Persian Empire Mod (Updated)

[quantum_mechani]

Verjigorm said:

The Sha'ir has an Elemental random and a Research penalty of -3. He is not a good researcher (he gets 1pt/50 or 1pt/12.5 at Magic Scale-3). I can see how he would be advantageous at Magic-3... I intended for Persia to have slow research. If it works (I haven't checked yet), I might give him a research penalty like -6 to block his research at all Magic scales.

I believe magic scale bonus is applied after research penalties.

[Sandman]

Nice mod. Comments:

To fit in better with the other nations of the game, Persia should really have a fictionalised name. Just my opinion, of course.

The standard troops are a little bit on the expensive side, I'd shave a coin or two off their cost.

The cavalry lack a hoof attack, although they're still really good.

No assassin unit? The hashishim were a Persian group, weren't they? Remember, most nations have either stealthy troops or spies/assassins.

Is it necessary to give the immortals short-bows? They're truly excellent troops already, and I'd rather have a cheaper resource cost than a few weak waves of arrows.

[Saber Cherry]

Sandman said:
To fit in better with the other nations of the game, Persia should really have a fictionalised name. Just my opinion, of course.

Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. I agree. Maybe "The Dune People" or "Cameltopia" or "Petropolis" ... Ok, those weren't serious, but I agree that a fictionalized name would be best.

[Verjigorm]

Chazar >> Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately, my linux box is broken at the moment and I haven't had the compunction to fix it. I assume that the standard CRLF characters--0d0a, inserted (e.g. by a hex editor) would solve the problem. I'll check it out, I just figured that the parser stopped reading when it hit a newline character or a quote.
Quantum >> I'll do a little more number crunching and see if I can pick a fair, but higher cost for the Sha'ir.

Sandman >> The Hashishim were an Islamic group--most of the Persia mod is based on Zoroastrian Iran which is pre-Islamic. The exception is, of course, the Sha'ir which is an Islamic derivation. I didn't feel that, with their other bonuses in mind, they needed either a spy or an assassin. They have a scout and stealth units The Fravartin and his Spectres are stealth units.

I was going to do a fictional name for them, but my knowledge of Sanskrit (particularly the Avesta dialect) is confined to English translations thereof. (any Sanskrit majors out there?)

The reason I gave the Immortals shortbows is because they often carried them--[Digression]I don't know what the Sanskrit word that the Persians used to indicate the "Immortals"--Immortals is a derivation of what the Greeks called them. Satapatish is the correct word for their lieutenants though. I'd prefer to use the Sanskrit word, but I haven't seen it used.

My brother, "BigDaddy" here, noted that the price of the Scythian Archer was 15g, 10r, and thought it was quite high considering most archers are less than 10 bucks. I based the unit costs on a weighted deviation from the mean (I have attached my work spreadsheet for all interested to peruse). There is a good chance that they're too expensive, however, I'm not really an expert on cost analysis.

I suppose I forgot to give the cavalry hoof Attacks . They're pretty good without, but in keeping with the spirit of the game, they should.

Anyone picked up Zarathustra, Rustam, or the Simurgh yet?

[quantum_mechani]

Verjigorm said:


Anyone picked up Zarathustra, Rustam, or the Simurgh yet?

Yes, I got Rustam, I think 40 HP is a bit much considering giants are only 30.

[Verjigorm]

He's size 3 riding a horse 40 might be a bit much though--he originally had 25 (dropping to 15 on dismount). I might go back to that. 40 is pretty heroic though.

[Verjigorm]

I should've done this in the first post, but here are a few notes about the units in the mod for those of you not interested in reading the coding:

1. The Magus, Mobed, and Sha'ir have Elemental randoms, not full randoms.

2. The Mobed's random picks are linked (e.g. he will get 2F, 2A, 2W, or 2E but never a combination).

3. The national spell, Sanguine Heritage, takes 3 Astral and 3 Death to cast -- none of the national mages can cast it, so make a pretender that can or ignore the spell. The spell summons a Fravartin who, in turn, gathers Spectres. These are the stealth units of Persia.

4. Many of the units transform into others when they die.

Urvaram Aabi lose the abilities of Heal and Supply +20 among other things. They become immortal and gain several other personal abilities making them "better" as singular units but not nearly as good as a support unit.

Immortals transform into Aabi--their weapons are phantasmal and they lose their strength. They gain some abilities of the non-corporeal undead, however.

Satapatish also transform into Aabi, but they get a life drain attack instead of a phantasmal one.

The cavalry units will transform into similarly equipped infantry units upon their death--this is to simulate the death of the horse rather than the rider. I would have liked to make a probability of either complete death or dismount, but the game does not allow such things.

5. The priest/mages have special ranged or melee (Barshnuum) fire attacks. Zarathustra's (hero) attack is a Divine Armament which is supposed to cause 3x damage to demons and undead.

6. The Scythed Chariot is a very powerful commander that is probably best used as a stand-alone rather than a leader like the TC S&A Noble. It has a significant armament and is a size 5 trampler. It's resource cost of 59 is quite expensive, though.

7. Persian scouts are excellent bowment with 13 precision.

8. Units employing white horses are capitol only, but receive an AP and map move bonus.

9. All of the Persian forces have wasteland survival (a very valuable trait).

10. The rings possessed by the Magi are shields.

11. Typically, shield-wearing units do not have bows. However, it is possible to wield a bow while using a small shield. The traditional Persion Gerron is made out of wicker and is very light. It provides no protection, but does add defense. It's primary use (historically) was to deflect incoming arrows.

12. The basic gem income for Persia is 3F, 1N, 1S.