Interesting Mercenaries

[SCRIBE]

Has anyone gotten any rare mercenaries like the Almughavars or the Alans or what not?

Usually as the Spanish, you can hire the Almughavars.
As the Byzantines, alot of those axewielding Egyptian bodyguards and Druz and others are quite regulars to the Byzantine army.

Alans are so hard to find.

Hass anyone gotten any merc thats too good to let go? Or too unique to let go?

[Arciel]

Well, yeah. The Bulgarian Brigands and Khwarazmian Cav are usually the ones I go after..

[SCRIBE]

I always get Billmen, and those with AP skills.

I'm looking for Hasishins, anyone out there get those guys?

[Samurai Waki]

I've never known the AI to build Hashishins so it's unlikely you'll be able to find any as Mercs. A Unit that takes 6 (or 8...or possibly 4 ) turns to build, is unlikely to be disbanded.

[macsen rufus]

I tend to snap up any AP specialists, and polearms especially, so if I find longbows and billmen in my inn then they're recruited straight away! Also if I'm playing a Catholic faction I like to pick up some nice eastern hydrids (Ottoman infantry etc) or horse archers (esp SHC) for variety.

I've been playing XL recently, and that gives a lot more variety in the merc pool, especially polearms

[CountMRVHS]

If I have some cash to spare, I can't resist Billmen, Longbowmen, or Italian Infantry. I usually grab siege equipment too, especially catapults (never ballistas). Druzhina cav are very nice as they can dismount anytime into Feudal Foot Knights, but they're expensive.

Other than that, I save the mercs for when I really need them; to fill out a Crusade, defend a weak province, or attack unexpectedly. In those cases I usually hire everything that's available, as cost isn't an issue in the case of Crusades and in the other cases I plan on disbanding them soon anyway.

[Martok]

I usually grab siege equipment too, especially catapults (never ballistas).

Yeah, I often will hire artillery crews, particularly mangonels and trebuchets (sometimes catapults). I like that they're often available long before I have the building requirements to train them myself.

Other than that, I save the mercs for when I really need them; to fill out a Crusade, defend a weak province, or attack unexpectedly. In those cases I usually hire everything that's available, as cost isn't an issue in the case of Crusades and in the other cases I plan on disbanding them soon anyway.

Same here. I long ago found out the hard way, though, that one shouldn't put *too* many mercs into a Crusade. I once had a Spanish Crusade to Egypt made up almost half mercenaries....with disastrous results.

[Digital]

I once got a Royal Knight mercenary who has +3 valour when I am playing as a Muslim faction.

[bedlam28]

Hi guys,

I'm assuming these you've listed are for BI or for MTW ?

Do you have favourites for RTW ? and where to find them

[Martok]

Hi guys,

I'm assuming these you've listed are for BI or for MTW ?

The units listed so far are mercenaries from Medieval.

[Digital]

BTW, what is BI? Please enlighten.

[Arciel]

BTW, what is BI? Please enlighten.

That should mean Barbarian Invasions, the expansion to RTW.

[Andres]

In RTW you should get the Cretan Archers. They really rock.

[Ludens]

I've never known the AI to build Hashishins so it's unlikely you'll be able to find any as Mercs. A Unit that takes 6 (or 8...or possibly 4 ) turns to build, is unlikely to be disbanded.

The A.I. doesn't disband units as far as I know. Occasionally, a crusade gets disbanded and Teutonic Knights appear in your inn, but I think the majority of mercenaries are automatically generated. How else can you account for the proliferation of siege units when no siege engineer has been built?

[Alexios]

Has anyone gotten any rare mercenaries like the Almughavars or the Alans or what not?

I believe I had the rare opportunity of hiring Alan Mercs once while playing as the Byz. Can't remember where I got them or how they met their demise, but I do remember them being extremely fast. Those dudes could run circles around my Katanks!

[Abokasee]

Has anyone gotten any rare mercenaries like the Almughavars or the Alans or what not?

Usually as the Spanish, you can hire the Almughavars.
As the Byzantines, alot of those axewielding Egyptian bodyguards and Druz and others are quite regulars to the Byzantine army.

Alans are so hard to find.

Hass anyone gotten any merc thats too good to let go? Or too unique to let go?

