Mercenary Units

[Horatius]

I think there should be a fick so you could hire replacements for fsllen soldiers in a mercenary unit.

The thing is it seems like Mercenaries are a one battle then finish with them unit no matter what experience they get because you can't retrain them, which is a shame becauseit is fun to supplement your army with the locals, so when a mercenary unit is available for hire you should have the option of hiring or retraining the unit.

[Deus ret.]

That's the price you have to pay for hiring troops fast.

Often it pays to keep the units somewhere since sooner or later another one of the same kind will show up, enabling you to compensate further losses better. Sarmatian mercenaries for instance are far too valueable to waste, either by disbanding or let alone by using them as quick cannon fodder...

[Dutch_guy]

well you can always merge your merc. units.
not as good as retraining but still..

[Productivity]

I think there should be a fick so you could hire replacements for fsllen soldiers in a mercenary unit.

The thing is it seems like Mercenaries are a one battle then finish with them unit no matter what experience they get because you can't retrain them, which is a shame becauseit is fun to supplement your army with the locals, so when a mercenary unit is available for hire you should have the option of hiring or retraining the unit.

]

That's not true. I've had a couple of mercenary groups that over the time have taken a prized place in my armies. You can retrain by hiring and merging.

[Marcellus]

Welcome to the Org, Horatius

I think there should be a fick so you could hire replacements for fsllen soldiers in a mercenary unit.

The thing is it seems like Mercenaries are a one battle then finish with them unit no matter what experience they get because you can't retrain them, which is a shame becauseit is fun to supplement your army with the locals, so when a mercenary unit is available for hire you should have the option of hiring or retraining the unit.

You can't retrain them in cities because you don't have the facilities to train them in the first place (if you had then you would just train these units, not hire them).

You can't repair them all the time by hiring more soldiers because often there are no units of that type available to hire.

And you can't repair them by taking some of the soldiers from a passing mercenary unit becuase the members of that unit would want to stick together and not break up into small, useless units.

So you're stuck with either hiring a whole new unit or merging damaged units, I'm afraid.

[Spartiate]

Ah yes.The old emotional attachment to a treasured and valued unit raises it's head again.In a Brutii campaign i once had an army with 6 units of gold chevroned Merc Hoplites and 4 units of silver chevroned Merc Cretan Archers with full armour and weapon upgrades from Sparta.I had been hiring and merging them all during my invasion of Greece and Asia Minor.Then when i was tired (dumb) enough one evening to use auto-calc and had an army of my finest Legionary Cohorts slaughtered in Egypt i sent down my trusted Mercs to reinforce the survivors and they slowly but surely conquered the Eggys and the Seleucids with the occasional merging unit being supplied from Greece.Hate it when i get sentimental about Mercs.The swine are only in it for the money.

[bubbanator]

The only mercs that I ever get "attached to" (try hard to keep safe) are Cretan Archers because they are excellent archers and Sarmation mercs because they are just so cool. Almost all other mercs are used to gaurd my flanks.

Barbarian mercs I use to fill the role of cavalry when I have none. They can run around to the rear of the enemy line and pin them against your line. Their weight of numbers helps greatly.

I also use them to quell riots.

[Horatius]

]
You can retrain by hiring and merging.

Can you tell me how to do that?

[CMcMahon]

Hire a new group, and merge it with the old one. That way, the larger group has more experience than the smaller one, rather than the other way around.

edit: It is kind of dumb that you can't retrain them normally, though. One would assume that a mercenary hoplite unit hired by the Greeks would be able to reequip as a normal hoplite unit.

[sapi]

just in case you meant how, select the army and press 'm' to merge all units in it.

[LestaT]

just in case you meant how, select the army and press 'm' to merge all units in it.

You have to add though that the unit that you're merging with is depleted also. You cannot mix with a full units. Would be glad if you can mix a half depleted merc with a newly full hired merc and kinda mix between the vets and the greenies.

It's I think coded that when you mix one unit get to full strenght and the balance is all that left. Cannot mix and give even unit numbers..

[edyzmedieval]

Mercenary units are really useful when you don't have enough units to defend a provinces, and you have money......

Too bad you can't retrain them, especially the Cretan Archers....

[pezhetairoi]

That's the point. Otherwise you would a) overdo the usage of these uber early-stage units, and b) not treasure them.

[Kourutsu]

Yes! Peasants and Mercenaries= Cannon Fodder

[Asakura Lord]

I wouldn't say cannon fodder. Sometimes some rebels (I hate rebels) will appear and I don't have any troops near there so I'll send a general out of a town "draft" some mercs and take out the rebels. Then I'll march the mercs to the front lines and keep on using them.

[player1]

Well, in my Spanish campaign, I happily used Spanish Mercenaries, as well as Brabarian Mercenaries, as my main battle force. Much better then Iberian Infantry.

