Too Many Mercs?

[antisocialmunky]

Does anyone else think that mercs are too plentiful or respawn too often? I find that EB's amount of mercenaries can make it too easy sometimes. After a certain point, I can instantly create half stack sized armies by mass hiring mercs.

[Tellos Athenaios]

On the other hand: Hannibal just about did the same thing, no?

[spirit_of_rob]

there are alot yes but i find it helpful for strenghining areas of my own armies that are weak... something they would have been quite often used for, other than a "omg there is a massive roman army coming my way and i have a general and a taxeis hoplite unit i need renforcements!" situation, this is pretty much all i use mercs for

[Numahr]

Personnaly I created a house-rule to simulate the fact that mercenaries required not only money but political capital as well to be recruited:

Recruitment
- In home territory, with a govt building: unlimited access to mercenaries
- In enemy territory: a General may have with him no more mercenary units than the lowest of his influence/command value. Not every one is Hannibal, able to make strong alliances with the local unsatisfied tribes/forces and taking them to war! This was one of the most brilliant aspects of Hannibal. It somehow required both military and political genius to create and manage this merc army, hence my using both command stars and influence palms.

Management
Recruited mercs remain attached to the general who recruited them. They can be disbanded (and must be at his death), but cannot operate without him. This tends to create kind of loyal "private" armies following my Family Members along their campaigns, like Julius Caesar's Gauls or (anachronical) 19th Century Mehmet Ali's Albanian bodyguards.

In my last Arvernii campaign, these rules made for interesting situations. A veteran of an Iberian campaign always went with his Balearic slingers, while a veteran of battles on the Germanic border always went with loyal Germanic noble warriors. Also, when i sent two FM across the Alps for the Romani campaign, both were "beginners". One quickly became a "victor", "strategic expert" etc. while the other one was kind of dull and did not develop any skills. As a result, the relatively brilliant one became the real leader, taking local Gauls to war against thr Roman yoke when reinforcement was delayed, while the stupid one was unable to survive by its own due to unability to recruit local mercs...

To summarize, like so many EB features (see the similar debate on the variety of regional units available vs all-Celtic armies..), the dev team gave us a great engine with much liberty on how to use it. Then we are adult and it is up to us to use this liberty the way we want, and to restrict ourselves when we feel this can improve gameplay experience through role-play and immersion.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Exactly right Numahr. THose are some very good thoughts. You can play it "historically" if you like, or just play for fun without the house rules. But I think some rule like you have is a very good idea. We still need someone to put together a serious set of basic house rules, maybe with some "levels" to it. Then folks could go around with it in their sigs if they are proud they play at the toughest level or something. :grin: