Mercenaries (but with a new concept to it)

[dylanhatesyou]

We all want to be able to donate military units to other nations to help them in fighting other nations. But this is a little unrealistic for the most part. There needs to be a balance.

If there are three Civs on one long continent, what keeps the western civ from giving its almost entire military to the trusted & peaceful central civ to act as a buffer state from the eastern civ?

Two ideas.

IDEA NUMERO UNO!

Donating arms/munitions/materials/etc

You would be able to supply sheilds for use in a certain unit(from a long select list). This would be another tradable feature.

France offers:
80 Gold
100 Sheilds for Tank

Germany offers:
Silks


IDEA NUMERO DOS!

Mercenary. These would be hired out for a period of time (maybe 20 turns, then a call to rehire them and keep them there longer or not, kindof like ROP agreements and MPPs)

However. There is a downside to hiring mercenaries. They aren't as reliable as your actual fighters. All the mercenaries I've heard about through history have all had quite a disregard for the civilians and culture of the nation they are fighting for.

If stationed inside a city, there is a very small chance per turn that an improvement will be destroyed by "the bloodthirsty foreigners"

If stationed outside a city, there is a larger chance per turn that the Mercenary units will pillage terrain, to represent the mercenaries raping and stealing from the civilian population for their own entertainment/gain.

In all cases, the chances of the mercenaries causing damage will be decreased if they are stationed your actual native forces.

ALSO , if the mercenary unit is agreed upon by GPT(which IMO they should be almost exclusively) , if the hiring nation runs out of money or declares war on the native country, the mercenaries automatically pillage terrain and turn back to their native colors/control.

Ex. Germany has 5 American Mercenary Infantry in Berlin and 2 outside the city. France, who has a MPP with Germany, delcares war on America. Germany declares war on America, and the 5 mercenary units inside the city are forced to flee into and adjacent square, but not before taking out the Library and 1 Pop. The 2 Infantry stationed outside pillaged the railroad, road , and irrigation.

There should be a balance to keeping this from being an exploit, however. Tricking nations with mercenaries and declaring war on you, and having lots of your troops already in their territory. Any ideas?


www.dcfiy.org

 

[dylanhatesyou]

no replies? come on!

 

[Dr. Broom]

I would prefer it if you didn't hire mercenaries but instead just bought the units.

 

[biggamer132]

How about this: If the mother country declares war on you, then they are automatically sent to the nearest friendly square.

 

[panzer_kevlar]

I like both ideas, but I like the first idea better. It has fewer problems, exploits, etc. that I can think of.

 

[dylanhatesyou]

Yes, Biggamer. Why didnt I think of that. I think that the Mercenaries should automatically pillage terrain though once war is declared and they should be moved to friendly or unclaimed terrain. I like the balance of the mercenaries causign problems, because it helps stop the snowball effect of some games. The largest empire has the largest amount of money and armed forces. So, if they used their extra money to hire even more armed forces, it would unbalance the game. It also forces Civs to stay loyal, something very lacking in CivIII IMHO.

 

[dh_epic]

I think the automated pillaging is a great twist and could lead to some interesting incidents...

Especially if you're using a mercenary during peacetime! That's how wars get started, realiistically speaking. A great bonus in the form of added might, but a setback in terms of control. Very well balanced!

 

[Yom]

Instead of autopillaging and destroying buildings, why not make the unit conscript to represent the fact that it doesn't fight as well under a different country's rule. I doubt many people would use mercenaries if they destroyed buildings and pillaged terrain.

 

[dylanhatesyou]

Instead of autopillaging and destroying buildings, why not make the unit conscript to represent the fact that it doesn't fight as well under a different country's rule. I doubt many people would use mercenaries if they destroyed buildings and pillaged terrain.

Well, mercenaries have always fought well, even better than normal soldiers, sometimes. Thats why they are used (Hessians during the american revolution, the french foreign legion, etc)

If a Civ doesnt want to handle with the problems that may or may not come with using Mercenaries, it can just not hire any. Just like in real life.

 

[thestonesfan]

I think there should just be the occasional mercenary unit you can build that requires no resources, has a low cost, but is expensive to maintain.

Selling/giving units to another civ certainly needs to be implemented, however.

"Renting out" units isn't a bad idea, but why not just sign an ROP and move your forces if you want a buffer zone?

 

[sampedestal]

the units shouldn't pillage. they should just have a higher upkeep than normal. that'll drag the civ down enough to simulate there disregard for the civ

 

[Tholish]

You can do merceneries this way: have units that cost very little to build (ie all you have to do is advertise) and which have high combat abilities, but that have like one or two hit points. Thus you have to have more of them, ie they have a higher maintenance cost.

What is a gold bought military alliance but merceneries?

 

[Colonel]

i like what we were talking about in another thread have barabarians be able to be hired for use against another Civ

what actually it was is barbarians were terroists and you could hire them for specific jobs against another Civ have then show up as a foreign country in foreign advisor screen but they dont have a Civ or any cities minus a couple captured but basically have them be rendom pariasian units