Playing my first MTW campaign
I was having a lot of fun with Rome Total War so I just bought Medieval Total War and am playing my first campaign.
Early, English, Conquest.
First I started and began constructing some farming and tried an early attack into Wales. Right about the time my farms were completing, the French attacked me without warning and wiped me off the continent.
So, I restarted. This time I bribed the guys in Wales, then sent the longbowmen to France and spent my first turns building troops and forts, and I did to the French what they did to me ~:)
Then the Germans and Danish attacked me and my allies the Italians and we won that war, with me taking all of Scandinavia (except Finland) and part of France. I also saw Livonia go rebel and took the opportunity to take that as well as Ireland. After that I settled down to build my defenses and improve my economy.
It is now 1180 and there has been a long period of peace and I don't know what to do next.
I have all the British Isles, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Livonia. Continental Europe --- with France and Germany destroyed --- is now divided in half between me and the Italians with a pretty straight border from Friesland on down, except my empire encroaches on the Italians at Switzerland, and theirs cuts into mine with Provence. East Europe is divided between the Polish and Novgorod. In the south Spain has taken out the Muslims and took Aragon after its kind died without an heir. In the east Byzantium is monumentally huge. I have not yet explored Africa or the Middle East so I don't know what's going on there.
I am allied with Novgorod, Spain, and Italy and am neutral with everyone else.
I have been pulling in around 17,000 florins per turn with about 6,000 of that being profit. I have a string of ships going along the entire northern Med. I have 2 full armies and a keep in every border province with one castle in Switzerland and another one in Wessex. My armies are mostly a mix of Fyrdmen and Spearmen with large numbers of Hobilars and Highlanders and very few archers. I have scattered mercenary units of armored spearmen and heavy cavalry from an Inn I captured from the Germans in Champagne.
I have 40% farming in all but the most useless provinces, mining complexes wherever I could build them, ports and merchants everwhere with tradeable goods.
The game seems to have stalled.
1. I am afraid of taking any of my garrisons out to go attack because my "allies" have large armies massed at our borders.
2. I am concerned about a critial naval strike crippling my income so I have built 4 shipyards and am in the process of putting 2 ships in each sea instead of just one. Ships seem to be cheap to upkeep and trade routes seem vital to keep open. As a side note --- although the compass has been discovered and I have the prerequisites for caravels according to the reference sheet, for some reason all I can build are barques.
3. I am concerned about going towards Africa because of all the warnings about Catholic armies doing poorly in the desert.
4. Novgorod looks like a good target as it is Orthodox, but it is allied with me, and I am concerned that the Golden Horde will come along later and just overrun anything I try to in that region anyway.
5. I have ships along the entire Spanish coast. I could maybe simultaneously attack several coastal provinces in Spain and win a short war if I took one army out of each of my European border provinces. But, in addition to leaving me weak versus the Italians, that would involve breaking my alliance with Spain and also might make me more enemies than I can deal with since they have 7 alliances. Plus, the Spanish have 4 full stacks of units in Castile and several ships that could cause me problems if the war didn't end quickly.
6. I could crush the Sicilians easily as they have only 3 provinces, and Sicily itself looks as rich as Flanders. They also have no allies who border me or are significant trading partners of mine. But that's a long way from home. Defending it could be a problem.
7. I have a total of 22 units of mercenaries scattered through my various armies. Disbanding them would save a lot of upkeep every turn. But they are all heavy armored troops that are better than anything I can produce myself.
8. The best units I can build are feudal men at arms and sergeants. I have halted development of military buildings in an effort to build my treasury up. I currently have about 30,000 florins saved. My thinking is that keeping a large stockpile of cash will be good insurance against a disruption of my trade routes. It would give me a few turns to re-establish them without going deeply into debt. But 1205 is only 25 turns away. Maybe I should start construction of higher level castles and workshops now in preparation for that.
I am very happy with Medieval Total War so far. The graphics may not be as good but it seems like the strategic depth of this game is much better than Rome Total War. But I'm just a little overwhelmed right now. It seems everything I can do has a bigger risk than reward! I read the strategies for England in the newbie guide area, but they seem to just be about the opening few turns.
Re : Playing my first MTW campaign
Quote:
Originally Posted by kidkaos
(.../...)1. I am afraid of taking any of my garrisons out to go attack because my "allies" have large armies massed at our borders.
