Starting warbands and Hired swords

Im starting a new Marienburg band and am wondering peoples takes on hired swords starting out?
Warband:
Cpt - Brace of pistols, sword, helmet
Champ1 - Brace of Pistols, Sword
Champ2 - Handgun,Mace, Buckler
Yblood1 - pistol sword
Yblood2 - pistol, extra dagger, bow
2x marksmen - longbows
2x swordmen - swords, bucklers
Bounty Hunter
Tilean Marksman
now the thought behind the Hired muscle is the bounty hunter has heavy armour and a crossbow to start with, plus the capture rule can get me some good coin if i target the right heroes.
and the marksman speaks for himself, no negs for range or cover straight off the bat?? yes please!!
And it feels marienburgery? i mean using hired thugs is right down my alley!!
SoR 

Nothing wrong with it & rather fluffy for foppish Marienburgers.

Per the rulebook's hired sword section:

Quote :

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

I normally start any warband with 2 hired Swords.

A Theif & a Merchant.

This gives me a gold boost after each game and adds 2 members for rout tests. After a couple of games I normally start adding more hired Swords. If your playing the BTB rules they can become Blood Pacted!

ATM I have 5 Hired Swords: a Thief, Merchant + Bodyguard, Witch & Halfling Scout. This does wonders for my rout tests.

In the next 3-4 games I want to hire a Ogre Bodyguard & a Warlock!

How can I do this you ask? doesn't it cost too much money? Blood Pacts my fine friend. Starting off, the thief & the Merchant with Stonecutter pay for the upkeep of themselves PLUS the Witch & the Halfling Scout, before anyone becomes Blood Pacted. The rest is just gravy!

I generally don't start with Hired Swords unless I feel a weakness in my warband or to make money. Otherwise I like to wait until I have that 6th hero before investing in Hired Swords.

The Tilean and the Bounty Hunter are going to cost you every game, but they are also going to provide some nice firepower for way less than a henchman could. Plus they will always be better than any Henchman could become without rolling Lads got Talent.

Just to one up thornz, I'm currently running seven HS in an Arabyan Thieves warband without using Blood Pact rules. 80 upkeep per game. My thief, beggar and merchant are running ragged to keep up with costs. (Lots of HS are easier if you use non-official ones like the thief and beggar)   

The Merchant and Bounty Hunter are pretty much staples for every Marienburg warband I run. Both of them generally pay for themselves.

Don't forget when ransoming you can ransom for all sorts of stuff. If you can, you can ransom for things like, say, a you-rout-now voucher that you can redeem an a later game. Or you could ransom for the right to pick the scenario if they get to choose, stuff like that. If you are going to ransom for loot then it is rarely a good idea to ransom for just money. Ransom for Rare Trade rolls whenever possible. For example, Rabbits Feet are neither expensive or particularly rare, but they do cost a rare trade roll, so instead of ransoming for, say, 60 gold for a replacement hero (which you are unlikely to get and they are unlikely to have) you could ransom for 3 Rabbit's feet, or 3 lucky charms or something like that. In my group we allow the swapping out of your free dagger for any other dagger, so one of my favorite things to ransom for (even at the start) is a gromril dagger. They are rare, but very cheap so so you can often get them for even a starting hero.

My current warband has done very well with the classic combo of Pit Fighter and Elf Ranger.

The Pit Fighter

Even though I've gone as Middenheim, the Pit Fighter has done a lot to increase my threat in mob combat during the early game. Three WS4 S4 attacks (2 of which are S5 if he charged this turn) means that he hits like a ton of bricks. T4, a helmet, and a parry mean that he's astonishingly survivable for a 30GC game 1 model. The PF is almost guaranteed to at least knock down any T3 model the turn he charges, making him an excellent partner for the experience hungry youngblood.

A Pit Fighter probably isn't in your warband for the long haul (10+ games), unless he manages to roll extra wounds. He'll get left behind by your multi-wound heroes and will start costing more than he's worth. That said, this doesn't make him bad. Paying 15GC/game to have a proxy hero that can take hits and turn the tide in moshpits can give your warband an early lead. Having someone guaranteed to draw more missile fire than your captain doesn't hurt either.


The Ranger

The ranger is another must-have inclusion for me. Leaving her combat abilities aside for the moment, the power of that +1/-1 exploration roll cannot be overstated. Statistically speaking, it's far better than the re-rolls and used in conjunction with rabbit's feet type items can reliably help you get 3 or 4 of a kind exploration results. If you want to go the route of really exploiting the exploration table, she's a must take as there's a hard limit on how many tarot card rolls you can reasonably make.

As far as her on-the-board skills go, she's a worthwhile addition. A BS5 elf bow really makes her a Game 0 sniper, and if you can manage to level Quick Shot she becomes lethal. The question is really whether she's better than the Tilean marksman. In shooting, the Tilean marksman edges out the elf. She's a higher ballistic skill and longer range, but he doesn't see modifiers for range or cover and has a higher strength shot. It ultimately comes down to whether you want a ranged character for area denial or one for hunting. I find the Elf's M5 and I6 to be very useful for outing emplaced models and grabbing objectives. The Tilean marksman needs to level Quick Shot AND Nimble in order to be a mobile shooter, which is a pretty tall order for a hired sword.