Outpost

An Outpost is a building used for spotting enemies and recruiting scout units and mercenary troops. Although it may be a weak and unarmed building, its line of sight, ability to recruit mercenaries and spot enemy units should not be underestimated.

While Outposts have the ability to oversee a great deal of land with their extensive line of sight, they however are flimsy and easily taken down with a few blows.

While they have the ability to oversee a great deal of land with their extensive line of sight, they however are flimsy and easily taken down with a few blows. To make matters worse, outposts are totally unarmed, and so must be accompanied by units or built next to towers and other fortifications. The best areas to build outposts are at chokepoints leading into your cities, although it would be better however to position them in such a way that agents have no cover when attempting to infiltrate your buildings in the absence of any natural chokepoints.

Once you research Military Level 2 (Mercenaries) at your library, things however start to become more interesting. You will now be able to create mercenaries, who often share several traits: they are weaker versions of normal units; cost a lot of wealth; but can be trained almost instantaneously, allowing for you to create a large but somewhat fragile army. This means that outposts now can "defend" themselves, so long as you have sufficient resources in your coffers. However, bear in mind that Outposts are rather weak and easily taken out, especially by raiding cavalry.

With Imperial Mandate, an Outpost can be upgraded to the Eununchs' Court. Although this structure is somewhat costlier to construct, it is nevertheless more powerful, and is capable of resisting enemy attack. Only China and Byzantium may construct a Eurnunchs' Court — the weaknesses of monarchies for the Japanese and Armenians preclude them acquiring so much power, while in Slavic nations eununchs are generally looked down upon.

Units trained

• Scout => Explorer [2, most cultures]

Mercenaries

Dark Age	Castle Age	Imperial Era
Basque Warriors Rōnin Archers Dailamiyan Slavic Raiders Galloglaich Infantry	Merchant Cavalry Norman Adventurer Bow Ashigaru Merchant Cavalry Almogavers Kerne Camel Archer Balt Spearmen Breton Routier	Flemings Mercenary Artillerist Mercenary Swordsman Freelancer Reisläufer Vlach Levy Renegade Bajorai Balkan Stradiot Gajnal Mahout Huszar Cavalry Volley Gun Broken Man Genoese Crossbowman Battle Wagon Repeating Crossbowman Hashishin