Mod: New Nation: Kharam Dzu

[zepath]

Presented here is a new Late Ages nation for your game-time enjoyment:

Kharam Dzu

The dwarves once ruled vast subterranean kingdoms, rich with the wealth of the earth and the traditions of a thousand years. Now the old Underkings exist only in legend and pressure from other races has cause many dwarves to seek their fortunes above ground. The dwarves who settled in Kharam Dzu, a volcanic archipelago, have put their famous ingenuity [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/icon07.gif[/img] to work in ship-building and have become the premier shipwrights in the world. As a rising sea power [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Fish.gif[/img], they soon found that robbing others of their gold by piracy and raids was much easier than mining it from the earth oneself. From the Office of the Admiralty in the heart of Kharam Dzu, letters of mark are issued to aspiring dwarven privateers and the island markets bustle with the captured booty they return. Nearly all coastal peoples have come to fear the black flag of Kharam Dzu, which can appear on the horizon without warning and means certain death or enslavement at the hands of the dwarves.

This nation is an addition to the normal Late Ages nations (nation number 73) and will not replace any of the original nations. This mod is based on the concept for my Dominions 2 nation mod "Halls of the Underkings". Kharam Dzu reintroduces the dwarves as a nation of their own, but they've changed through the ages and now -- in the Late Age -- are not what they once were. These dwarves live above ground, indeed on the water, and are far from honorable. Of course, they still have all that great dwarven craftsmanship going for them. This nation is entirely sea-faring and invites strategies that capitalize on their great mobility. Load it up, check out the readme file, and give the dwarves a try. Please let me know your impressions and concerns so I can make this mod even better!

[DrPraetorious]

You're aware that putting sailing on non-commanders doesn't do anything ?

Delvers (specifically, Delver Armor) need to cost more resources - compare to an Ulm unit. You could reduce their cold cost, if you wish.

Perhaps the longbeard should be old?

You're going to be fielding a craptons-of-crap strategy as this nation, that being the biggest benefit of units that cost so few resources - consider making all of them slightly cheaper to compensate for the fact that none of them wear armor.

[DrPraetorious]

I just noticed what the Black Market does after several turns of marveling over my abundant heaps of money!

You can give them a capital site that generates money if you wish, but it shouldn't generate resources as well, and forget what I said about making the troops cheaper .

[zepath]

DrPraetorious, the sailing ability on the recruitables is there in the event a player wishes to use Gift of Reason on any of his/her troops. It's the same reason I include commands for leadership ability on all monsters including even the lowest tier troops.

The low resource costs are a result of all the units being Size 1. After I lost two hundred dwarves and their commander in three successively horrendous turns of one battle to trampling opponents I realized why its best they don't have the same resource costs as Size 2 units. It's also easier to nuke five dwarves in one square than three humans. And the Delvers, while having slightly stronger armor than Black Steel, are not as powerful fighters as Ulmic infantry or knights, nor are they well armed, and underwater -- where they belong -- they are even less-so. I tried to offset the overall cheap resource costs of the units with slightly higher gold costs and found that it balanced out alright in play-testing.

[DrPraetorious]

It's true that, in spite of the odd math, the nation does not seem unbalanced. The unit that presently worries me is the crossbowman - who will also do very bad things to elephants, by and by.

[HoneyBadger]

I was hoping the dwarves would come out from under the iron boot of the Vanir in a mod, and it's nice to see that they have. Even better, they're pirates, so what's not to like? great job! I'll definitely be downloading this one.

[zepath]

DrPraetorious, the repeater crossbowmen can still be shot to death just as easily as the other dwarves and decent flying troops could cause them serious trouble.

HoneyBadger, let me know what you like and dislike once you've loaded it up and played a bit.

[HoneyBadger]

It might be a little while, I've got a lot on my plate right now (something like 6 mod nations, plus work, plus the holidays etc), but definitely will do, Zepath. Hmmm might get to it tonight...

[upstreamedge]

I have been playing around with this mod a lot recently and I thought I would give some feedback.

First are good things: To begin with the core idea is super awesome. I mean, dwarf pirates??? I love the national heroes, your idea to make a couple of immobile ones was great! I like your unit concepts allot, they fit in very well with the theme and are fun to use. I think the art is very good as well, and basically it is just a high quality mod.

This does not mean it is perfect, and personally I found it to be slightly unbalanced. These are the things I noted, and I offer my suggestions below

Chaplains- are very very very strong. for 150g and 3r you get a mage that gets 2 random picks in fire earth or death, this alone is not overpowered but the fact that they are level two priests makes them REALLY good. I think that having the chaplain be such a good priest takes away from the pirate flavor. My feelings on this would be to either make the chaplain holy 1, or to make a new holy 1 priest and bump the chaplain up in cost, or to take away the chaplain's magic and create a new dwarf mage unit.

Angel Killers- I think these are over powered because their sword is armor piercing, I think flavor wise it would make more sense to make the weapon magic. I also would increase gold cost by about 5.

buccaneers- since dwarves are size 1 and 5 of them fit into a square the berserk 2 is devastating, I would bring it to berserk 1

balloonist- 1 air and 1 astral gem a turn seems a little much, I would do air only.

overall- I think I would replace death magic with air magic for a more consistent flavor.

[HoneyBadger]

Ok, this is really late, but...

I think the guys in the diving armor are fantastic.
All the units are good, for that matter, although if I could request, either a Nemo Pretender in a Nautilus, or a Nautilus high-level construction summon

I think it would be both appropriate and fun to include a reference to 20,000 leagues under the sea in this nation.
I forget if it's there, but if not, it'd be nice to see the Ancient Kraken as an alternate Pretender here too.