Are Marienburgers over powered??

A guy in our campaign complained that Marienburgers are over powered due to the extra gold, and the fact that i hired a tilean marksman and a bounty hunter straight away.
He plays averlanders and doesn't seem to see that my only advantage is the extra gold i get to start with! Asking me to remove that would be like asking reiklanders to not have the extra BS skill or middenheims to lose the strength bonus. Does anyone find them to OP or is he just having a sook cause i captured his captain?
Cheers all SoR 

short and simple: because of the captain-capturing.

Yep, sounds like a good ol' case of butthurt to me! Also he's just upset the Marienburgers have bigger feathers in their hats!

You'll probably have a slight advantage earlier in the campaign, but as things progress that extra starting gold is going to be less impressive than the bonuses that the other mercenary warbands have.

Grimscull wrote:

short and simple: because of the captain-capturing.

  

So should i address the problem? I gave his captain back to him for 3 lucky charms! So he got off lightly! It's just im running the campaign and dont want sour grapes early on?

I think he got off easy, if he got his captain and his equipment back for only the meager cost of 3 lucky charms. He should probably realize this pretty quickly.

If he doesn't, however, you could point out his warband's strengths; better heroes and cheaper henchmen. In my opinion, Marienburgers are the weakest of the all mercenary warbands, because their advantage only consists of 20% more gold, something that will be evened out pretty quickly.

The interpersonal dynamics of your group are a mystery to us on the internet so it is kind of hard to give advice. My recommendation would be to not encourage him by giving in to a whiner, I mean you're playing Marienburgers for heaven's sake, it is hard to find with a weaker human warband. (Although the Arabian Tomb Robbers come to mind...)

I wouldn't say Marienbergers are overpowered, but I don't agree with the other posters in this thread that their advantage exists only in the early campaign.

From a competitive outlook, the strategy behind choosing Marienberg is to take an early lead. I just finished a campaign as Middenheim where my mercenaries were far and away the dominant force. While I'm a reasonably competent player, the primary reason for this was that I established my economy before any other player. I played very conservatively and hoarded gold to acquire a full arsenal of rabbit's feet, tarot cards, and wyrdstone pendulums. Combined with an Elf Ranger, my warband was pure exploration phase abuse.

By game twelve I had the following:
-2 magic artifacts (ASEoN and The Bow of Seeking)
-15 veteran models (all eligible models with secondary missile weapons, all heroes armored)
-A surplus of 250 gold.

Getting a lead in the exploration game can decide the campaign, and Marienberg will always get there first. Their bonus to finding rare items is DECISIVE in determining this. The surplus gold can either be thrown directly into sure-find eco items, or used to ensure a superior starting warband.

It can even be argued that Marienberg has superior skill tables to Reikland. While Reikland Champions can access the Com/Shoot/Strength tables, Strength characters are only dubiously viable without Speed. Sure, Marienbergers may regret not being able to choose those Strength skills down the road, but their heroes still have viable builds as snipers. More to the point, a Marienberg warband is sure to see experience loss due to bum Tarot Card rolls. This is far less disruptive for ranged heroes, who utilize fewer skills, than combat heroes.

Of course I'd never make the argument that Marienbergers are broken, but I'd argue they have significant power-gaming potential as well. A lot of leagues suffer a warband that takes off early and never really slows down. If your goal is to be that warband, Marienberg has a lot to offer.

The way I look at it, is that Marienburgers are actually balanced. Our specail stuff is the extra money and a +1 on the rare roll. Nothing too overpowering with that. So what that you got some hired swords with the extra money and in the end it helped you win. That's just using your special abilities to your advantage to win a game. No more then riklanders having 5 or more marksmen with crossbows to help them win a game. Its all about knowing how to use your strenghts to their full potental.

Personally I don't go for hired swords right away. Yeah, sure they can kick butt at the start of the first few games. Help you take out other models and such but they also hog the exp from OOA's that could have went to a hero instead. I use the extra money for a few more models. As an Imperial Guard player in 40k, I perfer to play the numbers games. And I try for a mix of shooters and combat models. I like giving my leader the double handed weapon and strenght skills. Then I try to get a warrior or swordsman to become a hero and give him strenght skills and double handed weapon to turn him into a killing machine. My henchman hero usuallly ends up being better then most hired swords anyway and I don't lose him if I run out of money for any upkeeps.

I would have to say that Marienburgs are definitely NOT overpowered. In fact, they are the basic Human Warband. Each warband has bonus; and usually a penalty depending on the bonus. Since Marienburgs don’t start with a stat, skill(s), or weapons bonus; they get extra money. I think your use of the extra funds to buy mussel is a good use of funds. Good thinking.

As for ransoming a captain, my group is tough! We charge or trade anything we want. Any other warband members can be hired new and retrained, but a captured Captain is a gift. Most members can be bought with gold, weapons and stuff, and/or wyrdstone. But Captains come with a high price, depending on his XP and abilities, if you can’t afford to pay ransom in total, other arrangements can be made. I remember one skilled Captain was ransomed, but the warband couldn’t afford to pay the full price; so he was sent back missing a hand and a clipped Achilles’ tendon. Now he can’t use anything needing 2 hands and can’t run. Another Captain was beaten badly and had to roll for Multiple Injuries and had to at least miss the next 3 games. Yeah, we’re pretty brutal.

@Shadowphx... I think that is excellent!

quick update, i captured his captain again..... he seems to forget that im chasing him??
anyway i gave him back for free, i kept his brace of duelling pistols, his sword, both his trigger fingers and his tongue... so he cant use missle weapons and loses his leadership skill. He stopped his complaining now. im thinking if i capture a dwarf ill shave him for a -3 leadership hit? maybe the dwarven warband will hate me from now on?

 

I'm glad that he has stopped complaining. Hopefully he is starting to enjoy the gaming even though his captain seems to have some terrible luck.

You're all sick bastards!   

Grimscull wrote:

You're all sick bastards!   

So very sick and twisted.


.... giving me such great ideas too! I have to try out some of this for my own group, although Captured hasn't been rolled much at all. (Our Ogre player is starving.   )