As some of you know I used to play 100% Isis back when I played on ESO, but one thing I never really got a really good grip about was the trade/mercenary equation, which is actually kind of a big deal when you think about it.
For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, egyptian lategame usually consists of a really huge and busy traderoute to generate massive income of gold. This gold is then used to, amongst other things, to train mercenaries who costs either 90g (mercenary 'infantry') or 120g (mercenary cavalry) iirc. Mercenaries aren't really that good of a unit in itself, but they cost no pop, and thus they help to out-pop your opponent, which is good no matter what scenario you're in and can win you the game.
Anyway, to actually be able to train sufficent number of mercenaries, you need that huge trade. And every caravan that accumulates that gold also costs 1 pop each. Other civs does not need nearly that big of a trade, simply because they cannot train mercenaries who costs only gold. Thus egyptians needs to occupy more pop to grant them the income needed to supply this free-pop advantage.
Okay, let's get to the point...
I'd simply like someone who knows math to do the equation of how great the effect of spamming mercenaries is contra the extra pop needed to supply them. How to exactly do that I'm not sure of, and it's probably dependent on alot of things.
First of all we must establish how much pop a mercenary is actually worth lategame. My guess is slightly less than 2 compared to the general value of other human soldiers, but that's just my guess. Do not wager their limited spawn time into their popvalue, that'd be a mistake. Simply wager their combat value.
Then we must also agree upon how long the normal trade route is (we're talking about competitive 1x1 gaming here btw). My guess is, considering that all maps and TC placements are different, the medium distance would be about 75% of a side of a map.
Also consider that you can have a maximum of 20 (?) mercenaries out simultaniously. 10 of each type iirc. And I might have forgotten something else...
So... How much is it actually worth in theory to be able to train mercs?
If anyone could care to do the maths or something close to that I'd appreciate it, but my guess is that eggy gets about 10 extra pop out of this (it's really not as huge as ignorant people might think). But again, I'm guessing.
ps. Yes DragonQ, this idea did pop up because of the huge mercenary nerf in the FanPatch. I just want to get some numbers straight.
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us"
Gandalf - JRR Tolkein. The Fellowship of the Ring
For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, egyptian lategame usually consists of a really huge and busy traderoute to generate massive income of gold. This gold is then used to, amongst other things, to train mercenaries who costs either 90g (mercenary 'infantry') or 120g (mercenary cavalry) iirc. Mercenaries aren't really that good of a unit in itself, but they cost no pop, and thus they help to out-pop your opponent, which is good no matter what scenario you're in and can win you the game.
Anyway, to actually be able to train sufficent number of mercenaries, you need that huge trade. And every caravan that accumulates that gold also costs 1 pop each. Other civs does not need nearly that big of a trade, simply because they cannot train mercenaries who costs only gold. Thus egyptians needs to occupy more pop to grant them the income needed to supply this free-pop advantage.
Okay, let's get to the point...
I'd simply like someone who knows math to do the equation of how great the effect of spamming mercenaries is contra the extra pop needed to supply them. How to exactly do that I'm not sure of, and it's probably dependent on alot of things.
First of all we must establish how much pop a mercenary is actually worth lategame. My guess is slightly less than 2 compared to the general value of other human soldiers, but that's just my guess. Do not wager their limited spawn time into their popvalue, that'd be a mistake. Simply wager their combat value.
Then we must also agree upon how long the normal trade route is (we're talking about competitive 1x1 gaming here btw). My guess is, considering that all maps and TC placements are different, the medium distance would be about 75% of a side of a map.
Also consider that you can have a maximum of 20 (?) mercenaries out simultaniously. 10 of each type iirc. And I might have forgotten something else...
So... How much is it actually worth in theory to be able to train mercs?
If anyone could care to do the maths or something close to that I'd appreciate it, but my guess is that eggy gets about 10 extra pop out of this (it's really not as huge as ignorant people might think). But again, I'm guessing.
ps. Yes DragonQ, this idea did pop up because of the huge mercenary nerf in the FanPatch. I just want to get some numbers straight.
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us"
Gandalf - JRR Tolkein. The Fellowship of the Ring
[This message has been edited by Nirwanda (edited 04-26-2010 @ 11:29 PM).]