Mod: Warhammer MA: Empire

[Sombre]

I was going to do Dwarfs, Chaos Dwarfs or Dogs of War as my next project, but I've decided to start off the Warhammer Empire nation instead, mainly because I need a break from doing non human sprites for a while and Dogs of War is such an eclectic nation that it would require more in the way of graphics.

So anyway, Empire it is, at least for now.


THE EMPIRE


THE NATION SHOULD

Be tactically flexible
Make full use of resources and production
Have strong religion
Be restricted by its humanity
Represent the incredible diversity of the Colleges
Have very useful and cost effective PD
Be split evenly between North and South creating two interesting balanced nations


WEAPONS

Crankbow - 3 crossbow bolts per turn, not that much ammo, bit innacurate.
Hand Crossbow (ranged) - A single shot medium/close range missile weapon.
Hand Crossbow (melee) - A single shot AP melee weapon.
White Wolf Hammer - Solid two handed hammer with charge bonus.


ARMOUR

Empire Full Plate - High quality full plate.



------ EMPIRE SOUTH ------


RECRUITS

State Spearman - Spear, Shield, Iron Cap, Plate Cuirass.
State Halberdier - Halberd, Iron Cap, Plate Cuirass.
State Swordsman - Broadsword, Shield, Iron Cap, Plate Cuirass (improved skills, higher cost)
State Crossbowman - Crossbow, Dagger, Leather Cap, Plate Cuirass.
Greatsword - Greatsword, Empire Full Plate, Iron Cap.
Greatsword - Greatsword, Empire Full Plate, Iron Cap.
Nobleborn - Horse, Plate Hauberk, Iron Cap, Hand Crossbow (melee/ranged), Broadsword.
Free Infantry - Shortsword, Dagger, Studded Leather, Reinforced Leather Cap.
Archer - Shortbow, Leather Cap, Leather Armour, Dagger.
Reiksguard Foot - Broadsword, Shield, Empire Full Plate, Full Helmet.
Inner Circle Reiksguard Knight - Warhorse, Lance, Broadsword, Shield, Empire Full Plate,

Full Helmet.
Order Knight (generic) - Warhorse, Lance, Broadsword, Shield, Empire Full Plate, Full

Helmet.
Flagellant - Sacred, Flail.
War Wagon - High rcost. Various ranged and melee weapons, trample.
Steam Tank - V. High rcost. No cannon, but tramples and uses steam weapons + 'fire' shield, extreme prot.
Marksman - Carries a crankbow.
Outrider - Horse, Arbalest, Short Sword, light armour.


COMMANDERS

Scout
State Captain
State General
Elector Count - Expensive, summons state troops, not a bad general
Reik Captain - As knight, standard, 80 ldr.
Grand Masters - One per Southern order, they are unique summons who in turn can use 'summon allies' to gather Inner Circle knights of their order. Probably require house
rules. The Reiksmarshal Kurt Helborg is particularly powerful.
Initiate of Sigmar - H1
Battle-Priest of Sigmar - H2, 40 ldr, extra holy spell or two
Theoganist - H3, old, not a leader
Witch Hunter - H1, stealthy, inquisitor, increase unrest
College Adept - 1 Random pick, used to summon College Wizards



------ EMPIRE NORTH ------


RECRUITS

State Spearman - Spear, Shield, Iron Cap, Plate Cuirass.
State Halberdier - Halberd, Iron Cap, Plate Cuirass.
State Swordsman - Broadsword, Shield, Iron Cap, Plate Cuirass (improved skills, higher cost)
Greatsword - Greatsword, Empire Full Plate, Iron Cap.
Free Infantry - Shortsword, Dagger, Studded Leather, Reinforced Leather Cap.
Archer - Shortbow, Leather Cap, Leather Armour, Dagger.
Huntsman - Longbow, Leather Cap, Leather Armour, Axe, stealthy.
Hunting Hound - Summoned by Huntsmaster, stealthy flanker.
Kossar - Ringmail, Reinforced Leather Cap, Axe, Composite Bow.
Ungol Horse Archer - Ungol Horse, Furs, Composite Bow, Falchion.
Winged Lancer - Ungol Horse, Lance, Shield, Falchion, Plate Hauberk.
Teutogen Guard - Empire Full Plate, White Wolf Hammer, Half Helmet.
Inner Circle White Wolf - Warhorse, Empire Full Plate, White Wolf Hammer.
Order Knight - Warhorse, Lance, Broadsword, Shield, Empire Full Plate, Full Helmet.
Warrior of Ulric - Sacred, Greatsword, Ringmail, Iron Cap.
Wolfkin - Sacred, Furs, Axe, Broadsword, stealthy.



