Question on hechmen group with weapons and armour

Hey all,I have come across something interesting. The second page of creating a warband talks about arming Henchmen groups. here it is stated that all members of a group need to be armed with the same weapon and armour in the same manner. So my Bretonnian Bowmen are all armed with a dagger and axe.Anyhow, we were unaware of this (besides other things),  but we now have the situation where the Orc player has a  goblin armed with a Prodder and the rest with bows and daggers. So if you have a Goblin with a Prodder, does the rest of the henchmen group also have to be armed with a prodder (or other weapon like a Ball and Chain). It would seem a bit strange that you can't customise certain models for a certain task.However when I read the book again on henchmen groups I came to a possible solution. it says that Henchmen are recruited in groups. Can one have seperate groups of say Goblins. So 3 Goblins with bows forming a single group and the one with the prodder as another seperate group. Or can a player have one group of goblins.It seems weird to be honest, it would mean you go entirely with Fanatics or Prodders or none at all.

Artinam wrote:

it says that Henchmen are recruited in groups. Can one have seperate groups of say Goblins. So 3 Goblins with bows forming a single group and the one with the prodder as another seperate group.

You have it, I don't understand why it makes you troubled

Alright, so I can have seperate groups of henchmen of the same type.

Yes, the Goblins could be in 4 Henchman Groups of 1 if you want.
They have to be bought like that though - they can't be split up later in the campaign.

And what about two identical groups with the same equipment (i mean for example a group of two swordsmen with sword, mace and helm and another group of two or three swordsmen with sword, mace and helm)? Is that possible?

I think the only restrictions are for the maximum number of figures you can have at once in the warband with some kinds of units (like 0-5). As long as you don't go over that number, you can have as many as you want. So you could have a group of 3, and a group of 2. Or you could have 5 groups of 1.

Exactly ! I never thought it could be a problem when you read the rules, but perhaps (for the first time GW translations suck quite often) the french version is a lil' bit more clear, so now the english version seems clear enough to me

Hope it helps !

Well I don't really see the point in grouping up Henchmen, if you can have unlimited groups (within your warband size), why ever giving up the flexibility of arming models differently. Furthermore one bad advancement roll can really set the group back, while you reduce this chance by having a lot of roll (allowing you to specialize the henchmen depending on their advancements).

Grouping henchmen allows you to take advantage of good advancement rolls. For example, I start my warband with 5 dwarf thunderer henchmen, each in its own "group" after my first few games, all of them earn an advancement roll.

My rolls are like so:

T1: LGT (woot)
T2: +1 BS
T3: +1 A
T4: +1 St
T5: +1 Ld (yuck)

Now, I want to build a shooty dwarf warband. The Ld roll sucks, so I give that guy the boot. I now have room for another thunderer so I reinforce the +1 BS group. Now I have one group of 2 thunderers with +1BS and 2 individuals. I can put the hitty guys on the line for now, and later as I earn more money I can fire them to continue to reinforce the +1 BS group. That is the real benefit of grouping.

Exactly. Starting with small henchmen groups and then later hiring new henchmen to add to that group (so you buy them WITH the increase built in for a little extra). Also it allows you to not lose the good henchmen.

If you have e.g. an Orc henchman with +1 Attack and +1 Strenght, then that is awesome. If that model is taken out of action and dies after the game, then all these great advances are lost and you can only hire a new unexperienced Orc henchman. But if your group consisted of two such Orcs and one dies, then group isn't lost entirely - it only shrinks to one member. After the loss you can hire a new Orc to add to that group (of currently one) and then you have two strong Orcs again.

Very interesting, thanks guys!