Brainstorm: EA/MA/LA Arabian/Islamic themed nation

[Squirrelloid]

My first attempt at Dominions pixel art. A nomad light cavalry, horse mounted - not sure if i actually have a use for such a thing yet, but its a useful exercise in doing white robes/turban with shading.

Note that doing white with shading is hard. (I paint miniatures - this is a problem there too). I've chosen to shade it into yellow. I could make it look more white by reducing the shading... not sure how good of a trade that is at this resolution as it would just start looking like a white blob. I could also move it more greyscale, but that just ends up looking greyish instead of yellowish. This resolution is really problematic.

Proportion problem with the bow arm present in the original sprite i cribbed for this purpose...

Yes, its the attack animation. That way if it came out completely horrid even if I used it you wouldn't see it for long.

(I have it as a tga too, but png struck me as easier for viewing.)

Edit: Oops, i need to get rid of the lance, probably... la la la.

[Burnsaber]

Originally Posted by Squirrelloid

Note that doing white with shading is hard. (I paint miniatures - this is a problem there too).

Well, not that much. There is no such thing as white in Dom 3 units, it's too bright. Everything is mainly shades of gray, giving an impression of being white (see my avatar for example).

[Squirrelloid]

Originally Posted by Burnsaber

Well, not that much. There is no such thing as white in Dom 3 units, it's too bright. Everything is mainly shades of gray, giving an impression of being white (see my avatar for example).

I suppose I could do grey.

For miniatures I always preferred shading into yellow or blue depending on assumed lighting (warmer or cooler feel - day/night distinction) - but yeah, it does feel overwhelming in the game resolution.

So, ignoring the color, any comments on the shading?

[Lurker_at_Threshold]

I think its way past due for an Arabic nation mod; especially considering the breadth of history and mythology that has thus far, gone untapped.

Thematically I think you are spot on for the EA. Human chaff, with strong sacred Jinn available to provide your magical and physical heft. I think structurally the nation should be quite smiler to Kailasa, in that there will be a rising tier of summons. Lesser Jinn/Efreet can be massed by summonings, jinn nobles could be summon able caster/thugs, the upper tier would be occupied by Marids possessing awesome powers in astral, water, and air and the more conventional Jinn and Efreet sultans. I especially like your idea of including Iblis as a hero, as I could see him both as an impressive Air/blood/death mage with his pitfall being a high level of heresy.

Middle era should definitely be the high water point of the Caliphate and the land of 1001 nights. Holy magic should be emphasized, with viable bless strategies on the part of dervishes and Jinn summons. The army would be generally light/ with most of the heavy infantry/cavalry stemming from costly Turkic mercenaries. It would be cool to have sufi mystics, as spies/stealthy preachers. I think it would be interesting, but unnecessary for the nation to be able to summon chaff, flambeau wielding angels with holy/fire casters. I also like the suggestion of Abdul Alhazard as a hero. Particularly one with an impressive array of Blood, Astral, and Death balanced out with a terminal case of insanity.

I know a lot of people have been suggesting the Ottomans as being the driving force behind the late era, it just doesn't seem ideal to me. Too much of the Ottomans revolves thematically around gunpowder and cannons. An alternative replacement could be the Mamelukes. The nation could center around elite slave soldiers that successfully defended the nation from outside enemies only to eventually take power for themselves. Once again it would be holy magic centric, but as fitting for the LA, possessing much less magical diversity.

[elmokki]

Originally Posted by Lurker_at_Threshold

I also like the suggestion of Abdul Alhazard as a hero. Particularly one with an impressive array of Blood, Astral, and Death balanced out with a terminal case of insanity.

Yes. I should bang my head on the wall for not including it in my own mod's original post. Considering Dominions 3 has significant lovecraftian refrences already (MA and LA R'lyeh as a whole and atlantians especially) it would suit perfectly to an arabic nation.

Middle era should definitely be the high water point of the Caliphate and the land of 1001 nights. Holy magic should be emphasized, with viable bless strategies on the part of dervishes and Jinn summons. The army would be generally light/ with most of the heavy infantry/cavalry stemming from costly Turkic mercenaries. It would be cool to have sufi mystics, as spies/stealthy preachers. I think it would be interesting, but unnecessary for the nation to be able to summon chaff, flambeau wielding angels with holy/fire casters.

