The MercenAARies

[Wyvern]

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you had to rely solely on mercenaries to outfit your armies? Would you still be able to rampage across europe and conquer the world? Well I'm not going to try a world conquest but I decided to see just what I could accomplish with the concept. I'm playing on Hard/Furious. Shied away from VHard purely because I hate BB wars and knew they would kill a game such as this stone dead.

I first tried the concept a few weeks ago playing France, I ended up driving the English off the continent easily enough and then went on to successfully invade Aragon and Castile at which point the game crashed and I realised I didn't have auto-save set - so scrub that game. Well this time I picked the other side in the HYW and made a stab at playing the English.

You'd think the English should be easier right? Wrong. All those small French minors recruit like crazy so that it doesn't matter how good your starting armies are, eventually you get worn down. Also you don't begin with any tax collectors so you've got to choose between minting coin to buy mercenaries or minting coin to build tax collectors. I went with the latter so not a single new soldier was added to the army during the whole of the war against France. I also stuck with my very first try, I'm sure if I'd restarted I could have done better.

The initial French armies are all defeated without any real problems, Henry got himself killed whilst sieging Paris which was a real bummer but I still soon had control of Paris, Champagne, Guyenne and a couple more provinces well on the way to being captured. Scotland took Northumberland early on, driving out my army, but then they left it vacant so we moved back in and eventually retook it with 14k men whilst a 30k Scottish army sat in Strathcyde twiddling its thumbs. The ai is an idiot sometimes, ok not just sometimes.

So it was all going huncky dorry then? If only. Firstly I failed to get Picardie under siege and France managed to assemble a 10k army there which defeated my repeated attacks even though I had a leader. Burgundy bailed out of the war early on and Orleans saved the French Kings ass by retaking Paris just when I was getting ready to make a decent peace demand. So time for plan B. My northern army had been whittled down to a mere 7k whilst around 12 survive in the south of France under Bedford and 13k were up in Northumberland. Cevennes and Lyonnais were now put under siege whilst the 7k from the north return to Paris after finally capturing Picardie. This proved to be a bad move when a returning French force of similar size lifted the siege and completely wipped out my army. So now we were left with the south. Provence had nearly retaken Languedoc when they offered to make peace for our remaining treasury which consisted of something like 22d - we accepted! This allowed us to take Lyonnais and Cevennes and move on to Auvergne. France kept offering 3 province deals, Picardie, Guyenne and Languedoc being the most attractive but we turned them down hoping Auvergne would fall soon and we could peace them out first and then get a similar deal. By the time Auvergne did fall France had retaken Champagne and Picardie and was in no mood to give more than two provinces. They also now fielded an army in the region of 50k to my remaining 10k in France and I had no money yet to buy reinforcements. Time to cut our losses and make peace for Guyenne and Lyonnais, a peace deal that effectively cut France in two.

I really began to fear the arrival of Richmonte at this point, after nearly 3 years of fighting France and another year minting coin, I finally had tax collectors in every provinces giving me a year end tax income of about 160d. Enough to allow me one mercenary company approximately every 18 months or so but not enough to build up a decent force before the truce period expired and certainly not enough to take on a Richmonte led France anytime soon. When a royal hunt gave me +50% relations with France I quickly signed a royal marriage to prevent an immediate dow at end of truce and breathed a hearty sigh of relief.

Amazingly Brittany hadn't broken vassalage during all the fighting but they soon remembered they didn't really like me and broke the chains in early 1426. Time to dow Brittany. Time for Lorraine to also dow Burgundy straight afterwards with the backing of the full French alliance. Time for me to abandon Burgundy . Useless allies anyway, always getting into wars I don't want.

Armour and Bretagne were duly taken from Brittany and the rump re-vassalised only for France to annex it a few months later. I now looked around for protection, someone who could make a difference if France ever came my way and decided to enter the Aragon/Castile alliance just in time for Navarre to dow me in November 1429. Bad move on Navarre's part when exactly three years later Bearn was added to the English realm and Navarre made a vassal.

