Custom units/commanders - assigning cost ?

[Chris Byler]

Originally posted by General Tacticus:
If you look at Pythium's two themes, Hydra cost 250 gold in normal theme and 300 gold in serpent cult, where they become sacred. Likewise, Hydra hatchlings go from 50 to 60. On the other hand, Serpent Cataphract stay at 60 gold.

That's really cheap. But it's one of the main points of Serpent Cult - they give up a LOT compared to standard Pythium to get those sacred hydras and serpent cats. Don't they lose the ENTIRE theurg hierarchy, from the arch theurg all the way down to the communicant, and get it replaced with some greatly inferior poison-resistant priests with minor nature magic?

I think part of a unit cost is dependant on nation, with some nations/themes having deliberately lower cost for certain units (like Ulm paying 10 gold for his heavy infantry, where similar units are 15-25 gold for other nations). Still, sacred costing +20% gold seems about right to me...

Ulm HI is well equipped, but not more skilled than other nations' (if you're comparing to something like Emerald Guards or Iceclads, those also have higher attack and defense skills). Equipment is usually reflected by resource cost, not by gold cost.

Most sacred units cost about 50% more than a non-sacred equivalent (and therefore about 25% less upkeep). Compare Royal Guard to Knights of the Chalice, Knights to Knights of Avalon, etc. A lot of sacred units don't have a non-sacred equivalent to compare them to, though.