I had an idea for the dark elves at the tournament that I ran at DexCon. Just give them bonuses on their fear checks and take away fearsome. This way you could keep their prices the same. I think what the dark elves went through as a race would make them more brave than scary.
Except this is a horrendously BAD idea.
I'm sorry, I know I'm being really blunt and possibly even rude but you want to replace an over costed ability with a worse version of that ability and not change points cost at all.
Fear is already over priced.
Having flat out immunity to fear is WAY less useful and WAY WAY more situational than fear (and thus worth even less points)
Finally having yet another army that is immune to fear would make the cost paid by the rest of the units with fear even more useless and overpriced than it already is.
Full disclosure: I have no intention of playing DE at DexCon, I don't like playing the same faction 2 cons in a row.
You have some crusade against DE when they aren't even the best army in the game. They are roughly on the same level as Rome, Lizardmen and Umenzi.
Instead of nerfing DE we should be looking at ways to bring some of the weaker factions up in power.
I never like the fact that they were fearsome. I would never run away from a hot female elf with a skimpy outfit, big jugs, phat ass and a whip. No matter how bad she was beating me up.
Really you wouldn't be afraid of an army that is known for enslaving then sadistically and brutally torchering the survivors after a battle?
And even if you weren't afraid of this there are several sources for Dark elf lore that gives precedence that the fear the DE cause is only partially due to their reputation and partially magically/psychically enduced. Since the DE in our game are the most magically inclined army it makes sense that DE fear could be magically enduced thus explaining why even basic units cause fear.