Mercenary Company

Mercs are the houseless independent ronin of the underhive. More reliable and competent than mere Scum, and more freewheeling than Bounty Hunters, Mercs are the go-to's of choice for hiring skilled operators able to get stuff done with few to no questions asked.

Most gangs will retain the services of a good Merc from time to time, but sometimes mercenary companies gel together around a charismatic or particularly effective Mercenary Captain. Such groups usually make ends meet by doing odd jobs for uphive patrons (including work originating from one of the Noble Houses), crimelords, or other such worthy "benefactors". Sometimes they are even self-directed, going head to head with gangs in the pursuit of profit or to acquire assets of high value.


Gang Composition

A Mercenary Company gang must follow these rules when it is founded, and when new fighters are added to the gang.

  • A Mercenary Company must have one Mercenary Captain.
  • A Mercenary Company can hire any number of Mercs, up to the gang's current limit of available roster slots.
  • A Mercenary Company starts with zero available roster slots; roster slots are purchased for 75 credits each.
  • A starting gang may purchase up to 5 roster slots; in campaign mode more roster slots can be purchased later.
  • A Mercenary Company cannot hire Hive Scum.
  • A Mercenary Company cannot hire Bounty Hunters.
  • A Mercenary Company cannot hire Hangers-on.

Fighters

A Mercenary Company is a little different from other kinds of gangs, in that there isn't a fixed roster of fighters who belong to the gang. Mercs come and go, may work for other gangs, and have no particular loyalty to the gang. Instead, a Mercenary Company has a roster of slots that may be filled with Mercs before each battle. The first time a Merc is hired to fight for the gang their hire cost must be paid, but after that their name goes onto a Call List and they will work for the gang again without having to re-pay their hire cost.

Roster Slots

Unlike most gangs, a Mercenary Company has a limited number of roster slots available to it, and more slots are opened up by paying 75 credits for each additional slot.

A starting Mercenary Company gang has zero slots, but may purchase up to five roster slots during gang creation. After each battle one additional roster slot may be purchased in the Buy and Hire step of the Post-Battle Sequence.

Call List

Each Mercenary Company has a Call List. The first time a new Merc is hired to fight for the gang, after their hire cost is paid the Merc's name is added to the Mercenary Company's Call List.

The Call List represents Mercs the Mercenary Captain knows and has a good relationship with. During the Choose Crews step of the Pre-Battle Sequence, the controlling player will assemble a mercenary team by selecting available Mercs from their gang's Call List to fill their gang's roster slots. It costs zero credits to select a Merc from the gang's Call List to fill a roster slot.

If a Merc on the gang's Call List is currently hired by another gang, that Merc's name remains on the Call List but they are not currently available to participate in battles for this gang. When or if that Merc is returned to the Mercs Pool they once again become available.

Mercenary Captain

Each Mercenary Company has a Mercenary Captain, selected during gang creation. In a campaign that has a Mercs Pool, the controlling player of the Mercenary Company may choose one of the available Mercs in the Mercs Pool to be their Mercenary Captain and pay their hire cost.

Alternately, the controlling player may hire a new Mercenary Captain; the fighter is equipped from the Trading Post following the "Starting Equipment" guidelines on the Mercenary Captain profile. The hire cost of the fighter must be paid from the gang's starting credits, and thereafter that fighter is the gang's Mercenary Captain.

The gang's Mercenary Captain leads the gang and is considered to be a Leader for purposes of game rules that refer to a gang's Leader. The Mercenary Captain does not take one of the gang's open roster slots, and they do not return to the Mercs Pool in between battles; they remain on the Mercenary Company gang's roster exclusively. However, the Mercenary Captain does go to the Mercs Pool if they are retired from the gang or the Mercenary Company entirely disbands.

Mercenary Captain

Merc
95
M
WS
BS
 S 
 T 
W
I
A
5"
3+
3+
3
4
3
3+
2
Ld
Cl
Wil
Int
6+
6+
6+
6+
Save
-

Skill Access

Starting: Two Primary and two Secondary skill category may be chosen for this Merc when they are first added to a Campaign; additionally a Mercenary Captain gains Secondary access to the Leadership skill category. One skill is selected at this time from any of this Merc's available skill categories and cannot be changed later.

Equipment

Starting: When created, this Merc may be equipped with items from the Trading Post at full cost. They may be armed with any weapon their model is carrying. Mercs cannot have Limited items or one-use items. The items selected will be the Merc's permanent equipment load out and cannot be changed later, unless they are hired onto a gang permanently by becoming a Champion.

Mercs

New Mercs can be created by the controlling player during gang creation or during the Choose Crews step of the Pre-Battle Sequence. The gang can also hire available Mercs from the Mercs Pool if one is in existence for a campaign. The first time a new Merc is hired to fight for the gang their name is added to the Mercenary Company's Call List, which allows the gang to select the Merc for battles.

