I was surprised today by some random(?) events during Deliver cargo to {x} quests where another mercenary band wanted to have what I was carrying so I had to option to fight for it or hand them the cargo (not sure if this event is new or was added on one of the recent bug-fixes releases).
Alright, cool. Let’s see what they are made of. They seem to be a well equipped party and very tough as they defeated my group with almost no effort, but I noticed they didn’t take the initiative. After loading a previous save and encountering the same event again I was able to safely retreat from the battle with all my 12 Brothers placed on the edge of the map. The enemy mercenary party was still, waiting for me to engage in melee or be inside their archers range. They were also changing their weapons to long-range and melee during their turns (probably because it was nighttime) and followed me on a safe distance until I retreat (I was moving 2 tiles per turn and “shieldwalling”).
Later I had another of these Deliver quests and again I was halted by this event, which I retreated the same way. Perhaps this should have a different starting layout other than the standard 2 line of you archers|melee dudes vs. enemy melee dudes|enemy archers. Ambush layout? Also, make them take the initiative, so that at least we can compensate their better equipment/skills with defensive measures/formation.
It would also be cool to have their leader icon on the event window of such events. Perhaps even add those Mercenary bands on the Relations screen and create some quests where they tag along or something like that.
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