[Chazar]

Originally posted by Cohen:
I believe this could mess up National balance a lot.

Why? If the AI never lends mercs nor hire mercs from human players, then I dont see that much problems:

To clear things: I assume that you can only lend a single commander per bid with the troops under his current command, which cannot be altered by the employer as usual for mercs, so mixing up national troops within squads is still not possible. I would also assume that routing mercs are killed as usual, regardless where they come from. They are in foreign lands, with a foreign tongue and their trusted leader is gone, so they wont be able to return home, bla.
So, for short, I assume that all merc-band are usabel for the employer in exactly the same way, regardless whether they are independent mercs or human sent.

I agree that access to foreign mages is certainly a big boon, but so is sending masses of money, gems and items, which is already allowed. After all, players have to agree upon a price and the lender of the mercs still has to pay their upkeep (maybe increased by some percentage)!

Maybe one should place a limit on the number of bands a player may lend, and prohibit the lending of sacred troops, but otherwise I dream of the diplomatic options this would bring: Sending mercs to aid someone else; or to encourage someone to threaten your current opressor, sending them for fame & money; suddenly not sending them again after their 3 month contract is over; etc.! Fun!

PS: I guess returning mercs should always return to the captial, no matter what, for simplicity.