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Mercenary
v53.11 · v0.47.05 This article is about the current version of DF.Note that some content may still need to be updated. |
A mercenary is a historical figure who has decided to sell their services as a soldier. Mercenaries are found in fort mode as visitors, and are hired by civilizations in legends mode. You cannot actively hire mercenaries in fort mode; instead, they come on their own and sometimes they will petition for residency.
World generation[edit]
Historical figures will sometimes decide to become mercenaries, operating out of a town. Once they have enough money, they may improve their equipment. Mercenaries can be hired as scouts, for defense or attack, as they sometimes may be hired for assassination and theft.
Mercenary Orders[edit]
Sometimes, mercenaries will start mercenary orders. These formal groups can either be dedicated to the use of only one to three different weapons (to be used by the order) or by all weapons associated with a civilized race (eg. goblin, elf, dwarf or human - kobolds and animal people mercenary orders/groups have not been found yet) - in the former case the weapon types are mentioned in the legends (unless it is all weapons of a race, eg. in vanilla an elven mercenary group with all three elven weapons as dedicated weapons). Some mercenary orders will bestow honors on their members, others do not. If a mercenary order is dedicated to some weapons, then the honors can include weapon specific honors (titles) bestowed upon their members (in addition to possible generic honors, that is honors not associated to a weapon skill), otherwise any honors will only be generic ones. Also in case of weapon specific honors, for all weapon types there will be the same number of tiers of honor for each weapon type (the order does dedicate itself to). Mercenary orders can be dedicated to a deity or a religion or have all deities of a civilization associated with it (in which case the mercenary order is undedicated) - the dedicated deity (or spheres of the deity) might also have an influence on what type of group the mercenary order is refered to in the legends (ie. human shadowy military band instead of human mercenary company).
Mercenary orders are hired by civilizations for attack or defence of a site. Once they have enough money, they will either upgrade the equipment of their members, or build a fort. Mercenary orders either dedicated to a specific deity or, perhaps, linked to its religion, may also build a temple in said fort. Mercenary companies usually only have a leader position, but sometimes will assign a treasurer as well (responsible for trade and accounting) - see (variable positions for technical details about the possible positions.
Mercenary orders can also dissolve due to lack of funds or heavy battle casualities, but some mercenary orders can also be considered dead (at the end of world gen), without any historical event giving any indication that the mercenary order is considered dead by the game.
Note: Elven and goblin mercenary groups are very rare.
Adventurer Mode[edit]
You can visit the forts of mercenary orders in adventure mode, and adventurers can join them the same way bandits can be joined. This requires a certain reputation, like all joining requests. After joining, you will then be able to receive quests (it is unknown if you can receive titles this way).
Fortress Mode[edit]
A mercenary is a type of visitor. If you offer rented rooms through your tavern, they may try to petition for residence in your fort for the purpose of soldiering. If you grant them residence, they can be added to your squads and will serve in the military like any other Dwarf. Note that they cannot be appointed to a position (like Militia Captain) and can thus not lead squads.
Sometimes, enemy civilizations will employ mercenaries to bolster their forces, throwing a dangerous element into what would normally be a much less dangerous force.
Behaviour[edit]
If you accept their residency request, they will essentially become members of your fort, appearing on your fort's civilian list as though they were new migrants. However, they will refuse to accept any assigned labors. Their only purpose is to be enlisted into your military by adding them to a squad, and they will then adhere to any orders the squad receives.
Considerations[edit]
Because visitors cannot be made nobles, you cannot have a mercenary be the leader of a squad. They will not arrive with their own armor, so you'll need to provide such equipment from your own supplies (they will bring their own regular clothing, at least). To forge equipment sized for non-dwarves, go to the workshop producing armor (this works for clothing, leather armor, and metal armor), move the cursor to the job producing armor, press 
and select the race involved. You can find the desired race more easily by using the search filter. This will change the produced armor's size to the selected creature's size.
Mercenaries of a larger race than dwarves, like the typical human, can more effectively use larger weapons such as pikes or mauls. Also note that since only dwarves suffer from cave adaptation, non-dwarven mercenaries are better suited to fighting outside. Be aware, however, that non-dwarves also possess much smaller livers, and so are more susceptible to the effects of alcohol, which increases the odds they will suffer fatal acute alcohol poisoning, or ignite a massive, deadly tavern brawl while under the influence.
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| See also: Agent · Quester · Visitor · Unit type token | |||||||||
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