Mercenaries are as normal as the clouds in the sky or the water in the ocean in the Old World, where almost every day humans, orcs, dwarfs and many other beings fight. And that is a great bussiness for the mercenaries.
Some of this payed swords are feared or loved due to they efficience or cruelty, after all their job doesn´t know nothing about good manners or etiquete.
So here are the stories of some of thoose mercenary regiments, the so famous "Regiments of Renown".
Dogs of war: Tale 1
Richter Kreugar, and his damned company
Report of Ferdirich Von Ludenhof, captain ingenieer of the third battery,land of Ostland, near the Central Mountains.
Year 2465 of our age.
After someraids from the forest of shadows that pillaged many of the villages and small settlements near Penzfin, the elector count of Ostland Konrad Ludenhof finally decided to raise an army against the foul servants of chaos and destruction.
The army consisted of almost two thousand well equiped men, no counting the militia, cavalry from the knight orders and the personal that administrated the camp. A bigger army would be far too expensive, and it would let the borders of the province udefended.
We met the beastmen near the forest of shadows, the ostland army was placed on a small hill(the canons and mortars positioned on the high ground), just some distance from the war machines the small squadrons of riflemen, crossbowmen and archers readied their weapons and munition.
The count positioned his squares of spearmen and halberdmen with the support of smaller regiments of his best sworsmen. The heavy cavalry wearing their silver armoured plates and adorned helmets guarded the flanks.
The count himself was riding his armoured black horse at the right cavalry wing, he carried one of the runefangs, one of the swords that Alric the mad made to every one of Sigmar´s chieftains, on his right hand.
The beastmen horde didn´t appeare all at once, they started to go outside the woods, first just in groups of two or three, then in dozens. In no time the arid zome outside the forest was full with beastmen.
Human-like creatures with goat or wolf heads, bdly made charriots, even some minotaurs were there. Dogs and half horse-half beastmen creatures were running indesorganized circles at the flancks. They were not doing any secret tactic or ritual as we first thought...they were just drunk.
The battle began when I ordered my battery to concentrate on the giant half bull bests. After the iron balls were readied inside the long toubes of our cannons we fired the first barrage.
The trained men of the artillery pieces made a fantastic work for a first shot. The iron balls made some gaps in the deorganized lines of the beastmen and a mortar shell crushed right into a charriot, sending flesh and wood everywhere.
I must admit that I hoped that this battle would be quick but the beastmen started to charge through the open ground, their war horns and mouthes trying to intimidate us...
They were recieved with the bullets and arrows of our ranged troops, that obliterated the first rank of chaos beasts. The cannons and mortars soon joined the fireworks as more shells impacted, some of them reaching the minotaurs and killing or dismembering them.
Meanwhile the two cavalry forces finally charged against each other.
The primitive weapons of the chaos spawn was no match for the steel and strenght of the highly trained heavy cavalry that completely outrun and butchered the beastmen.
The beastmen of the center finally reached our lines, some of them with musket wounds or arrows in their bodies. The fight was short. The beastmen quickly run away and the same happened at both of our flanks: The beasts running and the forces of Ostland chasing them.
But it was a trap.
As soon as our forces had reached the middle of the battlefield more monsters from the deepest holes of hell charged from the trees. Well armoured and equiped beastmen with enormous axes, hal-muted dogs with two heads, ogres and even a giant that was now standing(he could have been kneeled to remain unseen).
Our forces couldn´t enjoy the support of the high ground or the artillery support, and also the infantrymen were desorganized because of the pursuit. The center suffered the most as the most mutated and fearsome creatures of chaos attacked with their claws and cruel axes.
Luckily the count was able to bring the cavalry so what was left of the Ostland regiments could reach the hill.
Our cannons were able to cut off the giant´s head but our artillery couldn´t do much in that position. The tide of battle had changed to quickly for us to react, and it seemed that Morr would be reclaiming our souls soon. But instead of doing that it seemed that the god of the dead helped us.
From the east part of the woods a strange mist appeared, hundreds of green dots floating in it. At first we thought that it was some time of sorcery, and when the walkind dead warriors appeared from it we thought that we were completely doomed.
And they became our saviours.
The dead warriors began to attack the beastmen with their weapons(I could see skeletons of orks, dwarfs and even elfs along with humans fighting the beatmen). Among the dead, at the rightside of the dark banner that the wind couldn´t move, there was a tall skeleton with human appearence wearing a heavy armour with a strange gem of dark colours. The dead warrior carried a strange sword of cold appearence, that dismembered the beastmen with each strike.
But that wasn´t the strangest thing about the legion of skeletons, for each enemy they slayed a quick and drastic process happened: The skin and the muscles of the victim sudenly turned to dust, only leaving the bones of the victim that then were invaded by a dark energy that made them move, and attack their previous friends.
Thanks to the new help the tide of battle turned for the third time and the imperials counter attacked with raised spirits, helped by the dead warriors. The dead champion even helped count Konrad when they fought the beastmen chieftain and the count cut off the chaos spawn´s head while the dead warrior dealed with the beastmen bodyguards.
When the head of their chieftain fell to the ground the chos creatures finally fled to the forests, pursuited by the cavalry, the infantry finished the beastmen wounded and helped their friends.
The dead host vanished into the trees after that, going to another battle or having finished some obscure deal.
After the battle, and also after searching many old documents, stories and legends we found out that thoose dead warriors who helped the army of Ostland were the damned company of Riechter Kreugar, a long dead mercenary captain that somehow got the curse that made him help us.
I hope this information may be for some use for the understanding of the many tales that finally may even be true.
Ferdirich Von Ludenhof, captain ingeneer of Nuln´s artillery academy.
The "damned company" is an strange regiment of undead warriors comanded by Riechter, who tries to find a way to destroy the curse that makes him an undead warrior that goes around the Old World doing what he did in his life: Fight, but this time without earning money.
Another fact of this company(apart from pssing the curse to anyone they kill) is that they never fight with an undead general due to Reichter´s hate of the undead that could have possibly cursed him.
They aren´t very known by the people of the Old World, but that doesn´t say that they can´t be one of the deadliest mercenary bands of the Warhammer world.
Fearless and deadly.