Situation. I am attacking Macedon or Carthage as Rome. And in the middle of enemy territory I can loan 20k + mercenaries. And then I am going to nearest conquered territory and regain morale. There should be more restriction for it.
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The mercenary cap is already a significant restriction to it. Money is another factor as mercs aren't cheap and they don't earn you any military experience points.
Once hired they also need to take some time to build up their morale, so you don't really gain any immediate benefit just by hiring them. Then, as you mentioned, they can only regain the morale in the owned/held territory, so you don't really want to go for those merc stacks that are too far from it. If you hire them from your enemy's land then you have to control that enemy territory first for them to replenish their morale there, and you've got to make sure you won't loose it in the meantime.
In my opinion, that's already enough of restrictions on their use and I personally find them well balanced as they are now, especially after they introduced the cap on them.
The only thing that annoys me a bit about them at this stage is their composition. In my current playthrough in Greece/Macedon and most of Asia Minor, their composition is almost always the same with heavy infantry, archers and a bit of light cav. I wish there was a bit more variation to this.
Once hired they also need to take some time to build up their morale, so you don't really gain any immediate benefit just by hiring them. Then, as you mentioned, they can only regain the morale in the owned/held territory, so you don't really want to go for those merc stacks that are too far from it. If you hire them from your enemy's land then you have to control that enemy territory first for them to replenish their morale there, and you've got to make sure you won't loose it in the meantime.
In my opinion, that's already enough of restrictions on their use and I personally find them well balanced as they are now, especially after they introduced the cap on them.
The only thing that annoys me a bit about them at this stage is their composition. In my current playthrough in Greece/Macedon and most of Asia Minor, their composition is almost always the same with heavy infantry, archers and a bit of light cav. I wish there was a bit more variation to this.
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Main problem is imho how small nations and opm have thousands of gold to spend in mercenaries because they don't spend it on anything else.
Also, thousands of mercenaries everywhere, way too much of them.
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Ok. We have limit cap, cost in money, morale fixed at 0. But imagine in MP situation that You have same army as opponent. You take province near his capital. Then park your army as cover for mercenaries regaining morale in the last days of month. Do You think that opponent will risk battle with suddenly 2x bigger army? Another problem is big number of mercenaries. You cant buy all of potential enemy armies on your own territory. You cant also remove them as I assume.
they cant do jack shit with the black flag... they need to move to own territory first.
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They absolutely would. AI takes morale levels into account, and a mercenary force that has just had one tick of morale will break immediately upon contact with fresh elephants/heavy infantry. I've had that exact thing happen to me. The mercenaries contributed for one tick of the battle then fled with the rest.
100% agree on the number of mercs, though. I'd like for them to be dynamic as well, coming from the armies of defeated states, and for the possibility of rooting them out like you currently can pirates. Suggestion going into detail about that here, but that's the TLDR.
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I found one use for mercenaries not mentioned and that's sieges.
When an Army is sieging there's a box to show you how well it's doing.
There is a button with the image of a four wheeled siege engine.
Click the button and the siege ends a lot quicker and at a high to very high manpower cost.
Disband your mercenaries and no one will be able to recruit them for about a decade while their manpower recovers.
When an Army is sieging there's a box to show you how well it's doing.
There is a button with the image of a four wheeled siege engine.
Click the button and the siege ends a lot quicker and at a high to very high manpower cost.
Disband your mercenaries and no one will be able to recruit them for about a decade while their manpower recovers.
That I assume is the assault option, see very detailed wiki page with optimal technique for assault:
Assault - Imperator Wiki
But using your mercs this way you will loose them as well for 10 years. I normally hire a merc with a high martial and stick with them for a long time. Even when the general dies, I keep the mercs with me, it is cheaper than hiring new mercs every time.
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I too usually keep mercs on retainer, until I can raise several large Legions to replace them. Pump'n'dump for assaults I usually do for mercs I bribe though, since you can buy off mercs past your mercenary cap.
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That I assume is the assault option, see very detailed wiki page with optimal technique for assault:
Assault - Imperator Wiki
imperator.paradoxwikis.com
But using your mercs this way you will loose them as well for 10 years. I normally hire a merc with a high martial and stick with them for a long time. Even when the general dies, I keep the mercs with me, it is cheaper than hiring new mercs every time.
Yes, that looks like it.
I didn't know what the button was at the time so I pressed it. 13k mercenaries reduced to 3k in about 25 days.
I shall now read the wiki page and see how I can do it better next time.
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