Hechmen Are Tools
As a GM, I don't like henchmen. They might as well be invisible to me until a player decides to send one to their death. To counter that, henchmen must be sent to their deaths more often in a way.
Henchmen are tools. Henchmen are items. Henchmen are bonuses. Henchmen are money pits. Henchmen are inventory slots. Henchmen are skills.
FIGHTERS- You may use the fighting skill of one of your henchmen on your turn. If you use their skill they take the hit if they fail. To do this, say so, and have the GM put your initiative back in the stack. You may do this as many times in a turn as you have henchmen with which to do so. (See here, the end of round token comes into its own)
NOTE! Don't give henchmen initiative tokens now. They just recycle player tokens instead.
CARRIERS- Henchmen may or may not have free inventory space they will use for you. Not all employees are willing to fetch and carry though. A donkey would fit here, as would a lantern bearer.
BODYGUARDS- You may test your luck to push damage on to this henchman that you would otherwise receive.
SPECIALIST- They have a special talent, like tracking or opening locks.
You could use keywords even. "FT" you can use them to hit stuff. "BG" you can try to offload damage on to them. "CA*" you can make them hold stuff equal to the number in slots. Specialists are easy to spot, they have skills.
With this system henchmen become more like tools. They still have the basic enemy stats, skill stamina initiative armour, just in case they need it. Add their advanced skills to their skill just like a PC woul.
Right so here's a henchman: Moss "the Coati" Virila 6/15/2/0 FT/CA4 2 Sword Fighting 1 Locks (He will kill stuff but he's not taking a bullet for you)
How much do they cost? I think it's wise to avoid the temptation to make their cost relative to anything concrete like stats. Price them like their ego demands. In TROIKA currency, a professional bodyguard would expect maybe 500p per day (up front and immediately posted off to the bank). If they're just local roughs, half that. If they were an ex-lansquenet then double it. Wing it.
ANOTHER! Positive Esteem 5/17/1/0 BG/CA6 (Positive is your old school friend. He doesn't cost anything to keep, is happy to help out (CA6) and is easily pushed in front of things (BG). He's no fighter though and will only fight to defend himself)
See here. If the henchman doesn't have the FT tag then there's no bossing them around in a fight. Just as if they don't have a skill in astrology they aren't navigating home.
Morale should matter. Troika doesn't have morale, as such, I always make sure my guys run away when the going gets tough. Maybe there should be something that doesn't include making a call. For henchmen though it's easy: Employer's luck.
HENCHMEN MORALE: A morale test is made by testing the employer's luck. If they choose not to test then it is obviously failed. (rule #1 of Troika GMs: hammer their luck). Call for a morale test when: 1- Anyone on the PCs side dies 2- The henchman drops below half health 3- You ask a henchman without FIGHTER to fight, or push one without BODYGUARD in the way, or humiliate them by asking someone without CA* to hold your bags. 4- Something truly dreadful happens that any sensible person would run from.
Enemies can do this as well. Just test their skill. Test at the first death and then again at half dead.
NEW KEYWORD: Brave (BV): The henchman always tests morale as though their employer had full Luck. They still lose luck for testing though.
You see here that it's now pretty brutal to test the morale of a henchman, you either lose luck, or a henchman, or luck and a henchman. I suspect the best thing to do is to not automatically have a henchman run fleeing into the night and instead let there be only a chance. Otherwise they retreat to somewhere safe, nearby, and re-group. Not gone, just sensible. Roll for it, give it a number like 1 in 6, 2, or even 3 in 6 depending on how much you think they're fed up with the adventurers.
This all needs to go through the gauntlet a bit, but looks sound.