Love it or hate it, the 2019 AoS General’s Handbook is here and brought a slew of changes to the game. Let’s see which new Mercenary Company are the best!
Be sure to check out our thoughts on the first five Mercanry Companies from our previous breakdown article! Today we’ll take a look at the remaining five!
One of the major changes from the latest General’s Handbook is the addition of mercenary companies and being able to add them to any army. They are not free though, costing you points out of your allied pool and your turn one command point. Since most games are played at 2000 points, we are going to look at this as if we have 400 points worth of allies we can take. Let’s look at each of them and see if they might be worth it.
The Mercenary Factions:
- Fyreslayers Greyfyrd Lodge
- Flesh-eater Courts Tenebrous Court
- Necromancer & Skeletons
- Algeuzzler Gargants
- Blood Knights & a Vampire Lord
- Freeguild Rough Riders
- Duardin Hired Guns
- Chaos Gargant
- Darkoath Rampagers
- Maneater Gutstuffers
Nimyards Rough Riders Mercenary Company:
This mercenary company is made up of 0-1 Freeguild generals on warhorse without banners, 1-3 units of pistoliers, and 0-1 units of outriders. For our mercenary company I am going to take the Free Guild General for his command ability, and two units of 5 Free Guild Pisoliers. Bringing the point total to 340.
- Freeguild General on Warhorse: Move 12”, 4+ Save (3+ with shield), 7 Bravery, 5 Wounds. He can carry a pistol or a shield with the pistol: Range 9”, 1 Attack, Hitting and Wounding on a 3+, with -1 Rend, for 1 Damage. Then he carries one of the following weapons: Sigmarite: Range 1”, 5 Attacks, Hitting on a 3+, Wounding on a 4+, with -1 Rend, for 1 Damage. A Great Weapon: Range 1”, 3 Attacks, Hitting and Wounding on a 3+, with -2 Rend, for D3 Damage. Or a Lance: Range 2”, 3 Attacks, Hitting on a 3+, Wounding on a 4+, with -1 Rend, for 2 Damage (3 on a charge). Finally, his horse attack: Range 1”, 2 Attacks, Hitting and Wounding on a 4+, for 1 Damage. His command ability is Hold the Line: pick up to three Freeguild units, range 15”, these units cannot run or charge but add 1 to their hit and wound rolls.
- Freeguild Pistoliers: Move 12”, 5+ Save, 5 Bravery, 2 Wounds. They have a brace of pistols: Range 9”, 2 Attacks, Hitting on a 5+, Wounding on a 3+, with -1 Rend, for 1 Damage. The leader has a handgun: Range 14”, D3 Attacks, Hitting on a 4+, wounds on a 3+, with -1 Rend, or 1 Damage. They can run, charge, and shoot in the same turn. When running roll 2 dice and pick the highest, but the unit needs to run as close to the enemy unit as possible.
Special Rules Eyes and Ears: You can deep strike this unit by setting it up at the end of your first movement phase wholly within 6” of a table edge and outside of 9” from the enemy.
This company might work in a slow army like Fyreslayers, or something similar as they are fast-moving and deep striking. They can threaten your opponent, and even claim objectives quickly but don’t expect them to last long in combat if they get locked down.
The Blacksmoke Battery Mercenary Company:
This mercenary company is made up of 0-1 Cogsmiths, 1-3 Cannons or organ guns, and 0-1 Gyrocopters or Gyrobombers. For this unit, I am going to take 2 Cannons and a Gyrobomber. 360 Points.
- Cannon: Move 4”, 5+ Save, 6 Bravery, 1 Wounds. They have 1 Shooting Attack: Range 32”, 2 Attacks, Hitting on a 4+, Wounding on a 2+, with -2 Rend, for D6 Damage. Then they have 1 melee attack: Range 1”, 1 Attack, Hitting on a 4+, Wounding on a 5+, with no rend, for 1 Damage. You can re-roll damage roll if the target unit has 10 or more models. If an engineer is within 1” of this warmachine you can re-roll failed hit rolls.
- Gyrobomber: Move 12”, 4+ Save, 6 Bravery, 5 Wounds. They have 1 Missile Weapon: Range 20”, 4 Attacks, Hitting on a 4+, Wounding on a 3+, with -1 Rend, for 1 Damage. Then they have 1 melee attack: Range 1”, D3 Attacks, Hitting on a 5+, Wounding on a 4+, for 1 Damage. When you fly over enemy units in the movement phase pick one unit and roll a dice, on a 4+ that unit that’s D3 mortal wounds.
Special Rules the Spotter: Add 1 to hit rolls for attacks made by cannons or organ guns it the target is within 12” of the gyrocopter or gyrobomber.
I would love to try this unit with a Stormcast Eternals list that includes a Lord-Ordinator and two Celestar Ballista. So, your cannons are now hitting on a 2+, and if the targets are close to the Gyrobomber, and if you want to get crazy add a Knight Azyros to reroll 1s against the target so that you pretty much auto-hit.
Rampagers Mercenary Company:
This mercenary company is made up of 0-1 Darkoath Chieftain or Darkoath Warqueen and 1-3 units of Chaos Marauders. For this mercenary company, we are going to get 2 units of 40 marauders for 400 points.
