Have you ever recruited an all-mercenary army?

[QuintusSertorius]

I know some people use mercs for garrisons if they’re blitzing or otherwise trying to move fast. I’ve done that myself when I want to conclude a war, sign the peace and move my army back to the homeland rather than waiting around to develop the new holding(s).

But in this instance I’m talking about using mercs for the entirety of an army. Bonus points if even the general leading them is a merc. I did this once in one of my Roman games when I wanted to take a more active hand in changing the balance of power in Asia Minor. Indeed, it’s what led me to Pergamon and wanting to play them as a migrated faction. I also used one for a deep raid of the Seleukid Empire, trashing their armies and cities and hiring on local mercs to replace the losses as I went.

There’s some pretty good units on the mercenary roster, you could easily build an effective force from them (and I don’t mean all-slinger and horse archer armies). If you go to that spot on the southern tip of Greece, you have a massive range of choice. I noticed that I could build all of my standard army from mercs (with a quick trip to the blacksmith for upgraded weapons).

Has anyone else ever experimented with “disposable” armies for punitive expeditions and the like?

[A_Dane]

Yeah once, As pontos. I was fighting the seleucids, and couldn't replace my losses fast enough as i moved further away. Eventually all my factional units were slaughtered or used as garrison troops, and i just ran around with my merc army, burning and pillaging/keeping the seleucids away, until i could recruit a new army.

[Ca Putt]

As KH I once sent a FM(not sure but I think it even was a client Ruler) to Persepolis around the arabian Peninsula after he was detached from my Anphibious squad that raided Egypt and coastal Arabia.
landed near Persepolis he hired all availible Mercs took the town and thus drew the Seleucid attention away from my troops in the levant.
as I had gone that far I got a lvl 4 gov there and stationed the mercs there while he continued to Mesopotamia where he did the same^^

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

I hire mercs whenever possible as any faction, to supplement factional armies, because I don't like reducing my town populations by hiring local units (I play on Huge unit size.) Reducing town population also reduces income...

I've hired all-merc armies only as Carthage so far, but always with a FM general.

[Taedius]

I'm considering it in my current Romani campain. I'm trying to keep my treasury below 50 000 (it's a struggle!), and the allmighty AS has just betrayed our alliance by crossing the Bosphorous strait and besieged Byzantion. Think I'll try a punitive mission in the Levant.

[QuintusSertorius]

I must admit I really love punitive expeditions. Romp into enemy territory, defeat their armies, take some settlements and sell everything, then hand everything back and declare a ceasefire. You make some money (sometimes a lot of money), reduce the war-fighting capacity of your enemy, give yourself some breathing room and don't have to worry about managing new conquests or defending far-flung borders. Its win-win, really. As long as you beat their armies, of course.

[Brave Brave Sir Robin]

I once fought a punitive expedition as the Aedui to Egypt after I had united Gaul. Was a lot of fun fighting in the desert with Gauls though I really didn't use mercs at all. It was however a mercenary general.

[Lazy O]

I recruited them from the cape whatsitsname at the south of sparta. Conquered Asia Minor as Epeiros with them :D. Only factionals were molossians and Prodromoi

[Cute Wolf]

I often doing that most of the time as Kart-Hadast or Romaioi (as local "auxilia")
but rarely use that with another factions.

[WarpGhost]

I used mercenary armies a number of times; sometimes it simply has the practical aspect of: if I dont recruit them now, the AI will!

[FriendlyFire]

I often use mercs to fill certains roles in my armies, but I've also done the retaliatory-strike-with-all-merc-army thing. Most recently when the Seleukids attacked and took Pergamon from my KH empire, slaughtering my levy hoplite defenders. Then they pulled out and left an all-merc half-stack garrison. So I recruited *my* merc half-stack (thankfully Asia Minor has a lot of mercenaries to go round) and took it back again. Pretty hard to tell which unit was which in the final scrum on the square...

I like the idea of recruiting a general and sending him on a punitive expedition with a mercenary army - time to go sack Antiocheia :smiley2:

[AspisPhalanx90]

Just recently i used and All-Merc army in my Pergamon game. It had its reasons though. basically, it was to represent an alliance formed by my FMs and Ephesus, which was tired of Seleukid rule in Lydia...so recruited a "merc" army in Lydia as the Ephesean army...went and took Sardis...made it allied. So i plan on doing all or mostly merc armies to represent city-states in the areas that arent shown in game, such as Miletus, Ephesus, etc