Mod: Warhammer MA: Empire

[Sombre]

Been wizzy doodling.

Amethyst and Celestial. Like night and day!

[rdonj]

I love the way the amethyst mage's robe wraps around his legs. It's a simple touch, but very cool. And I imagine somewhat difficult to produce.

[Amonchakad]

That's some good-looking sprites! The amethyst mage looks indeed very cool with that swirling robe.

[Sombre]

Thanks guys.

I've decided the wizard lords will all be mounted. This gives me a bit more canvas to paint the symbols of their orders on. The amber mage will be mounted on a bear, the bright mage will get a warhorse. It also makes them immediately distinct from the lesser order mages.

For bright mages does a 12 prec F2 with 30% ED who autocasts phoenix power sound reasonable? Not having to cast phoenix power saves you a round and equally importantly saves a bunch of fatigue.

[Sombre]

Actually I've thought about all the wizard level paths:

Bright (Lore of Fire): F2 30% ED (autocast PP)
Light (Lore of Light): S2 F1 (sacred)
Gold (Lore of Metal): E2 F1 30% W
Jade (Lore of Life): N1 W1 A1 E1 30% NW (sacred, healer)
Amethyst (Lore of Death): D2 100% SA (no undead leading)
Amber (Lore of Beasts): N2 30% E (strength of gaea autocast)
Grey (Lore of Shadow): A2D1 (stealthy, spy)
Celestial (Lore of the Heavens): A1 S1 60% A 60% D (fortune teller, researcher)

[rdonj]

Sounds pretty good so far. Although at first glance D on a celestial mage seems a bit odd.

[Sombre]

Yeah that's a typo. It's supposed to be an S. Silly edit timer.

[rdonj]

Yeah, that makes them look much better.

I took a look back 3 years ago (yikes!) at the first post, and I was wondering a bit about how you have the summon paths set up. You've got jade, light, bright, AND celestial mages all apparently summonable through evocation. So your best researchers, your primary evocation batteries, your healers (and most diverse mages), and your primary astral mages all available in the same tree. Evocation alone will get you access to all your national paths, and all but death to level 2 on just the basic mages. It would probably be a good idea to spread some of these guys around a little more to keep evocation from being too obvious of a path to head up early.


Also, I was thinking about steam tanks. From your description of them, I almost feel like they'll be too good as a recruitable unit. How do you feel about making them a commander instead? Or failing that, a summon.

[Humakty]

Empire roster should allow for a OK early game, even without decent evoc. You've got every tactical combination you could dream of, plus some nasty special units. And if recruitable mages are weak, shouldn't it balance with ubber units ? You'd still be pretty vulnerable to air/astral mages (who can pawn any recruitable unit you could dream of). Not so sure about astral, isn't it countered by lifeless and other similar tags ?

All in all, it should give them a pretty different gameplay, which is always nice.

EDIT : I just remembered steam tanks were created by a long dead genius, and are slowly breaking down one by one, as time and battles pass along. So a summon similar to the elemental royalty one would be most fitting. Can't remember how many are stiil operational though. (and lended my army book, or lost it somehow, which is a shame, it had lots of fluff in it)

EDIT EDIT : I've seen an article in white dwarf, which allowed for customisation of steam tanks, to give them a more 'unique' feel, as each one of them is a unique masterpiece. So an immensely talented modder could even make each one of them slightly different. (is this one subtle enougth ?)

[Sombre]

The spreading of the schools throughout paths is tricky. 8 mages spread throughout 5 paths (discounting construction and blood). This is what I figure at the moment:

Alteration - Gold
Evocation - Bright, Light
Enchantment - Grey
Thaumaturgy - Amethyst
Conjuration - Amber, Jade
?????????? - Celestial

Just don't know where to put Celestial.

Re: Steam Tanks - Definitely going to be construction summon, not a recruitable. The war wagon will be recruitable but will not be suitable for rushes/expansion due to the resource cost. I'm not going to make steam tanks unique because I think they're pretty boring doodads with the cannon removed. Tempted to remove them entirely.