Unlikely mercenaries

[Gilrandir]

I have noticed (as probably many have) that some units appear as mercenaries fairly often, others never do.
Here I give a list of the latter (those that really matter to me)
Boyars
Golden horde heavy cavalry
Kataphraktoi
Pronoiai Allagion
Varangian guards
Naptha
All janissary units
Ghulam cavalry
Knights
Lancers
All swiss units
Huscarles
Genoese sailors
All gothic units
Has anyone had any luck in hiring them? Why are they not available and can you somehow attrack them to the inn (special booze they prefer)?

[gollum]

Download the gnome editor from teh org downloads\tools and look into the mercenary use column (penultimate iirc) in the unit_production txt file in your main MTW folder. You'll see that indeed some units are not available as mercs. You can change that and make who you want as availabe by modding the unit_production file (just put YES instead of NO manually).

[edyzmedieval]

Swiss units should be available as mercs, I found it as a lapse why they did not include those.

[gollum]

If they were there would be little point in taking over Swissland. Its either one or the other in gameplay terms ie have the unit as recruited in few areas like the Armenian heavies and teh Swiss or have them mercs. One defeats the other as it makes it redundant.

[Gilrandir]

I had armenian heavies as mercenaries a couple of times (as well as Byzantine infantry), therefore I don't see why the swiss or varangians shouldn't be available. So redundancy does not explain it all.

[edyzmedieval]

If they were there would be little point in taking over Swissland. Its either one or the other in gameplay terms ie have the unit as recruited in few areas like the Armenian heavies and teh Swiss or have them mercs. One defeats the other as it makes it redundant.

I still found Armenian heavies as mercenaries. Swiss Halbediers never, only normal Halbediers.

I like it when Arquebusiers are mercenaries before 1260, you get the firepower advantage.

[gollum]

Hello Girlandir, you are free to make your game as you like - no doubt about that. From a gameplay perspective if you make a unit that has strict homelands available as mercs, the strict homeland feature is not much use - you can get them as mercs anytime. So i understand why certain units were not put forth as mercs by the developer - to get them instead one needs to have the areas they come from. But, yes in practice you are free to setas mercs whichever you like. No arguing with personal preferences

edit Mistaken you for Girlandir! Where are my spectacles...
edit2 It was not a mistake... Forget it, i need to sleep more...:)

[caravel]

When it comes to unit recruitment there are only a few types that make good gameplay sense IMHO:

1) generic recruitable everywhere, maybe dependent on culture type (the majority)

2) More specialised, only recruitable in one or a few provinces by certain culture types ( a minority)

3) Mercenaries, only recruitable in certain provinces, maybe dependent on culture type - only usable by the player - not the AI ( select few)


If you blur the boundaries of these the advantages of certain factions and regions are lessened. I'm against mercs as a principle, but I think they can have a place if they're restricted to a few very specific and expensive, units that cannot be acquired in any other fashion. Having tons of merc spearmen, UM, AHC, horse archers, etc, available to the player to be simply bought and disbanded on demand is a huge exploit.

These merc units could also be made available to train by the rebel faction and could feature in revolts, this would give a small chance of them being used by the AI factions who would gain them through bribes or through provinces joining loyalist revolts.

[gollum]

Originally posted by Asai Nagamasa
These merc units could also be made available to train by the rebel faction, this would give a small chance of them being used by the AI factions who would gain them through bribes or through provinces joining loyalist revolts.

Interesting idea. I'll try to implement it in the next Caravel Mod version...

[Trapped in Samsara]

Hi

I once recruited a four-star merc general. Has anyone else encountered this? Presumably that must have come about by the AI disbanding him.

Also, I've deffo hired merc Genoese sailors.

Regards
Victor

Sapere aude
Horace

[gollum]

hello victor, yes most likely came from AI "lost" units - like crusaders that lose to a rebellion and have nowhere to retreat.

In my experience, merc units with homelands are less frequent relative to the amount of provinces they are available. The same goes with cultural groups. So say a unit that is both catholic and orthodox and muslim will be much more frequent than a unit that is only orthodox as it will be "available" from less provinces (orthodox provinces are less than catholic ones). Genoese Sailors are genoa only iirc in vanilla so possible to have them but less frequent.

[caravel]

Presumably that must have come about by the AI disbanding him.

The AI cannot disband units, so I'd say it's just "luck" or from "lost units" as gollum said.

