[normalphil]

Sombre said:
I just gave the mod a very brief whirl and I've got to say I'm very impressed with how it's progressed/progressing. It fits perfectly as a dom3 hoburg nation and is still quirky and interesting in a unique way. Thematically I really like it.

Thanks for the feedback.

Sombre said:
Some things I noted in the five minutes or so I tried ;]

1. The name of the nation should probably be 'hoburg, crossbows and butter' rather than 'kingdom of hoburg, etc' so it fits with the dom3 naming conventions.

2. Similarly I think 'Hogrider Officer' sounds better than 'hoburg hogrider officer' and 'officer of the great kitchen' sounds better than 'officer of the great hoburg kitchen'.

I kind of like the overtone of ridiculous pomposity. Three-foot tall people with 10 foot tall names for everything. And Shakos, which is even worse.

Sombre said:
3. The Riesenguard seem too cheap considering they're supposed to be very rare, they're a giant unit for a hoburg race (much like trolls for my vaetti) and they're sacred. Right now even with the steep resource cost I think I'd be relying on them rather than treating them as an expensive and rare option. I haven't tested to see if this is the case, it just feels like they should cost more or not be sacred.

My initial reference point was taking a Jotun Longsword unit, and adding the obligatory +50% gold cost for sacredness. Their stats improved slightly since then (morale, particularly) but I figured it was a decent enough ballpark.

Oddly enough, a good way to make the Riesengarde as rare as rare can be is to improve their armor and equipment- giants take a lot of resources when they're decked out. Right now they've got longswords, Iron Caps, and Plate Hauberks, and that makes them more than 50 resources per. Full Helmets and Full Plate, towershields, Arbelests of their own (although I'd probably give them balistas), and the resource cost gets to the point that it doesn't matter how rich you are, you aren't adding more than 3 of them to your army per month, and that if you had a /good/ starting province placement.

Sombre said:
4. The bannerman, as a regular unit, could perhaps do with having a slightly smaller banner graphic. The artwork is very nice, but slightly too big. This is purely personal taste though.

This is a "we'd play faster if we could" thing. Banner is about as small as I can make it and still look decent. And again with the pomposity.

Sombre said:
6. I think you should, ala zepath, make a flag that retains the Hoburg Alliance flavour yet shows they have changed. The crop could be a picture on the flag with the top-piece being something new, like a crossbow or something militaristic. You could also stripe the green with grey to show military influence.

It's on the to-do list.

Sombre said:
Two other things I was just wondering about. Is the starting army too strong?

Yes.

Sombre said:
And what does the note about the hogs not charging home mean? They still have the same gore attack as the old ones don't they?

I took out their trample, which is admitedly not bloody relevant for a size '2' unit. I suppose I can make a new 'gore' attack with a reduced attack skill, though. I maintain hogs are dangerous, these ones aren't looking to be heros, though.