Mordheim Warbands: Mercenaries

And so it begins...

Who
Reikland, Middenheim, and Marienburg Mercenaries.
Averlander, and Ostlander Mercenaries.
This also covers 90% of all the other human based warbands such as Pirates and Norse warbands.

Boxes
Empire Militia (20 bodies)

Why These
The Empire Militia box (Free Company) is the most versatile box of humans in the whole line of Warhammer miniatures, not only does it contain 20 models (5 more then the average max warband size) but it also comes with virtually every bit you'll need for any equipment a human warband can take. It has swords, daggers, bows, crossbows, pistols, axes, clubs, halberds / spears, double handed weapons, rifles / blunderbuss's, and more.

The only thing it really doesn't have that people use on a semi-regular basis is shields / bucklers which can be modeled with some plastic card or even Popsicle sticks. However due to how useful having a second weapon like a free dagger or a club is compared to a small boost in armor save or a parry that can be negated easily in most cases.

Along with the coat, the axe on the back really makes my Captain stand out.

Thoughts
I do suggest mercenaries to be the first warband for anyone to get since they are very versatile, you just have to pick which mercenary warband to use based on what you want to focus on.

• Movement Phase: Averlander's Trappers who can block off paths of approach.
• Shooting Phase: Reikland's BS4 Marksmen
• Combat Phase: Middenheim's S4 Captain and Champions.
• Out of Combat: Marienburg's +1 to find items and +20% gold at the start of the campaign / one off game.
• Equipment: Ostlander's double barrels, dwarf axes, prayers as no other Mercenary warband can use spells / prayers, and an Ogre!

One of my big modelling suggestions involve having your five heroes use the torso with the coat. I did that and visually they are all very easy to find as it is a common trait separating them from the henchmen.

Marksman, Warrior, Young blood, Swordsman.

Personally I really do like the Reikland Mercenaries more due to their better Marksmen. When looking at my list it is split into three parts. My dedicated two to four archers places on the tops of different buildings for a wide angle of shots. My warriors and swordsmen act as my dedicated melee users who pretty much rush up and act as a buffer between their melee characters and my firing lines. Then finally my heroes who push up behind the front line of henchmen and either act as archers or melee depending on the situation.

For expanding the warband I think a warlock would be a good choice as most mercenary warbands have zero magic presence along with a war dog or two to help flanking. Beyond that see what you are suffering from as you play and boost that aspect of the warband with more henchmen. Generally though more melee characters are better since piling on three characters into combat with a single one, especially a strong hero will give you better odds of killing him compared to the low strength range attacks.

My two champions, another marksmen and warrior, then my other young blood on the end.

Cheap Mordheim: Mercenaries

So you want to start Mordheim but you only want to buy a single box of guys. Well I have good news for you then and this is the same thing I did myself.

You'll want yourself a box of Empire Malitia!

This box has enough bodies to make 20 humans (average maximum warband size for Mercenaries is 15) with bits for swords, axes, clubs, bows, cross bows, blunderbuss / rifles, and pistols. So you'll have plenty of modeling options.

A cool option to do with your five starting heroes to set them apart from your henchmen is to take the five cloaks from the box and put those are your heroes. It really sets them apart though don't model them exactly alike (same head + legs) as the idea is everyone in Mordheim is slightly different from each other.

Currently I've only assembled 10 of my 20 guys (I haven't expanded my warband size much yet and I got 6 extra archers out of a trade though two are painted), but it is enough to run a heavy hitting warband and when I want to expand my numbers I'll assemble and paint another two / three guys to fill out my henchmen even more.

The only bit of conversion required was the sword in the left hand (cut it off a right hand and glued it on an empty / use to be dagger left hand), and if you want to go WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) then you'll need to kit bash or scratch build shields / bucklers. (Most have daggers strapped to their legs, most hats can be used as a helmet and most can be said to wear light armor though heavy armor could be stretching it). Also the easiest way of modeling two weapons is just putting the second on the characters back / side / leg (Like I did for the axes since it is easier to shave off a hand then to stick it on another one, and the bow looks better in a hand anyway)

EDIT:
So this box should be able to hand Reikland, Marienburgers, Middenheimers, Pirates (experimental), Norse(experimental), Ostrander, Kislevite, and Averland warbands along with "The Outlaws Of the Stirwood Forest" though if I find a better box for this or that mercenary group or other human group (Norse for example) I'll make a separate entry for them, the Empire Malitia box really is a catch all for most human warbands.