Mordheimer Fanatics Warband

My friends and I have used a lot of unofficial warbands in our campaigns but we have usually kept away from lists deemed to be 'experimental'. I play a lot of human armies and started to look at the fanatic list on the Mordheimer site.
http://www.mordheimer.com/warbands/experimental/mf.htm

I really like the flavor of the list. My question for you all is whether you would allow it in your games. Do you think its balanced and fair against most opponents? Ultimately, my friends will pass judgment but I thought I'd get your opinion.

The pros and cons to the list as I see them are as follows...

Pros
- Maximum warband size is 20
- Six starting heroes
- Ld9, 'fanatical', and frenzied heroes
- Access to slings and flails
- Rants are good
- Cheap henchmen (expendable)

Cons
- Low average stats (prophet and bleak one are the exceptions)
- No access to light or heavy armor
- Low ballistic skill = poor shooting
- Seems like you will have little to spend money on (cheap troops, no armor)

I'm keen to hear your thoughts.

I have a Fanatics warband, but have only played two games. I think it's a fairly balanced list. The max of twenty is the thing that keeps it competetive, and as the henchmen are generally crappy (but colourful!), so it kinda squares things out.

The 6 heroes are a little concerning, but the fact that 2 of them are youngbloods does help some (I've seen some fan warbands which had 6 Champion-Strength models to start with- YIPE!). If you think it's too much, maybe the Bleak One replaces a Lunatic (thus, you have to choose- Good stats with hatred, or okay stats with frenzy?)

I also agree that the high LD bothers me too. If your group does not agree with it as written, I suggest you lower the ld of the Bleak one to 8, the City folk to 6, and the maimed to 5 or 6. That means you have really strong Leader who can rouse the troupes, but if disappears, it starts falling apart. Kind of like the skaven.

It strikes me as maybe a tad over-powered compared to the official bands (starting with six heroes is a big boost*), but if you tweak with Strofoam King's suggestion about leadership I would certainly allow it in a campaign I was setting up.

-Michael

*Besides the skaven, the only GW band I can think of that had six starting heroes is the Bretonnians, and three of their six were youngblood types.

I agree with your analysis and I'll make the following changes.

- Make Bleak One Ld8
- Make City Folk Ld6
- Make Maimed Ones Ld5
- Make Orphans 0-1 instead of 0-2

Make group allowed me to play them, but I'd rather preempt arguments later. Plus, I like balance so that tactics not stat lines win the day.

I do have a question about one of the rants. The final one allows "all Mordheimers within range may re-roll one failed ‘to wound’ roll in hand to hand combat so long as the rant continues." To do this properly do you tick off who has used the reroll. I think this would be clumsy. To streamline it I would it similar to 'hatred' but call it 'fury' which allows rerolls to wound in the first round of combat. What do you think?

I think the rant is supposed to be one to-wound a turn/round. So I think that would make keeping track easier.

As worded, if there are four of your guys in melee within range of the rant, then all four of them can reroll a failed "to wound" roll. (If it was only one of the guys in range who could reroll, it would say "Any Mordheimer" rather than "All Mordheimers").