Using Mercenaries

[gaijinalways]

I also use some merc troops for defense. Sometimes you can't bring regular troops fast enough to a province far away and the mercs might give pause to an attack or help in repelling enemy troops. And since more often than not they might get killed enough to disband them after the battle, their upkeep is not high once your regular troops arrive.

[_Aetius_]

I probably hire to many mercenaries than is healthy, as the Byzantines I have sometimes half stacks of mercenaries, of course only if I can afford them, I use them similar to the Romans used other nationalities as auxillaries.

I hire Billmen, Longbowmen, Templars, sometimes Vikings, CMAA, Halberdiers, Italian infantry, Lancers, anything that will supplement my army. Mainly anti-cav units, but special units like nearly full Templar units are to rare to miss.

I use mercenaries also as fodder for far flung garrison duty, i'd rather a load of mercenaries perish than Byzantines like Varangians who can only be trained in a few places.

On loyalty they can be very disloyal, during a Byzantine civil war many mercenaries sided with the rebels and I lost Italy because of it. But another time I had a civil war with Byzantium mercenaries who had served for a long time with the Emperor rallied to his cause and I doubt i'd of won the war if it had not been for them.

The rules are, hire only what is useful, affordable and make sure you keep them in check, don't allow to high a percentage of the army to be mercenaries and disband what is no longer useful.

[Cowhead418]

Mercenaries just helped me keep Prussia. I hadn't been checking my provinces when suddenly Prussia revolted with an army of 1300 rebels (I'm the Portuguese so Prussia is far off from the rest of my empire). My troops held off that rebellion but with significant casualties. My army consisted of Russian troops that had rebelled in a Russian civil war so I cannot replace any casualties. The turn after I fought off the rebellion the Lithuanians reappeared with 4000 troops.

As I had only 212, it did not look good. I considered just retreating and ransoming them but I checked what mercenaries were available and decided instead to have a major last stand. I trained some Slav Warriors and hired all the mercenaries available. It was my 592 troops versus 4000 Lithuanian savages. My troops were just a bit better in quality but vastly superior in valour. My men fought valiantly and crushed wave after wave. I defeated the last wave just in time because I don't think I would have survived another. My troops were exhausted and depleted but I won with just over 300 casualties. My general of this battle received some very nice traits and also went up from four stars to six. The mercenaries helped to kill nearly all the enemy troops. The only downside is that I didn't get the Butcher trait. I ended up with about 970 prisoners and just missed the mark.

[ajaxfetish]

I probably hire to many mercenaries than is healthy, as the Byzantines I have sometimes half stacks of mercenaries.

Well, at least you're being historically accurate .

Ajax

[RemusAvenged]

Mercs can be enough to change the whole game from the start.

One way to use them, works well in VI, is to buy a bunch early in the game before any neighbors have big armies, and to keep them from getting them. Since they are cheap you can buy enough to make a big difference in stomping the surrondings. Make sure that in any attrition they are up first to save your real armies for down the stretch.

If you conquer enough quickly you can keep them, but if things go poorly you may have to ditch some. At the very least they will have hopefully been successful in taking your enemies down several notches.

Not to say this is really an ethical approach..

[matteus the inbred]

Mercs can be enough to change the whole game from the start.
One way to use them, works well in VI, is to buy a bunch early in the game before any neighbors have big armies, and to keep them from getting them. Since they are cheap you can buy enough to make a big difference in stomping the surrondings. Make sure that in any attrition they are up first to save your real armies for down the stretch.

couldn't agree more...in my Mercian campaign i have two whole armies comprised of mercs with regular Mercian generals, cos i got attacked by Picts whilst still being embroiled with Wales, which is revolting (heheh, of course it is) and also full of raiding Viking warbands...i needed about 1,500 men in a hurry, and cos i always build inns, bingo, there they are. it helps that Mercia is a very wealthy faction, but without i'd have a few hundred fyrd facing berserks and crossbows and god knows what. in this case i don't want to use them to fight with, cos they haven't made a very balanced army (i just hired everything regardless), just to keep the Picts where they are until my regular and very experienced main armies have finished up with Wales. i also don't want to get them all killed as i might need them again; going against my own previous argument here, thanks to VI for the learning curve!

[Loucipher]

Oh yes... beefing-up the numbers of your own troops performing a "threat-in-being" mission somewhere... maybe I shall add a Reason No.6 to what I had written above...
Still, IMHO the mercs only pay their rent fighting, not standing idly. Therefore, they should be somewhere beating the nine rings of hell out of some wretches. Besides, continual putting them in harm's way let you cut on their salary in the process.
Oh well, playing Mercia in VI you are probably swimming in florins already, so what the heck...

[matteus the inbred]

Oh yes... beefing-up the numbers of your own troops performing a "threat-in-being" mission somewhere... maybe I shall add a Reason No.6 to what I had written above...
Still, IMHO the mercs only pay their rent fighting, not standing idly. Therefore, they should be somewhere beating the nine rings of hell out of some wretches. Besides, continual putting them in harm's way let you cut on their salary in the process.
Oh well, playing Mercia in VI you are probably swimming in florins already, so what the heck...

you're not kidding! my King regularly lights his fire with large bundles of fifty florin notes instead of using damp peat like everyone else...
I'm only in that kind of trouble cos I never have enough military provinces, a weakness I have exhibited throughout my entire Total War career. I'm filthy rich but can only produce about four units per turn, which means I occasionally get caught with my pants down but backstabbing AI factions...and one of the reasons I am filthy rich is cos I skimp on troop numbers! I will probably send most of the mercs in as a first wave to thin out the quite decent Pictish armies before i use my own shiny proper troops, so the main 'ethic' of using mercs still applies really.

[_Aetius_]

Well, at least you're being historically accurate .

Ajax

hell yes!

[Alexios]

I will use a merc if its a unique unit and it may be of some use to me at the time (I esp. like Katanks if I don't have the ability to build one myself). I will usually buy them in early, when my back is up against the wall and I'm being attacked by an aggressive neighbor. But I usually use them only on a temporary basis, and after they've been cut down to only a handful of men or so, I'll disband them.

Which leads me to a question: Is it possible to rebuild a merc unit in one of your provinces? I have tried to do this, and although I have the proper tech. advs. it still comes up saying I don't have the right facilities, or something to that affect anyway. What facilities are they referring to? An Inn? I know you need one of those to buy a merc initially, but I didn't think you would need one to rebuild. It may or may not be wise to rebuild a merc unit, but my question is more out of curiousity then anything else.

[Martok]

Which leads me to a question: Is it possible to rebuild a merc unit in one of your provinces? I have tried to do this, and although I have the proper tech. advs. it still comes up saying I don't have the right facilities, or something to that affect anyway.

Mercenaries cannot be "retrained" to replenish their numbers, nor can they be merged with another merc unit, even if it's of the same type. You can only do these things with your regular army units.

[Zain]

I never use Mercenaries, It just feels like cheating to me... and I never have enough money anyway.

-ZainDustin