Greetings all,
I've never liked the fact the BR Rulebook basically says a character can
hire an unlimited number of mercenary units as long as his gold holds out.
I'm creating some rules to somewhat limit the availability of "general"
mercenary units in my campaign and make standing mercenary companies more
in demand. I have a question for you military historians, and for anyone
else who would just like to throw their 2GB in. Of the various mercenary
units, which do you feel would be more readily available than others, and
which could be formed together quickly vs. requiring long training
together? Here's what I was thinking:

Merc. Irregulars: Common / virtually no training required
Merc. Archers: Uncommon / little training required
Merc. Infantry: Uncommon / some training required
Merc. Pikemen: Rare / training required
Merc. Cavalry: Very Rare / training required

Currently, I'm leaning toward making only Irregulars, Archers, and Infantry
available via a general call for mercenaries. It seems to me these units
could be put together relatively quickly from freelancing men at arms.
Pikemen and Cavalry, on the other hand, seem to me to be more specialized.
It doesn't seem like you should just be able to throw together some guys
who have handled a pike before and say "OK, go stand fast against a charge
by Ghoere's Iron Guard." Plus, as I said earlier, I'd like to see some
standing mercenary companies I'm developing get more involved in the
campaign.

Any opinions?

Regards
Craig