The mercenaries are really too strong: they must be nerfed

[Hogloo]

Currently, I have the impression that you can't win a war, from a certain point of the game, if you don't have mercenaries.

I am currently playing a xenophobic nation and, to be roleplay, I am not recruiting mercenaries.
I am in a war against a weak alliance of minor nations... But in addition to their usual fleets, they have a mercenary army superior to my total military power! They have at least 5-6 mercenary fleets, each equal to or greater than one of my 3-4 military fleets. (and they have their regulars army too).
Furthermore, the rate at which mercenaries produce troops is too high.

In short, I think we should limit the number of mercenaries we can hire according to certain criteria, or limit the maximum power of their fleets.

I don't have a lot of coherent arguments there, but every time I play it seems obvious to me. Usually I use mercenaries myself which allow me to crush everyone, but I find that the game depends TOO MUCH on mercenaries now...


And we must be able to attack and destroy the mercenary enclaves! It's not fair that they provide monstrous fleets to our enemies and that we can't even blow up their headquarters because it's neutral and unassailable even trying !

 

[GhostDanny]

I mean, you COULD make your own mercenary enclave.
Wouldn't be Xenophobic if the mercs are your own species.

 

[Hogloo]

Anyway, I can't create mercenary enclaves (i have no civic or ascension for that and I'm not part of the galactic community) ^^

On the other hand, all those who can create enclaves or recruit elsewhere have armies more powerful than what they could have on their own, or what the most powerful empires in the galaxy could have... (The next "great Khan" in the futur will undoubtedly be one of these all-mighty mercenaries).

 

[Starfire Breeze]

You should be able to attack mercenary enclaves like any other neutral entity; you get a dialog box asking if you're sure you want to make them hostile to you. There's even a scripted reward (2000 Energy, 2000 Alloys) for destroying a mercenary enclave.

Note that fleets with Autocannons have highly misleading fleet power which vastly overinflates their actual combat performance in almost all real world scenarios. As a result, any mechanics based on fleet power are fairly broken since 3.6, from how AI empires view the threat level of Autocannon-equipped fleets to how they are represented to the player in the at-a-glance fleet power display.

 

[andreihaiducul]

They wouldn't be a problem if they had a reinforcement pool like in EU4 instead of churning out ships nonstop.

 

[Hogloo]

Yes: enclaves can be attacked. Apparently, I had a bug that prevented me from doing so, but it was resolved by reloading the game...