Mercenaries in EB

**mcsquared** · 05-10-2006, 16:14

Will the final version of EB have a more diversified selection of mercenaries? In the beta, there seem to be the same few units available everywhere.

**O'ETAIPOS** · 05-10-2006, 16:54

What you see now is about 3/5 planned units. remember only that many regional units are available as "recruitable mercs" instead "hireable".

**Ano2** · 05-10-2006, 16:59

I would actually do away with the mercs completely and make them all recruitable. They would still be called mercs, but by recruiting them you make them able to be retrained, something desperately needed by merc based factions such as Carthage.

All it means is putting the mercs currently in mercs, into the recruitment pools. A fair bit of work, but not difficult :)

**orwell** · 05-10-2006, 18:01

Will/are samnite heavy infantry ever be recruitable, instead of just hireable?

**Slider6977** · 05-10-2006, 19:58

Samnite Heavy infantry are recruitable, just not by Rome. Which is weird because they are the only faction that can recruit samnite spearmen with a level 1 govt. So you figure they would be able to recruit the heavy infantry at the very least with a 3 or 4 lvl gov't in southern italy.

**Avicenna** · 05-10-2006, 21:55

Could the system be like RTR? The mercs will be available for retrainment, as long as you have control of a province where they are available. Hiring mercs would be more expensive, but it would be quick and they would have some limited amount of experience. They would be ideal for quickly amassing an army to deal with a threat, and then could be kept on as part of the army to make it more diverse and flexible.

stalin · 05-13-2006, 22:10

Originally Posted by Ano2

something desperately needed by merc based factions such as Carthage.

Carthage uses Mercs? Their recruitables are awsome even on MIC3

**Slider6977** · 05-15-2006, 02:32

Originally Posted by Ano2

something desperately needed by merc based factions such as Carthage.

Originally Posted by stalin

Carthage uses Mercs? Their recruitables are awsome even on MIC3

Technicially speaking, the recruitable units Carthage has are actually merc units. Elite African Infantry, Pikemen, numidian cavalry and javelinmen, all the iberian units they can recruit, and even to some degree lybian spearmen and heavy spearmen are all types of historical mercs hired to fight for Carthage. So that comment doesn't really make sense to me. Even the gallic cavalry, Gaesatae infantry, and other barbarian infantry that carthage historically hired as mercs are trainable, as long as you are in the right provinces. So as of right now, I believe a lot of the merc system is working as intended.

**khelvan** · 05-15-2006, 03:17

"Mercs" as defined by the RTW engine have no ties at all, and can be hired by anyone. Mercenaries in the ancient world were generally different from the modern idea. For instance, while they fought for money most would fight only for a certain group or cause, rather than just anyone.

So most of the "mercenaries" in the ancient world are in game as trainable units, because it better reflects in reality for whom they fought.