The AI and Mercenary recruitment

[Tony Furze]

It seems... and I've only experimented a little way...the AI doesn't recruit mercenary troops?

I decided to put everything on auto in one of my current Hungarian campaigns, then I destroyed everything and disbanded all troops then ordered an Inn. It was after that I switched to auto...

For ten years no units. Just good old King Lazslo or Laszlo, a son and that's it.

So does the AI build Inns for itself in other factions? Does it "use" them?

[Ironside]

From my experience no. The only time I've seen AI mercs where when a crusade stole a few of mine. They maintained the mercenary symbol....

[Martok]

Unfortunately, no the AI doesn't recruit/hire mercs. It's a major reason why caravel and I (reluctantly) decided to remove them from the Pocket Mod, as they give too much of an advantage to the human player.

[dimitrios the samian]

more poor AI programming .... more reason why someone with the knowledge should make a new code from scratch .

[The Unknown Guy]

you know, Jagged Alliance 2 got revamped from top to bottom after SirTech released the source code.

Now if they did that with MTW...

[gunslinger]

Where do you get the revamped version of JA2? I used to love that game.

[oz_wwjd]

Actually in my current game the AI does seem to use mercs,or at least the Italians fielding Viking Carls in there army seems to suggest that,but I'm using the XL 3.0 mod and the Tyberius add-on so that could be the reason

[bondovic]

Actually in my current game the AI does seem to use mercs,or at least the Italians fielding Viking Carls in there army seems to suggest that,but I'm using the XL 3.0 mod and the Tyberius add-on so that could be the reason

The mercenary recruitment is hardcoded, so it's not possible to mod the game so as to make the AI hire mercs. I don't remember how it is with the Tyberius add on, but if I'm not entirely mistaken the viking units are only exclusive regarding province and not faction.

[The Unknown Guy]

gunslinger: you can download the mod from http://www.ja-galaxy-forum.com, but you need to install JA2 to run it, obviously..

[Martok]

I agree bondovic is most likely correct in that Viking units in Tyberius' mod are province/region-specific instead of faction-specific. When you look at that unit of Viking Carls, oz_wwjd, just look to see if their unit card has a small bag of gold on it -- if it does, then yes they're a mercenary unit. Otherwise, they're not.

It does bring to mind a question, however: Has anyone here ever had an army stack that included mercs bribed away from their faction? I don't believe that I have, but it's such a rare occasion to begin with that that's not necessarily saying anything.

[Ironsword]

Yes. As the English and not long after starting in early. I lost a small stack in Anjou to the French AI, including two units of mercenaries; spearmen and a catapult.

It was a complete shock. I was trying to get a high loyalty general down there at the time. It provided an interesting start to the campaign and set in motion fifty years of bitter war.

[oz_wwjd]

Recently I encountered a army that had managed to aqcuire itself a merc units of Swiss Halbs,or they had the gold bag on it anyways,so I'd say the AI does use them as it can afford it.

[Martok]

They were probably part of an army stack bribed by the AI.

[Drunk-Monk]

I have seen the AI with mercenary longbowmen and siege engines, and they werent bribed from me, wonder what was happening there.

[Martok]

I have seen the AI with mercenary longbowmen and siege engines, and they werent bribed from me, wonder what was happening there.

I take it this happened while you were playing as the English, then?

[Ironside]

I have seen the AI with mercenary longbowmen and siege engines, and they werent bribed from me, wonder what was happening there.

Did you have those troops as mercs yourself? And did the AI use crusades?

Did a crusade pass your province that was having those troops as mercs?

[Drunk-Monk]

Actually Byzantines, it must have been the crusades which kept on passing through my lands, as I can't think of any other explanation for it.