Forest Of Loren - Release

[tinkthank]

ok -- Great mod Thilock!!

These are my first impressions.
- I really really like the work you did here. The graphics are incredible. In fact, they are fantastic. Hat's off!
- I have no idea what Warhammer is. I have heard that word once or twice, but have no clue what it is. Sorry if I am therefore misreading something... Since many of your descriptions still read "test", I cannot exactly make sure of a lot of it. You may want to contact a native-speaker of English for some of this (you can contact me!! I would be happy to help) to polish it up. Since there is not yet any description, I didnt understand the water path on the Forest Priestess.

In terms of balance, I want to say this to contextualize my suggestions below:
The pros:
- There are no non-stealthy units whatsoever. The entire recruitable force is without exception stealthy.
- With only one exception, the least amount of stealth any unit has is +10. Every single unit but the Treant has a stealth rating between +10 and +20. This also includes the armored troops with prot 10+.
- There are quite a number of very variable units -- 11 troops, ranging from the butch treant to the lightning-resistant faery to the prec-14 archer to the awesome unicorn, standard infantry, and cavalry. There are 14 recruitable commanders, including spies, and 7 magic-users. Of the 25 units, 2 are capital-only.
- Three of the troop units are sacred; none of these are capital-only.

The Cons:
- Many of the units cost a lot of gold. (Good.)
- Average priests (but cheap temples make up for that).

Although I love the feel of it, in my three little tests I just steamrolled my impossible AI opponents. It was fun! But basically, the only problem I see is a lack of weaknesses.
The troops are all top-notch, and there is no weakness or lack of ... anything but some magic paths (which I had on my pretender). You have cheap troops (some of which are 100% shock resistant) for fodder, elite ground forces, THREE types of sacred troops, all of which are incredibly powerful (imagine a wardancer with any kind of bless effect!) and two of which are cheap.

You beat the pants off my Oglalas, whom I thought were *THE* stealth race so far. Wardancers cut through just about anything with ease, but backed up with archers with a Faery Queen casting wind guide, a few Faeries as tough-to-hit distractors, and flanked by Glade Riders and unicorns, I had no trouble surprising just about any army by showing up in their backdoor with any combination of crack stealthy troops. Faery Queens, Faeries and a few commanders with rings of Shock Resistance did a nice job with Wrathful Skies as well.

I played once with an a4 Titan, once with a d-6 Prince of Death, and once with a Rainbow. I didnt try a F9 Moloch, but that will be next; then I will try your own new pretenders!

It is great fun, but I would tend to want to tone it down a lot, without losing too much flavor. So without trying to change too much, I would probably do this, if I had the choice and I were in charge:

- Reduce the stealth of ALL units by approx. 8-12. The Scout and the Waydancer should still be very stealthy, but otherwise, I would suggestion having at least most troops stealth +0 or max +5, since they are forest dwellers, and least 1/4 to 1/3 of the troops non-stealthy (I would choose for this EVERYthing with protection above 9 plus the unicorns as well as treants and meadow priestesses.)
- Reduce Fear effect of Wardancer to -4. (Fear stacks with bless.) Reduce Defense by 6. Reduce MR by 1. Make ritual sword not armor-piercing. Increase cost by 10. Make them capital-only. (Similar for the corresponding Commander, except I would reduce MR for him by 2
- Increase cost of Dryads by 10. Reduce MR by 1. Make them capital-only.
- Decrease precision of Elven Archer by 1.
- Make the scouts scouts, not spies. They shouldnt be able to start uprisings.
- Get rid of the shock resistance on Faeries.
- Remove fear on Treants. Remove Recuperation. Reduce MR by 2. Reduce Prot by 3. Remove armor-piercing and magical attack of the thorned claw. Reduce cost to 250. Alternatively, I would make them ritual summons (could replace a carrion summons).
- Make Faery Queens capital-only, and not shock-resistant. Magic Resistance should definatley not be higher than 18.

What do you think? I dont want to "knock" your excellent mod; it is truly great, and looks so wonderful. And fun to play too!

If you ever need help with some English-proofing, let me know.