Totalwar WILL happen. I usually wait for others to attack me, but who attacks is not important. Kill whoever you find weak.
Quote:
2. concerned about a critial naval strike crippling my income so I have built 4 shipyards and am in the process of putting 2 ships in each sea instead of just one. Ships seem to be cheap to upkeep and trade routes seem vital to keep open. As a side note --- although the compass has been discovered and I have the prerequisites for caravels according to the reference sheet, for some reason all I can build are barques.
in 1205 you enter the "intermediate" age(not sure of the english word, I play french version). You'll hava access to several cool units. And More goodies ine 1321
Quote:
3. I am concerned about going towards Africa because of all the warnings about Catholic armies doing poorly in the desert.
You need unarmored units for the deserts. Scottish Clansmen, Irish gallowglasses & Kerns are the way to go, especially as you're english
Quote:
4. Novgorod looks like a good target as it is Orthodox, but it is allied with me, and I am concerned that the Golden Horde will come along later and just overrun anything I try to in that region anyway.
Alliances do not count. On the other hand, having them sponging the bulk of the Golden Horde assault in 1230 might be a wise move.
Quote:
5. I have ships along the entire Spanish coast. I could maybe simultaneously attack several coastal provinces in Spain and win a short war if I took one army out of each of my European border provinces. But, in addition to leaving me weak versus the Italians, that would involve breaking my alliance with Spain and also might make me more enemies than I can deal with since they have 7 alliances. Plus, the Spanish have 4 full stacks of units in Castile and several ships that could cause me problems if the war didn't end quickly.
Don't lead more than a war at a time. Crush the Spaniards if you feel it. Pay attention to general's value. If you succeed in assassinating good spanish generals, have no mercy!
Quote:
6. I could crush the Sicilians easily as they have only 3 provinces, and Sicily itself looks as rich as Flanders. They also have no allies who border me or are significant trading partners of mine. But that's a long way from home. Defending it could be a problem.
problem is that it is a good trading partner. Ignore them from now.
Quote:
7. I have a total of 22 units of mercenaries scattered through my various armies. Disbanding them would save a lot of upkeep every turn. But they are all heavy armored troops that are better than anything I can produce myself.
Well, that's not normal. You might be late in province development, then. I suggest postponing attacks till you can be better... and disband those costly units.
Quote:
8. The best units I can build are feudal men at arms and sergeants. I have halted development of military buildings in an effort to build my treasury up. I currently have about 30,000 florins saved. My thinking is that keeping a large stockpile of cash will be good insurance against a disruption of my trade routes. It would give me a few turns to re-establish them without going deeply into debt. But 1205 is only 25 turns away. Maybe I should start construction of higher level castles and workshops now in preparation for that.
Yes you should. Pumping Billmen & longbowmen scratch from 1205 will give you a huge advantage. And disband those mercs to finance it.
Quote:
I am very happy with Medieval Total War so far. The graphics may not be as good but it seems like the strategic depth of this game is much better than Rome Total War. But I'm just a little overwhelmed right now. It seems everything I can do has a bigger risk than reward! I read the strategies for England in the newbie guide area, but they seem to just be about the opening few turns.
after the first few turns, each game has its own truth. I'd say globally you need to cut off merc costs & massively improve your provinces, as you seem to do what has to be done with your fleet. Generally, don't keep mercs as soon as you're no more at war - unless they are cool/rare units as almughavars.
Re: Playing my first MTW campaign
Mercs are useful for one thing only, in my opinion--- To kep your national force intact, esp. in attacks. The best thing about Mercs is that their upkeep cost would decrease when they receive casulaties. So I use Mercs to act as spearheads, send them in first and do all the dirty work. In the mean time, I build up the regular garrison intented for the newly conquered provience. When regular force is in place, just disband all the depleted mercs.
Re: Playing my first MTW campaign
They're also nice if they're useful units you can't buid yourself - mercenary Mamluk HAs can be quite handy for most Catholics, for example. High-tech heavy cavalry is also kinda neat when it turns up.
Oh yeah, and Druzhina Cavalry. They're crap on horseback, but that 60-man block of Feudal Foot Knoghts you get for dismounting them is pretty useful, especially as you can dismount them in any battle.
Taking out the Sicilians isn't actually a bad idea - for one you'd get a naval base smack in the middle of the Mediterranean, which cuts down on ship upkeep costs and makes you "trade line" a little more resilient. It seems the upkeep of ships increases geometrically the farther they are from your own harbors...
