Bash for cash: how to use mercenaries for fun and profit.
Mercenaries are quite a bit more complex than they were in Medieval: Total War, and this is a very good thing indeed. Firstly, as previously noted ages ago, only generals can hire mercenaries. Mercenaries are unique units; they cannot be trained by any faction, for example mercenary hoplites are different to the assorted hoplite units the Greek factions get. Mercenary units cost one dollop of cash to hire, then a set amount each turn in upkeep. Mercenaries are more expensive than normal units but the advantages are that you get them instantly, and that they fill roles and functions your own units may not be able to meet. This is the primary use of mercenaries: filling the gaps. If your faction has no decent heavy cavalry then find some mercenaries to fill this role, and so on with the other unit types. Some mercenaries are better at what they do than ‘normal’ units; Balearic slingers are the best slingers out there bar none.
Mercenaries vary from region to region, for example mercenary hoplites are usually found in Greece. Each type has their own frequency (how often they appear to be hired) and regeneration rate (how quickly more of that unit type will appear to be hired); some types of mercenaries are simply much more common than others. This does mean you can raise armies tailored to the local nature of warfare, buying hoplite to counter hoplites, or horse archers to counter horse archers. Course, this is not always the ideal tactic, and some local armies fare better than others when turned back on their own kind. Hoplites will do well against other hoplites, but there’s really not so much point in turning peltasts back on peltasts, not when you can just send in the cavalry and mow down the enemy skirmishers with much less fuss and fewer casualties. The mercenary peltasts will do a nice job of turning enemy hoplites into imitation hedgehogs though … It’s also worth remembering that some terrains give bonuses or penalties to units, for example barbarian mercenaries receive bonuses when fighting in forests. You can use local mercenaries to take advantage of the local terrain, gaining bonuses if you use them sensibly.
Mercenaries remain on your payroll as long as you choose to keep them. It is possible to hire them, instantly use them in a battle and then dismiss them all in the same turn. This makes them very good cannon fodder for those tricky situations like storming gatehouses. Obviously if you have a prized unit of mercenaries you won’t want to use them in this manner, but if you hire some people in specially then it can be very handy indeed. Sometimes it is cheaper to send the mercs in to die in situations like this; retraining and/or replacing your own damaged units can become costly as well as time consuming and inconvenient.
Retraining mercenaries is possible, but by slightly different rules to ordinary troops. You can retrain them in cities which have buildings giving bonuses to armour and weaponry to improve their equipment. You cannot, according to the Res Romanae, retrain them to replace dead men. You can replaces losses by merging mercenary units of the same type together, just like ordinary units.
Mercenaries used in assaulting a settlement will take a share of the plunder. Being materialistic scum who fight for no cause but their own gain, they are the first to the looting. Your troops only get what is left when the mercenaries are done. (This is a fancy way of saying that mercenaries will take a large share of your loot from capturing cities, an unfairly large share too)
Suladan has compiled this list of mercenaries in the RTW game and kindly allowed me to use it.
updated 3/5/05 by Suladan (Noel Anderson - noel@vexed.org)
This information was extracted from the following two files from the 1.2 version of Rome - Total War. The initial and maximum number of units available is also listed in these files, as well as the replenishment rate of unit availability. Note that in a few cases, the hire cost of a unit varies depending on the province it is recruited in. Also note that in a few cases, units hired from specific provinces start with a higher experience level. Example: Mercenary Hoplite units hired in the province of Laconia start with an experience level of 3 and cost 950 instead of the normal 850. Provinces with an experience bonus will be denoted with a corresponding number of asterix in that unit’s province availability list.
