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 Just Tony wrote:

To clarify, you are the one that got me some PDFs of books, correct? If so, I'm definitely grateful as it got the classichammer part of my local scene (small group with an even smaller subset, admittedly. But enough FLGS's that are willing to host Classichammer events that it may wind up growing) up and running. Now, if you're the one that had the PDF of the Lore of Death cards that were released as a supplement? I may be prepared to perform acts of gratitude in exchange for that PDF again.

I will look into it.

I still have the Dark Elf update and Dark Magic pdf's on my PC. I have some of the Magic pdfs somewhere. I cannot remember if I have lore of death though.

8th edition was the superior game in almost every respect because of the reasons people disliked it.

Steadfast: The reason infantry could actually function properly. The only time you ever saw infantry in a game during 6th and 7th is if it was inherently stubborn, unbreakable or had Always Strikes First with the exception of Chaos Chosen from 7th because you could stack so many special rules on them it was insane. Apart from this all you needed to do was break the unit with a heavy hitting, fear causing unit and call it a day. Simple as that. Steadfast allowed infantry units to fulfill their role as anvils by holding down the enemy and breaking the with a Calvary charge to the flank...kinda like real medieval warfare.

Random charge distance: When 8th edition dropped I was opposed to this change. However, after playing a few games I realized that it removed the "no mans land" syndrome from the game. In 6th and 7th all you needed to do was take cavalry and you'd always have the charge. Even if you took a regular Orc boy unit vs. a Halberdier regiment, they'd just stand their 9" away from each other waiting for the other to attempt the charge only to fail and be countercharged. Random charge range opened up the playing field, allowing slower units a chance to even make it into combat. And although manoeuvring and blocking tactics was a huge part of Warhammer, the random movement element added a sense of intensity that could not be replicated by the more sterile defined charge distance. I think it added a lot more excitement to the game and at the same time made infantry more viable.

Magic Phase: The 8th edition magic phase was the best, most balanced magic rules that they've ever created. It had 3 problems however. The first was the the 6th level spells were too powerful and could wipe out entire units. Bad game design. The second was that it didn't escalate with game size. This could have changed to support games 3000 points and above. The third was that magic resistance was poorly implemented. It should have been a negative to the casting value of a spell when targeting a unit with magic resistance. If they had toned down the 6th level spells, I don't think people would have much to complain about. If you disregard the offending spells, the core mechanics of it are sound, much more so than previous editions. Even 6th and 7th had their issues if you took nothing but spell casters. I remember facing a tzeentch army with 24+ power dice to my 6 dispel dice. I also remember a few of my units being deleted entirely by dreaded 13th and Gateway. So uber spells did exist before 8th did.

I don't understand the dislike for 8th and I never will. The changes to the game made it superior to every other game out there, and yet also killed much interest in it. I can't tell if people genuinely didn't think about the rules objectively, but it seems to me that 8th was pretty much everything I looked for in a massive fantasy battle game.

The main problem of 8th was that all improvements over 7th were immediately negated
adding steadfast to make infantry blocks worth again and change artillery and spells to remove those blocks by 1 shot/attacke

and after the first army books hit it ended as the monster edition and standard infantry were not an option again

 Brutus_Apex wrote:
8th edition was the superior game in almost every respect because of the reasons people disliked it.

Steadfast: The reason infantry could actually function properly. The only time you ever saw infantry in a game during 6th and 7th is if it was inherently stubborn, unbreakable or had Always Strikes First with the exception of Chaos Chosen from 7th because you could stack so many special rules on them it was insane. Apart from this all you needed to do was break the unit with a heavy hitting, fear causing unit and call it a day. Simple as that. Steadfast allowed infantry units to fulfill their role as anvils by holding down the enemy and breaking the with a Calvary charge to the flank...kinda like real medieval warfare.

Except it isn't, as those steadfast blocks of units can't be broken even if flanked. Meaning that unless you had an even bigger block of infantry you aren't going to budge that cannon fodder.
Steadfast isn't a bad idea per se and it does have merit, its just I don't think they handled it as well as they should have, and it favored cheap units a little too much.