Oh yeah, and gear Switzerland up into at least a Citadel (or was Castle sufficient ?) and build the prequisite militia building for Swiss Halberdiers. Those guys are pretty mean, especially with amped armor and in the desert (though maybe not so much for the English, whose Billmen also ought to work down there without too many problems - Heavily Armored seems to be the threshold for "tires quickly in desert").
Re: Playing my first MTW campaign
Quote:
Originally Posted by Watchman
It seems the upkeep of ships increases geometrically the farther they are from your own harbors...
Interesting remark, Watchman. Do you happen to have any numbers to back that up, or is there any way I can check this in my own game?
Re: Playing my first MTW campaign
Check the version number of your newly-bought MTW. V1.00 has a bug concerning the compass.
I'm in the same position as you and, in my opening campaign as the English, I could build Caravels but I still couldn't get them outside of Coastal waters.
Beware that, if you apply the patch to V1.00, or install the Viking Invasion (VI) add-on, you may find that your current campaign gamesaves will not load properly, due to the version change. You'll either have to complete it, then patch the game or just abandon it and start again with the patched version.
Strategy wise, if you plan to invade Spain, pay attention to where their ships are located, relative to where you are trying to ship troops in. As soon as hostilities commence, you will be blockaded in all the sea areas where Spain has a ship. Port or no port, you will not be able to ship troops in or out until you have negotiated a peace treaty, or sunk their ships, or they move their ships out of your troop movement path.
You CAN ship troops INTO an enemy coastal province which lacks a port, provided you've an unbroken chain of ships leading to it. If you invade a port province, either by sea or over land, the port usually gets smashed up anyway, even if you win the battle. Annoying, I know but as long as you take enough troops with you and are prepared for the temporary loss of mobility then all should be well. Losing a sea invasion battle means the 'n retreat path' rule applies and you lose the entire army.
I would recommend improving your farmlands to 80%, to cover for the loss of trade income once blockading starts, improving your castle levels (Wales for Longbowmen +1 valour, Mercia for Billmen +1 valour), swordsmith in Ireland for Gallowglasses +1 valour etc. Build as many Vikings units as you think you will need as, apparently, they are no longer buildable in the 'High' period and beyond. Extend your trade fleet along the southern Med coast. You never know when ports might pop up there and it will enable you to ship crusades direct to the Holy Lands in one move, instead of traipsing across Europe and having units get depleted below usefulness by desertion and so on.
If the Spanish break into North Africa, you may end up trading with Spain more than fighting with it.
Beware that conflicts with Catholic countries will get you excommunicated and this means open season on you - crusades heading in your direction etc. I've even been excommed when the other country started the hostilities! Read the various threads about excom to find ways of getting around it or exploiting it, like waiting until either your king or the Pope is getting old as it is withdrawn when one or the other dies of old age.
So build up your trade fleets, enhance your weapon facilities (even if not increasing troop numbers yet), do some crusading of your own to keep Popey content and generally improve quality of life across your lands. Eventually, you will be in a strong enough military and financial position to conquer the Catholic areas and not worry about the temporary loss of trade income and any excom situation which may apply.
HTH
Re: Playing my first MTW campaign
@kidkaos
"Then the Germans and Danish attacked me and my allies the Italians and we won that war, with me taking all of Scandinavia (except Finland) and part of France. I also saw Livonia go rebel and took the opportunity to take that as well as Ireland. After that I settled down to build my defenses and improve my economy. "
Get a swordsmith at Ireland for Gallowglasses. They are perfect shock troops and do well in desert due to their light armour.
"I have all the British Isles, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Livonia. Continental Europe --- with France and Germany destroyed --- is now divided in half between me and the Italians with a pretty straight border from Friesland on down, except my empire encroaches on the Italians at Switzerland, and theirs cuts into mine with Provence. East Europe is divided between the Polish and Novgorod. In the south Spain has taken out the Muslims and took Aragon after its kind died without an heir. In the east Byzantium is monumentally huge. I have not yet explored Africa or the Middle East so I don't know what's going on there."
I am allied with Novgorod, Spain, and Italy and am neutral with everyone else."
Not good. Frankly, if not of your alliance with Spain, I would encourage you to march down into Iberia.
What is the condition of the Byz navy? I have a bad feeling about the Byz being the superpower that you will have to face later in the future.
