Mercenaries usage

[Urban Legend]

So my fellow bloodthirsty maniacs. How do you like to serve your mercs?

A full merc army to weaken the enemy? This is not good for your king's reputation when they lose though.

Side by side with your main force?

Lead the way to be fodder while your troops back them up?

Send them alone to cause as much damage as possible? If you are lucky, the mercs kill their general, while your own troops sit on a hill watching the mercs get slaughtered, then route. I love doing this, its so evil muahaha Some of the enemy(including their general) will chase the routers and end up exhausted and caught between your initial troops and your reinforcements coming in to replace the mercs. Then after all the mercs are expended, march your troops in and wipe them out with minimal casualties.

Oh I'm so wicked

[econ21]

Yup, I've done similar things but may be more protective in future - I've noticed that the inns tend to empty out after a shopping spree and that dismissed units reappear them. If you really need mercs, it might pay to look after them.

Mercs can be very useful in emergencies and to fill out the gaps in your factions product range (as Almohad I would kill for chiv sergeants or knights).

[Lord David the Denied]

I treat mercs like I treat my own troops. I expect them to earn their pay, and if they outlive their usefulness, I wave goodbye, like this http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif

[Sainika]

I use mercs as cannon fodder. I send them in a first wave and they gather arrows and arb' bolts saving me from using my regular units. My units (I mean not mercs) usually have moral bonus and valour so they're worth fighting h-t-h battle instead of mercs.
Usually I hire halberdies and billmen if playing the orthodox or muslim party and elite muslim infantry (e.g. abyss. guards) when I'm on the Catholic side. In that case mercs strengthen my armies.

[khurjan]

i tend to use mercs early on to help with adv units and strong units that can be found in inns...far from been cannon fodder most of my mercs evolve into elite units based around the king and princes

[ShadesPanther]

I pick the elite troops like Italian Infantry and units like longbows and things like that. Also if i get defeated and need a replacement army to plug the hole then mercs are the best

[Mega Dux Bob]

I use mercs for specialist / elite troops I can't get normally / fill out the ranks in an emergency. If I need cannon fooder stuff like peasants, ubran militia or the dreaded Slavic Spearmen are much better (cheeper). When I can, I use armies of nothing but Slavic Spearmen to pin down the enemies' armies so they can't reinforce the province I am really after (9 units and the AI only sees 900 men, not 900 near worthless men)

[DocMoriartty]

One thing I do not like about the mod is the fact that seige troops were taken out.

Contrary to the logic used seige gear was not generally taken with you. It was generally built right there and then by the engineering troops who would use it to lay seige to their target.

So it makes perfect sense for small groups of highly skilled seige engineers to act as mercs.

[Trajan]

Quote[/b] (ShadesPanther @ July 15 2003,09:34)]I pick the elite troops like Italian Infantry and units like longbows and things like that. Also if i get defeated and need a replacement army to plug the hole then mercs are the best
This is exactly what I do. I keep an eye open for those specialist types I just don't have access to otherwise and I tend to protect them as best I can. After all they are an investment.

[Leet Eriksson]

I always take non dismissed mercs,like Alans and Almughavers,they are useful in a lot of situations.

EDIT:typos http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif

[The_Emperor]

If I lost a major battle and one of my man armies got eliminated, I invest in Mercs as a stopgap and put one of my good generals in charge. Of course this hardly ever happens.

So my primary use for Mercs is for Siege tech (why waste money on another branch of the Tech tree when you don't have to?)

And I often just create a temporary army to use in a secondary attack when I am steamrolling to victory over a faction.

But I still rarely use them. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Satyr]

I almost never use mercs. Occassionally, if playing as a Muslim faction I will hire some Italian Infantry to help kill Christian cav, but that is it. And I almost never disband what I paid good money to buy unless I can build a good replacement once I hit the next age.

[The Witch-King]

I never use mercs because the battles are harder this way. Buying elite units while the AI still has armies composed of peasants and urban militia just makes the game too easy in my opinion http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif.

[Satyr]

Well then load Wes's Medieval Mod. Your enemies will no longer build peasants and urban militia much. Or, change the build files so that peasants and urban militia are no longer available. The AI will ramp up to spears and feudal maa really fast. Just don't take advantage of his inability to build troops in the first 15 years.

[lancer63]

Some elite, and unique, merc units I keep and stack with my uber general's army. Others I use as fire brigades if after a battle my regulars are badly depleted in a province and have to retrain. I always try and keep atleast 4 merc. siege units in case an opportunity opens.
I once had a templar general with full loyalty, 7 stars, skilled defender and no mercy but only 19 men left. Pity you can't retrain mercs.

[clovenhoof]

This might sound stupid but I use mercs when nescessary for whatever reason I need them. They can be handy in filling in holes- Italian Infantry, Longbows, Billmen etc and can make a pretty strong army an extremely powerfull army. The best thing about them is that they are there as soon as you buy them. No waiting for your big army to move in defense of a province or on the attack, if you can just buy the mercs there- and there they are. Its nice to be able to instantaniously have two longbow units, a billman, an Italian infantry and a Khwarmian (sp??) heavy calv there right on the spot. Add that to whatever you already have in the province (say a couple urban militia, a beatup royal knight, a full spearmen, and maybe a viking unit) and you can defend against pretty much anything. If you can't route the attackers you can definitely take out enough of them to make the seige ALOT more difficult.
Anyways...I tend to build inns in almost every province and constantly browse them for mercs, hiring any elite (longbow, billman, Ital inf, heavy calv etc) that I find and moving them twords the current hotspots on the map. That way after awhile, I have an extremely powerfull augmentation to my most powerfull armies.

