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I was thinking about mercs in 40k and found a pretty good thread about them : human, blood axes and freeboters orks, eldar corsairs, kroot, abhumans, etc...
Most factions would be to use these mercs (Tau obv., most imperial and chaos, orks, eldars...).

But what factions would not be able or simply refuse to hire mercenaires ?
I've beggining a small list and gladly have you guys help me ameliore it :
- Necrons (don't know them much so not sure about that. maybe doomsday cults if these are still a thing)
- Pure Deamons
- Tyranids (what about genestealer cults and not indoctrinated mercs ?)
- Adeptus Ministorum (for xeno mercs at least)
- Space Marines (maybe some chapters would agree though, but cannot think of one)

I don't see a Harlequin's Masque use mercs either

If we stipulate that mercs are specifically hired and not just mind controlled, then the Nids without GSC are the one faction I don't see having mercs

For the rest… galaxy is a big place, full of possibilities.

Necrons (don't know them much so not sure about that. maybe doomsday cults if these are still a thing)

Some are like Old Crons and "kIll the Fleshy Ones"

Some tend to be "get the F off our lawns - ok well desert"

Some are basically like any other Empire - they will trade and enslave depending on strength - so employing Mercs is quite possible.

Even some of the Killy the Fleshies might cackle abit about the thought of employing Mercs to kill other fleshies - after all they will kill them all in the end.

 IronSlug wrote:
I don't see a Harlequin's Masque use mercs either

I would say Harlequins are very much "Any means to an end" kinda guys, even more so than CWE. They actively broker alliances (usually between other Eldar groups, but can include humans or others) to fight a common enemy.
If they find people (of any species, as long as they're not tainted by Chaos) willing to fight with them in exchange for something they can offer, I'm pretty sure they'll go forward with it.

Morgasm the Powerfull wrote:
If we stipulate that mercs are specifically hired and not just mind controlled...

Yes I was asking about hired, (at least a bit) sentient, (mostly) consenting mercenaries.

After thinking about it, I can see a daemon hire mercs in exchange for an artefact or powers without them being followers of chaos. No ?

So for now I'd only rule out pure Nids.

Tyranids would hire Mercenaries.
They would do it through Genestealer Cults (or equivalent in other factions - GS cults are just the most numerous of their infected cult/slave groups). In fact it would be an ideal means in the early stages of the Cult, when its not strong enough to take action on its own and is very hidden. Hiring Mercenaries and paying for their services in order to cause trouble on the world they are seeking to ready for the arrival of the Swarm.

From getting them to run guns, to supply weapons, to disrupting other groups on the planet. Setting different competing guilds and houses to war against each other etc... Hiring mercenaries would be a very good way to cause all kinds of trouble without the cult itself having to take action and thus being exposed to detection.

Yes we agree that's why I precised "pure" nids, without GSC.

 IronSlug wrote:
After thinking about it, I can see a daemon hire mercs in exchange for an artefact or powers without them being followers of chaos. No ?

Well yes - hire mercs, offer them chaos-tainted loot. If they fail the contract, no loss to you, if they win they're being slowly corrupted by the stuff you paid them with. Win-win!

Major factions didn't become (or stay) major factions by turning down help, even if they might not officially condone such methods.

An Imperial Governor who uses xeno mercs to defend his planet has at least kept the planet for the IoM and can continue paying taxes, which does count for quite a lot when his masters have a look at his methods. As long as he wasn't too buddy-buddy with the mercs and didn't expose too many of his own to them it's the sort of thing he can be forgiven for.

An Eldar Corsair who uses human mercs on a heist has just saved many Eldar lives, not even the proudest Eldar supremacists could speak out against him in public.

Orks like to keep the fighting for themself, but there's nothing wrong in hiring someone else to do something boring but necessary (or special). The greatest warbosses don't just krump people and demand stuff gets done, they put the right underlings on the right jobs.

Tau are the very definition of using mercs, even if they probably try to get them into a company store thing. Deal honorably and make them like the perks, they'll come back for more and join the Greater Good.

If you can come up with a reason it has probably happened in 40K.

Keep in mind the Imperium itself uses Xenos mercs, that's definitionally the background of the Blood Axes. The imperium gives them imperial weapons and vehicles (and fancy hats!) and teef from other orks, and points them at a target. They've even been known to assign Liasion officers to the tribe.

It obviously sometimes backfires, but was deemed an acceptable risk on multiple occasions.

There's also the much less accepted idea of bribing Dark Eldar to target specific business rivals. Which isn't a terrible idea from a business view as you severely damage the rivals with no witnesses. You just need to watch out for the backstabbings.

To be honest I think that only looking at "factions" as in all Imperium, all Tau, ect... is not going to get any results to your question. Really you'll have to look at subfactions I think to get hard negatives. For instance, I can't really see the Black Templars stooping to make pacts with Xenos mercs.

 agurus1 wrote:
To be honest I think that only looking at "factions" as in all Imperium, all Tau, ect... is not going to get any results to your question. Really you'll have to look at subfactions I think to get hard negatives. For instance, I can't really see the Black Templars stooping to make pacts with Xenos mercs.

Pacts with mercs? Likely not. But BT have (begrudgingly) fought alongside Xenos Warriors and psykers. See Gods of Mars.

Voss wrote:

 agurus1 wrote:
To be honest I think that only looking at "factions" as in all Imperium, all Tau, ect... is not going to get any results to your question. Really you'll have to look at subfactions I think to get hard negatives. For instance, I can't really see the Black Templars stooping to make pacts with Xenos mercs.

Pacts with mercs? Likely not. But BT have (begrudgingly) fought alongside Xenos Warriors and psykers. See Gods of Mars.

The no pact thing only really applies to xenos though. If humans said "pay for our stuff and we'll do whatever you like in the battle" they might be all for it.

I imagine offically NO IoM power would make a pact with xenos mercs. this isn't to say it never HAPPENS, but if it becomes known that a planetary governer bought the services of Kroot of Ork mercs he'd proably be censored by the Imperium, by by censored by the Imperium I mean most likely Blamo'd by an Inqusitor.

The only faction that refuses to use mercenary is Tyranids. Back in 6th and 7th edition, they were the only faction that cannot ally with anyone.

There was a point where the Tyranids use slave-races as propaganda tools before devouring planets, but this is very old lore that has mostly been retconned.

Off all the Chaos groups i imagine that the alpha legion probably makes the biggest use of them.
Basically A: If they survive and show capability they probably will recruit them as either agents or marines, skipping the whole training stuff.
B: Nothing is better for smokes and mirrors strategy then a bunch of mercs wreaking havoc whilest you do the real work somewhere else.
C: with the alpha legion beeing rather small and fragmented i imagine that they often bolster their manpower via mercs.

The other legions ehh i think less so.
World Eaters are basically mercenaries now.
DG has obviously problems aquiring and keeping mercs alive also they got Cultists.
WB got cultists and would be not inclined to hire mercs for reloligious reason (except Chaos worshippers)
TS, i don't know, probably to Plot and scheme.
EC to narzissitic honestly, exception is fabius but fabius anyways is the exception.
Iron Warriors, would probably just field their own cannonfodder fresh off their own daemonworlds.
Night lords, probably, mercenaries have tendencies to favour cruelty in order to instill fear, in order to get their way. So i'd say yes if the mercs in question are enough infamous.