Mod: Squirrel Balance Mod (Current Ver: v0.05)

[Valerius]

Unfortunately, I didn't have chance this week to test the changes to Eriu in the previous version, let alone this one, but looking at the change log there's a lot of good stuff here.

Bean Sidhe - making them recruit everywhere is the big change and will help Eriu a lot.

Cu Sidhe - 4 gems for 7 is cheap enough that I'd consider them. The main emphasis would still be equipping thugs but in some situations I'd summon a couple dozen.

Nemedian Spirit-Warriors and Spectral Nemedian Sorceress - These are the ones I'd like to playtest. I really like the fact that they work thematically. The nice thing is that the Nemedian Sorceress is summonable by your national mages and branches you into death, allowing you to then summon the Spirit Warriors. The cost of the Sorceress seems reasonable considering the magic, unit abilities and the fact that it branches you into a new path of magic.

All in all some nice changes for Eriu!

A quick note about Abysia. While I actually think MA Abysia is a decent nation, having a recruit everywhere blood hunter is certainly a nice boost. But it really helps EA Aby - who I think does need it badly.

I'm also glad to see you are taking on some nerfs to OP nations. Particularly when looking at EA nations, every one I'd put on my personal OP list is either a giant or blood nation (and often both) so I think you're on the right track.

I'm not sure if the changes to giants go far enough. An increase in encumbrance is welcome but I'd go further. As an example I'd like to see Skratti priced higher.

Nerfing blood magic can be approached several ways but I think the key thing to keep in mind is that blood nations are forgoing gold income - not gem income - to get their blood summons. They'll have just as much gem income as a non-blood nation. But while the non-blood nation will most likely have to use its gems to both summon and equip its units, the blood nation need only use them to equip its units. So I think the formula to use in pricing blood summons isn't one of gems vs. blood slaves but gold vs. blood slaves. If a 5k province generates x gold/turn, which could buy me y number of units, and blood hunting that province generates z number of slaves, how many blood summons should that buy me (keeping in mind that blood summons tend to be better than national units and have no upkeep - and somewhat offset by the fact that you have to assign commanders to blood hunt)?

As an aside, I'd also take a look at eliminating the Onaqui's auto-spawning of beast bats. The idea that you can suffer enormous losses and not have it matter because you'll have a new batch of free (and sacred of course) units soon enough is, to me, not a good thing. Yes, I know there's other nations that can do this but since we're discussing blood I'm limiting my comments to that path.