The Great Khan outplayed me.

[Leechboy]

The year 2350 is the development of my militaristic materialist empire. Fleet capacity of about 300 ships (150k power). Seeing that the senate was pushing a resolution with the mercenary enclave buff, I decided to give one of my fleets to the mercenaries. The fleet was stationed in my home system. For about 20 years I buffed them with my technology and gave money to expand the fleet. At the moment its power is 200k.

The year is 2360. The Great Khan awakens on the borders of my empire. First thing he does is destroy a neighboring protectorate power, giving me time to bring the fleet to the sensitive borders of the empire. With the fleet out on the border, I decide to take a break and return to the game the next day.

The next day after loading the game I discovered that my mercenary fleet now belonged to the great Khan. He had bought their services. ♥♥♥♥, this fleet is more powerful than any great khan's fleet. I didn't use those services because I could have destroyed Khan with my fleet, and I planned to pump mercenaries for the endgame crisis.

What the ♥♥♥♥? Why would you need mercenaries if mid-game crisis could buy out your entire mercenary fleet? Now my mercenary fleet is the most powerful fleet in the galaxy(except fallen empires), and it ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ belongs to the Great Khan.

And why did this not happen during the game, but was discovered when I reloaded the savegame?

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

(unfortunately, there's nothing I can do except capitulate to the Great Khan, because I'm playing on iron man difficulty)

[Bumc]

well, at least it made for a good story, hail the Great Khan

[Elitewrecker PT]

You can make them recall the fleet for influence if your opinion with the mercenaries is good.
The hire it to make sure they don’t hire them again.

[Leechboy]

Originally posted by Elitewrecker PT:

You can make them recall the fleet for influence if your opinion with the mercenaries is good.
The hire it to make sure they don’t hire them again.

Apparently, it will take six months to recall the mercenary fleet. During that time they will have time to wipe out my system.

[Leechboy]

Originally posted by Elitewrecker PT:

You can make them recall the fleet for influence if your opinion with the mercenaries is good.
The hire it to make sure they don’t hire them again.

And the strange thing is that after reloading the save, the fleet got obviously bigger. And the ship models have clearly changed (or they changed the moment I decided to create a mercenary fleet from it).

I get the feeling that this is some kind of bug, and now the fleet permanently belongs to Khan. I hope they won't destroy me in 6 months, I'll see how things develop.

[Danny]

Mercs shouldn't be able to be hired against their patron.
That would fix that little issue, so the Patron and the Mercs will always see each other as neutral fleets.

[Leechboy]

Originally posted by Danny:

Mercs shouldn't be able to be hired against their patron.
That would fix that little issue, so the Patron and the Mercs will always see each other as neutral fleets.

The mercenary fleet managed to destroy four starbases while they were in Khan's possession. Now they are back, but I have no way to rent them. I'm sure if I restart the game they will be in Khan's possession again. I'll try to wait for a chance to buy them back, but I have a feeling it was some sort of bug :(

[mss73055]

That's mercenaries for you. This is why mercenaries are outlawed by the UN.
The recent debacle in Afghanistan also comes down to the mercenary problem.

[HyperKnight]

It wasn't a bug, it was Stellaris AI taking revenge for all those times you called it stupid.

[Leechboy]

Originally posted by HyperKnight:

It wasn't a bug, it was Stellaris AI taking revenge for all those times you called it stupid.

Still pretty dumb tbh. If the senate didn't push resolutions with mercenary buffs, I wouldn't even bother establishing them. And from the looks of it, Khan only rented my mercenaries, the civilizations that promoted those resolutions were left untouched.

[Kleiner's final Form]

Mercenary fans when the mercenaries they specifically designed to sell out to anyone sell out

[𝒞𝒶𝓉𝓎𝒶♡]

Originally posted by Leechboy:

The year 2350 is the development of my militaristic materialist empire. Fleet capacity of about 300 ships (150k power). Seeing that the senate was pushing a resolution with the mercenary enclave buff, I decided to give one of my fleets to the mercenaries. The fleet was stationed in my home system. For about 20 years I buffed them with my technology and gave money to expand the fleet. At the moment its power is 200k.

The year is 2360. The Great Khan awakens on the borders of my empire. First thing he does is destroy a neighboring protectorate power, giving me time to bring the fleet to the sensitive borders of the empire. With the fleet out on the border, I decide to take a break and return to the game the next day.

The next day after loading the game I discovered that my mercenary fleet now belonged to the great Khan. He had bought their services. ♥♥♥♥, this fleet is more powerful than any great khan's fleet. I didn't use those services because I could have destroyed Khan with my fleet, and I planned to pump mercenaries for the endgame crisis.

What the ♥♥♥♥? Why would you need mercenaries if mid-game crisis could buy out your entire mercenary fleet? Now my mercenary fleet is the most powerful fleet in the galaxy(except fallen empires), and it ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ belongs to the Great Khan.

And why did this not happen during the game, but was discovered when I reloaded the savegame?

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

(unfortunately, there's nothing I can do except capitulate to the Great Khan, because I'm playing on iron man difficulty)

Well, it did give a fun story and a good learning experience. So kind of worth it, right? :)

And yes, i also always play only in Ironman mode so i know about the tough decisions and if a mistake made, might be hard to recover to win - but that actually makes it worthwhile and fun to play imo. To me it would feel like cheating if reloaded saves to get only good outcomes, but to each their own.

I only make like that 50k power fleet as mercs myself, when there is that law in GC that demands having merc fleet hired when in a war (or gets penalties).

Just earlier i was lucky with Khan myself, it took my worst competitions big systems, i waited until that, then went in and attacked, taking those systems for myself, first attack on the Khans ship she escaped with a pod, 2nd time she went down and accepted defeat. New Khanate was created as a "normal empire" after that. Gonna take them out next since my fleet already near them after the previous war so why not? More systems for me. :D

And year is close to 2400 so soon endgame Crisis inc, quick war before that as an appetizer and then full focus on whatever Crisis comes. :P I'm currently #1 on score, so.. most likely crisis coming hard after me based on feeling them going after number one most often. But am fortified super hard and fleets are ready. Just wishing it's not unbidden, that whack-a-mole with them jumping around here and there can be a bit annoying. :D

[Exarch_Alpha]

2350 and 150k fleet power?

AYY ROFLMAO

[Leechboy]

Originally posted by Exarch_Alpha:

2350 and 150k fleet power?

AYY ROFLMAO

Is it too low? Despite being militarists, my dudes never actually waged war against anyone

[Jimmy Hunter]

Originally posted by Leechboy:

Originally posted by Exarch_Alpha:

2350 and 150k fleet power?

AYY ROFLMAO

Is it too low? Despite being militarists, my dudes never actually waged war against anyone

150k Fleetpower is less then a full fleet by the time you're fully tech'd up, especially with the buffs you get with being Militarist. By the time you're 150 years into the game, you should be able to support multiple fleets with a much higher fleet cap that you can also push past with all your extra Energy Credits and Alloy you'll have nothing else to spend on.

The end game crisis will stomp out that fleet without too much effort if it spawn on or near you and focuses you.