Recruitable Unit Rebalance Version 7.51 Released.

[Saber Cherry]

PvK said:
Ulmites being a favorite of mine, I'll comment just on what I've read in recent posts here, since I haven't gotten time to try this yet.

* Giving Ulm troops a helmet that doesn't reduce defense will in fact be helpful, at least to some of the troops (e.g. Chain/Hammer/Shield), particularly when they start gaining experience, at least against average regular troops.

Ah, unfortunately... I only replaced full helms with Full Helm of Ulm. And only Black Plate units get those, not full chain units... and Black Plate units never really get defense above 10 anyway So, it's mainly aesthetic...

* I second thinktank's suggestion to give Ulmites higher MR. If it were moddable (tis not), I'd have every level of drain scale add to their MR, but failing that, +2-4 MR for Ulm would be neat IMO, and I'd do that rather than improving their helmet design.

That would make Ulm more powerful, but really change their theme. A "Magic Resistant Ulm" theme might be interesting, but I'd do it seperately, if I did one.

* Did you look at Ulm morale? Anyone know why Ulm pikeneers get +1 morale compared to the other troops? +1 morale would also be useful for the other troops, but IMO +MR is better - there are ways for Ulm to deal with their morale - not so much for their MR.

I gave all Ulm Black Plate units +1 morale, since I imagine they would feel invincible in their super-heavy armor. And because they are used in small groups, and small strong groups have excessive routing trouble with Dominions II's morale algorithms. And (base) Ulm has only holy-2, aside from the prophet... which is a double whammy.

[Saber Cherry]

More changes. Still no new version uploaded.

Game's 3 worst weapons improved slightly:
Glaive went from (10, -1, -1, 4) to (10, 0, -1, 4)
Halberd went from (10, -1, -1, 4) to (10, 0, -1, 4)
Axe went from (7, -1, -1, 1) to (7, -1, 0, 1)
Indy Archers made slightly worse:
Light Archer: +1g (7g)
Archer: +1g +1def (8g, 9 def)
Heavy Archer: -1prec (10 prec)
Heavy Crossbowman: -1prec (10 prec)
Pureblood Abysians get +1 attack (after all, they cost 20 gold, they're a warlike race, and only had 10-attack 9-defense?)
Pureblood Abysians also get -25% cold resist (from description: 'vulnerable to cold').
Humanbreds are unaffected by these changes.
Man Spearman (Short Spear) dropped 1g to 8g.
Ctissian Slave Lizards dropped price by 1g each.
Ctissian Taskmaster given 3 moves, so now they not only have a reason to exist (before, they didn't), but also, Ctis Runners have a reason to exist (cheaper, and finally there is a commander that can lead them with 3 strat moves).
Falchioneer dropped to 11g.
Royal Guard +3 rcost to 48 (it was too low compared to other mounted units with same equipment)
Skin Shifters (werewolf precursors) bumped +2 hp (15 hp) to prevent pre-shift death.
Galderman gets +4 hp, +3 str, +1 att, +1 def, +25% since he is also a werewolf.
Einheres get +1 hp (to 13) so they don't die before they berserk, and full ambidextrity (3).
Bane Spiders and Spider Warriors get 11 mr instead of 10. Must either be their mysterious spider armor, or something that happens under the tutlage of the Black Sorcerers...
Jotun Woodsmen dropped -10g to 40g. Why were they the same price as scouts that are better in every way? Plus, they are capitol only, and just not that good, with no armor, shield, javelin, or stealthy priest to bless them...

[Graeme Dice]

Saber Cherry said:
Jotun Woodsmen dropped -10g to 40g. Why were they the same price as scouts that are better in every way? Plus, they are capitol only, and just not that good, with no armor, shield, javelin, or stealthy priest to bless them...

Now this doesn't make too much sense to me, as woodsmen with an appropriate bless effect already had better cost effectiveness than niefel giants.

[Saber Cherry]

Graeme Dice said:

Now this doesn't make too much sense to me, as woodsmen with an appropriate bless effect already had better cost effectiveness than niefel giants.

Hmm, you're right, I never realized that. Should I decrease Giant costs or boost Woodsman costs, or something else? Woodsmen are not good enough for a bless strategy, in my opinion. I'd bet on the same cost in gold of Daoine Sidhe, Flagellants, Black Hunters, Vans, Paladins, Black Templars, Jaguar Warriors...

Do you find Woodsmen to be useful?

How about Giants?

[Saber Cherry]

Version 7 is finished. Check the first post for changelog and to download the file!

[Graeme Dice]

Saber Cherry said:
Should I decrease Giant costs or boost Woodsman costs, or something else? Woodsmen are not good enough for a bless strategy, in my opinion. I'd bet on the same cost in gold of Daoine Sidhe, Flagellants, Black Hunters, Vans, Paladins, Black Templars, Jaguar Warriors...

Black hunters are too expensive for the very low MR that the hunter spider has in my experience.

[Saber Cherry]

Graeme Dice said:
Black hunters are too expensive for the very low MR that the hunter spider has in my experience.

I had boosted them to 8 (+3) because I don't like seeing sacred units with really low MR (seems somehow wrong). But that's still really low. Some other sacred animals, like Cu Sidhe, Gryphons, and Sacred Serpents have high (above 10) magic resistance. Do you think it would be fair to give Hunter Spiders 11 MR? It seems so strange for a sacred unit to be easily subverted.

Scott Hebert said:
Woodsmen, the Commander is dreadfully undercosted (by my rubric, at least). He should cost ~90g, IIRC. So, I think it's not the unit so much as the commander that needs the change.

You're right. I remember playing Jotunheim and conquering several provinces with solo Woodsman commanders, without any special equipment. That's pretty potent for a scout... Unfortunately, if you make them 90g, Jotunheim themes other than IW pretty much lose their ability to scout at all. If they were 100g stealth priests with 10 leadership, able to lead raiding parties of Woodsmen, it would solve both problems (and gaining the ability to do stealth raids of blessed woodsmen makes up for losing the ability to economically scout, IMO). Does that sound fair?

[Arryn]

I rarely purchase Jotun scouts and almost always use cheap humans in that role. OTOH, giving the commander stealth would provide me a reason to buy those, which I also rarely do now. Just thought you might want to hear the point of view of an infamous Jotun player ...