Noob question -- what to do with allied villages?

[panfist]

I just started playing the game and I'm working through the included campaigns. I was wondering what the general idea is of what to do about allied villages...do you leave them for allies or do you cap them?

[Dunno]

well, in campaigns, you don't really have to care about your AI ally, so go ahead and capture them. Usually allies have worse recruits (since they can't recall units with half-filled xp) and frankly bots aren't as good as human players

[zookeeper]

I usually grab them when I easily can; there's no penalties for taking them and I can make better use of the money than the AI can.

[panfist]

If I could ask another unrelated noob question in this thread...

Is there a way to see how much it costs to recall units? It doesn't seem to list the cost anywhere on the recall screen and I think it's more expensive than just recruiting fresh units.

[Great_Mage_Atari]

20 gold. All the time, every time. Income penalty is relevant to a unit's level.

[Iris]

I think it's more expensive than just recruiting fresh units.

L2 and L3 units are either unavailable for recruiting in most cases or cost much more than 20g, and there are situations where recalling L1 or L0 units makes sense (i.e. a unit with a powerful trait combination or about to level-up) or can even be cheaper than recruiting (Horsemen and Gryphon Riders come to mind).

[Velensk]

Its worth noting that although leveled units tend to be worth more than the 20 gold it takes to recall them, they suck down more upkeep that green units by quite a bit so in the long run they're more expensive to field.

[ayearhasgone]

With allied villages, it kind of depends for me. I realize that the AI really isn't as good as a human so generally I don't have a problem snatching their villages. But if the AI is in a strategic position, such as a place where they will clog up enemy forces and prevent my army from getting pinned. I will leave a few villages for them to use.

[Great_Mage_Atari]

I usually capture them if:
A) My ally has no hope of recovering from negative gold.
B) I decide to let the enemy kill them off while I heal my troops in their former villages.
C) I decide to use my allies troops as cannon fodder to weaken the enemy enough so I can gain EXP off of them.

[jonadab]

The real question is, do you go for allied villages first and enemy villages second, or vice versa?

The answer to this one depends on whether your enemy has you outmatched and outnumbered (so you need your ally to help save your bacon until you can get the enemy hordes under control) or not (so you want your ally to stop stealing all your kills).

For some scenarios (e.g., The Elves Besieged), this depends greatly on difficulty level. On easy difficulty, you want your elvish allies to cease and desist as quickly as possible, or you won't get any XP. On hard, you really need their assistance.

Of course, the location of each village is also relevant to your decision on when to take it.

Oh, and there are also cases where taking villages is no real benefit (unless you need to heal in them), because your gold is just all forfeit anyway due to the nature of the scenario. These tend to be flight scenarios, where you're severely outmatched and can only hope to survive by outrunning (most of) your enemies and reaching the designated escape point (usually a signpost, or sometimes a cave entrance) before they overtake and grind you into meal.

[Boldek]

if your ally is doing something important, (which he usually not) recruiting better soldiers, (he usually is charging skellies with peasants) or is holding off the horde while you escape, you might be touched by compassion, but my response is to grab all the villages closest. flag color not an issue.

[nuorc]

I grab all the villages I can get. My income matters the next scenario, the AI's doesn't.

Most of the time a single unit kept out of striking distance doesn't draw any attention, no matter how many villages it grabs. So I usually send a Rider off in every direction, or at least at either side of my posse. Besides making gold they can take out stray enemy units, guard a flank or at least retreat safely.

[Deki]

I only take control of the ally villages if they are on the first line of battle and I need it to heal my units, otherwise I do not do such thing. I am little RPg-ing here and my motive mainly is that there is no reason why would army from one nation took control of the bases\cities\supply points from his ally unless there is real need for it. Game is somewhat harder this way, but more enjoyable.

[Cel]

Usually, I let one village for my ally in the near of its castle, because the ally doesn't go in my villages. When the leader is hurted, he will go in a village and heal, if he reaches one...

[Ninjuri]

I'm not quite sure how the AI works, do they actually have money in campaigns? I see it as a possibility that they actually have unlimited funds and just recruit whatever they are per-scripted to. Does the AI actually lose anything if the player steals their villages?