Mercenaries worthy of adding to the payroll

[Fireright]

As players trundle around the rtw map, they're usually offered a selection of mercenary warriors of varying quality to hire in and bung on the military payroll.

Some mercenaries are well worth the wedge and adding to the payroll, I rate the best thus:
　
Cretan Archers
Samartians
Hoplites



Some mercenaries are garbage and not worth a bean. The duffers I consider thus:
Eastern spearmen
Bedouin archers
Peltasts/slingers.

Eastern mercenaries I have a particular disgust of and would rather use peasants!!

Any other players groan in disgust when offered a bunch of duffers for hire?

What mercenaries do players consider well worth the payroll?

[{GrailKnight}]

Anything is good against the A.I.

[Deux]

Mercenary War Elephants, although very expensive they are really worth the money. Keep them alive and they will win many battles for you.

[MortenJessen]

Hi there.
Cretan Archers.
Balleric Slingers (not sure how it is spelled).
and Mercenary War Elephants.
Y.S.
M. Jessen

[Genius of the Restoration]

For me:
1. Cretans
2. Balearics
3. Scythians
4. Numidian Cavalry
5. Spanish Mercenaries

Maybe I'm just a missile whore

[blackwatersix]

Hmm.

Cretan Archers
Balearic Slingers
Slingers
Spanish Mercenaries

I disagree with fireright though, I think eastern mercs are a worthy buy.. Especially if you're facing egypt (which I currently am, using Selucids) great cannon fodder. Not to mention buffer for chariots. No one uses eastern mercs to hold the line anyway.

[SoulBlade]

Those Sarmatian cavalry are also cool. They have a devastating charge.

[King_Darius]

1. cretans
2. balearic slingers
3. scythians
4. merc hoplites (defo if playing with romans)

[Maca]

This is in no order except when they came to mind:

1) Mercenary Hoplites. These guys are a must for me and are the first merc that I hire whenever I can, especially for phalanx limited factions, Rome, most Barbarians etc. I just use them as normal phalanxes

2) Cretan Archers. I like archers and the Cretans are some of the best. Enough said.

3) Barbarian Mercenaries/Cavalry. Underrated units, but cheap and plentyful. I use them to bolster my armies in barbaric land. The cavalry are really quite good against the lighter troops early game. I only really buy them early, when they are most effective.

4) Mercenary Peltasts. I don't especially like skirmisher infantry, but when these are available I will consider them if there aren't any better troops about. Reasonable unit if you can use them well.

5) Sarmations. I must addmit that I don't use them often, as I rarely play where they can be recruited, but when I have I have been pretty impressed on their cost to effectiveness ratio.

6) Spanish Mercenaries. Love these guys as I have a real soft spot for Scutarii, and they are just the slightly worse versions of Scutarii. Fairly usefull in battle, I view them as a lighter Hastatii unit.

7) Eastern Mercenaries. Much like barbarian mercs, low cost, poor stats but high numbers, I actually like them. Poor as they are, only Egypt and the Seulucids can field infantry much better early in the east (Pontus maybe?) Easy recruitment and plentiful supply make these guys useful in the early game.

Scythians. Well, they're cheap HA's...

Now for the...slightly less useful

1) Mercenary War Elephants. Just not worth the cost, and any elephant less than armoured always runs amok for me. Factor in the cost, limited availability and that they can be recruited in only a few regions, and these make pretty poor Mercs, IMO.

2) Thracian Mercenaries/Merc Bastarnae. Not mush to say really, just not that good in my experience. Especially in comparison to the factions infantry around them (phalanxes for macedon, Greece, better H.I for Brutii.)

3) Numidian Cavalry. I just prefer HA's, but that's personal opinion.

[Genius of the Restoration]

Don't barbarian mercenaries cost 800dn? That's pretty expensive. Sarmatians cost 1200 too IIRC.
I dunno, I just don't want to spend that much on units when cheaper recruits can get the job done fine...

[Maca]

I generally think in terms of upkeep, and for the number of men Barbarians are quite cheap. I quite like mercs in general, I like not having to take the time to train in my cities, when I can have many units instantly, when finances allow.

[Genius of the Restoration]

Oh yeah, I agree with you, it's all dependent on the situation. Those guys are usually at the bottom of my list though, but then again I usually have a very tight economy

[Drakedeath]

1) Cretans
2) Sarmatians
3) Hoplites
4) Illyrians (can hold their own in melee)
5) Bastarnae

Certain Situations

1) Barbarian Mercenaries (I like these guys if I fight the Britons. They bog down and destroy chariots)
2) Eastern Infantry (Best used to either deal with lighter chariots or keep the chariots from steamrolling up the flank of your phalanxes)

[The Hedge Knight]

I always hire samnites just because i like the look of them...

Going on usefulness barbarian infantry make a superb missile sheild for my phalanxes or legionares.

Cretans and blearic slingers are good for firing over that sheild.

[King_Darius]

I always hire samnites just because i like the look of them...

Going on usefulness barbarian infantry make a superb missile sheild for my phalanxes or legionares.

Cretans and blearic slingers are good for firing over that sheild.

balearic slingers firing "over"????
you must be joking....
you must kill more of your own guys....

[The Good]

For me:

I. Cretan Archers (the best archers available to hire, and I sometimes bring a unit or two along on my campaigns)
II. Mercenary Hoplites (the hoplites are some of the best spearmen, that's enough of a reason for me to hire them)
III. Illyrian Mercenaries (like one here said, they can still fight pretty well in melee, and are fast moving, as well as great skirmishers)
IV. Scythian Horse Archers (Great, because they're mounted archers)
V. Barbarian Mercenaries (very plentiful in western Europe, and are pretty average to decent in combat)

[Fireright]

Cretan Archers and Hoplites are probably the only mercenary units I try to preserve and are worth the effort of merging into stacks and shuffling around the campaign map.
The other merc units get fed into the meat grinder and can die where they fall. I aint paying for the upkeep of duff units.

[Knight_of_Ni]

1. Cretans-very powerful and very fast archers
2. Balaerics-very powerful and very fast slingers (see any similarity )
3. Hoplite-good phalanx when your short on troops or are a nonphalanx faction
4. Barbarian mercenaries-a lot of very decent troops with warcry!
5. Spanish mercenaries-Roman Legionnaire lite
6. Thracian/Bastarnae-good heavy assault infantry for phalanx based factions
7. Numidians(mounted or dismounted)-rip apart armored units from a distance
8. Sycthians-Horse Archers...'nuff said
9. Illyrians-very good peltast infantry(and pretty handy in melee)


10. Yutseb Elephants-

[Justinian Australis]

Mmmm....I'll aways pick up Cretan archers and Balaeric slingers where they are available. Bastarnae mercenaries are always found in my armies. I also like Barbarian mercenaries, just recruiting them in large numbers and using them as fodder who can also cause a bit of damage.

Oh, I aslo like Cilician mercenaries...just the look of them.

[HanatielHawk]

I mostly use barbarian mercenaries when playing the Julii, great armyunit increaser and enemy morale reducer. Once they're really to damaged to go on i disband them in slowgrowing cities.
Mercenary hoplites are bomb, Cretan Archers, Mostly camels when i need to fight cavalery. elephants kick ass.