Like I said, The Mercenary Contractor is absolutely useless right now. We have that mercenaries are rarely used … add to this that you are advancing in age with the only advantage that you can now recruit new mercenaries in the tavern when you could have a better reward.
This politician should give more rewards; For example, give you the mercenaries you unlock, or make the mercenaries cheaper, etc …
Mercenary Contractor is always a agood option, and the best politician for Age 5.
It is already good, and heavily benefits Mercenary strategies.
Mercenaries are also much stronger in DE, so making them cheaper would create balance issues.
I hope they do not touch the Mercenary Contractor, it is one of the DE additions that was actually overwhelmingly positive, with no drawbacks.
I dont sure in 5 age. But in 3 Age is useless.
Honestly, every age 3 politician is kind of bad. Most of the time, you should age up with the exiled prince.
Not at all, it depends on the civ. As Ports you always get Lil’ Bombard, as Dutch you always get Fusilier, as Ottomans you always get Stradiot.
There are Merc Contractorts that are better than others, but they are always decent. It is just that the Meta will always be Exiled Prince, because fast Age Up allows you to play greedy in Colonial, or catch-up if you have fallen behind.
The idea of that politician is not bad. But it would need a little buff. I know that entering the meta is difficult but if you compare unlocking a mercenary in the tavern with (for example) 9 crossbowmen you realize that advancing to age 3, The Mercenary Contractor would need a buff to keep up with the rest.
Unloked mercenaries cheaper or stronger for example.
Mercenaries, specially in Age 3, already mop the floor with normal units, and are easy to spam because you only need Coin.
Just giving you options that cover your civ’s missing units, or that benefit from available cards (Stradiot benefits from Ottoman Cavalry cards, for example), is already a huge boon.
Okay, I’ll put it another way. The exiled prince is usually a very common option in games but still depending on the strategy you can see other politicians of age 3. The thing is that I have never seen the use of The Mercenary Contractor in a competitive game. Have you seen it?
I use it, but I am not a competitive player.
Anything that is less than the Exiled Prince in value, will never be used competitively.
Competitive gameplay is never about having many viable options, it is always about having a SINGLE ONE super build that is the most efficient in every scenario.
Competitive gameplay is, by definition, inflexible, so unless you buff MC to broken OP levels, it will never be used. 9 Crossbowman is never used either.
Right, as you said it is not a competitive solution, so it needs to be buffed.
The problem isnt that it will be less than Exiled Prince. The problem is that It is less that the all the politicians (in Age 3).
The only way for it to ever be competitive, is for it to be better than the Exiled Prince, which would be grossly OP, and would not solve your issue of the gameplay being funneled into few options.
It is definitely better than 9 Crossbowmen or 8 Pikemen.
I think the units it gives must be changed a bit for some civs.
E.G.
the brits should get jaggers, not hacka
It should give the merc unit type that the civ lacks. It even fits the name of “mercenary contractor”. Why would a nation go out and hire the same unit types it already has? It makes sense to hire the unit type it doesn’t have.
Hard disagree. Mercenary Contractor in Age 3 and 5 are extremely good. Some civs need a better merc selection though. Others are practically essential like the Dutch permanent Fusilier access is huge because of how op Fusiliers are and how well they work in dutch composition.
Though having a more general effect would be nice considering that it’s a useless age up if the mercenaries are already in the saloon though that is pretty rare.
Unlock the mentioned mercs at the respective building (Barracks, Stable or Foundry… or only at Forts)
My main issue with mercs is the fact that i can only send them from the Tavern which makes them more micro heavy and therefore more complicated to use than just mass the equivalent unit (exception for sweden with their jaegers in barracks)
Competitive gameplay is BORING. Exactly as JonOli12 says, everyone just picks the ultimate perfect civ with the perfect build order for the map. And then you get to watch a boring mirror match of two civs using the same build orders and same unit combinations. YUCK. And it doesnt apply to 99.9% of the players who move the mouse slightly slower and don’t memorize build orders. Its like the opposite of fun.
That said, I love mercs but have had lots of trouble using them successfully in my games. Seems whenever I build them from the saloon, I lose the game. I never have enough units, even when I try to rebalance for coin only.
Anyone have tips for how to use them successfully? For example Ports have the option to age up with Ronin available at the saloon. But Ronin cost 400 gold each!! what are you going to do with a few ronin when for that money your opponent will have a large mass of a variety of units? That said using merc cards seems to work out ok, not sure why.
Best Merc civs are Sweden and USA.
Dutch also do fine, since you will only need Coin for both Vills and Mercenary units.
Sadly, the devs still have not made the new Theatres card allow for a second Saloon, like I suggested.
You only need about 3 of them, and tghey will just slaught all Hand Cavalry and buildings alike. They can even tank quite a few Skirmisher and Falconet attacks, just make sure to micro them effectively, and not allow them to chase Ranged units.
Man I tried, Ronin get so easily one shotted by a few musketeers, even with artillery around. 8? musketeers focus fire, BOOM you lose 400 gold. Too bad they would be so cool if you could use them without getting your butt kicked.