Also, pretty sure using a hard hitting, fear causing unit to break a massive formation is closer to classical warfare than 8th's approach, as in 8th if you wanted a unit to go away you had to grind them down, even if they have bad stats. In 7th you just had to play the morale game, which is a lot closer to how they used to break large groups of poorly trained infantry or even armored infantry in medieval and classical times.
Killing a regiment to the last man was actually pretty rare, as that was a risky, bloody business that could backfire, especially against a well armored enemy. Instead, they tried to break morale first, or at least keep their nerve for longer than the enemy. Its easier to kill an enemy if they are fleeing.

The fact that 8th ed changed combat to be more attrition based rather than morale based actually made it less similar to classical combat for that reason, not more.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Brutus_Apex wrote:


Random charge distance: When 8th edition dropped I was opposed to this change. However, after playing a few games I realized that it removed the "no mans land" syndrome from the game. In 6th and 7th all you needed to do was take cavalry and you'd always have the charge. Even if you took a regular Orc boy unit vs. a Halberdier regiment, they'd just stand their 9" away from each other waiting for the other to attempt the charge only to fail and be countercharged. Random charge range opened up the playing field, allowing slower units a chance to even make it into combat. And although manoeuvring and blocking tactics was a huge part of Warhammer, the random movement element added a sense of intensity that could not be replicated by the more sterile defined charge distance. I think it added a lot more excitement to the game and at the same time made infantry more viable.

Yeah, that's fair, I can see the merit in that.

 Brutus_Apex wrote:

Magic Phase: The 8th edition magic phase was the best, most balanced magic rules that they've ever created. It had 3 problems however. The first was the the 6th level spells were too powerful and could wipe out entire units. Bad game design. The second was that it didn't escalate with game size. This could have changed to support games 3000 points and above. The third was that magic resistance was poorly implemented. It should have been a negative to the casting value of a spell when targeting a unit with magic resistance. If they had toned down the 6th level spells, I don't think people would have much to complain about. If you disregard the offending spells, the core mechanics of it are sound, much more so than previous editions. Even 6th and 7th had their issues if you took nothing but spell casters. I remember facing a tzeentch army with 24+ power dice to my 6 dispel dice. I also remember a few of my units being deleted entirely by dreaded 13th and Gateway. So uber spells did exist before 8th did.

The 8th ed uber spells, funnily enough, were intended to counter steadfast blocks, iirc.
Unfortunately, they also murdered small (or even medium. In 8th if you don't have blocks of 30 models in a block you are doing it wrong. Which is fine for cheap cannon fodder, as you can take better stuff to support them. Not so much for pricier units) units of elite infantry even more.
They should have made the spells mainly scale with unit sizes with some influence from strength and toughness, as those are the stats that cannon fodder tends to lack.

Except it isn't, as those steadfast blocks of units can't be broken even if flanked. Meaning that unless you had an even bigger block of infantry you aren't going to budge that cannon fodder.
Steadfast isn't a bad idea per se and it does have merit, its just I don't think they handled it as well as they should have, and it favored cheap units a little too much.

I will concede that Steadfast should have been broken by a flank or rear charge with a unit of at least 1 rank and/or a monstrous creature. That would have made a more tactical game overall.

Also, pretty sure using a hard hitting, fear causing unit to break a massive formation is closer to classical warfare than 8th's approach, as in 8th if you wanted a unit to go away you had to grind them down, even if they have bad stats. In 7th you just had to play the morale game, which is a lot closer to how they used to break large groups of poorly trained infantry or even armored infantry in medieval and classical times.

Fear should have been a bigger part in 8th, I agree. But having an autobreak scenario was too punishing for the regular rank and file. A negative modifier for fear and terror causing units against steadfast units would have been a step in the right direction.

Yeah, a modifier would have been the right approach. That way fear and terror would have still been useful against steadfast without completely invalidating it.

Its good to see, that someone picking up Fantasy. Keep it up and happy wargaming with WHFB!

 Just Tony wrote:

There were no rules for the Mortar, and what I plan on doing once I finally manage to get the multiple copies of that boxed set that I want is to customize those into Jezzails. You can pretty much use them as any weapons team stand in when it comes down to it, but I refuse to get pewter or Failcast Jezzail teams.

Actually, I found the rules for the Mortar in the 7th edition army book. 65 points.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I went ahead and picked up the plastic High Elf Prince and Noble set, which I am stoked about. I didn't know this was even made, and I was going through looking for older metal minis to replace the Prince on the Griffon that came in the Island of Blood set, which seems to me way over powering. I wanted to keep all my armies kind of balanced. Has anyone played the Prince on the Griffon in the game? Does it just wax units it faces, like the Clanrats?

