To be honest, though I agree, Mercs already do benefit from Cards and Upgrades that affect training time of their respective unit class.
For example: Fusiliers are affected by Fencing School and Standing Army, and can actually be trained VERY fast if you have both.
Mercenaries are just powered-up versions of normal units, for the most part.
In fact, as Russian, with Fencing School + Dueling School + Standing Army, you can train Infantry Mercenaries almost instantly, and veritably instantly if they are Ronin.
I have tested this.
Although I believe that if there were new civs, they could take advantage of the existing mercenaries (Berbers do in Historical Battles have Barbary Corsairs) - new mercenary units would be added to their place.
It is an example. Also, Mercenaries do not need to be stricly thematical, and I think they should more be inclined towards covering civ weaknesses.
Ottomans already have Guard Hussars, Sipahi shipments, and would get the Mameluke Merc, so they would not need the Stradiot, while Portuguese might, for example.
There is no need, the Barbary Corsair can remain a Mercenary unit, while a Moroccans civ (only Barbary Coast state that was not a protectorate or colony, which is why I suggest them) could just have the Berber Spearman that already shows up in the Scenario, and have Barbary Corsairs as Mercenaries, or even as â+1 per shipmentâ civ bonus.
One idea could be to make a Native/Merc hybrid system.
Like the Inca unlock Natives that they can build through a HC card, why not unlock a Merc that cost 0 population but as a training limit.
Having a card that letâs you train 10 Highlanders for 0 population would be a nice bonus in lategame and would make them more viable without being OP.
Maybe something like the Native Embassy for Mercs that can be build by the Explorer with a limit of 3 that canât train Outlaws and needs the Saloon to be constructed first.
Some Iberian Mercs for Portugal and Spain could be nice like Catalonia or Basque Mercs.
The Balkan has a lot of countries that arenât represented at all. Denmark and Norway are probably to small to every become playable Nations so giving them some Mercs could be nice. Same with Ireland or Belgium (doesnât exist as a country but as a region).
There are a lot of possible Asian Mercs too. Why is there no Elephant or Camel Merc? Camel Merc could be nice because they could bring the Melee Cavalry that counters Cavalry back.
Korean Hwacha have to be in the game somehow they are just too awesome. Rocket powered arrows! Lotâs of them!
But Iâm hoping for a Korean civilisation anyway that can train those in addition to Turtle Ships.
Portugal actually did not hire other Iberians, because we had a very âhands offâ approach to anything related to Spain, except defending the border.
Portugalâs european mercenaries were most often german, russian and english companies, and the vast majority of colonially employed mercenaries were asian or african, mostly in their own countries or neighbouring ones, to save up on cost of transportation, and other complications such as getting accustomed to the climate and local food.
It would actually make sense if all Portuguese Mercenaries, in the game, were Asian, with the Mercenary contractor providing 2 European options.
Or as I haved said before in other post, Dancing Hall card should do this:
so you can train Ronin also in case you need to, and we dont need even more cards, we just need better cards, and Dancing Hall is a Great card that nobody use, so I Think it really needs this improovement.
The design of the current Mercenary politician seems to be based on this idea. He gives the civ at least one unit type that the civ really lacks (Jaegers, Black Riders, etc.). Meanwhile Mamelukes, Ronins, Corsairs and Harquebusiers are more functionally distinct and can be given to almost every civ.
How about:
Mercenary contracts for every Civilisation.
Makes Mercenaries trainable in Forts only (to limit the production compared to Barracks Stable)
Replace some of the existing Mercenary cards. For example the British can train JĂ€gers with a card.
The Dancing Hall is a strange card. It doesnât offer that much and everyone unlocks the same Mercenary, the Ronin.
I feel like the Saloon was originally only designed for Bandits but turned into a Mercenary building. It kinda feels like a strange underdeveloped feature. Also the Saloon doesnât really fit the theme. It looks like an US building and not some place where you can get Mercenaries from all over the world.
Dancing Hall isjust a bad card, because it reduces pop cost of Outlawas, which are the worst unit types in the game, the Wokou Ronin being the only exception.
It should allow you to build a secon Saloon, which would be a much better effect, and would ensure itâs place on Mercenary decks.
I like this, I wonder how it would affect Asian civs ââatonementââ card which is the equivalent of dancing hall. I feel the conversation is pretty much focus on Europeans right now.
They are actually good? What do you use them for? I thought they didnât do much lol, unlike their ronin/hatamoto counterpartâŠ
They are with Dance Hall (only 1 pop, and are stronger than Halberdiers, with double the HP and 10% more Melee Resist), Wild West upgrade and the Infantry Breastplate upgrade at the Arsenal.
