Best composition for Human Mercenaries?

[Akfiz]

What would the best warband for Human Mercenaries look like?

For the leader, I made him tanky with 2 handed weapons: Thoughness, Leadrship, Weapons Skill.

For the hero, I went 2 times for the tanky guy, didn't bother with the wizard. As I would rather have more tanky heroes at the front. Thoughness, Alertness, Weapons Skill.

For the henchmen, I went 2 archers & 3 melee; but I consider 3 archers instead. I made the melees & archers all about attack damage
Melee: Strength, Alertness, Weapons Skills
Range: Agility, Altertness, Balistic Skills

So far I have no issue with my warband, but this is my first playthrough and I was wondering if there is something I could do to improve it ?

Is it okay to go leader + heroes tanks & henchmen attack damage?

What about abilities? There's too many abilities and I don't really know what's best for each of them, so most of the time I went for passives.

Also, how do you make so much money to upgrade everyone? The game has no difficulty options so that's not it, but I often find I have more ablities upgrade slots than I can afford.

What abilities would you recommend me for each class of humans and why?

[GreyHuntr]

The Mercenary Captain gets good parry and counter attack bonuses, so most go with a shield build. But two handed with greatsword or halberd may work, I forget if he can equip those off top of my head. Champion hero tanks are very good, they benefit from leadership buffs since they don't have resistance to fear/terror/all alone like tanks from other warbands. Damage dealing Warrior henchmen can be pretty good too, and Marksmen are very good ranged units. You don't want to go too heavy on archers early on, it is hard to keep them protected until you get a good feel for using terrain to your advantage. They are generally better at applying debuffs to the enemy with things like Crippling shot, than outright damage dealers. If you want to go for a crit or damage build, better off using Lads got Talent on a Marksmen to make them a hero.

[GreyHuntr]

As for money, you aren't really expected to start training skills until about level 3 or 4. Only give very essential ones like quick reload on archers, at least until you think they are likely to survive past level 5. The enemy matches your warband rating, so if you don't have any skills, they will have to take a bunch of inferior equipment or injuries to balance out the score to give skills to their units.

[Sarger]

parry tank captain, warlock, lady-with-gun, two more heroes at your leisure, add henchmans to have 4-5 shooters total including warlock. In general i prefer to have melee heroes and warlock, warlock is a must, despite he can be not very bright at the start, just keep him growing

[dv]

At levels 0-2, everyone should use dual maces. After that:

Captain shoiuld really have a shield to maximize his starting skill. Champions make great melee resist tanks, warriors and marksmen are straightforward to use.

Warlock requires certain skills and equipment. Without them he is a liability. Youngblood is not easy to use.


Skills:
For melee units, the most important skill is resilient. It reduces the number of crits and, by extension, stuns they suffer. Captain parry tank goes for web of steel and shield specialist. Wariors may use web of steel and flash parry to become parry tanks. Champion wants defensive stance, shield specialist and (in the long run) serenity, leadership 15 and a pendent of courage.
Ranged units need quick reload. Once a ranged henchmen has 5 OP (level 8?), quick reload and introspection allow a stationary archer to shoot & reload three times per turn.

Knowledge: Mordheim and meditation are very good skills.

[Bababooey]

Cap and champs i have had good luck a parry tanks. Shield and mace combo i can get parry up to like 145. I know that is a bit much but for pvp it helps.

[dv]

145 % parry is excessive. 116-120 % (WS 19 or 20, purple shield, flash parry and head rune of aegis) is the target for henches, 120-130 % for heroes and leader. Champion starting skill increases his melee resist (MR). He is much better as a MR tank than a parry tank.

[Akfiz]

From what I saw online, some good early game skills are: demoralize, shield specialist, quick reload, combat focus and insult.

I'll start adding leadership points to my tanks/heroes.

I'll also consider: resilient for melee. Web of steel and shield specialist for captain. Shield specialist and serenity for heroes. Web of steel and flash parry for warriors. Quick reload for range. And mordheim and meditation for mages.

I try to get mace + shield / halberd for melee units. Depending on how many Offensive points they have, not to waste any. If they have 4/6 OP I go for mace + shield, if they have 3/5 OP I go for halberd.

What should I do from 7 OP upwards? I think I need a full 9 OP to make 3 attacks with halberd (2+3+4).

I try to give heavy armor to all non-ranged. And when I lack heavy armor I go for lack armor. Also helm for all non-ranged.

[dv]

Originally posted by Akfiz:

Shield specialist and serenity for heroes.

For Champions. And don't forget defensive stance.

Originally posted by Akfiz:

What should I do from 7 OP upwards? I think I need a full 9 OP to make 3 attacks with halberd (2+3+4).

