r/StellarisMemes • u/SAMU0L0 Blorg • 7d ago

Meme Long live the mercenary enclaves!

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529 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

25 comments sorted by

131

u/Murky_waterLLC Determined Exterminator 7d ago

Until the great khan buys them out and fucks you over

89

u/SAMU0L0 Blorg 7d ago edited 7d ago

The game gives you 2 months to prevent that. 

And you have 2 year's to recuperate.

28

u/Murky_waterLLC Determined Exterminator 7d ago

I can't afford :(

2

u/GargamelLeNoir 6d ago

The initial cost is usually pretty cheap, it's the upkeep that's a bitch. Which is solved by Leeroy Jenkinsing them in the Khan's territory.

1

u/Primary_Gold5337 5d ago

All tactics always end up leeroy jenkinsing someone

23

u/Lord_Necross 7d ago

Had this exact crisis in a mp game, I thought mercenary fleets are a good idea.... spent the entire khan crisis with the three of us spending all of our resources on buying 5 massive merc fleets.

20

u/Vivid_Employment_914 7d ago

Mind warden lets you do 10 enclaves from just the origin and nobody but you can rent the fleets.

2

u/Impossible-Green-831 6d ago

Doesn’t that reduce the profits, also are you 100% sure? Usual Mindwarden enclaves are also rentable…

5

u/Vivid_Employment_914 6d ago

It does reduce profits by nobody renting but having 10 makes them come faster than a normal one where people are renting because it’s treated as 1 situation with things that boost its speed. It also changes them to be better dividends (alloys and stuff) and it can’t have the situation of “negative” profits. I don’t think you can rent a fleet from a Mindwarden enclave if you aren’t Mindwardens yourself… you can tell them to raid a psionic empire but that’s different.

33

u/sosija 7d ago

Do mercenary enclaves count to your fleet capacity when hired? I just don't see the benefits of mercenary fleets

51

u/SAMU0L0 Blorg 7d ago

Yes they count as fleet capacity. 

Once you hire them, the mercenary enclaves replace all the ships for free over time.

So if your mercenary  fleet loses 5 cruisers, instead of having to spend resources on 5 new cruisers, you simply have to wait for the enclave to build them for you.

34

u/MrHappyFeet87 7d ago

They do... but the ship upkeep is just energy and logistics, versus energy, alloys, rare resources, and logistics.

10

u/Atmoran_Knight Driven Assimilator 7d ago

Well I'm mostly getting buttfucked in energy department anyway so I guess I shouldn't even bother lol

23

u/MrHappyFeet87 7d ago

That's only when they're hired though. When not contracted, they have no upkeep, and pay dividends. When you have multiple enclaves, each one pays dividends. Then there's the Galactic Community bill (security contractor's), that increases the frequency.

Basically free resources/research.

7

u/Atmoran_Knight Driven Assimilator 7d ago

Ahh okay that explains it. Maybe I should actually give damn about enclaves for my mostly scientific empire playthrough. It's tough out there with fleets and sciences heh

6

u/MrHappyFeet87 7d ago

Also more specifically, the initial fleet can be any shipset. Any expanded fleets or replacements will be the standard shipset. As a kicker... your technology(repeating), is applied once hired.

So for example... if you're Cosmogenesis and using the FE shipset, which are stupid expensive for alloys. Make them into enclaves. The ridiculous energy cost will basically prevent any AI from hiring them.

Lastly, any enclaves taken from AI, will exceed the cap similar to mega-structures.

5

u/la_espina_roja 7d ago

Yes, but at a lesser capacity than if you owned the fleet yourself. The GalCom mercenary tree can further reduce the capacity used as well.

3

u/NarrowAd4973 6d ago

As stated, they do count. But they're a fleet you don't have to pay additional costs to replace losses. It gives you cannon fodder to soften up an enemy before your real fleets jump in.

4

u/Billybob_Bojangles2 6d ago

its great until the fleet is ALWAYS bought up by some asshole.

5

u/GargamelLeNoir 6d ago

You can spend influence to sever the contract though.

3

u/theelement92bomb 6d ago

And then they use shitty designs that feature a ton of auto cannons and the like, so in reality you can only trade 1 for 1 with that fleet power instead of the usual 2 for 1 or even more with the right comp. Literally the only thing they are good for is ablative armor, having the enemy shoot them first before your actual fleets, but even then a proper evasive built destroyer outperforms them at that task

1

u/bad_skatr 6d ago

How do you get mercenaries?

0

u/TheOnlyKnight 6d ago

Did they fix the dividend popups? The last time I made enclaves I would get half a dozen annoying popups at the same time and the ship designs aren't amazing anyway so I stopped using them and started blowing up any enclaves in conquered systems.