Rebalance Mod game now running on a 24h timer.

[Ironhawk]

Arralen said:
EDIT: Just skimmed through the unit roster with my mod active. See and behold: All inf has either 6,8, or 10 movement points. So there's the possibility to mix sensibly them already present. Try it out.

All ulm inf in the rebalance mod have 5, 7, and 9 speed. So, while not the same exact values that is actually the speeds I have been working with and it has poor results. The faster units are invariably the lightly armored ones and they get to the front or the flanks where they are quickly killed, collapsing the squad morale.

At the very least, the "heavy" versions of all the ulm infantry need to be the same speed. [Heavy Axe, Flail, Hammer, Maul, Morningstar, and Pike] That way you can mix and match units into your ultra-heavy infantry blocks, since they are basically all you ever use anyway. It would be like a modular army. Want some more attacks in your squad? Add in some Heavy Flail. Need to bring down a heavily armed target? Add in some Heavy Maul.

[Saber Cherry]

Ironhawk said:
At the very least, the "heavy" versions of all the ulm infantry need to be the same speed. [Heavy Axe, Flail, Hammer, Maul, Morningstar, and Pike] That way you can mix and match units into your ultra-heavy infantry blocks, since they are basically all you ever use anyway. It would be like a modular army. Want some more attacks in your squad? Add in some Heavy Flail. Need to bring down a heavily armed target? Add in some Heavy Maul.

Speaking of which, I think making Mauls 5ap damage was too much... Barbarians and Maul-using Ulmians became immensely powerful in this mod. I'm considering a change to 4ap or even 3ap, which still allows Barbarians and Ulmians to damage protection 30+ targets regularly (at the price of -1 defense and no shield) and possibly increasing the rcost and attack or defense penalty.

On the other hand, it did finally make mauls useful

[Ighalli]

Useful yeah, but on the other hand a block attached to the end of a stick isnt supposed to be better than a greatsword! The problem is with the AP flag I think. It would be nice if it ignored half the armor up to a max of X. Then maybe the maul would reduce enemy armor by 5 while fire attacks would half it no matter how much armor they have. Ahh well...

[Huzurdaddi]

So I have a question for you guys? Is Man dominating? In my test games his AP longbowmen put him at the top of easy expanders. He was very difficult to stop. I was wondering if this trend would continue in this mod.

[quantum_mechani]

Huzurdaddi said:
So I have a question for you guys? Is Man dominating? In my test games his AP longbowmen put him at the top of easy expanders. He was very difficult to stop. I was wondering if this trend would continue in this mod.

Actually, Man is around the middle of the pack. Ulm, Jotunhiem and Pangaea seem to be leading in most areas.

[Huzurdaddi]

quantum_mechani said:

Actually, Man is around the middle of the pack. Ulm, Jotunhiem and Pangaea seem to be leading in most areas.

Interesting. Perhaps man is not using the 100% longbow armies or perhaps something horrible happened to him early on ( not a stretch there is a lot of random stuff in this game ).

Jotunhiem also worked very well in my test games I can easily see them doing very well.

Ulm ... well I never play Ulm but they were beefed up quite a bit.

As for Pangaea I've never played them and I don't understand them at *all*. It would be really cool if someone made an AAR of this game with saved turn files and explain how the heck to do well with Pan. What a bizzare nation ( again: IMO ).

[quantum_mechani]

Huzurdaddi said:

Interesting. Perhaps man is not using the 100% longbow armies or perhaps something horrible happened to him early on ( not a stretch there is a lot of random stuff in this game ).

Jotunhiem also worked very well in my test games I can easily see them doing very well.

Ulm ... well I never play Ulm but they were beefed up quite a bit.

As for Pangaea I've never played them and I don't understand them at *all*. It would be really cool if someone made an AAR of this game with saved turn files and explain how the heck to do well with Pan. What a bizzare nation ( again: IMO ).

I could write an AAR for this game, though I played Pan quite a bit different with white centaurs getting such a boost.

[Graeme Dice]

Huzurdaddi said:
As for Pangaea I've never played them and I don't understand them at *all*. It would be really cool if someone made an AAR of this game with saved turn files and explain how the heck to do well with Pan.

Pangaea's early game strategy is actually fairly straightforward. For Illwinter's scales, you might take something like:
Order 3, sloth 3, misfortune 2, magic 3. Pick a monster for a pretender in very hard research games, or a giant humanoid in standard research games. Recruit dryad's for researchers and centaur warriors for troops. Only recruit Panii when you need them to cast specific spells. Gold is your major limiting factor. Centaur warriors give Pangaea a huge amount of early game punch, and remain effective for a very long time. They are even capable of taking down full-fledged SCs. (An air queen with wraith sword, jade armour, and luck pendant.) Against normal troops, 20 centaur warrior's will kill kill 20 Hoplites with fewer than 5 losses.

Research alteration up to mother oak, then cast it right away. Then research conjuration to Lamia's. You now have you standard troops for most of the rest of the game ready. Pile these against SCs, and the lifedrain fatigue can take them down. Research construction for blood stones and other items. Trade for a starshine skullcap so you can boost your astral magic. Make sure to research up to charm, which gives you what is probably your most effective anti-SC weapon. Watch out for wrathful skies, as it will hurt you badly. If you can catch air mages without storms, use harpies.

[Saber Cherry]

Huzurdaddi said:
So I have a question for you guys? Is Man dominating? In my test games his AP longbowmen put him at the top of easy expanders. He was very difficult to stop. I was wondering if this trend would continue in this mod.

I really hope Dominions III allows variable armor-piercing ratings (0-100% in 5% increments at least). If 9ap is much too strong on a longbow, though, I can always increase the price, drop it to 8ap, or (worst case scenario) return the longbow to its original stats, where it can't hurt knights at all. I'll be experimenting with #flail today (the command that makes morningstars ignore shields), and maybe I'll be able to make Blow Pipes (woodsman) ignore shields, since they are short range and highly accurate weapons that you would not aim at a shield. If so, I'll make boulders and ballista bolts ignore shields as well, if they don't already (I'm not sure).


Edit: What do you know, #flail works on projectiles. Watching longbowmen with #flail and 90 ap damage versus indies with 12-defense round shields is pretty funny.

[quantum_mechani]

One balance note: Independent lizard troops are quite inferior compared to barbarians and other fodder at the moment.