[Crash]

When I have more money than I can spend on training and building I will use the extra funds for bribery and hiring mercenaries, as many as I can afford. I have used Merc armies to conquer whole factions. It's also very interesting to command a very diverse army of Mercs and trained units.

Last night I fought and defeated a huge rebel army using a mixed army of Billmen, Horse Archers, Lithuanian Calvary, Mounted Sergeants, Knights Templar, Vikings, Italian Infantry, Bulgarian Brigands, Royal Knights, Alan Horsemen, Turcoman Infantry, Murabitin Infantry and Longbows. Only the Vikings, Royal Knights, and Mounted Sergeants were not mercenaries. It was great fun having so many different types of units in one army.

With mercenaries, I feel like I need to get my moneys worth out of them, kinda like being at an expensive buffet. So I am more aggressive with them, and make riskier attacks. I also like to use them to end sieges, rather than take unnecessary casualties with my trained units.

[Kraxis]

Mostly I hire special mercs. Not always elite troops, just troops I can't get on my own. FMAA as Orthodox and Muslim, Byzantine Infantry as Catholic... and so on. Often they get a special place in my army, but that is only the really good guys, I'm very reluctant to commit them. But if they are good supply they go over in the other ditch becoming cheap (half price) but really good fodder.

Only very few times have I hired lousy units to stiffen a province with a more substantial garrison.

Whenever I need arty, I hire mercs. They are always in good supply and they don't cost much in upkeep.

[Sainika]

Several times mercs saved my ass from a catastrophic defeat. But they are too unreliable to put everything on them. Also one can't replenish'em so once they get invoved into fight they lose their importance in the battle as a unit. 20 merc billmen are less then 20 ordinary billmen. Often when depleted regular billmen unit can hold the enemy, 20 mercs are eager to run quickly. But as a balancing mean they can be usefull. But again only for one battle.

[Heraclius]

usually i hire mercs to perform a special function (ie when playing the byzantines i'll hire italian infantry and other spearmen or when playing western factions on a crusade i'll look out for fast light troops etc). once when i was new to the game and had alot of money i hired stacks of mercenaries and kept attacking enemy provinces (usually losing but doing great amounts of damage) then moving in with my own regular troops and brushing the enemy aside. very, very fun. but it wasn't too fun when i had that big civil war though. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/frown.gif

[Knight Keimo]

I feel that siege engines are most useful to me. I don´t usually bother to build those buildings needed to them. You could use that time to build something more important.. And I dont face sieges very often http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/rolleyes.gif

[killemall54]

Except for Alans as a Byzantine, why bother to pay for mercs. They are not cost effective nor are they loyal nor can you replenish a unit you are building up. You are better off developing your own troops.

I have bot them to fix a mistake. Like when I had a province revolt and there is an Inn so I boosted the defenders by buying mercs until I could send reinforcements to an isolated post. Or when I left an undefended rear and the enemy suddenly rotated troops into the area.

[ichi]

What Kraxis said

ichi

[Gregoshi]

Welcome to the Org killemall54. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif Thanks for taking time out from moderating the busy .Com forums to visit our forums. I hope you can come here as time permits. I've been finding time lately to visit the .Com forums once again. Hopefully I can keep it up.

Enjoy your stay. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/pat.gif

[|OCS|Virus]

I usualy use mercs as after the battle is won so I can keep the peasents under control. while my main force advances tword the enemy.

[ShogunRokkaku]

Shock factor, you get them all at once and they can add a punch to your army, to more often than not its to add variety and excitiment, I best ever mercs were some bulgarian brigands, and, while carnage(and I mean carnage, but tactical carnage, it was a superb battle and could be broken down into 3 different ones, one of my best) raged around them in the small town of anjou, they stood in the centre of the field, there arrows took out 4 siege crews, 60 spearmen and best of all 9 royal knights, I know I missed a great battle but I couldn't help but watch there successes

[Jabberwock]

You know, I've just realised I have never, ever used a merc unit. I guess I'm too lazy to build inns. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[karmastray]

In the whole mercenary vein, I have a question: Well, having just finished a medieval history book that posited that by the end of the 14th century (or perhaps earlier) most of the fuedal states had pretty much given up their standing armies for armies based pretty much around mercenaries... mostly mercenaries from Switzerland, for that matter. In the game, is this brought into proportion? I've never seen a swiss pikemen or armoured pikemen unit in the mercenary roster (although I've only played the early or viking era games and have never made it past about the mid-thirteenth century)

Just a question... I know if the designers wanted to add everything that happened in the middle ages they would never have finished the game

[clovenhoof]

hahaha...I guess thats why every faction could make swiss armored pikemen and swiss pikemen...then someone made a path to make it more realistic. If you don't have the patch and you don't have switzerland, you can still make the pikemen. They are excellent units. 4 units swiss pikemen, 4 arbelesters and 4 chivalric knights and you are pretty much unbeatable on defense.