BEFORE YOU READ:
1. Wall of text incoming.
2. Also, I reffer to Great Eagles a lot not because they are overpowered, but because they serve as a great example of how spare points grant usabiltiy.
3. Long live T9A - I wholeheartedly support this project, in case anyone has any doubts.
4. Happy reading. Comments warmly welcomed.


CHARACTERS

Prince: Master of Canreig Tower
Initial thoughts:
What role can it possibly have: Fighting? No - anything fighting unit in combat kills him, and due to fighting reflexes any soft unit will not kill him. He can be in either:
weak unit - like archers or spears, or strong unit - like white lions or swordmasters. Now let's do a case study: what use is his fighting abilities - are there any units in the game, that can't kill the weak / strong unit when the master is inside? And the other way around: out of units that decide to fight in order to cherry pick the master, what actual difference does he make? So yeah, maybe he can fight, but 3s6 attacks don't make any difference when in unit with 30s3, 30s5 or 20s6 attacks. His attacks just aren't a facor in that scale - if something can kill that unit, it can do it regardless if the hero is inside or not.

Possible builds:
some arcane item, 2+ armour save armor, maybe a 4+ ward save. Even if you invest extra points in protection, this means that you:
1. didn't increases fighting capabilities of your unit in any way
2. you don't have those points to utilize them elsewhere.

Alternatives:
Since he can't fight, his only use is as a wizard. L4 wizard costs 215 points, Prince with this honor costs 285. So so far you have paid 70 pts extra for extra combat prowess which you will effectively never use, 3s6 attacks who are mostly negligible and +1 casting bonus instead of possible +2. Access to 8 spells is interesting, but it's not worth +70 points and lack of +2/+2 casting / dispelling modifier.

verdict:
Unusable.

How to repair:
For starters, If you want someone to take him at all in his current form, he has to be cheaper by 70 points.
Furthermore, if we trully want to see Master of Canreig Tower leading elite units (or weak units) and fighting in 1st line of combat, he has to have some utility. Right now he doesn't have any. Even if you lower the cost by 90 points, making him on par with Archmage, he will still never have a role as a 1st line of combat character. If you want to see him in that role, a total overhaul of character is necessary; maybe he can auto-cast bound spells that target his unit every turn? Something like wardancer's dances. Just a thought. But really, anything that can justify taking him into a roster as a lead-the-unit model.


Commander: Master of Canreig Tower
Initial thoughts:
If you want him as a mage, then he is 145 pts while a mage is 95 pts making for a 50 pts difference. The casting ability of the mage is actually the same, since he will have at least guaranteed 0 + a fair chance of rolling spell 1-6 that is better than 2nd 0 spell.

Possible builds:
Pretty much none. As scroll caddy, a mage is way cheaper. As a bsb, he must be on foot so he limits the benefit of being bsb pretty much to the unit he is with.

Alternatives:
Mage! Way cheaper, at least on par caster, and in grand scheme of things (see above the negilgibility of 3 out 20 attacks) fights just as well.

Verdict:
Unusable

How to repair:
Total overhaul, consistent with as above, with point reduction.


Prince: Prince of Ryma
Initial thoughts:
+95 pts more expensive than normal prince riding a dragon, gets +1A on charge.
There is no way to fit 2 dragons into the roster anyway, and frost and fire phoenixes are now support units which are too weak anyway, so there is no actuall benefit of using his special rules.

Possible builds:
On an Ancient Dragon, with exactly the same items as you would give a normal prince, just 95 pts cheaper overall.

Alternatives:
Normal prince on Dragon. Besides, Dragons are expensive anyway.

Verdict:
Unusable.

How to repair:
Make his special rules actually have some effect on the game. Once again +1s6 attack is nothing compared to a total of 11s6-7 attacks +d6 thunderstomp. It's just not worth +95 pts, and frost / fire phoenixes are to weak and have very nice alternatives (like: RBT's, Sky Sloop, even Shadow Warriors) to justify investing 95pts just to take 2x frost / fire, if you can save 95 pts, take 1x frost and 3 rbt's instead.
If he had special rule like "Dragon gains fly (+2)" then it would be something that could meaningfully impact the game.