6-8 OP use a shield.

Originally posted by Akfiz:

I try to give heavy armor to all non-ranged.

Only if they have at least basic armor proficient, Movement 4 sucks. Movement 5 is bad.

In the long run, hero or leader in heavy armor has mastered armor proficient while henches (who cannot master skills) have armor proficient and knowledge: mordheim,

[elkaoss]

The marksman makes a great ranged hero, If you promote him. With his long range, if you give him a vantage point he can be very useful...

[Bababooey]

Originally posted by dv:

145 % parry is excessive. 116-120 % (WS 19 or 20, purple shield, flash parry and head rune of aegis) is the target for henches, 120-130 % for heroes and leader. Champion starting skill increases his melee resist (MR). He is much better as a MR tank than a parry tank.

Fair enough i just played some MP with a dude that would counter some of my parry. So i went to the point where he almost couldn't get by it. 1 on 4/5 and the guy was untouchable.

[leonardonabreu]

With any WB I am fond of always having a henchman with all the athletic and movement skills, max strength, being the designated looter.

[GreyHuntr]

Having parry on all the Mercenaries is very tempting, but kind of a trap. Several demons and chaos units bypass parry entirely. If you do the Alluress mission with only parry units you will get destroyed. Super useful skill for the Captain, and a good option for Warrior henchman, but definitely want to go Melee resist or dodge with other heroes.

[Bababooey]

Originally posted by GreyHuntr:

Having parry on all the Mercenaries is very tempting, but kind of a trap. Several demons and chaos units bypass parry entirely. If you do the Alluress mission with only parry units you will get destroyed. Super useful skill for the Captain, and a good option for Warrior henchman, but definitely want to go Melee resist or dodge with other heroes.

I always bring one of the smugglers built for dodge.

[Asuzu]

My usual merc band is

Main team:

- 1 x Pistol Captain (I pref ranged build because you really don't want your leader get gibbed in melee, which can happen super easy and take a morale hit. he's damage and support this way)
Another option is to go classic route and make him a Parry tank beast with super cheap counterattacks. Just don't go tanking stuff that ignores parry, it will not be a nice experience :)

- 1 x LGT Marksman (Lads got talent, bow, he's basically a headshotting gatling gun)

- 1 x Warlock (damages and some debuffs. level him up with a bow until he can actually cast without exploding)

- 5 x Warrior henches (with Axe and shield, they are holding the line. invest into good leadership and saving throws so they dont run when outnumbered. many ways to tinker with them, e.g. make em classic parry tanks or fancy melee resist like)
All warriors got pistols in second slot, this way if they low on health and cannot stay in melee, they can shoot from behind the frontline.
I experimented with them doing the Halberd shenanigans with parry, more offensive, but it never really worked out. Maybe I'll try again.

Bonus slots:

- 1 x Melee resist Champion tank (this guy goes to tank and spank the scary stuff, like demons and enemy impressives. all out defense, Serenity, super hard to hit, great leadership saving throws)

- 1 x Greataxe Champion facemelter (when something is tackled/stunned/etc, this guy comes in with Daredevil/Frenzy/whatever and instagibs it)

or

- 1 x Ogre (twin axes, all out offense, Daredevil etc. Just walk to it and nuke it)

I can mix and match my heroes depending on the map and deployment, but that's pretty much my cookie cutter.
I try not to overdo ranged usually. I understand the appeal of Smuggler lady, but you got access to LGT Marksman, which is superior in every possible way simply because he has so much utility on top of ridiculous fire rate with a bow.
When you get good rep with factions you can start integrating fancy stuff, like Warrior Priest leader instead of Captain.

[Bloodscape]

You can have a captain with a bow and 2 smugglers. This gives all the utility (and more) that you need with the damage output of 2 pistols. The +to hit from marksmen is nice but not really needed. Certainly not needed enough to take a hero spot.

With the damage output and utility, you really only need to keep heroes behind the line of henchmen in case an enemy lasts more than 1 turn (like 3 enemies coming in and one lives).

In other words, the last two heroes doesn't matter too much. Although a Wolf Priest will allow the henchmen to invest in alertness instead of leadership for fear. You really do not have to worry about henchmen getting 2 on 1 and running away since the majority of enemies get burned down on approach and you have plenty of melee for those that reach the line,

Warning: It kinda makes the game too easy.

Bow Captain[www.pyrospace.co.uk] Headshot for approach, Bullseye for combat, Vital shot if they are stunned.

Pistol Smuggler[www.pyrospace.co.uk] Second one gets an extra point in alertness.

Use Adrenaline Rush to burn down first enemies/biggest threats. The rest is just mop up for melee.