COMMANDERS

Scout
State Captain
General
Elector Count - Expensive, summons state troops, not a bad general
Hunt Master - Horse, light lance, spawns hunting hounds
Boyar - Ungol Horse, Plate Hauberk, Composite Bow, Falchion
Ice Mage - Water and possibly air magic from Kislev
White Wolf Seneschal - As White Wolf Knight, standard, 80 ldr.
Grand Masters - One per Northern order, they are unique summons who in turn can use 'summon allies' to gather Inner Circle knights of their order. Probably require house rules.
Initiate of Ulric - H1
Battle-Priest of Ulric - H2, 40 ldr, extra holy spell or two
High Priest of Ulric - H3
College Adept - 1 Random pick, used to summon College Wizards



SPECIFIC KNIGHT ORDERS


SOUTH

Reiksguard (Special polished armour gives +1 def)
Blazing Sun (Morning star rather than broadsword, partial fire res)
Griffon (Higher morale and mapmove 3)
Hunters of Sigmar (Forest survival, axe, slightly worse armour, supplybonus)
Black Bear (+1 str)
Sigmar's Blood (Sacred)
Gold Lion (Wasteland survival)
Encarmine (No lance, no shield, two swords, very skilled, high upkeep)
Hammers of Sigmar (Sacred, no lance, holy hammer, shield, no helmet)


NORTH:

White Wolf (No lance, no shield, no helmet, use white wolf hammers, +1mr, berserk 0)
Panther (Falchion rather than broadsword, wasteland survival, animal awe)
Templars of Everlasting Light (Standard effect)
Sacred Scythe (No lance, anti undead scythe)
Knights of Morr (Increase unrest, fear 0, no lance)
Broken Sword (No lances, better sword skill)
Wolves of Ulric (Sacred, similar to white wolf)
Gryphon Legion (Not really a knight order, but the Kislev equivalent, upgraded winged lancers)


MAGIC COLLEGES

Schools

Fire - Bright - F+ - Evocation
Wizard - Higher precision, lower research
Lord - Strong fire shield, starts at higher leadership


Metal - Gold - E (F) - Alteration and construction
Wizard - Alchemy (?), higher upkeep
Lord - Forgebonus


Shadow - Grey - AD - Enchantment, alteration
Wizard - Stealthy
Lord - Flight, spy


Beasts - Amber - N+ - Conjuration
Wizard - Forest survival, shapechange to wolf
Lord - Shapechange to giant bear, useful summon allies ability in this form


Heavens - Celestial - Equal AS - Evocation and thaum
Wizard - Research bonus, prevent bad events
Lord - Better bonuses


Light - Light - FS - Alteration and Evocation
Wizard - Heal, Auto communion (pythium copystats)
Lord - Better heal?


Life - Jade - N EWA - Alteration, Evocation
Wizard - Decrease unrest? Heal?
Lord - If possible, increase growth scale (lord of fertility)


Death - Amethyst - D (W) - Alteration, Enchantment
Wizard - Drain life attack
Lord - Armed with Soul Slaying scythe weapon


Each school will have 2 summons available - one for a standard Wizard such as "Bright Wizard" and one for a college lord, "Bright Wizard Lord". The standard wizards will basically be 2 in one path then have some kind of secondary path, or a chance at lvl3 in their main path if from a focused school like Bright.

The Wizard Lords will be lvl 3 average, but some lvl 4. They will kick ***, but they will all be old.

The whole thing will be started off by the College Acolyte recruitable which has lvl 1 random in NEFADS.

N1 summons Amber, Jade
F1 summons Bright, Light
A1 summons Grey,
D1 summons Amethyst
S1 summons Celestial
E1 summons Gold

The summons will have to be researched and will be found with one version in each of the schools favoured by the mages, at level 3 and 6 perhaps?

[Sombre]

A little preview of my very first empire unit - a member of the elite Reiksguard Foot.

[Burnsaber]

Jade Wizards should also probably have forest survival.

About Witch-Hunter:

I think they shouldn't be spies, scouts, perhaps. Spies are coolheaded folk who don't attract attetion to themeselves. Witch Hunter preaching with foam-coming-out-of-the-mouth and burning womenfolk attracts attention. Besides if they're spies they might have a bit too much going on. Summon, patrol, spying, preaching? He'd just cost too much gold to do any of those things because of his diversity. Even if he's a mere scout he still has the stealthy inquistor combo going on.

If you want a spy unit, how about agitator? I got a inspiration to write a improptu description:

"In the busy life of well populated Empire cities, many charismatic characters earn their living by making loud speeches against/for political issues (depending on which side pays them more). Many of them end up shouting speeches that are wiewed to anti-nobility and thereby, heretical. They are captured and put to the rope. Sometimes, an especially charismatic invidual might be saved form the rope, if he starts saying the right things about the Holy Empire.."

[zepath]

I'm anxious to see this one come about. The Empire is my (second?) favorite WH Fantasy nation.

[Autochthon]

Let's see what we can add here...

Flagellants! We loves them - and maybe Flagellant commanders? And they seriously need Berserk. I dunno why the vanilla Dom3 Flagellants don't...

Standard Bearers. I've never seen an Empire Army in TT w/out being fully decked out w/SB + Musician for Morale bonuses.

Greatswords. Yeah, baby!

Warrior Priests are Sacred Priest (H1?) Commanders w/Leadership.

Light Mages would have to be Holy as well.

Grey Mages should have Glamour instead of Flight. Also should have Cause Unrest and/or Assassin Order.

Amber Mages w/Shapeshift, Stealth, all Survival abilities.

Jade Mages w/Supply, Poison Immunity, Rejuvenation.

Celestial Mages w/innate Luck? Or just leave as A/S Magi.

Gold Magi should have higher Resources Cost to offset Forge Bonus

Priest of Sigmar has H2S1, while Priest of Ulric has only H2 but higher Str and Atk and Sacred?

Can't be Empire w/out Artillery, either.

Shortbows and Crossbows too - but no Comp. Bows or Longbows.

Knightly Orders provide mounted Sacred units.

Are we including Allied contingents too? Or is that too much?

Here's a brain-bending idea for you...

Instead of having an Empire faction, why not have seperate factions for each Electorate and replay the Time of the Three Emperors?

We could do this because there is enough variety between factions. The Northerners worship Ulric and tend towards melee-heavy armies. The Westerners favor Sigmar and favor newfangled weapons like artillery, magic and cavalry. Finally, the Easterners love Taal, and their forces reflect this by being fast and mobile, with lots of skilled archers and light infantry.

Oh right, the Magisters weren't around. Damn space/time continuum...:P

[Sombre]

I had already decided to split The Empire into two nations, combined in one mod. The divide is basically Northeast / Southwest, I've decided to call one Empire South and one Empire North. Empire North gets the cult of Ulric, Middenlanders and Kislev allies. South gets more stuff from Nuln, the Reik etc.

I'll update the first post with extended army lists. They still aren't finished.

The sprites are actually proving harder than anticipated, because I don't feel happy only slightly modifying vanilla ones. I want them to look distinctive. I will use some vanilla sprites as a base/placeholders at first, but sometimes it's hard to find suitable ones.

[Wrana]

Thank you for the good work! Though I have to disagree on some issues, as usual.
(What I agree with is the 2 nations idea, though on different basis: I think that in gods-based games, such as Dominions is, it would be simply wrong to include followers of Sigmar and Ulric as one faction. I would prefer that it would be possible to make choice on the Pretender creation stage, but it's not so, alas. Kislevites I would (and shall) try to make an independent nation.)
0. I still think that Warhammer nations should be LA.
1. Why don't you include firearms as they are? They are surely part of WarHammer world, and balancing them shouldn't be too difficult...
2. I would (and shall, for my version) make a rapier as a new weapon - in any case, it needs to be done when Tilea will be under work... Otherwise, Imperial Swordsmen/Free Companies are often depicted using falchions...
3. I would include Empire standart bearer as additional unit
4. I would make at least Inner Circle Knight sacred (actually, in my version it's planned to make Free Lances, who is normal knights, and Knights of the Orders, who is sacred...)
5. I would include both mounted and foot versions of Sigmarite clergy... Plus Arch-Lectors. Grand Theogonist, I think, can only be included as unique (?) Hero.
6. Idea of Wizards/Lords as summons I think just isn't right, but it's possible that it grants better balance (though making them capital only and costly could be restriction enough?). Or do you make it so for some different reason? With Skaven some units made as summons for Warlock Engineers was thematic for sure, but for Empire?
7. North forces I generally agree about, but maybe they better have chain mail, not plate armor (I mean infantry, not Knights, of course!)?
8. Maybe too many Knight Orders, especially if we remember that they are dedicated to different gods...
That's it for now. In any case I plan to make at least some Warhammer-based nations coming autumn, but it would be fine to know reasons behind what you do..

[Sombre]

1. Dom3 isn't designed for guns and they don't work well within it, or make much sense in its context. I make the warhammer nations to be used along with the Dom3 set of nations, not as part of a total conversion.

2. I don't really see the point of adding a rapier as a new weapon. I'm not against the idea but it isn't a classic empire weapon or anything and it's basically just another sword, with slightly different stats to broad, short and falchion I guess.

3. I thought about having standard bearers and decided against it. Every nation in Warhammer has them in the tabletop game, but the dom3 AI doesn't handle them too well and I prefer standards on non magical commanders as incentive to build them.

4. Some of the orders will be sacred, probably. Several of the orders have no strong religious association, or are part of a cult that is often at odds with the primary religion (see blazing suns, a classic empire order). Inner circles are just the elite of the order, not any more sacred to ordinary people/the priesthood.

5. To keep the number of commanders on the build list down to a semi reasonable number, I'm just having H1+2+3 priests, probably all on foot.

6. I want to include all of the magical orders. This simply doesn't work if they're recruitable from the recruit screen. That's the only reason for this decision, really. It does give the Empire an interesting mechanic too.

7. The plate armour is actually a bit of an issue. Plate cuirass is pretty damn heavy armour in dom3, yet in warhammer the empire troops have light armour. I might give them a special 'empire plate cuirass' or something with slightly less prot and enc. Some of the lighter units have ringmail etc also - notably the spearmen.

8. Yeah there are probably too many. There are probably too many nations, spells, items and units in dom3 also. I'll just add one or two in each version I release. They all have cool graphics and backstories and I will give them all slightly different mechanics. I expect them to be more of a theme/RP thing though, unlike the magic colleges which will have a big impact on gameplay.

[Wrana]

Thank you for your answers.
1. I, for my part, am going to try to make WarHammer series mostly separate - about as BlackMoon project was, which added 4 different nations from different setting with intention that they were mostly to be played against one another, not alongside Dominions staple nations. I consider this more logical - without thinking where they appeared from and why. As for how they work - I didn't play much with Tarent mod, but had an impression that firearms worked relatively well in its context.. Have you any information on this? And in WarHammer there are quite many firearms so I'm not sure that their abscence would make style the same. Mechanically, of course, difference isn't much.
2. Well, slightly different stats, of course. Just that when I thought about this, I realised that a) historical counterparts to Empire Swordsmen, i.e., Spanish rondashiers (sp?) used just them and b) I would need them anyway when working on Tilea...
3. Agree that in WarHammer most armies have them. But it could be a good way to represent higher discipline and organisation of Empire armies (I don't plan to include banners for Bretonnia foot, for example). Another possibility I thought of is to make Empire infantry more mobile both on battlefield and on a strategy map than their armor would indicate ("marching"; this wouldn't be the case for cavalry).
4. Generally yes. Which is why other possibility and 8. I just don't see Empire cavalry consisting entirely of Templars and light cavalry - there should be secular knights as well as sacred ones, and the latter, while fine in RPG context, shouldn't probably be in the game which centers around gods struggling for domination...
5. Have to agree with this - there are many commanders already... And you didn't include Engineer, I fear! By the way, I agree that Witch Hunter should have patrolling, not spying ability. If any, he is more like assassin, not spy...
6. Understand now... Not sure if it would be manageable other way, too.
7. Yes, it's somewhat of a translation problem. But in this case (and some others) I am more inclined to go by art and descriptions rather than strict WarHammer mechanic (which, after all, includes just 2 general armor types)... And the question was due to the fact that north-provinces troops I've seen depicted with different armor.
8. Well, we surely can't reduce the number of things developers throw at us! While in the mods we produce we have more freedom in regards what to not include.

[Sombre]

Originally Posted by Wrana

Thank you for your answers.
1. I, for my part, am going to try to make WarHammer series mostly separate - about as BlackMoon project was, which added 4 different nations from different setting with intention that they were mostly to be played against one another, not alongside Dominions staple nations. I consider this more logical - without thinking where they appeared from and why. As for how they work - I didn't play much with Tarent mod, but had an impression that firearms worked relatively well in its context.. Have you any information on this? And in WarHammer there are quite many firearms so I'm not sure that their abscence would make style the same. Mechanically, of course, difference isn't much.
2. Well, slightly different stats, of course. Just that when I thought about this, I realised that a) historical counterparts to Empire Swordsmen, i.e., Spanish rondashiers (sp?) used just them and b) I would need them anyway when working on Tilea...
3. Agree that in WarHammer most armies have them. But it could be a good way to represent higher discipline and organisation of Empire armies (I don't plan to include banners for Bretonnia foot, for example). Another possibility I thought of is to make Empire infantry more mobile both on battlefield and on a strategy map than their armor would indicate ("marching"; this wouldn't be the case for cavalry).
4. Generally yes. Which is why other possibility and 8. I just don't see Empire cavalry consisting entirely of Templars and light cavalry - there should be secular knights as well as sacred ones, and the latter, while fine in RPG context, shouldn't probably be in the game which centers around gods struggling for domination...
5. Have to agree with this - there are many commanders already... And you didn't include Engineer, I fear! By the way, I agree that Witch Hunter should have patrolling, not spying ability. If any, he is more like assassin, not spy...
6. Understand now... Not sure if it would be manageable other way, too.
7. Yes, it's somewhat of a translation problem. But in this case (and some others) I am more inclined to go by art and descriptions rather than strict WarHammer mechanic (which, after all, includes just 2 general armor types)... And the question was due to the fact that north-provinces troops I've seen depicted with different armor.
8. Well, we surely can't reduce the number of things developers throw at us! While in the mods we produce we have more freedom in regards what to not include.

1. Good luck with that huge project. Guns in dom3 can of course be simulated quite easily, but they don't look right at all to me. The nearest I would do is something like the Ogre Deathbelcher.

3. Empire organisation I'd been representing with strong PD and good for the cost State Troops. They get 11 morale for instance, representing their drilling beyond the basic infantry level.

4. I have included both secular and religious knights. I don't agree that secular knights have no place in dominions. There are quite a few examples of secular groups of troops in dom3. There are even heretics.

5. They will probably have a cheap siege bonus engineer of some sort. Well, the Altdorf faction anyway.

7. I haven't seen northern state troops with different armour. Unless you're referring to an older range of models?