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Best sellsword companies & commanders ?


Pod The Impaler

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Everyone talks about this warrior vs that one, this army versus that one.


Here's a different spin on it: the Sellsword companies.



Who do you figure are the most dangerous, the best militarily, the best led ?


Rank 'em, rate 'em, and so on.



NOTE: This is for active sellsword groups from the current era (not D&E or TPATQ ones, or historical ones only talked about as a reference)



Here are the groups ...



The Brave Companions (Bloody Mummers) - commander: Vargo Hoat



The Stormcrows - commander(s) Prendahl na Ghezn, Sallor the Bald, Daario Naharis



The Second Sons - commander: Mero Brown Ben Plumm



The Company of the Cat - commander: Bloodbeard



The Golden Company - commander: Homeless Harry Strickland



The Windblown - commander: the Tattered Prince



The Long Lances - commander: Gylo Rhegan


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The Golden Company is by far the most reliable and reputable company, I'm still baffled as to how goddamn Homeless Harry ended up their commander. I mean, may it's the Jon PoV bias, but the guy seems like a complete douchenozzle as well as an imbecile.



From who we've seen so far, the commander that appears the most competent to me would be the Tattered Prince.


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Last place: Bloody Mummer

I don't know about that... they seem pretty adept at "foraging".

If your goal is simply to torment your enemy on his lands, weaken the morale, and just overall sabotage their survival in the long term, the Bloody Mummers aren't too bad of a bet.

Still, I wouldn't count on them for an open battle with the enemy, that's for sure.

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Well I'd put them in tiers, mostly seperated by numbers of men and reputation.



1: Golden Company. They are disciplined, trained, reputable, and carry a large treasury and royal heritage. They also have seperated specialist units, and war elephants. 10,000 men is astounding and above any other company. Harry Strickland is little more than a paymaster but he has strong delegates. This company makes or breaks wars.



2: Windblown, Company of the Cat. These are strong companies (2000 men each I believe) with good reputations and seasoned commanders (currently). They have the resources to easily change the course of a great battle.



3: Stormcrows, Second Sons: Moderately sized (500 each I believe), of no special reputation or great wealth. Recently, leadership has shown itself to be very back-and-forth. Excellent for quick and/or sneaky attacks.



4. Brave Companies. Small company, bad reputation, hired for their savagry and shock tactics. Good for brutalizing the unsuspecting, seems ineffective in anything else...


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Cool OP.



For sheer effectiveness it seems to me it would go something like



1. Golden Company (Largest and best organized with great variety in the makeup)



2. Brave Companions (Hate them...but they know their "business")



3. Windblown (Seems well led and is large)



4. Stormcrows (Taking it with a lot of conjecture and faith...ugg...in the Daario, but they seemed competent in scouting)



5. Second Sons (Have they even actually fought somebody yet? Fuck, they do more hiding and bullshitting than fighting)


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Well, we only know about a couple of companies. So of the ones we know

1)Golden Company by far

2)Windblown seems like a pretty competent company. It's of decent size too. Tattered Prince seems like a smart guy.

3)Stormcrows and Second Sons are both pretty mediocre. Their leadership doesn't impress me much. If I had to guess, Brown Ben might be a little more competent than Daario.

4)Brave Conpanions

Don't know enough about the Company of the Cat and Long Lances to make a final decision, but being that they're fighting against Daenerys, they will likely get trounced real soon.

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I don't know about that... they seem pretty adept at "foraging".

If your goal is simply to torment your enemy on his lands, weaken the morale, and just overall sabotage their survival in the long term, the Bloody Mummers aren't too bad of a bet.

Still, I wouldn't count on them for an open battle with the enemy, that's for sure.

They are too disloyal. Even for Sellswords. One brief change in how the winds of war were blowing and they betrayed Tywin and started messing up his plans.

The Golden Company wins in all categories put up by the OP, in my opinion.

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Like the others, I believe The Golden Company is THE sellsword company you'd want on your side. They have several fighters of noble heritage, war elephants, and most important of all: a good reputation, even for a sellsword company.



