Mod: New Nation: Kharam Dzu

[Horst F. JENS]

Zepath: That's a great mod, respect !
Never had such a funny feeling while playing dom3 as with those dwarf pirates :-)
I wonder where you got all the ideas from ? The Beer Guard guy .... brilliant !
And after scanning the .dm file i found out about the parrot demon.... excellent !

Could you explain the "background" of the death magic skill ?
I understand it is thematic from the black skull and bone flag but somehow i feel that a seafaring race should have some air skills. Just can't imaging an dwarven pirate necromancer...



While playing i found myself recruiting only repeater-crossbowmen and bombards. (I still have to go underwater and try out those diver guys). Maybe it is my playstyle, but does not make the bombard (grenade thrower) the "normal" pirate guys useless ?

Some ideas i got while playing:
repeater-crossbowmen: Maybe those guys could use a nerf ? If the weapon idea is based on the chinese chu-ko-nu, the range and accuracy should be inferior to a normal bow.
As it is now the dwarfen repeater crossbowmen have longer range than a bigger human crossbowmen but twice the rate of fire ... seems unlogical to me, with all respect to the dwarfen craftmanship.
Adding castle defense bonus ?

Aging: All dwarfes seem to be rather young..

Bombards: maybe less damage and adding "strength not added" ? Also Armor-Piercing or just flame damage instead of Armor Negating damage ? And maybe less range / less accuracy..

Idea for new units:
Sniper: A commander. I think of sailing-age sharpshooters sniping at enemy captains from the top of the mast.

Catapult: In the description of the bombards, you described big catapults on ships. Could not the dwarfes dismantle such an catapult and use it on land instead of on ships ?

For all the shieldless, armorless guys like longbeards:
adding a unit like a "tower shield bearer". He once stole a big tower shield of an enemy and now carry this shield with both hands into battle to give the longbeards cover. Unit has ridicule fighting skill (useless kick), high enc and slow movement but thanks to the huge shield good shield protection and big size (2) to attract arrows.

Have to go back to the game and launch some raiding partys :-)

[HoneyBadger]

How about a dwarf close-combat specialist with bladed armor and armed with daggers?

Sniper's very good.

I'm thinking seige engines might work a bit like Early Era Ermor's gladiators-you pay a fee to "rent" them for one battle-the cost of setting them up, and then they're "left behind". Included with small catapults (or better yet a horizontal vector mangonel-ballista, unless you're throwing fire, or throwing over a body of soldiers.) could be giant shields.

[Sombre]

This sounds very fun and I'll give it a go tomorrow. I'm surprised more people haven't had a look at this one.

[Sombre]

I got around to trying out this great mod and I had a blast. The nation is brimming with character, yet it surprisingly doesn't feel that out of place in Dominions.

I haven't played it enough to make any balancing suggestions, but it seems to me that rather than beer the pirates would be more concerned about rum or grog. I'm also curious to know why you decided to stick to only one nametype rather than giving the national heroes set names.

[Theonlystd]

Now of course this is my opinion


but these guys feel more like Goblins Than Dwarfs. You gotta use horde tatics and if anything big shows up expect to lose craploads. I dont see y Dwarfs couldnt be size 2 while not as tall as humans im sure they could make up for it in bulk. Hp in line with humans feels wrong. Dwarfs are supposed to be "tougher" .. And then late age and only 6 Protection :| Dwarfs die by the boatloads to shortbows and slings. Then Dwarfs using Falchions?!?!?!?!?

Have to agree with a guy above. Air Magic makes more sense then Death

Stil a fun mod and a nice change of pace.

[Sombre]

They're pirate dwarves, not warhammer or Lord of the rings dwarves. I like the fact that they're different too. Dominions is a game which tends to shy away from stereotypical fantasy nations.

[lch]

There are graphics for a very nice "cannon" unit, which doesn't seem to be in this mod yet. Any plans to add it?

[HoneyBadger]

This is an idea for a "Semi-random" province which incorporates Kharam Dzu:

"Amahr Du Balad-Durr" (umlaut above the last u)

In Dwarvish: "Towers of the Battle-Waite"

The province contains a massive fortress (fortified city)
and must be seiged to take it over.
It also contains a Great Gold Mine, a Great Iron Mine, and two Bronze Pillars.

Once the capital city and home of the Dwarven race, since the Dwarves took to the sea to pillage and plunder, the Amahr has been reduced significantly in political importance. However, the Dwarves have not forgotten their glorious past. The city is still lovingly maintained and cared for, as both a land-based Royal Court and as a hospital and hospice for aged and crippled veterans-including over a thousand longbeard soldiers who are simply too 'set in their ways' to venture out to sea-the Pirates take care of their own, and they consider this to be 'Home Sweet Home'.

It's guarded by 12 Crusher golems, 120 delvers, 360 dwarven repeater-crossbows, and fully 1200 longbeards, and led by 9 vice admirals and 1 Crusty Old Captain.

The vice-admirals are armed with:
Fire Bola, Robe of Etheriality, and Black Steel Helm.

The Crusty Old Captain is armed with a Shadow Brand, Jade Armor, Wraith Crown, Amulet of Rejuvenation, and Elixer of Life.

This province shows up in Late Era games-even ones in which Kharam Dzu isn't used. I'm not sure how it would work, exactly, but I think it would be a fun random.