Better Mercenary Camps

Age of Empires III: DE III - Discussion
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Mercenary_camp_portrait
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German_Merc_Camp
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Mercenary Camps are a Tavern replacement available to Germans by sending a card of the same name. No matter how much they used mercenaries, replacing the Tavern of the most beer loving civilization in the game is a very poor thematic fit.

Mercenary Camps should not replace Taverns, they should be an additional building that is constructed by the Explorer (with a build limit). This would also be more fair than replacing existing Taverns since Mercenary Camps have half the cost and stats. Furthermore, they should be for production only, and not provide any trickles. Changing the model to remove the hospital operating table would help make them look better and more distinctive too.

Mercenary Camps should also be available through more avenues than just a single German card. The Mercenary Contractor politician could enable Explorers to build them. There are also several Swedish and Dutch cards that enable mercenaries in regular production buildings that would be better implemented by instead enabling the mercenaries in a limited number of Mercenary Camps. This avoids a lot of the issues with giving them unlimited access to unit types normally not in their roster, and would enhance the strategic decision making since they would require a separate production building.

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Mercenary Contractor

In addition to improving mercenary stats and enabling civ specific mercenaries, this politician now also enables the Explorer to build a limited number of Mercenary Camps.

German_Home_City_5_(Mercenary_Camps) Mercenary Camps

Instead of converting Taverns to Mercenary Camps, it should simply allow the Explorer to build a limited number of them.

Dutch_Home_City_5_(Dutch_States_Army) Dutch States Army

Buffs and enables additional mercenaries at the expense of your regular troops and allows Explorers and Envoys to construct a limited number of Mercenary Camps. No longer enables the training of mercenaries at the Barracks and Stable.

image German Mercenary Contracts

Buffs and enables additional mercenaries and allows Explorers and Envoys to construct a limited number of Mercenary Camps. No longer enables the training of mercenaries at the Barracks, Stable, or Galleon.

Swedish_Home_City_5_(Contract_Irish_Brigadiers) Swedish_Home_City_5_(Contract_Swiss_Pikemen) Swedish_Home_City_5_(Contract_Landsknechts) Maltese_Home_City_5_(Hire_Giant_Grenadiers) Swedish_Home_City_5_(Contract_Black_Riders) Swedish_Home_City_5_(Contract_Hessian_Jaegers) Contract ____

Enables the specified mercenary and allows the Explorer to build one additional Mercenary Camp.

There are also a number of other issues with the standard training of mercenaries. These could be addressed with a rework of Taverns and Monasteries, and by limiting the randomness of mercenary availability by organizing them into Mercenary Companies.

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I really like your proposed changes for the Mercenary Camp.

Personally, I don’t like the fact that the Tavern building suddenly becomes a camp - it hurts my eyes. I think the best solution would be, as you said, to make it a completely new building that could be built by Explorer + German Mercenaries. Additionally, this Home City card could allow German Mercenaries to build Walls and Outposts - it could be nice that the Mercenaries are autonomous enough to build their own simple camp with defensive fortifications. The construction limit would be limited and the building itself would be more expensive than the Tavern.

As for the operating table in the middle of the camp, I think it should be replaced by a fire (maybe even with roasted meat from a spit above it). Additional details could include elements of weapons near the tents and fireplace.

Additionally, I think that the Tavern could offer Bandit and Mercenary units depending on the map. The Mercenary Camp should have permanent access to all German Mercenaries by default and also offer exclusive population slots for them.

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I too also really like the proposed changes.

Whilst I really love the Merc Camp, I think it should coexist with the Tavern as a separate building.

Tavern is a general-use building offering a limited selection of local outlaws a few random Mercs along with coin trickle.

The Merc Camp should be solely a Merc building - as you’ve mentioned no coin trickle. It’s quirk is that it’s cheaper than the Tavern and dedicated to a number of German/linked mercs which are set in stone.

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My intention is that they’d still be able to train the random mercenaries available at the Tavern in addition to the specific mercenaries enabled by the various cards and politician.

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We don’t really need the Mercenary Camp. It is just an Hospital. A card called “German Beer” that enables the 5 German mercs and raise the Tavern (Das Bierhaus) limit to 4, removing the coin trickle (“the Landsknechts drink too much!”)