Mercenaries?

[Alexius II Loukas]

I am playing as Byzantium Early Normal.

At first, things went well. I managed to grab Serbia and Moldavia in the west, and wiped out the Turks in the East, with help from the Egyptians. I have lost Naples, and cannot retake it just yet as the Sicilians have some major forces, and I believe, are planning to invade.

Only my Emporer, the illustrious Alexius II, is in Greece, making them think twice about invading.

All was well, as I said, until the Egyptians, had been massing forces, invaded. We are now having quite a war, with them attacking my severely undermanned armies, as I was building up my agricultural abilities, and not my war machine.

Now to my actual question.

I was trying to figure out why I couldn't hire Mercenaries. My coffers were quite full, also due to my economic plan, but I can't seem to hire them. I tried not training any soldiers while hiring, and not building, EVERYWHERE in my empire which Now encompass all of the Turks' Former lands, except for Syria, and Edessa, and even then I held Edessa until the Egyptians attacked, and even then I massacred the attacking army until the were completely surrounded and nearly wiped out. Even My VG ran for it. I make up for the cowardly actions by putting those soldiers on my front lines whenever I uses Prince John for defending or attacking a territory.

So, to make a long story short, why can I not hire mercenaries?

[_Aetius_]

Well first things first make sure you have built an inn and this isnt sure to get your mercaenaries, you cant control when mercenaries appear in what province and what kind of merc's they are. When they did appear though when you select what merc's you want make sure you click hire on the merc's menu after youve clicked on them and the mercs will be yours.

The best places in the empire to find them is trebizond and constantinople, trebizond though starts with a inn so you should have mercs thee.

[Don Corleone]

Like Aetius said: first, make sure you have an inn or two built. The best place to put those inns is on your Egyptian border, and don't build a keep in that province. It seems that inns attract merecenaries better when they're in rough, frontier provinces and this is indicated by low build level (fort only).

Second, there's no reason you can't hire & train in the same turn. Hiring mercenaries happens immediately, training happens at the end of the year.

Once you've built your inn, go to the manpower menu (where you would normally build troops) for the province with the inn. If mercenaries are available for hire, instead of the normal screen, there will be a button at the bottom that says 'hire mercenaries'. Clicking this brings you to a parallel screen that looks like a train screen. There's all the available mercenaries laid out at the top, and 5 empty hire slots at the bottom. Click on a unit to place it into your hiring queue. NOW THE NEXT PART IS VERY IMPORTANT!!! To the right of the 5 hiring slots, there is a hand with gold in it. You haven't hired anyone until you click on that. The moment you do, the transaction takes place. I didn't know this when I first started and I thought you just closed the hiring window once the mercenaries were queued and waited, like when you train units.

[Alexius II Loukas]

AHAH!

Thank you! I didn't know that the hand needed to be clicked.

I shall use this information.

Thanks!

[kiwitt]

A thought came to mind "The hand the feeds ...."

(I get my coat)

[macsen rufus]

Raising mercenaries - feeding the hand that bites, maybe... ok, I'll go too..

[Manstein]

I prefer bribing rebel armies, as they are quite effective. Or, when a faction is dead, just bribe all of their armies as they are quite cheap to hire.

Also, it depends on the general. If they have a special statistic that makes them easy to bribe, then do it. If an army costs more than 10,000 florins, then, it isn't really worth it. But, look for low-loyalty generals, as they are pretty cheap to hire.

[macsen rufus]

I love bribery, once I have the cash! It's the best way to deal with those BIG enemy empires that are beginning to bloat... where possible, I use spies to soften things up, exposing any secret vices etc first, and if necessary invade the general's province so he loses his title at the point my emissary arrives. Another good tip is to find where recently ransomed armies have been returned... once they are available to command again they are also available to bribe, usually still pretty disloyal after a sound beating. Naval blockades also help to reduce loyalty by isolating either the enemy king, or your bribe target.

[Alexius II Loukas]

Hey, I didn't know bout the recently ransomed, thanks. I use mercenaries anyway, anywhere, now. I always keep some mercenaries in my HUGE stacks to take the brunt of charges or arrows. Mercenaries are always useful to take on the Turks.

[Odin]

Hey, I didn't know bout the recently ransomed, thanks. I use mercenaries anyway, anywhere, now. I always keep some mercenaries in my HUGE stacks to take the brunt of charges or arrows. Mercenaries are always useful to take on the Turks.

Mercs are a pretty good softening force to if you have the cash. I use them sometimes to go into Mongol held provinces and soften up the heavy mongol cavalry units before I send my own army in.

In a pinch you can also spam the AI with merc armies to keep it busy, however I consider it an exploit. If you have a large enemy like the Byzantines or the HRE, and a lot of cash each turn purchase a Merc army and send them in and auto sim the battle.

Very cheesy tactic, and really eliminates the whole fun of the game, but at 3am after a long night of playing and you just want one more province before you wrap up, this isnt a bad way to go.