I'm trying to keep an open mind and would like to hear from those who've played the release version what to expect as far as the ai's capabilities using mercenaries. My impression after reading a few comments around here is that the ai may hire some but treats them a bit like the precursor worlds, i.e. it fails to prioritize them and because of this it tends to fall way behind. If that is the case, I'd really like to know. Personally I would not see there being much point right now in picking up this expansion if, for example, all the ai players combined can muster only three mercenaries versus a dozen belonging to a human opponent. It would be great to hear otherwise.