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He's really expensive, you know that right? 260 GC for an operation is a whole lot and in most cases not worth it.

Instead of hiring a doctor and paying upkeep you could just use up one exploration phase die roll for setting up the operation on a 4+. Also the operation itself is way too expensive, even at the post game phase where every warband is quite powerful.

There are rules for settlements where you can go to a doctor.

If you're undead you can buy zombies for half their normal price because you make coprses out of spare-parts and re-animate them. ;D

I don't know if they have those rules up tho... I need to check it up whenever I get the energy to do it. :B

Well first off there's alot of misspent funds here; Armor isn't worth crap in Mordhiem. There's enough S4+ or Blackpowder that crowns spent on armor are crowns wasted. Drop the Armor from your men and that'll save you some coin. Handguns blow. Trade them out for Crossbows or Longbows. If you lose all the shields, handguns, and armor, you save 230 crowns. Just using crossbows over handguns saves you 30 crowns.

Secondly, you only have two heroes. You can only explore with unhurt heroes, so you should start with 5, and have a lot of single man hench groups, so you can try to roll for Lad's got Talent as soon as possible to max out with six. If you take the savings mentioned, you can add another Champion with a sword and two youngbloods with swords. I prefer pirates myself, but if you want to use Reikies, here's a list that's better, while holding to the same theme:

Captain - Sword, Dueling Pistol
Champion - Sword, Pistol
Champion - Sword, Pistol
Youngblood - Sword, Bow
Youngblood - Sword, Bow
2 Marksmen - Extra Dagger, Crossbow
2 Marksmen - Extra Dagger, Crossbow

Spent: 493
Treasury: 7 Crowns

Everyone has two weapons, so in the event that they charge or get charged, they'll have two attacks, and everyone has a ranged weapon. If you wanted to, you could split up the Marksmen into 4 groups of one, but this way if one is lost, you don't lose the experience of the whole group. It's aslo got 5 heroes, so you'll have the best exploration rolls possible from the start. Once the campaign starts, you can try to pick up some Toughened Leathers if you want, it;s the only armor that's cheap enough that it's constant negation won't hurt you too badly.

Extreme in what way? In the stark and utilitarian changes to the list? Just saving you from some of the hard lessons I learned in my first few games of Mordhiem. When I first started playing, I wanted to do a black-powder heavy Reikland band. (in fact, just look back to page 10 of this thread to see my post discussing it!) I quickly found that a) handguns suck something fierce. And b) Armor is WAY overpriced for the effect it has in game, especially when you're using the critical hit tables and most crits bypass armor.

These days, to satisfy my love of shooty and blackpowder, I run Pirates, with lots of pistols, which are much better than handguns.

EDIT: I forgot to include lesson c: Your band needs gold to grow, and your only real source of gold is heroes; always start with 5 unless you are running Dwarves or Possessed.

If you like handguns, or just want to have one or two around 'just in case', that's not really a problem. However, no one's going to start the game with an Ogre, so you can put off the purchase of handguns for later in the game. Handguns aren't a necessity unless your ogres happen to be wearing heavy armor and carry shields. Really, the only thing you need blackpowder for are Bret bands, what with the heavy armor, mounts and barding.

Crossbows are just more useful in general; they cost less, they have greater range, they don't have Prepare Shot so they can be fired every turn, and heroes with Quick Shot can fire twice with them. Compare to handguns, which can only be fired every other turn, have shorter range, and if you're playing with the optional rules, can explode. Even with the Hunter skill, you're still getting off half as many shots as the crossbowmen. (granted, if you play with the blackpowder misfire rules, then the cost for handguns goes down, but they're still not cheaper than crossbows)

As for the clubs... well, that's personal build choice. I prefer to give Marksmen daggers because they're meant to be on a roof shooting something, and I'd rather save the gold for use elsewhere. Granted, clubs/hammers only cost one gold more, but with 4 Marksmen, that's 4 gold you save, and gold you save in the future hiring more men for the hench-group.

There's a difference between maxing a warband and running with a theme. Maxing a warband would involve buying everyone no more than one weapon, and having as many henches as you can cram into 500gc (600, if you're Marienburgers). She said she wanted to run Reikies with lots of ranged weapons to keep the other guys away, and I inferred from the choice of handguns that she wanted blackpowder. Hence the list where every hero has both a ranged weapon and two close-combat weapons, and the marksmen have a ranged weapon they can make use of well. I didn't say it was the only way to run a successful Reikland band, but that's how I'd do it. It's not even optimal, because realistically, the Captain and Champions ought to use hammers over swords because the stuff that hits them will generally need 4+ or 5+ anyway, and if they roll even one 6, no parry can be made. The Champions could probably use bows or crossbows over pistols, but I gave them pistols since they have access to them and fit the blackpowder theme.

I definitely don't agree that bands with similar equipment, or even bands built with the rules of Mordhiem in mind 'lack personality or modeling opportunities.' If you have two heroes with the same equipment, that's an opportunity in and of itself! How are you going to differentiate these two guys who in rules and equipment, are otherwise the same? Model them differently of course. Maybe one champion will have his pistol out and his sword sheathed, while the other brandishes both, or has his pistol holstered and holds his sword in guard position. If you think a warband is automatically boring because it's list looks 'samey' then you're not thinking hard enough. (Sling-spam and Bow Artillery aside)

Not that you can't equip your warband suboptimally, but if you are going to theme something that IS suboptimal (like I don't know, blackpowder) then you ought to take advantage of the rules of the game to help yourself out. Plus, it's up to the gaming group as well; if everyone is on the same page, and everyone wants to just mess around, and not care for competitiveness, that's fine. You're free to run two hero, four hench, equipment heavy bands. If your group cares about the fight and the game is as or more important than the story of your warbands, then you should be prepared for a slog to win and scramble for the most money and best equipment, and in drag out brawl campaigns, the bands that do best have numbers on their side before they have equipment.