Cheap mercenary unit

[p_nutter]

Not the Italian infantry... the peasant.



This guy costs 0 to hire and 0 upkeep each turn after that. This is, I believe, a fair assessment of the unit's usefulness in combat. Would you hire him?

[Vladimir]

Who knows, maybe he could, well, never mind.

[drone]

The cheap upkeep might make them useful for garrison duty. That's about the only use I can see for them.

[bamff]

Surely the reduced unit size of 1 would make him useless for any purpose whatsoever?

Mind you, hard to go past free stuff, isn't it....and there is an amusement factor in hiring him for not even food and board...

[Papewaio]

I just wish you could retrain units into other units.

I would hire him and get him the best armour and weapons I could find.

BTW doesn't the act of hiring units encourage more units to appear in the province... so hiring him may attract other, better units?

[Asmodai]

Think about their loyalty......low i think for merc of any sort, so their role as garrison duty is rather dangerous bussines. Having ticking bomb behind your back isnt good, so id rather keep any mercs in front of me, preferably sending them into best and most expensive enemy stack. Using mercs is very good tactic, if your economy is good, and you have big money to spend. So, even when mercs army will be destroyed, carnage attract more mercs to nearby inns, so there will be even more men to die for your money.

My favourite tactic is to use full stacks of mercs, preferably two or three, and when enemy armies are depleted and battered enough, my regular army beats them. And rather disbanding stacks of mercs, i throw them on the rest enemy forces, or pillage the neigbourhood. And when money drain caused by them is problem, i simply disband them.

[lar]

give him a title and have a free governor? (if you can give titles to mercs)

[Peasant Phill]

give him a title and have a free governor? (if you can give titles to mercs)

Sorry to disapoint you lar but you can't.

[p_nutter]

Garrison duty is an interesting idea. But since you need 100 men to prevent a bandit attack, I would need 100 1-man peasant units, in a minimum of 7 stacks.

The peasant might be useful as a way to waste enemy arrows. I could run him around near the enemy archers... In loose formation, of course. In fact, the unit is guaranteed not to rout due to being shot at - it will stand firm under the hail of arrows until every man is killed.

Also, it's a valour 2 unit. If the AI ever tries to flank me with a 1-man peasant unit of valour 1 or 0, I would have the perfect counter.

In spite of all this, I did not hire him. I'm pretty sure I already disbanded him once - he's a Muslim peasant, and I'm the only Muslim faction around for some reason, so he's likely to be one of mine. He was probably a unit leader and I couldn't merge him into some other unit due to a virtue or vice.

[Ironside]

Garrison duty is an interesting idea. But since you need 100 men to prevent a bandit attack, I would need 100 1-man peasant units, in a minimum of 7 stacks.

100 men isn't needed to prevent bandit attacks if the loyalty is high enough.
1-man garrisions is the best garrisions (lowest maintenance cost) and occationally I've been running provinces for decades without any garrision at all (not prefered though, as rebellions due to cut-off shiplines makes you immidiatly lose the provinces).
Bandit attacks is a kind of rebellion, not some special type with other rules.

And yeah it's probably one of your peasants, depleted units only show up as merc if disbanded and the comp never disbands his troops.

[Asmodai]

Garrison duty is an interesting idea. But since you need 100 men to prevent a bandit attack, I would need 100 1-man peasant units, in a minimum of 7 stacks.

The peasant might be useful as a way to waste enemy arrows. I could run him around near the enemy archers... In loose formation, of course. In fact, the unit is guaranteed not to rout due to being shot at - it will stand firm under the hail of arrows until every man is killed.

Also, it's a valour 2 unit. If the AI ever tries to flank me with a 1-man peasant unit of valour 1 or 0, I would have the perfect counter.

In spite of all this, I did not hire him. I'm pretty sure I already disbanded him once - he's a Muslim peasant, and I'm the only Muslim faction around for some reason, so he's likely to be one of mine. He was probably a unit leader and I couldn't merge him into some other unit due to a virtue or vice.

I agree with you almous completely!

I simulated cathing arrows with peasants. Even valour 3 full peasant unit will break and flee when they casualties reach about 60-70%. And in addition, loose formation lower thier morale, so even enemy couterattack may rout them(without casualties). Waste of time and money...and your attention in battle.

You play as HRE? Can you share of your achevments in that game? If you dont want to do this in public, at least send PM to me. Thats my favourite faction, so i always read some news about them. Thanx in advice.

[p_nutter]

You play as HRE? Can you share of your achevments in that game?

Not this time - I'm the Egyptians in this game.
But I'll share one achievement anyway. I'm quite proud of this unit:



Yes, that number is 11. This is made up of:
Unit has 4 valour normally.
Unit is a 6-star general. +3 valour
"Expert attacker": +2 stars when attacking, so +1 valour
"Brave beyond belief": +3 valour


It's a jedi general, and every other man in the unit is at least a padawan. Muhwahids are flankers, which means this unit typically charges into the side or back of a pinned enemy unit. The unfortunate enemy unit tends to disintegrate on impact.

[Alexios]

I'm not so sure about combat. But hey, he's cheap labor. Why not hire him to clean up horse dung from your Royal Knights? Tough job, but somebody's gotta do it.

[Yoyoma1910]

You could use him as a distractionary invasion unit... Or as your sultan's favourite peasant.

[Odin]

You could use him as a distractionary invasion unit...

Yes, you could march him off to the right of the enemy and you bet that a unit will engage and persue. As a peasant he will flee fast so you might be able to draw an enemy unit away from thier line.

Other then that its a novelty act, put a jester suit on him and have him perform at court.

[bretwalda]

Well, he is FREE! You can send him attack every turn and withdraw or garrison backwater territory. Its a pity that there is only one...

[Barbarossa1221]

Maybe he is a good general......

And hes free so what the heck every army need a laugh now and then keeps morale up.
He could do shows and plays to tell how his unit got slaughtered it would be a hoot!

[edyzmedieval]

Italians are the most plentiful mercenaries around. At least that's in my campaign...

And I never hire peasants. I don't even train peasants. ~:p

[Prince Cobra]

Take him! Why? He is free, no upkeep cost! He can be used for a dangerous distraction attacks ( if not suicide but that'll be our secret , he shouldn't know ). And he can be an excellent example for your peasants how to behave on the battlefield.
P.S.I'll be glad to learn what decision you have made...

[Asmodai]

Personaly, i wouldnt buy him. His usefulness in battle is realy slight. From my observations, badly depleted units have difficulties to stand and fight with full enemy units. If they not have outstanding level of valour or sky high morale, they probably run away before even touch the enemy soldiers. That trick can be done with single knights, cos their morale level is high enough to move across the battlefield alone.