There are in addition to heroes 8 basic types of units in Heroes V. 4 types of units are available in cities and they are marked with a *. Units marked with a <> have a home city which is recorded on the unit 'card'.

Unit types

Militia*<>
Militia are military forces that are part time and assemble when immediately required to defend their home town from invasion. They use the basic stats for the unit they are, with any faction bonuses but they suffer however from morale penalties which rapidly escalate the longer they spend away from their home town.

>Purchased from the unit list of the faction that inhabits a city.
>May be recruited by any faction but with penalties depending upon alignment.
>May be purchased only by aligned side or side's with a matching major attribute.
>Suffer morale penalties if away from home city for extended periods of time.
>May not be used to garrison cities to prevent urban rebellions.
>Cost very little to maintain
>Uses abilities based upon home city.

Regulars*<>
Regulars are the regular full-time soldiers of a side, taken from their homes and civilian occupations and sent to fight for the duration of a war. They can be moved anywhere on the map but will still be upset if their home town is in enemy hands or destroyed.

>Purchased from the unit list of the side that controls a city.
>The unit must already be a local unit in the city it is purchased in.
>Will suffer morale penalties if home town is in enemy hands or razed.
>Uses abilities of home city

Praetorians*
Praetorians are the most devoted soldiers of a side, recruited from it's core supporters and usually prepared to fight to death for their leaders.

>Purchased from the unit list of the side that controls a city.
>The unit must already be a regular unit in the city it is purchased in.
>The city must have a loyalty flag.
>Elite unit that use side's abilities and alignment rather than cities.
>Has small leadership and inspiration ability and can lead other units similar to heroes.
>Unit production is automatically lost is city falls into enemy hands.

Foreign*<>
Foreign units are recruited from immigrant minorities that live in a city but are not part of the faction that makes up the majority of the city. They are otherwise similar to militia.

>Can be purchased from the army list of the side that inhabits a city if NOT on the army list of the faction that inhabits it.
>May be recruited if on the side list of the side recruiting them.
>A certain number of these units may be purchased depending upon how well a faction's attributes are similar to the side's.
>Recruitment is faster of slower depending upon how similar the alignment of the side is to the city.
>Suffer morale penalties if away from home city for extended periods of time.
>Cost very little to maintain
>Uses abilities based upon home city.

Local*
These are not recruitable or purchasable as such but have a key role in the settlement or creation of new units. The represent established expertise within the local area in creating a particular unit type.

>Added to a city if a purchased unit is also found on the local factions (see cities section) army.
>Indestructible even if city is razed.
>Makes it faster to purchase new units and provides a significant discount.
>'Recruited' by rebels as militia and hirable as mercenaries.

Mercenaries
Mercenary units are hired soldiers that fight for a side because they were paid to do so.
>Recruited for a sum of gold.
>Recruited from a predetermined group of units whose abilities and alignment were customized by the scenario builder.
>Recruited from local units of friendly factions using factions abilities and alignment.
>Expensive to mantain.

Allies
Allies are units that don't fit any other category. They are summoned using magic or gained from quests or ruins for instance.
>Predetermined by the scenario builder.
>Use no abilities but have the moral alignment of the side.

Campaign
These are units that are created outside of the scenario on the campaign map.
>Will remain in existence after end of scenario
>May not be created during the course of a scenario.
>Identical to Praetorians otherwise.

Settling units.

Each side and faction possesses a settler unit the speed and abilities of which are entirely customizable. This unit does not appear on the map but instead is used to calculate the settlement time required to set up a new unit according to how long the unit would take to travel from it's origin point to the city.

The origin point is the nearest city (razed or not) with that unit on the local units list or if there is no such local unit then the nearest accessible map edge is used. Praetorian units are however an exception; they always settle from the capital.

If a city already has the unit as a local unit there is no settlement time (and a discount).

Installing units.
Finally when the settlers have arrived the unit can install itself. Installation takes as long as the unit would normally take to produce but multiple units may install at the same time. If a unit is already a local unit, it takes half of the time it would normally take or if it is a 1 turn unit installs instantly.

If a city changes hands before a unit has installed then the unit is deleted. It is only when a city finishes installing a unit that it is added to the local units list.