Mercenaries

[Adeimantos]

Are mercenaries worth using? I feel like they cost too much metal to be worth it; that needs to be saved for champions. 

[Adeimantos]

I'd like to recommend that in the next release their cost be changed to half that of the equivalent citizen soldier, plus 20 metal. So a mercenary archer would be 25 food, 25 wood, and 20 metal.

[Classic-Burger]

6 minutes ago, Adeimantos said:

I'd like to recommend that in the next release their cost be changed to half that of the equivalent citizen soldier, plus 20 metal. So a mercenary archer would be 25 food, 25 wood, and 20 metal.

Too late for a change in A28.

[real_tabasco_sauce]

The idea behind mercenaries is that they are cheaper in total resources, but you have to pursue a lot of metal to make them. They are also quickly trained and are more effective than their CS counterparts.

So you just have to prioritize metal in your build if you want to use those units.

[Gurken Khan]

27 minutes ago, real_tabasco_sauce said:

mercenaries ... are more effective than their CS counterparts.

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).

[Adeimantos]

48 minutes ago, real_tabasco_sauce said:

The idea behind mercenaries is that they are cheaper in total resources, but you have to pursue a lot of metal to make them. They are also quickly trained and are more effective than their CS counterparts.

So you just have to prioritize metal in your build if you want to use those units.

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?

[Adeimantos]

18 minutes ago, Gurken Khan said:

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).

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

[real_tabasco_sauce]

1 hour ago, Adeimantos said:

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?

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.