Short disclaimer/insight:
So i've been playing this game for around 80 hours with literally only the forgotten. I have not touched other factions because i want to master the forgotten. I'm getting better and better, not to mention i defeated my first Hard game as the forgotten (WOOP) and am pretty close to a victory in a MP game with some buddies. Also considering this is my first 4x strategy game that i actually feel invested in.

But anyways, the main question and thought on the community for this:
Retrofitting your units Vs. Selling them for dust and making new ones.

While i'm aware that this is pretty situational, mostly during early to mid game i just don't see the point in retrofitting your army. The only thing i do, however, is retrofit the 2 starting assassins to full gear or at least the movement speed item for scouting and the ability to take out villages fast. But the moment you hit era 2, it's something along the lines of 1.000 dust for 4-unit team. I do not see this as a benefit, or am i missing something?

What are your thoughts on this? How do you use retrofitting on this dust-heavy faction?

Hi.



In my opinion it depends. As the forgotten, especially during the mid game, I really think it´s not a good a idea to spend on retrofits.



In general, I think that Era 2->Era 3 and Era3->Era4 are not good moments to retrofit, unless it´s an emergency. The fact that you have a better designs available doesn´t reduce the value of obsolete units, they still have their stats and even when the overall level of miliary strenght goes up, cannon fodder still have some use, like scouting. These are moments when, imo, it´s usually much more advantageous to be focusing on industry than on Dust, even with Dust factions.



The reason is that dust is the only source for many things, so basing your infrastructure on buyouts might be detrimental to these complements which only have an opportunity cost in Dust. You can´t use industry to build generals, spies, extra strategics, extra luxuries, bribes, deals - you have use Dust and, to a lesser extent Influence.





At Era 1->Era 2 and Era 4->Era 5, I think they can be valid options. The former because it´s very easy to get large comparative advantages early on in Multiplayer by investing your Era 1 random findings and some industry into early equipment and units. That means at the same time that early retrofits can yield a lot of gains from early wars and that they´re a worthwhile investment in case of being in the defense; the latter because, by that point, it´s more likely that all your dust-exclusive investments are already made, and you economy is simply bursting with cash and you literally have nothing better to do with it other than silly things like having 17 generals.