Re: Pirate Nation!!
 

Oh, I can see them now. They seem quite cool -> for balancing them, I suggest taking look at Sombre's "Arga Dis"-mod. It has balanced recruitable fear troops. You should comapare the Serpents to them.

Althought I have enjoyed palying the nation so far, I have a small gripe with it. Pirate Lords & Dread Captains are cool, but still the nation lacks a certain "oomph" thematically. I feel that it should be a bit more "piratey". I'm NOT talking about limp dudes with parrots and "y'arr"'s, but I feel that the nation should be a bit more disorderly.

When I think of a city ruled by pirates, I think of a city made with vice & debauchery. Think of a darkest, seeping watering-hole near a harbor and extend it to a whole city. Perhaps you have different idea about it (I'm quite sure you do since you gave them resource & gold bonuses at capitol).

If you want to go for a bit more "piratey" route, I'd like to suggest something along Thugs (I mentioned these earlier), Cutthroats (low cost assasin) and Crime Lords (these could all kinds of weird [censored], think of a mafia boss-> spy, summons thugs, etc..)

But the "tamed sea monsters" idea has merit, they could give the nation a unique feel. You'd just have to be careful that the naton wouldn't start to revolve around them. You could perhaps do some national summons on that area? Asp Turtles with Howdah's occupied with 10 crossbowmen! They'd be like medieval tanks.

But enough of that, I'll now move to other issues.

1) I feel that Dread Captains are overpriced. a d2 mage for 180 gold? Sure they are Amphibious, but still. 180 gold for D2? Currently I recruit one to do "Dark Knowledge" and then completely forget about them. They also still have mapmove 4. They need to be more badass to justify their gold cost.

Re: Pirate Nation!!
 

ahh thanks, I've made lots of fixes in most areas. I increased their cost by 50 and I might go even more their pretty good. I've also made the serpent fight on the for the rest of the battle, once the rider is dead. I like the idea of the Cutthroats, I'll need to post my other replies later, in a rush.

Nice Mod
 

That's a nice mod. It reminds me of the nice Dwarf Pirate mod.
I would love to see some units throwing knives and maybe nets. And i miss a hero with an eye-pecking parrot :-)

For historic reasons, i think that (iron) ring-armor was too heavy for duty on ships. Maybe some sort of leather armor would be more thematic.. of course that means the pirates need some sort of shield or national Air-Shield spell.

The merc's are very fine made.

Re: Nice Mod
 

Well, considering the ring mail curases don't give any decrease in defence or increase in encumbrance, I think it's okay for them.

Knives, maybe, I would like to add at least two more units hopefully with very low res cost, so they can be sorta levied fast.

Re: Nice Mod
 

I've played a bit more now. I just conquered MA Agarthas capitol and I'm starting to think that Blood Guards might still be a tad too good. Agarthan Infantry didn't even stand a chance. I'd suggest lowering their hps a bit (to 12?), 14 is a bit too epic. Ulm are supposed to be as rough as humans get, and they have only 12hp.

I noticed that the Serpent is a tad underpriced, but you've seem to take care of that. They're no super-power however, huge size, low numbers, and average mr is not a good combination http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif. But good for suppoting your infatry as instant thugs. Maybe you could have a commander version that could go underwater ("the guys who hunt below the waves for the Serpents")?

Reanimate Captain is overpriced and requies too much death magic. Why pay 6 death gems and 3d mage time for a "Revive King"? Reanimate Buccaneers is fine, they allow for a underwater conquest, perhaps a tad (like 1-2 death gems) cheaper, sice you don't have much early death income.

I had an idea for a hero. A beefed up Pirate Lord with W2S2D3. His story; When Dread Captains did the ritual and died they didn't reappear immediately. It seemed that they were gone forever. But one newly-born Pirate Lord wanted to harness their still excisting power. So he traveled to the nether-world and sailed it's seas for seven years until he had found all of the dead Dread Captains and brought them back to serve Free Port. His travels to the Netherworld aged him premately, though (so he's old).