I'll preface this by saying that the mercenary army component of this suggestion would require both a drastic reduction of mercenaries present on the map at the start date, as well as a way to remove mercenaries similarly to how we can today remove pirates.
I've never really been satisfied with two things in this game: Mercenary armies and fleets being static and permanent, and the fact that a nation's military up and disbands when you defeat and annex a nation. As those of you who play EU4 will know, in that game, once a tag is destroyed, all of its armies become nationalist rebels attempting to restore that nation. It's a bit annoying, but leads to some fairly realistic mopping up of pockets of resistance after the government has surrendered. Since we don't have that system of rebels (thankfully, really) in I:R, that is obviously not an option, but we do have another form of stateless army: Mercenaries.
I propose that when a tag is destroyed, its Capital Levy (if raised), Legions and fleets should remain and become mercenary bands. These then roam and find a base of operations - a city or a port - where they settle down, conferring a "Local Mercenaries" or "Pirate Haven" modifier onto the province and allowing them to be hired as mercenaries. Once settled, they adjust over time like mercs do today, growing (or even shrinking!) over time based on the population of that province, possibly after some 15, 20 years to represent the old veterans dying off or retiring and the mercenaries adapting to the local resources.
In addition to the standard flip to merc upon tag destruction, fleets should also have a chance to become mercenaries if a nation loses all of its ports and does not reaquire one within a certain period - 2x the base construction time of a port seems reasonable, as the game can then safely assume that you've lost all your ports and capability to build new ones.
Furthermore, it would also be interesting if you could hire a freshly "spawned" mercenary army for promises of land. I.e. Rome destroys Macedonia, but Seleukids then hires the remnants of the Macedonian Army for the promise of reestablishing Macedonia (as a subject), beats Rome in a war, and hands Macedonia off to the Mercenaries, disbanding them.
I've never really been satisfied with two things in this game: Mercenary armies and fleets being static and permanent, and the fact that a nation's military up and disbands when you defeat and annex a nation. As those of you who play EU4 will know, in that game, once a tag is destroyed, all of its armies become nationalist rebels attempting to restore that nation. It's a bit annoying, but leads to some fairly realistic mopping up of pockets of resistance after the government has surrendered. Since we don't have that system of rebels (thankfully, really) in I:R, that is obviously not an option, but we do have another form of stateless army: Mercenaries.
I propose that when a tag is destroyed, its Capital Levy (if raised), Legions and fleets should remain and become mercenary bands. These then roam and find a base of operations - a city or a port - where they settle down, conferring a "Local Mercenaries" or "Pirate Haven" modifier onto the province and allowing them to be hired as mercenaries. Once settled, they adjust over time like mercs do today, growing (or even shrinking!) over time based on the population of that province, possibly after some 15, 20 years to represent the old veterans dying off or retiring and the mercenaries adapting to the local resources.
In addition to the standard flip to merc upon tag destruction, fleets should also have a chance to become mercenaries if a nation loses all of its ports and does not reaquire one within a certain period - 2x the base construction time of a port seems reasonable, as the game can then safely assume that you've lost all your ports and capability to build new ones.
Furthermore, it would also be interesting if you could hire a freshly "spawned" mercenary army for promises of land. I.e. Rome destroys Macedonia, but Seleukids then hires the remnants of the Macedonian Army for the promise of reestablishing Macedonia (as a subject), beats Rome in a war, and hands Macedonia off to the Mercenaries, disbanding them.
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