Wokou Ronin are expensive at 200 Gold, but beat even Tokala Soldiers with the Infantry Breastplate upgrade.
They can be used as a sort of Early Halberdier, that is better than Halberdier, and gets even better if you have Infantry Combat cards or Age Up to Imperial with Mercenary Contractor.
Actually a very decent Outlaw unit with Dance Hall, but unfortunately it is the only good one.
They certainly are better than I expected, but they lack multipliers vs cav tho so idk how you would use them. As slow cavalry killers? Because they probably are easily kited by range units
They can usually tank stuff until it dies, and with 25 damage, it does not take that long. They also have 35 Siege Damage, so mix in a couple with Crossbows, and you can raid.
They also have 4.5 Speed, so they are not too slow.
For a Colonial Age unit, their stats are quite impressive, if you have Dance Hall (otherwise do not bother, they are only good when they cost 1 pop, not 3).
I usually float a bit of Gold in Colonial anyway, because most units cost Food and Wood, so Wokou Ronin are a good investment for an early game unit that tanks a lot, specially on the defensive against civs like Lakota, which come in fast with Melee Cavalry.
Later on, you fully replace them with Hatamoto and Swiss Pikemen
3 pop is fine in Colonial if you play a civ that has to spam hoses anyway like the Brits or Japan.
I donât get why this one is such an outliner, other cost more population while worse stats.
I wonder if that was supposed to be a normal mercenary.
I think the idea of Outlaws is to get units that are good price/value but have high population but they donât achieve that goal.
No one would miss them if they got removed.
For Brits, Japanese and Swedes, otehre may have issues spending all that Wood in Houses.
And even as those 3 civs, you still do not want a 3 pop early Halberdier replacement, with double HP but no damage multipliers.
Wokou Ronin is good because of Dance Hall, and because it costs only 200 Gold.
Other Outlaws have ridiculous 6 pop costs and 100 Gold cost, like teh Pirate, but even with Dance Hall they only go down to 4 pop (basically a full House per 2 of them), which clogs up your Boom so much, taht even though they cost half of what the Ronin costs, you still will not want them.
And do not get me started on Comancheros (7 pop each) and Renegados (6 pop each), which never compensate for their pop cost, even though they are very affordable on Gold.
You just do not want to spend that much Wood on Houses, and have a tiny army to show for it.
I would much rather they cost double the Gold, and have the 3 pop cost that Wokou Ronin do, so it goes down to 1 with Dance Hall.
Hereâs an idea: What if Mercenaries and Outlaws cost no population at all, but could only be built in limited numbers, like native allies? This way we could get rid of the high population costs, while also preventing a player with too much gold to spam mercenaries.
Another, bolder, idea: What if Mercenaries and Outlaws could only be hired for âtimed contractsâ? You hire them at the saloon and each Merc becomes available for 5 or 10 minutes. After the timer ends, the unit disappears, but you can reset the timer by ârenewing the contractâ by paying more gold for it. This could be an interesting mechanic, forcing the player to time very carefully the use of these elite units for a strategic breakthrough or a desperate emergency defense, but not being able to rely on them for the long term.
Iâm not sure either idea would necessarily improve the game, Iâm just throwing ideas out there.
This would be awful. There is a reason why no one uses Mercenaries in Age of Mythology, and that is because paid units should not decay.
You are putting Gold on these things, so you want them to remain in service for a long time.
At taht point tehre would not be any reason for Mercenary decks. The purpose of Mercenaries is that they are more powerful and expensive versions of common units.
You want them to be spammable, atht is why quite a few players would like there to be the option of a second Saloon.
Mercenaries have appropiate pop costs, only Outlaws do not.
By the contrary, both ideas rely on some way to prevent spam, either by limiting their time on the field or by putting a cap on their numbers. I believe that Mercenaries and Outlaws should be very powerful and expensive units that can reinforce your army, but never the bulk of it.
Iâm not a fan of timed mercenaries either, but as I said, Iâm just throwing ideas out here. Maybe with the proper balancing we could find a way to make this mechanic more interesting/worthwhile for the player or not.
At least can anyone explain why the Outlaws have such a crazy pop?
I have proposed in other post to reduce 1 pop cost of these guys per age OR they could be just 2 max 3 pop from the beginning and then the âDancing Hallâ card would be finally usefull (I Think we do all agree we would like to have the Ronins on our Side more offen just because they are strong and super cool) but we canât use them because the card just is not useful yet.
PS: Dont forget my other proposal of getting âAgentsâ card at second age and give them a ranged attack at least with this card so it worth it!