Questions about Sellswords

[Lord Vance II]

A few things concerning sellswords I've been pondering lately. 

First, why on earth did Tywin hire the damn Brave Companions out of all the Essos companies he could have brought over? They're small (Hoat's raiding party was 300 men, and I don't see Tywin pulling BC's to put under direct Lannister command) so they're just a drop in the bucket to the tens of thousands of men at his disposal. He already has "enforcers" in The Mountain, Lorch and others, why bring some loser and his ragtag band to terrorize the country side? Were they the only ones willing to come fight in Westeros? I find that unlikely - all of them have surely heard of the wealth of the Lannisters. It just doesn't add up to me that this one time, Tywin was cheap in buying something he really didn't need anyways. 

And how rare is it to have sellsword companies in Westeros, post-conquest (or pre, really)? You never really hear about them outside Essos, but no one seems to think the Brave Companions being brought in is highly unusual. There are sellswords and hedge knights of course, but I don't think we see a full on organized companies of them, just small bands at most that flock to a Lord in need of men (like with Stannis. He has thousands of sellswords but none seem to be organized.)

And frankly, how does the sellsword company system survive in Essos, because to me it seems really dumb. Sellswords are expensive and notoriously unreliable, so much so that apparently only the Golden Company has a truly trustworthy reputation (and even they just broke a contract). To me it seems super risky to trust your security to these groups. Unsullied are said to make up at least once city guard (Qohor), and personal guards but aren't mentioned in large scale outside Dany's and the 3,000. Do the Free Cities have some sort of standing military (slave I would presume) beyond a city guard or something that we just don't hear about? The Century of Blood reads like the cities had standing armies of their own, and while they would obviously downscale for peace, it just doesn't seem like they have anything now. I suppose they could raise levees from the slave population, but not many slave owners are willing to put their property in harms way.

Basically - if the demand for soldiers is low enough to not need standing state armies, how is it high enough to support apparently dozens of sellsword companies of hundreds of essentially professional soldiers? And if there is demand enough, why not create a state force instead of shelling out your money to sellsword companies who may or may not actually do what you pay them for? Standing armies are expensive, but so is being stabbed in the back. 

I know this is likely just another "GRRM said so, and so it was," but what do you folks think?

[Wolf of The Wall]

To my knowledge Tywin didn't hire Vargo Hoat they came Westeros because due to their notoriety they could not find any contracts in Essos anymore. Regarding other sellsword companies in Essos they mostly fight in Disputed Lands and Free Cities always need of battle-ready soldiers and there isn't an estabilished military culture they know trade and slavery. Besides Sellswords does not run when they are winning and this creates kind of an equilibrium.

[Adam Yozza]

Vargo Hoat was already in Westeros when he was hired by Tywin Lannister. As Wolf of The Wall said they couldn't find any contracts in Essos anymore.

Sellswords might be unreliable yes, but at the same time the Free Cities don't have standing armies, nor do they seem to be willing to call levies to fight their wars. The only armies we hear about fighting in Essos are the Sellsword Companies fighting on behalf of the Free Cities, usually between Myr, Tyrosh and Lys in the Disputed Lands.

Even in terms of naval power, the fleets of Lys, Myr and Tyrosh employ a lot of pirates and sellsails for their war fleet unlike Braavos and Volantis.

As for why, I seem to recall something about the Free Cities being unwilling to shed the blood of their own people in battle, so they use sellswords instead.

[Stormking902]

In Essos you would think the need of sell swords would be great with all of the free cities pretty much always fighting between themselves not to mention the constant threat of the Dothraki. 

[mormont]

The thing about sellswords is that they are pros. For some jobs, professional soldiers are better than levies. I'm sure Tywin hired more than one sellsword company: they bulk out not just his overall numbers, but crucially his number of trained, experienced troops.

As for the use of sellswords in Essos, their unreliability has to be balanced against the advantages - they're professional soldiers (as noted), there's no need to raise levies (indeed in most of the Free Cities you probably can't raise levies, because they don't have a feudal system), you don't have to train or outfit them, and so on.

[Ser Something]

They weren't the only company Tywin hired.

At the Battle of the Camps there was a sellsword company mentioned led by 'a green-bearded Tyroshi', who abandoned the Lannisters as soon as they saw what was happening - Tywin later moans about them to Tyrion I think, 'never trust a sellsword' etc... They mysteriously are never heard of again - where did they go? There is a theory that their leader is Greenbeard of the Brotherhood Without Banners.