While the minis from Island of Blood are the most detailed of the 3 sets I have, man the pieces are a pain in the ass to remove from their sprues without messing up. I tore a small spike near the blades on two of my Sea Guard. Lame.

I was thinking of replacing a unit of Empire Hand Gunners or Spearmen with Greatswords or some Knights. The Knights seem to be pretty pricey on Ebay, are they worth it?

KTG17 wrote:

I went ahead and picked up the plastic High Elf Prince and Noble set, which I am stoked about. I didn't know this was even made, and I was going through looking for older metal minis to replace the Prince on the Griffon that came in the Island of Blood set, which seems to me way over powering. I wanted to keep all my armies kind of balanced. Has anyone played the Prince on the Griffon in the game? Does it just wax units it faces, like the Clanrats?

While the minis from Island of Blood are the most detailed of the 3 sets I have, man the pieces are a pain in the ass to remove from their sprues without messing up. I tore a small spike near the blades on two of my Sea Guard. Lame.

I was thinking of replacing a unit of Empire Hand Gunners or Spearmen with Greatswords or some Knights. The Knights seem to be pretty pricey on Ebay, are they worth it?

The Griffon is fine. I don't think anyone would object to playing against it and it is a lovely model as well. In 8th (not sure which edition you settled on after all the back and forth), it was toughness 5 with no save and four wounds - it was relatively easy to kill for a 150 point monster. Even clanrats would eventually sneak a few wounds through and you are not really killing many points of those each round of combat to compensate.

In general a griffon was not considered a hard/competitive choice (in 8th edition anyway) for two reasons - relatively squishy/easy to bring down and you could take a dragon instead. If you took it with a Noble it was not particularly dangerous and if you took it with a prince it was expensive and would not do enough for the points. IMO a Griffon is a great choice for a softer list and looks great. Take one (or two!)

I've run a Lord on Griffon, named and unnamed, in both 6th and 7th Editions. They weren't hard to handle from pretty much any army. It's real benefit is terror, like a dragon, and the mobility to terror bomb units pretty much anywhere with flight. Ironically, the games I played in 8th I left the Griffon Rider home, as there were better uses of the points.

The big thing about Griffons, no matter what army runs them, is getting all the attacks aimed at it. IF your Griffon doesn't get shot out from under your Lord in the first place, in combat a unit can dedicate all attacks to the Griffon, leaving you with a 2D6 flee move when you break. And since you came into combat down 5 CR, you WILL break.


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Ooops, saw the part about the Knights. They are totally worth it. If you are going to lose a unit, make sure it's one that has a lesser role on the field. I am in love with Spear regiments, but the Handguns are more valuable in the detachment role. If you're still sticking with Ravening Hordes, I'd stick with the Spearmen as an Anvil unit. Greatswords are a decent hammer unit, but Knights are better.

Thanks everyone. What happens to the Prince if the Griffon gets killed? There was no model for a Prince on foot in the box...

Essentially you replace him with a foot model. Best option is to construct the foot model from the Prince set to look about as close to the Griffon Rider as possible.

Gotcha. When I was collecting my Orc and Empire models, I kept two sprues of each Hero, Musician, and Standard that came in the 6th box, thinking that I could have one hero mounted, and one on foot. Last night I realized that these sprues did not also included a unit Champion. . . so now I guess I need to pick up some more models.

I don't know how you guys built and painted large units of 20 or so models for your armies. Basing these guys so they dont bump each other in tight formation is a pain in the ass. I can only imagine what hell the multi-part kits had to have been like.

KTG17 wrote:
Gotcha. When I was collecting my Orc and Empire models, I kept two sprues of each Hero, Musician, and Standard that came in the 6th box, thinking that I could have one hero mounted, and one on foot. Last night I realized that these sprues did not also included a unit Champion. . . so now I guess I need to pick up some more models.

I don't know how you guys built and painted large units of 20 or so models for your armies. Basing these guys so they dont bump each other in tight formation is a pain in the ass. I can only imagine what hell the multi-part kits had to have been like.

