military question, troops

[honnolea]

Does substituting elites for soldiers, crossbow for longbow, etc, save recruits?

I'm basically playing adventures that only require the basic longbow, soldier, but have 500+ elites and xbow just sitting there doing nothing.

Any advantage in substituting them?

Thanks to all in advance.

[jackrack500]

elites r good for blocking and have more health then soldiers. xbows r needed for ft and some others. in short not really

[ZBest]

Typically, it'll only save recruits if the battle lasts more than one round.

In one-round battles, the enemy troops get one attack ... and it doesn't matter much what you use to kill them. Unless you can use more cavalry, which kill in first-strike and prevent attacks, and then use the stronger troops to end the battle in the first round or in first-strike of the 2nd round.

In longer battles, if you use stronger troops and kill more, there's less enemies around to cause you losses.

[Draconus2004]

Typically a max of 1R is saved in a 1 round fight without last-strike troops when using elites. On leaders, multiround fights, and against units with last strike it makes a huge difference. Blocking though is the main use for the elite later on. Nords for instance is such low losses because Crossbows kill the enemy units before they can strike.

[Troll-Phu]

Typically

[jackrack500]

glitches can happen though