Mod: Hoburgum - Cultivation Cult (EA)

[Jaur]

01/18/2011: Updated to 0.71!
--Changes (0.71):
--Merrymaker not female anymore, price lowered to 90, stats altered
--Hoburg Champion price lowered to 40g
--Ertnebischof name corrected
--Lord of Heavenly Fires attack sprite fixed

After wasting so many hours of my life shuffling little pixel units around to glide into other pixel units and make red numbers, I figured I'd give something back to the game and community that has given me so much enjoyment.

So here's (another) Hoburg mod. I chose Hoburgs because the sprites were a little less taxing to work with (my first time doing any kind of real pixel art), I was always a fan of the Hoburg Alliance mod, and I just like the little buggers. I've always been one for the underdog, so building a slightly underpowered (or at least I think so, feel free to break the mod and tell me how you did it!) nation appealed to me.

In keeping with the spirit of Dominions 3 I tried to cram some kind of real world mythology into the mod; old pagan Prussian religion found its way in, with a trinity of gods on an old Prussian king Widewuto's flags being the PGs, and Widewuto and his brother Bruteno themselves being the heroes.

It's a Nature/Earth/Water nation, with Nature up to 4, water to 3 and Earth to 2. (Water pick is pretty damn lucky I think). Blood can be up to 1 with commanders and up to 4 with heroes.

Interesting units include the Merrymaker, a stealthy unrest-raising level 3 heretic who through the power of Making Merry corrupts whatever province he is to abandon their duties and faith, the Erntebischoft, a gluttonous priest who predicts the future by reading the crops, and the Berauscht, alcoholic Hoburgs dual wielding axes and going berserk.

Uses slots 2350-2361

Units:

Hoburg Militia 5g 1r
You know all about these guys. They make good arrow catchers!

Hoburg Crossbow 8g 5r
Use them en masse and your opponent's probably going to need some arrow catchers himself. Drowning your enemies in crossbow bolts is a pretty effective and cheap expansion strategy. They're like superpowered markata archers.

Burgmeister Guard 8g 8r
Has chainmail instead of plate now, and arguably make much better arrowcatchers than the militia because of their armor and the fact they can actually hit decently hard. (For a Hoburg!)

Berauscht 16g 7r: Berserk 4, Siege Bonus 1, Pillage Bonus 1
While extremely prone to arrows (a single well placed arrow/bolt usually will kill one), they can be pretty devastating at close range. I've seen them tear heavy cavarly to shreds once they get into combat and berserked. Could make decent early anti-SC units and in general with an arrow-catcher squad present, they really up the power of expansion parties if you toss a couple in. I haven't documented their siege bonus that well with many tests, but if you base an army around them, they should be pretty decent at castle crushing with a large amount of them.

Hog Knight 25g 17r
Has chainmail instead of plate now, and you're familiar with these guys. I don't know how effective they are really, I remember I kind of veered away from them with all of the other Hoburg mods. They can be somewhat useful though, they're like charged-up Burgmeister Guards with two attacks.

Jager 36g 8r: Stealthy, Sacred, Forest Survival
These guys are pretty intense. Magic bow, magic spear. Extremely high combat stats and faster than the usual Hoburg. Cap only and sacred though should keep them down to a reasonable level, and I found the price to be a bit of a deterrent from them ruling the nation strategically. They make great stealth forces though for raiding.

Commanders:

Hoburg Champion 40g 11r
Cheap, basic commander. Plate armor! YEAH!

Burgmeister 50g 7r
Removed his plate armor for chainmail. He's incompetent in combat, but are you really using these guys for combat anyways? Standard bonus puts him well above the Hoburg Champion in quality, and he's cheaper in gold AND resources. Should I lower the Champion to 40g to make him more appealing?
Has chainmail instead of plate

Hoburg Priest 30g 1r: H1 10%N[
A stealthy scout priest, pretty basic. I made him cheaper because I thought for what he is, the price was a little steep. 10% chance of N unlocks the Hoburg national buffs which might make him a scout investment worthwhile, but it's unlikely.

Horticulturist 70g 1r: N1 100%EW: Stealthy
I pumped up the basic Horticulturist a bit: I made him cheaper and gave him the 100% chance of Ew. He's the national researcher and for the price, I think he makes a pretty good one and should make Hoburgum not a poor research power in a given game. His magical diversity should also help with crafting somewhat, aided by the Elder Horticulturists.

