I just wanted to share my frustration with this 'prize'
Personally, this is not a 'prize' at all. Every time I get this, I am a loser. I have lost out on all the other options and have racked up the mercenary camps because I will never be able to buy them.
These camps cost 1200, 1500 or more gold. For the player that can only afford to buy minimal amounts of gold, building these camps is not possible and the 'gift' is actually discouraging.
I enjoy many other aspects of the game and compliment some servers and game creators for gifts like resources, artifacts and more. Every time I receive these gifts, I am encouraged to save some money to spend on in-game gold! On the flip-side when I get I gift I know I can never use over and over again I am discouraged. The price of building these camps is beyond what the amount of gold I can purchase in a month and the last thing I want to do is save several months of accumulated gold and spend it all on one mercenary camp that is not much better than the Byzantine Fortress.
As previously stated, I love a lot about 1100AD. I just thought there were probably many other players that struggle with obtaining gold that feel the same about this part of the product. If your gonna throw us dogs a bone, try to leave some meat on it.
Thanks all for reading and understand I'm just sharing an opinion.