Rent out my army as mercenaries

[GMOEU]

I would like the option of being able to rent out all or part of my army as mercenaries.

It would be for a set time period and non-retrievable even if I was involved in a war, unless I paid an extra premium to get them back.

All countries would be able to hire out their army as mercenaries, even AI.

I could request the rental or another country could request it from me.

There are many scenarios where this would be handy.
Perhaps a country needs money.
Perhaps a country wants to help a friendly country involved in a war, but the other country doesn't want to declare war.

The opinion of the country receiving the troops towards you would increase but the enemies/rivals of that country would decrease their opinion towards you.

 

[Vistariel]

There is no historical basis for the idea. It's a cool concept, but I can't think of one instance where a nation or lord just sold the use of his actual army (when standing armies became mainstream). Mercenaries were the only thing close to professional soldiers until the late renaissance, with the next closest thing being royal guards like the Varangian Guard or the Janissaries. Mercenaries sold their own services to fight, because that is what they did, whereas the men levied into the army--not entirely of their own free will, serfdom and all--were dismissed back to their normal lives whenever hostilities were concluded. These people were mostly tenant farmers. The noble knights could be called professional soldiers in a sense, but they amounted to the vast minority--serving as commanders and such. So as you can see the notion of renting out an army in this context would be somewhat ridiculous.

So again, cool idea, but not practical within the historical scope of this game. A mechanic that involved patronizing mercenary companies would be a welcome feature though. Wealthy states with small populations, like those in Italy, relied almost exclusively on free companies to wage their warfare. To be honest I think Italian states should all have a significantly reduced mercenary maintenance modifier. Moreover, the only standing armies outside of warfare should be mercenaries until the late 1600s, if only the game mechanics allowed this. The first half of EU4 should have an army levy mechanic similar to the one in CK2 if it were pining after historical accuracy.

 

[GMOEU]

Thank you for the well-informed reply.
Point taken but we have to work with the mechanics as they are in EU4.

I was thinking somewhat on the line of Swiss Mercenaries.
Also there were mercenaries in the sense that rulers sometimes put their 'armies' (or part of) under the command of other rulers to help them out, and got some type of remuneration in many/most cases (money, material, goodwill etc.).

Armies in the sense of modern-day armies did not exist or were in their infancy but EU4 has armies right from the start so we have to work with what EU4 has. Not perfect but better than nothing.

While the exact historical recreation would be difficult in EU4, being able to lend out your army as paid mercenary soldiers would be closer to historical accuracy than the opposite, never lending soldiers to another friendly ruler.

You make some very good points and I'm not disagreeing with them.

 

[Vistariel]

I really don't think it would be that difficult to implement a more historical military model in EU4. You could basically take out the levy and retinue system out of ck2 and just call the retinue a standing army, with the size of the standing army increasing and the levy decreasing as military technology increases. It would require an overhaul of the current system in the game, but I do think it would be doable as the two games use the same engine.

As for the Swiss Mercs, again these were self-organized military companies that were not directly affiliated to the state. They were Swiss because they were from the Swiss Confederation, and the reason that the Swiss became known for mercenary companies is because the Swiss practiced a very strong policy of isolationism, neutrality, and non-aggression beginning around the time of the 14th-15th century. Because they were not sending their men to die regularly, and because wars were constantly being waged by their neighbors many of the Swiss thought they could make a lucrative career fighting other countries' wars--and they did.

Again, I don't know of a historical example of a monarch lending his army--rather than just answering a call-to-arms of an alliance and fighting himself. Do you have some example in mind?