Hirelings and Experience

My current ACKS has been very hireling heavy. I remember reading somewhere in the book that hirelings only get a portion of experience at 0-level. Am I confused the rule with another ruleset or is it mostly GM adjudication?

http://autarch.co/forum/henchman-xp-share-0

My understanding is that ordinary hirelings (non-henchmen) do not gain XP from adventuring, because they will not adventure with you. I am not an Autarch and could be wrong on that point.

As for calculating hench XP, I find it’s lazier for me to use larger (whole) numbers. I give 100 shares to each PC and 50 shares to each henchman. Add up the sum of total shares, divide the total by the shares, multiply by 100 or 50 as appropriate to find out what each PC or henchman gets.

So with 4 PCs and 3 henchmen, there are a total of 550 shares (400 + 150). If the group as a whole earns 5,000 XP, each PC gets (5000/550 * 100) 909 XP and each henchman gets (5000/550 * 50) = 454 XP. There are a wide variety of mathematically equivalent methods to arrive at these values, but this is the one that works for me.

According to the Domains at War Free Starter Edition:

Troops organized in units (i.e. non-heroes) do not earn XP from fighting, only from spoils of war.

I presume that this would also apply to mercenary hirelings. (Even though, as Aryxymaraki noted, they won’t follow you into dungeons, they could still be involved in combat while traveling or in camp.)

Henchmen get a half-share of experience, regardless of their level (including at level 0).

Although generally speaking, up to 25% of mercenary troops can also be veterans. These are typically level 1 fighters. So if you want to come up with an incredibly modest xp rate gain for some soldiers as a house rule I think the system could support it easily. Rather than loot I would have it be from battles that occur from protecting the party’s assets or during wilderness adventures, as standard mercs will not enter dungeons.