With a lot of patience. You thought you had it bad, try playing lizardmen. Those damned tails kept getting in the way
Supposedly the reason why they dropped rank combat in AoS is because they wanted to making flashy, dynamic models, and that didn't translate well to proper ranked combat.
Personally, I would have preferred they just made the bases a little bigger instead of throwing it all in the bin. I wouldn't be so resistant towards AoS if it had kept phalanges.

Conquest seems to have found a nice synthesis between the two styles; the models are on round bases, but they fit into trays with indentations with plenty of space between the models. So they can still be in a phalanx whilst being quite dynamic.

I wish to inform everyone that I have acquired a box of Black Orcs. The plastic set with standard and musician.

Jealous?????????????????????

Not really sure how great they are, but I wanted a bad-ass formation of orcs in my army. The Choppa and Arrer Boyz weren't cutting it.

Only 10 in the set, which is all I want.

So I have to ask, are they any good?

They hit hard, are survivable, and help quell animosity. so yeah, they are worth it.

Actually, will have to check to make sure that's accurate with Ravening Hordes.

KTG17 wrote:
I wish to inform everyone that I have acquired a box of Black Orcs. The plastic set with standard and musician.

Jealous?????????????????????

Not really sure how great they are, but I wanted a bad-ass formation of orcs in my army. The Choppa and Arrer Boyz weren't cutting it.

Only 10 in the set, which is all I want.

So I have to ask, are they any good?

No, not jealous, I have 43 Black Orcs painted and ready for battle right there in my cupboard I love my Black Orcs, although they rarely win the game.
Plus is, they are very reliable and keep the rest of the army going - but they are also very expensive.
I used to play them in larger units of 20 or even 23 with full command, but atm I consider it to be too costly and I got away from that approach.

I now use them sometimes as a small unit of 10 models to flank charge enemies who got stuck in Night goblin mobs or similar chaff units. In CE this is easier, as the Night Goblins can be equipped with Netters and they reduce the enemy unit's strength by 1 on a 2+
In 6th, it is a bit harder to tarpit enemy units with your low-morale, shadow loving, elves-fearing, no-good cavecreepers You have to make sure that they are in the general's bubble. So having the general and / or an army standard close, or even inside the small black orc unit also is a valid strategy. Just make sure they can't be charged directly or countercharged in the following round (after you wiped the foolish enemy off the plate with your bonecracker unit)




Automatically Appended Next Post:
In 8th Edition, I sometimes used a small unit of Black Orks as carrier for my level 4 mage. Animosity really sucks if you have a spellcaster in the unit, rendering him completely useless in the upcoming magic phase.
This could also be a strategy for 6th. Were black orcs immune to psychology in 6th? I can't remember. I think they were in 7th and 8th.

43? All in one mob? Sheesh. I am already getting annoyed with positioning everyone on their base so they dont touch the guy next to them.

Ok so I am on to movement trays. I know I have small units but I figured why not. I know they arent sold anymore so I have to pay more for second hand. Are the adjustable sets by GW good for what I am doing? Should I use something else? Never held any or seen them up close so I have no idea which way to do on this.

KTG17 wrote:
43? All in one mob? Sheesh. I am already getting annoyed with positioning everyone on their base so they dont touch the guy next to them.

Ok so I am on to movement trays. I know I have small units but I figured why not. I know they arent sold anymore so I have to pay more for second hand. Are the adjustable sets by GW good for what I am doing? Should I use something else? Never held any or seen them up close so I have no idea which way to do on this.

You can just make your own movement try.
Get some foamboard, reinforce it with plasticard and use some sprues for the edges.
You could just use plasticard for the bottom instead of foamboard, but I found its a bit too flimsy, and you want a nice sturdy platform for your models to stand on. You can even use a plate of metal and magnetize the bottom of everyone so they stick to it.

I've gotten all three styles of movement trays that GW has made, and they all work for the job. The modular set is good if you have a steady hand to cut with. The other sets I tried my hand at customizing to fit certain unit types. It was a pain to glue them, and the modular tray would have made that part so much easier. You'd definitely need the modular kit for 5 wide units with 25mm or cav bases.

KTG17 wrote:

43? All in one mob? Sheesh. I am already getting annoyed with positioning everyone on their base so they dont touch the guy next to them.

No, when I use the full amount of Black Orcs, I set up 2 Mobs with 20 and 23 Models.

I have only 20 plastic black orcs, they are really a pain in the ass to position beside each other, true!

