EU4 - Development Diary - 17th March 2016

[DDRJake]

Hi everyone and welcome to another development diary for Europa Univeralis IV.


Today we will be covering a much-anticipated mechanic. For times where a nation you love is being attacked and you are unable or unwilling to sign an alliance or when you simply want to make your idle standing army work for their bread, we introduce Condottieri.

Condottieri are armies which you have rented out to other nations in exchange for money. Condottieri armies will remain in control of the nation who has offered them but they will fight and die for their recipient country marking their recipient’s enemies as their own.


When renting out your army as Condottieri, you are able to negotiate the fee for your services, which is set as a multiple of their monthly maintenance, from 0x all the way up to 5x, with the first 18 months paid upfront. If you are confident that you are leaving behind enough of a garrison, you can send out a sizable amount of your army, up to 20 units (increased by +available mercenary ideas) to earn money for you on the battlefield.


Once rented out, Condottieri will be hostile to the recipient’s enemies and will be able to fight and siege in the name of the paying nation. They will also have the military access which their recipient country has but these enemies will have access to the Condottieri’s homelands too, so they cannot simply seek refuge at home. In addition to the fee that you have charged your recipient country, your units will also gain 50% more prestige and army tradition for fighting as Condottieri.

After 18 months have passed, either side may cancel the arrangement and the troops will go back to being a regular army. The agreement can remain for as long as both parties are satisfied. Naturally, should a nation find themselves at war with a nation who is renting their Condottieri, the contract will be cancelled. Furthermore, if the paying country finds themselves at peace, they can end the contract before the 18 months are up.

More to come next week!

 

[Darkrenown]

Terrible post, preorder canceled.

 

[DDRJake]

Lots of good questions coming in, I'll elaborate on them shortly.

 

[Dnote]

The fun that can be had with this

Questions:

Can I do this with the Religious League war, send my troops to one of the countries involved without joining myself?
Can you send Condottieri to a subject (vassal/PU/colony) nation?
If you can, do Condottieri count towards the Liberty Desire of the subject nation?
Are there any restrictions on who can do it or who you can do it with, ie Christians fighting for Muslims etc?

 

[DDRJake]

Also, how will the AI react to this? First, what if you're not actually contributing with the troops? Can I sell someone a massive army for which I make loads of money then never send them to help? Second, how often will the AI use it? Will every single war end up as a proxy war as it will in MP with hundreds of thousands of troops each side?

Firstly, if you rent out your armies and do nothing with them during your 18 month contract, the AI will end the contract and you will find it harder to find nations who will accept your condottieri services in the future.

Secondly, we have tried various levels of AI participation with Condottieri. Militaristic rulers bordering warring nations will be ones who are going to rent out some of their armies as condottieri, although playing on Hard difficulty will result in a lot more AI nations joining in with Condottieri.

Question out of curiosity:

Say Switzerland is at war with Milan. I as France loan 1 army to Switzerland and 1 army to Milan, will french condottieri end up fighting french condottieri?

Also: out of whose manpower are losses replenished?

If you have sent Condottieri to one nation, you cannot then send Condottieri to their war enemies. You can, however, withdraw your troops after the 18 months is up and offer them to the other side, becoming the Lord of War

Manpower is taken from the home nation of the Condottieri.

Is this feature available to everyone, or only Europeans?

So long as you have Mare Nostrum DLC active, any non-subject nation can offer Condottieri

And you can also "fire and forget" by attaching your units to your new employers' army

So it seems that generals are hired as well, can rulers and/or heirs be "hired" in a similar fashion?

Edit:
"Hey I'll even pay you to hire my retarded heir, remember to put him in the frontline!"

There are many methods to lure Enrique to his demise, but Condottieri are not one of them.

• Does this give penalty bonus to relations with whome the buyyer is war with? You know we are helping them with manpower, without declaring war.
• Can we rent ships?
• Also can we rent out mercenaries?
• Can we Send our Ruler & Heir General and send him?
• Can It be done with rival countries?
• Say, If our ally is rival with another country. Can we rent our armies to that other rivaled country?
• Does this increasing the inflation?
• Does It brings some events? Maybe Oppinion bonus for fighting together?

No, no, yes, no, yes (but AI will not accept), yes, no, not currently

* Do you gain WE while you're renting your armies out? Do you still lose 0.1 WE/month for being at peace?

Yes. It is still the children of your nation out there bleeding and dying for your their coin. You will, for all intents still be considered at peace though, and enjoy the -0.1 WE

What's keeping you from hiding the army you rent out on the other side world while raking in the cash?

AI will end the contract and you will have a malus towards rending out in the future.

Can I do this with the Religious League war, send my troops to one of the countries involved without joining myself?
Can you send Condottieri to a subject (vassal/PU/colony) nation?
If you can, do Condottieri count towards the Liberty Desire of the subject nation?
Are there any restrictions on who can do it or who you can do it with, ie Christians fighting for Muslims etc?

Yes, you can get involved via Condottieri in the Religious War like any other
Subjects may not receive or rent out Condottieri
Any non-subject nation can receive your Condottieri, so long as the price is right.

What's this, DDRJake is also writing the dev diaries now?
Someone at Paradox needs to step up and form a coalition(or defensive pact) against him before he becomes the CEO!

It is too late

It was always too late.

How ironic it must feel for DDRJake, that people suggest lots of exploits he (or other QA people) may not have found.

The novelty is palatable.

 

[DDRJake]

This looks interesting but it'll make wars more unpredictable when the country you thought you had on the ropes suddenly orders up a huge Condottieri army.

The AI will not be willing to hire a Condottieri which it does not have the money for or if it is drowning in debt.

In a similar vein, you cannot hire out Condottieri to a nation who is at war with a nation you have a truce with, to prevent you from curb-stomping a nation you have already fought with and to prevent you from being attacked by a nation you just peaced out with.

 

[Chaingun]

Can a player rent AI armies? Or is the player renting Condottieri restricted to multiplayer?
If so, how hard is it to get the AI to accept? Does diplorep + cash = AI swarms?
I would love to play as the Netherlands and buy AI armies to fight my wars for me

AI can both hire and rent armies. However, on Normal difficulty and below it's severely restricted. Even on Hard it's rather nerfed now because it was making the game extremely difficult for QA at first.

Yes, as a player you should be able to hire a lot of condottieri from AI nations assuming you have cash lying about, and military access to those nations. Note that they have to offer it to you the way the mechanic works, you can't go into diplo screen other than to offer renting to them.