Mod Project Idea: Historical References Mod

[elmokki]

Originally Posted by Belac

LA Machaka, a new nation based on Caribbean voodoo practices and slave religion (i.e, Marignon and Man conquered Machaka at the end of the Middle Age, referencing African slavery in the new world). Magic would be based on Water, Blood, and Death, and units would be mobile guerilla-types with weak stats for late age made up for by lots of stealth, assassins, and spying.

That's actually a really interesting nation idea, though I personally have absolutely no idea on what exactly the units should be and how they should be armed or anything. Probably unarmored or very lightly armored spear infantry and archers with stealthy and more westernized sword or axe or mace + chainmail infantry and archers without stealth. Generally rather poor normal units and no cavalry.

They'd have all kinds of interesting commanders to offset poor units. Definately a some sort of a mage-assassin, possibly with paths to some national curse spell or something. Stealthy animal forms for all mages shouldn't be too far fetched either, right? Probably also a decent magic diversity to really offset the poor troops.

They'd definately have national spells for earlier age spiders and probably some more interesting spiders too (which is something they should probably have for MA too though). Maybe just make the normal spider summons more nature orientated and leave them mostly for MA and make special spider demons for B/N (give N as a crapshoot random atleast to blood mages, or just make the national paths B/D/N) and give them to LA Machaka primarily.

They'd definately also have other interesting national spells. Remote commander killer spell with a beefed up zombie atleast. Maybe a spider version too. Some sort of a limited mass curse? Some sort of a voodoo puppet spell?

The other ideas should be rather easy to implement, as I don't think the nations you mentioned have anything that can't be replicated by modding.

[Belac]

Originally Posted by elmokki

That's actually a really interesting nation idea, though I personally have absolutely no idea on what exactly the units should be and how they should be armed or anything. Probably unarmored or very lightly armored spear infantry and archers with stealthy and more westernized sword or axe or mace + chainmail infantry and archers without stealth. Generally rather poor normal units and no cavalry.

They'd have all kinds of interesting commanders to offset poor units. Definately a some sort of a mage-assassin, possibly with paths to some national curse spell or something. Stealthy animal forms for all mages shouldn't be too far fetched either, right? Probably also a decent magic diversity to really offset the poor troops.

They'd definately have national spells for earlier age spiders and probably some more interesting spiders too (which is something they should probably have for MA too though). Maybe just make the normal spider summons more nature orientated and leave them mostly for MA and make special spider demons for B/N (give N as a crapshoot random atleast to blood mages, or just make the national paths B/D/N) and give them to LA Machaka primarily.

They'd definately also have other interesting national spells. Remote commander killer spell with a beefed up zombie atleast. Maybe a spider version too. Some sort of a limited mass curse? Some sort of a voodoo puppet spell?

The other ideas should be rather easy to implement, as I don't think the nations you mentioned have anything that can't be replicated by modding.

I am envisioning the basic units being beefed-up MA Machaka infantry armed with spears and archers, all stealthy, with the elites being versions of the LA Marignon crossbow, halberd and shield troops and not stealthy(representing weapons stolen from the overseers). They'd all have Forest Survival. There'd also be a Khlyst-style sacred stealthy unit with sucky stats and afflictions, that causes unrest in the province it's in, representing slaves injured in their servitude and sent to stir up revolts.

The basic mages would be similar to MA Machaka, but with Water replacing Fire and no Sorceresses or Black Sorcerers. They'd also be Sacred and have Holy 1. Bane Spiders would remain, with D1 magic added. The nation could also blood sacrifice.

Commanders would be something like this:

Machaka Scout (from MA)
Machaka Chief (from MA), stealthy
Armored Chief (a Machaka Chief equipped like a Marignon commander, with 80 leadership)
Witch Doctor: W1N1H1, B/D 100%, Stealthy, can reanimate
Sorcerer: W1D1N2H1, D/W/E/B 100%, W/E/N 10%, can reanimate
Voodoo Priest: B1H2, B 10%, Stealthy, Spy, can reanimate
Bane Spider: D1, Stealthy, Assassin

National summoning spells would include a n/b spell summoning spider demons (regular great spiders with life drain instead of poison, perhaps), a blood-based Reanimation-type spell (easier to cast and slightly superior to Cross Breeding, but summoning undead), and a higher-level d/b spell summoning a national thug that's like a Black Sorcerer with more HP and Sailing. National battlefield spells would include a D1 spell that curses without requiring gem use, but MR resists (to balance it with Spirit Curse while making it useful for an assassination), and perhaps Holy spells like C'tis gets to bolster national undead.

[Belac]

National heroes would include a regular human with a high Standard, good stats, and the ability to domsummon soldiers (representing a Toussaint L'ouverture figure), a Marignon Inquisitor who turned coat and gives access to fire magic (a la Cabeza de Vaca with the native North Americans), and perhaps something amphibian (a starspawn who foresaw and fled the madness of LA R'lyeh, or something).

[Belac]

There would also be a national ritual spell like Seeking Arrow, representing sticking pins into a voodoo doll (is it possible to create a spell that gives random afflictions instead of doing damage?), and a B/D Enslave Mind-type spell (so only a few of their commanders could cast it), representing voodoo mind control.

The flavor I am thinking of is like Pat Buchanan's slander against Haiti, where he said that the earthquake and all the other bad things that happened there were due to the Haitians having made a deal with the devil in exchange for freedom from the French. As offensive as that is, it would make for an awesome Dominions national origin...

[elmokki]

Sounds pretty good otherwise, except that I kind of have to disagree with the Bane Spiders. I think it'd be thematically more suitable that they left the Anansi spider worship behind when they left their original homeland and their God Mountain and therefore while they can summon demon spiders that remind of the old, the recruitables just aren't there anymore as the spider culture has been destroyed by the slavery. I would though still allow the mages to transform to spiders. The assassin could possibly be some sort of a wannabe bane spider, ie a low level voodoo practicioner who wants to revive the bane spiders, and while he has worse weapons and less armor, he has magic.

Regarding units, the thing is that the current Machaka units feel like they're very african, and I think LA Machaka should have less african and more western influenced units in general. I personally would like to give them _some_ armor to make them actually somewhat viable raiders. The style though is pretty easily modifiable, as you could just for example make the shields less african looking and maybe switch the loincloth to pants or give them a shirt or something.

Otherwise the Marignon-like basic heavier troops sound pretty good, though they'd definately have less orange and more metal grey armor than Marignon troops just so that they don't look completely ridiculous.

Also, what's up with fire being replaced by water? I don't really know what the fire was for originally either, but water sounds even stranger. That said, the magic options look quite limited. Seeing that they won't have very good troops, I'd give them a bit more magic. Maybe even a second D/W/E/B 100% for sorcerer.