What fantasy races would make the best mercenaries?

I like the idea of gruff course elven mercenaries.

Any that fit the Lawful Neutral mindset. Reliable, honest, and will do what they're told. Dwarves would be a good example. Dwarven mercenaries can probably command a high price cocks. Just avoid anything Evil because the chance of betrayal is high.

>Dwarven mercenaries can probably command a high price cocks
>cocks
uh

got something on your mind user?

I like the idea of tieflings as light cavalry. Sneaky, slippery and boastful.

Yeah but they're often dumb and would consume a huge amount of resources which wouldn't neccessarily be balanced with their battlefield potential.

Elephants were similar, huge logistics footprint, hard to control but devastating against enemy forces.....until those enemy forces conditioned their troops to not panic in the face of the grey monsters and developed tactics to counter their deployment, at which point they just became an extremely expensive millstone around the neck of any army they were attached to.

If the giants are smart or so fearless and resilient they're almost unstoppable, they'd be good but it's not a given that bigger > better. Swarms of goblins might be more cost-effective if their small logistic footprint (adept at foraging and can eat almost anything) balances better with their comparitively poor battlefield performance.

Basically the old "Who would win, one state-of-the-art King Tiger, hand crafted in Germany by the finest artisans, or two thousand T-34-85s knocked up in a shed by a gang of barely literate Russian peasants?" question.

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Rats, Wolves, Gnolls/Hyenas,Orcs, Bosmer, or Dragons, in no particular order.

Orcs and Gnolls would be shit mercenaries. Way too fucking unreliable.

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birds

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Kenku would be good skirmishers and scouts at least. Individually very skilled in combat, can mimic sounds, and very mobile.

Why are Western European Carrion Crows (judging from the feathering around the nasal opening) dressed as Asians? Is this the "cultural apropriation" I've been hearing about?

Well I’m imagining giants who are of average intelligence and aren’t crazy big (as much taller than humans as Dwarves are shorter than humans).

And they’d be used either as shock troops or bouncers- meaning they don’t actually do much, they are there to look so intimidating fights are typically avoided altogether.

Mercenaries are by their nature driven by money. They're brutish nomads without a centralized government or form of commerce or production, they'd be perfect.

Of those I listed Dragons are the only ones that'd be iffy, they'd be like the Elephents mentioned earlier in thread.

They sailed to fill out the retinue of a local daimyo and are trying to fit in.

What a perfectly reasonable explanation.

An ideal mercenary band should consist of as many races as possible to have an ideal solution to any foreseeable problem. Diversity is strength.

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Fantasy mixed mercenary company actually sounds like a fucking rad campaign.

You could always go the Lady Gayrlana route and recruit a crew so diverse it acts as its own selling point.

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That story is some campaign goals right there.

Exiled Dwarves

Nigger you realize that most VIPs had mercenary bodyguards right? Far better to have foreign mercenaries guarding you then unreliable homegrown guards.

>Far better to have foreign mercenaries guarding you then unreliable homegrown guards.

This guy gets it.

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Gnolls. You can just pay them with the dead bodies, and they have no compunctions about who they fight or fight for.

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dark elves: elite, arrogant/haughty enough to consider being paid off beneath them, will wreck most things, will likely betray you of own accord

orcs: strong, warlike, amoral, stupid

ogres: orcsx2

>just pay them with the dead bodies

Sounds like the Kleggs from Judge Dredd.

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For general use, Humans. High rates of reproduction means no short supply, and they are more adaptive and powerful than kobalds.

Goblins

Imagine a centuries old elf who's a professional fighter. What is he going to do between wars? Nobles go home to rule and levies go home to do whatever elf peasants do, but a professional needs a job while the main campaigns are off for the season. Sure he could try to reintegrate into society, but everyone else would be years ahead of him in experience. What if elves have children at a rate even a fifth as fast as humans? They would have a population issue and large populations mean that professional soldiers often can't find work when the come home. If the elf lives for hundreds of years, accumulating experience, honing his body, looting the finest gear he can find, he's going to be quite a force to be reckoned with. While a normal elf warrior may have a great depth of experiences, an old elven mercenary would have yet more in addition to fine equipment.

