Mercs

[ReluctantSamurai]

Something I've seen very little mention of in campaigns here is the use of mercs. In R1, depending on which faction I played, mercs were a very important component of my armies at least in the early going. Even mid to late game, I used mercs just for the fun factor.

So my question is...are mercs just not that good or too expensive for what they might contribute, or are faction rosters good enough from start to finish?

[Hooahguy]

In my current campaign I hired about 5-6 units of mercs and it wrecked my economy. I had to disband them two turns later or I faced bankruptcy. As for effectiveness, Im not sure as I didnt really check their stats.

[AntiDamascus]

In my current campaign I hired about 5-6 units of mercs and it wrecked my economy. I had to disband them two turns later or I faced bankruptcy. As for effectiveness, Im not sure as I didnt really check their stats.

Yes to follow up on this. I would hire a few mercs to help take or defend a region and then basically disband them once the battle was over to save costs. It was cheaper to just rehire them again basically.

[ReluctantSamurai]

Recruiting (hiring) costs aren't outrageous, but the per turn cost is insane.

It was cheaper to just rehire them again basically.

I wonder why CA set up recruiting to basically discourage the use of mercs? Gameplay aside, Rome & Carthage both historically made extensive use of mercs, and I believe the Ptolemaics and Seleucids, as well. Seems counter-intuitive to have upkeep costs be higher than recruitment costs

[Hooahguy]

If I had to guess its to discourage using a lot of mercs for ones army. Im not so sure about the historical validity of this, but it would make sense to keep the mercs hired for a short period, and the longer you keep them the more it will cost you, so recruiting them as extra manpower for that one assault on that city when you need more numbers is fine, but hiring them for a length of time more than one or two turns is really gonna cost you.

EDIT: I would actually love a system where the price which you hire the mercs for would cover two turns worth of service, so like if hiring some spearmen would cost 400 coin but the next two turns were upkeep free for those mercs, and after those two turns they would go back to requiring upkeep.

[Sp4]

I have only ever recruited two units of mercs in my Gaul campaign and decided they are too expensive to bother, especially early on, when I felt I needed the extra manpower. As Rome you get Auxiliaries. They are the same as mercs, just cheaper than for any other faction. Downside, you have to build a level two baracks in whatever region you want 'mercs' from but they literally cost nothing to upkeep. Like a tenth of what normal mercs cost.

[AntiDamascus]

Bought a few but most of the time I don't bother. Mostly it's to get access to unit types I don't normally have yet.

[Quillan]

As Rome, typical italian spear unit costs about 85 per turn maintenance. The same unit as a mercenary costs 400 per turn maintenance. Recruiting (hiring) costs aren't outrageous, but the per turn cost is insane.