Making mercs harder to find goes against the reason they are in the game to begin with, which is to make sure the player has some access to decent troops.
Never had the need to hire mercs before in a play-through which is why I'm suggesting they give them another reason to exist. Finding troops in towns and villages is quick and easy and only gets easier as the relations increase as you get more per visit and at high tier.
If one was to buy mercs early game for some quick decent troops, which I assume is what they are intended for and as you said, it makes them redundant for the rest of the play-through i.e. mid and late game, which the the majority of the game.
So I had done a little re-working of mercenaries (specifically Swords Sisters for being a joke) so I just went full bore again. I really don't like how trashy TW made mercs especially considering how expensive they are. IMO mercenaries should be professional troops, not some ragtag militia. (Calradia already has a homeless problem with amount of Looters running around...)
My general thought process here is because they are an extra tier expensive, they should be able to defeat troops at their tier, but not above their tier, so as to justify their expense. I also wanted them to be visually/functionally distinct (identifiable) as much as possible so they can be easily recognized and serve a purpose in-game.
Sword Sisters
I basically just upped armored them. They are pretty good crossbow troops, but they don't perform well in melee. Veteran Sword Sisters in particular are quite deadly almost being a match for Fian Champions in ranged combat. Gallant Sword Sisters are very good horse archers, can beat most other T5 HA, but not Khan's Guard.
Western Mercs
Again mostly up arming. Spear/Pike is pretty good at dealing with melee cavalry, but is not very good against regular shield infantry. I gave them all shields to differentiate between Vlandian Pikemen. Hired Elite Pikes can do a lot of damage to Elite Cataphracts/Banner Knights, fight is close, but they do end up losing.
For Hired Crossbows I gave them an extra set of bolts so they can fire longer then other crossbows, but at the cost of their shield.
Eastern Mercs
Once again mostly up arming. Elite Macemen are just strong enough to beat Legionaries. Outriders aren't particularly good horse archers, since they lose to other HA at their Tier. But they are pretty competent melee cavalry and can beat other melee cavalry of their own tier.
So I had done a little re-working of mercenaries (specifically Swords Sisters for being a joke) so I just went full bore again. I really don't like how trashy TW made mercs especially considering how expensive they are. IMO mercenaries should be professional troops, not some ragtag militia. (Calradia already has a homeless problem with amount of Looters running around...)
My general thought process here is because they are an extra tier expensive, they should be able to defeat troops at their tier, but not above their tier, so as to justify their expense. I also wanted them to be visually/functionally distinct (identifiable) as much as possible so they can be easily recognized and serve a purpose in-game.
Sword Sisters
I basically just upped armored them. They are pretty good crossbow troops, but they don't perform well in melee. Veteran Sword Sisters in particular are quite deadly almost being a match for Fian Champions in ranged combat. Gallant Sword Sisters are very good horse archers, can beat most other T5 HA, but not Khan's Guard.
Western Mercs
Again mostly up arming. Spear/Pike is pretty good at dealing with melee cavalry, but is not very good against regular shield infantry. I gave them all shields to differentiate between Vlandian Pikemen. Hired Elite Pikes can do a lot of damage to Elite Cataphracts/Banner Knights, fight is close, but they do end up losing.
For Hired Crossbows I gave them an extra set of bolts so they can fire longer then other crossbows, but at the cost of their shield.
Eastern Mercs
Once again mostly up arming. Elite Macemen are just strong enough to beat Legionaries. Outriders aren't particularly good horse archers, since they lose to other HA at their Tier. But they are pretty competent melee cavalry and can beat other melee cavalry of their own tier.
Damn, these all look so good and their performances seem promising. Hopefully TW also listens and upgrades the mercs' equipments to be on par. One small nitpick, I think eastern troops should look more Khuzait + Sturgian, so that (if my understanding is right about their intentions,) when the devs add northern and southern mercenaries, the southern mercs should be the ones that look Aserai (and maybe a bit like the Javval?) whereas the northern mercenaries look Battanian (and maybe Nordic?).
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