[Marcellus]

I don't tend to use mercs in my main battle force. They can be quite useful for garrisons and for killing rebels, but I think that not being retrainable means that they are not flexible enough for use in main battles.

[Kourutsu]

I meant, if you had your forces AND mercenaries, then sacrifice them. But if you have a whole force of merinaries, don't sacrifice them, sacrifice the peasants, and if you don't have peasants, press CTRL + A and double click on the enemy General.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

I use mercs quite a lot, especially Hops, being the Romans Hoplites are really important for me early on. Hastartii suck.

[Marquis of Roland]

Every single turn that I can hire merc units I like (sarmations, cretans, and war elephants) I hire them and place them in a "replacement depot", most probably a city near the front. Everytime my merc units serving in my armies take casualties, I merge one of these new merc units with it to "retrain". I've been able to do this with full units, so I don't know maybe they changed this in the patch because I'm still playing vanilla RTW.

Playing as Carthage, my main battle line was also spanish mercs until I could tech up to at least libyan spearmen. Even then I liked them for their javelins. So, for some factions, hiring mercs at specific points of the game is useful.

[Horatius]

Every single turn that I can hire merc units I like (sarmations, cretans, and war elephants) I hire them and place them in a "replacement depot", most probably a city near the front. Everytime my merc units serving in my armies take casualties, I merge one of these new merc units with it to "retrain". I've been able to do this with full units, so I don't know maybe they changed this in the patch because I'm still playing vanilla RTW.

Playing as Carthage, my main battle line was also spanish mercs until I could tech up to at least libyan spearmen. Even then I liked them for their javelins. So, for some factions, hiring mercs at specific points of the game is useful.

No it wasn't changed, I just didn't know about ability to merge mercenary units.

[nameless]

Mercs are just last minute troops needed. There were times when I assaulted a city or needed to defend areas when I was short on manpower so I hired Mercs, put them on the frontline and let them waste to pieces while my legions watch

[cruix]

cretean archers and ranged units in general make better mercs than grunt units, since by their very role their losses are more limited per battle. heck most of the time my casualties come from the flanking equities and the fodder hastati/early legionary cohort line.

which is probably why i only ever use cretean archers for mercs. and sometimes merc elephants if i'm bored enough with egypt.

[cruix]

<<append to prior post
cretean archers being much better ranged attackers than the best roman post marian archers.

[bubbanator]

^^
whats with the blank post

o well, mercs are also useful if you are trying to get a protectorate. Hire some mercs and send them to attack a city and kill most of the garison (and hopefully the general).

[pezhetairoi]

Hmm. All of you don't treasure mercs quite as much as you should. If you were playing Macedon as I was, and needed melee flank guards in a hurry, hell you'd treasure mercenaries. Peasants = cannon fodder, fine, but mercenaries are only worth using as fodder for their purposes. E.g. Cretans = long distance destruction of phalanxes, Bastarnae + Barbarian Mercenaries + Thracians = cavalry chargestoppers + melee flankers, Sarmatians = heavy mobility and decisive strike power and emergency reserves, Scythians + Numidians = mobile firesupport, Peltasts = practically useless and I never ever recruit them, Illyrians = same as peltasts except that they are excellent mixed-arms troops, Barbcav = A striking force in its own right, Hoplitai = chargestoppers, breach contestors, manoeuvre base. Eastern Infantry = garrisons, ram-manners for cav factions, Elephants = self-explanatory, and so on. All of them have their particular roles. None of them should ever be thrown away in battle as fodder just because you feel like it. It's not easy to get good mercenaries. Don't squander them.

[player1]

Well, using mercenaries as Span (Spanish and Barbarian Mercenaries), I avoided poor Iberian Infantry altogether (until I got proper buildings to build Naked Fanatics, and later Bull Warriors).

[Asakura Lord]

Every single turn that I can hire merc units I like (sarmations, cretans, and war elephants) I hire them and place them in a "replacement depot", most probably a city near the front. Everytime my merc units serving in my armies take casualties, I merge one of these new merc units with it to "retrain". I've been able to do this with full units, so I don't know maybe they changed this in the patch because I'm still playing vanilla RTW.

I do this as well, when I have the money.

I think that incorporating mercs into the regular army is a good thing. Sometimes their upkeep is cheaper than regular army units.

[Zenicetus]

I'm still fairly new to the game, but I'm getting a lot of mileage out of mercs... mostly Cretan archers, and one or two units of Hoplites for gate blocking and anchoring the front line. Both types are very survivable in those roles (if I don't screw up), so the lack of re-training isn't that big a deal. For units that take more combat losses like skirmishers, flank protectors and cavalry, I'd rather use my own units that can be re-trained.

So I guess I'm more in the "treasured mercenary" camp than the "cannon fodder" camp.

[Oaty]

A good place for those depleted mercs is in a city you believe you are about to lose. I try to merge them with new buddies but if I see a strong force coming and can't do anything about it my depleted troops enter the city and my main forces fall back.