I really like it the way it is.

I don't think there's too much of a problem with it - the growth in unit sizes is the way you 'specialize' into armies, rather than civics or magic, so as you progress your basic armies gain increased strength and damage output.

The fact that right now units are nearly irrelevant due to figure-multiplied aoe damage spells is a different issue entirely

When not abusing those spells and avoiding other broken gameplay mechanics, I've found mid/late game troops to be pretty sturdy and useful - especially if you drag them around with your heroes and level them up. Units with the +con traits get crazy hp after a few levels gained if they are a large figure stack.

That's why I'm saying that I'm not in favor of removing the growth in unit sizes entirely. But I do wonder if removing the first tier so that you start at 5 men units then progress to 7 and 9 man will improve the early game units so that they're as usefull in the early game as the mid to late game ones. ( when not abusing spells and broken game mechanics) I also believe ballancing 3 tiers will work better then 4 tiers.

They're not supposed to be balanced. They're straight upgrades - it's a way of improving the same 'dude with a sword' as the game progresses and heroes/garrisons/monsters ramp up in power.

It's just borked right now because hero balance is all out of whack, and there aren't enough 'boost your army' traits to compensate for turn one army annihilating aoe spells.

Some nerfing of the egregious hero issues, some buffing of 'leader' hero traits, and some tinkering with unit affecting spells and actual armies should be viable.

No, that's what I'm saying - they're not supposed to be 'balanced', any more than leather armor is 'balanced' against metal armor. You pay more, in either case, but in either case, they're a straight upgrade.

The whole point is that you invest the time to max out the Warfare tree instead of civics or magic, and as a reward you get large stacks of units, large armies, and better gear for those units, not that 3/5/7/9 units are balanced against each other, any more than going up against a civ with a maxed magic tree and high level magic heroes is 'balanced' against someone without that research.

It's just that currently basic unit stacks are too weak due to hero issues.

Exactly. Someone that doesn't research military are stuck with wimpy 3 man units. Someone that spends time on military research can use more powerful 5/7/9 groups. The different group sizes is just another way of saying "You've spent X amount of resources researching warfare so here are your more powerful units".

Now I suppose you could argue that it's just an added complexity for complexities sake and that instead of having different group sizes you simply have more powerful units through bonuses or something. So instead of learning to create 5 man groups your units get +X hitpoints, +Y damage, etc.

Personally I think it's fine the way it is though.

No it should not, a 9 man company is at the _end_ of the warfare tree. If you're pitting 5 man groups against 9 man companies, you're losing the military race badly. Could a 5 man group with magic equipment, buff spells, and a bunch of experience levels backed up by a hero last a few rounds? Sure - presumably if you're going 5v9, you've invested in either civics or magic deeply, so you either have a much superior production base AND cool monster friends, or you have more powerful magic, including magic items for those 5 man groups.

Weapon and armor tech gives you access to that gear for your heroes, so yes, there is a reason to do it before logistics (I've done exactly that research path). And lesser numbers can hold their own against larger numbers with better gear, particularly if they're experienced, but not that far apart, you're literally comparing a second level warfare tech to second to last warfare tech (last, really, the final one is a stacking accuracy bonus to your armies).

As for why have 3 man groups: less production, less upkeep, less damage output against weak heroes (and weak monsters). If you started with 5, their damage output, production cost, and upkeep would all have to be tinkered with, and if you're nerfing the 5s, what's the point of removing the 3s?

Early game enemy encounters scale from puny single figures to 3 man groups to 5 and so on, as well as ever-stronger single units - and in theory your heroes ramp up to face those challenges (or your units ramp up to face the heroes, depending on your perspective). The issue right now is that heroes don't just 'ramp up', they launch from a space elevator into low orbit at something like mach 10.

Units have a few other issues too - notably the completely ridiculous upgrade costs to improve their gear.

My argument isn't so much about the differences between 3 man and 9 man units.  It's more to do with the units and the rest of the game.  The heroes and the monsters.  I think trying to balance grouped units (9 soldiers) vs a single Hero or a monster.  How gear works, attacks, hit points, levels upgrades, are different.  It's difficult to balance two systems against each other.  

thats one the most powerful tech to research tbh

i think one problem of the game is the lack of "cool" techs to reach, so im against removing it

Exactly. I think a unit size of 5 would be perfect, because it fits better to the RPG part of FE.

Yes. I still dont get why people hate units much. I like the bigger units better, but thats purely cosmetics. I had archers with 225 HP... five units of em. They shot big and nasty things like Morian dead... quick...

If the AI were to level his troops I can guarantee you there would be much less of an issue of "Mighty Hero" armies. Yew Longbow, a few levels, and then its armor piercing mayhem. Especially from those 9-man units with Accuray and such. Untill these kinds of fights happen more often you cannot say whether we only need 9-man units, and whether they should be balanced against mid-level heros ( please no! An elite level 10 unit of Yew Longbow Archers should be able to at least take a big chunk out of any hero, they represent a serious investment!)

Unit sizes are well balanced and thought out. It takes so long to get to the higher levels, you are sacrificing several lower techs to get there. Fireball counters these larger units very well. Heroes are finally able to be countered by something in the endgame. I don't see a problem here.