Category:Mercenaries

From Warbirth Wiki

Unlike Rise of Kings: Chronicles, where the Outpost trains Mercenaries, not all Mercenaries in Warbirth can be recruited from the Sentry Post. Some require special buildings like 0AD's Carthaginian civ in order to be recruited.

Units trained

Mercenaries unlike Rise of Kings are not knockoffs of other factions' units: instead they are an additional low-grade unit that can be amassed quickly with sufficient money on hand. If you have cash it is better to recruit the mercenaries rather than your own which require two resources and more time, instead of just one.

Because this is a Bronze Age mod, different units should have different cost structures. Some can be summoned out of thin air, others come in at low cost. But Chinese mercenaries should be low cost, fast train.

Mercenary Quarters

These are the weakest group of mercenaries. Guti are dropped from Age of Empires, with Iberians, Celts and Africans being available one age earlier than the rest, and Rong being exclusively recruitable only to Zhangzhung.

Rong

Clad in skins and unbound hair. Trained by Zhangzhung, Xiongnü, Zhou and Iranians. Xirong are most likely to be javelineers, archers and horsemen and seem to be related to prehistoric Tibetans. They have good LOS, range and relatively low costs in Wealth, but have lower attack strength, compared to other mercenaries such as Scythians.

Design notes: They wear different sets of skins. Primary ones: tanned leather. But 2ndary units wear either panther, tiger or wolf hides. Go figure.

Man

A different sort of barbarian, but more sophisticated and only available late-game. Available only to Bach Viet and Zhou. Design notes - spearmen wear shawls, but cavalry and crossbowmen wear waistcoats.

Man are not fast movers. They have lower movement speed, but they can deal untold damage, even as they cloak. Spanish units are somewhat similar to the Man but do not sacrifice movement speed for attack. Note that in typenames.x, their name must be Mán.

Libyan

They appear to be spearmen, swordsmen and javelineers, and are usually associated with Egyptians .... although it might be possible to have the Tartessians train them too.

They are fast movers, but fairly weak. Libyan units have low LOS, meaning that they must be escorted with Chieftains as command units to protect against Spies. In Age of Empires, they can obtain 2 of the Berber mercenary pool from Swords of the Prophets.

Arabs

Trainable, usually for Arabs, Hebrews and Babylonians, but also trained in limited quantities by Egypt, Persia and Aksum.

Arabs sacrifice hitpoints for greater movement speed. Arab infantry has a 5% bonus versus buildings (but not fortifications).

Guti

Guti are usually recruitable only to Elam and Babylon. They are basic units, who are cheap but weak and slow, although the Berserkers clearly do more damage to buildings and light units by virtue of being axe units.

Gutians are dressed mostly in skins, and carry no shields. Look to the Xirong for more information, but these guys seem to wear cloaks too. Apart from that they have no discipline, so the Elamite player can't directly order them.

Iberians

All Iberian units have a single ability - they can cloak when not moving.

Africans

Black Africans. Recruitable to Arabs and Egyptians, Kushites don't upgrade, but their archers and skirmishers have deadly accuracy.

Egyptians are capable of upgrading Kushite Archers and Spearmen into Medjay Archers and Medjay Warriors.

Man, Celts and Africans all should have a production speed bonus.

Sentry Post

Celts

  • Uirodusios - your friendly naked skirmishers
  • Fianna - unarmoured spearmen for hire to the highest bidder

Very tough and dangerous Celts, available to the Celtic player early on. Their stats are the exact same ones from Kings & Conquerors.

Sanctuary

Influence replaces the ramp costs of these units. Only Iberian, Jungle and Balkan mercs carry over to Age of Empires.

Indians/Kseptrayah/Jungle units

Essentially spearmen, clubmen and bowmen recruited from non-Aryan tribes in India. No ramp cost, but no LOS either. They are still good jungle warfare experts, and practically disappear when not moving.

These should be trainable to Bach Viet, Zhou, and Indians. In Rise of Ancients, these warriors are recruitable to the Olmec, with the exception of the Asian Elephant.

Semitic

Hyksos, I suppose. The are bound to consist of:

Most lilkely candidates are Phoenicians and Egyptians and Hebrews. Semites, however, are not reliable because of their lack of good LOS. So as a result one must send their Semitic Levies under the control of a Captain or the Battle-Chief, who has functional LOS.

Europeans

Used mostly by Rasenna, Celts, Phrygians and Germans. These units can train fairly quickly, but are hampered by their lower combat strength and undisciplined nature (can't be selected). European units are gradually replaced by Iberian or Celtic units - if a faction can train either Celtic or Iberian ones, it can't access its other equivalents.

