Mercenaries: How do they work?

[Drachenfire]

My question is how does that event for mercenaries work exactly? When you get a pop-up message about hiring mercenaries?

What I would like to know, if this is possible, is to simulate the relationship between the Princes of Gwynedd and Deheubarth (and in point of fact some Saxon Earls, lol) in which the Welsh would hire Hiberno-Norse mercenaries to supliment their armies.

What I envision would be if Dublin or Laigan were independent, or prehaps still under the rule of a Gaelic (or Norse-Gael) ruler, then when in battle or war a pop-up message for the player of the Prinicpality of Gwynedd or Deheubarth (and king of Wales) would pop-up asking if you would like to hire Irish Mercenaries.

Now, this pop up and supplimental army would only be available if Dublin and Laigan, or the Kingdom of Ireland, were ruled by an Irish or Gaelic ruler. If it were ruled by an English ruler (circa 1187) then the pop-up would not appear.

According to Professor John Davies, the ability of Welsh princes to supliment their armies with Irish mercenaries was crucial in maintaining independance. Once the east coast of Ireland was occupied.... a move that Davies says was in large part to end that relationship between Wales and Ireland... that only then was the conquest of Wales possible. Had Llywelyn II had the ability to seek refuge and regroup in Ireland, then the corse of history may have changed.

It is this relationship I am curious to know if it can be simulated.

 

[jordarkelf]

In general: when you're at war, you have a chance of getting a mercenary event. Which one depends on tag and culture, century, and wealth. Tag/culture decides the culture of the mercenaries, century and realm wealth decide the strength (size) of the mercenary company.

It is possible to edit or add Irish mercenaries, and tie their appearance to celtic realms only, so that you would have to be an Irish, Scottish, Breton, or Welsh ruler to get these mercenaries.

But the bottom line is that it is an event with a normal MTTH, and triggers. It's no special engine code.

 

[unmerged(98596)]

I find mercenary events are quite easy to edit, I've added a bunch in my game, though none have been contingent on a certain area being ruled by a certain culture (though I'm pretty sure that'd be easy to do). You'd have to consider how many soldiers, and which types, you'd want from the event, the frequency of its occurence, and all those things, but they're really pretty easy to do.

 

[Veldmaarschalk]

The downside with mercenaries is, is that they have no leaders. Which means that their morale will easily collapse in a battle.

They are best used for sieging castles

 

[Drachenfire]

Kk, all of this sounds good. I wonder if it would be best to say Hiberno-Norse, or Norse, rather then Irish however. As the Welsh princes generally had good relations with the Hiberno-Norse rulers in Ireland.

So prehaps we need some more mercenary events for"

Irish Mercenaries
Welsh Bowman or Mercenaries
Scots Mercenaries

Can someone do a mock up of what an event might look like?


Kk, all this is brainstorming, and I need your imput.

So, if a Welsh ruler were attacked by England, then they could get an event to fire to hire Irish or Norse mercenaries. Prehaps even French, Breton, and Scottish mercenaries. The size of the mercenaries deteremined by the realm's wealth. Could the frequency of this firing be increased to occur more often when these nations are at war?

edit: I would wish the size of the mercenary army to be significant enough to somewhat mitigate an invading army in Gwynedd, for instance.

Likewise, A Free Company of Welsh Bowman could be an event that fires for as well for rulers in Ireland, Scotland, Brittany, France, Castilla, Leon, and Navarra (and Aquitaine in More Kingdoms mode)

Prehaps someone could flesh out a scenario more?


Also, since we can't seem to limit the event to weather or not certin territories are independent or not, then prehaps ... from the presepective of a Welsh ruler.... the Welsh ruler in the 1066 scenario would get Irish or Norse mercenaries, whereas a Welsh ruler in 1187 and 1337 would get French or Scottish mercenaries. Also, the Welsh mercenaries for France and Scotland and elsewhere would be more frequent during the last two scenaros.

 

[unmerged(98596)]

Perhaps just in the modifiers, for Welsh rulers, a better chance of Irish mercenaries, and I, myself, wrote a few events for 'Gall Gaedhil' (Norse-Gaels, of Ireland or Scotland) mercenaries. And some Welsh mercenaries in Ireland, specifically more common for the Munster-tag holder (Munster hired huge numbers of Welsh mercenaries, which brought them the yew longbow well before the rest of Ireland, and England, for that matter).

 

[Drachenfire]

Perhaps just in the modifiers, for Welsh rulers, a better chance of Irish mercenaries, and I, myself, wrote a few events for 'Gall Gaedhil' (Norse-Gaels, of Ireland or Scotland) mercenaries. And some Welsh mercenaries in Ireland, specifically more common for the Munster-tag holder (Munster hired huge numbers of Welsh mercenaries, which brought them the yew longbow well before the rest of Ireland, and England, for that matter).

Amazing! I had not known that! My impressions so far has been that it was largely the Welsh princes hiring Hiberno-Norse mercenaries, and did not know (but suspected that) the Hiberno-Norse of Dublin and Wexford did the same. Prehaps you would be interested in helping with this? And prehaps Jord and Veld would adopt them into their respective mods.


In 1066 scenario, Prehaps the rulers of Gwynedd could get events for Leinstermen mercenaries, and the rulers of Deheubarth could get Munstermen mercenaries?

If not, prehaps we can start a stand alone mode compatable with the others, which would focus on Celtic-centric events?

 

[unmerged(98596)]

Amazing! I had not known that! My impressions so far has been that it was largely the Welsh princes hiring Hiberno-Norse mercenaries, and did not know (but suspected that) the Hiberno-Norse of Dublin and Wexford did the same. Prehaps you would be interested in helping with this? And prehaps Jord and Veld would adopt them into their respective mods.


In 1066 scenario, Prehaps the rulers of Gwynedd could get events for Leinstermen mercenaries, and the rulers of Deheubarth could get Munstermen mercenaries?

If not, prehaps we can start a stand alone mode compatable with the others, which would focus on Celtic-centric events?

Munster had 2000 regular longbowmen in Casiel, in 1080. It quite predates regular use of such soldiers in their Irish and British counterparts. ...It's isolated weirdness, but I find it an amusing part of military history.

 

[jordarkelf]

Mercenaries spawned by event have a so-called 'tech_prov', which decides what armour, weapons, etc. they have. For example the 'Welsh Bowmen' company has province 64 (Gwynned) as their tech_prov.

So to get mercenaries with longbows, their tech province must have the longbow tech researched. This is why mercenaries from developed areas are better than those from the fringes.

 

[Drachenfire]

Wales also seems to have the short bow in 1066. Should this be revised I wonder?

 

[Drachenfire]

Somairle,

Prehaps you can share with us more of your scripted mercenaries? How do you do them and could you advise how it could work for a Welsh player?