Newbish question

[GrudgeBringer]

Another question concerning PD and armies in general.

Does PD in a province get charged only one time when you add it or does it have 'upkeep'?

If I understand it correctly 20 PD is the same as 60 men on the ground, and if you supplement that with say 20 indie archers....sounds like a pretty solid defense agianst teleporting smaller armies and Mages. So why wouldn't I want a 20 PD in EVERY province IF it has no upkeep?

Also I suspect regular and Sacred troops DO have upkeep but I must be missing where that cost is shown.

Any help would be appreciated...

Thanks!!

[MaxWilson]

You only pay for it once, unless the enemy conquers the province. No upkeep. You have the right attitude towards PD, which is that you supplement it with "real" troops and use the PD as blockers/chaff. (Note that PD gets replenished even between battles, if multiple enemies attack in one turn.)

One down side to PD is that it's not mobile: 10 provinces with 20 PD each is probably the same price as a 200-man army that you could use to attack, or mass all in one place to defend. Also, you can't script PD to Hold And Attack. This particularly matters if you use army buffs like "Strength of Giants" or "Legions of Steel." Similarly, you can't use PD to guard your commands. Also, since PD is broken up into several smaller squads it often breaks more easily than one big squad would--although this depends on your nation (nations with low-morale PD suffer more). Having half your army take off running after taking four casualties (out of 40 men) is rubbish.

And of course, the final reason you might not want 20 PD in every province... it costs 210 gold. If you're fighting a human, that's an extra 210 gold you have to pay every time you (re-)take a province. If you're fighting against the computer, you could probably buy 1-11 PD or so in most provinces and leave the rest of the gold in the bank so that you can buy lots of PD in the provinces that need it. (For instance, if you go raiding in enemy territory, PD can make nice defensive reinforcements for when you get cornered.)

Edit: there's also a bit of psychological effect there. Buying too much PD can tempt you to stand your ground, in order to protect that 200-gold investment, when tactically you ought to retreat and buy time.

Sorry if I'm lecturing. Yeah, no upkeep is a nice perk for PD. Upkeep is 1/15 of purchase value for regular troops, half that for sacreds. Most summonables have no upkeep, except for the ones which are also purchaseable with gold (not necessarily by you) and some like trolls (have goldcost = 30, so upkeep is 2 per turn). Total upkeep is of course listed in the upper-right-hand corner of the map. Note that same mounted recruitables with a #secondshape (Machakan sacred spider-thingies and LA Agarthan Cave Knights) have no upkeep cost after their rider gets killed.

-Max

[thejeff]

Because it's expensive to put in every province. 210 gold for 20pd. Plus the cost and upkeep of any archers you add.

And because if you put that in every province, your enemy will expect it and hit you with things that 20 PD won't even slow down. Horrors, flying/teleporting/sneaking thugs, larger armies and all that investment just vanishes.

PD can be useful. A little bit is necessary stop scout attacks. Decent amounts can back up real forces where you expect to be attacked. Huge amounts can be an unexpected surprise since they can be raised quickly, then buffed by mages.

In the early/middle game PD can be a good defense against the weak raiders most nations can field at that point or the early remote spells (Call of the Winds/Wild, maybe Hordes from Hell), but a cheaply equipped BaneLord can take any reasonable amount of PD, even with archers.

Upkeep is 1/15th the gold cost of the unit, 1/30th for sacreds. Some summons have upkeep, usually because they can also be bought by another nation/era or from a site. Trolls are the most common example.