Mercenaries...

[LintMan]

Yesterday, I was using Rexor's Barbarians, who had faced some pretty steep attrition and were down to Rexor and 7 barabarians, when it can came time for me to re-hire them.

They didn't seem worth rehiring, but I thought: "Why not get one final usage out of them?", and throw them (alone) in a suicide attack at the Indep-7 province I was gearing up (but not yet ready) to take.

Does anyone else do that, or is it considered "dirty pool" to casually toss departing mercenaries into a blender? (Better than facing them in your enemy's army next turn, and get some final use out of them to boot...)

Another time, I had a cyclops mercenary (just one big guy), who stacked up a few afflictions (sadly including a lost eye) in my service. I laughed when I saw he was then hired by one of my AI opponents.

But, it's happened to me, too: I hired some guy (red's something?) (it was just him, no army) for some not so small $$$ and then discovered he was barely more powerful than a standard independent commander (if that), and probably initially came with a batch of other units which were just a memory by the time I hired him.

I guess it would help to know more about the original mercenary force to know if it's worth bidding on them. I wonder if the AI is able to figure out that Rexor and just 7 Barbarians just isn't worth the money he was asking (which was based on 50 Barbarians)?

[tinkthank]

Yes, the AI bids on mercs is suboptimal at the moment. This is a known issue, but it is not known whether it is considered important enough for the devs to work on a new re-hire pricing scheme.

As to tossing away half- or mostly-used mercs: I think many people do this. But alternatively, you can just let them get hired by others and have them waste their money (see above).

[PDF]

I'd like to see Mercs bands "going on leave" when they have no more troops (or very few) then back again after replenishing their ranks, at least in part...

[Chris Byler]

Originally posted by PDF:
I'd like to see Mercs bands "going on leave" when they have no more troops (or very few) then back again after replenishing their ranks, at least in part...

Understrength unemployed mercs should recruit a few men (or whatever their troops are) every month, back up to their starting strength if they are left alone long enough. Eventually between the price dropping and the recruiting, they'll be worth it again.

This doesn't help (not so) Mighty Pak-ur with 7 afflictions; maybe mercs on vacation should recuperate too.

[HotNifeThruButr]

Don't merc companies with less men cost less money?

I throw mercs into the blender all the time, they've got no real loyalty to me and I've none for them.

[Firebreath]

Originally posted by HotNifeThruButr:
Don't merc companies with less men cost less money?

Yes. Some. I think they loose maybe 1/3 of their original cost, without the troops. This doesn't seem logical, if you only look at unit commanders, but many merc leaders are also wizzards, and it would not make sense go 'give' wizzards away at ridiculously low prices, which is probably why it's only 1/3. As it is a (relatively) minor issue, the devs havn't bothered doing anything more complicated (i think).

I throw mercs into the blender all the time, they've got no real loyalty to me and I've none for them.

That's their purpose. You're paying them to either: kill lots of enemy in 3 turns, or else save lots of your own units being killed in those 3 turns by dying themselves. Since most mercs are ordinary heavy inf. or worse, the second choice is the only one. Anything else is either bluffing the AI into thinking you're stronger than or are, or else wasting you $.

And to answer the thread creator, when you hire a merc, it tells you 'bob has x men and costs y gold' - so you know exactly how many men he has with him. After a while, you remember what kind of men they are (usually heavy inf).