Mod: Kingdom of Angmar - Version 0.52 available

[Burnsaber]

Originally Posted by LumenPlacidum

Is it possible to mod in a unit with the Corruption ability? I can't find it in the modding doc.

#copystats, but IIRC, there are only two guys in dom3 with that ability. The Lord of Hell with a screaming mouth for a crotch and one of the grigori.

[kianduatha]

Originally Posted by Burnsaber

#copystats, but IIRC, there are only two guys in dom3 with that ability. The Lord of Hell with a screaming mouth for a crotch and one of the grigori.

I think(hope) it's for the 'corruptor' version of the Sauron pretender.

[Humakty]

This civ, while representing the first orc civ, and a really cool one, feels a little under powered. Very capitol centric troops and commanders, mages unable to cast in battle without changing their armor first, and rather weak capitol mages. Oh, and so called mages recruit everywhere, that won't do anything noticeable, research being their bane.

All in all, you very well capture the feel of Middle Earth Angmar, and scarcity of magic. But it won't be adapted to dominions, as troops only get you that far, before they dye in bursts of purple fire.

[LumenPlacidum]

Hey, thanks for the honest assessment. My initial goal was definitely to capture the feel of Angmar before going into the balancing. I have some things I want to add to the mod before I really start to weigh options against those of other nations.

National summons are likely to be a big part of making the nation a bit better, since I intend to give a few levels of thugable commanders. I think in the current version, the Rhudaur Shamen have a base research of 2, but at that cost, I'll probably up that to 3, which should be a pretty big difference.

Is there any specific problem so far that the nation really cannot face against? Against early tramplers, the trolls in the PD work wonders. They do ok against thugs, which is also true of the orcs and savages (assuming you use some shortbows to make your own guys berserk). It's true that I should probably increase the MR of most stuff in the nation. I just didn't really use other nations' numbers to guide what I put in for that.

The early game is great, and the late game has decent blood, strong death, and moderate astral. Those Gundabad Shamen are supposed to be very good blood hunters, so even with only recruiting them at the capital, you should be able to turn them into a respectable income. Getting the odd booster is a suitable role for the Witch King and pretender god, which allow your mages to cast some summons for variety (otherwise, devils are pretty much the staple). Devils are probably strong enough to bring you past the mid-game. The thugs will offer some other options, though. I mean, yeah, their mages aren't top-tier battle casters, but you should be able to push through into the late game after some effort, and once you get there, things shouldn't be too bad.

[Humakty]

Well, the all in one mage in the capitol is interesting, sure, but it's max one per turn, and they are bloodhunting OR researching. Or doing all the other things only them can do. And their magic might is still pretty limited, and random, so each game is a gamble. So by late game you might in fact be looking at middle game spells, not being sure you've got someone to cast those spells. Not sure some devils will change your day.

[kianduatha]

Definitely a bit better research on your recruit-anywhere mages is gonna make a big difference. I'd say still that Elite Warriors are simply not worth the cost(resources, mostly--don't they still have that artificial resource hike?).

Also just for flavor it feels like at least snagas should be partially poison resistant.

I like them so far...the nation seems flexible but not overpowering. Wraiths will be nice to burn gems on to get a bit of magic diversity and some research.

I am thinking this is going to be a hell of a nation to raid. You have out of the box the Witch-king, awesome province defense, and you're almost certainly going to get some vampire lords just to add insult to injury.

[LumenPlacidum]

Originally Posted by kianduatha

I'd say still that Elite Warriors are simply not worth the cost(resources, mostly--don't they still have that artificial resource hike?).

Yeah, because my main computer died, I'm now working with the version I posted. It looks like I wasn't entirely sane when I posted this first version. I didn't include the troll attack graphic, and the units have older stats than what I was running my last tests with. Elite Warriors... I think I might make the normal ones mapmove 1 and lower both their resource costs. Also, the version I posted didn't have the updated hitpoints for all the orcs. I upped the Elite Warrior to have 17 hitpoints.

I'm realizing that I'm not really getting the swarms of snagas that I'd really like. The upkeep builds up too fast. So, I'm going to make them cheaper. Probably 8 gold instead of 10.

Originally Posted by kianduatha

I am thinking this is going to be a hell of a nation to raid. You have out of the box the Witch-king, awesome province defense, and you're almost certainly going to get some vampire lords just to add insult to injury.

Pfft, just wait 'til I do Mordor. That's gonna be a hell of a nation to raid. After all, one does not simply WALK into Mordor.
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I'm so sorry.

[DaveCG]

Originally Posted by LumenPlacidum

Pfft, just wait 'til I do Mordor. That's gonna be a hell of a nation to raid. After all, one does not simply WALK into Mordor.
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I'm so sorry.

But what if you had wizards? or bears...

Or bear wizards!

On a more serious note you're doing some great work, I'm slogging though a .dm file for my EA Machaka mod atm (only 7 months late!) and it really takes it out of me, but yeah like I said great sprites and great ideas so far, looking forward to the finished one.

[LumenPlacidum]

Hmm, it turns out that my plan to have all wraiths spread dominion like a prophet might not work in conjunction with #dyingdom. Even bolstering the Witch King to a domspread of 3, he doesn't really improve dominion. I will assume that it is one of the things blocked by #dyingdom.

I've added in Ringwraith multiheroes. All Nazgul (the Witch King included) will have an overall magicboost of 2. The Witch King's starting paths are S1D2 now, to get him up to the S3D4 I wanted. Each Ringwraith has D1 +100% FAEDB, meaning that they'll have either 3 death and 3 of one of fire, air, earth, or blood, or they'll have 4 death. Most of their stats are the same as those of the Witch King, or only slightly worse, but they are not immortal (though that may change... it WAS really hard to permanently kill any ringwraith, but the Witch King has immortality to represent Glorfindel's prophecy about him).

Other heroes and multiheroes I'm thinking about:

The Great Goblin - Would be a pretty strong blood mage and priest, I think, as well as having some pretty good thug options. The Great Goblin lived in the Misty Mountains, just as Angmar does, so I don't think it would be unreasonable to create a connection there.

Possibly a named Balrog. Balrogs, however, are going to be extremely strong summons from the early age. Getting this hero early on would probably make you a complete steamroller with the Witch King, a pretender god, and a balrog SC... I probably shouldn't. When I make them, Balrogs will be powerful death and fire mages, with randoms possibly coming from astral, earth and blood.

Wight King - The last Dunedain king of Rhudaur, raised and given sorcery after his slaughter at the hands of the wild-men of his kingdom. Probably awe in addition to his fear aura. Priestly powers with some death magic seem appropriate.

[rdonj]

I've been very sick recently and haven't had much chance to play with the mod, but I do have a suggestion. Remove the reinvigoration from wolf riders and reduce encumbrance to 4. The reason cavalry has a fixed level of encumbrance is because the mount is getting fatigue, not the rider (or at least this is my understanding of that particular mechanic). Since it is the orc that's supposed to have the reinvigoration rather than the wolf, it doesn't really make sense for them to have it. Also, in the current implementation wolf riders are more or less e9 sacreds for no design points or bless requirement with their extremely heavy armor and low effective encumbrance.

Also, I think non-immortal nazgul is probably best. It makes the witch king extra special and having several free, powerful immortals seems overkill.