A Mercenary Team anyone?

[UnOrthOdOx]

First of all, forgive my relative absense.

Any of you who have known me over the years, knows I do a big production every Halloween. Either professionally or simply as a hobby. This was a hobby year.

Then of course, playing a few Civ IV games.

I'm back now, and ready to get this team going.

First of all, I would like to say the first and foremost goal of Team Merc is to make this game fun. For everyone.

Now to some points:

Originally posted by John-SJ
I think a mercenary team could be an interesting idea. I do think that things other than money might be considered for services though, trade deals being one possibility. Another question, does the mercenary team provide its own defense? Or might a mutual protection also be considered as part of a deal to provide troops?

Depending how the team was constituted to operate I might be interested in joining such a team. Could be a very interesting experience!

Yes,

Alternative forms of payment would ALWAYS be considered. This is a long history within the Merc concept already. Playing a few games of CIV, it'll be interesting just what all can be done. The trade system is a little...odd.

Merc team provides for it's own city/empire defense, yes. MPP will likely NOT be an option for hiring team Merc. Team Merc does not get involved in anything remotely resembling a permanent alliance. Defensive or not.

[quote]The idea is very good, yet there aren't much people wanting to join it.[quote]
Ah. The thing is Team Mercenary is not out to 'win'. Allot of people need to be 'the best', and to at least strive to 'win'.

Some of us, though, consider each and every successfull contract for Team Mercenary 'winning', having fun 'winning', and watching the fools on 2 sides of a war both hire us better than 'winning' (or, gasp, that party on the other side of the world hire us to force a stalemate...).

Unorthodox, maybe you need to announce it as a team where you can see everything what is going on (a mercenary team is likely to open borders with everyone), an observer team.

We are not simply going to be observers, though. We will be there playing along. And, if history stands, people WILL hire us. Or try to kill us off. One of the two.

For example, as Mercenary team's plans would not be so secret as other team plans, one could join mercenaries, have a look of things and then leave and join some other team (but only one with whom Mercenaries have contact at that time) - so say, 'be hired'.

Plans won't be totally open before they are panned out. However, once we have contact with everyone, Team Mercenary WILL be posting a list of who hired us when for what and how much. So it's definately MORE open than the other teams.

I would be opposed to players leaving Team Mercenary to join another team. It would at least APPEAR inappropriate. Say team Member A leaves to Team B and tells them team C was in discussion about hiring Team Merc. That would be an unnacceptable situation.

Weather that situation would happen or not, the mere APPEARANCE that it COULD would undermine Team Mercenary. And, perhaps more than any other team, Team Mercenary needs to operate 100% above board, with no shady dealings.

Yeah, sounds wierd, huh? The most shady concept must be the most spotless in practice.

[Kloreep]

I might be interested. I certainly wouldn't want to see another Merc team fail for want of members if the participants approve one.

[CrONoS]

Pretty Interesting....

Count me in...

=CrONoS_QC=
I know a lot about civ, never played any civ demo games. But i've looked the progression of some demo games, in the times of Civ3.

[UnOrthOdOx]

Always good to see new faces.

[Arrian]

UnO, what did you come up with to deal with the issue of team A hiring you to beat on team B, and team B immediately offering to pay even more to cancel the contract (or turn on Team A)?

I imagine this came up in the MZO game, I just cannot remember.

-Arrian

[Aro]

Well, I'm eager for a Demo game (best way to learn ), and the concept of a mercenary team is great. In fact, it will be easier with Civ IV, the mechanics of the game allow us to give units to other players.

A mercenary team is a great idea, and will give an entirely new dimension to diplomacy. Yes, we’re a small, rich and very cultural country and we have crappy military… But we have money, and we can rent dozens of Mech Inf and Tanks, and kick your a$$es off… So, FEAR us! And all this by contract, with a very reliable organization.

Not to mention the infinite possibilities to RP


But I would prefer play as a normal builder/warmonger/cultural team, in my first Demo Game... So, UnO, my friend… Unfortunately I’ll play with another team… I have too much to learn about simple strategies. Probably a spiritual Civ . In fact, we may need your services soon!

