Mercenary Units Only

[silent mike]

Is mercenary only achievable with the current build? Am attempting it but the only companies available are low tier. I can't beat the Baron with two bandit and three archer units. Where are the melee infantry? Will they become available if I start keeping some of the low tier guys on retainer?

[Agony_Aunt]

New companies become available over time. If you don't hire them, the Baron might. So probably best, if you can afford it, to buy as many as you can and keep them on retainer. I assume that you have to lean very heavily into personal wealth to make this strategy work.

[Fortigan]

You can amass a good number of mercenaries over time. A notification pops up whenever new ones are available and there are some infantry options now and then.

While some say you need to focus heavily on personal wealth, that is not exactly true. Your tax % takes that % at the end of the month and it's a % of your current regional wealth. You need to focus on trade and maintain a low tax %. As the regional wealth builds up that will gradually become a % of a much larger number.

I'm playing a game right now where I'm collecting 5% and the regional wealth is over 8000. So that is 400 a month without breaking my region's happiness (it's actually at 100% happiness and I'm playing challenging difficulty, so it's very possible to do).

If you tax too high, not only will your regional wealth dwindle (making future tax revenue lower), but you will hinder population growth as happiness falls. Getting "Better Deals" as your 2nd development choice and constructing all the production buildings is essential.

You can also do things like setting an import of 20 on clay to turn into tiles and an export of tiles for profit. This takes very little labor to establish a steady income. Do the same for most things. I import barley, clay, and flax to export ale, tiles, and gambesons. This is a steady stream of income all year and uses only 4 families. I also have a few large vegetable gardens and sell the excess.

[laserg]

that's a nice challenge but at this point game is to unfinished to bother.

Main aim is to get personal wealth by building a huge regional wealth while taxing your people thus dealing with unhapiness constantly.

If 3 tier housing was worthwhile given it's requirements (they should give 5-10 regional wealth per month at minimum) then it would be ok.

Like building a large town and use only mercs.

In current situation build 1 tier housing with a few 2 tier to produce export goods and that's it.

Not to say that current warfare with bandit camps included (which gives you 150 currency each, monthly income of 75 third tier houses!) is just a placeholder.

[Fortigan]

Origineel geplaatst door laserg:

that's a nice challenge but at this point game is to unfinished to bother.

Main aim is to get personal wealth by building a huge regional wealth while taxing your people thus dealing with unhapiness constantly.

If 3 tier housing was worthwhile given it's requirements (they should give 5-10 regional wealth per month at minimum) then it would be ok.

Like building a large town and use only mercs.

In current situation build 1 tier housing with a few 2 tier to produce export goods and that's it.

Not to say that current warfare with bandit camps included (which gives you 150 currency each, monthly income of 75 third tier houses!) is just a placeholder.

Proof that you can gain taxes without screwing up your happiness. Focus heavily on trade and keep your tax low. The profits ramp up over time.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3243314808

This was on the highest difficulty where happiness penalties are harsh, so very easy to do on default settings.

[ForeverNever]

When you see that a bandit camp was sighted, you basically immediately need to hire mercs to clean it up. Otherwise the baron hires a merc squad and goes for them.

When a claim battle was announced you have to hire all mercs before the baron comes with his army.

However after several ingame years have passed, it seems mercs do not replenish each month anymore.

If you build a second manor in your second village, it unlocks a second retinue and this reduces the amount of merc units you can hire.

I still managed to get the "mercanary captain" achivement by a lot of cheesing.

- playing on the easiest preset, so villagers are easier to make happy, keep building houses, upgrade them and unlock trade technology to import and export alot - more villagers = more tax income
- rushing for first manor and taxing for 30% or even more (tax office not required btw)
- using low tier mercs to clear bandit camps, with that you accumulate treasury and influence quite fast, disband low tier merc after that
- claiming neutral lands does not make a battle with the baron (because of easiest preset)
- when baron claims a neutral land you should have enough treasuery to challange him with merc units only (never use retinue), then defeat him and get the land without using influence
- claiming barons land requires 2k inluence, so you need a lot of food and tithe tax. By that time you should have enough tax income to keep the merc units without disbanding them
- Claiming the last land of the baron makes a battle where he has an extra large army. My mercs were 3 archers, 2 spears and 2 sidearms and very outnumbered. I used the archers to "lure" and "spread" the barons army so my melee infantry can pick one or two of his guys to quickly defeat them. This even bugged the AI such that some of his unit did not move at all. Also the battle has to take place in the battle circle, if you defeatd his army before the battle started, he will come back with a fresh new army.

[laserg]

that's the point - trade is OP.

I play only at most challenging settings and avoid trade development points at purpose.

The main source of regional wealth and military units should be your people - the larger town(the highest tier also), the more numerous inhabitet regions the better.

That's the main loop I'm looking for.

Plus real baron's armies and sieges -working both ways - that's a masterpiece.

[silent mike]

Yeah I hired some mercs and kept them on retainer but the mercenary pool just isn't replenishing at all. I'm met with a blank screen saying something like "There are no mercenaries in the pool this month" and it's been going on for about four seasons so I'm assuming they're never going to replenish. It makes this achievement nigh on impossible with the current build. Meh, it is early access after all. Mebbe I'll give it another shot when the update drops.

[silent mike]

I just tried again with the new beta and the exact same thing is happening. All the good mercs disappear from the roster too soon. It's one thing hiring them early game but you can't retain them until mid-late game and soon as you release them they never become available again. The Baron is still too aggressive. I give up on this achievement for now.