recruitment

Recruitment

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Recruitment in RIS works differently from the base game. Be sure to review the changes carefully.

Unit Categories

Units are either factional troops, area of recruitment (AOR) troops, or mercenaries. You can tell which type a unit is by the icons in the bottom corner of the unit cards: AOR units have a headband icon, mercenaries have a coins icon, and factional troops have no icon.

Factional troops - These are the core units of your faction that, with enough investment, you can train anywhere, though there are a few exceptions.

AOR units - These are local troops you can levy. They require less investment to recruit, but as they are only available in their own regions, retraining them when the front moves can be challenging. Useful for covering deficiencies in your roster.

Mercenaries - These are, as in the base game, recruited directly by generals and cannot be trained or retrained, only merged. They are great in an emergency or, like AOR, to cover missing roles in your armies. But their upfront cost is nearly double that of comparable factional units.

Government & Colonies

Conquering a region alone won't allow troop recruitment there. You'll need to exert control over the land and its manpower by establishing a government first. If the region's population isn't of your ethnicity, building a colony is also required to unlock factional troops. Example: As Athens, conquering the Thebes region and building a government lets you recruit generic Greek troops there, but Athens-specific units require a colony. If you expand into Celtic regions, colonies are needed for all Greek units, since local Greek manpower is unavailable. Note: This mechanic applies only to the player. AI factions won't construct governments or colonies due to technical limitations.

Governments represent different levels of integration, limiting what units are available for recruitment. There are four types:

Dependency - All AOR units including elites, no factional units.

Indirect Rule - Basic and professional units for both factional and AOR, but no factional or AOR elites. Factional troops not also available as AOR require colony level 1.

Direct Rule - All factional units including elites, only basic AOR troops. Elite factional units require colony level 2 for non-local ethnicities.

Homeland - Full access to all factional units without colonies and at an earlier tier, no AOR troops (though those are likely the same as your factional troops in your homeland anyway).

Governments also affect other aspects of gameplay. Check building descriptions for details. Note that each level of colony also disables recruitment of AOR units, as your people's military culture takes over the region.

Tip: To see locally available AOR units and their requirements, check the 'Region Information Scroll' building. For factional troops, check the building details of the governments; direct rule and homeland show all factional units.

Military Infrastructure

Barracks, ranges, and stables have been replaced by the Military Industry Complex (MIC) building chain and the garrison building chain. What each level unlocks depends on the government and the AOR troops available in the region:

Training Grounds or any garrison building - Recruit levy and basic units

Basic Armoury - Unlock professional units, and in homelands your elites as well

Barracks and Armoury - Unlock elite units abroad (with colonies), and +1 experience

Barracks and Foundry Complex - Same as Barracks and Armoury, but with +1 recruitment point, and another +1 recruitment point if you have a foundry built. Each recruitment point reduces recruitment time by one turn.

So in regions with the homeland government type, elite units are available at Basic Armoury, meaning you can get your full roster at large town level in your homelands, while those top-tier units are only unlocked at minor city level elsewhere. Similarly, all AOR units, including elites, are unlocked at Basic Armoury.

Resource Restrictions on Recruitment

The best cavalry units and all camel units require the horses or camels resource, except in your homelands, where your factional heavy cavalry and camels are available even without these resources. You can build Fine Horse Exports or Camel Exports to supply these resources factionwide and effectively remove this restriction. Elephant units require the elephant resource to be available locally. There is no homeland exception, and elephants cannot be supplied factionwide.

Recruitment Times

Recruitment times are tied to the unit tier:

• Levy and basic units - 2 turns
• Professional units - 3 turns
• Elite units - 4 turns

As noted above, recruitment times can be reduced by building Barracks and Foundry Complex.