Mod Warhammer Nation: Northern Greenskins

[okiN]

So, since Sombre is currently occupied with other stuff, I thought I'd try my hand at modding and have a go at the Greenies. Their army list is so huge that it will be split into two - North and South. I'll be doing the Northern nation first.

I've now taken the time to think a bit on how the army is going to pan out, compare notes extensively with Sombre and shamelessly copy his planning format. Here's what I've got so far.


OVERVIEW


This will be a pretty quirky nation in that its only sacred units will also be its somewhat lacklustre mages, namely the shaman mage-priests. Greenskin strategy centers around numbers, brute force and rapid expansion. Troops will therefore be relatively cheap, I doubt I'll have anything as capital only, and forts will be low-cost, quick-built, ramshackle affairs. A lot of the bosses will probably autospawn troops like Sombre's skaven leaders, reflecting how greenskins flock to the WAAAGH! They'll also all have a standard effect to encourage people using them on the front lines. Stronger commanders and especially heroes will probably be quite thuggable, but far from SC material.


WARHAMMER ORC


M 4
WS 3
BS 3
S 3
T 4
W 1
I 2
A 1
Ld 7


WARHAMMER GOBLIN


M 4
WS 2
BS 3
S 3
T 3
W 1
I 2
A 1
Ld 6



DOMINIONS ORC RACIAL STATS


HP - 14 (Toughness)
Prot - 5 (Toughness)
Str - 11 (Stronger than humans)
Att - 10 (Average)
Def - 9 (Low initiative)
AP - 10 (Average)
MR - 10 (Average)
Mor - 10 (Average. Despite their love for battle, orcs are unruly and prone to infighting)
Prec - 10 (Average)
Mapmove - 2 (Average)
Size - 2 (Orcs are bulky, but generally not much taller than humans. Bigger commanders will be size 3)

Other abilities

Recuperation (Orcs heal very quickly, and can even reattach severed limbs with some crude stitching), pillage bonus (Raider culture)
Black orcs have wasteland and mountain survival, standard from Quell Animosity, and overall better stats


DOMINIONS GOBLIN RACIAL STATS


HP - 9 (Toughness 3, but small)
Str - 9 (Str 3, but small)
Att - 8 (Low WS)
Def - 7 (Low WS and initiative)
AP - 11 (A little nimbler than orcs)
MR - 10 (Average)
Mor - 8 (Cowardly and unreliable)
Prec - 10 (Average)
Mapmove - 2 (Average)
Size - 1 (Will generally be grouped together with 4 as a size 4 unit)

Other abilities

Smaller pillage bonus (Orcs claim the best loot)
Night goblins have one extra point of def, stealth 0, dark vision and mountain survival.


NATION NOTES

As stated above, the nation lacks two of the most common Dominions nation edges, namely sacreds and strong magic. To avoid acute MA Ulm syndrome, however, I'm putting more emphasis on numbers and cost-effectiveness, and of course some fun national spells.
Forts will be cheap and quick to build, all units will be available everywhere and everything will be a bit cheap compared to quality.
Orcs don't tend to live long enough to die of old age, so that shouldn't be a worry.
Magic is quite low, emphasis mainly on nature and fire, with some death, earth and astral thrown in. Not very good researchers, but all mages will double as priests which leads to lower upkeep and greater versatility.
National spells will be quite low-research and fairly handy. I'll probably make them all require sacred path in addition to magic so that they'll be restricted to proper greenskin shamans. Having indy mages tapping into WAAAGH! energy would be pretty silly.
Some of the stronger and/or quirkier units will be available as summons, might even have some mob-summoning spells for the regular units. However I handle it, summons will probably be relatively cheap, just like recruitables.


WARGEAR


Choppa (The orcs' favourite fighty implement. High-damage, massive thing, which is more of a bludgeon than a bladed weapon)
Tusker charge (Gore attack for boars with a strong charge bonus)

Mostly I'll probably use vanilla weapons and armour, but we'll see where tweaking is necessary.


RECRUITS


Snotling (Weak, tiny goblinoids. Come in huge, ill-equipped groups that won't do much damage but can be used well as screening troops. Great at soaking up missiles and keeping enemies occupied due to being unbreakable.
Goblin Archer (Cheap missile troops)
Goblin (Common goblin mobs with spear and shield)
Goblin Wolf Rider (Fast, size 2 light cavalry armed with bow and spear. Flexible support troops)
Goblin Wolf Chariot (Size 3 trampler with bow, spear, sword and bite attacks, a bit fragile)
Night Goblin Archer (Self-explanatory)
Night Goblin (Night goblin mobs with sword and shield)
Night Goblin Fanatic (Massive ball and chain. Destructive and unpredictable)
Night Goblin Netter Team (Two netters and two clubbers to a unit. Nets incapacitate enemy, clubs deal out a nasty thumping.)
Orc Arrer Boy (Orc with bow and choppa. Flexible unit that is quite effective both at shooting and hand-to-hand)
Orc Boy (Basic orc with choppa and shield)
Orc Boy (Same as above but with spear and shield)
Orc Boy Big 'Un (Bigger and tougher orc with slightly better armor and two choppas)
Orc Boar Boy (Relatively slow, but very dangerous cavalry with a devastating charge. Lance usable once, choppa and shield, tusker charge)
Orc Boar Chariot (Size 4 trampler with choppa, shield and tusker charge attacks. Sure to cause disorder in the enemy ranks)
Black Orc (The elite of the greenskin horde - bigger, more skilled and even angrier than regular orcs, not to mention heavily armoured and sporting massive two-handed axes. Look out!)
Stone Troll (Hulking size 3 beasts with decent prot, high MR, regen, NNE and a bad disposition. In addition to their troll clubs they have an armour piercing short-range vomit attack. Low morale, however, so quite unreliable)
Giant (Here comes trouble! Hulking monsters sure to strike terror into the enemy's hearts)


