Exile Princes - FAQ Thread

[Jubal]

Is it possible to merge or split units, or recruit into a unit to replace missing figures?

No. You're not the first person to ask that, and I probably should have found a solution for it, but I never came across a solution I was happy with for what then happened to unit-tracked things like bonuses and experience. Sorry!

[Antiquity]

What solutions have you considered?  It seems like averaging it out based on number of figures would work well enough.  Since a unit can never recover from losing a figure, are you just meant to disband and replace them when they lose too many to be useful?

How does foraging work?  I can see that it has diminishing returns.

How does leadership work?

[Jubal]

What solutions have you considered?  It seems like averaging it out based on number of figures would work well enough.  Since a unit can never recover from losing a figure, are you just meant to disband and replace them when they lose too many to be useful?

Yes, ish, though actually small high-powered units are very effective, so going from 7 citizens to 1-2 tier 3 units doesn't diminish their utility). And weak single units can still be useful as resilience-denial (i.e. I'll use them in the attack slot when I'm just trying to whittle down a powerful opponent where I need to exhaust it before my stronger units can crack in). This is partly why I never really solved the problem: I never really hit a point of "these guys aren't useful". You should generally be willing to hit the disband button sometimes in this game though.

How does foraging work?  I can see that it has diminishing returns.

It decreases your wage bill by 1/3 of your foraging unit total per member. So if you have 15 troops of which 6 are foragers, you should get a reduction of 30 aspers/week on your wage bill. This has a cap, as you noticed: it cannot take pay down to less than one asper per person per week.

How does leadership work?

When the game tells you that your troops are impressed with your leadership etc, that indicates high morale. Morale is based on a number of factors, but some key ones: winning battles, completing quests, buying your troops food or gear and staying in taverns boosts it. Losing battles, losing units/taking casualties, not paying troops all drop it.  Arguments between companions can drop it but companions working together effectively can boost it. There's also penalties that start coming in if your army is too large: mild penalties if your army is bigger than five troops per point of spirit, sharp penalty if bigger than ten (those numbers become seven and fourteen for the House of Generals).

Your own leadership abilities are represented by your spirit score (which also rolls in mental fortitude stuff like not running away). Higher spirit lets you have a larger army without size penalties.

[Antiquity]

You have:
A unit of 5 Grape-hogs, costing 15 a week to maintain. They have 52 XP.
A unit of 3 Pikemen, costing 21 a week to maintain. They have 354 XP.
A unit of 7 Arquebusiers, costing 49 a week to maintain. They have 600 XP.
A unit of 5 Pikemen, costing 35 a week to maintain. They have 349 XP.
Iesterbas the Spear, costing 14 a week to maintain. He has 453 XP.
Tinatine the Serpent, costing 14 a week to maintain. She has 529 XP.
A unit of 6 Spearmen, costing 24 a week to maintain. They have 152 XP.
A unit of 6 Archers, costing 36 a week to maintain. They have 219 XP.
A Fire, costing 3 a week to maintain. They have 478 XP.
A unit of 5 Hired Archers, costing 30 a week to maintain. They have 167 XP.
A Litha, costing 3 a week to maintain. They have 101 XP.
A unit of 5 Ankor Water-locks's Hired Archers, costing 30 a week to maintain. They have 184 XP.
Ulker Fytrost, costing 14 a week to maintain. He has 290 XP.
Ankor Water-locks, costing 14 a week to maintain. He has 740 XP.
A unit of 6 Foragers, costing 6 a week to maintain. They have 193 XP.
A unit of 5 Grape-hogs, costing 15 a week to maintain. They have 101 XP.
Farenja Clay-shaper, costing 14 a week to maintain. She has 624 XP.
A unit of 6 Groquete Bravos, costing 36 a week to maintain. They have 108 XP.
Total wage costs for this week are projected to be 373 aspers.
Your sense is that morale is strong among your followers.

Another week ends. Your wage bill is 66 silver aspers: you now have 4439 remaining.

OK, so if I understand correctly, I have 66 troops and 16 foragers.  16 / 3 = 5, 5 * 66 = 330.  373 - 330 = 43, but the minimum cost is 66.

My Spirit is 6 and I'm playing Generals, so I hit penalties at 42 and 84 troops, meaning that I am currently suffering light penalties.  What are the penalties exactly, and what does morale do?

[Jubal]

That's a pretty serious army! And yes, that sounds right, you've hit the cap.

Light penalties gives you something like a five point morale drop per week (heavy penalties is fifteen). As long as you're on "morale is strong" you really don't need to worry about this, and five points is low enough that as long as you keep doing morale-raising stuff when you get the chance you can keep counterbalancing it. Once you have a city of your own, leaving troops there means they won't count towards that cap.

The main problem you get with really low morale is desertions when it's below a certain level. High morale isn't much better than neutral morale except that a) you can then afford to lose more of it and b) when you hit a certain peak/cap the game will automatically "convert" a certain chunk off the top into a positive micro-event where you get some extra experience for your troops or some bonus money.

Are Fire and Litha the name of your pets? And how are you finding the companions and quests side of the game?