Warband Tweak

I'm running a campaign in the near to distant future, and two of the players are dead-set on Lizardmen and Shadow Warriors. The other four (including myself) are using core warbands, so I've been trying to come up with a reasonable modification to the two warbands to bring them down a little. I tinkered around with some of the costs, a few of the spells, and gave the Kroxigor stupidity (seemed confusing that he didn't have that already). All pretty minor, reasonable stuff by my eye. I've been feeling a little indecisive about this next bit of tweaking, though. I thought something to make the Shadow Warriors (and Lizardmen, to a lesser extent) less crazy without getting rid of the feel of the warband, would be making them wait two battles after purchasing new units before they show up. It's a little far-fetched to think that either warband will just happen upon new members (how many times do you suppose that you'd bump into a skink at the bottle-o?), so this would represent their members making the trek down to the city, and even things out a little. Does this scheme of mine have any potential, or have I had one too many nightcaps?

One of the best base ideas I've seen for toning down Shadow Warriors is adding an ability Long-lived to all elves - in the best incarnation, this ability specifies that elves earn XP at 1/2 rate.

I've also been wondering about the ready availability of henchmen to "rare" warbands, but two battles would be a little much to my mind - one should be enough. Another idea would be a rarity roll (requiring a hero to go look) to find henchmen. Fluff-wise, either the henchmen are coming from the homeland, or are the only remaining henchmen left from a non-player warband wipe, and are ready to join up with another leader.

maybe limited resources in reinforements? Roll a D3 and thats how many more guys they can hire after each battle? or a d6-1 so they can have anywhere from 0-5 guys to pick up?

This could represent limited numbers.

To go even further you could roll a d6-1 for each of the henchmen types (Or 2d6 then divive the scor eby 2 rounded down, if doubles rolled no more men just at the moment or after next game) and if you get a 0 then maybe no more reinforcements until end of 2 games time.

IMHO: I would have your group declare “Official” Warbands only. There are 15 Warbands to choose from. Trying to “Peak and Tweak” Unofficial Bands to try and make them fair to the other players, will only make the Shadow Elves and Lizardmen players mad. The players of those Bands like them just the way they are, and adding penalties to play them will only add tension to the group. Since, these Bands have been discussed to, still no end, no one has come up with a simple happy answer. It would only be fair if you’re going to penalize my Band, then I should be able to penalize yours in some way. What is more important, having fun playing a “fair” game, or “Win, At Any Cost!”?



Or if it’s too much to not play those Bands, then definitely allow Alliance in multi-player games. Join forces against a greater threat. The Enemy of my Enemy is my friend.

Or, if the problem is that they only have access to Lizardman and elf models, just proxy them. That is, use the Elves as a Reiklander warband, and the Lizardmen as Orcs (Saurus's) and Goblins (Skinks).

I am loathe to use proxying myself, but if a player only has one set of models, and cant borrow mine, I could, perhaps, in the craziest of worlds where I am drunk beyond my mind and paid enormous amounts of money... THEN I could allow it

If they have the models and want to play then let them but with that I really like the idea of giving the Krox Stupidity.

I don't agree with waiting two games for reinforcements but like the idea of 1/2 exp for the Shadow Elves with that to me it is not a big deal as each time I played using the SE I got my butt handed to me. LOL.