Yeah i get all when I capture Muslim terroitorys as spainish or byzantines

[_Aetius_]

As Byzantium I once hired a unit of Royal knights when I noticed they were led by a member of the Sicilian royalty as he had the family name, which made it interesting as I was fighting the Sicilians in the middle east and I gave him command of my army to recover Palestine.

I can rarely resist hiring Billmen, Italian infantry and Longbowmen as they are pretty much the best of their classes that you can regularly get a hold of.

I recall one time as the Egyptians I was fighting alot of wars and was very overstretched militarily, so mercenaries grew in number within my army and I sent an army made up of Byzantine infantry, Italian infantry, Billmen and Longbowmen mercenaries to Italy to lead the upcoming campaign. They performed brilliantly and I permenantly stationed them in Italy as a garrison as I hadnt any spare natives to replace them and continually replaced damaged units with fresh ones, a few years later though a relativelly minor prince rebelled and although he didnt have all that much support the entire mercenary corp in Italy rallied to him.

I eventually triumphed during this civil war, but Italy and Sicily were devastated in the process and the mercenaries in my army finally crushed by my native forces and I never allowed them to have such a strong position in my army again. Unfortunately my manpower problem didnt end and I struggled to keep up the fight without my mercenary armies.

[macsen rufus]

In my current game (XL, Genoa, early) my supposed Danish allies sent a large crusade into the Papal States, currently owned by our mutual enemy, the Venetians. Now I didn't trust the Danes, so decided to send in a bigger army of my own. The Pope also joined us - great battle 3 against 1. But my army was the largest, so I got the province, and the Danish crusade was disbanded. Sure enough, civil war for the Danes, and nice units of Teutonic Knights, Teutonic Sergeants and various viking units in my inn the next year. The knights in particular were surprisingly cheap! Kept them round for a few years, and eventually wore them down to four men fighting the Pope.

[Motep]

i snach up all the italian mercs and the longbowmen i can find.

[Arciel]

Has anyone gotten any rare mercenaries like the Almughavars or the Alans or what not?

Usually as the Spanish, you can hire the Almughavars.
As the Byzantines, alot of those axewielding Egyptian bodyguards and Druz and others are quite regulars to the Byzantine army.

Alans are so hard to find.

Hass anyone gotten any merc thats too good to let go? Or too unique to let go?

Just remembered that I seem to always get the Alans whenever I have an inn in the steppes. This is usually when I'm playing as the Byz or the Danes.

[Empirate]

I usually only hire mercs in the early game, and like many others here, I just can't resist Longbowmen and Billmen (esp. when not English), Catapults (dirt-cheap upkeep), Italian Light Infantry (best spearmen around!) and Khwarazmian Cavalry (when all the heavy cav you have are Royals, these come in handily).
I try to build specialized foreign contingents sometimes, containing many merc horse archers when Catholic or many heavy infantry (Druzhina!) when Muslim or Byzantine. I tend to find the best variety of mercs, and the most frequent refills, in provinces that are really poorly developed and don't have a big income either. Try to build Inns in Bretagne/Ireland/Norway and some Med islands, as these can be quickly relocated by sea.

[SCRIBE]

Ah so I see the general consensus on longbowmen, ital infantry, and billmen.
Has anyone found Almughavars to be useful?

[Ironside]

Ah so I see the general consensus on longbowmen, ital infantry, and billmen.
Has anyone found Almughavars to be useful?

Admittably they had weapon upgrades (made them trainable in Aragon), but they can really chop up cav fast. That they can get a volley off before the charge if the hill is steep enough is only an improvement.

They don't preform too well in prolonged melee though, but the most unique unit in MTW has to have some downside

[Kralizec]

As the Almohads, I loved hiring any lancer mercenaries I could find, thereby using my enemy's best unit against them

Gallowglasses I also found useful, even as mercenaries their upkeep isn't very high.

I regularily trebuchets and mangonels, as I can't be bothered to build the required infrastructure myself unlike gunpowder artillery.

[SCRIBE]

They don't preform too well in prolonged melee though, but the most unique unit in MTW has to have some downside

Don't forget rare!
Ah, I feel like installing MTW again after that disheartening virus attack.
And maybe doing that cheat code to play as the rebels and build an empire as the Khazar Khaganate and the steppe peoples.