Do recruits cost money?

[HansLemurson]

If I have 10,000 recruits sitting around in my stockpile, am I paying their salary? Or do I only have to pay money to troops that are in actual sub-units?

[jimwinsor]

Not only are you paying their salary, but as government workers you are feeding them from SHQ food stocks as well.

[HansLemurson]

Hmm...I better have a quick chat with my governor about recruitment limits and budget deficits ASAP.

What's a reasonable amount of recruits to keep on hand so that you'll be able to field troops without difficulty?

[flamedeluge]

You're actually better off recruiting them as SHQ replacement troops. They'll get some XP (up to 20) and can play a role in protecting your capital.

[eddieballgame]

Checking you 'REP' & 'Treasury Cashflow Overview' will give you a detailed breakdown of your expenses.

[Twotribes]

Unless you zeroed it out recruiting each recruit costs the bonus you pay for them. I usually cut that from 15 to 5.

[HansLemurson]

I cut my recruitment bonus to zero, and the recruits are still coming in. I guess the best thing to do would be like Flamedeluge said and make them proper Infantry and have them sit in my SHQ training. But what if I need something other than Troopers?

[demiare]

ORIGINAL: HansLemurson

I guess the best thing to do would be like Flamedeluge said and make them proper Infantry and have them sit in my SHQ training.

1) You always can disband excess recruits into your SHQ zone. Use a "Colonize" button.

2) Why not simply send recruits to their heroic death? Start a war, go conquer something... Or motorize/mechanize your army. Expensive and fuel-hungry - sure. But mobile forces are so easily encircle and destroy enemy...

[jobu13]

There are some advantages to leaving them as recruits. First, they are more flexible, since you don’t have to know ahead of time what type of unit/model they should be. If you recruit them with envirosuits and then later upgrade them to combat armour, it will cost you a lot more than recruiting them with armour in the first place.

Second, if I’m not mistaken, recruits are lighter than actual soldiers, so it’s easier to transfer them over your logistics network, once you have multiple HQs.

Third, you have to pay IP/metal ahead of time for them, which can be both good and bad based on your resource situation.

Still, recruiting them ahead of time for training purposes is a great idea in a lot of circumstances, and I wish I had thought of it.

As for how many you need, it depends heavily on your situation, but you will likely want to have 10s of thousands (between recruits and replacements) by the mid-game.