Assuming mercs are now 15% of total armies needed and were 20%:

+20% additional mercs now needs to be +60%
+35% additional mercs now needs to be +80%
+50% additional mercs now needs to be +100%
+65% additional mercs now needs to be +120%
+80% additional mercs now needs to be +140%
+87.5% additional mercs now needs to be +150%

At 85%, I was running out on occasion even before the change. I'll need to almost max it to have the same number of mercenaries available as I did before. If it's universal, I suspect that the change is going to make it a lot harder for new players to get off the ground. Instead of needing 50%-60% to get a good start, they'll need 100% or more for the same effect.

Edited 8/20/2021 18:49:00

I've ascended once and am half way through second time. I rarely use all my mercs. I'm not saying it's the most efficient method, obviously, others have ascended multiple times. but it's certainly not something that makes the game impossible.

On v13 at +100% mercs I was fine on most levels but Triskelion, US Huge and Europe Huge gave issues. I agree that +150% is probably prudent for anyone nearing these last three levels on their second or third ascension in v14.

@dwayne
How much has your level speed increased on 2nd playthrough? As clear time decreases, armies from army camps will go down, and to compensate, you need more mercs. If you're leaving mercs behind, you either aren't clearing levels as quickly as you could be, or you lack the money (likely due to advancements/artifacts, etc) to afford more mercs and thus increase clear speed.

Clear speed second time through has been much faster. I think the last few levels (through Scandinavia) took me two weeks first time through, and have all been less than a week. But I was starting to hit a wall and have been starting to invest ap in mercs and crafter speed. That being said, I know alot about my playing style isn't optimal (you would probably be disgusted to see the number of powers I've stockpiled instead of using). But I enjoy not stressing about whether I'm doing things "right", just chugging along at my own pace.

That's the best way to play Dwayne, just play however you see fit & enjoy the ride. Tbh, truly optimal play requires either a very active and time-intensive attention and effort, or just a slew of powers being dropped at the right times.

I've replayed everything up through Scandinavian on the new version. I have a lot more upgrades this time through, so I tried to finish with most hospitals at level 1 to partially adjust for that.

I got my best time on most (possibly all) levels even though I ran out of mercs on all of them. Mercs were definitely reduced, but I was able to get more techs and more army camp upgrades.

I have never tracked it during my runs, but now Mercs seem not only less in quantity (we've discussed this a fair bit), and higher in price.

Despite having 102.5% additional mercs, it's getting harder to afford them all.

It's as if a higher power is trying to thwart our Merc based strategy. LOL

So pushing Mercs to 150% will be beneficial just to create more of the less expensive Mercs, and not need the most expensive ones.

I've compensated for this by pushing Better Hospitals to 50% & Increased Army Caches to 95%.

My recent run on Triskelion left me in the end game using Leg TS to kill the 222B territory & dropping an IM to empty the 180B merc camp in order to finish quickly without having to do another 8-10h of crafting to afford the super expensive Mercs. I was surprised b/c this is after all my 3rd playthrough, and to account for the nasty anti-JS nature of it, I ensured that I did every Hospital upgrade that wasn't ridiculously priced, so wasn't anticipating Trisk to give me pause . . . ended up taking me 1d8h. I thought I was being overly cautious with the massive hospital upgrades, but as it turns out, it wasn't enough (thus the Leg TS & IM).

I suppose 1 factor is that there were a number of items like Thorium, Chromium, Bolts and Platinum (my first time seeing this!) that were not available in markets that were required for the Techs for Merc Discounts, Item Sell Values, Hospital buffs/discounts or +50% cache (those are the main ones I focus on, the rest are incidental).

Anyone else finish Trisk lately, since last update? How was your experience with it?

It was the last level in my 3rd playthrough, so now 3rd Ascension complete, my 4th playthrough has begun. Back to Tutorial & Huruey... on WOTW now again.

I just finished hardened Trisk and can confirm that it was pretty annoying. Low profitability of ores, alloys and items in combination with overpriced mercs - and less use of JS ofc. Don't know how the normal Trisk is after the update but probably similarly annoying.

And yes, I ran out of mercs on most levels, too, which didn't happen for a long time. Overall, better hospitals and increased army cache advancements should compensate for the nerfed mercs.

Edited 9/3/2021 05:51:56