Mercenaries, Morale and Munchies

[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?

[aldin]

Originally posted by 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?

There's little I find more irritating than losing a rebid so I always pour a bit of extra gold in to grease the wheels. I figure a dozen gold here or there ain't gonna break the bank.

~Aldin

[Pocus]

Originally posted by aldin:
Mercs: Why do they seem SO powerful early in the game? It almost feels like cheating to amass a few armies of mercs in an SP game and go stomping through the countryside. Do experienced players limit themselves to a single merc contract at any given time to keep the challenge up?

I never bid for mercs in SP, at least early, because it bias completely your appraisal of the race you test. But thats because SP for me is always a preparation for MP.

Also, in MP, how much do these guys go for? Double the asking price?

really depend. If you get the shambler company and you really want to wet your feet, then yes doubling what they want can (should in MP) be done. On the other hand, if its turn 30 and you just want mercs to renforce slightly one of your army, then you will not want to pay much above the regular price.

Morale: I seem to notice I lose a lot of combats I would win with a morale reinforcing priest. Are morale boosting items as good as having a priest along? Should you always try to send a priest with a merc army?

morale boosting items can act like a standard, that is they suppress partly the morale penalty incurred by troops which already failed there morale loss check. I would think that the spells does somehow the same thing, and dont really boost the base morale.

Munchies: How bad is the starvation effect? I've had it happen for a couple of turns but it didn't seem to have a big effect on my army. Is it worse the more you exceed the supply cap?

each supply point that you dont have will result in a starvation icon given randomly (I think!) to a unit. Starvation give -4 morale. Next turn, if you are still undersupplied, units which are already starving and get again a starvation pick can become diseased. And then they are generally doomed (loose 1 hp a turn, cant recuperate except by battle spells). You might not notice the problem but it can be a battle looser.

[Saxon]

Bump!

My old observation still stands. Over multiple re-hiring, the price of a mercenary seems to go up. If I stick at the offer of about 55% of their asking price, they will eventually leave. They do not go to another nation, they go back into the pool.

Have others noticed this or, as many would suggest, am I living in my own reality?

[tinkthank]

Originally posted by Saxon:
Bump!

My old observation still stands. Over multiple re-hiring, the price of a mercenary seems to go up. If I stick at the offer of about 55% of their asking price, they will eventually leave. They do not go to another nation, they go back into the pool.

Have others noticed this or, as many would suggest, am I living in my own reality?

I have not noticed this. If I ever manage to find and hire, say, the Eternal Knights, I do my best to keep them forever or kill them off. And they always ask for 50 during rebidding time.

Since the original posters mentioned this, I would also like to add that it would be wonderful if computer-AI nations would either bid more competitively on mercs or that mercs would be less frequent and/or numerous in the early game. And they will actually ruin themselves by spending insane amounts of money on, say, Guiseppe IV who normally commands 100 men but now commands only 2 because I killed them all.

And one (tiny) bug (?): I purchased Guiseppe at some point in a SP and when I wanted to change some gems around, noticed that he had "-1" fire gems. How can he have negative gems?

[Cainehill]

Originally posted by Zen:
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)

Yep. Another thing that would help 'fix' mercenaries would be if they recruited when their strength was down. Possibly not while actively hired, but ... What mercenary captain, out of work and out of men, isn't going to recruit?

In MP, I've noticed there'll sometimes be 4 or 5 mercenary companies open for employment. Sadly, they're all combat companies, and they've been used and discarded, sometimes with no men, sometimes with 1 or 2 out of a full complement of 20-60. And still asking very near full price.