Henchmen Groups

As an undead player, I've never had to deal with this, but how do groups of henchmen work, with regards to leveling? If I have, say, three guys in a group, and one of them goes out of action, and the other two advance, does the third guy?

Then what happens to him? Is he ousted from the group or does he retain his old pre-advancement stats, or can I pay some coin to get him up to the same level as the other guys?

How does this work with regards to "Lad's got Talent?"

Must they have the same equipment as well?

I mean, to what degree are these guys grouped? Wouldn't it be easier to just print several henchmen sheets and have each guy individualized? Can I even do that?

I buy zombies and wolves so I don't have to deal with this, but if I were to switch to anything else, I'd like to know how.

Hrok wrote:

As an undead player, I've never had to deal with this, but how do groups of henchmen work, with regards to leveling? If I have, say, three guys in a group, and one of them goes out of action, and the other two advance, does the third guy?

Yes, he does. As long as he doesn't die he gets the exp. If he dies, just subtract one from the total number of henchmen in that group.

Hrok wrote:

How does this work with regards to "Lad's got Talent?"

When you get TLGT, one of your hench becoma a hero. Subtract one from the totals of that group. If it goes down to 0, delete the group. Both the hero and any remaining henchmen in the group gets another level up.

Hrok wrote:

Must they have the same equipment as well?

Yes, with the exception of Pit Fighter henchmen, all henchmen in a group must have the same equipment.

Hrok wrote:

I mean, to what degree are these guys grouped? Wouldn't it be easier to just print several henchmen sheets and have each guy individualized? Can I even do that?

They are very much a group in the sense that they must always be exactly the same. I wouldn't mind if you had only one hench in each group and lots of papers but some players might be against that idea. Having more than one also protects your group from being erased if one of them dies.

"If I have, say, three guys in a group, and one of them goes out of action, and the other two advance, does the third guy?
Then what happens to him? Is he ousted from the group or does he retain his old pre-advancement stats, or can I pay some coin to get him up to the same level as the other guys? "
He still gains the exp as the group as a whole gets exp not individuals within the group. Also if one earns exp for a scenario objective they all get it.

How does this work with regards to "Lad's got Talent?
If a LGT is rolled one is split off from the group and he becomes a hero with the same stats gear and exp as he had. He also gets one roll immediately on the hero advance chart! He must pick two skill lists that ANYONE in your warband has available (Hired Swords do not count for that sadly). Also note that the group rolls another advance as well ignoring any further LGT results! Also remember if you have 6 heroes you cannot gain any more. So get to six as soon as you can to start raking in the cash!

Must they have the same equipment as well?
Once they become a hero they still use the same equipment list (barring learning a skill like Weapons Expert) But can now use whatever combination is allowed by his list and he can now use Misc Equipment!

I mean, to what degree are these guys grouped? Wouldn't it be easier to just print several henchmen sheets and have each guy individualized? Can I even do that?
You can do that! But if any dies his advances go away forever. In a group you can recruit veterans into the unit (sorry can't remember the page but it is part of Post-Battle stuff) and they will gain the exp and advances of the unit they join! So if Ghoul Group A gets better advances than Ghoul Group B you just give A a bunch of reinforcements! (Up to 5 of course, which is max per group)

EDIT: Looks like I got beat to a response! I hope they match and are not confusing!

Awesome! Thank you both, guys. I got so used to having mindless henchmen that I forgot how the others worked. And during my brief lizardmen stint, I had each guy in his own group. The randomness of my skink archers got pretty lolworthy.

I often start with groups of one to maximize the chance of LGT, but if you get some good advances it can be a good idea to recruit more guys to an existing group. However, remember that you roll 2D6 after a game, and you can only recruit that many xp worth into an old henchman group. You also have to pay 2 GC extra per xp the group has.

BalrogTheBuff wrote:

Hrok wrote:

How does this work with regards to "Lad's got Talent?"

... He must pick two skill lists that ANYONE in your warband has available (Hired Swords do not count for that sadly).!

In my circle we use something a bit more RAW that makes things a bit more fun (for us anyway) than the common interpretation above.

The exact wording of the rule is "You may choose two skill lists available to Heroes in your warband." and we interpreted 'available to your warband' to mean 'listed on your warband's skill table'. Note that this would mean that, for example, a cult of the possessed TLGT hero *would* be able to pick shooting as one of his skills because it is on his warband's skill list even though none of the heroes actually have it ticked. To us the fact that it is on the table means the skill table is *available* to the warband, it is just that none of the heroes you start with have access to it.

We decided that the RAI was that you were not supposed to do things like pick Skaven skills as one of your tables if you were not Skaven or Sisters skills if you were not Sisters and so forth.

This interpretation is not for everyone, many people like inventing rules to make things more restrictive, but we have used this interpretation for a long time and found that for us, it only adds to the fun.

That being said, we are also the type of group that allows Weapons Expert, Weapons Training, and Arcane Lore to override the Ghoul's restrictions on equipment. *Shrug*. As always, YMMV.

In my group we pretty much always start henchmen groups as single-model "groups", and then clone the henchmen that obtain more desirable/complimentary improvements. Also, as MRTN notes, this approach increases your chance of rolling TLGT.

Hm. That sounds kind of cheap, lol. But I suppose that if everyone does it, it evens out.

It is great incentive to play violently the first few battles as you can eliminate their groups quickly though! I try to make my groups start in pairs. Safer, and usually ends up how I like to play my lists anyways.

It isn't cheap, it is a risk. You increase your chance of getting a TLGT hero at the expense of *greatly* increasing your chance of losing a well-leveled henchman group. And when you *do* get TLGT you automatically lose the hencman group, regardless of how well it was levelled. Really, if anything is cheap it is keeping henchmen in large groups to magically preserve good level-ups instead of having everyone in groups of one to reflect the individualty of, well, individuals .

I gotcha. I was asking this because I'm likely going to have to be the experienced veteran guy, as I'm going to have to play elsewhere for the summer. And it seems like this is going to come up somewhere along the line.

Oh, it is definitely going to come up . I remember going to a gaming club to trade some models and seeing an argument between to players one saying that henchmen groups of 1 was poor sportsmanship and the other saying that playing large groups was poor sportsmanship. Both were convinced that they, and they alone, were playing to 'The Spirit Of The Game'. Give me RAW any day :p.

Lord 0 wrote:

The exact wording of the rule is "You may choose two skill lists available to Heroes in your warband." and we interpreted 'available to your warband' to mean 'listed on your warband's skill table'. Note that this would mean that, for example, a cult of the possessed TLGT hero *would* be able to pick shooting as one of his skills because it is on his warband's skill list even though none of the heroes actually have it ticked. To us the fact that it is on the table means the skill table is *available* to the warband, it is just that none of the heroes you start with have access to it.

As Lord O said, this is NOT the typical ruling. Normally, if you a hero doesn't have access to it, you can't pick it as a skill list. This prevents h-t-h groups like possessed and undead from getting shooting skills, dwarves from getting speed... etc.

Our group also house-ruled that Special Skills do not take up a one of the henchman's two skill tables. (Thus, a Dwarf Beardling that becomes a hero may choose two of the following [combat, shooting, strength], and gets "Special Dwarf Skills" for free.) Again, house rule.