Ertnebischoft 110g 4r: 1N2H Gluttony 8 Fortune Reader 10
He's got a special weapon that vine tangles enemies, and enemies that try to hit him get tangled as well, as if he were wearing a vine shield. If you can find some way to make him useful in combat, I'd love to hear it! Out of the box he can cast the somewhat useful early game Hoburg buffs, and his fortune telling skill is a little useful as well if you're into that, and picked Misfortune scales or somesuch.

Merrymaker 90g 1r: Stealth 10, Heretic 3, Raise Unrest 6
This guy's interesting! And a real pain to boot. An automatic spy and heretic, he's the ultimate middle finger to your opponents. Flood capitals with Merrymakers and let the power of Making Merry take over the world. 10 Merrymakers in someone's capital means 60 unrest a turn at the price of 900 gold. An investment to keep in mind, in my opinion! Just watch out for the mind hunts.

Elder Horticulturist 250g 1r: N3W1 100%NEW 10%EW Stealthy, Healer 10, Old Age, Supply Bonus 45
The elite mage, he's a powerful nature mage, who if particularly lucky, can Blade Wind or Falling Frost. Supply Bonus is pretty useful for your armies of 600,000 crossbow Hoburgs, and the Healer is useful if any of your Hoburgs can actually survive being hit by something (which will usually cripple them, poor guys).

Jagermeister 160g 8r: 10%B Stealthy, Sacred, Forest Survival
The little thug wannabe, and maybe a lucky break into Blood magic if you want to invest in some kind of bizarre mini-thug-squad strategy. Their combat stats are pretty incredible (15att 21def out of the box), but they're incredibly fragile and unless fully kitted, their lack of magic makes them pretty non-viable to thug on their own. They make decent leaders for the Jagers though when creating stealth raid squads, and once I equipped one with a Vine Shield and Frost brand and he took out two entire provinces of PD before getting hit with a rock on the 3rd and going splat!

Summons:

Potrimpo Snake: Sacred, Animal Awe +1
Summon these guys if someone's attacking your poor little Hoburgs with elephants. The animal awe in a clump of these snakes will send elephants headed the other way directly into the opponent's armies. Other than that, they're blessable and fairly mean little low level summons on their own and I think that they fill their role perfectly.

Hoburg Hog: Berserk, Reinvig 10
Never-tiring pissed off Hogs. Can be summoned in packs or like Shark Attack with the Hog Stampede spell. They might need to be a little tougher to justify the magic and research required, but at 15STR and 15ATT per hog, I think they might just be mean enough to really put the hurt on enemies, especially with the stampede spell which will have them headed towards some fragile mages. Plus, they never rout, so you're going to have to deal with those Hogs for quite a while even if you're winning the battle.

Spells:

Intoxicate H1N1 15 Fatigue
A long range dessication spell, the priest puts the enemy to sleep by infusing alcohol in his blood. I like it. Is it useful? It should be a pretty decent SC/thug killing spell, so I think so.

Merry Cheer H1N1 45 Fatigue
A huge Sermon of Courage. That's about it! Helps out with the pathetic Hoburg morale.

Hog Stampede N5 400 Fatigue
Shark Attack with Hogs of Hoburg. In my tests, it's a pretty funny and surprisingly effective spell, but I've mostly gone against AIs. I might lower the price to 2 or 3 nature gems later on.

Pretender Gods:

Lord of River and Grains N1W1E1 45points Dom2 Pathcost 20
Animal Awe +1, Dom summons Potrimpo Snakes
The Rainbow-esque god with the domsummon, this guy is pretty useful for his role. Pathcosts are cheap, he comes with 3 already and a respectable Dom2. Useless for combat unless you want to deter elephants with your PG, just like he should be! Cheap to buy as well.

Lord of Death and Subterranean D2E1 60points Dom2 Pathcost 40
Undead, Ethereal, Chill, Amphibian, Fear +2, Cold Resist 50, Poison Resist 100, Need Not Eat
A SC-esque PG, he's very much in the vein of the Ghost King. Arguably better except for the fact that his HP is so drastically small, much like his sprite. Earth magic added is a nice bonus though!

Lord of Heavenly Fires A2F1 120points Dom3 Pathcost 60
Flying, Awe +0, Fire/Shock Resist 100, Trample
This guy's mean. Just look at the sprite! A flaming headed Hoburg riding a chariot led by a golden goat with a huge axe. The axe is a special weapon I created that is about on par with some of the unique craftables. AOE fire and shock damage, with huge damage all on its own to begin with. I had some issues where he kept killing himself with his own weapon but that all seems to be fixed now (I think? Let me know!). Comes with good paths for a SC (A2 for mistform F4 for minor bless + flaming arrows for crossbows in vanilla) and he should be able to fill the role decently. HP again might (likely will) be something that reduces him from true SC status.