Originally Posted by
ABH2
Well, in terms of mercenaries, it's hard to see how they could count against if it doesn't involve the AI. If the AI isn't involved in this system, there's no way to make it work realistically.
The way a lot of mercenaries in the ancient world ended up working was that it was actually often one state forming a treaty with another (usually smaller, weaker). So Cretan archers - we typically view them as mercenaries, but they were actually viewed as 'allies.' City-states on Crete would sign agreements with the larger Hellenistic powers for the city-state to provide a certain number of 'allies' who were paid for by the buying power. Another aspect of these deals was that the other state could often then also go in recruit more bodies besides the ones mandated by the treaty. The state essentially granted permission to the other party to come in and recruit. It was a financial, military, and diplomatic arrangement.
So, logically to work in game, we'd need to duplicate the diplomatic component. Agreements between states would lead to certain mercenaries becoming available.
The inferior power gets power and protection in exchange for manpower.
The costs are born by the signing state still.
Causeless as the one implementing the system is the one best suited to actually determine if this is possible and worth implementing.