Mercenaries and what you can do with them

[Sensei Warrior]

OK, well I started the campaign and have gone through to 1097. Its been a bit of a slow slog through. I'm not as far along as I like to be at this point, but my kids underfoot have distracted me from some key moves.

Anyways, I started a typical opening bid by bribing Wales, attacking Scotland with my 2nd heir (the first one made me nervous, he appeared with the Secret Perversions Vice), and then moving my starting troops towards Flanders. I have left the French alone for the moment, and allied with the Spanish, the Agonese, and HRE.

There are inns in every Provence I own. Right now thats all the starting ones plus Wales and Scotland. The only units I have produced thus far are Peasants as promised. I used the bribed units from Wales and other starting units to attack Scotland.

I did destroy all the starting military buildings in my provences, even though there weren't that many. The one that had me nervous was the horse breeder that produces Hobilars in Aquitaine.

Another thing that made me a bit nervous was the fact that there were a number of years that went by in the beginning that didn't have any Mercs at all. None. For the first 5-9 years I had zero Mercs in my Inns (must have been the bad beer and ugly women ). I don't know if that was just my game, or it takes the comp awhile to 'stock' them or what.

As of 1097 an assortment of troops can be bought. There was 1 Spearmen, 1 Armored Spearmen, 1 Feudal Sergeant, 1 Kwazarim Cavalry, 1 Mounted Sergeant, and a couple more that didnt catch my eye. Obviously I was scanning the troops for Spear types to protect my vast hordes of Archers, and Cavalry. Cavalry and Melee troops are in short supply for me right now.

French smack down is the next order of business, and I'll keep everyone posted.

EDIT:
To:macsen rufus
Good I figured you might have forgotten about the Foundries being needed for some ships. Of course this will give some units, but I'll just try and stay away from them.

Agreed. Since the game I started is a GA game, I'm sure I'll be playing in late. I'll use whatever Mercs I can access the whole way through the game.

Agreed, I usually Crusade my way across N. Africa and the such. This game I plan on using Crusades on my GA goals. After that, I plan on using them sparingly if at all.

I figure the whole GA/TD decision is a personal thing. I do GAs rarely, but usually have fun when I do. I'd say go with what you're comfortable with, you running a TD game might give another perspective anyways.

Muwahaha ... AHEM, I mean, I am very sorry to steal the English from ya. The last couple of posts from you I remember reading you were referring to Muslim Factions, I just hoped you liked playing them more.

/END EDIT

Sorry for the lengthy post, lots of ground to cover.