So in my latest game, I was playing as a Jewish Abyssinia, trying to bring Solomon's line back to Jerusalem. A noble goal, I guess, but I ended up getting curbstomped by the Muslims (I did own the Kingdom of Arabia at one point, but was forced to give it up via jihad). Anyways, I may have had fewer levy troops than the Caliph and his cronies, but for most of the game I was sitting on some fairly fat stacks of cash. One problem, though: there were no mercenaries I could call. I don't mean that they were already being used, I mean that there were just no mercenary companies in the area after I converted to Judaism (I'm assuming that the conversion was the reason I couldn't hire either of the two mercenary companies normally available in the area).
How can this be fixed? Well, I think the best way is to let landless characters do the work for you. After all, they can already go adventuring; why can't a sufficiently martial character set of to become one of the great mercenary captains of his time?
Obviously, there should be a limit, and it should be rather low: if a region has 5 mercenary companies, characters in that area shouldn't be able to found any mercenary bands. But if there are fewer than five, landless characters should be able to create mercenary companies in the same way that they can go adventuring. The companies could be named in various ways, such as "The [culture] Band" or "Company of the [item determined bhy culture/religion]".
If the character's likelihood of founding a mercenary company is governed by the same factors of going adventuring (and the two are mutually exclusive events, as they should be), there is little chance of a mercenary captain gaining a landed title, except by normal methods and player intervention. And as it is, the player can already intervene to vassalize various mercenary companies, so this wouldn't be a new exploit.
Thoughts?
How can this be fixed? Well, I think the best way is to let landless characters do the work for you. After all, they can already go adventuring; why can't a sufficiently martial character set of to become one of the great mercenary captains of his time?
Obviously, there should be a limit, and it should be rather low: if a region has 5 mercenary companies, characters in that area shouldn't be able to found any mercenary bands. But if there are fewer than five, landless characters should be able to create mercenary companies in the same way that they can go adventuring. The companies could be named in various ways, such as "The [culture] Band" or "Company of the [item determined bhy culture/religion]".
If the character's likelihood of founding a mercenary company is governed by the same factors of going adventuring (and the two are mutually exclusive events, as they should be), there is little chance of a mercenary captain gaining a landed title, except by normal methods and player intervention. And as it is, the player can already intervene to vassalize various mercenary companies, so this wouldn't be a new exploit.
Thoughts?