LEADERS


Night Goblin Scout (Cheap scout)
Goblin Boss (Ldr 40, rides a giant wolf)
Goblin Shaman (Cheap H1 basic mage)
Night Goblin Big Boss (Ldr 40, cheapish)
Night Goblin Warboss (Ldr 80, mounted on a great squig)
Night Goblin Shaman (H1, slightly better than the common goblin shaman, only mage that can cast the squig unit rituals)
Orc Big Boss (Ldr 40, good fighter)
Orc Warboss (Ldr 120, dangerous fighter, boar-mounted)
Orc Shaman (H2, middle ground mage)
Orc Great Shaman (H2, most powerful greenskin mage)
Black Orc Big Boss (Ldr 80, improved standard, fierce fighter)
Black Orc Warboss (Ldr 160, improved standard, very powerful fighter)


HEROES


Grimgor Ironhide (Infamous black orc warboss, carries with his army a massive effigy of Gork hewed from a single boulder by Grimgor himself)
Borgut Facebeater (Grimgor's second in command, and a fierce black orc boss in his own right)
Morglum Necksnapper (Black orc warboss on a boar. A rare and dangerous combination)
Badruk 'Eadsplitta (A particularly nasty black orc big boss)
Gorbad Ironclaw (Legendary orc warboss mounted on his trusty boar, Gnarla)
Gorfang Rotgut (Famous big boss of the orcs of Black Crag)
Skarsnik, Warlord of the Eight Peaks (Night goblin warboss with a magic spellcasting trident and a giant squig bodyguard)


Grom the Paunch, Azhag the Slaughterer and Wurrzag will be left to the Southern nation. With a list this long, the Northern greenskins don't really need any multiheroes, not sure about the Southern ones.


SUMMONS


Goblin Doom Diver (Catapult-launched goblins gliding on a crude pairs of wings. I haven't decided yet how to do this, exactly, but it's too good to pass up)
Night Goblin Squig Hopper (Hard-hitting, fast, yet vulnerable to missile fire)
Night Goblin Squig Hunting Team (Two goblins and three squigs to a unit, lots of nasty bitiness)
Wyvern Rider (Orc Warboss on a wyvern. Dangerous!)


Everything is open to discussion at this point.

[Endoperez]

You could use the Jotun Vaetti sprites, or the goblin sprites from Conquest of Elysiun. Both have small inhuman spearmen and wolfriders. CoE also has an orc faction, which has orcs armed with large, two-handed swords, and spears/shields, and Orc Chariots, and several commander sprites that could be elite units as well. They're far from Dom-quality, but I think they'd be a very good starting point - apart from the orcs being 20 pixels high, instead of either 16 or 32 which would make them the same size as Dom-humans.

A screenshot of a collection of CoE orc units is attached. It's a bmp file.

[okiN]

Thanks, but those look so different from what I'm going for that I reckon it's easier to start from scratch.

Any comments on the sprites?

[HoneyBadger]

Very nice! Better than most of mine.

[Endoperez]

Goblin looks pretty good. The shield and the whole rearmost hand could be a bit more "forward", and not left behind the unit. Don't be afraid to cover parts of the unit.

Orc: the skin seems too bright, like plastic toy. I haven't checked it in Dominions, but I assume it'd be a bit too bright in Dominions.
The feet could end a bit higher, atm he looks like he's going to fall over any moment. Painopiste on liian ylhäällä, kokeile siirtää jalkoväliä vähän ylös ja vasemmalle.
The metal of the breastplate is too distinguished. It shouldn't be seen without zooming in, it shouldn't stand out like that. Now, you see a unit with an armor, not an armored unit. The focus is on something totally unimportant.

The shadowing is excellent, and the colors are nice. It seems these units would be easy to distinguish from one another. It's a very good first sprite. I didn't actually test what it'd look like in Dominions, so don't spend too much time in corrections until you get others' opinions as well.

[HoneyBadger]

Still a lot better than mine, but Endoperez is probably right.

[okiN]

I took down the skin saturation a bit and messed with the armor studs. Do you think this is better?

[Endoperez]

Yes. Much better IMHO, even though I still haven't checked it out in Dom.

[okiN]

I also moved the goblin's shield a little to the left.

Endoperez said:The feet could end a bit higher, atm he looks like he's going to fall over any moment. Painopiste on liian ylh��ll�, kokeile siirt�� jalkov�li� v�h�n yl�s ja vasemmalle.

This was a concious decision. I tried to strike a balance between realism and the orc anatomy as represented by Games Workshop. Not perfect, but I don't think I can do much better.

[HoneyBadger]

Anybody else notice that Endoperez started speaking in tongues, in the middle of that statement?