Army ability cost Ultimate Campaign

[nogoodscallywag]

What is the cost of adding special abilities when creating an army? There are a lot listed, some even have requirements like class and level.

However, there are some with no requirements and there is no indication on the cost of the ability nor any limit. Surely an army can select, at no cost, as many abilities as it wants...

[Chemlak]

Army special abilities are granted by race/class.

Essentially, if the race/class of an army has a particular special ability in a normal statblock for a single creature which makes up the majority of the army, the army gets the relevant special ability.

UCam, Mass Combat, Special Abilities wrote:

Modifiers for these abilities apply only if most of the units in an army have the listed ability. For a class ability, a parenthetical note after the ability name indicates the class and the level the units of the army must be to confer that ability.

[nogoodscallywag]

I see, so a player cannot just pick and choose abilities. They are strictly based on race, class, etc. i.e. makeup of most of population (of army unit)...

[Eric Hinkle]

Chemlak wrote:

Army special abilities are granted by race/class.

Essentially, if the race/class of an army has a particular special ability in a normal statblock for a single creature which makes up the majority of the army, the army gets the relevant special ability.

UCam, Mass Combat, Special Abilities wrote:

Modifiers for these abilities apply only if most of the units in an army have the listed ability. For a class ability, a parenthetical note after the ability name indicates the class and the level the units of the army must be to confer that ability.

I wondered about this myself. This gives you a good reason to make units of alchemists or cavaliers given just how many army special abilities they get at low levels.

[nogoodscallywag]

Can an army be modified once it has been created? For instance, if an army of Fighters were created at level 1, can they be "trained" in the coming years by adding a level of Fighter to them, paying whatever the cost is at the start and then consumption?

[Chemlak]

No rules for it as far as I can tell, I suppose it's possible that Ultimate Armies from Legendary Games will have rules for advancing armies (when it comes out).

Personally, if someone wanted to upgrade their army that way, I'd consider three options:

1) Pay increase in consumption.
2) Pay full consumption for both armies for one kingdom turn (this is effectively choosing to disband the original army and form a new one).
3) Pay half consumption for the old army and full consumption for the new army (this is the middle ground).

Any which way, it would require the same use of edicts as recruiting a new army.

Alternative rule: track Army XP (XP earned from defeating other armies) just like you do with characters, and level them up when appropriate. Share the XP award for defeating an enemy army (calculated by their ACR) between all armies involved in defeating them.