Prince: Fleet Officer
Initial thoughts:
Let's just go to possible builds.

Possible builds:
If on foot, he has a useless ability: the Combat Reform is nice, but:
a) can be easily avoided to do so anyway
when put in unit, doesn't increase unit's fighting potential in any way
If on great eagle, then he has exactly same use as a prince, but is 10 pts more expensive.
If on sky sloop (remember that now the volley gun has been removed) then well... he is not gonna fight on this T4 W4 2+ save killing machine. He is just not gonna kill anybody, he costs ~300 pts and a prince on horse / dragon / lion chariot does way more if you try to estimate effectiveness-to-point-spent ratio.

Alternatives:
None, because you don't need model for 300 pts that doesn't bring anything new to the table. just bring something else.

Verdict:
Unusable.

How to repair:
An idea would be to grant the army an ability like old "sea patrol" lists had in 6th edition, he allows entire army to shoot in Turn 0. This is ofcourse just a thought. But really anything, please convince me to consider investing 300 pts in him.


Commander: Fleet Officer
Pretty much the same as above.


Prince or Commander: High Warden of the Flame
Initial thoughts:
Interesting. Consider Fire Phoenix, Lord costs 380, Hero costs 330. They differ by 1 attack, in the scale of things, meaningless. I am not going to pay +50 pts for 1 attack extra, the usability of model doesn't increase in any way.
On foot: useless.

Possible builds:
That's kinda silly, since model already has divine attacks, already has ward save and has option to take great weapon to be able to kill something. What do I actually need on him? Not much, which leads into silly-region like Wizarding Hat? Maybe Bronze Armour, but this is one of those items that are not obligatory and are the first ones to throw out. On lord the problem is even worse, because you have even more pts that you can't spend effectively.
On foot: none. How does he improve the unit he is with? MR1? Not worth 230 pts.

Alternatives:
Taking fire / frost fenixes in rare section. A decent alternative.
If you want fightyness, Dragon is your choice.

Verdict:
On Frost, unusable - he doesn't hit hard enough to be of impact, and the support ability of frost feni can be bought from rare section.
On Fire, usuable - although only the Hero. Lord is too expensive, block points from "Lord" pool and doesn't grany anything meaningful.
On foot, unusable.

How to repair:
On Fire: Save the price on Lord, add an ability. Maybe he doesn't need to roll on "reborn" section.
On Fire and Frost, he doesn't have any meaningful items that would benefit the model; so silly options like warbanner / bronze plate, or wizarding hood come to play.
On Frost: make his Frost T6 and add armour like 2+ armor save, so he can actually work as a "tank" character, who won't hit hard but will soak much. Otherwise, since Fire / Frost have nearly the same survivability, cost as much as a dragon and offer less.
On foot: Give him some skills that would consider me taking him. Maybe he can grant the "reborn" ability to the Flame Wardens? It has to be 4+ reborn to justify taking 300 pts character. 5+ "reborn" for non-Flame Wardens.


Commander: Queen's Companion
Initial thoughts:
Perfect for units of archers, good skills, can be added Bow of Elu but even without it it's ok, a great hero that introduces new type of roster (big archer unit)

Possible builds:
BSB + bow of elu, pretty much no other alternative

Alternatives:
None, but this is good, because this hero is the essence what proper armybook design should be: it allows you to take a choice in reasonable cost, allows you to build army around it, it's not that OP that you HAVE to have him in your army. It's just a unique option. Well done!

Verdict:
Usable in the best way possible, that is: usable, cool but NOT obligatory.

How to repair:
If it works, don't break it.


Prince: Queen's Companion
Initial thoughts:
Why... why would I ever include this character in my army if I can have exactly the same usability (or even more with BSB!) with my Hero section... for 75 pts less!

Possible builds:
Not worth to discuss, because Hero: Queen's Companion is light years ahead.

Verdict:
Unusable.

How to repair:
Maybe he allows to move Shadow Warriors / Sisters to core? Maybe allows to take moonlight arrows on archers? Maybe allows archers to get "skirmish" special rule? Anything really, because right now he will never visit a 4'x 6' table.


