First Thoughts on a Spearhead General with Too Much Resurrection?
A quick balance chat over a Spearhead idea
Sometimes a whole hobby post starts from just a few messages, and this was exactly one of those moments. We were talking about a Spearhead concept and one thing immediately stood out: the general’s resurrection potential might be a bit too much.
Wilini summed it up pretty well — the list itself looked interesting, but the question was whether the general becomes too overpowered if he can bring back D3 models, and then also gets another +D3 as a passive every turn.
When you add that together, we are suddenly looking at 2D3 models coming back, which in practice could mean rebuilding a unit much faster than the opponent can reasonably chip it down. In a small-format game like Spearhead, that kind of recursion can snowball really hard.
Why it feels dangerous
The main concern here is not just raw healing, but the way it affects the pace of the game.
If one character can:
- resurrect D3 models actively,
- get +D3 models back passively every turn,
- and keep a key unit on the table far longer than expected,
then the opponent may feel like their progress keeps getting erased.
That is often where “strong” stops being “fun”. Even if the rule is technically costed correctly, it may still create frustrating gameplay if a unit can be practically rebuilt over and over.
In other words: if 2D3 models per turn is realistic, then yes — we can absolutely see how that might end up reviving nearly a whole unit across a couple of turns.
A possible softer version
The alternative idea suggested in chat was simple and sensible: instead of stacking resurrection too freely, maybe the general should have something like:
- D3+1 once per turn
…and then just see how it plays on the table.
We like this kind of approach because it keeps the identity of the character intact — the general still feels like a resurrection-focused support piece — but it gives the rule a clearer ceiling. It is easier to test, easier to remember, and probably easier to balance.
Our takeaway
At this stage, our feeling is pretty straightforward:
- the Spearhead idea itself sounds cool,
- the general may be overtuned if both resurrection effects stack too efficiently,
- and a more limited once-per-turn version sounds like a smarter starting point for testing.
This is exactly the sort of thing we love in army-building discussions: not just “is it powerful?”, but “does it stay fun after turn three?”. A mechanic that lets a unit keep standing back up is flavorful, but in a compact format like Spearhead it probably needs a careful cap.
If we were testing it ourselves, we would definitely start with the more restrained version first and only scale it up if it felt too weak.
Sometimes the best army-building conversations are the short ones — just enough to spot a rule that might go from exciting to oppressive very quickly.