The others are pretty meh to me, except for The Second Sons. They might not be a reputable band of warriors, but their leader, Brown Ben Plumm, seems like a competent man, a survivor of sorts. Give him some time, and I think he'd be able to turn The Second Sons into something damned good.


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NOTE: I do not account for unit size when I make these comparisons.



At the moment, I'd say the Golden Company are the best in strictly military terms. They are orderly and well-trained, perhaps more than a host of regular (non-sellsword) host of similar size. Their mix of capabilities makes them a "one stop war shop". I think the downside of them would probably be their exclusivity and their cost. 10000 men is no small amount to pay for, and I suspect those that hire them are paying well above the per-man rate they would pay for others; it may go too far in breaking one's treasury. As well, they aren't the sort you use for expendable missions.



The most dangerous? Well, if by dangerous, you mean that nobody wants to fuck with them, the Bloody Mummers are probably the thing. I can imagine the mere threat of them sacking your town would produce immediate surrenders. Trustworthy? Hell no. But if you want terror, vengeance or genocide or something, they are better (worse?) than a Dothraki khalasar. Plus when they die, nobody will miss them - least of all each other.



Best Commander? I do not have faith in Strickland's killer instinct. Bloodbeard seems a formidable commander, but a psycho who will gladly overstep his rules of engagement.


So out of the remainder, I think I would choose the Tattered Prince.

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  • 4 months later...

1) Golden Company.


2) Second Sons


3) Windblown



The others are not really useful outside of terror and slaughter. That can be done by pretty much any sellsword company and i'm convinced Ben Plumm or the Tattered Prince wouldn't even bat an eyelid when asked to incite terror like the Brave Companions did. The GC may object but i believe, similarly to Bronn, they'd consider it for some hefty bonus.



What about the Unsullied? They are also bought warriors in a way. Dany may have them now but the same is true for Aegon and the GC. So i think they should be considered. I'm sure you could have just "borrowed" them for a campaign or two as opposed to buying them all for life.


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Companies:


1. Golden Company. Discipline, training, equipment, organization, funding, best of the best.


2. Windblown. Almost there. Almost.


3. Long Lances. Unremarkable


4. Company of the Cat. Unremarkable.


5. Second Sons. Once great, but now singled out for their bad reputation. Hammer is just one example of how bad it has gotten.


6. Brave Companions. Low discipline, murderous scumbags, shit all around.


7. Stormcrows. Worse. Everything negative already mentioned about the Second Sons and Brave Companions, but they couldn't even settle their leadership issues without murder.



Commanders:


1. Tattered Prince. Competent, dedicated, respected.


2. Harry Strickland. Competent, but lacking a bit of respect.


3. Gylo Rhegan. Unremarkable.


4. Brown Ben Plumm. He's better than his predecessor, but didn't reinstall the great days.


5. Vargo Hoat. Psychopath, but not sabotaging his side by it.


6. Bloodbeard. Psychopath sometimes overstepping his orders to satisfy his bloodlust.


7. Daario Naharis. Can't keep order by authority, relying on murder instead, and consistently sabotaging his own side cause of his ego.


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  • 2 months later...

1. The Golden Company- Comparable to a Westerosi army, everyone seems to be trained, a great variety of weapons (bows) and they also have war elephants. They also managed to scare Volantis, it seems. 10,000 and reliable.


=2. Windblown- 2000 men, manages to be as good as the company of the cats as it has Calvary and also, a valyrian steel arahk. What is remarkable about this company is that it managed to become so strong in 20 years or so. It has recently become an unreliable group.


=2. Company of the Cats- 3000 men, all infantry, nothing much is known. So far appears to be reliable.


4. Long Lances- 800 men, all cavalry, nothing much is known. So far appears to be reliable.


=5. Stormcrows- 500 men, can't really say anything else. Somewhat unreliable.


=5. Second Sons- 500 men, can't really say anything else. Unreliable.


7. Brave Companions- Only 5 members left but in its heyday it had 300 (which is still nothing), this group appears to be very unreliable.


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