Prince or Commander: Royal Huntsmen
Initial thoughts:
Allows for a very strong and healthy alternative to dragons / fighting units.
On chariot: a great deal in pricing.
On foot: a terrible deal in pricing.

Possible builds:
On chariot, a plethora of builds, Dragonhelm + Dusk Stone, or just a 4+ ward save, or Bluffer's Helmet, or Daemon Hunter Helmet with / without Shard of Cenyrn.
On foot... zero, null, nada, NOTHING.

Alternatives:
On chariot none, but once again this is a good things. The character provides unique element to the army, which is not obligatory - the goal of good army design.
On foot, he is equally useless to other characters on foot.

Verdict:
On chariot, too cheap for what he brings to the table.
On foot, brings absolutely nothing. I want to see him leading White Lions, but why would I do that? How do his 3s6 attacks compare to 20s6 attacks?

How to repair:
On chariot: make chariots 15 pts more expensive.
on foot: No idea. Maybe grant Scout + Vanguard to White Lions? Would someone really chose him even then? At least it would be some option...


Archmage and Mage: Asfad Scholar
Initial thoughts:
Do I really need that Bound Spell? Do I really need +6" on spells which have 24" range anyway?

Possible builds:
No different from Archmage

Verdict:
Archamge: Maybe usable, but of negligible impact on the game.
Mage: unusable, since the +6" will effect 2 spells, not 4 spell as in case of Archmage.
On Archmage... well, you have to answer yourself if you can get along without this ability. Answer: you probably can. Now just go find 10 pts and buy yourself a Great Eagle, he will have way more impact on the game.
On Mage, unusable.

How to repair:
Make this skill provide an extra spell instead of bound spell. This of course have to go with price increase for Archmage (40 -> 60) and for Mage (30 -> 35)


Mage or Archmage: Order of the Fiery Heart.
Initial thoughts:
1. Is fire a good idea on archmage?
2. Is young dragon any good?

Possible builds:
hero + young dragon + enchanted shield + dusk stone + extra spell clocks at... 360 pts. You have a 4s5, 4W beast which can't fight with anything other than chaff, and chaff you will kill with your fire spells anyway. You are way more susceptible to Bolt Throwers / War Machines in general. The deal just doesn't fit.

Alternatives:
Lord + dragon (because young dragons suck) is keeping all the eggs in one basket, you can muster a few points and take prince on Ancient Dragon (still bad, but way better than normal dragon) and take an on foot / on horse archmage. The differnce in points is 600:900 but again if one would to contemplate effeciveness-per-point-spent, then the option to split the two, that is: to have a safe caster + better fighting character is way more efficient.

Verdict:
on Hero, Young Dragons suck so badly it will never be taken as an option. Unusable.
On Lord, it's not that far off Ancient Dragon + horse/foot Archmage, and the latter is just better.

How to repair:
For hero choices, fix the Young Dragon.
For Lord choices... maybe get him a wee bit more fighty? Like a3 ws5 s4. He still has a penalty of "only" being mounted on dragon instead of Ancient Dragon, so he has to compensate somhow. Also, coupled with the aforemntioned change: cut the price by 40 points.



CHARACTER MOUNTS

Elven Horse:
it is expensive, but the option to remain on foot is in most cases not an option, so it is taken solely because being on foot is so much worse. Fix by making on foot options more appealing.

Giant Eagle:
Too expensive, grants 0 usability. A flying, expensive character, with T4 and save 2+ tops that can't kill anything. Fix by dropping price by 25 points.

Griffon:
Again, a unit that falls into category of "pretty cool, but actually just a point waiste". What do you gain by investing 100 pts in Griffon? Fightyness? Rare section monsters / other mounts do the same for less pts. Board control? Rare section monsters / other mounts do the same for less pts. Archmage on Griffon? So he could serve as "go to safety" mechanism, just like eagle? Not worth the points. The general problem with this kind of units is that they seem to be well priced given statistics-to-pts ratio, but if you look at effectiveness-per-point-spent, then they just fall apart. If the archmage on griffon can't fight with anything anyway, for 100pts you can add 2 great eagles to your army and much more effectively ensure the safety of your archmage. Fix by dropping price to 50 for lord-level characters and 80 for hero-level characters.

