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So, I'm getting back into Mordheim, and was looking for advice on the following list/setup.

==Markus's Marauders== (Edit: Magnus wouldn't be Emperor for another 300-something years!)
Captain: Duelling Pistol, Club: 88 GC
Champion w/ Club & Dagger: 38
Champion w/ Club & Dagger: 38
Youngblood w/ Halberd: 25
Youngblood w/ Halberd: 25

Swordsman w/ Sword & Dagger: 45 GC
Swordsman w/ Sword & Dagger: 45 GC
Marksman w/ Blunderbuss, Club & Dagger: 58 GC
Marksman w/ Blunderbuss, Club & Dagger: 58 GC

Elf Ranger: 40 GC

The Captain takes the center, using his improved Leadership bubble to ensure the warband's cohesion against stuff like Fear causers, all-alone fights, etc. Each Swordsman/Champion/Youngblood works as a separate team, the Swordsmen ideally using their expert swordsman skills to knock out/stun models for the Heroes to coup de grace.

The Marksmen are flankers/crowd control. Two Blunderbusses keeps the enemy honest.
The Elf Ranger is there for marksmanship, preventing enemy models from hiding, and modifying the post-game exploration results. (If he ups the number of shards found by +1, or gets a good exploration result, he's practically paid his upkeep for that battle).

This leaves me 40 GC to spend. There are three potential things I could do: Your thoughts on which would be best overall?
-The simplest option would be buying 4 bows, and distributing them to the Champions and the Swordsmen. This gives 4 extra shots. I'm leaning towards this option, simply because it forces the enemy to have to come to me, and more shots = more disruption. On the other hand, it can slow down the rest of the army when it should be moving as a cohesive unit.
-The alternate option would be buying a Roadwarden. A mounted crossbowman, that ignores to-hit penalties for movement & cover, can charge for a S5 hit...On one hand, he has a 20 GC upkeep per game (so alongside the Ranger, that's 40 GC post-game), and you get less shots overall. On the other hand, it frees the Champions/Swordsmen to stay on the move.
-The third option (assuming we go for "unofficial" TC hired swords) would be to hire a Bounty Hunter. The Bounty Hunter is a long-shot character, his entire shtick being that he can mark an enemy hero as his Bounty, and if he takes that hero out-of-action, you automatically capture the hero, get half the hero's base value as payment (partially offsetting the 15 gc upkeep), *and* you get to keep the hero's equipment. On the other hand, he can easily be screened against.

Assuming post-exploration rolls give me a good stock of secondary items/gear, and assuming the group is ok with it, it would also be worth hiring an Arabian Merchant to assist the gang in its own economic development.

Thoughts?

I am a big fan of the Dwarf Slayer.

How dense is the board you play? if you can run between buildings, helmets on your Champions and Swordsman would be my choice. I hate being stunned more than I like to shoot.

Otherwise I like the 4 bows. Especially if you can hit on 7s

A few thoughts:

By not taking any Marksman, you're really forfeiting one of the benefits of going Reikland. BS4 is fairly powerful starting out, and Blunderbii (plural of Blunderbuss?) don't take advantage of that.

I try not to take Hired Swords in a starting warband. 40gc right now will buy you another Henchman and a half. You can use the 20gc a game upkeep hiring more dudes and buying nicer equipment. I'd say to wait on Hired Swords until you get some cash in the bank.

I'd say to drop the two Blunderbusses (+60gc), drop the Elf (+40gc), take your remaining cash (40gc), and spend the 140gc on more Marksman and bows (or maybe crossbows).

Here's what your Warband could look like:

Captain: Duelling Pistol, Club: 88 GC
Champion w/ Club & Dagger: 38
Champion w/ Club & Dagger: 38
Youngblood w/ Halberd: 25
Youngblood w/ Halberd: 25

Swordsman w/ Sword & Dagger: 45 GC
Swordsman w/ Sword & Dagger: 45 GC
Marksman , Long Bow, Dagger: 40 GC
Marksman , Long Bow, Dagger: 40 GC
Marksman , Long Bow, Dagger: 40 GC
Marksman , Long Bow, Dagger: 40 GC
Marksman , Bow, Dagger: 35 GC

That will land you at 499GC. The benefits of this list, in my eyes:

1) More bodies means less rout checks
2) Takes advantage of your Reiklander BS4
3) Lots of accurate shooting means more dead bad dudes, even before your melee guys get into contact
4) More experience-earning henchman

I would suggest dropping the halberds to clubs on the young bloods, as the only way they are killing anything is if it is on the ground already. If you already have the halberd models, your champions would be better for it, since they can carry s bit more weight.

I would also suggest switching switching the blunderbusses for longbows or crossbows unless your tables are going to be really packed. And even then, there's not really a benefit to playing Reikland if you aren't using Ranged weapons that use BS, you'd be better off being a marienburger, getting more gold to spend on fun stuff like blunderbusses.

I like the Elven Ranger - the +1 or -1 to one of your dice has found me so much more items throughout the course of a campaign, and he can be a real terror early game.

I believe I'm keeping the Elf Ranger for now, at least until I can acquire Tarot Cards/Pendulums. Making it easier to obtain unique exploration results, or to occasionally add +1 shard found will help pay his own upkeep

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the way the blunderbuss works precludes declaring an actual target, similar to a 40k beam? My main rationale for the Blunderbusses alongside Reikland is that if I'm understanding how they work correctly, I can fire them into other close combats, set up finishers for my heroes, and as I get TLGT rolls, shuffle the busses to other Henchmarks as I then let the heroes use BS-Based weapons. The extra ld range for the officers lets them resist fear/all alone more.

If I downgraded the Youngbloods to axes, I could alternately give my Champions Duelling Pistols. But I'm not as keen on that.

PS: If our group is cool with it, I could easily run the warband as a Pirate one instead.