How do you hire mercs

[TigerVX]

I seem to recall reading that there are no mercenaries this time around, their prevalence and importance in warfare having declined greatly since the Medieval period.

On a related note though, what of regional levy forces? Anyone managed to build up a decent foothold in India yet and able to report on whether you do have to train colonial troops there rather than your normal forces?

Well, as the Dutch in India I have to train VOC Company Troops and Cavalry along with Sepoy Troops and Cavalry.

[pevergreen]

Yup. The british in america get colonial line infantry etc.

[Lord of the Isles]

Well, as the Dutch in India I have to train VOC Company Troops and Cavalry along with Sepoy Troops and Cavalry.

And similarly, the British get to recruit East India Company Line Infantry, Sepoy Infantry & Cavalry. The local troops seem to be a little worse than regular ones (only available from your original region) but better than the generic Militia troops - e.g. Militia Infantry have Morale 5, Sepoys 7, East India Company Line Infantry 9 and (IIRC) regular Line Infantry 10.

So each theatre (Europe, Americas, India) has its own troops to recruit. I kind of like the system but the gaping hole in it is the replenishment system: you can take an army of regular troops out to India and use that to keep them reinforced after battles without having to ship new ones from home. I think at the very least a longer time gap between paying for reinforcements and them appearing would be more realistic (as far as I remember, it is 2 turns no matter where you are).