r/aoe3•
spikywobble

Italians should not share the same Merc contractor than the french

Balance

I get that the french get Mounted Riflemen and Royal Horsemen because they are based on bourbonic and Napoleonic units, one is inspired by the courassier and also fit the generic aesthetic vibe of the civ. They are also both age 4 mercs, which basically means it is a age 3 politicians that gives nothing for age 3.

Other civs, also get thematic mercenaries. With the Brits getting harqs that are based on civil war ironsides, Ottos get mamelukes etc.

There are a lot of Italian-inspired mercenaries or mercenaries that Italian nations used. -Stradiots were employed by Venice and Southern italy a lot -Armoured Pistoleers are Savoyard (french-italian) courassiers (it is also a shame that "house of Savoy" does not make them recruitable but that is another issue) -Swiss pikemen, Lil bombards, elmettos and Zouaves were either Italian or employed by the papal states (although they got represented via papal units)

I just feel that, with the fact that Italy has generic combat cards that also boost mercs as well as a potential to 8 mercenary producing buildings, the kind of mercenaries they can recruit or guarantee is under developed. Even the thematic picks that they should actually have seem to not be there, except by one-off company shipments. Lastly the mercenary contractor does not seem to be right with the mercenaries it gives them.

What do you people think? I think that company cards should allot recruitment of one mercenary each (broken lance the stradiot, Albanian lance the bosniak, black company black rider, Savoyard company armored pistoleer etc) and change the mercenary contractor to give more thematic mercs (maybe pistoleer and elmetto or stradiot and bosniak etc)

Posted Mar 8, 2026, 8:09 PM UTC

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