Guide to Mercenaries?

[lamna]

Has anyone released a guide to how the mercenary system works? I've been playing as Epirus and created an army specifically to recruit elephants, but I've been hanging around North Africa for quite a while and every time I try to recruit some, none are available. I'm in the right place, I can see the icon for them and there are elephants on the campaign map.Pyrrhus starts out with a unit of elephants, so are you limited to just having one? If so, is that for the whole game or just while your imperium is low?Or do mercenaries need time to "restock" and you can have as many as you like, if you wait for them to respawn?Sorry for asking here, but the in-game encyclopaedia doesn't seem to have the information, and the wikias aren't much help either.

[Korburss]

I don't know how long it takes but yes they "restock". However you can go to different area and get different mercenaries, think of them like a resource system.

I would recommend not bothering with them, unless you really want a theme army, as they'll cost double or more of what your own troops would in upkeep.

[[N2]Kami]

If you want to play with mercenary, play as Roman. They have auxiliarry camp to recruit local mercenary. You can have as many elephant as you want

[[N2]Kami]

double

[daelin4]

The respawn pool is about the only thing not changed from RTW/MTW2: there is a selection of units and it regenerates when they are all hired out. A few traits and retainers seem to make the replenishment a small percentage faster, if you happen to get one of them at all.

Like recruitment mercenaries are province-wide, so just roam around the provinces that get you elephants. Only Phazania and Libya get African war elephants, so just part your army between the two province's borders and walk back and forth every turn and see if they replenish. There is also the odd chance the AI recruits them too.

If you are THAT desparete, take a hike to the regions near India and recruit Indian elephants.

[Noif de Bodemloze]

I use them only if I need 1 or couple units more to my army and after battle or turn, I disband them. Otherwise they waste your money if you keep them longer.