Mercenary Warbands and Racial Maximums

Does Reikland's bonus allow their Marksmen to effectively have a BS of 5? Or can they not get an improvement for BS. Same for Middenland Champion and Merc Captain, can they get Str 5 because of their bonus or do they start capped out?

From the way it's worded, it seems like the Marksmen have a +1 bonus to their BS, which would mean you can take it to 4 and their bonus bumps it to 5. But the Middenlanders the way it's phrased in the rulebook is that they start at strength 4, not receive a +1 to Strength, so they are already capped.

Which way is it?

I'd say that Reikland marksmen can get BS5 because they start at 4 and 5's still below the human racial maximum. Middenheimer champions and captains on the other hand cannot increase their strength beyond 4 because they are already at the racial maximum.

That is the way we have always played it also.

Aye, I agree with what has been said before.

If you want them to have S5 (for the most relevant situations, anyway), you can always have them learn Mighty Blow.

Yes, the bump for Middenheimer heroes just means they start at racial max. Still nice, though, because it does tend to mean they earn extra experience early on.