-slower forces, so LI actually use their speed to avoid getting wiped out by HI.

PvK

Re: Religious zealots joining the cause
 

Well if you play with strong blessing the zealots are nice ... but if you don't ...

Militia are always crap... as wishing for Army!!
300 Militia...

Re: Religious zealots joining the cause
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">What nation do you tend to play?

Re: Religious zealots joining the cause
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Not sure the cost, but it really can shaft Carrion Woods Pangaea as well as Ashen/SG Ermor. I've also gotten screwed by them showing up when I, as Vanheim, had gotten squeezed down to a mere handful of provinces in the mid-to-late game.

When 2 batches of militia showed up, my upkeep was now more than my income and gold stash combined, and units started deserting. Not the militia, of course not! No, my Vans and Valkyries that I needed started running off.

I've also had them show up and immediately start a province starving. So then, to add insult to injury, it's _diseased_ piece of trash militia that are demanding the gold. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Your suggestion about lowering the upkeep would help - actually seems like they ought to be a free zero-cost upkeep, given that they're volunteers, fanatics, etc. Then they might actually seem like the "lucky" event they're supposed to be.

Re: Religious zealots joining the cause
 

I wonder how long it would take to get their upkeep down to an insignificant level by casting Fires from Afar (or similar) on your province where they are located?

Re: Religious zealots joining the cause
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Spending gems to kill your own units is never a position you want to be in.