Restless Dead Alternative Warband?

Let me start by saying, i love the ideas in the RD warband, but there is a but.

It has a maximum warband size of 12. Even if both Liche and Necro take Summoner asap that still only means 14 members.
Now my vision of a true undead warband (none of those nancy vampires ) is of a shambling horde of Skellies and Zombies.

So, how would you tone down the power so you could increase the hordiness while remaining balanced?

The Liche has got to stay, so have the Scarecrows. Are there any hard and fast rules on warband balancing?

I actually would LOVE to see that warband in action. I always liked the concept of the restless dead - after trying them a few games though I didn't like the way they played.

I guess if you wanted a hord warband you could go with the original undead and have loads of zombies and ghouls... But I always liked the idea of a Lich.

First thing that comes to mind though, maybe play the original Undead warband and replace the vamp with a Lich that has strengh skills. Then you could REALLY horde it up with two people reanimating zombies!

There is a Restless Dead warband in our current campaign. I have to say that it is much better for a hoard than the original undead.

In our warband, both the liche and the necromancer have reanimation which means that up to two zombies can be returned to the field each round. The Liche also has Deathspeaker which allows D3 zombies to be added to the warband each battle above and beyond the warband maximum. We are not looking foward to the necromancer also getting deathspeaker. Once summoner has been added on top of that and the warband will end up with a lot of zombies that just keep coming back!

Now if that is not an undead horde then I don't know what is! I think it is a great warband.

Yeah... We have a RD player in our campaign... and let me say, while it has a pretty low ceiling (stopped at 300, with little chance of increasing), it became one of the top warbands in the group very quickly!

The reanimation spell, for example, had him gain a Centigor zombie very early on... and more recently, gained MY dead Vampire, with S7, T5! (the ONLY consulation is that when he died, it was a special scenario... so the only thing he had on him was a dagger!)

I think the RD, as is, has a pretty decent chance at hording. Between the deathspeaker and the Summoner skills, they are able to have between 16-20 members in any given game... although, it takes FOUR skills to get to that level, which means that you really have to WANT it. If you don't want a Hording warband, you can be content that you have TWO very powerful spellcasters, who can reach havoc like a tandem bicycle of despair.

Also, two corpse bombs (another option), is quite devistating, and has each of us players in fear.

Yeah, thanks guys, one thing i was forgetting was Reanimation.
But it does all depend on luck to get decent numbers, rather than being hordey from the beginning.
In our current campaign my O+G leader and Shaman have earned 29 xp (on top of starting xp) between them and have only had one skill each.

The chances of actually getting Rean, DeathSpeaker,Summoner and Awakening on both Liche and Necro are ridiculously low.

When we start our next campaign, which is some way off yet, i will probably play RD as written and see where the journey takes me, but i cant help but thinking a few tweaks to the initial power level could up the numbers a bit for a starter warband.
Which "raises" another question, should Rean work on Skeletons as well, as they are all magically animated in the first place?

I guess i have always seen Necro's and Liches being surrounded by large hordes of very low power Undead.

Terror of the Lichemaster springs to mind.The very large numbers of cardboard "figures" of Undead controlled by Heinrich Kemmler started my love of all things dessicated.




Hm, wish i still had those cardboard buildings as well now!

Well, the Necromancer can only learn spells the Liche knows, so the chances of them both learning Reanimation and Spell of Awakening are pretty high. Also, Deathspeaker & Summoner are skills, so they're pretty easy to pick up.

Skelies vs. Zombies - while it may not seem much, Skelies are actually far better than zombies... the ability to use weapons means they have two attacks, doubling their power in combat. Also, they can shoot bows and tie orcs & dwarves for initiative, which doesn't hurt.

Besides, with the Spell of Awakening, you can have some pretty freakin' tough zombies. Two spellcasters with access to Reanimation means my S7 Vampire zombie will come back with a full 3 wounds every time he's taken out of action.

I have played with the Idea of writing a new objective that one of the bonuses it gives you is it increases your maximum warband size, but you can only fill it with Zombies! It would be kind of like Grow the Horde from the Scion of Chaos, exept it would would be Zombies only, if you were playing an Undead list that did not include Zombies (Tomb Kings) it would allow you to take Zombies.

at 5 CP +2 Zombies, 25 +2 (total of +4) and 30 CP +3 (total +7 Zombies)

I have also though about Including in that Objective a bonus that allow Zombies to gain Exp but it takes twice the exp kind of like the Man Eater Slow Witted Flaw, and they would not be allowed to get LGT like Unreliable Hirelings flaw that Blackguards have from the Merchant Caravan list also from BTB.

Even though it might seem stylish to you, I am glad the Bandmax of the RD is only twelve. We soon started to call our RD-Player's Band "The Army" even if he only had Deathspeaker and a beggar. His band is tough as nails, with the W4, AS4+ Lich, Bonegolem and "Kamikazombies". Really hard to get rid of, we had to gang up on him on a regular basis. If I imagine there being like 15-20 Undead around, it would'nt be fun anymore.

Or, to put it another way, play before you pump.

Hmm, I will give it another shot. Maybe I just had bad luck.

I have played against the Restless Dead, and the strength of the warband is the 2 spell casters, Grave Guards and Whytes. The Zombies act like a screen that takes shots, or charges keeping the spell casters safe, and if somehow you break past the wall of Zombies you get to face the Grave Guards with their Wight Blades, not fun.