c:program files
ome - total wardataworldmapscampaignimperial_campaigndes cr_mercenaries.txt
c:program files
ome - total wardataexport_descr_unit.txt
unit hire cost / upkeep cost
province availability
Barbarian Mercenaries 800 / 200
Britannia_Inferior Tribus_Silurii Britannia_Superior Hibernia Tribus_Saxones* Germania_Inferior* Tribus_Chattii* Agri_Decumates* Germania_Superior* Locus_Gepidae Locus_Gothi Pripet, Hyperboria Regnum_Marcomannii Boihaemum Tribus_Iazyges Dacia Belgica Armorica Central_Gaul Aquitania Lugdinensis Transalpine_Gaul Narbonensis Cisalpine_Gaul Venetia Noricum Gallaecia Celtiberia Taraconenis Lusitania Hispania Baetica Liguria Galatia**
Mercenary Hoplites 850-950 / 170
Tribus_Sakae Tribus_Alanni Tribus_Sarmatae Maeotis Scythia Bosphorus Thrace Propontis Tribus_Getae Bithynia Paionia Macedonia Thessalia Epirus* Aetolia* Attica* Peloponnesus* Apulia Campania Bruttium Sicilia_Poeni Sicilia_Romanus Sicilia_Graecus Sardinia Laconia*** Africa Tripolitania Cyrenaica Libya Byzacium Rhodos Crete Lycia Phrygia Ionia
Bastarnae Mercenaries 1700 / 170
Regnum_Marcomannii Boihaemum Tribus_Iazyges Dacia Thrace Propontis Tribus_Getae Bithynia
Eastern Mercenaries 650 / 150
Colchis Atropatene Armenia Pontus Cappadocia Media Elymais Assyria Syria Babylonia Coele_Syria Phoenicia Judaea
Thracian Mercenaries 800 / 130
Thrace* Propontis* Tribus_Getae* Bithynia* Paionia Macedonia Thessalia Rhodos Crete Lycia Phrygia Ionia
Spanish Mercenaries 750 / 170
Gallaecia Celtiberia Taraconenis Lusitania Hispania Baetica
Samnite Mercenaries 750 / 170
Etruria Umbria Latium Apulia* Campania* Bruttium*
Cilician Pirates 620 / 200
Cilicia Cyprus
Illyrian Mercenaries 650-700 / 130
Regnum_Marcomannii Boihaemum Tribus_Iazyges Dacia Illyria* Dalmatia* Pannonia* Paionia Macedonia Thessalia
Mercenary Peltasts 550-600 / 170
Thrace* Propontis* Tribus_Getae* Bithynia* Paionia Macedonia Thessalia Epirus* Aetolia* Attica* Peloponnesus* Assyria Syria Babylonia Coele_Syria Phoenicia Judaea Sicilia_Poeni Sicilia_Romanus Sicilia_Graecus Sardinia Laconia Rhodos Crete Lycia Phrygia Ionia
Libyan Mercenaries 350 / 100
Mauretania Numidia Gaetulia Sahara Africa Tripolitania Cyrenaica Libya Byzacium Nile_Delta Middle_Egypt Thebais
Balearic Slingers 750 / 200
Gallaecia Celtiberia Taraconenis Lusitania Hispania Baetica Baliares** Sicilia_Poeni Sicilia_Romanus Sicilia_Graecus Sardinia Mauretania Numidia Gaetulia Sahara
Rhodian Slingers 750 / 200
Rhodos* Crete* Lycia* Phrygia* Ionia*
Cretan Archers 750 / 200
Epirus Aetolia Attica Peloponnesus Rhodos* Crete* Lycia* Phrygia* Ionia*
Barbarian Cavalry Mercenaries 450-800 / 100
Tribus_Saxones** Germania_Inferior** Tribus_Chattii** Agri_Decumates** Germania_Superior** Locus_Gepidae Locus_Gothi Pripet, Hyperboria Belgica Armorica Central_Gaul Aquitania Lugdinensis Transalpine_Gaul Narbonensis Cisalpine_Gaul Venetia Noricum Galatia
Sarmatian Mercenaries 1200 / 170
Tribus_Sakae Tribus_Alanni Tribus_Sarmatae Maeotis Scythia Bosphorus Regnum_Marcomannii Boihaemum Tribus_Iazyges Dacia Colchis Atropatene Armenia Pontus Cappadocia
Arab Cavalry 750 / 120
Assyria Syria Babylonia Coele_Syria Phoenicia Judaea Regnum_Palmyrae* Arabia* Nabataea* Sinai*
Bedouin Warriors 700 / 110
Assyria Syria Babylonia Coele_Syria Phoenicia Judaea Regnum_Palmyrae Arabia Nabataea Sinai Nile_Delta Middle_Egypt Thebais
Numidian Mercenaries 750 / 130
Mauretania* Numidia* Gaetulia* Sahara* Africa Tripolitania Cyrenaica Libya Byzacium
Scythian Mercenaries 800 / 120
Locus_Gepidae Locus_Gothi Pripet, Hyperboria Tribus_Sakae* Tribus_Alanni* Tribus_Sarmatae* Maeotis* Scythia* Bosphorus* Colchis Atropatene Armenia Pontus Cappadocia
Bedouin Archers 750 / 110
Assyria Syria Babylonia Coele_Syria Phoenicia Judaea Regnum_Palmyrae Arabia Nabataea Sinai Nile_Delta Middle_Egypt Thebais
Mercenary War Elephants 4000 / 490
Assyria Syria Babylonia Coele_Syria Phoenicia Judaea Mauretania Numidia Gaetulia Sahara
I have no such list for BI, unfortunately.
There is one small thing worth noting about mercenaries and the BI game. When mercenaries are employed by a faction which has gone into horde mode they still expect to be paid, even if your other units work for free until you capture a settlement.