in this tutorial I will show you how to make mercenary units and add them to the campaign. For the tutorial I will assume that you know how to build a startpos with custom stuff (factions, units etc), and that you know how to build a custom unit.
0.1) Preperations
First of all, to make a mercenary unit, simply follow the exact same procedure as you would do for a normal unit. To get the special mercenary colour, go to main_units and for the unit caste select light_merc, medium_merc or heavy_merc.
0.2) Types of Mercenary Pools
In Rome II, there are two different types of mercenary pools, regional mercenaries, and factional mercenaries. Regional mercenaries are simply bound by province, in simple terms, any army (or navy) that is in that province can buy them. Factional mercenaries are not bound by province, but instead bound by faction. These mercenaries can only be recruited by that faction, inside the faction's borders, anywhere on the map.
1.1) Creating the Mercenary entity
Once you have created your mercenary unit, go to the table called "mercenary_unit_groups". You should see the table looking like this:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
For the "key" column, in order to avoid confusion and keep everything simple, put the variable name of the unit you created. Copy Paste that on the final column as well. The "chance to replenish" is simply a chance from 0 to 1 for that unit to be added in the mercenary pool every turn. The max_count is the cap of that unit, once it is reached no more units will be added in the pool. The "max_replenish_per_turn" determines the maximum number of units that can be added every turn. Taking the 1st line as an example, there is a 40% chance for a DP_Mer_Hoplites unit to be added in the pool each turn, with 1 unit being replenished.
1.2) Finding the Mercenary Pool
Excluding Wrath of Sparta (which only has one pool applied to all provinces) every province has a land unit pool, with some having naval pools as well.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
We see here in the "mercenary_pools" tables that the Macedonia province in the Grand Campaign has both land and naval mercenaries. For Wrath of Sparta, if you want to make proper regional pools (and not what vanilla has), add a new entry there.
In the "province_to_mercenary_set_junctions" table the provinces are attached to the respective province. For Wrath of Sparta, add a new entry with the pool you made above and attach it to the respective province.
1.3) Giving the units to the mercenary pool
Once the mercenary pool that we want to add the unit has been found, we need the "mercenary_pool_to_groups_junctions" table. On the index number, put a large unique number. On the "Group" column, put the variable name of your unit from step 1.1. On the initial unit count, you determine how many of that unit the pool will have at the start of the campaign.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Here for example we see that the province of Amphipolis has 4 mercenary units available, Bisaltians, Agrianian Axemen, Hoplites and Citizen Cav, with 1 Agrianian Axemen unit and 2 Hoplites units available from the start.
Once you have done that, process startpos and you are good to go!
2.1) Faction Pool.
To add units in the factional mercenary pool, you need to find the name of the faction's pool. You can find that in the "faction_to_mercenary_sets" table.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
2.2) Adding units to the Faction Pool
In order to add units in the mercenary pool of a faction, you repeat step 1.3 and instead of the provincial pool, you add the pool of the faction, in the "mercenary_pools_to_set_junctions" table.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Once you have done that, process startpos and you have your mercenaries!
If there is something I have missed, or something that you do not understand well, let me know and I will do my best to help you out
Mercenary Tutorial
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