Chaos Marauders: Move 6”, 5+ Save (because of shields), 5 Bravery, 1 Wounds. They have either an Axe melee weapon: Range 1”, 1 Attack, Hitting and Wounding on a 4+, for 1 Damage. Or a fail attack: Range 1”, 1 Attack, Hitting on a 5+, Wounding on a 3+, for 1 Damage. The leader gets a bonus attack, there are two different banners one adds 1 to Bravery the other lets you re-roll hit rolls of 1, and the drummer adds 1 to run and charge rolls. Roll a dice when the unit piles in adding 1 to the roll if the unit has 20 or more models. On a 4+ add 1 to hit rolls, on a 6+ add 1 to wound rolls as well.
Special Rules On the Rampage: After you set up a unit from this mercenary company you can move it D6”.
I really like this force for something like Stormcast Eternals, or trogg heavy Gloomspite Gitz army, or something similar. Basically, any army that is built around small blocks of elite troops but needs big blocks to take up table space and claim objectives could benefit from this.
Skroug’s Menagerie Mercenary Company:
This mercenary company is made up of 1 Chaos Gargant and 0-3 units of Chaos Spawn, Chaos Warhounds, and or Furies. For this company, we are going to take the Chaos Gargant, 15 Furies, and a Chaos Spawn. 400 Points.
- Chaos Gargant: Move (Damage Table 8” down to 3”), 5+ Save, Bravery 6, 12 Wounds. They have three different melee weapons: ‘Eadbutt: Range 1”, 1 Attack, Hitting on a 4+, Wounding on a 3+, with -3 Rend, for Damage (Damage Table D6 down to 1). Next is Massive Club: range 3”, Attacks (Damage Table 3D6 down to D6), Hitting and Wounding on a 3+, for 1 Damage. Finally Mighty Kick: Range 2”, 1 Attack, Hitting and Wounding on a 3+, with -2 Rend, for D3 Damage. If this model charges and rolls a double this model cannot make the charge, and the players roll-off, the winning player picks a point within 3” of this model and all units within 2” of that suffer D3 mortal wounds. After this model piles in you can pick 1 enemy model within 3” and roll a dice. If it is equal to or greater than the double the model’s wounds characteristic that model is slain. When this model is slain players roll-off, the winning player picks a point within 3” and all units within 2” suffer D3 mortal wounds.
- Furies: Move 12”, 5+ Save, 10 Bravery, 1 Wound. They have 1 melee attack: Range 1”, 2 Attacks, Hitting and Wounding on a 4+, for 1 Damage. When an enemy unit fails a battleshock test within 12” of this unit roll a dice, on a 4+ an additional model is removed.
- Chaos Spawn: Move 2D6”, 5+ Save, 10 Bravery, 5 Wounds. He has 1 melee attack: Range 1”, 2D6 Attacks, Hitting and Wounding on a 4+, for 1 Damage. When you roll doubles for his attacks add 1 to its hit and wound rolls.
Special Rules Lord and Master: The Chaos Gargant can use the at the double, forward to victory, and inspiring presence command abilities as if it were the general. However, they can only be used on models from this company.
This is another fun narrative mercenary company, but I don’t see it getting used in matched play. There are just too man heroes in this game to make it worthwhile to take this company.
The Gutstuffers Mercenary Company:
This mercenary company is made up of 1 Firebelly and 1-3 units of Maneaters. Because of points, you must take 1 Firebelly and 1 unit of 3 Maneaters for 320 Points.
- Firebelly: Move 6”, 5+ Save, 6 Bravery, 7 Wounds. He has a missile weapon fire: Range 6”, roll a dice on a 4+ the unit suffers D3 mortal wounds. And then one melee attack a hammer: Range 2”, 2 Attacks, Hitting on a 4+, Wound on a 3+, with -1 Rend, for D3 Damage. He can cast and unbind one spell with his unique spell being Fire Cloak: Range: Himself, Casting Value 6, at the end of each combat phase roll a dice for each enemy unit within 3”, on a 4+ that unit suffers D3 mortal wounds.
- Maneaters: Move 6”, 5+ Save, 7 Bravery, 4 Wounds. They have 1 missile weapon throwing stars: Range 12”, 1 Attacks, Hitting and Wounding on a 3+, with -1 Rend, for D3 Damage. Then they have a melee weapon Slicers: Range 1”, 4 Attacks, Hitting and Wounding on a 3+, with -1 Rend, for 2 Damage. They can take one of the following abilities: Re-roll hit rolls of 1 in melee, re-roll hit rolls of 1 in shooting, run and charge, or ignore battleshock.
Special Rules Hungry Beyond Reason: You can re-roll failed charge rolls for units in this company. You must attempt a charge if this unit is within 12” of the enemy and it is possible for it to make a charge move.
This is a neat little unit and would be great for narrative play, but points-wise I don’t see this being useful in any sort of army. Sorry Ogres one day you will get updated rules!
There you have it a brief overview of each mercenary company, some could potentially be useful in matched play but for the most part, a lot of these seem to be more geared towards narrative play. Still it’s a neat idea and hopefully, GW continues to release more mercenary warband rules as well as maybe even releasing some mercenary boxed set with unique models?
One can hope!
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