Well yes, it kind of is the idea to eliminate all the stockpiling hassles.
I agree that the up-front vs. upkeep cost thing was/is a really nice touch and I added it intentionally, so I bleed a little to give it up. However, there is no way to maintain it entirely without it being very gameable - i.e. recruit tiny unit, by all the paraphernalia you want, recruit all the other men.
This could be fixed though, but it would add some checks when you add men. When you increase the size of the unit, check what paraphernalia with an upfront cost is currently owned by the unit, and give the player a choice, either pay to increase the number to match the new size, or abandon them. The bigger issue I would guess is available stock, unless we just assume that since you "have" the paraphernalia it doesn't consume any stockpile to increase it, which as I understand it is basically how the upkeep items will be working.
Hmm but then what do we do if the unit is downsized for whatever reason?
i don't know... i like to go heavy on healers. whether it made any difference or not is another matter. (just don't know)
perhaps in unit settings you can get to pick more or less than average for healers or even scouts?
Just a guess here, but part of the idea is to simplify things, and what is more simple then having one level of effectiveness? You either have healers or you don't, so you either get the flat bonus or you don't. Personally I prefer the strategy involved with current set up, but if we are going simple and approachable for all players, having a single bonus works well
I hope workshops are going to be considerably cheaper to build if each one can only supply one item a turn, with a maximum storage of one.
Remember though each unit only need "one" of those units though. No longer do you need to recruit 4 healers, 6 scouts, 4 banners etc for each unit. You simply recruit Healers, and consume 1 unit to do so. Once you have them, well I would guess so long as you don't completely lose your unit you never need to recruit more. But that last bit is just a guess.
