Lakota Tribal Council addition of Mercenary(Outlaw) contractor?

Age of Empires III: DE III - Discussion
1

Lakota seems to be an ideal choice to make/use outlaws. They even have some cards that aim in that direction. However, if Lakota want to have Owlhoots and use them instead of Wakina, they have to first send an Age 3 card which costs 1000 gold to get 10 owlhoots. If they want to make more they have to build a native embassy, then pay 700 gold, then pay for wild west (another 300 resources) to upgrade to age 3 unit power level. That seems like an awful lot of time and resources just to be able to make Owlhoots, which cost only gold and aren’t much different from Wakina, except for one critical feature: they look super cool. Also, they have better siege. Lately some other civs have gotten additional varieties of units, how about Lakota? Sweden seems to be able to easily add mercs to their barracks, why is it so hard for Lakota?

To make Owlhoots/Gunslingers/ etc. more feasible to actually use in a game, why not replace either the Elder or the Chief (offering food/wood only) with a tribal council member named some Indian counterpart of ‘Mercenary Contractor’, which offers incentives/benefits for outlaws? For example the age 3 age up option could be ‘unlock gunslingers,owlhoots, and cowboys’ at the embassy instead of having to select gun running after building an embassy? And the other age up options could also offer some corresponding outlaw benefit. This would be more interesting than just getting food or wood on age up. If those are neccessary, maybe add it as a fifth tribal member?

Alternatively, sending an outlaw card could just unlock the ability to train said outlaw at the embassy without needing gunrunning and wild west (increase the cost if necessary).

Lakota seems like a natural for outlaws, due to not needing any housing, which is typically a major deterrent from using outlaws.

Thoughts?

2

I didn’t get why designer added a 700 gold tech to unlock outlaws for natives. There didn’t seem to be many outlaw users, and suddenly it got nerfed to ground.

1 Like
3

The change made 0 sense. Natives have to pay a higher cost for a worse mortars that can be trained just in 3 buildings, too limited

4

Mortars probably are aimed to treaty or very late game when you should have 700 gold to spare. Outlaws are out of competitive game for Lakota.

1 Like
5

It’s because it lets outlaws be unlocked earlier now. Outlaws are strong and cheap with a drawback of high population costs. For Lakota in age 2, population costs are not an issue, so they would be very unbalanced if gun running didn’t have a big upfront cost. Unfortunately this also penalizes Haudes and makes outlaws not viable at all for them.

2 Likes
6

No, because only mercs and outlaws were never, and should never be viable units to make. Mercs and outlaws are support units, you make them only when you have excess gold and you need units in emergency. Or with a shipment, which gives you a 1 time power boost. There is already is sweden for the specialised merc civ, and mexico and us for specialised outlaws civ.

Not all civs need or should be good at all kinds of units and strats.

7

Technically native units, outlaws and mercenaries should be called auxiliaries not support units.

8

He speaks the true true. ^^