Btw, is it possible to give your UU to another player? What happens, the UU reverts to its original basic unit (A SEAL becomes a mariner, for example, or immortal becomes a chariot)?

[Kloreep]

Originally posted by Arrian
UnO, what did you come up with to deal with the issue of team A hiring you to beat on team B, and team B immediately offering to pay even more to cancel the contract (or turn on Team A)?

The answer is that Mercs don't accept payments from the target to cancel the contract. Once it's signed, it's signed. I believe UnO posted about this above - in order to get people to trust us and thus get any business, the Merc team that you might think would be unscrupulous must actually watch their conduct carefully.

It's possible Team B could hire Merc against Team A at the same time if they had the money, but that's the extent of what B could do. (Of course, this brings up the issue of whether Team A's Mercs can fight Team B's mercs if they're in the same area. I think CIV's game mechanics unfortunately answer that one, though it would be awesome if it were possible. )

Also, Aro has a good point... with unit trading it's possible to go beyond the Civ3 model and literally rent units to people. That would be interesting. And would get around the problem of merc units not being able to fight merc units.

[UnOrthOdOx]

Good question on the gifting UU's.

I'll try it my next game.

@ Arrian: Kloreep's got it down.

He should, being one of the co-founders of the original team.

[Arrian]

Ah, I see.

With unit gifting, you can sail over, drop off a few units, gift them, and then... aye, there's the rub: getting them back. You have to be in the civ's territory in order to gift the units, so the civ that hired the units would then have to transport them back - and if they're still at war this could get dicey.

As for UUs, I honestly don't know. I'll speculate, however, that the unit remains exactly what it is: a SEAL would remain a SEAL, a Panzer a Panzer, etc.

Heh - Redcoat Hessians, anyone?

-Arrian

[UnOrthOdOx]

I know CAPTURED fast workers revert to regulars.

Anyway, my best guess what we'll end up doing on the units is renting- maintaining them in our control, for price A

SELLING (permanent gifting) them for price B.

However, gifting could open allot of avenues for us. team A lacks, let's say Iron. We could set up a swordsman for catapult trade or some such.

Lots of fun possibilities.

[GeoModder]

For renting purposes only, you could always "gift" the transport which brought the contracted units to the contractor, which moves after the contract has expired the surviving units back home and is gifted back to the merc team.

[PJayTycy]

What are team merc's penalties when the customer doesn't abide the contract ?

[UnOrthOdOx]

Penalties will have to be decided on a case by case basis. However, keep this in mind. Payment is due on delivery of units....if you don't pay, we've got units sitting on your border, ready to be hired by someone else. Someone who will now at least suspect, if not know, you intended to hire Team Merc...It tends to work itself out for some reason, and is not usually a problem...for Team Merc anyway. What do we care so long as we're paid by someone?

[UnOrthOdOx]

from another thread. Allot of confusion still about team Merc:

Look for Team Mercenary to:
Expand aggressively to open areas.
Strive to never break any deals with any team.
Offer military units for rent for an equal cost to all teams.
Seek a strong economy to support as many units as possible.
Keep ALL negotiations secret.
Divulge ALL completed contracts to the public. (once in game contact is made with all teams)
Offer a privacy fee to keep your team name out of said public statements.

Team Mercenary will not, however, engage in:
Attacking a neighbor unless we are either paid to, or they attacked us first.
Permanent alliances of any kind.
Knowingly break agreements/backstab. (mistakes can happen, we are human, in such cases reparations will be made.)


If that translate into winning, we won't complain. It's just not our primary goal, Win uber alles :

Not attacking for ourselves, to gain land, conquest and domination are off the table for victory conditions, for instance.

Cultural considerations are lower on priority. Another not likely victory condition.

Space Race? Maybe. Depends what's going on and how good business is at that point of the game. If we're selling troops/getting paid for launching ICBM's, we'ld rather do that. It's more fun.

[binTravkin]

It's just not our primary goal, Win uber alles