Merc
0
M
WS
BS
 S 
 T 
W
I
A
5"
4+
4+
3
3
2
4+
1
Ld
Cl
Wil
Int
8+
7+
8+
8+
Save
-

Skill Access

Starting: Two Primary and two Secondary Skill Categories may be chosen for this Merc when they are first added to a Campaign; additionally one skill is chosen at this time from any Skill Category and cannot be changed later.

Equipment

Starting: When created, this Merc may be equipped with items from the Trading Post at full cost. They may be armed with any weapon their model is carrying. Mercs cannot have Limited items or one-use items. The items selected will be the Merc's permanent equipment load out and cannot be changed later, unless they are hired onto a gang permanently as a Champion.

Merc Equipment List

There is no Merc Equipment List; Mercs are equipped from the Trading Post following the "Starting Equipment" guidelines on the Merc profile.

Campaign

Mercenary Companies require a campaign to have a Merc Pool, and add a bit of complexity to a campaign. They are best suited to big tent campaign formats. Rules are provided below for how to include Mercenary Companies as a playble gang type in Gang War campaigns.

Gang War

The following changes to the standard Gang War rules are in effect when playing a Mercenary Company in a Gang War. Sections not mentioned follow the standard rules.

Turf Size and Special Territories

Mercenary Company gangs, if allowed in the campaign, always have exactly one (1) Special Territory and it is always a Mercenary Dive.

Mercenary Dive: The gang controls a drinking establishment that caters to mercenaries and other hard cases. During the Merc Upkeep step of the Post-Battle Sequence, if a gang controls one or more Mercenary Dives they reduce the upkeep cost of Mercs hired by their gang that participated in the battle to 10 credits each (instead of 10 credits plus 1D3 x 5 additional credits each).

If a Mercenary Company's Drinking Hole settlement gets stolen from them or pillaged, they just find a new one to operate out of; they simply add a new Mercenary Dive Special Territory to their roster in the Use Special Territories and carry on.

Stash and Equipment

Mercs own their own equipment, and equipment cannot be moved between Mercs and the Mercenary Company gang's Stash. Additionally if equipment would be added to the gang's Stash, half the Trading Post cost in credits is added to the gang's Stash instead.

Injury

The Injury rules are slightly modified for a Mercenary Company.

Greivous Injury

When fighting for a Mercenary Company, Mercs treat Greivous Injury as an Out Cold result.

Lasting Injury

The Lasting Injury rules are modified for Mercenary Company as follows:

Survivor Critical Injury Table

Roll a D6 and subtract the fighter's Wounds characteristic (not their current Wounds), then consult the table below with the total:

D6+W
Outcome
0 or less
Grievous Injury: The fighter goes into Recovery.
1-4
Permanent Injury: The fighter goes into Recovery and suffers a permanent injury. Roll again on the Permanent Injury table.
5+
Memorable Death: The fighter is killed instantly. If the injury was caused by an attack, the attacker gains an additional 1 XP.

Pre-battle Sequence

The controlling player of a Mercenary Company follows the standard Pre-Battle Sequence step by step in the normal fashion, but with the following alterations applied where noted.

1) Buy Advancements and Recruit Hired Guns

A Mercenary Company skips this step. Note that at this step a Mercenary Company is always considered to have the same Gang Rating as their opponent for purposes of selecting a scenario.

2) Determine Scenario

There are no changes to this step.

3) Set-up Battlefield

Mercenary Companies are objective based. After the battlefield has been set up normally, one or more specific objectives for the Mercs to accomplish during the battle must be selected. The controlling player must select at least 1 objective and may select up to 3 objectives. Alternately, in an Arbitrated scenario, the Arbitrator may choose the objectives.

Some sample objectives are provided, but objectives specific to a given battlefield or scenario are permissable as well as long as all players involve agree to the specifics.

Example Objectives

  • Prevent an opposing gang from accomplishing a scenario-specific objective
  • Control a scenario-specific object at the end of the battle
  • Prevent a scenario-specific objective from being stolen or destroyed
  • Destroy a scenario-specific objective
  • Take a specific opposing fighter Out of Action
  • Don't bottle or flee before an opposing gang bottles or flees.

It is permissible to add an object such as a box or a terminal or something similar as the target of a Mercenary Company objective. However, placement of such objects should be fair and reasonable to all players involved. For instance, placing such an object in a deployment zone would typically be a poor choice. On the other hand, placing such an object so that it would be unreasonably difficult for the Mercenary Company to accomplish the objective is also not desirable. If players cannot agree on the placement of such an object, an opposing player may place the object within 6'' of the center of the battlefield in an accessible spot (not in a pitfall or an unreachable part of the battlefield, etc) and the Mercenary Company player may then adjust the position of the object so that any part of the object is within 3'' of the spot where it was originally placed.

