Unique units you might like to hire...

[molly bloom]

I've always wanted the ability to 'hire' mercenary units in Civilization.

You know- a few Genoese crossbowmen here, a few Vandal camel phalanxes there, Parthian cavalry bowmen, Sassanid cataphracts, Fatimid naphtha troops...

So I was doing a little reading and thought of:

the Hussite or Taborite battlewagon. It did after all see off Sigismund's cavalry at Kutna Hora.

I like the idea of these reinforced strengthened wagons, full of infantry armed with pikes, crossbows and guns.

Anyway, the unique units or mercenaries we may never get to see or hire: wagons roll!

[johnmcd]

heh, it's men in buckets!

I think mercenaries would be a cool way to bring in the deserving 'little' civs. Let them have a run out. You could drop in gallowglasses, Genoese galleys and whatever else is cool.

[molly bloom]

Mmm, I'll have a few of these to get rid of experienced fortified spearmen, please...

[dregor]

Actually, the hiring of mercenaries sounds like a pretty good idea.. I can see it now.. Civilization IV: Mercenaries!

[samspock]

It could be a random event, like in the game Imperuim Galactica II. Your military advisor would pop up and say a mercenary band wants you to hire them for so many gold/turn and give specs. They could etither be existing units (including uu's) or special ones just for mercenaries.

Maybe you could even trade them to other civs.

[snoopy369]

Take a look at the Warlords Scenario preview at IGN (there's a news item linking to it, and a forum thread). The Barbarian scenario looks sort of similar to what you want (or could be adapted to it, anyway)... buying units

[patcon]

One concern that has been raised about this in previous threads was potential abuse of this option. I "rent" mercenaries from civ X for 10 turns, but they get killed during that time - do I lose my security deposit? These units would primarily be used as cannon fodder to soften up an opponent before sending in your own units. Remember the scene in Braveheart where the English king orders in the Irish infantry before using his archers? When this order was questioned by his general, the king replied "Irish are cheaper than arrows." Also, any units I had "rented" and did not die would have gained vaulable XP and I would not want to return these battle-hardened troops to their owner to be possibly used against me - they would find themselves sent on suicide missions just before the end of the lease.

That said, I do like the idea of being able to permanently get units from another civ. Units can be gifted to another civ (I've never received units from another civ, but I did [once] gift some workers I no longer needed to another civ because I couldn't bear the thought of "liquidating" them after all their years of faithful service and I thought I might get an attitude bump) so why not have a diplomatic option to request units from another civ or to offer units to another civ in the same way you can trade techs and resources?

I think unit trading should be limited in the following ways.
1) You can't get a unit your civ is not capable of producing on its own, or the UU which replaces that unit. If a civ doesn't have the technology or resources to produce knights they wouldn't be able to provide the support needed for knights, so they can't acquire knights through diplomacy. If a civ can produce swordsmen on its own it can acquire Praetorians from Rome and swordsmen from other civs. Rome would only be able to acquire swordsmen who would remain simple swordsmen either forever or possibly until they are fully assimilated. {see 5)}
2) There should be a "fair market" value for units based on their cost to build.
3) Unit trading would be one-time trades like maps or techs and not time-period trades like resources or open borders.
4) Traded units lose any excess XP beyond their current level. A unit with 8 XP drops to 5 XP when traded, just like it would when upgrading.
5) Units acquired through trade should retain knowledge of their origin and would become culturally assimilated over a period of time.
A) Assimilation would be influenced by the comparative cultures of the civs at the start of the previous turn. Units become assimilated at a rate of 10% per turn if the new civ has approximately equal culture, 8% if somewhat less, 12% if somewhat more, 5% if a lot less, and 20% if a lot more.
B) Training would also influence assimilation. Promotions and upgrades would each add one turn's worth of assimilation based on the culture difference at the start of that turn.
Example
A civ acquires a unit during turn 1 which now has 0% assimilation. The new civ is somewhat less cultured, so at the start of the turn 2 the acquired unit is 8% (0% prior + 8% turn 1 starting culture) assimilated. The acquired unit gained enough XP during turn 1 to earn a promotion during turn 2, so at the start of turn 3 so the unit is now 24% (8% prior + 8% turn 2 starting culture + 8% promotion) assimilated. The new civ finished several buildings and made its culture approximately equal at the start of turn 3, then became somewhat more cultured during turn 3 by using a Great Artist to create a Great Work of Art, so at the start of turn 4 the acquired unit is now 34% (24% prior + 10% turn 3 starting culture) assimilated. The unit is upgraded during turn 4, so at the start of turn 5 the acquired unit is now 58% (34% prior + 12% turn 4 starting culture + 12% upgrade) assimilated. So the assimilation percentages were: turn 1 = 0%, turn 2 = 8%, turn 3 = 24%, turn 4 = 34%, turn 5 = 58%. Had the promotion been delayed from turn 2 to turn 4 the promotion would have been worth 12%, and the assimilation percentages would have been 0%, 8%, 16%, 26%, 62%.
C) Units which are not fully assimilated would not be able to be used against their homeland without a degree of risk. ("We refuse to fight our brothers.") A unit which is X% assimilated has a X% probability of following orders to attack their former home. If they agree to attack they immediately become 100% assimilated; but if they refuse to attack it would reduce their assimilation to .5X%, and if this drops their assimilation to less than 10% the unit automatically disbands.
D) Acquired units which are the standard version of the receiving civs UU may be converted to the UU once they are 100% assimilated by spending one complete turn in either the capital city or a city with a military wonder such as Heroic Epic, West Point, Pentagon, etc. to acquire the requisite specialized indoctrination.

[dregor]

You could maybe tie Great Generals into the process. Perhaps you could sacrifice a general that would give you X amount of points that you could then use in a recruitment screen. There would be a variety of units to choose from based on the era. Could have common units for a low price, unique units for a higher price. This way you could use the GG to churn out an instant army. You'd still pay upkeep costs of course, but you'd save the production time and also get the added benefit of accessing units you normally cannot.

[Thedrin]

If the possible mechanics of mercenaries are being discussed:

Origins: Mercenaries can be bought specifically from the armies of other nations or barbarian states. These mercenaries are stronger and more expensive. Cheaper, weaker mercenaries can be gotten at any time from no specific place.

Contracts: Mercenaries cost gold per turn (or per multiple turns). When you stop paying them they return to their original civ or barbarian state (assuming you got them from that place). Otherwise they melt away.

Control: You do not control what promotions to give to mercenaries.

Abandonment: Mercenaries can choose not to fight offensive battles with poor odds. The type of odds at which mercenaries will refuse to fight can be decided when they are signed. Mercenaries can, at very high cost to the offensive civ, abandon defensive duties (backstabbing).

Special Abilities: All mercenaries have a chance of retreating. Upon doing so they no longer recieve pay.

[Tattila the Hun]

I trust you people know there is a Mercenaries mod for Civ4...

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=162016

[Urban Ranger]

Who goes to CivFanatics?

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Who goes to CivFanatics?

Hippies

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

I have proposed allowing the sale of units (as opposed to just gifting), in other threads.

Mercenaries, I suppose, would be units you buy, and then sell back when the war is done. Probably at a loss

[molly bloom]

Of course one of the problems is that mercenaries can prove to be unreliable... as a Ptolemaic pharoah found out, when having hired Celts as mercenaries, he (if I recall correctly) was lax with payments and found a revolt on his hands.

Apparently they even tried to set up their own state in Egypt!