Josef Bugman Idea.

[Geeky the Cheeky Commando]

After watching Great Book of Grudge's video of what Dwarves may need I honestly think the idea of Bugman being a Horde only faction is great and, in all honesty, would be great for Ordertide co-op if a few things are done.

If I might share an opinion, love it or hate it, I would love input from the community here.

01. Make his starting position variable.
Do not make his starting position fixed to just one region, but give him a few locations he could go to which makes him close to a Legendary Lord of an Ordertide faction which will allow him to be an early Co-Op starter. Your friend likes the Empire? Start your campaign at Altdorf and be able to help him secure his territory and then assist in beating down the threats around him as well. How he expands his cities is visiting and paying some gold with a faction he has a non-aggression/trade pact with (Trading being beer as something he makes himself, but he can gain additional resources through his trade deals and settlements if the local owner builds the resource building).

02. Give his buildings variable effects.
Changeling did well, but one thing that I think for a more overt version would be that your buildings should give more support. In this case it is order vs chaos/evil/whatever so make it where if there are order factions in control of the area the Bugman's buildings/undercity gives actual garrison troops, special effects, or larger buffs depending on how high you make it. If you want to get really spicy, make it where larger settlements get larger support due to better infrastructure (Imagine a T5 undercity settlement that gives a small bonus garrison of Dwarf Rangers and some basic warriors, plus something like rowdy or increased defenses at higher levels of buildings). However, if the place is taken by chaos/evil then his instead offer debuffs and turns the garrison into reinforcements for ordertide armies coming to reclaim the area (If your friend loses Altdorf your men are doing raiding parties to lower recovery rates, steal gold per turn, and basically lower some stats of local armies due to constant ambushes keeping them off-balance).

03. Focus less on grudges.
This may seem blasphemous, but I do think that a focus on the Grudge system in its current state would only harm a Bugman playthrough if he is a supportive horde faction. Not only that, but many of the debuffs one would get from the grudges being low might not really hinder him so it would feel like a waste to even use it. Instead, perhaps we can have him focus on the 'Legendary' Grudges instead as long-term goals with his having some unique ones to eventually wipe out the Greenskin LL's? Make it where if someone plays him the Greenskins will get a silent boost to their faction potential as well to keep them around longer and make them a more daunting threat.

04. Perhaps faction restoration?
Hard to find the right idea for this, but I wanted to see what would happen if we have him additionally helping factions and restoring them to make potential allies and trade partners who are lost to the evils of the world. If Bretonnia is wiped out before you get to them, then by destroying Grom/Whoever else is there maybe you can restore the place to the now destroyed faction, not only making them a potential ally (due to 'restoration' bonuses) but also be given either a free undercity bit or a discount for future ones in their territories, so long as you aren't at war. It would be for the factions who are native to that area, so you could give all of Bretonnia to the Lady or the King, if you so wished. You could restore the Empire to its original state or give it all to Franz. You could bring back all the Clans who were destroyed in the mountains, or give it all to Thorgrim, etc.

05. No trespassing penalties with ordertide factions and local buffs.
Simple as that. Aside from maybe Wood Elves and Lizardmen, I figure Cathay, Dwarves, Humans, and maybe to a lesser extent Ogres might be willing to let you through their lands without too much issue. Local buffs could be for any Ordertide faction you are either in a non-aggression or in an alliance with as Bugman being in the area and selling off his beer could give public order bonuses, growth bonuses, maybe an economy stimulant or even impart special effects to allied armies such as lowered/perfect vigor if he's a high enough level.

Mind you, all of this is flying by the seat of my pants. I would love to hear anyone's additional ideas over this.