It depends on how they re used. Intelligence and covert operations are a dark reality in our World. And has been for longer than people think. Each Civ can have their own agencies. America uses the CIA, England-Scotland Yard, Russia-KGB, etc. And each can have their own not so secret societies. That brings the Black Market into the game. Maybe this starts with Pirates. then evolves into Mafias and the Cosa Nostra. They can work hand in hand with Intelligence agencies for certain operations. Narcotics can be used as a Black market industry. These days it's called Black Ops. But it's been called many things throughout history. It's a dirty business. But very useful.
Unique Units
- Thread starter jsciv69
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My idea is that it would be like it's own special class of unit similar to the Nihang or Warrior Monks. It would be a normal unit that could be use in espionage, but also direct melee and ranged combat.
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- Sep 21, 2012
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Maybe you can buy unique units from a limited stock that is available to every civilization.
For example, there were many Ancient-Classical era civilizations that had war elephants, but certainly not all of them. Cataphracts, too, were used by a few Near East civilizations and predated the crusader knights. Uhlans were lancers originally from Poland (?) if I remember correctly, but several European nations used them.
For example, there were many Ancient-Classical era civilizations that had war elephants, but certainly not all of them. Cataphracts, too, were used by a few Near East civilizations and predated the crusader knights. Uhlans were lancers originally from Poland (?) if I remember correctly, but several European nations used them.
Boris Gudenuf
Deity
Numbers and types of mercenaries available in any given time and place depends on your neighbors: the people you are trying to rent them from. Elephants are a good example, because the Diadochi (Successor kingdoms after Alexander) got their elephants originally from the Indian city states and kingdoms that Alexander had conquered, but that dried up fast after Macedonian control over northwest India unraveled. The Seleucids ended up paying a good deal to buy elephants later, while the Ptolemies used the smaller North African elephant which they could get directly out of neighboring Cyrenaecia. Earlier, around 550 BCE, Ctesias the Greek says that the Derbices, an otherwise-unknown tribe living east of the Caspian Sea, used elephants against Cyrus the Great: which elephants they got from India, so even 'Minor Civs" (Barbarians, in fact) could 'hire' elephant and other mercenary units!
By the end of the 17th century, the only lance-armed cavalry left in Europe were Polish Uhlans and Cossacks. These didn't spawn any mercenaries, though: just copycats when every army in Europe started equipping their light cavalry with lances after being exposed to the Polish and Cossack forces in the Napoleonic Wars. Even the Confederate and Unon armies in the US Civil War each had a single regiment of Lancers, and the Imperial German Army officially had all their cavalry of any type carying lances right up to 1914!
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