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In the 8th ed rumor thread one of the major complaints I saw was that the 3+ cap on rank bonuses really hurt horde armies so I thought to myself why can't there be a flexible cap for each army.

For example Empire and Brets being the basic have a 3+ cap as standard. Chaos, DOC and Elves cap at 2+ Skaven and O&G cap at 4+. (I haven't read beastman or OK yet, so not sure with their big boys, err beasts)

Now to further this along and increase the need and staying power of Core a +1 to cap for all core units, and a -1 to cap for all mounted units.

What are others thoughts?

I think the problem with any army specific caps is that it's tough for the core rulebook to create rules specific to a given army. The issue being, once it comes time to update that army book, you either have to keep what you've written in the core book or contradict it.

The core and mounted options are interesting. I don't think the mounted one has any realistic affect though. I don't think I've ever seen a cav unit with a full 3 rank bonus. Just too expensive.

Core option might have legs though...

RZ

Red_Zeke wrote:I think the problem with any army specific caps is that it's tough for the core rulebook to create rules specific to a given army. The issue being, once it comes time to update that army book, you either have to keep what you've written in the core book or contradict it.

The core and mounted options are interesting. I don't think the mounted one has any realistic affect though. I don't think I've ever seen a cav unit with a full 3 rank bonus. Just too expensive.

Core option might have legs though...

RZ

I've seen it one time with 3 and that was goblin wolf riders, before my RBT shot at them.

I agree with this idea, but the cap was necessary in this ed. because horde armies would dominate otherwise, they could just have units of 40-50 Clanrats/Goblins, arranged 5x8/10, and have a 10+ SCR

We ran a playtest once where your maximum rank bonus was equal to your frontage -2.

So with a frontage of 5 your max. rank bonus would be +3.

If your frontage was 8 models you could claim a rank bonus of up to +6.

This way you are accepting a penalty (greater chance of multiple charges, less maneauverable etc.) for the increased rank bonus.

It also means you don't end up with odd looking 'long units' with a frontage of 5 men with 40 blokes standing behind them in a line.

It worked reasonably well tbh and certainly encourage larger units - which I always prefer.

Sounds like a good idea there Boshek. Gives my 6x6 big un block more of a KAPOW