Getting a desired RC

[Eldargard]

People keep talking about best value. I originally thought that bu buying troops with high equipment and low training, then training them myself would lead to a better unit for less money. I am not so sure anymore. I get the impression that the cost of a 90 80/80 unit would be the same if you purchase them at this level direct from the RC or if you purchase them at 40 80/80 and train them up to 90 80/80. Is this true, or am I missing something?

[Zakilevo]

People keep talking about best value. I originally thought that bu buying troops with high equipment and low training, then training them myself would lead to a better unit for less money. I am not so sure anymore. I get the impression that the cost of a 90 80/80 unit would be the same if you purchase them at this level direct from the RC or if you purchase them at 40 80/80 and train them up to 90 80/80. Is this true, or am I missing something?

You are right. If you train your low training unit to 90, you will pretty much pay the same amount as 90 80/80.

[Eldargard]

I was hoping I was wrong, that there would be a benefit to the effort and expense of hand training your men yourself. Perhaps I am jumping to conclusions though. Are there any potential benefits to buying at low training and working the unit up? The first I could envision is having the unit's cost increase over time...

[vonGenf]

I was hoping I was wrong, that there would be a benefit to the effort and expense of hand training your men yourself. Perhaps I am jumping to conclusions though. Are there any potential benefits to buying at low training and working the unit up? The first I could envision is having the unit's cost increase over time...

If the highly trained units are always available in your RC's, you're not fighting enough wars. In the most important situations, this luxury is often not available.

[Chenier]

High training makes a unit cost more, making them more difficult of access to people. They will also not improve much over the course of battles.

If you aren't going to fight any battles, than yea, training low-training men yourself will cost you a lot more than saving up and buying the fully trained unit later, in training costs and especially in pay. However, if you are going to have many battles, spending on high-equipment and low-training unit should grant you a pretty similar CS/gold ratio, but it'll improve for free over the course of the coming battles.

[egamma]

but it'll improve for free over the course of the coming battles.

...except that your untrained men are less effective and more likely to break and run, potentially causing the loss of the entire unit, when a smaller, more highly trained force for the same amount of money will be more effective.

[Chenier]

...except that your untrained men are less effective and more likely to break and run, potentially causing the loss of the entire unit, when a smaller, more highly trained force for the same amount of money will be more effective.

If you are heading in to get massacred, sure.

[egamma]

If you are heading in to get massacred, sure.

And how often do massacres happen? I'd say one side gets massacred about 80% of the time.

I'm talking about a close battle, of say 500 men against 500 men. The extra training can make the difference between victory and defeat.

[Bedwyr]

I was hoping I was wrong, that there would be a benefit to the effort and expense of hand training your men yourself. Perhaps I am jumping to conclusions though. Are there any potential benefits to buying at low training and working the unit up? The first I could envision is having the unit's cost increase over time...

You don't pay as much to recruit them, and you don't pay as much while training them up, and your training is more useful (you get more training increases as well as the usual cohesion increases).  But yes, the benefits are all generally in gold efficiency, and take time to put into practice.  So far as I know, anyway.

[Chenier]

And how often do massacres happen? I'd say one side gets massacred about 80% of the time.

I'm talking about a close battle, of say 500 men against 500 men. The extra training can make the difference between victory and defeat.

Well, of course, if we are talking about cavalry, and you are recruiting to fight on your capital's doorstep, then no, you may not get much of a chance to improve your unit's strength.

It obviously depends on the context. But unless going into very lopsided battles, my units tend to remain mostly intact. Even if you lose some troops regularly, training tends to keep rising in my case. Along with cohesion. And though I usually hire archers are ranged SF, this was also the case whenever I recruited infantry.