And I have the old metal chunk black orcs with paired weapons, where one looks almost the same as the other. But they fit nicely in a regiment.

KTG17 wrote:

Ok so I am on to movement trays. I know I have small units but I figured why not. I know they arent sold anymore so I have to pay more for second hand. Are the adjustable sets by GW good for what I am doing? Should I use something else? Never held any or seen them up close so I have no idea which way to do on this.

No need for buying the GW movement trays, there are plenty of other sources for these. I own a lot of GW trays myself, the old ones that came as a set of I think 4 for 20 20x20mm infantry
and 4 for 10 20x20mm minis.
They were very unfit for Orcs though, at least if you don't want to play them 4 models wide. I bought some larger trays for my big mobs, and bought some tinfoil and some magnetised bases and I am more or less happy with this solution. (With the downside that the hollow bases have very little surface to pluck the magnetised base on, just the corners. And if you remove models, the magnetised base tends to stick to the foil. But all in all better than models falling, around while driving them from A to B for a game. Not to mention all the swearing if an arm or banner fell off.

Ok lots to update everyone on and I am excited about it! Over the weekend I finally got around to totalling up the minis that I have using Ravening Hordes and determining how big my armies should be, based on what I have from the 6th, 7th, and 8th edition sets. I can pretty much field 700 point armies without a lot of extra purchases between the Empire, Orcs, Dwarves, Goblins, High Elves, and Skaven. In some cases, I had to fill in some points with magic items from the Ravening Hordes lists or the general ones from the 6th edition rulebook.

I started assembing my Orc army over the weekend. I have a bunch of two-choppa Boyz, Arrer Boyz, two Standards, two Musicians, two Big Bosses, Shaman, and Chariot, and a box of Black Orcs on the way. Despite all the extra minis, I really want to keep my armies around the same size, so I am actually not even using most of that I had. I decided to settle on a unit of 10 two-choppa boyz, a unit of Arrer Boyz, both with a Champion, Musician, and Standard. I am not even sure if there is any point to having all of those extras in a shooty unit like the Arrer Boyz, but all the other units I have in my starter sets have those three, so I decided to give it to them (as well as the Empire Handgunners). In all honestly, the units look much better with the Standards and all that.

So my Orc army:

Big Boss - 65
- Light Armor - 2
- Shield - 2
- Boar - 12
- Bronze Axe - 50 (Magic Item)
* I also have the same Big Boss on foot incase he loses the Boar

Shaman - 65
- Badum Staff - 50 (Magic Item)

10 Black Orcs - 120
- Champion, Standard, Musician - 30

10 Choppa Boyz - 50
- Additional Choppas -20
- Champion, Standard, Musician - 30

10 Arrer Boyz - 50
- Bows - 40
- Champion, Standard, Musician - 30

Chariot - 80

Total = 696

The Chariot is a really nice model! I never looked at it closely before, and none of my other armies have anything like it, so going to do the best job I can on it.

I know some of you will think my units are a little light, but to be honest, I am not enthusiastic about building large blocks of infantry, nor to I want to build up these armies any larger than they already are, because I would like to collect a few others and keep those in about the same size.

So that being said, I haven't put them together yet, but here is what I am planning for the other armies:

-- Empire --

Captain - 50
- Light Armor - 2
- Shield - 2
- Warhorse - 10
- Sword of Justice - 50 (Magic)
* I also have the same Captain on foot incase he loses the horse

Battle Wizard - 60
- Grey Wand - 50 (Magic)

5 Knightly Order - 120 (*Have yet to be purchased)
- Champion, Standard, Musician - 45

10 Spearmen - 70
- Champion, Standard, Musician - 30

10 Handgunners
- Champion, Standard, Musician - 30

Great Cannon - 100

Total = 699


-- Dwarves --

Thane - 50
- Heavy Armor - 4
- Shield - 2
- Pistol - 7
- Armor of Granite - 45 (Magic)

Dragon Slayer - 90 (I know this guy is supposed to be part of the unit, but the starter set seems to have him as a character, so I thought I would just let him run around by himself since I don't have a lot of options with these guys. I do not want to buy a unit of Troll Slayers.

12 Warriors - 84
- Champion, Standard, Musician - 30

10 Miners - 100
- Champion, Standard, Musician - 30

10 Thunderers - 120
- Champion, Standard, Musician - 30

Great Cannon - 100

Total = 702


-- Goblins --

** I know I am spending a lot of points on magic items here, but I am not sure what else to do. I do not want another unit of Goblins, nor calvary. Maybe a second Bolt Thrower? I thought about a Rock Thrower but those seem hard to find.

