Warband Themes (Guide)/Mercenary Regiments

Original Author/Publication: The Apocalyptic Knight/Steam Forums

Introduction
Greetings my friends! I thought to offer you this guide of building historical (well, sort of) regiments of the Empire, since, in my opinion, they are the best way to play this game and add a lot of flavour and character, as well as exploit those extreme setups to a deadly advantage!

I want to stretch out that this is not a guide for maximum efficiency, but for recreating important units of the Warhammer lore and experiencing first hand their limitations and dealing with that effectively. If you just want to make a winning build, here, I can give you that too, just give sword and shield to everyone, armour to the teeth, keep a couple of guys with clothes to act as runners and off you go! But the challenges and different playstyles of those units will really give a rewarding feeling when you can master them and make them work to a multiplying effect!

## The Company of Honour (Altdorf, capital city of Reikland)

Why form up a mismatched rabble when you can field the famous and elite Company of Honour of Altdorf?
The Captain should be a pistol-and-sword build. Arm him to the teeth with whatever heavy protective gear you can find, as he will rely on parrying with his sword, not dodging, in close quarters. When not in close quarters, you can protect him with the halberds and let him do some target practice. His development has to incorporate both ranged points and skills and melee. Don't give him too much agility, as dodging in heavy armour is not the best way to go, but rather give him lots of parry, which is not affected by armour.
The infantry units will all be halberd units here, but you can also have sword and shield heroes that you will focus in melee skills (parrying again, not dodging), to get some more versatility. The henchmen halberdiers will also get heavy armour and lots of parrying skill, since halberd and sword are the only two weapons you can parry with, so they go incredibly well with heavy armour, and you got both of them in this build!

STRENGTHS - WEAKNESSES - TACTICS

This build offers one big strength: irresistible melee power! The halberd is arguably the best melee weapon of the game, since it is very damaging, and can parry, allowing for heavy armour (which really hurts your dodging ability). So you have both extreme defence and offence. Additionally, being a two-handed weapon, it inflicts the most damage with the first strike and also uses the fewer combat moves then, which suits the henchmen perfectly, since they only get one strike anyway! Simply charge and surround the enemy with armoured halberdiers, and then parry, and they won't survive very long. At the same time pepper them with your captain's pistol, and if the opportunity arises, charge in with his sword as well! Use the heroes on the stronger enemies, to cut them down strategically. The single sword allows for a little bit of dodging if you choose to go that way, or you can give them a shield and stick to parrying. Remember that these builds are not about finding the most efficient build, but about having fun with original Warhammer companies!

The big weakness of such a build is mobility. Dodging is something you can totally forget, so when fighting opponents who perform strong strikes against parrying, you might find that they land more often than you would want them to. Also, moving around the map and forming up before engaging will be a hell to achieve! However, this can be rectified to an extent by the mere fact that you can probably slaughter a couple of your foes before they drop you, that's how good in melee you'll be. Just don't allow them to surround you, go to a door, a stairway, or other place where you only have to fight only one enemy at once, and fight until the (slow) reinforcements eventually arrive, or you murder them all!

Overall I believe this is one of the most potent builds in the game period. But forget about stealing the enemy idol, or collecting distant warpstone in a heartbeat. Those are things for different builds, here slaughter is your game!

## Von Kragsburg Guard (Averheim, capital city of Averland)

The Von Kragsburg Guard is very similar to the Company of Honour in everything! Just give your captain, instead of a sword and pistol, a big heavy two handed hammer and let him smash away! He will not be as defensive as before, but he will be a far better shock troop! This means that you will need to defend him better with the halberdiers and let him charge only when you can dispatch your enemies without your leader drawing too many strikes!

STRENGTHS - WEAKNESSES - TACTICS
Identical to the Company of Honour, except that you lack any shooting capability whatsoever. This shouldn't be a problem though, as your guy are armed to the teeth and will easily win melee battles with almost anything, once you gang up on that anything. Also, your Captain has to go the dodge way, despite his heavy armour, since you cannot parry with a large hammer! This means that he will not be a good dodger, so really, keep him protected and use his mighty crushing charge as a shock troop fatality, sort of.

