6.000 almogaraves fought and won vs 30.000 ottomans for the byzantins.
Roger its married with the niece at the Emperor, and is proclaimed Caesar.
And then the emperor betrays them for fear of his power and murdered 100 almogaraves and the leader, Roger de Flor at a banquet in Adrianopolis…(like The Red Wedding).
Then they toke revenge, they sacked all of Greece and formed the Duchies of Athens and Neopatria and stay here 60 years along.
mercenaries could be a bit game-breaking, if too easy to hire them for certain civs, but would add more realism, especially for some nations like Italians and Byzantines whose state was not feudal, and the financial incomes allowed them to temporarily hire a huge army comparing to their size, or to fill up the “standing” army. imo it works fine in Cossacks, but I don’t really like in Stronghold Crusader 2.
btw the Black Army of Hungary was rather the 1st standing army in Europe (if not counting Ottoman Janissaries) than a mercenary companion, maintained by the king for long years, who had several kingdoms, and had to fight on more fronts, and the feudal army was usable only for a relatively short period, only in their home country, as determined by law.
It would be a shame if they missed out on bring mercenaries to the game. Simply more expensive units per power cost, but still more powerful than stock units that can be trained early on for some shock value.
It could even be done as a one time call, perhaps the Chinese are weak to cavalry, but they have a one time call of some special long swordsman unit for a timing push that would counteract their weakness. Expensive, but useful. Or even enhance an already advantage, perhaps some elite cannoneers that make their cannon strat much more effective for a one time advance, until the opponent can withhold and start to counter it.
Finding new ways to be unpredictable in strategy and timing.
in Cossacks they have no high cost, but have maintenance cost, it means a lot of golds, and in case of gunpowder units iron and coal too. imo it is closest how mercenaries should be handled.
but in AoE, maintenance cost would be a totally new feature, players would probably hate it while I would love it…