Combat Order - Future of Mercenaries?

Day 2,075, 08:26 • Published in Finland Denmark • by Zacharia Raven



Today the expected Combat Order system finally arrived. Basically this means the start of the Mercenary era in eRepublik. In this article I will dig into the update, and analyze it from the point of professional merc MU - How will this affect our business? Is #mercenaries now unnecessary?

Mercenary business before the update

For a long time, the best way to make money in eRepublik has been selling your damage. There have been many ways, but the best result in general for most players has been this:

- Be part of a merc MU
- Be on their IRC-channel (or other instant messaging system)
- Strike when ordered, take picture and fill a doc

The MU has taken care of everything. Commanders negotiate the price per million per division, gather damage available and then perform the operation under given specs, for example no hitting if wall above 52%. After the operation, commander gathers all evidence and gives the bill to buyer.

Prices have been fluctuating a lot, but generally speaking I, for example, have been able to earn cc for 100 tanks worth only by using food fights, from a single operation.

So for trustworthy professionals like Mossad in eFinland the business has been extremely good. We take only 10% tax from members for our buffer, and they get 90% of what we are paid for their damage. This means finnish and few swedish players have been making money like mad.



There have been some problems of course. Even when our commanders try to take deals only by trustworthy buyers, and #Mercenaries channel-ops have eagle-eyes, every once in a while someone does not pay. In our case, this far, we have been able to cover our losses with the buffer: even if Mossad makes losses, soldiers get their money. And then we make sure the hoax buyer is banned from #mercenaries - until he pays.

First look after update - disappointment

We can see from battle list, that the first Combat Orders are jokes. There is 10cc per million if the wall is under 52%. That does not cover even tanks. Then there are those 200cc per million if wall under 1%. These are, I think, basically hoax and decoy for careless fighters.

At the moment, all battles with CO are in overkill for the side that has the CO. Regardless of the rule. It is still early to say if this will continue like this, but hopefully people will learn that:

- You must accept the order
- 1% domination does mean 1% wall for the country. Not 51% or anything else.
- 10cc is not worth the travel and tanks.

Future possibilities

These first two weeks will show, if pro mercenary business dies. I am bit concerned. Let's say that eFinland is battling against eUkraine. eUkraine has CO 10cc/52%, and the wall is 79% for them. Finland then sets a CO for 30cc/52%, and hundreds of 2 clickers turn the wall in a second. If eUkraine retaliates with 50cc and so forth, there is no need for #mercenaries at any point for neither country.

Of course, there is no strategy here. And there might be 20 battles with a better CO. So if eFinland needs the turn fast and needs to know how much there will be damage made, they can go #mercenaries and make an agreement for T60 operation with pro merc unit for 120 million damage.

The price?

Current CO's imply terrible times for the profitability of the merc business. If country can buy dmg with 10cc, why would they pay any more?

Probably what will happen is, that country first tries with hoax CO, then puts 10cc, 20cc, and at T60 they set like 100cc, and shouts it. This will draw a lot of attention. And if they want to keep it a secret, they go to #mercenaries and make deal with 65cc per mil, because "we can get your damage IG for less. your choice".



National effects

As a former CP and Asgard SC, I see this also as a good thing. National armies will be million times easier to run now, and also supplying them. Now when there is no citizenship limit for MU's, even alliances can have their own armies. CO's can be set in RW's, so it is simple and easy.Using mercs becomes also a lot cheaper, and easier to control, as the CO can be paused and otherwise managed well.



Final conclusion

This update will damage professional mercenary units. This will make earning money again much more difficult. On the bright side national armies will once again have real competition against money thirsty merc units. Also 2 clickers world-wide.

Current situation is basically hoax-co's and deceiving the careless fighter. In epic battles there is a chance of out-pricing the opponents CO, and it means that the rich will win. Always.

As a merc mu commander I am expecting hard times, maybe and end to whole business. As a player I hope we will see better offers in CO's. As a former CP I am glad that governments will be able to compete against merc mu's.