The issue comes when have civs like Dutch being able to train (and insta train some) mercs from regular buildings. If they were actually still restricted to just the tavern it’d be fine, but too many civs have too much access now.
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mercenary units add another strats in the game and open the possibilities. some civ have this strategy more integrated than others, i like use this mercenary’s and use only gold is very expensive you have to try it.
Dutch can insta train Royal Horsemen from the stable which is kinda mad for a 4 pop unit. I was playing against a Dutch player the other day and they pretty much entirely spammed Highlanders. It felt weird fighting a Dutch civ with so many Scottish units, especially as I was playing as the British. I think that the Dutch should just get the option to build an extra two taverns and not get the ability to train mercs from their barracks or stables.
Also the choice of mercs they get seem weird. I get that there may have been one historical instance where Scottish highlanders fought for the Dutch, but I don’t think this justifies the Dutch having unlimited access to them. The Dutch getting greater access to Highlanders (with more hp) than the British still feels wild to me. I feel the Fusilier would be more appropriate but this would be very OP.
Well, lets remember mercenaries tend to be sligthtly stronger than regular units, but at the same time they are heavy coin cost and heavy pop cost. So yo cant train many of them, plus every batch you lose of units is very expensive to replace.
Wait, Wait wait wait, what?
Normally I’d agree that the high coin cost is a good deterrent to making large merc armies, however the Dutch always seem to have an abundance of coin due to their banks. Normally food is easier to gather over coin but for the Dutch I recon it’s about equal if not in favour of coin collection. So regarding the resource and population cost this is how things stack up:
Royal Horseman vs Hussar
- Royal Horseman → Cost 400 coin = 400 resources → Population space 4
- Hussar → Cost 120 food + 80 coin = 200 resources → Population space 2
Highlander vs Musketeer
- Highlander → Cost 200 coin = 200 resources → Population space 2
- Musketeer → Cost 75 food + 25 coin = 100 resources → Population space 1
Therefore presuming that the merc variant of the base unit are twice as good as the base unit, I don’t believe that these two merc options are inherently more expensive to the Dutch civ.
In addition to this, the Dutch have a 60 merchant build limit, which means that they have an extra 39 free population space to devote to their military (compared to an average civ with a settler build limit of 99).
Aside from Highlanders being kinda OP stat-wise, the main problem with dutch mercs is the amount of coin they can get out of thin air without relying on natural res too much and the insane amount of different merc and outlaw units they can get.
attached are two pictures showing the higest amount of merc/outlaw units possible rn - it’s by far not gonna be this much in your 1v1s or team games so this is just to showcase how far one could possibly take it
You mean cards, not letter.
I assume you speak Portuguese or another language where both use the same word, but cards are the ones that go on a deck (or credit cards) and letters are the ones you use to send a message to someone
That is already in the game. You can age up with the mercenary politician and unlock a guaranteed merc in age 3 and in age 4. I use it often, my favorite are Fusilers/Elmetti (Dutch) and Ronin/Lil Bombard (Ports). The French merc polititian is unfortunately mostly useless becuase both its mercs are only in age 4, so you don’t get any bonus until you reach age 4, which makes it non-competitive vs the other age ups. Not only that, but the mercs it gives duplicates its existing units (i.e. Royal Horsemen when they already have Curassiers).
IMO the devs wanted to encourage use of the mercs and natives, so DLC civs made them more ‘accessible’, by putting them in buildings people had to make anyway (Basilica, Palace, age up alliances, cards that send and unlock their production in existing buildings), to peak players interests and encourage their use without making them OP.
I love mercs and natives, the most fun I derive in AOE3 is from making COOL units, and native and merc units are often the coolest looking units. You can choose to be boring and meta and just make skirm goons (which is also super boring to watch), but the game really needs this diversity of units. If you want non-diversity of units, play AOE2 or AOE4.
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As I mentioned…
I made this post about a year ago and since then a lot has changed to the game especially where mercs and unique units are concerned. I really like the direction we are going in with more civ specific units. Some of my favourite unique units since the July/Austust update are the Black Watch Highlanders, Blue Guard Musketeers, Savolax Jaegers, Nizam Fusiliers and the Red Lancer Stradiots to list a few. Adding these unit to your army really adds to the immersion into the game.
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