afaik there will be a new "fame" resource that is required to hire champions etc., so my guess would be that henchmen will cost fame (thus, you'd also have more of a balancing act- spend the fame on a henchman or pool it to unlock the next champion). the influence quest rewards could also be translated into fame, i guess.

I'd say tie Champions to Henchmen, you get one for each champion who reaches a certain level.

I'd like to see the stacking rules gone, as they lead to gameyness/exploits, or at least make the stacking penalty lower for lower level champs.

You never played "Magic Realm" did you?

Maybe Henchmen should be an additional unit for heroes once they reach lvl 5, and an additional one every 5 levels that come in at lvl 1 and are attached to the hero.  You can disband them if you wish.

I agree with both previous comments here, not having influence is not the solution.  Additional resource management that has multiple uses is just part of the strategy.  For the Henchmen being attached would solve the problem of heroes being singe units but would you make it that the henchmen attached would perma die or be able to be replaced as per normal units?

Personally I think Influence should have been a much harder commodity to get and had more effect when you did get it so than when you had the choice to spend it to get a Henchman it hurt your political standing with other nations by the loss of influence.

I still have Magic Realm in the box with most of the contents still unpunched/untouched.  The exterior box itself is pretty ragged from moving =/