Mercenary Assault

[Zechnophobe]

Saved games attached at bottom.

Something I tried in my last game or two was a mercenary 'rush' of sorts. First and formost, recall that Currency (Guild of the Nine) and Mathematics (Gambling Houses) are both close on the tech tree, and are the two requirements for Taxation, a fantastic tech.

If you build gambling houses, and pump gold to fund mercs from the guild of nine, you end up with a large happiness bonus, and a military, while letting your cities build other things. If you do this fast enough, your Strength 5 mercs are going to be stronger than the defensive units you go up against.

Attached are two saves from a Khazad game using this strategy. Note that the Khazad are an odd, yet weirdly perfect choice for this. When you don't need military, the money overflow goes towards even more production and happiness via vaults. They can also pop the mother lode for a few extra mercenaries when times are tight. Note that this was never the case in the game I played.

Highlights:

1) Finish Taxation on turn 202, giving me a great economic advantage.

2) You'll notice in the first save some pretty big cities, considering the lack of luxuries. Then you'll notice the 50% tax rate and gambling houses in each city.

3) When under attack by a large stack of Clan troops, I found the guild in the defending city, and move in 3 or 4 hawks from elsewhere to recruit mercs to the city. The city defends easily.

4) Bambur + Stonewarden can give 'green' mercs +30% strength via enchanted blade and bless.

5) Notice in the final save, if I'd ever needed more military to win against a powerful force, I could have literally recruited 100 mercenaries to help fight. Those mercs would have had Mithril.

6) Game settings were Standard size map, pangaea, standard speed, no AI build requirements, and no Orthus.

 

[kobo1d]

Try it with Tasunke!

 

[Ringtailed]

Hippus are the best civilization for mercenary-based strategies. Their mercenaries have 3 movement and Tasunke's agg/raider traits grant combat I and commando to all mounted mercs and double gold from pillaging is great for buying mercenaries. Alternatively, Rhoanna is financial but as usual the weaker of the two choices.

Lanun is another good civ for using mercenaries since their coastal cities are usually higher commerce than production which makes it easier to buy an army instead of building one.

TBH, I think Khazad is the least sensible civ for mercenaries. They're better for storing gold and building military the normal way with their massive hammer production+ingenuity trait.

edit: Okay, Hippus mercs are not half price. But they're still faster x_X

 

[MagisterCultuum]

The Hippus have not had half priced mercenaries since Mounted Mercenaries were introduced.

The AI is actually unable to hire mercenaries when it is Khazad.

 

[Zechnophobe]

Yeah, I might try lanun next, since I have no problem getting commerce, but they have such a poor military...

The AI is actually unable to hire mercenaries when it is Khazad.

That's interesting, and kinda sad really.

Just a note, I did this another way: Using the Luchirp.

Since you get two great engineers by turn 100, I used the second one to quick build the Mines of Gol-dur. My mercs had iron and enchanted blades by turn 120 or 130 (Bambur was there too).

 

[Zechnophobe]

Follow up on playing this strat with the Lanun: It does pretty much everything I wanted of it. No need to rely on Boarding parties, or build any military at all, just tank the econ, and then start sending the mercenaries.

 

[smusebaer]

And the best part is the troop reinforcement. Just found the guild in a concert city, and buy the troops you need. Perfekt for raids far away.

 

[Zechnophobe]

Last game I played on a large map, I landed a fleet of 15 mercs + retinue (All with Mithril) next to a city. Captured the city, and spread the guild there. Then for each of the next 3 turns hired 20 mercenaries to continue the attack.

This is about the time I realized I attacked a little later than I needed to.

 

[A_Hamster]

I've yet to play the Hippus and so enjoy the advantage of mounted mercs, but I've been finding the Guild of Nine is just so useful. Initially, they are slightly better than your Axeman/Swordsman, and they remain competitive Strengthwise throught the game. Also, another incentive to found it is to keep the AI from using it against you (although they don't use it as much as they probably could).

 

[Pyr0mancer]

Also, another incentive to found it is to keep the AI from using it against you (although they don't use it as much as they probably could).

Or ever? I don't think I've ever seen the AI use mercenaries, except occasionally the event ones. Half the time they don't have any gold anyway.

 

[A_Hamster]

Or ever? I don't think I've ever seen the AI use mercenaries, except occasionally the event ones. Half the time they don't have any gold anyway.

Though I'm playing on normal speed, I am really slow, and so my typical game finishes somewhere around turn 520-40. If you give the AI that much time to get its act together you will see some mercs, paladins, Beasts of Agares etcetera. Of course, there's also the "problem" of being attacked by stacks of 60 Disciples of Leaves or something similarly silly.

Ironically, I think I'm this slow in FfH because I'm more involved in the game, unlike regular civ where it is just a game so I try to win as quickly and efficiently as possible. Here it's a world to discover.

The merc events are usually fun too, if you've the money. Getting access to a special unit type you can't normally get is nice. For instance, I had the pleasure of using a Lanun boarding party against the Lanun and slowly capturing their fleet that way.

 

[Zechnophobe]

yikes 520 is a lot of turns to play. I don't recall playing a game (A *real* game) past turn 400.

 

[Bad Player]

Do you think that regular hired mercenaries should cost more money? This seems way too powerful (in that in a multiplayer game, the first to get guild of the nine will have a huge advantage).

 

[smusebaer]

I think they are quiet balanced. Money you spend buying troops will be missing when you conquer some citys. Or you lack some tech. Perhaps the hippus mercenaries are too cheap. Perhaps Their mercs should cost normal, but can be sold for the same money...

 

[smusebaer]

It would be cool, if Mercs could be bought by another civ. Perhaps like a spell when you share the square with an that Merc.

 

[Zechnophobe]

I think they are quiet balanced. Money you spend buying troops will be missing when you conquer some citys. Or you lack some tech. Perhaps the hippus mercenaries are too cheap. Perhaps Their mercs should cost normal, but can be sold for the same money...

I honestly don't think the problem is with the hippus mercs, since that faction already has great military, and can get very powrful non-bought horsemen.

For other factions, I honestly am not sure. I am not beating my scores yet with other strats doing mercs, but then again, I haven't really perfected it yet.

 

[Pyr0mancer]

Though I'm playing on normal speed, I am really slow, and so my typical game finishes somewhere around turn 520-40. If you give the AI that much time to get its act together you will see some mercs, paladins, Beasts of Agares etcetera. Of course, there's also the "problem" of being attacked by stacks of 60 Disciples of Leaves or something similarly silly.

I play epic, and my games usually last until around turn 5-600 (if I get bored once I've got the highest score or a decisive military advantage) or turn 7-800(if I finish all the way, or have trouble winning). I usually end up fighting (well, more often Dominating) large numbers of paladins by endgame, or capturing large numbers of Beasts of Agares. Getting around national unit limits by stealing them from other civs is fun . Anyways, I still rarely see AI mercs, even when they found the guild and have tons of gold to spare. I haven't had any massive missionary swarms so far, though seeing 30-odd hunters/scouts attack my fortified CGIII/GuerrillaII longbowmen was... interesting

Personally I use mercs mostly for garrison troops for newly conquered cities. It's much faster to simply bring along a merc or two to spread the guild, hire a few for guards, then keep my main attack force moving rather than waiting for garrison troops from the home cities.