4) Choose Crews

A Mercenary Company ignores scenario specific directions for how to choose their crew, and always uses the Custom Selection (X) method where X is equal to or less than the number of roster slots available to the gang (player's choice). A Mercenary Company may select available Mercs from the gang's Call List, and / or hire new Mercs at this time in order to fill remaining Custom Selection (X) slots for their crew.

If the Mercenary Captain is not in Recovery they may also join the crew in addition to the fighters chosen using the Custom Selection (X) method.

5) Draw Tactics Cards

Mercenary Company may use any Tactics Cards, including House specific Tactics Cards.

6) Deploy

There are no changes to this step.

7) Begin the battle

There are no changes to this step.

Post-battle Sequence

The controlling player of a Mercenary Company follows the standard Post-Battle Sequence step by step in the normal fashion, but with the following alterations applied where noted.

1) Wrap Up

There are no changes to this step for a Mercenary Company.

2) Receive Rewards

There are a few changes to this step for a Mercenary Company.

Turf

A Mercenary Company does not hold Turf other than a Mercenary Dive. If a scenario indicates that a Mercenary Company gang would gain Turf, the gang instead gains 1D6+1 x 10 credits.

Stealing Turf

An opposing gang can steal a Mercenary Company's current Mercenary Dive Special Territory. However, this has no real impact on the Mercenary Company; they do not lose Reputation or credits if a Mercenary Dive is stolen or pillaged, even if a scenario indicates that they should.

Reputation

A Mercenary Company gains and loses Reputation as normal, except where noted otherwise. In addition, for each objective the Mercenary Company accomplished in the battle the gang gains 1 Reputation, and for each objective the Mercenary Company failed to accomplish in the battle the gang loses 1 Reputation.

Get Paid For Objectives

First, the gang is paid 10 credits for every full 10 Reputation the gang has.

Then the gang is paid 1D6+1 x 25 credits for each objective the Mercenary Company accomplished in the battle.

Credits earned are added to the gang's Stash immediately.

3) Post-Battle Actions

A Mercenary Company skips this step; they do not take Post-Battle Actions.

4) Use Special Territories

If the gang's Mercenary Dive was stolen or pillaged in this battle, the Mercenary Company adds a new Mercenary Dive to their roster at this step. Otherwise, skip this step.

5) Update Roster

The following replaces the standard Update Roster step entirely.

A. Manage Fighters

A Mercenary Company manages its fighters very differently; adhere to the following substeps carefully.

Delete Dead Fighters

A Mercenary Company follows the normal rules for this step, but add half the Trading Post credit value of any recovered equipment to the gang's Stash instead of adding the recovered equipment itself.

Merc Upkeep

A Mercenary Company ignores the normal rules for this step. Instead, if a Merc has earned enough XP to gain an Advancement the controlling player may select an Advancement for that Merc now.

Next, each surviving Merc who participated in the battle demands to be paid 10 credits now, instead of the usual 10 credits plus 1D3 x 5 additional credits (thanks to the Mercenary Dive Special Territory).

Finally, if any of the Mercs are not paid, each unpaid Merc's name is removed from the gang's Call List.

Delete Retiring Fighters

A Mercenary Company skips this step.

Loss of a Leader

If a gang's Mercenary Captain dies, the controlling player may select a Merc from their gang's Call List to become the new Mercenary Captain, or may disband the gang and start a new Mercenary Company.

Buy and Hire

A Mercenary Company ignores the normal rules for this step. Instead, a Mercenary Company may buy one additional roster slot for 75 credits now.

Recruit Hangers-on

A Mercenary Company skips this step.

B. Visit the Trading Post and C. Distribute Equipment

A Mercenary Company combines these two steps into a simplified single step.

Normally the equipment carried by a Merc cannot be changed after the Merc is added to the campaign. However, subject to Arbitrator approval, some adjustment of equipment carried by a Merc fighter currently on the gang's roster may be allowed during this step, swapping equipment to and from the Trading Post (without rolling for Rare Item Availability) at full credit value and making up the difference in credits from the gang's Stash. If this is allowed, items do not go the gang's Stash and are instead moved directly to and from the fighter card of a Merc currently on the gang's roster and the Trading Post.

Any changes to a Merc's equipment should be done to keep the Merc viable in the campaign, adjust to injury, or optimize for new Advancements; the Merc should be more capable rather than less capable after any changes made to them. The Arbitrator has final approval of any changes.

At the end of this step, all of the Mercs currently on the gang's roster except the Mercenary Captain disband and return to the Mercs Pool.

D. Modify Tactics Card Deck

A Mercenary Company may take this step normally.

E. Update Gang Rating

Between battles, a Mercenary Company is considered to have a Gang Rating equal to the Mercenary Captain's rating plus 175 per open roster slot available to the gang plus 25 per name on the gang's Call List.

6) Report Results

There are no changes to this step.