All is now peaceful, France and her allies decimated Burgundy, adding Flandern, Artois and Franch-comte to the French realm, a very bad result for me. Soon there will have to be a showdown with France and therein lies my greatest danger.

In 1433:
Inflation sits at 3.4%
Yearly census income whilst at -3 stability is 168.55d - yep stab is currently -3
DP sliders are:
Aristocracy 8
Centralisation 4 (+1 dp move)
Innovative 4 (+1 via event)
Trade 6
Def/Off 5
Land 5
Quality 7
Surfdom 6 (-1 dp move)

Current Map of Europe:


Suggestions?

[skkrrt]

Pretty good read, as for a suggestion..wait a few years..build up your forces and kick the french off the coast.

And good luck

[ForzaA]

Originally posted by Wyvern
Surfdom

really?

nice Surfs in England right

interesting concept... but will likely prove troublesome, but not too troublesome, in achieving stuff in the new world (shipping all the troops over)
costs ofcourse are a bit of a problem, OTOH you won't have to worry about WE

realy interesting, will be following this surely.

[TreizeV]

Interesting and original concept.. I like it

I must try this out myself some time. Look forward to seeing the long term results of this

[Rirre]

only mercenaries... that sounds risky but if you get your income hige enuf you should be in the clear.

[Judge]

Interesting concept, killing off France should be of highest priority

[Wyvern]

Originally posted by Judge
Interesting concept, killing off France should be of highest priority

Indeed, I need the riches of France to be able to survive. At the same time I know I need to keep my BB rating low otherwise I'll have everyone opportunistically dow'ing me.

It's a great leveller this approach and so far brings a much more realistic feel to my dealings. Every war has to be carefully considered, and every loss of life is keenly felt. I also don't have the ability of great cavalry armies at hand to sweep clear the plains of France !

[kurtbrian]

won't you easily risk running out of mercenaries?

I thought the pool quickly got emptied and only refilled one company a month or so.

[Wyvern]

Originally posted by kurtbrian
won't you easily risk running out of mercenaries?

I thought the pool quickly got emptied and only refilled one company a month or so.

That's hardly a worry at the moment, I can't even afford one mercenary band a year yet .

[kurtbrian]

Originally posted by Wyvern
That's hardly a worry at the moment, I can't even afford one mercenary band a year yet .

well it might be a long term worry then...

anyway, interesting idea.

[Stroph1]

I like the concept. It seems to make France a challenge again!

Looking forward to seeing how you do in the New World.

[Valdemar]

I too look forward to this,

Incidently IIRC then there is about 10 or 11 active bands possible at any given time, so as long as the AI doesn't use them you should be fine, I don't remember though how often the pool is refilled

This could however possibly only be valid in MP?

V

[Judge]

Originally posted by Valdemar


Incidently IIRC then there is about 10 or 11 active bands possible at any given time, so as long as the AI doesn't use them you should be fine, I don't remember though how often the pool is refilled

V

AFAIK the AI does not use mercenaries

[kurtbrian]

Originally posted by Valdemar
I too look forward to this,

Incidently IIRC then there is about 10 or 11 active bands possible at any given time, so as long as the AI doesn't use them you should be fine, I don't remember though how often the pool is refilled

This could however possibly only be valid in MP?

V

one band of mercs emerge a month I think

[Rirre]

Originally posted by Valdemar
Incidently IIRC then there is about 10 or 11 active bands possible at any given time, so as long as the AI doesn't use them you should be fine, I don't remember though how often the pool is refilled

The pool is refilled once a year and there can never be more then 80 mercenarycompanys recruted a year. I belive that's how it works anyway

[Wyvern]

Kurtbrian is correct. One mercenary band restocks every month and the mercenary pool has a depth of around 28.

[Valdemar]

Originally posted by Wyvern
Kurtbrian is correct. One mercenary band restocks every month and the mercenary pool has a depth of around 28.

