Quote Originally Posted by 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.
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.