Start Warband Rules rant.
Dorthonion wrote:
Do you ever get the feeling that the consequences of fiddling with rules are never fully explored? The Army of the Dead should be that - an army, not the Undead Dirty Dozen plus One.
Fiddling is never good. And by that I (and I suspect Dorthonion) means that they didn't take any time at all to think this through. So now the retinue of a king like Theoden or Isildur is the same size as a lowly captain.
RangerofTheNorth wrote:
12 should be the minimum for a unit, not the max. Warbands has really screwed up my Gondor army as I usually take very few heroes and hordes of spearmen
Rreally? Just what do you think a warband of 12 Mordor orcs/Moria goblins can do? Other than make a mess of your front lawn? These armies are pretty screwed considering their one advantage was out numbering people. Sadly this indicates the true motive of this rule- up captain sales.
KnightyKnight wrote:
However, having built a couple of army lists and had experience playing I've definitely changed my mind. A requirement to take heroes and captains works.
I like the order, organisation and balance it brings.
I like the way you have to really think about how to bring the best out of the units you have - am I taking too many warriors, too few? Can this unit hold its own or is it based around a supportive role?
Captains can become characters in their own right. Rather than just having a super character with 2 dozen warriors, by spending time making the best of a warband formation you can find yourself thinking about the captain leading them. What's the backstory behind this warband? Are these guys a motley group thrown together by chance, or a thick-as-thieves bunch?
KnightyKnight you've aptly illustrated the attitudes and issues with GOOD players seduced by all those shinny Aragorns, Boromirs and Gandalfs. Yes the poor good captain never caught a break. That was never the case with EVIL players. They knew you had to keep your scum in line and nobody did that like an orc captain.
ukfreddybear wrote:
Actually I like the new war bands rule. It helps balance the troops to leader ratio. The only thing I don't like about it is army of the dead only have one leader available to them (king of the dead) so you can only field 12 of them unless you house rule a captain of the dead to lead another warband.
Yes this is one of the major issues with this "rule/marketing tool". Can you have in fact 24 dead troops? Aragorn leads them in the book and the movie. Can he lead 12 of them? Don't know. No body at GW cared enough to think about it. We need a set of warbands rules that are really rules, not simply a demand for people to buy more captains!
End Warbands rules rant.
I dream of a GW figure of Thranduil mounted on a stag sculpted by the Perry Bros.