## The Swords of Ulric (Middenheim, capital city of Middeland)

The Swords of Ulric offer an amazing potential for versatility, simply because they are actually comprised of different types of units, although the predominant ones are swordsmen with shields or with daggers in the off-hand! The fact that they are, in fact, mismatched in their equipment, is less limiting and allows for the better fine-tuning of your band.
Make a dual-wielding Captain, giving him a hammer and a sword. Give him heavy armour. Raise his parrying skill. He will not let you down.
Make a youngblood crossbowman and level up his shooting ability. Give him a one handed weapon (preferably axe or sword) and keep him wearing clothes, not even a helmet! (for better perception)
Your second youngblood hero can be a pure swordsman, with a sword and shield. Arm him well and throw him into the difficult spots.
The infantrymen can be swordsmen with shield or dagger in the off-hand, all of them armoured very well, except one guy who can be wielding a big two handed hammer or large axe or greatsword, and who will be a dodger, wear clothes (helmet is okay though) and will be used to run and help engaged party members by charging the enemy into a bloody pulp!

STRENGTHS - WEAKNESSES - TACTICS
There are only strengths and almost no weaknesses in this build. You have the youngblood crossbowman who is also your runner and can steal idols. He is also way more capable than an archer, if he finds himself in melee, and his clothes and agility will allow him to dodge almost everything and climb-run-jump-trampoline his way to any mission like the best commando! He can also run, collect warpstone and overwatch then, to shoot anyone who approaches.
A similar free-electron role could be good also for the light two-hander of the group, minus the ranged ability but plus the crushing charge.
The infantrymen will try to stick close to each other and engage. The big damage dealer will be your leader, who should always be in the forefront of the fight, smashing foes and parrying their blows.
There isn't much that can go wrong with this build.

## Grundel's Defenders (Nuln, Wissenland)

An interesting, versatile build, that will allow both for extreme fighting power and mobility.
Captain, sword and pistol. Give him heavy armour and let him shoot, parry and hack his way to victory.
Heroes, heavily armoured spearmen with shields, your main fighting behemoths.
Infantry, the same. Leave some (maybe 2) of them with light or no armour, to act as runners. Needless to say, expose those two less than the others to combat.

STRENGTHS - WEAKNESSES - TACTICS
A good way to use this build is to try to place the Captain in positions in houses where he can safely fire from. Make sure he can only be attacked by one enemy at a time. Use the two light troops to quickly collect stuff, or engage isolated opponents together, while parrying all their blows (increasing parry is crucial here!). Your main force has to try to consilidate and form a strong phalanx, which will then slowly roll over anything it meets.
The only weakness is the lack of ranged cover, but this is partly covered by the captain's pistol if he can get in place. He is far less endangered compared to a standard archer however, since he can more than hold his own in melee. Using the light troops should also negate any enemy archers in position, since you can even climb and take them down in melee.

## Fireloques of Ferlangen (Ostland)

Now this is when things start getting interesting! A gunners-only build that can easily execute an enemy before he closes with them!
Give your captain a sword and pistol. Give him light armour. Teach him how to both parry and dodge, depending on the opponent you face. The rule of thumb is: the bigger and meaner it looks, the more you should be trying to dodge instead of parry.
However, if you play your cards right, you will not have to engage in melee too often. It all depends on how quickly you will level up your gunners into deadly marksmen!
Keep them wearing clothes. Give them a single sword each. Don't even give them helmets to aid with their perception. You won't win through melee with this build anyway.

