Metal availability varies a lot by map. Metal is gathered more slowly, but if you want it, you can put as many gatherers as you want on it. If it is a metal-scarce map, then maybe reconsider using mercenaries. In a25, we rolled out a version of mercenaries where their metal costs were lower because metal was thought to be more "valuable" than the other resources and it was a nightmare for balance.

Lately I’ve felt something slowly slipping out of my hands… something I never thought I’d lose. 0 A.D. wasn’t just a game to me—it was a place where time paused for a moment, where the world outside couldn’t reach me, where I could forget everything and just be. But living in Iran means living inside a cage built by sanctions, restrictions, and barriers that keep tightening around even the smallest joys. Things that should be simple—like entering a game, joining a match, sharing a few peaceful minutes with others—turn into struggles that wear you down. And now, access to the game has become so difficult, so unstable, that it feels like a door slowly closing, no matter how much I try to keep it open. It hurts in a way I cannot easily describe. To watch something that once brought me comfort fade away. To realize I can no longer enter the world that once felt like a home made of pixels and imagination. And maybe the hardest part is knowing that I wasn’t always the perfect player. I made mistakes. I wasn’t always as good, as patient, or as helpful as I could have been. For that, I’m truly sorry. To everyone who played with me, taught me, laughed with me, or simply shared a moment on the battlefield—thank you. Thank you for the fun, the challenges, the conversations, the small escapes from reality. You’ll never know how much those moments meant to me. I won’t say the word “goodbye.” Some things are too painful to name. But if there’s a quiet sadness between these lines… it’s because a part of me will always remain in the places I can no longer reach. Thank you for everything.

It's just that mercenaries start out already advanced rank, citizens have to get experience or barracks time to get there.

There's only a limited amount of metal on the map. Later in the game especially I feel like I'm getting a good deal if I can trade 100 food for 25 metal at the market. At that rate mercenaries are much more expensive than citizens. Doesn't metal also take more time to mine than food or wood?

Are they? When I look at the Roman swordsman from the castra (who is advanced rank if I'm not mistaken) and some merc swordsman (also adv. rank) I see the same values for their sword attack and worse for capturing (plus the merc can't gather).