The control bar is almost always fully filled in an outpost anyway. And having them assigned as guards means fewer people to launch an assault?
Yes!
Control is much easier in outposts or should be just based on sheer number of forces.
I always change vanilla guard post "guards" back to warriors. They'll still give you defense and it gives them something to do. They'll leave their posts to go on raids should you need them to and hopefully comeback to their post ranked up and not dead.
In the beginning of Phase 2, I had way too many
guards at guard posts basically doing nothing but padding my workshop defense numbers. Re-roling these to back to
warriors was my first aha! moment.
Does it matter what kind of role is assigned when it comes to the function of these martial plots?
This is a great question. I don't exactly know the answer. But it has seemed to me that the answer is a hard maybe. I changed my Armory, FH, and POW guards to warriors and back while I was trying to get a handle on everything.
I changed them to Warriors if I needed to increase/ maintain my Warrior (66%) to other roles (33%) ratio. As I eventually was able to recruit more warriors, I changed those working these plots back to guards. As guards, they won't go on raids and risk getting killed outside the post. So, these plots are continuously worked, so to speak.
Early on I will still do this switching of roles. Maintaining a high "warrior" count is extremely beneficial for Control purposes (more warriors=more effective patrols) and for morale. But it is hard to do so until you get to the point where you can start recruiting.
I couldn't figure out early on if the Body Snatcher plot was working. Ultimately, I decided it didn't work unless a "guard" was working it. This is based solely on the fact that when I had a "warrior" assigned to it, the bodies and loot seemed to not get picked up, but when I switched the role to "Guard"--stuff started showing up in the workbench after attacks!
This, however, is just anecdote, not science! Reader beware.
The armory always seemed to be working regardless of whether it was worked by a Warrior or Guard. And the Field Hospital seemed too important to mess with. So I've mostly kept it worked by a "guard", just in case.
There is never any benefit to having a "worker" at a martial plot. That's just one less warrior
needlessly without any guard's benefit: I believe you fail a Defend quest automatically if there are no "guards." (Maybe that's just in Vassals) But if so, you want at least one. But how many "guards" you actually need depends on how much you trust your warriors to defend your outpost, I suppose.
Now, whether it is more beneficial to for a
worker or a
warrior to work a job plot can depend on your situation. Generally, you want a
worker assigned to Commercial/Ag/Industrials in your Outpost: they get a W/R/E production bonus.
But if you find yourself short on warriors, you might need to forgo the production bonus and switch their roles from
worker to
warrior for a time.
In general, I try to adhere to the 66/33 ratio as much as possible. It seems to play the biggest role in Outpost morale. The highest morale production bonus (five up arrows) is 100%: this is always too good to pass up. Once I get needs met and can start beefing up my forces, then I'll worry if I can squeeze a little more production out of my plots by changing a role or two.
One last thing about workers in Outposts. Too many is a trap! Every worker gives you a production bonus if they are working the right plot--but the cost is one less warrior.
It's always better to maintain the bulk of your production in vassals. More warriors at your outposts (even doing nothing!) will help maintain the extra control you need to do so (patrols are more effective the more warriors you have.)
I started with twenty recruits: Three guards on Conqueror Plots like the Field Hospital. It took 4 patrols to keep my first vassal under total control. One
worker on an Industrial and one at a commercial plot. That's nine recruits who aren't
warriors anymore. I'm below the right ratio! and only have 11 recruits available for the next raid.
This is why I switched a few
guards and one of the
workers back over to
warrior.