Fire / Frost fenix:
Already mentioned with High Warden of the Flame entry.

Young Dragon:
Again, this game has absolutely 0 need for ~150 pts mounts with a4, s5, w4, 6+ save mounts. You can kill the chaff in lots of other ways with this amount of points and you can't kill anything strong anyway. It's almost the same as with griffon, although here you have the option to breath weapon. Quick fix that would make it a choice to consider would be to give young dragon 4+ mounts protection and change its wound to 5. Then it could serve the role of a tank + price decrease by 50 pts. Right now, it is not usable.

Dragon:
you take it only if you can't take Ancient Dragon. As a mount option for Archmage, maybe points could go down to 210, maybe then it would be taken.

Ancient Dragon:
Big base is a huge nerf, but it was a model that needed nerfing. However, it may have been too much. All monster's nemesis are war machines: big base make him even more fragile. Big base means he can't fly effectively, and there are still tons of stuff that can kill / break the dragon pretty easily, so he can't take all the charges and with big base + low fly(7) value, he can't do anything. Increasing his fly(7) to fly(8) would make it more playable.

Reaver Chariot:
Why would I ever take this nerf to my characters? On Mage / Commander it should cost 5 pts, on Prince / Archmage it should cost negative amount of points. Reaver Chariot as mount hero needs reworking to be ever taken.

Lion Chariot:
Answered before. In short, it's too cheap by 15 pts.

Sky Sloop:
Aldan Warhorn is an ability which will never find its use with HE army. 40 pts is almost the cost of an eagle, and with eagle you can impact the game much more than by limit your opponent's weapon skill by 1.
Storm Pennant is ok choice, maybe even underpriced by 5 pts.
However, as a hero mount, Sky Sloop doesn't have any usability given current status (no volley gun)


CORE

Citizen Spears:
Still not cheap enough. They lose as a choice to any other core. They should have Heavy Armour as a base, maybe then they would be playable, or be 1 point cheaper. Anyway, the HA + 2pts/model is to expensive and will never be taken. The only thing that Citizen Spears can offer is bodies, and right now 30 bodies of Spears loses to 30 bodies on Archers / LSG when it comes to making a choice. Since they can't shoot, they have to be cheaper to compensate.

Citizen Archers:
Nothing to add. Perfectly balanced unit.

Highborn Lancers:
Nothing to add. Perfectly balanced unit.

Sea Guard:
Once again, a unit that does so many things it fails at all of them. Shoots worse than archers. Fights worse than Citizen Spears, because is more expensive.
Possible fix: allow Steady Aim to fire after marching. After all, you want to go and fight with this unit. Also, make the unit cheaper! with 12 pts / model, they are not going anywhere. With Spears @ 8, Archers @ 9, Sea Guard have to be @ 10 to be considered a choice.

Elein Reavers:
Nothing to add. Perfectly balanced unit.


SPECIAL

Sword Masters, Lion Guard, Flame Wardens:
The problem with all of those units is that they have absolutely 0 use when it comes to game. They have to be big to count. Therefore, they are expensive. They are slow by definition. Hence, your opponent will choose if he wants to engage with them or not. If he doesn't, you just mis-invested 400 pts. The game story of such units in every single games follows one of 3 schemes:
a) T1 - march, T2 - march, T3 - charge fast cav, flee, T4 - charge fast cav, flee T5 - kill fast cav, T6 - kill fast cav
T1 to T4, march to gunline / 2d6s4 missles, get killed in the end
c) T1 to T4, suffer moderate casualties (10 models) and fail to kill any enemy unit.

Taking small units of infantry is not an option, and taking huge ones is a big gamble if they will pay for themselves or not. The reason 30 WL / SM were playable was because they had BotWD, which obviously offered unique (and, in uncomped world, overpowered) survivability that allowed this unit to get in and do damage. BotWD in old form shouldn't be restored obviously, hence some different mechanic of allowing a better effectiveness-per-point-spent should be installed. For White Lions, it might be with Lion Hero granting scout + vanguard. For swordmasters, that may be champion getting a Wizard's Conclave special rule. For Flame Wardens, it might be a point reduction (2 pts / model should do just fine)

Kinghts of Ryma:
The problem is that you have to have something in core. Knights of Ryma will always lose to Highborn Lancers. They seem to be well priced as an individual unit, but... they have absolutely no unit to synergize with in Core-Tax. Every Army has Ellein Reavers, so that's not an option. If you take Highborn Lancers, then you can have them 2 times as many AND have points left to buy something in RARE / LORD section.
Also, the Knights of Ryma were not fielded when they had 2 attacks. Now that they have 2 attacks only in charge is another major nerf. Fixes would be: drop devastating charge, change A to 2, drop price to 26 pts per model. Otherwise, they will never find their way into rosters.

