I was lurking over in the center forums when i read a question about mercenary ships, and the answer was that the Team didn't know if it was gonna be used.

It's old info though, and i don't know if it's been decided since then, much less discussed, but i tried thinking about wether it should be or not.

I just wondered if it was realistic, in ancient times, to have an army walk up to the coast and hire ships. Now, i'm far from being an expert on ancient times, so plz tell me if i'm wrong, but this is what i figured.

Ships would not hang around in the middle of nowhere (unless smugglers, but even then). However there's a lot of coastal towns not represented on the map, the army might just walk in there and requisition/buy some ships. But there wouldn,t be a lot, and they wouldnt quite be fit for war, i'd think. In the game, that would probably fit some kind of very weak, but possibly very cheap ships. You wouldnt want your army to stay aboard that more than a turn, because it would get slaughtered if it was caught.

There's also another thing i thought it could represent. In the year in history chronicles, it mentions Makedonia allying with pirates. I'd reckon we could have "pirate ships" hireable in the aegen sea. Those pirates apparently played a part in the wars at the time, but their presence cannot be satisfactorily represented, as you cannot have a pirate settlement (they dont settle) and one strong navy usually ends up doing what navies did in EB, that is migrate to the northern sea. The representation wouldnt last long.
Besides, their alliance with makedon was probably along the lines of how you hire mercenaries, i imagine (keyword imagine, i have no idea, feel free to correct me)


So those we're my thoughts on the subject, humble lurker that i am.