Night Goblin Big Boss - 30
- Light Armor - 2
- Shield - 2
- Battered Bronze Axe - 50 (Magic)
- Talisman of Protection - 15 (Magic)

Night Goblin Shaman - 50
- Badum Staff - 50 (Magic)

20 Night Goblins - 40
- Spears - 20
- Champion, Standard, Musician - 30

20 Night Goblins - 40
- Spears - 20
- Champion, Standard, Musician - 30


20 Night Goblins - 40
- Bows - 20
- Champion, Standard, Musician - 30

10 Spider Riders - 80
- Spears - 20
- Shields - 10
- Champion, Standard, Musician - 45

Troll - 50

Bolt Thrower - 30

Total = 704


-- High Elves --

** I am ditching the Prince on the Griffin that came in the starter for now.

Commander - 65
- Light Armor - 2
- Shield - 2
- Elven Steed - 12
- Boarding for Steed - 4
* I also have the same Commander on foot incase he loses the horse

Mage - 85
- Amulet of Fire - 20 (Magic)
- Crown of Saphery - 20 (Magic)

5 Ellyrian Reavers - 85
- Spears - 5
- Bows - 25
- Champion, Standard, Musician - 45

10 Seaguard - 150
- Champion, Standard, Musician - 30

10 Swordmasters - 120
- Champion, Standard, Musician - 30

Total = 700


-- Skaven --

Chieftan - 50
- Heavy Armor - 2
- Halberd - 4
- Talisman of Protection - 15 (Magic)

Warlock Engineer - 60
- Pistol - 7
- Halberd - 4

20 Clanrats - 120
- Spears - 40
- Shields - 20
- Champion, Standard, Musician - 30

20 Clanrats - 120
- Shields - 20
- Champion, Standard, Musician - 30

Wind Mortar - 65

Fire Thrower - 24

Beastmaster - 10
- 2 Rat Ogres - 80

Total = 701


So thats it! I am hoping these give me just enough to have a good time with and have some variety. Honestly, just thinking about painting all of the Skaven and Goblins, I will probably be sick of just what I have by the time I am done.

The next armies I collect will be along these lines, and I am leaning towards Vampire Counts, Chaos, and Lizardmen.

What does everyone think?

Oh - quick question, the Skaven Weapon teams are supposed to be withing a certain distance of their parent units, but I don't have a lot of units and I just wonder how boring that would be on a tabletop. Think I could move these independently? I am sure there are pros and cons with that, but I just thought it would make the army more interesting.

Don't forget that your Orcs and Goblins are actually the same army. That's enough to squeeze in a 1,500 point force almost.

Add to that the ability to use a Dwarf unit as Dogs of War to an existing force, and you have some modularity to get up to 1,000 pts. That was our "starter" battle size, back in 6th. It gave a flexible force with some interaction, and only forced someone to take 2 core units. Worked out for the best, I think.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, you could proxy the Griffon Prince as a Pegasus Noble.

Yeah I thought about this, but I wasn't sure if it would really be legit to fill in my Goblin army with Orcs, as I can't see any self respecting Orc reporting to a Goblin. I also feel bringing in Orcs brings a level of seriousness to the Goblins that shouldn't be there.

Actually briefly looking over the goblins I don't see how they can ever win. But that might make them fun.

KTG17 wrote:
Yeah I thought about this, but I wasn't sure if it would really be legit to fill in my Goblin army with Orcs, as I can't see any self respecting Orc reporting to a Goblin. I also feel bringing in Orcs brings a level of seriousness to the Goblins that shouldn't be there.

Actually briefly looking over the goblins I don't see how they can ever win. But that might make them fun.

Try nightgoblins. I remember them being quite nasty, especially when fanatics are involved.

Well the Skull Pass includes a bunch of them, so I got all those.

What do people think of the Skaven weapon teams moving independently? It does open them up to attacks like characters, but I thought with the little armies I have, I would need more tactical options to keep things interesting.

As long as your opponent agrees, and you understand the actual rules as written, I see no problem with it. Me personally, I would proxy them as Jezzails. Better weapons, and form a viable unit.