Hired forces - CK3 Wiki (2024)

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Hired forces are predefined armies which may be temporarily controlled by hiring them with Gold. Hired forces cannot be used to raid. There are two types of hired forces, each one with its own tab in the Military menu.

Mercenaries are armies that can be hired by rulers for 3 years. The gold cost is paid upon hiring the Mercenaries and there is no additional cost associated with hiring them, but at the end of the 3 years, they will leave if their contract is not extended. Extending a contract for 3 years has the same cost as initially hiring the army.

Each culture generates between one and three mercenary companies depending on the number of counties of that culture, with each additional company being bigger and more expensive than the previous one. They will pick a county of their culture as their headquarters and will be available to be hired by anyone with capital within diplomatic range of that county. Range between Mercenary armies come with one or more specific men-at-arms regiments and will also contain a number of knights. Mercenary regiments reinforce 3 times faster than regular regiments. Character can hire mercenaries of their own culture from further away.

Mercenary armies select a name based on their culture, as shown in the table below.

Holy orders are independent military organizations that work to defend and expand the influence of their faith. Each holy order has a Duke rank title.

Rulers can create a holy order via the Found Holy Order decision. The decision costs and then requires the ruler making the decision to choose an owned castle or city holding as the order's headquarters. The designated headquarters title is leased and may be revoked at any time by the title holder and revoking a grandmaster's last lease will destroy the holy order. When a holy order is created the ruler who created it will become its Patron and the order's grandmaster will belong to its faith and culture.

Rulers of a holy order's faith may hire them if they are at war with a faith considered Hostile or Evil, regardless of casus belli. A ruler may only have one holy order hired at a time. Hiring holy orders costs Piety unless the ruler is the order's Patron, scaling on the maximum amount of Levies and Regiments the holy order has. Holy orders remain hired for as long as their employer is at war with someone of another faith.

Holy orders have 500 Levies, 2 Knights and 2 Regiments. Each Holding they own provides an additional Regiment and 200 Levies and every two Holdings they own provide an additional Knight. Their Men-at-Arms do not gain bonuses from the buildings in its Holdings, but rather from their employer's buildings.

Holy orders select a name based on its religion, with some names shared among orders all faiths of the religion, and some faiths having unique names for their orders, as follows:

ReligionFaithName(s)ChristianityCommonKnights of the ChaliceOrder of the Holy CommunionKnights of the First GospelGuardians of the ShroudKnights of the ReliquaryWarriors of the CrossKnights of Location CatholicismKnights TemplarKnights HospitallerTeutonic OrderOrder of CalatravaOrder of AlcántaraKnights of Santiago OrthodoxyBrotherhood of the Holy SepulchreKnights of the First PatriarchateOrder of the Holy Virgin CopticOrder of Saint Anthony NestorianismOrder of Saint Addai Insular ChristianityOrder of Saint PatrickIslamCommonMujahideen of LocationWarriors of the HadithGhazis of LocationWarriors of the WahySahabi of LocationCompanions of Hira NizarismHashshashin AlevismBektashi Order IbadismHaruriyyaJudaismCommonZealots of LocationHerem WarriorsZealots of LocationDualismCommonArmy of LightDreamers of LocationServants of the PatriciansMiletê Tawûsê MelekCommonServants of Melek TausBuddhismCommonChosen of AshokaGuardians of Bodh GayaSangha of the StruggleWarriors of the Illuminated HeartShakyan FaithfulHinduismCommonFollowers of ArjunaFaith MarharatasVyuha of War GodVyuha of the Temple of LocationMaharatas of War GodJainismCommonBulls of RishabhaJivas of Madhya LokaGuardians of the Lotus OceanSacrifices of DevlokaZoroastrianismCommonImmortalsAhura Mazda's ChampionsFire Walkers ZurvanismZurvan's ChosenTibetanCommonGuardians of the Five KhandroMandéCommonWatchersGuardians of Divine RealmFaithful of War GodWarriors of the Religious SymbolTanismCommonWarriors of Mother SunWarriors of Father MoonWarriors of High GodWarriors of the TempleMundhumismCommonWarriors of MundhumWarriors of High GodWarriors of the TempleHausa BoriSpirit GuardiansPossessedGuardians of Divine RealmFaithful of War GodWarriors of the Religious SymbolSteppe TengriismLords of the SkyGuardians of Divine RealmFaithful of War GodWarriors of the Religious SymbolFinno-Ugric UkonuskoSons of KalevalaGuardians of Divine RealmFaithful of War GodWarriors of the Religious SymbolSlavic Slovianska PravdaWarriors of PerunGuardians of Divine RealmFaithful of War GodWarriors of the Religious SymbolOromo-Somali WaaqismGuardians of Divine RealmFaithful of War GodWarriors of the Religious SymbolYoruba OrisaGuardians of Divine RealmFaithful of War GodWarriors of the Religious SymbolAkan AkomGuardians of Divine RealmFaithful of War GodWarriors of the Religious SymbolBaltic VidilismChosen of PerkunasGuardians of Divine RealmFaithful of War GodWarriors of the Religious SymbolKordofan Kush*tismGuardians of Divine RealmFaithful of War GodWarriors of the Religious SymbolNorse ÁsatrúJomsvikingsFaithful of TyrOdin's ValkyriesChosen of FreyjaUralic TáltosismTáltos of the FieldFaithful of War GodWarriors of the Religious SymbolGreco-Roman HellenismMyrmidonsPriesthood of AresZunbil ZunismGuardians of Divine RealmFaithful of War GodWarriors of the Religious SymbolSiberian TurumismLegion of the BearThousand CrowsDownstreamersSylvan SaviorsEuskal ErlijioaCommonCompany of the CavesPagan PaganismGuardians of Divine RealmFaithful of War GodWarriors of the Religious Symbol