Note the following restrictions:

  • Rasenna and Basques can't train Slingers because they've been replaced by Iberian Neitoitoi.
  • Similarly, Celts can't train spearmen or Hurlers because Fianna and Uirodusion are available.
  • Sarmatians, Germania and Dacians train a more limited pool of European mercenary units.

As a result, only the Germans and Phrygians usually can train the full European roster.

Balkan

These units are common for the Thracians, Celts and Lydians. However, Balkan Horsemen and Skirmishers emerge only during the Heroic Age.

Of all of these units, only the Kseptrayah/Jungle units should have a cheaper cost. Balkan units are quite innovative but suffer from poor discipline and morale.

Warrior Hall

These units are known to have some leather armour and good weapons. Good turn speed, excellent rate of attack. Very expensive units, but what you see is what you get. Only the Iberian pool is available in Age of Empires, and it belongs primarily to the Gauls.

Hurrians

Hurrians are known for their cavalry and their spearmen, who are all lightly armoured. Hurrian scouts, while nothing special, are markedly faster to build like most mercenaries. Hurrians appear to be accessible to the Mitanni, Elamites, Lydians and Babylon.

Hurrians are clearly crack troops but such power comes at a price, even if they are not as costly nor effective as Greek mistophors. All Hurrian units, except the Warlord and the Scout, are replaced by Hoplites.

Greek/Mistophoroi

Greek units are some of the best units. Strong and disciplined heavy spearmen. It is thought that the Weshesh, Peleset and Denyen Sea Peoples are related to them, so we ought to consider that in creating them.

WARNING: Researching Mistophor Hoplites will delete all Mistophoroi Archigoi and Mistophor Spearmen; Mistophor Footmen replaced with Pirate Chieftains. Greek units should be the toughest and most powerful, but also the costliest. Normal train speed time, normal merc cost -- but be just as tough and powerful as RL units. No mobbing them with Chinese units, because they will prevail.

Sea Peoples

Used mostly by Tartessian, Egyptian, Argives and Rasenna.

Chinese

Chinese units suffer from near-low morale. Footmen have no LOS, and the Warlords themsleves do not have excellent LOS, making them targets for Spies. A Shaman or a Mudang may be required to police them. Note that Renegade Halberdiers are available as a mercenary, too, for several factions: Euskaldunak, Britons, as well as Bach Viet, Nam Viet and Au Lac. For Bronze Age European cultures, these units have a very different appearance.

Renegade Halberdiers ought to be also given to Europeans in Hammurabi.

Nubians

Iberians

  • [Scortamareva] [3]

Note that Chargés d' Affaires is required in order to recruit all of these units.

Fort

Food is necessary for the ramp of these units. Kassites, Cimmerians and Scythians upgrade instantly upon receiving the age upgrades. Only Scythians and Iberians appear in Age of Empires, and do so one age earlier than others.

Anatolians

They sacrifice armour for attack, and are based off Hittites. Understandably they appear in Lydian, Mitanni and Hittite armies.

Beidi

Described as being clothed in skins and feathers. Trained by Zhou and Choson. Have defensive bonsues versus cavalry.

Beidi are recruitable to the Haudenosee and Nahua peoples. Nahua can recruit both Beidi and Kseptrayah units (minus cavalry). So the language used ought to be Cimmerian, and probably Haudenosee / Iroquois.

Kassites

KAssite units are mostly low-grade, being hurlers and axemen, being trained faster than normal axemen or skirmishers. They eventually upgrade to other units. Kassites appear to be accessible solely to Elam and Babylon. Like many Near Eastern units they are dressed in Neo-Sumerian, pre-Iron Age style. They carry either round shields or square wicker shields.

Cimmerians

Cimmerians are based off the Thracians, and can be found as mercenaries for Thracians, Germans, Babylon and Assur.

Little is known about these people although it is suggested that Andronov style costume be used for them. Cimmerians are fairly weak, and upgrade into Scythians. The Getai of Alexander get to use these awesome units, now repackaged as Kimmeroi Archigoi, but their value in a world of composite bows and hoplite formations is questionable.

Scythians

Scythians are mostly horse-riding warriors. Ultimately the best ones, but they carry far less armour than mainstream Iranian units. By far and large, Scythians are available to many Near Eastern factions, particularly:

  • Assur
  • Babylon
  • Iranians

Scythian mercenaries include:

In Age of Empires, however, only Scythian Light Lancers and Horse Archers can be recruited as mercenaries.

Iberians [3]

Cimmerians have nearly little to no ramp. Chinese units should have very fast train time, very cheap cost.

Subcategories

This category has the following 2 subcategories, out of 2 total.

A

Retrieved from "https://warbirth.shoutwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Category:Mercenaries&oldid=15155"