Provincial centers and Ionian mercenary hoplites.

[LetswaveaBook]

There has been talk about giving the Persians mercenary hoplites and many Greek mercenary hoplites did serve the Achaemenid Persians.

adding the unit would be easy, but what would be the best place to train them? One of the things I did not want is Persians to spam mercenary hoplites. I have thought of a solution: The Provincial center.

The provincial center is just a copy of the civic center, which remains the same with the addition that the provincial center can also recruit mercenary hoplites. In essence, every "civic center" that you build is a provincial center, but you start with a civic center. So your starting CC is just normal, but any "CC" that you construct is a provincial center that can train mercenary hoplites.

I think many factions could enjoy a similar approach, where for example Roman provincial centers could recruit auxiliary cavalry or Athenian provincial centers could recruit Cretan archers.

So what are you thoughts about giving any secondary "CC"s the ability to train some extra unit types?

ProvincialCentre.zip

[BreakfastBurrito_007]

@LetswaveaBook I always like having more options, to be honest. This sounds great to me. It would be especially interesting if players find ways to make that mercenary useful to that civ or CC location. For example, Athenians could put a cc next to an enemy in p2 and train merc archers to deny metal/stone stop towers from being made while they themselves go p3 to build a forward siege workshop.

[alre]

why wouldn't you want persians to spam merc hoplites?

btw they need not to be ionians, mercenaries came to persia from all greece, and identified as greek.

[LetswaveaBook]

3 hours ago, alre said:

why wouldn't you want persians to spam merc hoplites?

I would like the hoplite to be an unit associated with the Greeks. It would feel weird to me if a Persian player would mainly use hoplites as melee units.

[Fabius]

This sounds like a fun idea for unit diversity and encouraging expansion. 

[alre]

when it came to melee, persians did actually rely on hoplites more than on their own, at least from some point onward. it would feel weird if a persian player relied on melee on the first place. if it did, it would make total sense for him/her to use greek mercs.

[Fabius]

4 minutes ago, alre said:

when it came to melee, persians did actually rely on hoplites more than on their own, at least from some point onward. it would feel weird if a persian player relied on melee on the first place. if it did, it would make total sense for him/her to use greek mercs.

If there is sufficient historical reason for Persians to have them then there is no reason to deny them. Whats more in the spirit of 0 AD which as I understand is historical fantasy to a certain degree, in that civs from different ages and areas of the world are all placed in contact with each other, if I as a Persian king decided I wanted an army of mercenary Greeks and had the option, I don't see that as being out of character with the game. It is supposed to be historical what-if  

[LetswaveaBook]

An addition to the idea: Let the provincial center have less territory but be cheaper. If you want to get extra territory on the provincial center, you could upgrade it much like you can do with the sentry tower. Upgrading does off course have its costs.

[maroder]

The idea does sound good and has been discussed a few times in different threads already, as far as I can remember.

The problems that were discussed in those threads (iirc): It should have different art and what are the differences to the military colony?

I still have the idea that it could be a good idea to use this territory claiming mechanic to diversify the civs, see here

 

[Lion.Kanzen]

It would be an interesting addition to the game.

 

[AIEND]

Greek mercenaries were not part of the standing army of the Persian king. It should be said that their appearance was the result of the corruption of the Persian system of exchanging land for military service. The officers who ruled various regions found it difficult to rectify the land for military service and assess the conscripts. It is much easier for taxes to hire ready-made veterans.
These hired Greek soldiers were not only spearmen, but also other lightly armed javelinmen, slingers, and archers, but generally infantry. They are not suitable for being a citizen soldier in the game, that will conflict with the Persian's own soldiers of the same kind.
It has to be a veteran mercenary or a champion unit, and then in P2 or P3, just train them directly in a general civic center, there is no need to make a small civic center like a colony.