Yeah I'm clueless as to why Wild Bill would be in QK in the first place, but able to join Jannisaries? That makes even less sense. He should be Ariadana/USARF and NA2 and that's it. I guess Fiddler was Ariadna, then joined Nomads? I guess it makes sense in that way. But the thing is Nomads need another uber character like a hole in the head. I'm actually surprised we don't see an Ariadna-centric NA2 faction. Caterans are "mercs" but they are in no NA2 faction at all. The only ones I can find are McMurough, Desperados, Varangians and Hardcases. They are not even in the same NA2 faction too!
Caterans are actually in Starco with the Hardcases. I think Starco is a Nomads/Ariadna hybrid with a sprinkle of Haqq.
Exactly how I feel about this dilemma. The availability of Mercs does not seem to stem from lore but "we added them just cause we felt like it." Thats the problem in my mind. I think Vanilla factions should be abel to take any Merc they want but sectorials & NA-2 armies shouldn't. Their choices should be limited to lore friendlily choices. Why would Star Co. have Druze among their number? Vanilla PanO can use any Merc except for Libertos Helots when any other faction can use them. Why? Because of the lore. Libertos is an anti-PanO terrorist organization with some hints at them hating Humanity as a whole but still have Human allies for their uses. Exclusions like that make sense. Beasthunters in the Svalarheima sectorials are fine and I can see them being one of the few Mercs who could be available in every faction due to their lore role. Hiring someone crazy enough to hunt T.A.G.s instead of putting your own units lives on the line. If he/she dies who cares? But if him or her are successful in bringing down one T.A.G. then that is money well spent. This is reflected in the Beasthunters loadouts & points cost. Built to be a throwaway unit with a low 10-20 points cost that has a chance at succeeding at their given task. Limiting Mercs to AVA 1 or 2 for each unique unit also seems like a good choice. In other words certain Mercs should not be available to be taken in certain factions & sectorials. Those that can be must have a small AVA limit of 1-2 on how many you can take. Except for NA-2 armies which are supposed to be made of Mercs with some Human Sphere faction flavor. They could take more than the normal allowed number of Mercs into their lists while limiting other factions' units to a small amount (AVA 1-3). This would help separate major factions/armies from NA-2 Merc forces. Giving players a significant reason to play those sectorials. You wanted to find out how it is to play with a Kaplan, Brawler, Druze link team? Pick and play a NA-2 army. You wanted to run more Yuan-Yuans? Pick a NA-2 army that has them like Ikari since Ikari represents "We don't give a shit who you are" & "We don't care what we have to do as long as we get paid." Decisions like that would be better for major factions to keep their identity.
The only way I would be OK with mercs staying in vanilla is if ITS enforced a merc points limit - ie: for vanilla armies, mercs cannot be more than 25% of the army points value - or something along those lines. Even then, I think that cheap merc options like Libertos should be removed completely from vanilla.
