Retinues

Retinues are elite soldiers which, unlike levies, form a standing army for each ruler. They do not need to be dismissed to start wars and do not cost money to maintain. As a ruler's retinue capacity increases, their normal levies decrease in size, gradually making retinues a more important part of the army. They are accessible with the Legacy of Rome DLC.

Retinues consist of regiments of 500 men. One must pay a fee to hire a regiment, but after this initial fee they are free; they only require money to reinforce. A purchased regiment starts out with a single man and gradually reinforces up to a full 500 men. If the retinue takes casualties, each regiment will reinforce once more, until they are back to full strength. If a ruler cannot afford the (sometimes steep) cost, reinforcement can be halved or stopped completely on the retinue tab. The normal reinforcement rate is 5% per month.

Each ruler can only have a retinue of a limited size, dependent on their retinue cap. Different regiments take up differently-sized portions of the cap, with more powerful regiments (such as heavy cavalry) generally using more. The cap is based on total number of troops and the average level of Military Organization technology among vassals and owned holdings. The cap is calculated with the following formula: Retinue Cap = Total Realm Manpower x (Average Realm Military Organization Tech x 0.1). The current retinue cap is displayed on a tooltip in the retinue tab.

In patch 1.07, which introduced retinues, a courtier was generated in a ruler's court for each regiment they recruited. This functionality was removed in patch 1.08.

List of retinues

Retinue regiments can be divided into two types. Generic retinues are available to all rulers and cultural retinues are specific to the ruler's culture. Cultural retinues receive special bonuses, which are the same as granted by the highest-level cultural buildings. This list details the different types of retinues available. It is correct as of patch 1.08.

Generic retinues

Type	Composition	Initial cost (gold)	Retinue cap usage	Monthly reinforcement cost (gold per 500 men)
Shock	400 Heavy Infantry 100 Archers	45	900	1.8
Defence	300 Pikemen 200 Archers	40	800	1.6
Cavalry	100 Heavy Cavalry 400 Light Cavalry	60	1200	2.4
Skirmish	400 Archer 100 Heavy Infantry	30	600	1.2

Cultural Retinues

Note: there is no Kurdish cultural retinue.

Type	Culture	Composition	Initial cost (gold)	Retinue cap usage	Monthly reinforcement cost (gold per 500 men)	Unique effect
Longbow	English Welsh	500 Archers	40	500	1	+60% archers offensive
Schiltron	Scottish	500 Pikemen	80	1000	2	+60% pikemen defensive
Baltic Warrior	Letigallian Lithuanian Prussian Finnish Komi Lappish Ugric Baltic	500 Heavy Infantry	80	1000	2	+60% heavy infantry defensive
Horse Archer	Cuman Mongol Pecheneg Turkish Persian	260 Horse Archers 240 Light Cavalry	40	1000	2	+40% horse archers offensive +20% horse archers morale
Knight	Frankish Norman Occitan German Breton	300 Heavy Cavalry 200 Light Cavalry	128	1600	3.2	+60% knights offensive
Cabellero	Basque Castillian Catalan Portuguese	500 Light Cavalry	80	1000	2	+60% light cavalry offensive
Pike	Italian	500 Pikemen	80	1000	2	+60% pikemen morale
Druzhina	Russian	500 Heavy Infantry	80	1000	2	+60% heavy infantry defensive
Housecarl	Danish Norwegian Swedish Saxon	500 Heavy Infantry	80	1000	2	+60% heavy infantry offensive
Hussar	Hungarian Bohemian Polish Pomeranian	500 Light Cavalry	80	1000	2	+60% light cavalry defensive
Camel Warrior	Andalusian Bedouin Arabic Egyptian Levantine Maghreb Arabic	500 Light Cavalry	80	1000	2	+60% light cavalry defensive
Cataphract	Alan Armenian Greek Georgian	300 Heavy Cavalry 200 Horse Archers	128	1600	3.2	+30% knights offensive +30% horse archers offensive
Gallowglass	Irish	500 Heavy Infantry	80	1000	2	+60% heavy infantry defensive
Ethiopian Skirmisher	Ethiopian	500 Light Infantry	40	500	1	+60% light infantry offensive
Free Warrior	Mandé	300 Light Infantry 200 Archers	40	500	1	+60% light infantry offensive
Gusar	Bulgarian Croatian Serbian Vlach	300 Heavy Cavalry 200 Light Cavalry	128	1600	3.2	+30% knights defensive +30% light cavalry defensive
Goedendag Militia	Dutch	300 Light Infantry 200 Pikemen	56	700	1.4	+30% light infantry offensive +30% pikemen offensive
Jaguar Warrior	Nahua	250 Light Infantry 250 Heavy Infantry	60	750	1.5	+30% light infantry offensive +30% heavy infantry offensive