"I have been pulling in around 17,000 florins per turn with about 6,000 of that being profit. I have a string of ships going along the entire northern Med. I have 2 full armies and a keep in every border province with one castle in Switzerland and another one in Wessex. My armies are mostly a mix of Fyrdmen and Spearmen with large numbers of Hobilars and Highlanders and very few archers. I have scattered mercenary units of armored spearmen and heavy cavalry from an Inn I captured from the Germans in Champagne."
Dump the armoured spearmen. Chiv Sgts are round the corner and are better. Mercs are meant for blitzing, castle/bridge assault, or whatever role that gets them killed. They are not for garrison.
"I have 40% farming in all but the most useless provinces, mining complexes wherever I could build them, ports and merchants everwhere with tradeable goods."
Continue to build up your famlands. They are a steady income, unlike trade.
1. I am afraid of taking any of my garrisons out to go attack because my "allies" have large armies massed at our borders.
2. I am concerned about a critial naval strike crippling my income so I have built 4 shipyards and am in the process of putting 2 ships in each sea instead of just one. Ships seem to be cheap to upkeep and trade routes seem vital to keep open. As a side note --- although the compass has been discovered and I have the prerequisites for caravels according to the reference sheet, for some reason all I can build are barques.
"3. I am concerned about going towards Africa because of all the warnings about Catholic armies doing poorly in the desert. "
Just dont use heavily armoured units and you will be fine. Remember that armour upgrades also affect the fatigue levels. Finally, dont let the camels near your own horses.
"4. Novgorod looks like a good target as it is Orthodox, but it is allied with me, and I am concerned that the Golden Horde will come along later and just overrun anything I try to in that region anyway."
The Horde appears in Khazar, most likely hitting Byz instead.
"6. I could crush the Sicilians easily as they have only 3 provinces, and Sicily itself looks as rich as Flanders. They also have no allies who border me or are significant trading partners of mine. But that's a long way from home. Defending it could be a problem."
Leave the Scillians alone. Getting cut off far away from is a recipe for rebellions and loyalist revolts.
"7. I have a total of 22 units of mercenaries scattered through my various armies. Disbanding them would save a lot of upkeep every turn. But they are all heavy armored troops that are better than anything I can produce myself."
Dump them. Mercs are not meant for garrisons, only to earn their pay on the battlefield. Feudal Sgts and Militia Sgts are sufficient for Early.
"8. The best units I can build are feudal men at arms and sergeants. I have halted development of military buildings in an effort to build my treasury up. I currently have about 30,000 florins saved. My thinking is that keeping a large stockpile of cash will be good insurance against a disruption of my trade routes. It would give me a few turns to re-establish them without going deeply into debt. But 1205 is only 25 turns away. Maybe I should start construction of higher level castles and workshops now in preparation for that."
My advice is to tech up. Get to the buildings for the High units, esp for Longbows, Chiv Sgt, Arbs and Billmen. If you have Switzerland, you can also tech up for their Swiss halbs (similar to Billmen but 1 less armour and higher morale).
After getting your High troops, unleash them. English High armies are the most powerful among Catholics. Use them well.
A question, what is the command rating of your king and his heirs? Have you been grooming your line? The English have quite a few heros (assuming you havent gotten them killed), but the royal heirs provide a lot of generals. If you can get the command to the region of 6-7, all the more better.
Re: Playing my first MTW campaign
Kid, for a first campaign, you're doing great.
I like the advice others have given. Can I just add this: keep building your treasury. You might have a stalemate just now but once you grow a bit bigger, the AI factions will start picking on you. You need a big treasury to survive the later game in MTW, as trade is the big earner and trade revenues will plummet as (i) you are at war with former trading partners and (ii) you conquer more and more coastal regions and so have fewer regions to trade with (you don't get trade between your own regions). I like to have around 300,000 in the bank by the time I reach the middle period (1205 or whatever it is).
One other thing: try out Wes' MedMod for MTW if you want even more of a challenge.
Re: Playing my first MTW campaign
Well done so far! ~:)
Farmlands are a very important source of income; eventually I get even the most useless to 80%. You can prioritize by just right clicking to see how they are earning and how much extra inc the upgrade will bring.
EYG was right. Billmen-Mercia; Longbow-Wales. I usually build Flanders up to Master Bowyer as well; pump Longbow out of Wales and arbs out of Flanders.
Spain has some of the best farmland in the game and excellent trade. Too good for the AI to control ~;) Once taken it is easily defended.
