Mercenaries are independent troops that any nation can hire for three months by paying a one-off fee of gold.

There are dozens of unique, named mercenary groups in the game, but only a small, random selection will be available at any given time.

Mercenaries always have a commander which usually has troops accompanying them, although there are some mercenary companies with only the leader such as Pak-ur the Ettin and Terminus the Assassin.

To gain control of a company of mercenaries, select a province and hit the Mercenaries button on the strategic overview or press (b). You will see a list of available companies, as well as those already on someone's payroll, which is indicated by that nation's flag. You can only bid on mercenaries if they are free or if they are on their last month of service for a nation.

• Use the Mod Inspector to determine what each mercenary company includes.

Hiring mercenaries is not immediate; first you need to bid an amount of gold. All groups have a minimum hire fee based on the number/quality of the available troops; this will decrease if the company takes casualties.

At the end of the turn, all nations' bids are compared; whoever bid the most will gain control of the company. A nation bidding on their own mercenary group whose contract is about to expire will have their bid count for double, so it's easier to retain control once you've already hired a group. Note that if the province the bid is placed in is lost before the bid resolves, bids to hire and rehire will automatically fail (even if a fort in that province is still under your control).

Once hired, the mercenary group will appear in the province that was originally selected, ready to receive orders. If an existing contract is renewed, the mercenaries will remain in the province that they moved to/stayed in the previous turn rather than being teleported to the province selected to renew the contract.

Some nations have a national discount to acquire certain companies. This lowers the starting bid required to obtain the mercenary company. For example, God's Enforcers are willing to fight for Marignon at a lower price than other nations.

Other nations, like MA Ermor and Lemuria pay a higher initial price to bid on mercenaries. This represents the unwillingness of said mercenaries to fight for those nations.

Mercenary groups are persistent; if they take casualties, those troops do not come back. This can make them cheaper to hire in the future but also reduces how much they bring to the table.

If a mercenary group suffers too many casualties (generally half of the original group size, rounded down) and nobody hires them at the end of their contract, they will disband forever and no longer be available for hire.

Mercenaries will not give away any items that they are equipped with. This applies not only to any items that they have by default, but also any items you equip them with after hiring.

If a mercenary leader has any skill in death magic (or are empowered into it), it is possible to steal them permanently by having them cast Twiceborn. Mercenaries have their home province set to -2 by default but twiceborn resets their home province to wherever they cast it, effectively granting you permanent control over the mercenary. This can be a great way of improving magic diversity, especially with mercenaries like Göte the Circle Master and Urvikel the Troll Shaman.

This does not carry over to any troops in their entourage. Upon becoming twiceborn, any troops over the mercenary leader's normal leadership limit are dumped into the province and can no longer be interacted with, and will disband at the end of the turn due to having no leader. The remainder will continue to follow the mercenary leader but cannot be given to another commander.

If a mercenary is stolen through this method, it can be annoying to have the remainder of their retinue follow them around as the entourage can limit movement. One way to remove them is to kill them off. A safer method is to equip the leader with a Ring of Water Breathing and attempt to move them underwater, selecting the option to leave troops behind that cannot follow. The ring can then be removed, the movement order cancelled, and the units will no longer be under the mercenary's command.

Mercenaries can improve early game expansion for nations with a poor starting army or national troops. This cannot be relied upon as other players may be bidding for the mercenaries themselves, but it is always worth checking the mercenary tab in year 0 to see if any are worth hiring. Alternatively, if you are playing a nation with relatively easy expansion you can hire good mercenaries simply to deny them to your less fortunate opponents. Some mage mercenaries have a very low minimum bid and can help with research as well as site searching for magic paths your nation lacks.

In the mid-to-late game mercenaries keep their utility as instant raiders and can be useful bodies as part of a larger army, but generally wane in significance as magic becomes more important for winning major battles. Mercenaries can also be hired directly onto sieges - they won't apply their siege strength on the hiring turn, but it can still be a safe way to add siege strength. Watch out for any mage mercenaries that can forge much-needed magic boosters, as well as good death mages to steal via twiceborn.