[RedRover]

QM: I haven't actually tried modding a site, but thanks for the info. My understanding has been that you can't change the site name. I thought it was possible to substitute units if the site already created them, and I thought it was possible to redefine gem types as long as the number of gems didn't change. If this is wrong, I'll just have to find another workaround.

Endoperez: Thanks for the input! In my current game (default Abysia), the Smoulder Cone is in fact providing 5 Fire gems per turn.

You are correct that the numbers in front of the new units are the unit numbers of the Abysian units that the Smoulder Cone creates. I have started, but not completed, mapping the new units over the old units.

I do know that themes cannot be modded, and never really seriously considered using the Blood of Humans version of the Smoulder Cone.

I'm not wedded to the idea of making any particular unit capital only--this is mostly a byproduct of the specific site Abysia has. The fact that it would create certain dynamics (like restricting most of the casters to the capital) is in my view a happy accident that can be exploited, not necessarily an intrinsic part of the design.

More worrisome is the impact of not having the slots available (3 leader, 1 troop). My previous experience has been that the Recruitment screen is hardwired so you can't have more troop types or more leader types than the original nation had (though you can have less).

It already looks like two of the leader types I listed in the first post won't fit, and if I lose another three, I'm not sure what I can do about it.

There's no real reason to go for Sloth, other than the practical reason that Zulta units will be extremely resource-cheap, and the thematic reason that hot-climate cultures seem to develop high sloth levels. Not wedded to any solutions, so thanks for the heads-up on specific sites.

I'd have to think about Turmoil. This setup's need for gold is part of the balance fine-tuning, I'm thinking, and I'm reluctant to narrow the options this early in the design process.

For the Sacred Lions, I'd rather keep them non-magical, though I could probably be pursuaded to make them magical. I think of them more as monsters like Trolls or Gryphons. My preliminary expectation is that the nation might be too weak to be viable without the lions, and that making the lions magical might make them too vulnerable to certain countermeasures.

This attitude might also be colored by the fact that in a recent game I cast Gift of Reason on a Summer Lion with the goal of creating a unit of Summer Lions led by a Summer Lion. The resultant commander had only two misc magic slots, and with no misc item that commands magic beings, the whole project was a disappointment.

As for the storyteller in the capital, yes. The only reason I picked him was that I had to put someone in the capital slot, and in my judgment he was the best candidate.

Incidentally, it looks like the Leaders that get cut are the Induna and the Scout. The Leopard Induna can perform both functions, and if the Recruitment screen is hardwired like I think it is, I lose two commanders off the original list. I would love to hear that I have it all wrong.