Reaver Chariot:
If I have spare 50 pts, I will take an Eagle.
If I have spare 100 pts, I will take a Lion Chariot.
This is one of those units that again, seems to be well priced with price-to-stats, but when it comes to effectiveness-per-point-spent they look terribly.
Fix: the only option to see Reaver chariot at a table is to move them to core - this would also help Knights of Ryma become more playable, because they would have a decent partner in Core section.

Lion Chariot:
Seems good on paper, but why isn't it playable?
1. D6S5 impact hits is random and you don't have to buy it. You can buy much more safe options with your 100 pts. 2 Eagles will always work.
2. T4 and 3+ armor save coupled with M8 is just not enough to justify the investment. Going down with price will allow for skewed list with ie. 3x lion chariot, which might prove difficult to overcome for some lists.
Fix: Increase armor (add lion cloack) and increase price by 20 points.


RARE:

Sea Guard Reaper:
Nothing to add. Perfectly balanced unit.

Fire Phoenix:
Nothing to add. Perfectly balanced unit.

Frost Phoenix:
Brings nothing to the table that 200 pts spend elsewhere wouldn't fix. Not tanky enough to be of consideration. Can't kill enough stuff to be of consideration.
Fix: Increase toughness to 6, possibly adjust cost to 210.

Sky Sloop:
Good design, with following problems:
1. Too cheap, should be +5 or +10 pts.
2. Storm Pennant, too cheap by 5 pts.
3. Aldan Warhorn, needs total overhaul because it is not an ability that is worth any amount of points different than 0. HE have no use for this ability.

Queen's Guard / Shadow Warriors:
They will always lose with choices that offer different playstyles: RBT's, Fenixes. They don't belong in "rare" category. They have a very hard time competing with Archers in core anyway, so when someone wants a "shooty" list, he will soon realise that taking archers in core + RBT + fenixes in rare is better than Highborn Lancers in core + shadow warriors + Queen's Guard in rare.
In general, the balance of those units is linked to Archers, so they should be considered as a block: Archers / Queen's Guard / Shadow Warriors, how do I make those units an equal choice when building an army?
Archers are good and well balanced as they are, so there is no point manipulating with them.
Shadow Warriors can act as scouts + poison; given they go to special section, they will become a choice to consider. Right now, they will always lose to other choices.
Queen's Guard: will they really become playable, even when moved to the core? The point is, that they shoot not that much worse from Archers, and Archers come with core-tax. S4 + flaming is more often a nerf than an upgrade: no difference when shooting to war machines, and most heroes have Fireborn. Given take Cheaper, just as good when comes to shooting Archers, no one will take Queen's Guard in their current form, even if they are in Special.
Fix to Shadow Warriros: move to Special
Fix to Queen's Guard: remove unit from armybook, introduce them as conditional upgrade for Archers (maybe if Prince: Queen's Companion is taken) because this is the only way we will see this unit on table. They are not different enough from Archers to justify extra point investment.

Giant Eagle:
Good unit, but can you break the game with buying to many Great Eagles? They don't have any synergy with units in rare section (fenixes, RBT's) so why keep them there: They will more often lose to other choices than not. Fix: Move to special slot, since there is no synergy between Eagles and other Rare units.


MAGIC ITEMS

Great Bow of Elu:
Nothing to add, perfectly balanced.

Spear of Blazing Dawn:
Unusable. It will always lose to a constant +S modifier (or Potion of Strength) either as Magic Weapon or just take extra armor and take Great Weapon. This item is badly designed, doesn't grant anything new to the roster. Fix: total overhaul / remove from game.

