I modded merc price x2. That was enough to prevent me gaining any pagan lands as Lubeck. So if in release cost to hire mercs doubled that's quite enough.
Levy Support Costs
- Thread starter HolisticGod
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True, but since cities have a penalty for being owned by the player most the time they will be vassals, who from my playing can always be relied on to demand you cut their taxes (or get relations penalty and thus less taxes) at the most inopportune moments.
This is one of the ways the game balances money. The more harsh the wrong-holding penalty is, the less likely you are to hold cities for yourself. If you don't, then you might get NO income from them, because vassals that hate you give you nothing and harsher tax laws make vassals hate you and demand lower tax laws.
You guys are also only playing for 20 years. If you play for a couple of centuries, those castle holdings can end up with levies that cost more than the income from the castle. That changes the mercenary dynamic a bit.
Maybe I have just been unlucky, but I dont see the benefit of the Merc's, 3 times I have had them saying "screw you we are out of here" before even meeting the battlefield, leaving me with a few levies if any and a enemy that are at my gates. I hardly use them, too unpredictable. One time I bought a 300 Ducat army (2250 men) just to have them saying "bye!" within 2 days!! they just appeared and then dissappeared again, with my 300 Ducats.
You obviously need to wait till you have enough to pay them for a while. Or are you doing this and they still leave? I thought they only left when you run out of money and if you are running out of money then you are hiring badly. You need to wait till you have enough in the bank to cover some of their maintanence for a few months minimum (or till you can start capping holdings)
My mercenaries were perfectly loyal so long as they were paid. It's a pity it was funds collected for construction, claims and titles that filled their pockets. No choice when the enemy is bigger than you are, or the empire goes into chaos and there are foes and rebels all around.
I wonder if mercenaries have cash balances and what they use them for.
I wonder if mercenaries have cash balances and what they use them for.
How ARE levy support costs actually calculated and who are they charged to
when your liege raises your personal or other levies and takes them away to war?
when you raise your personal levies?
when you raise vassal levies?
Does something like the traditional 40 days free service apply?
when your liege raises your personal or other levies and takes them away to war?
when you raise your personal levies?
when you raise vassal levies?
Does something like the traditional 40 days free service apply?
AFAIK you always pay for your own troops and your liege will always pay for his own.
Thus, if your a king you can raise the levys of your vassels and they will pay for them.
In my first game with Boreslaw i hired the mercs, the problem is you pay alot for a one time use army, and you will not have them for long becouse of the upkeep.
In my third i went for full upgrade for my castles krakow and the other ones as fast as i could, after 10 years my personal levies where pretty much relaible for warfare and with the occasional help from vassals for the hard push. mercs is not even worth it in the 20 years you play here. having some militatraining and stables, guard etc for 200-300 gold after 3 years bulding is a far better investment, besides the troops you get from castle upgrades are much better than the lower end merc.
raising 300 gold takes some years to make and no spending, putting them on a merc comp for a 3-4 month campaign , disband and then get attacked by a third power then you are screwed becouse your levies suck.
It also helps to hire the right mercenaries for the right job.
Because light infantry are crap compared to heavy infantry, I always try to hire mercs with a higher HI to LI ratio.
Also, at least one group of mercs (victual brothers) comes with their own ships. Useful if you don't have a lot of galleys yourself.
Because light infantry are crap compared to heavy infantry, I always try to hire mercs with a higher HI to LI ratio.
Also, at least one group of mercs (victual brothers) comes with their own ships. Useful if you don't have a lot of galleys yourself.
You guys are also only playing for 20 years. If you play for a couple of centuries, those castle holdings can end up with levies that cost more than the income from the castle. That changes the mercenary dynamic a bit.
Not to speak of your enemies, who field 1500-2000 levies per province. Mercenaries can still decide things, but it's not like you can just "zerg rush" your ducal liege with your 1500 mercs. This you can do in 1066, but if you think that's an exploit -> don't use it.
Imo even the oh so powerful knightly orders will only be one doomstack of many on the battlefield. Later in game the Mongols and Muslims will have tens of thousands of troops.
A bit more than I am used to. Sounds like a typo. Do you pay a lot of extra money to support them? Like 3 times as much as another mercenary band the same size?
It's an identified bug that's been fixed. They cost something like 2000g a month in upkeep (my invasion of the HRE was ruined )
)
It's an identified bug that's been fixed. They cost something like 2000g a month in upkeep (my invasion of the HRE was ruined
Good. They weren't always like that. Sounds like a Dev just included too many zeroes in the merc files.
Hard to not use it. The first game i tried to not used it become my shortest game ever. First war and surprisingly my enemy duke hire merc.
Playing with merc cost, double price is right, it's still useful, but no one can spam it for instant win anymore. It's still possible to annex a pagan or two, but no more The Great Pagan Sale in the beginning.
Seems to me (somebody said this a page or two ago) it's much more an issue of money and what you do with it, vs what the AI does with it. If the AI spends its money smartly on upgrades, then in the long run, mercs will be much less important.
From what I can tell after some intensive snooping around, the AI seems to be A LOT more proactive about building stuff than it is in EU3. I actually got scared a bit when I saw some of the 3-county dukes madly building up their main castle, while I wasted my cash on mercs and assassinations (as one does).
Just as an aside, in one game I decided to give the bishop of my home church 3 bishoprics in the area, and to my astonishment, he started to build up his home church like mad.
And since we're on the topic of modding. One way to get around the mercenary-pagan exploit is to just double or triple the amount of troops that go with the "warrior cult" building. That way, not only do you not get them in the first decade, but nobody does. Turns out all the heavy infantry of Bohemia is worth squat in 1071 when it gets swarmed by hordes of archers and light inf from the bogs of Prussia.
From what I can tell after some intensive snooping around, the AI seems to be A LOT more proactive about building stuff than it is in EU3. I actually got scared a bit when I saw some of the 3-county dukes madly building up their main castle, while I wasted my cash on mercs and assassinations (as one does).
Just as an aside, in one game I decided to give the bishop of my home church 3 bishoprics in the area, and to my astonishment, he started to build up his home church like mad.
And since we're on the topic of modding. One way to get around the mercenary-pagan exploit is to just double or triple the amount of troops that go with the "warrior cult" building. That way, not only do you not get them in the first decade, but nobody does. Turns out all the heavy infantry of Bohemia is worth squat in 1071 when it gets swarmed by hordes of archers and light inf from the bogs of Prussia.
That might work.
However...
There is a certain point where they will start to swarm Scandinavia and the Russian Princes (they won't attack the Empire since they aren't stupid). Remember that those warrior cult troops can be used offensively, too.
Personally, I don't mind the Baltic Pagans getting wiped out early. The recently conquered penalties are so severe that it's still 20 or more years until it pays off. Go ahead and form Lithuania; you'll still just be a duke in terms of revenue and manpower for a couple of decades.