Unit availability question

[devoncop]

Whilst I understand that certain units will be region specific such as Cretan Archers, in the case of more generic units are they available to all factions ?

I ask this because in the excellent Dastactic You Tube series in the conquer Italy challenge he built several archery ranges in different provinces but when he went to his unit building screen as Rome he only appeared to have the Velites option for light infantry.

Is this because he needed to build something else, needed other raw materials or because Rome can only build Velites as light infantry (which would seem odd).

Many thanks

Ian

[loki100]

The 'archery' building actually gives an experience bonus to any skirmishers on recruitment, its enough so that either with another bonus (some come from rulers etc), you can skip an experience level (really useful in the early game). Archers themselves are specialised provincial units only available in certain areas. So yes, from Italy the Romans only get Velites. The game actually nicely models that by late Republic/early Empire, the Romans relied on locally available troops for skirmishers rather than having them recruited from poorer citizens.

Basically the building needed a name but its value is generic rather than in enabling a particular unit type.

The in-game tool-tips are clear on what buildings do, what impact they have on unit recruitment etc.

[devoncop]

Thanks, that is very clear.

Are there any qualitative advantage for units like Cretan Archers over Velites for example if the battle is played out on the strategic map within the Empires system rather than exported to FoG2 ?

[loki100]

yes - but can't really say at this stage what

There are lots of small variations between national, provincial and the more generic units (some actually quite large ones too). But in addition, archers are quite powerful as they have a dual role in the Empires battle system. So well worth capturing a province where they can be recruited from.

[Pocus]

The provincial unit for Italy, but only if you are at civilization level III, become Sagittarii though.