I think the mercenary contractor for Italians and French should be changed so that it makes a unit available in the Fortress age. What is the point of an Age 3 politician unlocking only age 4 units? Both the Mounted Rifleman and Royal Horseman are only available for Age 4 and both are essentially anti-skirmisher units. And for the French, who already have the Curassier, why do they need the Royal Horseman, it is basically just a gold costing Curassier. It makes no sense, and makes this a completely worthless age up for these two civs.
8 Likes
Game officials thought many people were playing Treaty
I think that the politician, mercenary contractor should allow the use of mercenary camps and guarantee a selection of mercenaries that compensate for the weaknesses of each faction, but since this is unlikely to happen I propose that for Italy allow training Armored Pistoleer, Elmetto and Li’l Bombard and for France I think they should be Napoleon Gun, Fusilier and Royal Horseman. 
No, because it already unlocks lil’ bombard for Ports. It isn’t supposed to unlock three mercs. It should be standard for all the civs that it unlocks one age 3 merc and one age 4 merc, unlocking 2 identical age 4 mercs is just silly.
2 Likes
In my opinion the Portuguese should not have access to the Li’l Bombard, I think they should have the Cannoneer.
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Mercs arent worth it on treaty as they are only trainable from a single building. Only Swedes, Germans and hatas are
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I’d much rather they replace the unlocking of the Ronin with something else, since you can already get them through the “Theaters” Card. Something like the Zenata Rider, the Landsknecht, the Harquebusier or the Askari would fit decently well. Besides, Cannoneers are Age II mercs, which aren’t that great as an Age up for Age III.
I’m talking about the mercenary contractor. (political)
In my opinion I think the theaters card should increase the number of taverns we can build and perhaps allow us some exclusive improvements for the mercenaries of civilization. In this case the Cannoneer of the Portuguese.
I understood that you meant the politician, but a person who is trying to do a Mercenary Contractor Age up, might want to run “Theaters” in their deck and, while other civs like Dutch, Ottomans or British will get access to, potentially, 3 new Mercs, Portuguese will only get access to 2 new Mercs at best. Removing Li’l Bombard doesn’t do anything to address that, and replacing it with the Cannoneer is a worse exchange.
Honestly I want a re-work of the mercenary contractor for all civilizations, in all cases I want it to give access to several mercenaries and add more mercenaries for all civilizations.
Also, seeing my original idea, I think that theaters should be changed to a card that allows the creation of mercenary camps similar to the German card.
It would be something like the following.
Mercenary Contractor.
Effect: allows you to train mercenaries exclusive to the civilization of origin (mercenaries depend on the civilization you are using) (minimum 3 mercenary per civilization)
Mercenary Camp.
Effect: Replaces the tavern with a mercenary camp, increases the mercenary camp limit to +2 for a total of 3 max, and sends 3 mercenary camp construction wagons.
Obviously this is just my opinion.
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I would like to bump this thread for further discussion. It makes no sense that an age 3 politician for French and Italy doesn’t have any affect until age 4. (The mercs it enables both are not available until age 4). For all of the other civs mercenary contractor actually enables an age 3 unit. It is the only age up option in the entire game which does not have an affect in the age it is aging up into. I think Arsonists are cool, and are similar to French grenadiers, why not remove the royal horseman and add Arsonists available in age 3 instead?
I would personally like if the Italians merc contractor age up would unlock swiss pikeman, but it’s also true that both mounted rifleman and royal horseman are good mercs with decent upgrades for Italy, which makes them quite viable.
Mercenary Contractors should also ship some of the mercenaries unlocked upon ageing.
I would like to see Jäger as Age III mercenaries, considering that Italy lacks skirmishers before AgeIV. Historically, many Hessian mercenaries fought for Venice, like in the Sixth Ottoman-Venetian War for example.
The Harquebusiers could be another option, they would synergize well with Papal Lancers’ deflection ability. Alternatively, the Mounted Rifleman could be made an Age III mercenary, it’s similar to the Harquebusiers stats-wise after the consistent nerf to their hit points (360 down from 560).
The current way Mercenary Camps have been implemented is the stupidest way to do it. It should not replace the Tavern of the most beer loving civ in the game. It should be something in addition to Taverns, not in place of them.
I think it should instead work like this:
Mercenary Contractor - Enables a selection of civ specific mercenaries and enables your Explorer to construct a number of Mercenary Camps.
Mercenary Camp - Does not replace Taverns, and is constructed separately by Explorers. Can only train mercenaries and doesn’t provide trickles or upgrades but is less expensive than a Tavern.
2 Likes
Personally I would like to see France get the Mohawk Statesman politician back instead of the merc contractor. Before France had 3 options to age up with military units (corsairs, tomahawks, skirms) and now they can only age up with skirms. Maybe there could be an age 4 card introduced that lets France train the mercs so that it is still an option for treaty and the politician could be reverted to give more options to supremacy.
Italy though have access to pavisiers, schiavoni and bersaglieri, I wouldn’t like another access to the a skirm.
Also, the mounted rifleman basically already act as a super skirm, I would prefer instead to see them get access to an heavy infantry, to emphasize their renaissance theme, hence the swiss pike.
Then they should keep either the royal horseman or the mounted rifleman, I not sure which thought…
The point is that most mercenaries have high value in mid-game, once the game goes into Industrial, and the upgrades have been researched, regular units offer better value per pop., while Mercs have to wait for Imperial Age for an upgrade.
Italy already gets strong units and shipments in Industrial, I wouldn’t train either the Royal Horseman or the Mounted Rifleman.
Devs could make the Imperial Age Mercenary Contractor unlock another 2 mercs, so that mercenaries unlocked could be distributed better.
Regarding the skirmisher role, well, fully upgraded pavisiers in Age III get 19 range and a slower fire animation compared to the skirmisher’s one, which doesn’t need any upgrade; Schiavoni are nice but are counter-skirmisher units with different multipliers and are locked behind the Basilica shipments mechanics, while Bersaglieri come in Age IV.
We are seeing FI strategies with Italy mostly for this reason, that’s why I was suggesting an Age III skirmisher unit through mercenaries.
Swiss Pikeman? Yeah, Swiss mercenaries were recruited and participated in the Italian Wars in large numbers, they could be a nice addition to the Italy Age III unit roster, they are solid and fast heavy infantry units after all.
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Well, mounted infantry can get quite good with Italy shipments and have crazy strong attack with an higher RoF capable of one shot infantry.
Royal horsemen are curasiers, so they are never bad…
Probably between the two I would choose the mounted rifleman ad they are quite strong, even though I prefer the royal horseman as unit type.
I would love to play a swiss pikes and papal guard combo, the pikes would do the damage, and the papal guard would soak damage for them.
They are also an age 3 unit, so it would make sense that the age 3 mercenary contractor would unlock swiss pikes for age 3, and mounted rifleman for age 4, then if you ship advanced politicians you can get the royal horseman too.
Yeah but still, they have enough options, and they can still ship jagers and mounted infantry, or more unconventional units, like schiavoni and lancers.
I personally like the lack of conventional skirms as it open for more unique gameplay.
No doubts that Mounted Rifleman are strong units, though I see them more suitable for team/treaty games, where your economy would better sustain their high cost through eco cards and their long training time would be improved with cards you might have in your deck here, like Riding School; eventually, you end up getting the Imperial upgrade too.
In 1vs1 supremacy games, their 400 coin cost, the high pop, the high training time and the politician you need to pick to unlock them become quite prohibitive instead.
Mercenary contractors should ship something. Otherwise the value is too low.