It’s a bit of Thread-o-mancy, but since I had to wait for my Uncharted Empires book (it got lost in the mail) I couldn;t reply informed earlier.
I do like the Uncharted Empires theme lists for the armies that I play: League of Rhordia and Kingdoms of Men. I also do like the UE lists for several armies that I don’t play, such as free dwarves and Tkin. That said, I do not like the Order of the Brothermark theme list. I’ll try to explain here why.
The order of the Brothermark list seems not meaningful different from its main list - Basilea. I could literealy port over my Basliean army with only very minor changes (Lancers -> Skirmishers, Arbalest ->Siege artillery) without it playing differently.
My gut feeling (as I haven’t played Brothermark yet) is that it plays exactly the same as the Basilean list. The new additions (Slightly cheaper and more versatile bowmen, slightly better and more expensive knights, other light cavalry) fill the same roles as their Basilean counterparts. Indeed, the army loses one major tactical option - Elohi.
If you compare this to the League of Rhordia theme lists, the differences become apparent. The league list adds several very powerful tools to the parent list (war altar, honour guard) in exchange for other units. League plays differently that it’s parrent list, while Brothermark seems not to.
Furthermore, the inclusion of some very Basilean items such as the Phoenix and the Palace guard to the Brothermark list feel wrong. These models are one of the defining features of the parrent list, adding them to theme lists makes them more similar.
The order of the green lady does not suffer from this. The list (inclusion of heavy cavalry and heavy infantry to Forces of Nature) plays and feels different than the original.
How would I adress this?
Of course generating ideas for your own armies is usually easier and very dangerous for the internal balance of the system as a whole. Please read the below as a set of ideas, for the RC to use (or ignore) as they see fit.
a) lose the Phoenix and the ogre palace guard from the Brothermark army list. Maybe swtich the high paladin on elder dragon for a more brotherhood-themed guy with more or less the same stats.
b) Add the order of the forsaken (irregular) to the Brothermark as well as a light and medium flying hero to the army list. Exemplar on pegasus -comparable to KoM captain on pegasus and Exemplar on flying beast (comparable to kom general on flying beast). This would emphasis the Brotherhood army as an army of heroic individuals instead of ogres and firebirds.
c) return the villein initiate cavalry unit (Me 4+; 7/14 att; TC 2; def 5+; nerve 13/15 and 20/22) at a serious discount. This kind of unit (iniate knights aka kights errant) made the Brotherhood army special to me in V2; I’d like that returned for V3.