Daemon Hunter's Helm:
Seems pretty cool, but it will almost always lose to Dragonhelm / Bluffer's Helm. On Lord-level characters, constant 4+ ward is way better than conditional ward 3+. Fix: increase Ward Save to 2+.

Gleaming Robe:
Given Ethereal doesn't grant survivability, this items doesn't have any uses. It can be an item that can allows some bold tactics like getting your mage into combat, but right now, what does it really accomplish? Let's case study all possible options:
a) archmage solo. in combat, anything kills him anyway.
archmage in core unit. vs weak units, they will die before killing archmage. vs strong, the unit will lose and archmage will die anyway.
c) archmage in strong (special) unit. Same as above.
So this items actually is 45 pts which grant 0 survivability. It is way better to take (yes, you guessed it) a Great Eagle.
The item can be made into one that has some uses, but that would require significant changes. It needs to be an item that allows certain conditional plays. Otherwise it is just a toy that is good if you have for free, ok for 5 pts, but not worth it you have to pay more. Fix: total overhaul / remove from game.

Cloack of Stars:
One of those items that its effect is no negligible, that it doesn't make it into the game. -1 modifier is not a factor anyone will consider, either at roster creation stage and when it makes to a roster - to make a difference in a game. Fix: make it 40 pts, make it have -3 to cast modifier.

Shard of Cenyn:
Good item, but the 2W penalty on Large Target is definately not worth it. Given that:
1. Large Targets have struggle in this game anyway
2. Ancient Dragon has very big base
3. LT can't benefit from High Magic attribute (which is a good thing)
4. in LT it is usually the LT that does the killing, not the rider
In most cases it will just be way more efficient to grant the entire model Divine Attacks by Divine Icon is much better.
Fix: Change to 1W on Large Targets.

Amethyst Crystal / Book of Maledys:
In general, the problem with all Arcane Items is as follows:
1. You have to have a scroll. If you think otherwise, I inform you that you are wrong. All top players around the world agree that taking a scroll is mandatory - it allows you to block this one vital magic phase.
2. You don't want to overinvest in Magic Phase. This means that you want a minimum of 3 usefull spells to cast in your magic phase, but having more than 3 is overdoing it (those points can be consumed elsewhere, to greater benefit)
3. The conclusion of points 1 & 2 is that most common build is lord-level caster with a Dispel Scroll. The other arcance items very often don't make into rosters, because they have to be good enough not only for what they offer, but also to justify taking another mage with Dispel Scroll.

Amethyst Crystal doing what it does is not good enough to justify 125 pts investment (cost of item + cost of cheapest mage to carry the scroll) therefore there are 2 options to fix it:
Fix1: -1PD / +1 DD, then maybe it would be worth considering.
Fix2: change cost to 15 points. It is still 85 pts, which is a lot.

Book of Maledys: This item is unusable on Heroes. You have less spells, so that means less opportunitys to effectively use those points; plus, remember that you do need the scroll anyway. On heroes, it will most often lose to shielding scroll / wand of stability / tome of arcane lore / shielding scroll.
Considering this item on Lord-level, it is overpriced slightly, by about 15 points. Remember, Scroll is mandatory.

ITEMS THAT WOULD PROVIDE MORE CHOICES TO PLAYERS:
Just to drop a few that don't "buff" the army but simply allow other unique builds, revived from old HE army books:

GEM OF SUNFIRE
20 points One use only. During the turn in which the Gem of Sunfire is used, the bearer (and his mount if he has one) gains Flaming Attacks special rule. If before using this item the bearer already had Flaming Attacks, then all of the bearer's spells, shooting attacks and close combat attacks (and his mount if he has one) have a +1 bonus To Wound (rolls of 1 still fail).

BOW OF SEAFARER
60 points Longbow with following exceptions: Resolve each hit like a single bolt from a Bolt Thrower (see main rule book). Note that you may shoot after moving (but not marching) and stand & shoot with the Bow of Seafarer.

STAR LANCE
30 points Mounted models only. Lance with following exceptions: attacks with the Star Lance are resolved at +3 Strength, and armour saves cannot be taken against Wounds caused by the Star Lance


That's it.
Thank you for your time.