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    10 Reasons That Social Skills Are Important In Running A Mercenary Company

    Everyone wants to be paid on time and for a job well done. Miles Cameron, author of The Red Knight, takes us through the steps needed to start up your own band of cutthroats and sneak-thiefs.

    10. It’s easier to train hard (in armour, with sharp, pointy weapons) with people who love you, rather than people who want to kill you.

    9. In negotiating contracts, you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.

    8. Experience shows that each hired killer has to be dealt with as an individual with his or her own murderous needs and aspirations to glory.

    7. Sometimes employers are slow to pay. The Captain gets to explain this to the boys and girls.

    6. Sometimes (usually) employers like to play divide et impera (divide and rule) with mercenary companies. Social skills can help you build the cohesion to keep your people together.

    5. Adversaries will often attempt to bribe your people. They are, after all, mercenaries. Social skills—and even a modicum of, dare I say it, trust—can keep them on your side and at your back.

    4. Hired killers often require motivation as much as any other group of craftspeople.

    3. Staff meetings run much better if the officers communicate well, and struggle for corporate clarity when violence is the only mode of exchange. That is, when all the officers want to kill each other.

    2. It is easier to receive scouting reports when you listen instead of talking.

    1. And most important of all, in battle, when the air around you is full of steel, it’s good to feel some of it is on your side.

    Miles Cameron

    Is a military veteran and historian.

    He has a degree in Medieval History and lives with his wife and daughter in the most multi-cultural city in the world. There is also a cat. So far, no horse.

    Mile's first book, The Red Knight, can be purchased here.

    Miles forthcoming book, The Fell Sword, will be released this December.