[Gilrandir]

Hello Girlandir, you are free to make your game as you like - no doubt about that. From a gameplay perspective if you make a unit that has strict homelands available as mercs, the strict homeland feature is not much use - you can get them as mercs anytime. So i understand why certain units were not put forth as mercs by the developer - to get them instead one needs to have the areas they come from. But, yes in practice you are free to setas mercs whichever you like. No arguing with personal preferences

edit Mistaken you for Girlandir! Where are my spectacles...
edit2 It was not a mistake... Forget it, i need to sleep more...:)

You shouldn't play MTW all night long, then you will need no spectacles (Ha-HA!!)
Well, I can't set as mercs whichever I like. As I have explained in other threads my motto is "No modding & no cheatcoding". It comes partly from the code "fair and square" which I try to follow playing MTW (an attempt to ape Knighthood principles that were an ostensible hallmark of Medieval ethics - when in rome do as romans do, you know), and partly from my being a computer imbecile, as a colleague of mine put it (speaking of herself, though). If something goes wrong with the game (or with my computer) I panic through not being able to mend it, so I don't risk anything like modding or cheatcoding. Moreover, (I mentioned that, again) I have a translated into Russian version of the game, so the chances of something going wrong when I try to interfere with the software are fairly high. To sum it up: I will have to do with what I have (just wondered if someonenew secrets I don't).

[gollum]

You can always save the original files you mod, and so if things go wrong you can replace them. But yeah, i see what you mean with wanting to play vanilla as is. Its probably a good idea if one is new to the game.

[Gilrandir]

Its probably a good idea if one is new to the game.

Well, I'm not that new. I've been playing for 7-8 years. For the first 3 years or so I did only battles (all kinds - quick, custom, historical), until I reached the expert level. I can't say I win all battles on expert since while doing customs I bought troops fair and square (meaning the same sum of money both for me and for the enemy). But only after having reached that mastery I moved on to playing campaigns (starting with normal difficulty). Now I play campaigns on expert and don't get tired so as to mod them (may be because I'm on and off - playing one campaign and taking a two-three months off to get hungry for the game). I still anticipate a lot of fun to have - right now I'm going to play the French (high, expert). Somewhere ahead are the Danish (early expert), sicialians (high, expert) and, most thrilling of all, Turks (high, expert) - pitched against multi-star Byz and the Horde looming on the horizon.

[cogre]

iirc on vanilla the farm system didn't pan out very well. to make ones faction viable economically one had to rely too much on trade. the first mod i ever tried, xl, fixed this. made farming payout well.

[Prince Cobra]

First, I play mostly in High/Late. Second, I may be wrong but I have noticed that the more mercenaries you use, the biggest diversity you have in your inns. If I remember correctly, I even had the opportunity to hire a unit of Chivalric knights (only once, though). The most common mercenary cavalry I use as the Byz is the Kwarazmian cavalry (strong as Kat but faster; the slow pace of Kat makes them with limited use in my Late/high armies) or Mameluk cavalry. Alan mercenaries and Almughavars are also very rare. The infantry: I am always hungry for men to pay my bills (they are not that rare, fortunately, unlike the swiss merc. )...

Talking of the Pronoiai, it's not surprising they are rare. Only a fool would purchase them at such a outrageuos year upkeep. As the Spanish I wonder what to do with my money, with the Byz I wonder how to balance not to run out of them. ~:P

[gollum]

Chiv Knights come as mercs only as lost AI units - none of the knight units is set as mercs iirc. Almughavars are very rare because they are Aragon (the province) only and as i explained previously this severely hampers their merc availability.

[Prince Cobra]

Chiv Knights come as mercs only as lost AI units - none of the knight units is set as mercs iirc. Almughavars are very rare because they are Aragon (the province) only and as i explained previously this severely hampers their merc availability.

Feudal knights do appear as mercenaries, though the presence of Chivalric knights could be due to the bribing of the Cyprus garrison. Actually, reason for this post is the following: you can recruit Almughavars from any province but they are just rare. In my current High Byz campaign they did appear in Georgia. Bronze armour + iron armour upgrade. Of course, I hired them. I wonder how best to use them once I decide to continue the campaign.

My current Empire stretches from Palestine, Syria to Georgia, Moldavia, Carpathia, Hungary, Croatia and Austria + the three Byz islands (Cyprus, Rhodes and Crete). Year is about 1284, I think. And the Almohads just conquered Switzerland but I am very very rich. :P

Anyway, best use for the Almughavars? They are currently in Hungary and unless the Poles break our alliance (I sent some troops to fight a Glorious battle with them vs. the Horde), they will spend the next decades idling and wasting my money. ;)

P.S. I play 2.01 version of the game. No peasants. :P

[Ironside]

Anyway, best use for the Almughavars? They are currently in Hungary and unless the Poles break our alliance (I sent some troops to fight a Glorious battle with them vs. the Horde), they will spend the next decades idling and wasting my money. ;)

P.S. I play 2.01 version of the game. No peasants. :P

They are a bit different. They are very aggressive spearmen without shields, but with javelins. You can use them a javelin troops or attacking cavarly.

Vs cav, their charge is devastating and it's strong vs infantry. Stuck them on a hill, get off a volley or two then charge. They lack the staying power of heavy spears, but can still hold thier own. Basically flankers or reserves. Sensitive to ranged though.

Added them as a buildable Aragon only unit. They're fun, but really odd.