Latest map revision nerfed mercenary camp? This is my first map in r18 but got blindsided by this.

r16 Scandinavia had 404.7B armies and 80.7B base mercenaries for ~20%
r18 Scandinavia has ~401B armies and ~61B base mercenaries for ~15%


The previous map I did was in r17 and had ~18-19% base mercenaries which I guessed was fine due to mortars rebalance but now in r18 it went even further down. This means that

Old:
Additional Mercenaries 75% => 35% mercs
Additional Mercenaries 100% => 40% mercs
Additional Mercenaries 150% => 50% mercs

New:
Additional Mercenaries 75% => 26.25% mercs
Additional Mercenaries 100% => 30% mercs
Additional Mercenaries 135% => 35.25% mercs (old 75%)
Additional Mercenaries 150% => 37.5% mercs


ATM I'm upgrading all my non-maxed hospitals since I thought I could finish the level with what I had but I estimate I will be roughly 20B armies short anyway since they are the early hospitals. I can fix this by using 5 SAC on my 5 best camps + superpower FC to get the missing ~20B but "this was not supposed to happen".

Say it ain't so !!

This is devastating news if this is true across the board.

Ohh is that the reason why I keep running out of merc today?

Same for me - I didn't run out of mercs, but I've found the ends of levels are not quite the cakewalk they're supposed to be.

I have 45% additional mercs which I found to be the minimum for how I played. This ensured that I finished on the dot by buying all the mercs. I used the leftover money to pump all the camps since I would have a ton of backlogged drafts so 2-3 capped drafts was the worst case scenario. Now I have 28.5B less merc than expected and I'm short by around ~20B so it would have worked out like usual if it was still 20% base merc.


I would need 95% additional mercs now to get to my old levels so I guess people with 95+% would find it harder than usual. It would have been a normal day for me tho.

I was at 110% Additional Mercs and ran out of merc in all 9 levels I've completed today so far. Luckily those were small levels (I've just ascended) so army camps and the fixed portion of drafts were useful. Would be quite a disaster if merc ran out in big levels and I need to actually sit there for days just to wait for army camps.

To put it in a perspective, I don't remember ever running out of merc after reaching 85% Additional Merc.

Did some quick calculations. Can confirm that the base merc for me is now 15-17% of the entire map.

Just now I've dumped my 5k reserved AP to boost it up to 137.5%. Let's see if it helps...

Edited 8/18/2021 21:47:53

Ok 137.5% Additional Merc is enough for The Siege of Feldmere. Well technically I still ran out of merc, but I just needed to wait for the sliding pool drafts, which in some sense came from merc income.

With so much AP needed to be invested on Additional Merc, I guess I have to delay my exploration on phase 4 advancements lol

I'm looking at spending 5100 AP on additional mercenaries while I only have 5.06 AP to just return to where I was. Also by the looks of things I have to spend 2-3d looking at Estoniaball on the map while my camps work for it unless I use the superpower FC to cut my losses short. Mortars are just taunting me since they are not helping me at all :(.

If you're near phase 4, one thing worth noting is that 2 of the best (and cheapest) phase 4 advancements are sources of armies -- better hospitals and increased army caches, so investing in these over additional mercs is wise if you're in phase 4 or close enough.

The free Legendary Triple Strike should be able to make up for about 5% of total territory cost.

Agree w/megaol, Additional Mercs, Merc Discount, Increase Money Cache, Crafter Speed, etc, are fantastic Advancements to either get more mercs, cheaper mercs or get more money to buy mercs . . . HOWEVER . . .

Phase 4 gives 2 of the best advancements in the game. Both Better Hospitals & Increased Army Caches give army benefits based on map items that do not reduce with quicker level clear times. These are better than all the other items I listed above b/c they are either ways of making money which takes time and as your level speed increases, you'll earn less of it, or requires money, which requires you to take the time to earn it.

But these two phase 4 advancements will give increased benefit even when your level times drop! So make sure you set aside enough AP to pound those out once you unlock phase 4.

Yea it's tempting to unlock Better Hospital and Increased Army Caches, though I'm a bit nervous because I don't know the upgrade costs after the initial upgrade. Currently the urgent problem to solve is not having enough mercs. For sure I know that Additional Merc can solve the problem. Maybe Better Hospitals and Increased Army Caches can solve the problem as well, but that depends on the upgrade cost.

From calculations, I needed around 4 levels of Better Hospitals, or 4 levels of Increased Army Caches, or 8 extra levels of Additional Mercenaries. For sure 5k AP is enough to purchase the Additional Mercenaries needed because I know the cost. I have no idea whether 5k AP is enough for the first 4 levels of Better Hospitals or Increased Army Caches because I only know the unlocking cost.

If the subsequent upgrades of Better Hospitals or Increased Army Caches were cheap, let's say maybe like 1000 AP per level for the first few levels, then I should've gone for those instead. But I wouldn't know. So for now I'm sticking with Additional Mercenaries first as a safe choice.

Better Hospital
Total: 5518
2368 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550

Increased Cache Armies
Total: 25739
2939 300 400 500 ... 2100

I would have done Hospitals if I had over 100% increased mercenaries.

WAIT WHAT?
150?
300?

Are you sure?
That's stupid(ly cheap). I was expecting a much higher cost.

Maybe it's time to spend 150 coins to reset AP lmao. That's certainly a much better solution to the merc camp nerf compared to Additional Mercenaries.

Can confirm those prices. Hospitals are relatively cheap to max out (at 5518, including unlock cost), while army caches are very expensive (at 25739).

Prices confirmed. I started putting AP into Army Caches before I realized how much AP it's going to take, and then switched to Better Hospitals.

Which is odd b/c over the course of a level Hospitals typically give a higher benefit than army caches, but it is what it is.

I recommend going for the Hospital buff first before the Army caches.

Not sure what priority to give to Faster Digs ... that's kind of a good one too!

Can't inline images but here:
https://i.imgur.com/vwsyX9A.png


Total Armies:
206.533 + 59.946 + 135.21 - 1.004 = 400.685 B

Base Merc:
88.768/1.45 = 61.219 B

%
61.219/400.685 = 15.279%


In the end I was actually ~16b short after exhausting drafts. I accepted rafflebot donation of a FC and used 2 SAC + super FC to get 14B and finish to save me 24+ hours. The map had 2 SAC + 4FC so it worked out.

Seems like someone didn't like our Merc-centric strategy.

So maybe need to go all the way to +150% now. Another 9500 AP . . . hmmm

Edited 8/20/2021 03:51:18

I'm now on 110% Additional Merc, 50% Better Hospital, 30% Increased Army Cache. Seems to have enough merc for now.