Desert combat takes getting used to. Light troops are best. Highlanders/Gallowglass/Longbow and Jinettes are very effective. Vikings, if you can get them, are some of the best desert troops available to a Christian faction.
Kill'em all ~:cheers:
Re: Playing my first MTW campaign
If you're still netting 6k florins per year and you need more troops for a big hit invasion, build more troops. Otherwise, minimise your borders. If you want to have an ally attack you, turn on one of their allies that is neutral to you. Sink a ship, assault a province and then let it go, do whatever opens aggressions, but doesn't increase your number of defended borders. Your allies will always pick the weaker ally to stay allied with.
Recently I've widely used mercs as a buffer army when I get really ambitious, but don't have the troops to back up my ambitions. As I build more troops and catch up, I replace mercs with regular troops.
Re: Playing my first MTW campaign
on ship upkeep, the cost goes up 50% when you're 1 sea zone from a harbor, 100% when you're 2 or more zones away from a harbor. So like $20, $30, $40, $40, etc. For the English at least, their High ship is cheaper to upkeep than their Early one.
Mercs are for spearhead/attacking. After the battle, disband them.
The spear troops you have are okay against light cav but will run from mid-valor Royal Knights and the like. Try to mix up your units. My standard army had 5 Spear, 4 Sword, 4 Archer, 2 Cav, 1 HQ Royal Knight.
You should use more archers, especially when defending provinces that have a river border. English get a discount on Archers too.
Try to keep your provincial "frontline" as short as possible.
Build Priests and put one in every province on the map. They turn foreign populations to your religion (smoothing the way for invations), then can deal with royals as if they were emisaries, they don't get caught like Spies and Assassins. This way you'll be able to see what's going on in teh Middle East
The English are great Early and High in the desert. Archers, Hobilars, Fyrdmen/Feudal Sergeants, Gallowglasses/Highlanders in Early, Longbowmen, Billmen, Hobilars, and Feudal Sergeants in High. Just watch out for Almohad Urban Militia and Saracen Infantry/Spearmen. They are tough cookies.
Trade is BY FAR the biggest money maker (over farms and mines). For that you need ports, shipping network, and Merchants. Flanders and Sweeden alone can cover the cost of two armies or so.
You can build a Weaponsmith in Sweeden, which gives you +1 attack. After you build up Sweeden's economy, start teching for swords and heavy cav.
Re : Re: Playing my first MTW campaign
Quote:
Originally Posted by Servius1234
(.../...)
Mercs are for spearhead/attacking. After the battle, disband them.
yeah. I insist on that. Mercs are economy killers. if you need to sacrifice 1 unit, it should be them.
Quote:
Build Priests and put one in every province on the map. They turn foreign populations to your religion (smoothing the way for invations), then can deal with royals as if they were emisaries, they don't get caught like Spies and Assassins. This way you'll be able to see what's going on in teh Middle East
Yeah, I had forgotten that one. when he says "every province", that is every province that existe on the map, from Morocco to Nowgorod, from Ireland to Arabia. Yes it is long & boring. Yes it is immensely useful. Several dozen of years will happen before 2 priests assassinations, wch means they nearly are never threatened.
IMHO, the conversion effect is a bonus - and is often countered by IA's own priests. The main advantage is that you know what's happening. It gives you a huge strategic depth in the gamemap analysis. You simply cannot be surprised by the power of any enemy if you have such a network. If you don't have it, you may overlook a probable future nasty threat.....
Forget about spies & assassins, at least for outside duties. Those are cool to take care of enemy agents, but get slaughtered waaaaay too fast when leaving your area.
Re: Playing my first MTW campaign
It looks like others have given great advice on how to manage the economy well (disband mercenaries, build as many farm upgrades as possible, build and maintain a strong navy). These critical actions will ensure that you will be ready for any future challenges that come your way.
As for future conquests, you seem to have an interesting set of choices. I don't like to attack allies, since you lose influence and it's too treacherous for my tastes. Also, while I have no data to back this up, whenever I attack allies, the rest of the AI factions seem to hate me for it. They side with my new enemy, won't ally with me again, and sometimes even gang up on me with their own armies. Therefore, while Spain is a possible target, I'd leave it alone for now - Spain and Italy will probably both attack you eventually anyway.
