Why use mercenaries?

[Warhammer: 3025]

I know that mercenaries don't use up your country's manpower to reinforce, but is there any other benefit to using them? Even after a few discounts, they're so much more expensive to keep than your normal armies...

 

[Sfan]

There is a minor discipline boost in Age of Reformation but that's all. Without full merc infantry, an agressive player just lacks manpower, especially lategame when you park 60k men on several provinces to siege multiple level 8 forts at once. An agressive player has no isues with money so manpower becomes the limiting factor. If you always have manpower no need to use mercs.

 

[lymond]

It should also be mentioned that by converting much of your infantry to mercs (generally you only use merc infantry), you save your manpower for reinforcing your cav and arty regulars faster.

Mercs are also great for fast troops to win battles. In other words, great for emergencies as they are produced much faster than regulars.

I will sometimes merc up over force limit considerably to win the first battles over a challenging foe. Then consolidate them down after the war is secured. (ofc, I may do that with regulars as well..just depends on my manpower situation at the time)

In some situations, I run pretty much my entire infantry force as mercs, but obviously you need the money to do it. Ottos are a good example of when I go heavy on mercs...upwards of 50% early and up to 100% later.

Republics are another good example as they tend to get quite rich, while remaining relatively small, i.e., lower overall manpower}

 

[saintlyknighted]

As the game progresses, your income *should* go up as you conquer more provinces and trade centres and build manufactories and counting houses. Slowly, you will be able to afford to replace your infantry with merc infantry, and by the late game I usually have all my infantry as mercs and plenty income leftover. Manpower becomes the issue late game due to the massive increase in conquest speed you will be capable of, and sieging lvl 8 forts saps tons of manpower. By supplanting the infantry with mercs I can cut down so much manpower loss that I have 4 stacks of 90k just sitting on the forts and bleeding mercs just because I can. If you're going for a WC, you can even earn so much that you can field merc cannons as well.

 

[Warhammer: 3025]

Are they a better choice for small countries that "build vertically" by investing in development instead of conquering provinces?

 

[PhoenixG]

Normal units can only be trained in cored land and in loyal subjects, while merc also be recruited in uncored land and in occupied territory.

 

[Shinkuro Yukinari]

Sweden with Admin Ideas

 

[Sfan]

Are they a better choice for small countries that "build vertically" by investing in development instead of conquering provinces?

Surprisingly, it's more like the opposite (because tall play is not viable and you are a lot richer by playing wide). Playing vertically means you do not do many wars, and certainly not several wars at once, so you have more time to replenish your manpower pool. While in a WC, you usually find yourself sieging 10 forts at once from 4 different wars and the manpower drain would be massive.
The only issue is the merc cap which is why I only use merc infantry.

 

[babuchas1]

Playing merchant Republic Venice, playing tall (just 20 provinces). Now it's 1600s. First rank great power since 1500s and running a full merc infantry army since day 1 (For role play and fun). Fighting wars all the time, to defend my trade cities, show power, and feeding some vassals.
So yes, totally worth it for countries that want to play tall, otherwise I had run out of manpower pretty soon.