rarest unit?

[macsen rufus]

I don't think I've ever seen Almughavars in MTW/VI... I have looked for them, but Had some sightings in XL, though.

And Bashkorts, FTW! I love that unit, they really are the secret weapon of the Volga-Bulgarians, so long as you remember they are spearmen and not skirmishers (which means of course the AI playing VBs totally wastes their potential). They are mean, and in my VB campaign, many a time I saw units of feudal or chivalric knights just evaporate before they reached my line only to rout instantly once the handful of survivors discovered the Bashkorts still had one pointy stick left to poke with

[Jxrc]

I don't think I've ever seen Almughavars in MTW/VI... I have looked for them, but Had some sightings in XL, though.

Got one units last week-end during an Aragonese Campaign. Built an inn in Aragon at the very start and got one unit for hire almost immediately. A nice unit which caused quite a shock to the first AUM that walked towards them thinking they were the usual feudal seargent waiting to be turned into mincemeat Only problem is that they are only available as mercenaries so that you cannot get enough of them to have an actual impact on the campaign. Likewise, the fact that you cannot replace the casulaties causes me to use them with way much too cautiously ... What I can say is that coupled with three units of dismounted Druzina, they make the battles agaisnt the AUM much easier (not really needed at all if you play as Spain, a very nice bonus if you play as Aragon).

The inn was built in something like 1091 I had only been able to hire one unit of Almughavars in 1140 (but I did not checked each year and due to the improvement of my castle, the amount of mercernaries available decreased over time).

[MJF]

The inn was built in something like 1091 I had only been able to hire one unit of Almughavars in 1140 (but I did not checked each year and due to the improvement of my castle, the amount of mercernaries available decreased over time).

just to change topic briefly, i always wanted to know why the mercernay pool dries up. so it diminishes as the province gets more developed?

[bamff]

just to change topic briefly, i always wanted to know why the mercernay pool dries up. so it diminishes as the province gets more developed?

I suppose it makes sense, that as the province builds up there will be less opportunity for mercenaries to ply their trade without getting themselves arrested by the local authorities....hence, the more developed, the fewer mercs around...

[drone]

just to change topic briefly, i always wanted to know why the mercernay pool dries up. so it diminishes as the province gets more developed?

If I'm not mistaken, the pool dries up the farther away from the front the province gets. The closer conflict is to the province, the better for mercenary recruitment. I believe this is how it works, I generally don't pay attention to mercs though.

Edit-> of course, I may be getting this confused with RTW merc availability, I still haven't completely purged that game from my brain yet.

[Martok]

If I'm not mistaken, the pool dries up the farther away from the front the province gets. The closer conflict is to the province, the better for mercenary recruitment. I believe this is how it works, I generally don't pay attention to mercs though.

Correct. Mercenaries are more likely to show up in provinces near a faction's borders, especially if said borders are contested.

[macsen rufus]

Also some buildings have negative "mercenary magnetism" - there's a column for this in the build_prod file, so you can check it out with Gnome

[Ravencroft]

yeah, I guess. The base rate inns give is 40. As the castle gets upgraded another level, that value decreases.