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Realistically you would probably want different fantasy races for different battlefield roles.

Good point.

Whichever race is incapable of breaking promises.

I'd say giants other than humans in fantasy settings.
They seem to be able to pass around the most.

Between wars he is just another brigand in the woods.

This. Cheap, not bright enough to understand they're getting all the suicide missions.

Assassins maybe. But they're going to be small in number or two expensive to field in large numbers.

>But they're going to be small in number or two expensive to field in large numbers.
you dont need large numbers, a few is enough

Dwarves, dragonborn. Everything else is cultural and prone to more variation.

If a few is enough, you don't need mercenaries.
It isn't a question of which race has the best armies or the best adventures or the best assassins.

>give giant tower shield and tree trunk as club
>invincible to missles and can kill 10 men in one hit
>give giant bow and arrow
>can shoot the equivalent of a ballista bolt, or an arrow with an explosive or flaming end
>make giant throw boulders
>let giand defend castle and fill huge pots of water and pour it on the attackers
>etc etc

>If a few is enough, you don't need mercenaries.
the few ARE the mercenaries

going into battle with less men is a loser's gamble.

Angua, Vimes, Carrot, Colon, Nobby, Detritus, Visit, Reg, Dorfl, Cheery, Wee Mad Arthur, and Downspout?

>Hire 10 eleven mercenaries for thousand gold pieces each
>Hire 20,000 goblins for the price of food and some shiny beads.

Alright Veeky Forums pick one fantasy race/species to fill each of the slots in your grand mercenary company:

>archers/crossbowmen
>heavy cavalry
>light cavalry (could be mounted archers)
>light infantry/skirmishers
>heavy infantry (could be pikemen, men-at-arms, etc)
>scouts and outriders

The more races and species you bring in, the less stable morale is going to be - but you have to have at least two types. Which ones do you choose and why?

See, you don't want a race that can do something humans can do but better (Elves for skirmishing/scouting, dwarfs for pike blocks, etc) You want a race that can do something humans cannot, in a fantasy setting. It also needs to be in reasonable numbers, so its not you hiring one or two guys. Thats an adventurer, not a mercenary. Therefore, I recommend Sahuagin, as a mercenary supplement to your navy. They are typically Lawful Evil, so will be fine doing the dirty work of war, and are likely to stick to the contract, as long as you don't dick them over. Hell, make a deal with a Prince, and you can pay less for each soldier, in exchange for paying the Prince more. Sahuagin offer something no human force can replicate. They also are a warrior race, who value similar things to humans

Archers/Crossbowmen- Elves
Heavy Cavalry- Minotaurs-Armoured
Light Cavalry- Minotaurs- Unarmoured
Light Infantry/skirmishers- Elves
Heavy Infantry- You guessed it, Minotaurs
Scouts and Outriders- Elves.

>those 10 can take a castle while 20,000 goblins gets you nothing but less food and dead goblins

>

Archers - Ogres
Heavy Cav - Halflings
Light Cav - half-halflings
Light infantry - Ogres on diet
Heavy infantry - Ogres on diet (merely pretending)
Scouts - sneaky ogres.

Elves

>>archers/crossbowmen
Elves

>>heavy cavalry
Ogres/Chaos Warriors

>>light cavalry (could be mounted archers)
Elves

>>light infantry/skirmishers
Elves/humans

>>heavy infantry (could be pikemen, men-at-arms, etc)
Minotaurs/Chaos Warriors

>>scouts and outriders
Elves

archers/crossbowmen-Humans
heavy cavalry-Centaurs
light cavalry-Centaurs
light infantry/skirmishers-Humans
heavy infantry-Humans
scouts and outriders-Centuars

I figure Humans and Centaurs would be rather alike in culture do to the probable fact that they are related (fucking wizards grafting people onto animals) so perhaps morale will be least affected in this manner.

They're gender fluid so they can please all the soldiers after the battle

Then I'll just employ geese mercenaries

>archers/crossbowmen

Orcs

>heavy cavalry

Ogres

>light cavalry (could be mounted archers)

Orcs

>light infantry/skirmishers

Orcs

>heavy infantry (could be pikemen, men-at-arms, etc)

Ogres

>scouts and outriders

Orcs