If an order is created, it will prioritize using a unique faith-based name, and once all unique names are used, it will start using a common name. Any orders created after all the above names are used, as well as orders for any faith not listed above, will be named “Faith company of Location”.

The first king or emperor upwards in the liege hierarchy of the holy order's headquarters is their patron. It is possible for a holy order to have no patron if no such ruler exists.

Patrons of a holy order may hire them at no cost, as long as they belong to the same faith. They may also take any leased holdings from the order. A Ruler that is a Patron of a holy order may get events that allows them to grant holdings to the new holy order. If a Patron takes a loan from the order and does not repay it, the Order may choose a holding it wants (usually a city) and demand that it be leased to them.

If a holy order is hired by another character, its Patron can repay their employer the Piety hiring cost to hire the holy order. This option is not available in multiplayer if the holy order is hired by another human player.

As Patron and not a Liege, the Holdings that the holy orders have leased will give neither taxes nor levies to their Patron.

When you raise a holy order, they spawn at the oldest existing army assembly point in your realm.

It is often advantageous to establish a holy order or become one's Patron as soon as possible if you border hostile or evil religions. It acts as a free army in holy wars (except Crusades). They can grow quite large on their own with no oversight by the player, sometimes snowballing into a 5-6k heavy infantry stack by 1044.

Although you have to be at war with a hostile or evil ruler to raise them, they can fight armies of your faith in other wars. One strategy is to maintain one province minors of a hostile or evil religion on your border, so you can declare a holy war against a weak ruler at will. In a war against a ruler of your faith, you can declare a holy war against the one province minor, raise the holy order, and use them in the war against your stronger opponent.

All members of a holy order, including its grandmaster, gain the Order Member trait. Rulers may also use the Ask to Take Vows interaction to send courtiers to a holy order, as long as the following conditions are met:

If the courtier accepts, the ruler will lose Piety while the courtier gains a level of devotion.

If the courtier is a close family of the requestor the courtier moves to holy order's court, but since Invite to Court interaction is available on all holy order's courtiers, the absent courtier can still be moved back to requestor's court upon request. If the courtier is not a close family of the requestor the courtier doesn't move to holy order's court when taking the vows.

Note that sending characters to a holy order is available even if the faith doesn't have the Monasticism Tenet.

If a holy order's headquarters is lost, the holy order will select a new owned holding to fulfil the role, with a preference for holdings within the current patron's realm. However, if the holy order loses its last holding, it will be disbanded.