Mercenaries

[IIGaneshaII]

Will mercenaries be useful in this mod? I never use mercenaries in other mods beacuse of the extreme upkeep and purchase cost. And to be honest i have neve found them to be better then my regular troops.

[Resurrection]

Basically the recruitment options will be very limited and will often take many turns. Most importantly however there will be cap introduced for amount of troops you can have at any one time. Everything above that cap will have to be mercenaries (instant recruitment but expensive) because you won't have option to recruit from your settlements then. Atop of that it won't be possible to recruit only elites as each unit type will have its own limits to ensure realistic army composition.

The basic example is as follows:

If medieval Bohemia could have up to 30 000 men army and we are going with the general rule of cutting all real world numbers by 10, then in game terms Bohemia will be able to field 3000 men (out of which 600 would be knights). Everything atop of that, if one wishes to have bigger army (or more knights), will have to be mercenaries since unless killed or disbanded the recruitment won't be available.

At least that's the plan and we'll see how well this system actually works when we get to testing.

[Horatius Flaccus]

Basically the recruitment options will be very limited and will often take many turns. Most importantly however there will be cap introduced for amount of troops you can have at any one time. Everything above that cap will have to be mercenaries (instant recruitment but expensive) because you won't have option to recruit from your settlements then. Atop of that it won't be possible to recruit only elites as each unit type will have its own limits to ensure realistic army composition.

Will this restriction also apply (to a lesser extent) for the AI?

[Laser101]

Basically the recruitment options will be very limited and will often take many turns. Most importantly however there will be cap introduced for amount of troops you can have at any one time. Everything above that cap will have to be mercenaries (instant recruitment but expensive) because you won't have option to recruit from your settlements then. Atop of that it won't be possible to recruit only elites as each unit type will have its own limits to ensure realistic army composition.

The basic example is as follows:

If medieval Bohemia could have up to 30 000 men army and we are going with the general rule of cutting all real world numbers by 10, then in game terms Bohemia will be able to field 3000 men (out of which 600 would be knights). Everything atop of that, if one wishes to have bigger army (or more knights), will have to be mercenaries since unless killed or disbanded the recruitment won't be available.

At least that's the plan and we'll see how well this system actually works when we get to testing.

Is this system dynamic? (i.e. does it change in response to factors such as population growth?)

[sumskilz]

Is this system dynamic?

Yes

EDIT: I don't know the precise details, partially because they haven't all been worked out. I think it works like agent limits sort of. Azim could give a better answer, but he may be busy coding.

[IIGaneshaII]

Sounds good Keep up the good work

[Alkidas]

Will mercenaries be useful in this mod? I never use mercenaries in other mods beacuse of the extreme upkeep and purchase cost. And to be honest i have neve found them to be better then my regular troops.

Definitely, yes. I agree that they are not so interesting in vanilla. But they will be very expensive in DotS. But also very good. Mercenaries were used a lot during the Middle Ages, so you should expect them to be a good option. They will be recruitable in settlements.

[Resurrection]

Yes it will and probably at the same extent. We are also significantly improving battle model of M2TW as well as AI which should hopefully prevent majority of player used exploits and that player will no longer be able to crush enemies with ratio 10:1 due to that. In conjunction these systems (along with some others) should create the situation when you - playing say small faction - would be no match against big factions despite being human simply because you would lack the sheer power needed and thus will be forced to more careful planning and actions.

[true born Lithuanian]

All of this sounds awesome. I hope you will be able to implement and make this work properly. Good luck.

[NK513]

You say that a country such as Bohemia would be able to field 3000 men (1/10 of real life) due to restrictions you have implemented in the game, but how will conquering more lands affect how many troops your able to field. If i was Bohemia and i counquered areas of Germany will i be able to train more troops because my population would have increased?

[Resurrection]

You say that a country such as Bohemia would be able to field 3000 men (1/10 of real life) due to restrictions you have implemented in the game, but how will conquering more lands affect how many troops your able to field. If i was Bohemia and i counquered areas of Germany will i be able to train more troops because my population would have increased?

That is more complicated. Units will be under AOR and unique faction units (faction specific units) will atop of that be tied with homeland type of settlement. You can eventually turn a settlement into homeland when you have hold it long enough but initially just by conquering you won't get any boost to your army size limit. You need to conquer it and hold it to develop it from colony to at least autonomy as to be able to recruit regular troops there. It won't be so everytime and everywhere but generally it will be like this.

But there is where mercs kick in. You will have to rely on them if your faction's army won't be enough at least in the time before you make it your autonomy and will be able to recruit more troops. The historical and general logic is hopefully self-explanatory behind this.

[YetiFatMan]

I've got the opposite problem than the OP. I rely too much on mercenaries. Needless to say, that shouldn't be a problem to me then.

[Fire-dweller]

Mercs should be more streamlined and less needed!

[sumskilz]

Mercs should be more streamlined and less needed!

But that would not be historical in most cases.

[part_time_player]

Could some mercs be expensive to represent for example experienced Milanese crossbowman for hire (units would have experience) and others be cheaper to represent local militias being hired? Also could you account for soldiers of fortune who joined up for spoils rather than regular pay? Eg. A Breton knight and his retinue in the 100 years war coming to fight on either side in the hope of capturing and ransoming an enemy noble and make enough enough money to increase his status! I like the idea of mercs adding a lot of variety to an army.

[sumskilz]

Could some mercs be expensive to represent for example experienced Milanese crossbowman for hire (units would have experience) and others be cheaper to represent local militias being hired?

Yes

Also could you account for soldiers of fortune who joined up for spoils rather than regular pay?

How? I'm not really sure of what mechanism could be used to represent this. I vaguely remember someone from CA saying that having mercenaries reduces the amount that the player gets from looting, but then they also have the mercenary captain trait which offsets that. I've never tested this claim myself, but if they really did implement such a feature then it must be affected by all mercenaries and would be hard-coded either way.

[Thorwald]

I hope there will be a large choice of mercenaries, also from neutral and allied factions within the same religion. For exemple, if the Venetians posses Cairo it should be possible to hire Flemish pikemen, with a price and turns depending of their home land.

[Fire-dweller]

I hope there will be a large choice of mercenaries, also from neutral and allied factions within the same religion. For exemple, if the Venetians posses Cairo it should be possible to hire Flemish pikemen, with a price and turns depending of their home land.

Then the game would have to incorporate ethnicities and migrations.

[sirfiggin]

just wondering, could the "activity" in a region generate more mercenaries? so that as two warring nations slowly lose their native troops, they are forced to depend more and more on foreign professionals?

[Fire-dweller]

just wondering, could the "activity" in a region generate more mercenaries? so that as two warring nations slowly lose their native troops, they are forced to depend more and more on foreign professionals?

My point exactly.