readme_sanguinia_dm.txt

Sanguinia v1.1 Nation Mod for Dominions III 

-*- README FILE -*-

Art and Mod By Zepath the Philosopher

This mod adds a new playable nation to Dominions III in the Late Ages game era.

A few technical notes for fellow modders...

This mod uses nation number(s):		71
This mod uses monster number(s): 	2530-2545, 2547-2552
This mod uses magic site number(s): 	803-806
This mod uses weapon number(s): 	800-805
This mod uses armor number(s): 		300-301
This mod modifies monster number(s): 	326, 404, 405, 862, 1019, 1022

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CHANGES FOR v1.1:

-#nopreach flag removed, your vampires can now preach as well as sacrifice in spread their dominion
-Bloodletter Holy magic ability increased to 2
-Reeves, Counts, Original Vampire, and Patriarch given ambidexterity
-Death Dealer stealthiness decreased to +0
-Stalker stealthiness increased to +20 in vampire form

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Sanguinia, Vampire Counts (Late Age)

Unknown to mortals, undying sanguivorous creatures of terrifying power - vampires - have long contested one another for rulership of their elite, enigmatic society on the fringes of human lands.  When the Malediction befell the nation of Ulm, the vampires who lived secretly on that kingdom's periphery seized the opportunity to unite and forge a new dominion.  The Bloodletters, a cabal of wizened, shriveled vampire-mages, speak of a new god who will lay the world of mortals bare for domination by vampiric overlords.  Under their guidance and the power of their ritual blood-spilling, the Counts of the Sanguine clan have united the vampire clans, revealed themselves to mortals, enthralled entire villages to their service, and created a new kingdom.  To strengthen their realm even more, the Bloodletters have contacted the Heliophagii who advise and aid the vampiric masters of Sanguinia in sating their thirst for the blood of the world.

Example strategy:  Try a Moloch with at least Blood-5, medium to high dominion, and good order scales.  I would not recommend starting with a dormant pretender with this nation.  Your dominion is similar to Mictlan in that priests can't preach, but can spread the dominion through blood sacrifice at a temple.  The dominion will also shrink if you don't sacrifice regularly.  So, collect blood slaves and start sacrificing right away.  If your vampires die outside of their dominion, their immortality won't do them any good.  Research blood magic early and often, but be sure to vary your schools of interest as you also have Earth and Astral mages close at hand.

For taking most indie provinces inside your dominion, assign one or two death dealers to assassinate and send an army to attack in the same turn.  If you're lucky, you'll kill all the indie commanders and win the province for free.  If not, at least your death dealers will resurrect.  In a stand-up fight Sanguinia's national troops are pitiful.  The thralls die very easily and harpies tend to flee to the four corners if they take even a few casualties.  You'll have to think hard about how to handle commands before each battle depending on what you're going up against.  Once your research has progressed, start summoning demons and bringing imps into play during battle to slow down the enemy.  Stock up on Blood Drakes whenever possible!  Also remember to revive undead in provinces where you've recently fought.  Don't forget either that you can and should recruit decent indie units when you come across them.

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A bit about Sanguinia...

[First of all, to get a look at all the units in this mod at once, open the preview.bmp image file in the /mods/sanguinia directory.]

This is the second nation mod I have created based on an army from Warhammer Fantasy Battles.  Sanguinia is inspired by the Vampire Counts army from the table-top war game, but is not meant to be a carbon copy of such.  This is also an experiment in creating a nation with all-immortal commanders.  

The vampire commanders (Counts, etc.) are reminiscent of the Von Carstein vampires from Warhammer while the Bloodletters are more like the Necrarch bloodline.  In keeping with the Dominions lore that has vampire counts enthralling living humans (as opposed to only raising huge numbers of the undead as in Warhammer), I have given Sanguinia a selection of extremely cheap and weak thrall units that are nevertheless hard to break.  The Blood Drakes are an obvious rip off the Blood Dragon bloodline from Warhammer.  The Death Dealers are meant to be a medieval version of the same "class" of vampires from the "Underworld" films whereas the Stalkers are inspired more by traditional vampire lore.  The heroes are drawn from a number of inspirations: the Nightmare Champions are based on some of the old art for the Nightmare in the Magic: The Gathering trading card game, the Original Vampire is an attempt to emulate the character Alucard from the "Helsing" anime, and the Sacrifice is based on the ghost child in the film "The Ring" (she's not really a vampire at all, but I thought she might be fun and useful as a serious morale-killer).

In the process of making the art and mod for this vampire-centric nation, I made new sprites for the original vampire units in Dominions 3 (plus blood slaves).  Since players can take the Vampire Queen as their pretender, summon a Vampire Lord during the game, or possibly run into Ulmic vampire counts, I wanted the art for these "original" vampires to mesh with the art for my Sanguine clan blood-suckers (plus the original art had the vampires and thralls standing a little too tall).

Yes, the vampires have no shadows on purpose.

The name "Sanguinia" is a derivation of the word "sanguine" in the sense of a blood red color or relating to blood, an obvious choice given the all the blood-drinking vampires.

To be honest, I've never been a very big fan of vampire fantasy and am certain the back-story for the nation could be spiced up by a knowledgeable Anne Rice fan out there somewhere.  If anyone would like to write a better nation description or better descriptions for the monsters and commanders I would be happy to accommodate them (with editing privileges, of course...).

In a few places I have taken in-game graphics from D3 and used them to build parts of the unit art (the bodies of the horses and the harpies), but all other artwork in the mod is original.

Enjoy!

If you have comments or suggestions (especially if this nation seems very unbalanced in a particular area), find me on the official message boards at shrapnelcommunity.com or send me an email at evarmy98x@yahoo.com.
