Expeditionary forces/Volunteer army

[TalorianEmporer]

Would it be possible to include an Expeditionary force'/Volunteer army or equivalent option?
I think it would be good if you could send soldiers to your ally or someone you want to support in a war (instead of their only being monetary war aid) . By either renting the soldiers to them (you still pay the cost of upkeep and the manpower for reinforcing the regiments is taken from your manpower pool) or provide them for free (providing them for free could possible positively effect relations?). This would allow you to have soldiers fighting in a war without actually fighting it, if say you have 2 allies fighting want to support the smaller ally but want to keep the alliance with the larger ally (maybe with a chance of the other ally "discovering" that you have sent soldiers to help fight them and then it effects relations somehow) There are several examples of this happening throughout history (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King's_German_Legion) Napoleonic Wars Germans from the French occupied Electorate of Hannover fought for the British. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Guard) Scots who fought for the French.

 

[Tornadoli]

Truces would have to be reworked, or this would be too exploitable.

 

[TalorianEmporer]

very true, maybe an option that causes you not to be able to provide soldiers against someone you have a truce with or something like that

 

[RodolfoA]

I think it's ok with truces, cause if your soldiers conquer something, it will not be for you but for your ally, so you can really help to destroy a big country, but you don't get nothing from it. And I think it should have a positive effect with the country your' lending soldiers, and a negative with the one the soldiers will be fighting. In your example of 2 allyes fighting, if the reation get too bad, the ally is gone! (ah, and maybe it should be made a CB of this!)

 

[TalorianEmporer]

Yes that would be a very interesting CB to have, I guess it would also mean that there would be some hilarious wars. Imagine France declares war on Poland because The Poles sent forces to aid the burgundians

 

[Shedcape]

I could see it work. Perhaps with some form of limiting factor. It would be fairly unrealistic if suddenly mazovia got access to 50 000 men because big guy Austria decided to lend their whole army to "Fight under the Mazovian flag". Perhaps a percentage of your own force limit or manpower. Or perhaps even depending on the nation you want to help.

 

[Don_Quigleone]

Hmmm, I think the best course here is to consider historical sources.

Anyone know if countries sending their armies to help other countries happened frequently? Also, how frequent was this compared to use of mercenaries (which was ubiquitous)?

 

[TalorianEmporer]

Mercenaries were more popular, it is probably a quite rare occurrence but should be a possibility

 

[Nis Baggesen]

I think it depends a lot on the part of the period and the area of the world you look at. 300 years and the whole globe is a pretty significant span. Looking at Europe I'd argue that mercenaries were the rule in the early part of the period and expeditionary forces where a much later development.

 

[unmerged(193360)]

Being able to rent your army out to neighboring countries as mercenaries would be fantastic. Mercenaries played a huge part in warfare in much of the EU period, but in EU3 they were usually just a waste of money unless you were utterly desperate on the manpower front.

 

[unmerged(509501)]

Being able to rent your army out to neighboring countries as mercenaries would be fantastic. Mercenaries played a huge part in warfare in much of the EU period, but in EU3 they were usually just a waste of money unless you were utterly desperate on the manpower front.

That is an extremely interesting proposition, so would the system your are thinking of be along the line of getting an event that allows you to trade manpower for gold + land tradition or something else?

 

[ben_mit_b]

I think it should be either limited to the country's force limit I want to send help to - let's say to "fill it up" - or to +x% the country's force limit.

Weren't the swiss halberd units favourite mercenaries once? Perhaps there should be a special government form, which tends to be neutral, but lends forces to everyone. Maybe similar to the Hansa and Venice in terms of trade. Like a mercenary union being formed. Dont think swiss would be the only one...

 

[unmerged(193360)]

That is an extremely interesting proposition, so would the system your are thinking of be along the line of getting an event that allows you to trade manpower for gold + land tradition or something else?

Ideally I'd like to see a system where you can place a particular army "on the market", then when another country opens the mercenary tab (similar to the one in CK2) they get to choose between all armies that have been available as mercenaries + any free companies that exist. If you hire one then you gain control of that army for the duration of the contract. The owner country would get the pay, + land tradition when the mercenaries fight.

Edit: you should get a popup to accept/refuse when a country wants to hire your army.

 

[Don_Quigleone]

Swiss were a big one for mercenaries, but there were also Lanknechts and Condotta as well.

A lot of these mercs should be roving bands, who recruit from all over the place. But they should be significant, as basically they were how rich merchant states could easily stand toe to toe with larger kingdoms.