You know what sounds like a tempting target to me? Constantinople. It's fantastically wealthy, Orthodox (so you can take it by crusade), and it's the center of a potentially very powerful enemy. I realize you said the Byzantines had a huge empire, and I'm not saying this would be easy. The Byzantines often leave Constantinople weakly garrisoned, so a crusade could take it without too much trouble, but it would have to be strong enough to withstand ferocious Byzantine counterattacks until reinforcements could arrive, possibly by way of a second crusade. You would need a very large, very strong, well-led crusade, which could possibly gain strength by marching through the lands of Italy on its way to the target city. You would also want to build up your Mediteranean navy as much as possible, so that it could eventually push the Byzantine navy out of the sea (this doesn't have to be done immediately, though).
Like I said, it wouldn't be an easy conquest, and it would be tough to hold, but the quest would have fantastic rewards, and would be a fun, challenging adventure as well. I did it as the French in my current campaign.
By the way, this is just my opinion, but you shouldn't have restarted your first campaign when the French kicked you off the continent. That could've been a challenging game, and it's usually only the early years of any campaign that are very challenging.
Edit: If Constantinople is too tough of a nut to crack, then Antioch, Tripoli, and Palestine make great crusade targets as well, and are much easier to take and hold, as long as they are still controlled by Muslims. You said you hadn't explored the Middle East yet, but you should do so quickly and ascertain the situation there. Those three lands in the Levant are very rich and can give you a stronghold in the east.
Re: Playing my first MTW campaign
The richest provinces by a longshot are Antioch and Venice. On a decent game I gross 8.5k in Antioch alone. Flanders, Tripoli, and Lithuania (MAYBE Constantinople if you ignore the potential for rapid end game troops due to higher tech development and go all economy). IMHO, Constaninople and Sweden are so much better for troop development than economy. Portugal SHOULD be good in the towards the end of the late era, but I've only let the game run that late twice and once, portugal was one of the last conquered lands.
I think Antioch has a higher chance of rebelling, if you go, go in force and go early to build the provinces economy and happiness infrastructure.
Re: Playing my first MTW campaign
England is definitely my favourite faction.
I'm not an expert with MTW at all - I'm not doing all that great with tougher civs like Danes, Hungarians and Polish.
Well, not as great as I would've done with the English or the Spanish.
England to me is all about aggression...and excommunication (eventually).
I like to rush France quickly, killing them before 1100 in an Early game.
Next up is Aragon, because they always attack me at Toulouse if I leave 'em alone. And when they attack they have annoying Royal Knight units leftover from Heir bodyguards.
Then I attack Germany and reduce my borders to 4, along the Friesland/Provence line. Hopefully the Italians are strong enough not to let the Germans invade.
Next up is Spain. They definitely have to go. I'd risk excommunication for this. Spain will attack you even if you've just allied yourself with them so they might as well die quickly. Same goes for the Alamohads btw. Iberians are incredibly treatorous.
In my current game it's +/- 1150 and I have much of western Europe in my hands. Plus I'm going to invade Denmark (I got Norway+Sweden from bribery, got lucky the Danes didn't invade Sweden yet). And I'm finishing off the Spanish. I will get excommunicated though, but the only ones I'm worried about are the Italians because they have a fleet. And fleet warfare sucks in this game.
I build Hobbies (lifesavers), Fyrdmen, some Men at Arms and archers as much as my budget allows. Once I get Spanish lands I use Jinites. Clansmen (and later Gallowglasses) are good in the desert. I also bribe the three longbowmen units in wales, they can be devestating if you makes sure they don't get harmed.
I did all the above with my limited skills at MTW. It's all about rushing the enemy. I don't know how well it would work on Expert though.
Re: Playing my first MTW campaign
I only use mercs for blitzkrieg tactics, get a army on a border BOOM hit it with mercs hard take the provance disband mercs...pay little.
Re: Playing my first MTW campaign
Mercs are good for buying those specialty troops that your faction can't build. (As long as you aren't broke, that is.) Buy mounted missiles if you are the Danes. Buy billmen and longbows if you are anyone except the English. Buy any Italian infantry that comes along in early. Heavy cav seem to end up as mercs pretty often, too - I buy 'em but use 'em up really quick as they are expensive to hang on to.
EDIT - Also, for whatever reason merc arty is cheap. I grab it whenever it appears - so much better than waiting two years for a build and the maintenance is next to nothing. Only problem is that you can't replace losses, so it's probably only good for a couple of castle assaults.
