• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

EU4 - Development Diary - 17th March 2016

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 DD 01.jpg


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.

Condottieri DD 02.jpg


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!
 
Last edited:
  • 176
  • 52
  • 15
Reactions:
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
 
  • 2
Reactions:
As an Italian I'm feeling the irresistible impulse of pointing out that the usage of the word condottieri is so terrible that if Dante ever heard about it, he would have probably thought that he was in hell again.

Saying an army of condottieri is like saying an army of generals. A condottiero should be the leader of the stack, not every soldier.
 
  • 14
  • 3
Reactions:
Shame vassals would not be able to make use of it, seemed like one of the ways you could still influence the world around you while being under the yoke of a superior.
 
  • 1
Reactions:
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.



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.



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



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



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



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



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



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.



It is too late

It was always too late.



The novelty is palatable.
Even though I beleive the answer is yes will your quality go for your condottieri in other nations armies. Like polish cavalry and smolenskian artillery rented by the prussians for max power. If partially no, which modifiers isn't transferred.
 
Whats to prevent AI from hiring a craptonn of condots every time you attack them? We all know how AI will spend money to stop you from taking your 1 core back, even if they bankrupt themselves in the process.

I've never actually seen the AI bankrupt itself to fight a war, unless I'm fighting Ming, but I think the same mechanic that prevents the AI from going absurdly over the force limit to fight a war could be used to prevent Condottieri spamming.
 
  • 1
Reactions:
ALL SLIDERS SHOULD DEFAULT TO THE OBVIOUS BEST POSITION... I hate having my "sell one ship" slider default to 200 ducats, then having to spend time sliding it down to the perfect price... there are reasons to allow me to sell high in multiplayer, or low if i like my ally, but the default should be sell for the highest price the ai will accept.
 
  • 25
  • 2
Reactions:
So if I rent out my troops to another country will my country still have the same bonuses, such as the ones related to morale, discipline, combat ability, special abilities such as no cost for reinforcing etc? Do primitive nations greatly benefit from this, as long as they have the gold to pay for the foreign mercenaries?
 
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.
If I'm playing as Albania and I rent my troops to Austria whose fighting the Turks. If my army is too small to be of help in a fight would I get the "didn't help" opinion if I just captured less important provinces for Austria or destroyed 1k units?
 
  • 1
Reactions:
Call them contractors or venture companies but condottieri is an italian world for the leaders of the italian venture companies who signed a contract (called condotta, which was basically the name for a military contract). I know it sounds cool but it's wrong, and also please dont' say "a Condottieri" because it's just wrong x 2
 
  • 6
Reactions:
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.
 
  • 27
  • 2
Reactions:
I'd like to echo a question asked earlier. Will the AI rent out their armies to the player under an easy to recognize circumstance? I see far too many features not being utilized by the AI /IN USEFUL OR LOGICAL WAYS/.
Perhaps allow the player to have a button to REQUEST the AI to rent an army to them. Seeing as I cant just open up the chat and be like "Yo france can has army?" And then I realize I'm playing alone. (this could also be a useful feature for some of the other stuff the AI doesn't use like selling Navies and the ability to sell provinces.)
 
  • 2
  • 1
Reactions:
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.

So is there a point at which my Italian minor will be offered cheap condotte army by two of Emperor/France/Spain to fight of the annexation attempt by the third one?
 
Nice. I could play like Savoy in the 30 years war without having to join the Protestant League.

In 1618, the Duke of Savoy sent troops with Ernst von Mansfeld to help the Bohemian revolt against the Emperor, though they were technically not in the war... their involvement was revealed after Mansfeld's defeat in the Battle of Sablat and they were forced to bow out of the war.

If I could send more troops, I might be able to knock the Emperor down a peg without needing to do battle myself.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_von_Mansfeld
 
Interesting, but I don't understand on which nation's forcelimit the hired troops count. Also, will this be moddable so that historical events like the perpetual peace can be implemented?
 
German mercenaries in particular were sought after
because of the effective riding formation of their heavily armed knights and
warhorses (equis). Lightly armed riders were usually Hungarians (using lighter,
swifter horses, called ronzini ), and foot soldiers were often Italians.

In the early years (1568 - ....) of the 80 year war, when the The Netherlands were formed, the Orange-family used German mercenaries to fight the Spanish troops controling the low countries. Only when "the 7 provences" were liberated and united in 1579 some kind of general ruling was started and one could speak of "The Netherlands" and a Dutch army and fleet.
 
  • 1
Reactions:
Great feature, poor and somewhat missleading naming. Btw real life and best known example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hessian_(soldier)
I think these Hessian regiments were actually controlled by the buyer, not Hessen, once in the war. So they are more mercenaries than this new feature.
From an historical perspective, it would be more "reallistic" than you can offer some units for military service, and when they are recruited, they are controlled by the nation who rented them, not by their original owner.
 
  • 6
Reactions:
And you can also "fire and forget" by attaching your units to your new employers' army
Would I be correct in assuming the "attachment" bug has been fixed, where you could attach your army to an AI's, and it would leave it behind without unattaching, blocking it from receiving movement commands?
 
  • 4
Reactions: