Mod: Assimilation (recruit some conquered foes!)

[Azurain]

Hello! This is a new gameplay-changing mod.

The short:

This mod allows you to recruit a few enemy troops types and commanders at their capital once you have conquered it.

Version 1.1 of the mod includes a file for each of Early, Mid and Late. Please ensure you only have ONE age (early, mid or late) active at a time.

Sites used are from 820 - 845 or so, to avoid this conflicting with the Magic Sites Mod (unless they've expanded it).

The long:

One of my favourite things about Master of Magic was conquering new races and adding their strengths to my own, creating a really diverse, interesting fighting force. It really gave me motivation to continue to conquer my neighbors (can't wait to get troll infantry and dark elf sorcerers to supplement my high elf forces, etc).

So I was always disappointed when, for instance, I conquered Jotunheim and couldn't convince any of the giants there to follow me. Seemed silly that some of the giants wouldn't be willing to join me, even if maybe the most powerful wouldn't.

This idea has been floating around in my head ever since I heard of the added site modding functionality (a couple years ago) which allows the use of #mon and #com commands (letting all nations recruit new units from specific sites).

Basically I've taken 3-5 (usually 5) of the 'second-best' or 'stock' units and commanders for each nation, added them to a new site (or a modded site for those races which have 4 startsites already) and given that site to the nation as a startsite. This has the effect of giving you access to those troops (at the enemy capital only) when you have conquered the enemy's capital.

The side effect, of course, is that the units appear twice in your capital's recruitment roster, but that's a minor, unavoidable blip, all things considered.

I did not attempt to balance perfectly. I chose flavorful, interesting units which I would generally like to be able to recruit as another nation, but never chose the most powerful troops available (sacreds only in a couple of cases where it made sense--Mictlan for instance--and never a race's "top" caster). Balance is not perfect nor should it be. I'm fully aware of the game-changing nature of this mod, which is the point, after all.

So please, no complaints about how much better it is to conquer Bandar Log than it is to conquer MA Ulm, or about how in some ways this makes Productivity a more valuable pick, etc etc. I know. But it sure is fun to be able to say "I can't wait to conquer Helheim so I can start up a blood economy to get my Antlered Shaman some Earth Blood Stones."

Feel free to make suggestions, or create your own dramatically better versions of the mod! It's easy enough. I created this for my own use, after all, and am just uploading it on a lark.