8th Edition Warbands and Mighty Empire

So, my friends and I have been tooling around with updating this for 8th edition.  Google searches have revealed others attempting the same thing, but it appears most have been abandoned or didn't post their final decisions.

I'm going off for 6 weeks of training and I think I'll really dig into the army books to make something unique, but I figured I'd pop on here and see what everyone's got going first.

The three sticking points we're on is transitioning from Warbands to Mighty Empire, a growth system to "grow" a champion into a hero (rather than simply using xp to buy a hero when you have enough) and magic.

1.  SO, for Magic, we currently have:  2d3 per turn only can take Spells Sig,1,2,3.  Dispel gets highest of the 2d3.  I don't like it.  I feel if I want an inexperienced caster to throw one last ditch effort he should be able too.  I'm thinking...an exponential system.  Something like d8 halved, then add wizard levels to each.  If you use up to three die to cast, no change.  But if you use four, you miscast on double 5 and double 6.  If you use five, double 4,5 and 6.  If you use 6 double 3,4,5,6

Also, thinking of making bound items "one time use" and auto-cast.  Otherwise it will be a choice of spell or bound item and caskets of souls will be MASSIVE.  We're also thinking about editing the miscast table to prevent cupped hands/hell heart from being too massive.

2.  We have two ideas for character growth:

   a.  After every battle(or week?), characters get two growth points to spend.  The points can be spend in any of the following catergories, but only one point may be invested in a given category per battle(week?):
 
Category 1:  +1 T, W, or Ld
Category 2:  +1 WS, BS, A, S
Category 3:  +1 M, I
Category 4:  +10 pts Magic Item Allowance
 
Keep in mind that no warband leaders stats can go beyond the appropriate army's highest hero stats until warband pass beyond 600 pts.  In addition, if a warband leader is mounted upon a mount not accessible to that army's heroes, then the warband leader may only utilize one point per battle(week).  Upon utilizing 4 points, the mount must be abandoned and the leader may begin to spend 2 points per battle(week).

The part about mounts is specifically for Mournfangs and NecroKnights lol.

  and b.  An achievement type system based on in combat goals (and partially inspired by Wildcard's Ogre Achievements) but they should probably promote playing in a different way.  Something like "Warband Leader never joins a unit"  = +1 to Ld.  That way there is risk and a complete change in regular tactics to garner the reward.  Something that makes winning harder, but character growth gauranteed (a choice between a more powerful character or a more powerful warband).  Because you should have some sort of personal investment in your warband as well.  If we make it difficult enough then you could even have a hero-hammer, but you're warband would be piddly in comparison.


Thoughts?

This is for 500pt games?

I would stick with the % system, and minimum three units as it should prevent large blocks.

Magic:

I think 2d3 is a great, tried and tested and I enjoy it. Bound items don't need to be changed as they often have lower casting values so are still useful. The 2d3 system is great as it stops people going magic heavy, but still makes magic a useful too to have. Not to mention with hero and lord choices limited to 125pts it would be hard to get all the crazy magic items (which should limit magic in a good way anyway).

I don't see a need to limit spell choices either, if a player gets purple sun and doesn't swap it out then he will run into problems as casting a 15+ on the average 3-4 power dice is not going to happen often, and when the winds are bad his wizard will be useless.

Casket of souls is not a problem as it is 135pts so above the 25% limit on rare for 500pt games. As you can see again the percentage system saves the day when it comes to limiting magic.

The 2d3 combined with the % system limit magic quite well, without making it useless.

Lol, right now we are going on the actual warband rules.  We're starting at 250 and growing to 500 before moving on to Lord choices and trying to work it into a campaign.

They didn't seem to make magic rules (didn't play 7th, so maybe it didn't need mentioning).  The purple sun issue is exactly the problem.  Without limiting spells, if someone gets that massive spell, their wizard is almost useless.  Everyone argues that those spells are massive at such a small level, but how much less massive is Warp Lightning or even Bonecrusher when armies only have like 20 models?  Bonecrusher sould wipe out half a warband.

I guess the percentage system would still work, since we can take unit champions as leader choices.  The problem is, I can have a Mournfang Crusher as my warband leader...  That's pretty massive at this small scale.  I'd like to encourage choices like Bull Champion, rather than just starting with a Hero or making a massive choice.  That way you can grow with the fluff, your champion evolves into a specialized leader and eventually into a homegrown special character (when you get to the campaign).

They didn't seem to make magic rules (didn't play 7th, so maybe it didn't need mentioning).  The purple sun issue is exactly the problem.  Without limiting spells, if someone gets that massive spell, their wizard is almost useless.  Everyone argues that those spells are massive at such a small level, but how much less massive is Warp Lightning or even Bonecrusher when armies only have like 20 models?  Bonecrusher sould wipe out half a warband.

But that makes taking purple sun a huge risk as you might not even get it off in a game.  This will force people to pick a lore with a good signature spell.

I guess the percentage system would still work, since we can take unit champions as leader choices.  The problem is, I can have a Mournfang Crusher as my warband leader...  That's pretty massive at this small scale.  I'd like to encourage choices like Bull Champion, rather than just starting with a Hero or making a massive choice.  That way you can grow with the fluff, your champion evolves into a specialized leader and eventually into a homegrown special character (when you get to the campaign).

Again the percentage system will force most armies to use champions in the beginning as 25% of 250 is 75pts not many heroes(or wizards, which will limit magic in the beginning too) are under that and the ones that are are not that amazing. it means ogres will be more likely to use unit champions in the beginning and empire or goblins get to use a basic hero which has comparable states to an ogre champion.