[normalphil]

This is a mod that makes a late-era nation of hoburgs that think they're 18th century Prussians.

It uses nation slot 76, weapon slots 860 through 866, unit slots 2110 through 2133, and sites 791, 792, and 793.



------
Version 0.1
No attack sprites, heros, spells, or summons but it's playable and in its balance zone. Seigebonus doesn't work but we all knew that already.


------------

There's actually a story behind this. My favorite Dominions 2 mod (or theme, for that matter) was the Hoburg one. The reason for this is I played a World map SP game of them before it occured to me they were meant to be a joke faction. So standardized armies of 150 Hoburg Crossbows, 100 Vine men and 50 vine Ogres for shock troops swept over the world, overcomming all that opposed them. Between cheap nature mages, vine crowns, thistle maces, winebags, cauldrons, summer-swords, watchtowers, and firblogs, I formed a military machine that conducted itself like clockwork and where it didn't win through standardized combined arms, won through attrition. They outmassed Ashen Empire ermor. The Champions and Burgermeisters became faceless combat-officers, and their leadship constraints resulted in coherent regiments that could be positioned in a battlefield where everything else were "war blobs". It was one of the most satisfying games I ever played, and I made this mod in order to try to recapture some of it.


Commentary:

Chemists -I actually put a fair bit of thought into the chemists. They've got 2 100% Earth-Fire picks and 2 more 10% Earth-Fire picks. If I could have thought of a different name I'd have used it. Their biggest intended strength is you don't actually need to purchase a labratory to recruit them, which is supposed to mean a wide-scale effort of multiple forts cranking these guys out should be both economical and get you some results. Their role is to be battlefield artillery and a cheap substandard default researcher. The way their magic choices break down is this; once you're out of the initial game (where they are Fire Flies/Flying Shards spammers) you /will/ get a mage who can either cast fireball, magma bolt, or earthpower-bladewind. They're solid, cheap, massable, expendable, no frills/wasted points field artillery. The Hoburg Kingdom doesn't get the magic they want, but they've probably got the magic they need. So long as their pretender god can cover their back on a global scale. Because otherwise the Hoburg Kingdom's magical presence is pathetic even for a LA nation.

Handcrossbow - The handcrossbow is supposed to elicet the habit of cavalry carrying a few loaded single-shot pistols with them into battle and discarding them each in turn as they're used, to be picked up after the battle. Stat-wise it's a lance that you're free to give to a non-elite unit. I'm happy with how it's playtested so far. Hussars can die in droves, but they've got a very involed first strike before their lack of offensive staying power becomes descicive. When they charge a unit of knights head on it's something to see. Reminded me of that battle the British Army fought against the Dervishes during the 19th century. I say 'involved' because while damage can be iffy, hogriders pack into a space so much that with 4 attacks available on contact you can be certain that if something is there to be hit, somebody is going to hit it.


Riesengaurde - I wouldn't called the Riesengaurde a super-unit at this point, probably because the oppurtunity for them to shine hasn't come up. They're in there in homage of the Potsdam Giants, and the use I saw for them is keeping tramplers tied up well away from the crossbow squads. Hasn't occurred yet, abnormally tough screening infantry is what I've had the chance to employ them as so far. It's a good sacred pick in and of itself though, I think, and compliments the rest of the faction nicely.


Officer of the Great Kitchen - The faction's super-commander is the Officer of the Great Hoburg Kitchen. It has the Jade Emperor's bad-events blockage trait (33%), is a fair Undead and Magic commander despite being humanoid with no magical ability, and can summon 5 Line Infantry a month. I'm actually extremely content with the unit as is. If that ever changes it's got 4 ways to be adapted- 1) It can be made more expensive. 2) It can swap the Jade Emporer's luck trait with something lesser, like a Soothsayer or Norna (although I'm not certain if the soothsayer always has that ability, and all the other luck units leave the unit with the 'female' trait, which I don't want.) 3)It can lose the 'command anything' ability, and 4) It can summon Landwehr instead of Line Infantry.