Quote Originally Posted by Monsieur Alphonse
The upkeep of mercs is somewhere around 100 per turn. That is higher than of most Spanish units. Even dism. conquistadores cost 75 per turn.
On the contrary I think the native mercs are great for garrison duties. It seems like the number of soldiers rather than quality or number of units count in pacifying, and the mercs who cost 100 in upkeep come in units of 75 on normal size, compared to 75 for 30 (or about 190 for 75) for dismounted conquistadors or 100 for 60 for the pike militia that is the natural garrison unit for Spain (what else can pikemen be used for when the enemies have archers aplenty and no cavalry). So native mercs actually seem to give the most bang for the buck in garrison duties, with their highly competive upkeep/soldier ratio.