War with mercenary troops

[unmerged(13866)]

I´ve played the demo with diferent nations and it´s a great game, but I´ve found an issue, perhaps it´s not exactly a bug: having some money, you can hire almost unlimited mercenary units in a province and there´re ready in a second, don´t matter if an spanish tercio or a swiss pikemen unit has to appear in the new world or in Africa. This makes wars very unrealistic, in my opinion. If these troops has to appear inmediately, they should be local forces in a limited quantity. These troops are also not so much expensive that your own soldiers, so it´s a great (but not so realistic) deal to hire-win a battle-fire.

 

[unmerged(41817)]

I think they should be more expensive and maybe a lower troop morale to make them more likely to break in combat, to stop the stacking of mercs.

It is a bit too easy to use them, as Brandenburg in the demo i was DoW'd by Bohemia and Hungary, so i took a loan and hired 8 mercenary regiments on top of 2 regular regiments and wiped the floor with the enemy.

The proportion of mercenary units to population should be changed to make them more scarce and of lesser quality.

 

[coreymas]

Your Military tradition does not gain any benefit from using Mercs.

Not having played the game yet i am guessing that having a low Military Tradition will severly effect your capabilities in the later parts of a long campaign game.

Corey

 

[baelthazar]

Mercs cost a TON more to upkeep and you can quickly spiral your country into deficit when using them. It wasn't such a big deal when I played Castille in the New World, because I had amazing amounts of money coming in from conquered Incas. I tried this out as Portugal in another go, and found I really had to cut Tech spending to upkeep those troops (each single unit had a noticeable effect on my budget).

While I agree that mercs should have a "delay" when hired in the New World, the actual dynamic of Merc use in Europe is realistic and not overly "game breaking" because your enemies will use them too. They also have crap for morale, especially when they first appear, and they tend to rout more quickly IMHO. Also, to balance that New World thing, they can only be hired in established colonies or territories given to you through conquest. So you can't hire them in places you "hold" as part of a war.

Baelthazar

 

[unmerged(59737)]

Mercs will probably be used sparingly for the reasons listed above; therefore they probably woln't influence the game much.

 

[unmerged(13866)]

I find Mercs very important and decisive for small nations, like german states, where they can quickly decide a war, as mentioned before.
Mercs are ok, but in my opinion, they should:

-be provided in a limited quantity.
-need some time to travel to your province.
-have some penalty for constant hiring/firing (perhaps a higher hiring cost of a minimum service time).

In a much more realistic way, mercs should be offered by nations that would win money and military tradition while in peace, but probably this is asking too much

 

[baelthazar]

In a much more realistic way, mercs should be offered by nations that would win money and military tradition while in peace, but probably this is asking too much

An interesting idea, but remember, many of the great merc companies for this time period were privately run. Of course the distinction between public and private was often very emphemeral. I would love to play Genoa and sell out my military to everyone. You know, HoI2 had the option of sending an expeditionary force to an ally, so the gameplay dynamic wouldn't be too hard.

Baelthazar

 

[unmerged(6777)]

I don't recall exactly how they are in the demo but in 1.1:

• cost of mercs increases with each regiment of mercs in your national army
• you gain 0 tradition for any casualties caused by mercs
• there is a limited pool of mercs available at any one time (gradually replenishes, and AI definitely uses them...particularly cavalry which are often hard to come by)
• mercs do not get upgraded when you change your country's prefered troop type (and iirc advance in technology) so you will have to disband them after a while anyway, before they become useless)

Those are some not-insignificant "penalties" (or limitations) on them that make them really only useful in case of emergency to me.

 

[Ming]

Mercs are definately 'must use' for small nations. Much better than EU2 where if you were rich enough to hire them, you did't need them.

 

[unmerged(13866)]

..., but remember, many of the great merc companies for this time period were privately run.

You´re right, Baeltha, but perhaps these "dogs of war" could be represented by some neutral companies (Guesclin´s Free Company,Patrick Sarsfield´s Band,...) avaliable in limited quantities for all countries (they can´t be in 2 places at the same time) and localized in a concrete province from where they should travel.

 

[EnderV]

Those are some not-insignificant "penalties" (or limitations) on them that make them really only useful in case of emergency to me.

Not to mention that a small country taking 200d loan at 8% (that's I think stab 2 loan cost) will end up either bankrupt, or with a huge inflation at the best. Yearly disposable income needed at least 56d to pay the interest and the capital at the end.