So you knew all along and still made us all make a fool of ourselves guessing?

Still a fun concept though

V

[Wyvern]

Originally posted by Valdemar
So you knew all along and still made us all make a fool of ourselves guessing?

Still a fun concept though

V

Oh but it was such fun . I had to check the pool depth actually, the restock rate I knew .

[Wyvern]

1433 - 1463


So France are the big threat right? Right. When the French alliance disintegrates towards the end of 1433 with Auvergne, Orleans and Provence all ending up at war with France along with the Papal States, Genoa and a couple other minor nations the opportunity is too good to miss. Richmonte is nowhere to be seen so the 20k in the south proceed to take Languedoc and Dauphine whilst another 20k in the north capture Morbihan; all whilst France is still occupied elsewhere.

Because this was more of an opportunistic strike on my part than a pre-planned invasion I allow myself to mint coin at the beginning of each year so I have enough funds to buy a mercenary band. 7k are recruited in Calais and sent into the vacant province of Flandern. Enemy troops drive me out of Vendee in the west but Maine is taken off Provence and when Savoy capture Provence itself we make peace and demand Maine which is accepted followed by Savoy annexing Provence. The remaining men from this front now head to Flandern where they begin a slow march south until every French province is taken.

Whilst I'm busy Genoa manages to capture Vendee off France whilst Aragon captures Franche-comte and almost immediately makes peace for that single province. Between all the great leaders England gets the war turns out to be very easy. Having France jumped by half of Europe also helped ! When peace is made we gain Flandern, Dauphine, Orleans (which France had annexed), Picardie and Morbihan. Only Vendee prevents us from linking up our territories and Genoa manages to weedle that province off the French.

Franche-comte soon revolts as does the single isolated French owned Langedoc in the south. I'm hoping one of these might join me but it's not to be. The Langedoc rebels move on to Savoy owned Provence which they capture after which Provence then revolts as a 2 province duchy from France whilst Franche-comte rejoins Burgundy.

All investment is pretty much going into infrastructure. I make infra 3 in 1448 and in 1449 we are back at war again though this time not of our doing. Castile asks us to join an alliance war against Austria (which I cannot reach) but who I then realise are in alliance with the Pope. With the free CB Genoa decides they're hard enough to have a go and promptly dow's us with Savoy as an ally. Not a difficult war, Vendee is easily taken and the 10k Genoese force defending it slaughered. A leader led army then marches eastwards and steals the Aragon siege of Piemonte. Genoa itself has a force of over 30k sitting in its capital. Even with a leader I don't really want to try taking that on. I'm not really expecting Genoa to accept, but on the off chance I ask for Vendee for peace with a war score of about 14%. Amazingly they accept and my territories now connect across France!!

With a BB of over 16 and the soon to arrive War of the Roses now seems a good time to burn some BB and chill out. I sit at -3 stability for most of the time but get a string of nice events during the period. Two Petion for redresses. When you're already at -3 stability it's easy to take the -4 stab hit to gain one point of centralisation. An Italian engineer and uncooperative philisopher pad out the rest and by taking the Yorkist Kings option in the WoTR's my DP settings are starting to look a whole lot better.

As 1460 approaches I leave Castile's alliance and form one with Navarre whom I promptly annex at the start of 1463, vassals of 30 years standing. Only once have I ever seen a nation refuse after such a period.

The situation in 1463

Inflation sits at 4.2%
Bad Boy = 15.8
Yearly census income whilst at -2 stability is 228.89d
Monthly Income = 53.64d

DP sliders are:
Aristocracy 7 (-1)
Centralisation 7 (+3)
Innovative 6 (+2)
Trade 6
Def/Off 4 (-1)
Land 6 (+1)
Quality 7
Surfdom 3 (-3)

[TreizeV]

Thats looking Very good

By the way, are you going to be training fleets? Or using privateers? (in accordance with your mercenary rules.)