Galactic Civilizations III - Mercenaries Expansion Pack DLC

The mercenaries are unblanaced garbage. How come an AI that somehow doesn't manage to do proper research or economics can just buy an unbeatable invasion force out of nothing? In addition to that it doesn't fit logically or thematically, Civilizations have yet to research any medium sized hulls but somehow large hulls are just available for hire, while the flavor text of the research suggests this would be impossible. this is highly immersion breaking. And to add insult to injury they cannot be disabled without editing xml manually while there should have just been a toggle to enable or disable them for each map.

The mercenaries are unblanaced garbage. How come an AI that somehow doesn't manage to do proper research or economics can just buy an unbeatable invasion force out of nothing? In addition to that it doesn't fit logically or thematically, Civilizations have yet to research any medium sized hulls but somehow large hulls are just available for hire, while the flavor text of the research suggests this would be impossible. this is highly immersion breaking. And to add insult to injury they cannot be disabled without editing xml manually while there should have just been a toggle to enable or disable them for each map.

A very average expansion, thats a bit pricey. I am still recommending it as with this expansion comes many free updates as part of the 1.6 patch and the following 1.7 patch (currently in beta). Other studios would bundle these free improvements with the expansion to almost force you to buy, but stardock gives you the freedom of choice. If you don't think two races are worth the price, don't bother buying or wait for a special. The core game is still getting better and better and feature complete. Personally the two aces add enough new variety to just just be worth the price for me. With 1.7 constructor spam has mostly been fixed and the game is now the best in the series in my opinion.

A very average expansion, thats a bit pricey. I am still recommending it as with this expansion comes many free updates as part of the 1.6 patch and the following 1.7 patch (currently in beta). Other studios would bundle these free improvements with the expansion to almost force you to buy, but stardock gives you the freedom of choice. If you don't think two races are worth the price, don't bother buying or wait for a special. The core game is still getting better and better and feature complete. Personally the two aces add enough new variety to just just be worth the price for me. With 1.7 constructor spam has mostly been fixed and the game is now the best in the series in my opinion.

Overall a decent expansion. I got it on sale, but even if not I enjoyed the extra content enough to recommend it. The mercenaries do add another layer of strategy to the game. For instance I could save up and get a great scout ship with very large vision and bypass (or delay) researching radar techs. Or pickup up a combat vessel that provides bonuses to a whole fleet (my favorite is the evasion bonuses) and form the basis of my offensive fleets. AI will use the mercenaries too.

Overall a decent expansion. I got it on sale, but even if not I enjoyed the extra content enough to recommend it. The mercenaries do add another layer of strategy to the game. For instance I could save up and get a great scout ship with very large vision and bypass (or delay) researching radar techs. Or pickup up a combat vessel that provides bonuses to a whole fleet (my favorite is the evasion bonuses) and form the basis of my offensive fleets. AI will use the mercenaries too.

Good expansion pack it is worth 10 bucks The mercenaries are good in the beginning and cheap you get a massive scout,a good trader,a good scientist but after a while you dont need them you have your own fleets

Good expansion pack it is worth 10 bucks The mercenaries are good in the beginning and cheap you get a massive scout,a good trader,a good scientist but after a while you dont need them you have your own fleets

Well I got the expansion for 10€ and it's good. First I was sceptical and a bit disapointed by the new mercenary ships. But after some games I have to say that mercenaries are very useful especially in early game. They can give you much needed abilities like - powerful and fast survey ships to explore anomalies and shipyards - fast sensor ships to explore your surroundings - powerful combat ships - invasion forces - boost to raw production, manufacturing and influence But the requirements are also high. It mostly depends on how ressource rich the galaxy is and how many of these you can grab early on. It goes from 1000 credits and 1 durantium to 7000 credits and 7 durantium + 7 elerium. Also you can unlock more powerful mercenaries If you progress to the 2nd and 3rd technological age. If your map has only few ressources mercenaries are too expensive, and one should spend the ressources on special buildings ( durantium refinery etc. ). There are only 3-4 merc. which only require money.

The best expansion/DLC for GC3 so far. The mercenaries alone are worth the price IMO. Yes, you get two new races (Torian and Arcean) and their two new tech trees, with campaigns, and those are great. And I have to say, the Torian and Arcean ship designs are the best; I use them for my custom factions I like them so much. But the real gem here is the mercenaries. The mercenaries have some ships that really add a lot of flavor to the game. They're require cash and resources to buy, so they are really well-balanced. And because of the resource costs, you can't just splurge and buy all you want early in the game. You really have to pick and choose. They come in three tiers that are unlocked as you reach the three ages, so there's additional constraints on the more powerful ships. Some examples of mercs: A survey ship that earns +100 credits for every anomaly surveyed. Nice to have at the start of the game, or later when a galactic event triggers and anamolies are scattered everywhere. Ships that add +100% (or more) to Research, Wealth or Production. These ships are great when stationed on your homeworld or main wealth/research planets (or Precursor planets). The bonuses are fantastic and well-balanced with the resources required. A ship that can colonize extreme worlds (Barren, Water, Frozen) before you have the tech unlocked in the research tree. A ship that make a trade route that earns double. If it gets destroyed en route to the target world, it respawns back at your homeworld. And my personal favorite: a ship that earns +5 Malevolent Ideology points every time it, or the fleet it's in, wins a battle. And there's more. There's a whole host of combat ships with powerful offense/defense, etc. The only problem with most of the combat ships is that they are Escorts, which mean they get targeted first by your enemy's ships during a battle, so they tend to die first. You can offset that a bit by building Escorts yourself and having some in the same fleet, but it's no guarantee that your mercenary escort ship will still not be targeted first. I wish the mercs weren't listed as Escorts, but I think Stardock probably did it for balance reasons to keep them from being overpowered. I guess the best thing I can say about this expansion: I can't imagine playing GC3 now without it.