Do Event-Obtained Troops Cost Upkeep?

[Lord_Bob]

Yes they do.

Unless you need a patrol force for a province, they are extremely annoying.

A disband command for units whose time has passed would be really nice.

[Jazzepi]

Really the militia event should stay. What dominions desperately needs is a /disband/ command. This would be great for LA Ry'leh who gets tons of useless underwater only freespawn.

Jazzepi

[NTJedi]

I've had important armies pickup starvation and disease because of the important army marched into the province struck with the militia event.

The militia event should provide fewer units of much better quality. The gold and supply upkeep combined with low morale weak units makes this event bad 80% of the time.

[Jazzepi]

NTJedi said:
I've had important armies pickup starvation and disease because of the important army marched into the province struck with the militia event.

The militia event should provide fewer units of much better quality. The gold and supply upkeep combined with low morale weak units makes this event bad 80% of the time.

According to the manual you shouldn't pickup disease from the first round of starvation so a disband command would eliminate that worry.

In that case the worst thing that could happen would be that you move into a territory, militia event occurs, and then a fight happens. I'm not even sure if your troops go through their "eating" cycle in the turn order before fights are resolved. If they do, then you would have to deal with the morale penalty during the fight, if they don't then it wouldn't be a big deal.

Jazzepi

[Meglobob]

If the militia event is a 'lucky' event it needs to be changed to being a 'unlucky' event which it is the majority of the time.

Militia are virtually useless in combat. If they come in contact with enemy troops they will die very quickly and rout your entire army, sometimes resulting in better quality units dieing.

Also they are a drain on your treasury and have a strategic move of 1, meaning they can take 1/2 a dozen or more turns to move to somewhere you can dispose of them if you have a large empire.

[cleveland]

Meglobob said:
If the militia event is a 'lucky' event it needs to be changed to being a 'unlucky' event which it is the majority of the time.

I disagree.

Militia might suck in combat, but they are outstanding patrollers.

Do the math...they're among the best "destealth strength/upkeep" units available. (Slingers are slightly better, for the record).

Assign 40 freebie militia with an indie commander, and set to perma-patrol your capital: for 21 gold/turn, you'll deny capital scouting reports to your opponents, and prevent most "instill uprisings", "preach the word of god", and "assassinate enemy commander" attacks. Initial investment: 30 gold.

This is invaluable when playing a nation like TC with its +25 stealth spies, or for preventing assassation of a global-enchanting-mage. Station them at a choke point to prevent monkeys from slipping behind the lines.

In addition, they're also good "fort reconstruction/upkeep" units. Use them to buy time for a counterattack, and when supplies start to run low, send them on a suicide mission without consequence (maybe a little guilt).

If you really hate them, give them to a commander, set them at the front & attack closest, commander to hold x 5 then retreat. Free experience for the commander.

Every unit has it's place.

[vfb]

If you are still running a strong gold economy, then militia has some limited uses. But if you have gone over to a blood economy, or have death scales and it's late game and you're operating on a gem economy, then militia can really suck what little gold you have away. Their arrival can make it impossible to build a badly needed new lab or temple you were planning on constructing. Zero-upkeep summoned fliers are better destealth strength/upkeep or fort reconstruction/upkeep troops if you have no gold.

They can cause disease due to starvation when you move a 1-turn starving (not yet diseased) army to a safe province, only to find out that province has less supplies that you thought because it has become infested with volunteers.

Of course you can get rid of them in combat or water, but with land-move-1, if 60 arrive in a province 5 turns from the nearest front then they will eat 60*.5gold*6turns=180 gold before they die (since there won't be a commander when they arrive). Plus you need 2 new commanders to shuttle them around, if your existing commanders are not in the area or are busy being used as blood slave buses.

Militia is fine for order-misfortune nations, who don't get them. But they suck for luck-turmoil nations, who get them but don't want them.