STRENGTHS - WEAKNESSES - TACTICS
There is one way to win with this build: group up! If your man gets surrounded and can no longer escape, he's dead meat. If he gets engaged, disengage! Don't hesitate to climb on houses, jump and do things that the heavier enemies might not be as good as you at. At the same time choose the place for the confrontation! Open spaces are your friend. If you need to use runners, you've got lots of them (the entire band, in fact). Set up your firing squad somewhere open and run your stragglers back there, luring your enemies into a deadly trap! Once they show up, the overwatch of half a dozen guns will make short work of them, possibly even taking them down with a single volley! The concentrated ranged power of this build is its absolutely deadly strength and getting caught in melee is its weakness! Hopefully, with increasing agility, your guys will become good dodgers, runners and climbers and you will be able to run back to the firing squad in time! Totally one of the builds I can't wait to make a playthrough of!

## Deathjacks (Stirland)

Treat exactly as the Fireloques of Ferlangen, except give the captain a sword and light armour, teach him how to dodge and parry, and use him as a blocking defender when an enemy approaches your archers a little too much!

## Sterntower Marksmen (Wissenland)

Treat exactly as the Deathjacks, except give the captain light armour and a spear and sword, instead of just a sword. Switch from one weapon to the other, according to preference, just for flavour.

## Carroburg Greatswords (Reikland)

Another very exciting build! You basically get a band of guys who excel at charging at enemies and leaving a mangled heap where there once stood a perverted man, strange woman or mafia rat!
Captain, heroes and soldiers, all get a greatsword! After all, they are called greatswords for a reason, right?
Give them heavy armours and helmets. Or if you wanna cheat the lore a little, leave them with clothes and just give helmets. I guess sometimes they like that kind of fighting more. Forget parrying, you can't parry, just level up dodge, trying to overcome the terrible penalty of the heavy armour. If you decided to go with clothes, that's good for you!

STRENGTHS - WEAKNESSES - TACTICS
If I consider you did things typically and gave them heavy armour, things are pretty straightforward. You can't move much, you can't have runners, you're not even very good at surviving for a long time (due to your dodge being screwed and your parry not existing). It's simply a matter of dealing damage, and that is what a greatsword is good at! The armour simply prolongs his inevitable demise by absorbing some of the damage, and nothing more! So, try to kill enemies quickly, try to bring reinforcements, take positions that allow for another greatsword's charge (greatsword charges are a game changer with all that extra damage). Level up your accuracy so that you don't miss that often, as this is the great weakness of the greatsword: it gives bonuses to the opponent's dodge, aka it misses a lot. But when it hits, they're gonna feel it! Use ambush a lot, hoping that you strike before you get struck. This is an aggressive build, without much refinement in strategies, except for positioning in a way that allows you to hit without getting hit by too many. Also, wyrdstone collection can only happen slowly and in small groups, never with a single greatsword. If two enemies attack a greatsword at the same time, he will survive for a very short time, so unless a mighty charge is coming around the corner from one of his colleagues, consider him dead. Later on, with heavy armour proficiencies, they start to shine, and resemble the original Warhammer greatswords who are feared by all living things!

## Stir River Patrol (Stirland)

A very versatile and exciting build to play!
Give your captain all the armour he can get, and sword & pistol. Give your heroes crossbows without armour and then split your henchmen into crossbowmen and halberdiers. Halberdiers get heavy armour and make good use of parry with their halberds. Crossbowmen wear clothes and carry a sword for melee.

STRENGTHS - WEAKNESSES - TACTICS
The only weakness that this setup has is that there isn't too much firepower to reliably kill enemies before they even approach, but there are halberdiers to engage them when they do, so no problem. The archers can be runners, and you've got lots of them, and the halberdiers can be your heavy hitters. The captain acts as a little bit of both, being always close to the action, but leaving the stage to the halberdiers for melee if he has enough nearby. Otherwise, sword is used for parrying and cutting enemies down. The crossbowmen can run and get good safe positions for shooting, but make sure they're not attacked, because if they're simple henchmen archers, they'll have serious trouble if an enemy gets in their face, so it's good if you can have a halberdier somewhere nearby to help. You can also set up firing squads in open spaces, but leave some hidden halberdiers to flank the enemy approach when they get too close. If you're lucky, 3-4 shots from crossbows and the pistol will drop the enemy so much in health, that a halberd charge will finish them off, for a feel-good effect!