Re: CBM 1.7 released
 

1) Yes, this would need to be done via map commands vs. mod commands, because
2) Yes, you are hard limited to 2 commanders at the start (i.e. the starting commander + the starting scout.)

(I realize the discussion progressed past this point, but in case anyone was interested.)

Re: CBM 1.7 released
 

For reference, I believe the options for multi-unique summon spells are:

1) The various elemental royalty summons
2) The demon princes (ice, fire, heliophagi, demon lords)
3) The treelords
4) The Lords of Civilization/Grigori (Hinnom)
5) The Spentas (Caelum)
6) The Tlaloques (Mictlan)

Re: CBM 1.7 released
 

Many thanks for clearing that up llama. So it would be possible (spell limits allowing) to give each nation 8 (for example) seperate unique summon spells (that generate gems for the purpose of this debate). Interesting idea. I have no idea yet on the merits of this, but as an idea it's good to know it is an actual option.

--------------------

Thanks Stavis. I suspected nations were hard coded to 2 commanders :(

Re: CBM 1.7 released
 

There's also the Jinn, Percival the Pocket Knight, Carcator and Holger the Head, but those are all from items, are singular summons (like Illheart and Banefire), and all but the Jinn are combat summons. Some of the combat summons might be unique because they come from artifacts, I don't really know; do they accrue experience?

Blood slaves are used if they are close to the caster, aren't they? If the combat summons can be used to introduce extra blood slaves they could be interesting as a means to ensure a constant supply of blood slaves in combat.

Re: CBM 1.7 released
 

It's not that easy in my opinion. Infinite hammers mean that you can invest some time and thought to improve your forging and get more magic items. No hammers means that you get no such opportunity, thus you have less items.
Thus, nations with blood and/or stronger troops (usually countered by equipping thugs) get stronger while nations such as Eriu get even weaker.

P.S.
Make LA Rlyeh freespawn truly free? Why not make LA Ermor freespawn generate gold as well? :)

Re: CBM 1.7 released
 

Regarding Ulm:
I think the 'boosts' Ulm got almost entirely miss the point.

Ok, the armor rebalancing is probably a good thing. Although Ulm's infantry still has a serious problem - their base stats are straight 10s. For a professional military, I'd expect *some* infantry soldiers with better than basic stats. EA Ulm has them, why doesn't MA Ulm? I'm not convinced the armor rebalancing does enough for Ulm's troops, since they were actively bad before, and now they might just not lose to tall grass, but i still have to couch that cautiously. Don't be fooled into thinking the armor changes make Ulm's infantry actually good.

Iron Angels should not be Ulm's focus, its troops should be. And with thugs nerfed pretty hard by the loss of hammers, i'm not convinced making them easier to acquire helps them all that much. But then, its been so long since i've actually seen one, I can't remember what they do.

Finally, FotA available at level 0 is laughable. On the one hand, there's little worth forging without construction research anyway. Otoh, casting FotA take a lot of E gems - gems they can't afford to spend very early anyway (or even if they do, then what gems are they going to forge with?). And since I expect Ulm will roll over and die pretty easily even with the armor buff, its just another reason to kill them early. (Not that a second capital is ever a bad reason to kill someone).

Regarding SDRs:
SDRs are a gem gen. They needed to go. The heims probably need to be looked at following their removal to help their chronic blood hunting problem, but no one else should be overly affected in an adverse manner. All the other real blood powers either have cheap(ish) B1 hunters, or B2+ hunters readily available.

Regarding Hammers:
I think this is a change that hasn't been thought through very carefully, and many nations need adjustments, potentially dramatic adjustments, to account for the change. Eriu went from bad to unplayable. TNN and the heims are also in pretty bad shape. The real winners? Nations like Mictlan who didn't really have a good way to get hammers before (because they took a non-E bless chassis and had no E national mages). Mictlan, of course, had no need of a buff, stealth or otherwise. (And no, loss of SDRs doesn't really harm Mictlan very much).

Re: CBM 1.7 released
 

Without SDR's a B1 blood hunter only has a (unconfirmed) 50% chance of successfully hunting slaves. Way to low chance.

With a SDR this raises to 90%. (Yeah, the percentages are influenced by the game settings).

Removal of the SDR just makes it very hard to blood hunt with B1 hunters. So these b1 mages are now useless.

Re: CBM 1.7 released
 

Exactly what I stated a few days back, it will just make certain blood nations much more powerful eg. Jotun, Marg... while nations like Van get royally screwed.

Re: CBM 1.7 released
 

Well, if you want to give the Heims (or anyone else) more blood slaves, would it work to give their commanders a retinue of blood slaves (unit 326) to help them in combat?

Re: CBM 1.7 released
 

Squirrelloid's balance mod also removed SDRs and Jack_Trowell suggested giving Vanjarls/Vanadrotts a dousing bonus. I think this is an excellent solution. They get the bonus without having to spend 3 blood slaves (or 5 without a hammer) and a mage turn to forge an SDR but the restricting factor with Van's blood hunting is that you have to pay 280 gold for the mage so I don't think giving them a dousing bonus really changes game balance.