This is just my opinion but is there a way to turn off Mercenaries? I want to run the latest version of the game with the all the other DLC content but would love to not have the mercenaries exist in the game as an option. I am sure it is just that I have not figured out how best to play with them but it kills my inner child when I am playing along, growing my civilization, researching, etc and one of the AI has hired a mercenary that comes along wipes out many of my ships and starbases. I would rather not have to worry about how to obtain my own mercs in order to counter them doing this too me and concentrate on building my own tech and ships to fight what they create.
Thanks