Mercenaries, Morale and Munchies

[PvK]

Originally posted by aldin:
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1) So starvation is a gradual thing, that explains why a turn or two never killed me. Does starvation apply to everyone in the province or only to a random selection of those 'above the cap'?

Yes. You can check, if you want to spend the time, to see exactly who is hungry and who isn't. You can then send the hungry troops somewhere with food, if you want to take the time, and you have the spare commanders to do so.

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3) Anyone ever give items to mercs?

I have done it a few times.

4) Are the morale boosting items the equivalent of a priest spell (i.e. horn=sermon)?
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I don't think so. I think they give a bonus to the morale of nearby units. Priest spells restore lost morale, I think. So, for example, an item will help units before they start getting hurt, while priest spells can be cast repeatedly for more and more effect. At least, that's been my reading.

PvK

In MP there is quite a bit of Merc stealing. I purposfully will kill off a merc company if I don't plan on using it so it's valueless. Or if I have a feeling they are going to try to outbid part of an army romping through their territory.

There is quite a bit of strategy when dealing with mercs in MP as opposed to SP. I would hope that in the near future they make more merc companies availiable in a staggered fashion, and of course fixed some of the irritations (like auto-bidding if you have them, or maybe a reminder the turn they are looking for more cash. Autoset at the 'half' price if you already own them etc)

[Gandalf Parker]

Maybe its jsut me but I find the information about re-bidding on mercs to be confusing. I read it as though it meant my bid counted as 3* the amount. That I could bid 40 and have it count as 120.

[olaf73]

Yeah it says something like your bid counts double, but when you rebid, your bid seems to be doubled already? But does it actually take that amount from your treasury if you win? Or just half?

It would be nice if the game would prompt you to rebid, or if there was an auto-rebid feature.

olaf

[Keir Maxwell]

I don't use mercenaries testing races single player in the early game. This makes it easier to get a feel for a particular nation and its challenges. Using mercanaries can make races play in a very similar fashion.

Morale is huge in Dom - negative and positive. Sermon of Courage is very good and Fanatacism is even better. Armies without morale support punch well under their weight. Ulm vs C'tis early could be a nightmare for Ulm with C'tis starting with Terror - and if C'tis has chosen the PoD with high Death . . . eeeck.

Don't go out of supply for more than one turn with troops you care about. Supply is another big issue in Dom and it is a large part of why HI/summonings armies are so powerful. Nature supply items are really important for offensive armies that want to maintain momentum.

Cheers

Keir

[Taqwus]

If I were going to give up mercenaries, and especially if I believed that somebody else wanted them, and I had the gems, I might consider giving them items that would either make them a lot less useful (e.g. a berserk-causing item for a mage, or two eyes of aiming to blind them). Or one might give 'em items that'll really hurt the buyer more, like Bane Venom Charms (which *would* be removable if the owner weren't a mercenary...).

As for rebids -- the game's default bid (if you choose to bid) is your original bid, but whatever number you use will be doubled in effect. Hence, if it's a mercenary team that normally wants a minimum of 240 gold, you could get away with bidding 120 if they're currently in your service and nobody else bids more than 240.

[ December 20, 2003, 20:40: Message edited by: Taqwus ]

[Saxon]

I have noticed that sometimes you need to bid more than exactly half on the re-bid. Previously, I would frequently have mercs leave, but not be taken by another. I check the math and upped my bids tiny bit, to cover rounding off errors. It helped, but once in a while they would still take off. Now I just put in ten or so gold pieces more (larger for more expensive Groups) and the problem seems solved.

Anyone else face this problem?