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Can merc be played in their own right?

Are they competetive?

I like there models and the pirate theme alot, but don't want to hamstring myself from the get go with an army that cannot scale to larger games or be somewhat viable.

Merc are a real faction!

They not the most competitive of factions sometimes and do suffer a little with the character restrictions from Steam Roller 2012.

The other thing is that Mercs as a whole are a viable faction, just one of the contracts is not!

 leontheconfused wrote:
Merc are a real faction!

They not the most competitive of factions sometimes and do suffer a little with the character restrictions from Steam Roller 2012.

The other thing is that Mercs as a whole are a viable faction, just one of the contracts is not!

I am not sure what a contract is!

mercenaries don't all get along with each other. It's a bit complicated but there are four subfactions that you can play. One is limited to only dwarves and agrun, one is only pirates, one is all mercenaries that work for either khador or cryx, and one is all mercenaries that work for cygnar.

If you try to be a strict dwarf or pirate player you will likely have a hard time but if you mix things up you can be competitive.

maskedman504 wrote:

 leontheconfused wrote:
Merc are a real faction!

They not the most competitive of factions sometimes and do suffer a little with the character restrictions from Steam Roller 2012.

The other thing is that Mercs as a whole are a viable faction, just one of the contracts is not!

I am not sure what a contract is!

A contract is basically a sub-army in the Mercenaries book. When you decide to play a mercenary army, you cannot just pick and choose any model in the mercenary book. You must first choose a contract, which then limits which models you can take.

maskedman504 wrote:
Can merc be played in their own right?

Are they competetive?

I like there models and the pirate theme alot, but don't want to hamstring myself from the get go with an army that cannot scale to larger games or be somewhat viable.

Mercs are fun to play and are only getting more competitive with each new release (Captain Damiano from Wrath is an amazing caster and the Galleon from Colossals can easily be argued as the best colossal). That said, there are restrictions on what models you can take in a contract, making mercs more of a collection of small subfactions that happen to share models than a single faction. If you're just starting WM/H, I would recommend against starting with mercs.

Here's a quick rundown:
Four Star Syndicate: Has the largest number of available models, allows any mercenary that works for Khador or Cryx, plus Devil Dogs and Rhupert Carvolo. Wide variety of lists to be built, exclusively allows Kayazy Assassins from Khador as allies (which is notable because they are crazy good). No contract benefit.
Highborn Covenant: Almost as many models as 4Star, allows mercenaries that work for Cygnar. Similarly wide variety of lists, also allows you to field Cygnar Long Gunners or Gun Mages (who are also crazy good). Contract benefit allows solo models to advance deploy, not jaw-dropping but sometimes a nice thing to have.
Talion Charter: Smaller model count, only allows Privateers. Exclusively allows for Shae as a caster, he's very good, and his ginormous cannon, which is also very good. Contract benefit is redeploying solos (?) which is ok, sometimes nice.
Searforge Commission: Smallest model count, very limiting contract. Allows only Rhulics (dwarves and ogrun). Gives +4" deployment, which is nice because everything in the army is slow.
Magnus' Agenda (technically not a contract anymore, but theme lists. I am including them anyway because they're awesome): Gives you the option when fielding Magnus to bring along renegade Long Gunners or Trenchers (or rangers and sword knights). Very fun, very fluffy lists.