Hired Swords - When can you hire them?

When reading through the rules for some reason I had the perception that you couldn't hire any sell swords until after the first battle...mainly because they are so cheap and so much better than henchmen, and why wouldn't a player load out their warbands with hired swords.

But upon looking through this forum, it appears that I may have been wrong and that you can add them to your list straight away, before even playing a game.

So which is correct? My initial perception? (unable to hire sell swords until after warband creation) Or can you hire them as you're writing your list?

You can begin the campaign with them on your roster for your first battle.

Thanks for straightening that out for me!

No problem. I had the same perception of the rules for years, that you had to play at least one game without them. But the second paragraph of the section Recruiting Hired Swords is fairly unambiguous.

Yup - VK has it right. I just checked the PDF rulebook:

Page 105:

Quote :

A player can recruit Hired Swords when he creates his
warband, or during the campaign phase after a game.

I never knew about this and I'm now wondering if it's something I should try in the next campaign!

Yeah, I'm going to be starting a campaign at the local store and thought I had my list all finalized, but now it's back to the drawing boards to figure out which henchmen I should hire. I'm know I'm going to take out a henchmen (to have a group of 3) so that I can hire someone.

I only start with a hired sword when I feel that it will fill a weakness within the warband or fits with my fluff. Otherwise I find them too expensive for a starting warband to support. The upkeep fee might be the difference between hiring 2 henchmen or getting another lucky charm or whatever.

I tend to go nuts the game after I get an LGT hero since I know my income potential is maxed. Meaning with Orcs I don't hire anyone until I have 6 heroes.

I've had really bad luck with getting Ladz Got talent in the last campaign, so income for my Orcs was always low. The only Hired Swords I used were the lucky free-to-hire-once ones from the Exploration phase.

Next campaign though I'm probably going to use Kommodore Deffgit's Orc Pirates - so no Troll which means more Boyz and more chance of LGT!

In my old group that allowed the beggar, I always used him from game one. Even if he doesn't do a thing, at least he will get his hire back and I have had an extra group member. I'm also very fond of the Tilean sharpshooter at the beginning, because he is just so much better than every other ranged fighter at that stage (including the elven ranger imo). In my last game, which is the second with my new witchhunters, the sharpshooter caused a wound that made my opponent rally just before he could accomplish his mission. I'd have had to be extremely lucky to cause this wound with any of my other crossbowmen.

I'm having my first game tomorrow, and I have an Ogre Bodyguard because it's awesome. I actually manged to catch that you can have them in your first list directly, I think! *Proud*

*Edit: So in my next game the Bodyguard will effectively cost 110p, with the upkeep?
*Editedit: GC, not P!

Theo

Theorox wrote:

*Edit: So in my next game the Bodyguard will effectively cost 110p, with the upkeep?

Nope - just the 30gc upkeep. You only pay the 80gc Hire Fee the first time.

*Facepalm* Theo r stoopid!

That's RAWRSOME however. Thanks Kurgie!

Theo