Clarification of Recruiting Officer trait

[malthaussen]

A "recruiting officer" can "muster new conscripts on a regular basis in cities of level 5+." Does that apply to conquered cities, also? For example, playing as the USA, if I capture New Orleans and squat a recruiting officer in the city, will he "muster new conscripts" from there? Or does he have to be in a Northern city?

-- Mal

[soloswolf]

I think it is any city. When you drop him into said city you should see an immediate change in the conscripts field at the top of your screen.

[Jim-NC]

It is affected by loyalty of the region, so you won't get as many for placing in a CSA city (such as N.O). I did some research on the subject a while back (on the CSA side). See the below link:

http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?p=139747#post139747

[Cromagnonman]

Ran some tests using Nathaniel Banks on Turn 8 (Late July 1861) in version 1.15, with national morale at 93 and VP at 252, total CS +38 (without recruitment bonus).
He added 7-8 CS to ANY city level 5 or greater (i.e., same for Indianapolis and New York City) with loyalty of at least 95%.
In Washington, where loyalty was 85%, he added 7.
In New Jersey, where loyalty was 81-85%, he added 6.
In Baltimore where loyalty was 31%, he added 4.
In St. Louis, where loyalty was 1%, he added 3.


The next turn, NM rose to 99 and VP to 313, total CS rose to 49.
Banks's bonus did not change majorly in most cities, those whose loyalties were maxed out. Interestingly enough, in cities whose base CS increased by 1 (7 of the 19 >lvl4 cities), Banks's bonus decreased from 8 to 7 in all but 2 (the largest recruiting centers, where the bonus remained at 7). Conversely, in the remaining 12 cities, his bonus increased from 7 to 8 (except for 2, Chicago and San Francisco).
His bonus also increased by 1 in New Jersey, where loyalty also rose 1-3%.
In Baltimore, where loyalty increased by 3%, his bonus was unchanged.
In St. Louis, where loyalty increased by 3%, base CS increased to 1 but his bonus decreased to 2.

So, what can we learn?
First, when morale is around 100 (i.e. negligible bonus), the recruitment officer trait can give anywhere from +~2 at 4% loyalty to +~8 at 100% loyalty. Loyalty thus affects the amount of the CS bonus.
Second, the size of the city does not matter (beyond the requirement of being >4), nor does its base CS production. In addition, base CS production does not seem to vary consistently in proportion to city size, and is likely a hard-wired amount.

Third, both the base CS and bonus CS appear to be calculated in decimels, though rounded for display. This is based upon the variable patterns of base CS and bonus CS when NM increased by. In most cities where base CS appeared to increase, bonus CS appeared to decrease; conversely, in most cities where base CS did not appear to change, bonus CS appeared to increase. The net result was that, while all cities should have seen the same NM increase, a significant portion did not increase their baseCS+bonusCS, although most did.

Fourth, the bonus CS may not be a factor of NM. I say this because it frequently decreased when base CS increased due to NM, although often bonus CS was larger than base CS. Figuring this out will require more data points at more levels of NM, and perhaps someone better at The Calculus than I myself.

Fifth, although I did not mention all the data, the total CS growth in the production bar at top appears to be the sum of the integer CS values shown for each city. If shown base CS values are indeed rounded expressions of underlying decimels, those fractions are probably not what is used to calculate the total CS production. With 22 recruiting centers contributing a total CS of 49, differences between the raw decimals and the rounded integers might be lost in the summation. However, McClernand just arrived. When he and Banks each add 7 bonus CS to a city, 14 is added to the total; when they each add 8, then 16 is added. If these 7 and 8 bonus CS represent a true value around 7.5, then adding the decimel values rather than the integers should add up to 15 instead of 16. Again, the underlying mathematics might be more apparent using NM or loyalty values over a wider spectrum.

Sixth, since I now have 2 recruiting officers, some quick deployment has determined that they impart identical CS bonuses.

Anyhow, effect for gameplay? Recruiting officers are best placed in cities with high loyalty. So long as the city is >lvl4 (and safe, I guess), its other properties are unimportant for the CS bonus. For the player looking to squeeze the most out of his or her conscript pool, then placement of recruiting officers should be re-evaluated whenever NM changes; experimental redeployment is important for optimization.

Again, I suspect that NM may affect base CS more than it affects bonus CS. Displayed total CS production is probably the sum of the displayed city CS production integers.

Okay, it's late. If anyone is interested, I may be able to put up an Excel spreadsheet in the next week. FYI, I used the Union commanders because they have many more cities (thus data points) from which to choose, and because no Rebel recruiting officer has yet appeared.