Mod idea: Reborn Iron Faith

[Sombre]

If Nerfix is too busy to make this I can do it. It shouldn't take much work, after all.

What do you guys think?

[Sandman]

Go for it. One small suggestion I have is to split Black Forest and Iron Faith into two different nations, a la Vanhiem and Helheim. The same for Marignon.

[Sombre]

Hmm. Well I used to think new nations are always better than replacement nations, but since marignon reborn I'm not so sure.

I suppose it couldn't hurt to have it as a new nation, but in terms of the 'storyline' it doesn't make much sense. After all with Reborn Iron Faith the malediction is prevented/replaced by a miracle and the civil war is ended with the country following

On the other hand,.. if the #clear command doesn't get rid of national spells then I'd rather have this new Ulm use the ID number of MA Ulm, which will mean there would be no replacing (unless I simply made the mod remove LA Ulm as well).

We'll see. It's truer to Nerfix's idea as a replacement though.

Ok, so here's the unit lineup. The nation focuses on priests waaay more than magic and features lots and lots of hammers. Black steel is in greater supply than in vanilla LA Ulm, but less than MA Ulm. I might go nuts and give them some new holy spells. Obviously sort of a bless nation.

Domspawned Units.

Penitent - New unit, but basically a flagellant. Domspawned by all Ulm Reborn priest units. Sacred.

Recruitable Units.

Infantry of Ulm - from MA Ulm. Chainmail, tower, hammer
Crossbow - From MA Ulm, but might have a crossbow instead of an arbalest
Pikeneer - From MA Ulm. Again, the chainmail not the Black Steel version.
Black Zweihander - Basically same as LA Ulm Zwei, but with armour upgraded to full plate of ulm.
Anchorite - This one is strange. They are animated suits of blacksteel armour in which madmen, heretics and criminals are placed. The armour fights with a maul until it is struck hard (high prot, lowish hp) at which point the occupant tumbles out fully converted to the new faith. So when they die you get a Penitent.
Black Templar - from LA Ulm, cap only sacred knights.
Neugeboren (reborn) Guard - Guardians reborn into the new faith when they were saved from starving by the Aufklarung (enlightenment). New sprite - look like white/silver armoured MA Ulm Guardians. Sacred. Cap only.

Commanders
Captain of Ulm - from MA Ulm, chainmail and hammer.
Hochmeister - from LA Ulm
Grand Hochmeister - A hochmeister with H2.
Neugeboren (reborn) Lord - The reborn guard's version of the MA Ulm Guardian Lord. H1 at least.
Black Acolyte - From LA Ulm
Black Priest - From LA Ulm
Black High Priest - New unit. H3 E2-3 (maybe death magic?) Important for flavour. Maybe needs a snappier name/gimmick.

For the heroes I'll probably take the LA Ulm ones and basically reverse them into good guys who were converted by the Aufklärung (enlightenment) which replaced the malediction.

What do we think? It's a relatively laidback project for me (like vaettihiem), but is there enough new content and whatnot?

[SlipperyJim]

Sombre said:
Black High Priest - New unit. H3 E2-3 (maybe death magic?) Important for flavour. Maybe needs a snappier name/gimmick.

Black Bishop? Black Cardinal?

...

Yeah, I love this idea. Standard LA Ulm doesn't have much appeal for me. On the other hand, reborn Iron Faith Ulm looks terrific.

[Sombre]

As promised the neugeboren guard have lovely* new sprites. The sprite of the commander, Neugeboren Lord, is attached. And yes, they will have attack sprites as well, made from scratch (I can't be bothered to extract attack sprites from the game - too complex).

I've basically finished making all the basic units. I just have to rewrite some descriptions, add in the black high priest/cardinal/bishop/demigogue and do countless other balancey stat changing type things.

Oh and the heroes. Those are going to take longer than anything else, so don't expect them in the first version.

If you have any other suggestions on what Ulm Reborn should have, now is the time to make 'em. Comments on the new sprite also appreciated.

*- I guess that's up to you to judge.

[SlipperyJim]

I like the new sprite.

For heroes, my only idea right now is a beefed-up version of the Neugeboren Lord. He was the commander of the Guardians when the miracle saved them all, and now he has become the patron saint of the Neugeboren Guard. Jack him up to H3 (for Divine Blessing), increase his max age (saints are a long-lived bunch) & leadership, and give him a standard effect. If you really wanted to go crazy, you could even give him a small Awe effect, but that might be overbalancing.

Looking forward to the mod! Let me know when you need a beta-tester!

[Sandman]

I'm not keen on domspawned Penitents. It would give the Ulmish player a strong incentive to take sloth. Unless it could be linked to productivity somehow...

[Sombre]

Bear in mind that they are domspawned /by/ priests and not the kind of auto domspawn that rlyeh and ermor get. The domspawn summoning won't be overpowering, believe me - it's more like an extra incentive to use all those priests, a way of providing more flavour and a way to increase the numer of holy units in your armies. As I said, this is a very holy heavy nation. Dominion is obviously going to be more important than with LA Ulm, but you'll still need all that production to make your regular/sacred units.

I could certainly do a Neugeboren Lord hero - the reverse of the ghoul baron in fact. NG Lords already have fear and standard effect though (they're pretty powerful and you'll want them to fight rather than sit back, but they're expensive and have no H magic now)

I'll upload a first release in a couple of days. Then you can all be beta testers ;]