Barbarians mercenaries!

[tomekpe]

Hi,

What do you think about an idea of bribing (for some amout of money) barbarian hordes reaching your borders. It will create nice early game strategy. When you don't have access to strategic resources (iron, horses, ivory), but you have enough money (for example: you don't invest into technology race) you can rush your neighbours with barb mercenaries.

I think this is very, very sweet idea

 

[CornPlanter]

I have yet to think about the effects on gameplay, but realism wise this would be very nice. Things like that happened everywhere and had a major impact on history.

 

[thungrim]

I've always wondered about the idea of hiring mercenaries (not necessarily barbarians), but I have no idea how they'd abstract the disadvantages of mercs in terms of gameplay.

Obviously the benefits in Civ would be avoiding opportunity cost. You could be producing / rush building a unit in a city while simultaneously recruiting mercs. But what mechanic factors in loyalty (or lack thereof) or risk aversion?

 

[Geek113377]

Yes, this has happened a lot in history. it would be a fun feature, but the amount it would probably cost would be greater than the amount of beakers that could be put into researching techs that would let you crush them instead. barbs are usually most powerful in the beginning of the game, and you usually don't have much money then anyway. and also, people who you don't know and will do what you say for a small amount of money are probably more willing to kill you and get the rest of your money than to actually do what you said. Barbarians purchase units with gold, so giving them gold is stupid because they will use that gold to build more units to kill you later. How do you know that they wouldn't take the money and then pound you anyway.

 

[cicero spqr]

maybe you could pay city-states to lend you some units and then once you're done with them, you give them back. or, you can give land to barbarians to bribe them instead of gold. i'd really like to see a hessian city-state that hires out their units to different players. that would be awesome

 

[Willem]

Hi,

What do you think about an idea of bribing (for some amout of money) barbarian hordes reaching your borders.

Too easy to exploit, the human would always be much better at it than the AI. There would also be the risk that the AI would bankrupt itself since it wouldn't know where to draw the line.

 

[Ataxerxes]

maybe you could pay city-states to lend you some units and then once you're done with them, you give them back. or, you can give land to barbarians to bribe them instead of gold. i'd really like to see a hessian city-state that hires out their units to different players. that would be awesome

A similar feature to this is used in RFC. You can hire mercenaries or loan out your own units as mercenaries. If they get killed, you don't have to pay for them. One player related he had 8 explorers out as mercenaries at one time. It is easy to exploit, though, as Willem pointed out.

 

[Chalks]

Civ 2 had this concept via diplomats I believe.

I don't really think it would be a change I'd be too interested in though, it's use is too niche.

 

[JanissaryRush]

Historically Civs would routinely pay for mercenaries. You should be able to buy them if you have the cash. It would be extra expensive to get barbarians that are about to attack you.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

TheLopez had an *amazing* Mercenary mod in CivIV-one I believe was used to great effect in Rhye's & Fall of Civilization. The downside to mercenaries was two-fold: (1) they cost more than regular units of the same type & (2) they had "promotions" which increased their likelihood of retreating from a battle-rather than finishing their opponents (I believe it was called "Self Preservation"). Quite ingenious-but typical of TheLopez's brilliance. God how I miss that guy !

Aussie.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Of course the other issue is to simply have the ability to *bribe* barbarian cities to plague other civs rather than you. It then becomes a cost benefit calculation-is it cheaper to keep paying the barbarians a price to leave you alone or to simply go out & destroy them where they live. Of course, as with the case of the Roman Empire, you could have situations beyond your control driving barbarians into your neighbourhood even if you're buying them off (e.g. another civ destroys the barbarian city, thus forcing any surviving barbarians to go wander off into other people's territory & seek a new home!)

 

[Raneman]

A similar feature to this is used in RFC. You can hire mercenaries or loan out your own units as mercenaries. If they get killed, you don't have to pay for them. One player related he had 8 explorers out as mercenaries at one time. It is easy to exploit, though, as Willem pointed out.

What's RFC?

 

[Fire Bringer]

Civ 2 had this concept via diplomats I believe.

I don't really think it would be a change I'd be too interested in though, it's use is too niche.

You could do that in civ 1.

 

[techathon]

What's RFC?

Rhye's and Fall of Civilization. It is a mod that comes with BTS