Regarding that I thought someone's suggestion was awesome. It was that the MA version should have skilled and mobile, if less organized (represented by lower morale) light beduin type troops, atleast some of them with stealth and heavier, mainly unmounted, troops with ornate jewelled armors from the grand cities of the Caliphate.

For MA, the troops could be something roughly like this:

All falchions are replacable with a curved sword of choice. City guards and non-beduin cavalry atleast probably should have pretty good stats but also should cost a bit more than their stats warrant.

Troops:
- Militia
- Archer (relatively lightly armored, shortbow)
- Infantry (spear, shield, relatively light armor)
- Infantry (falchion, shield, relatively light armor)
- Beduin cavalry (falchion or light lance?, shield, light armor, stealth)
- Beduin horse archer (shortbow, falchion?, light armor, stealth)
- Cavalry (light lance?, shield?, medium armor)
- City Guard (relatively heavy armor, falchion, shield, castle defence bonus. A bit of gold yellow in the metal parts of armor)
- Some sort of a capital only real elite/noble unit (pretty heavy armor, falchion, shield, good skill)
- Dervish (The two falchion weakly armored but highly skilled sacred unit I've drawn sprites for and idea of which I absolutely love)

Commanders:
- Imam (H1 priest)
- Beefed up imam (H3 priest, capital only)
- Grand Vizier (a high skilled mage, probably emphasis on air and fire, but should have considerable other paths too. Astral maybe? Capital only. Might need a new name. I really like the idea that the best scholars come from the great minaret of the capital)
- Vizier (a less skilled mage that still is good enough to be able to cast useful combat spells of fire and/or air, probably randoms so that most of them have fire or air 2 atleast. One level of astral as possible random path?)
- Mystic (S1, H1, Stealthy)
- Beduin commander (mounted troop that's pretty much equipped like the mounted beduins)
- Guard Captain (a city guard commander)
- Assassin of some sort probably? Maybe the generic one?

[Wrana]

Originally Posted by Lurker_at_Threshold

Thematically I think you are spot on for the EA. Human chaff, with strong sacred Jinn available to provide your magical and physical heft. I think structurally the nation should be quite smiler to Kailasa, in that there will be a rising tier of summons. Lesser Jinn/Efreet can be massed by summonings, jinn nobles could be summon able caster/thugs, the upper tier would be occupied by Marids possessing awesome powers in astral, water, and air and the more conventional Jinn and Efreet sultans. I especially like your idea of including Iblis as a hero, as I could see him both as an impressive Air/blood/death mage with his pitfall being a high level of heresy.

A trap here is a possibility to make them too similar. Mine version had genie nobility with quite different powers from Yakshas. But as for troops... They are also depicted as beautiful - so Awe is an obvious choice. A possible difference is to include genie cavalry...
Probably I should upload last version of my genies here (some ideas were by Aezeal, I may be not able to remember which ones)...

Originally Posted by Lurker_at_Threshold

Middle era should definitely be the high water point of the Caliphate and the land of 1001 nights. Holy magic should be emphasized, with viable bless strategies on the part of dervishes and Jinn summons. The army would be generally light/ with most of the heavy infantry/cavalry stemming from costly Turkic mercenaries. It would be cool to have sufi mystics, as spies/stealthy preachers. I think it would be interesting, but unnecessary for the nation to be able to summon chaff, flambeau wielding angels with holy/fire casters. I also like the suggestion of Abdul Alhazard as a hero. Particularly one with an impressive array of Blood, Astral, and Death balanced out with a terminal case of insanity.

Thanks for support! Another thing not mentioned here are Berberic Corsairs. Them I also included. On the other hand - I'm against the dervishes as troop name. I'd just name the sacred troops ghazi - but if most of you won't think it silly...
And yes, Abdul is so. He had also rejected Islam - and so is a heretic! On the other hand, if you will manage to conquer R'lyeh or find one other random side - you'll see what he can do!

Originally Posted by Lurker_at_Threshold

I know a lot of people have been suggesting the Ottomans as being the driving force behind the late era, it just doesn't seem ideal to me. Too much of the Ottomans revolves thematically around gunpowder and cannons. An alternative replacement could be the Mamelukes. The nation could center around elite slave soldiers that successfully defended the nation from outside enemies only to eventually take power for themselves. Once again it would be holy magic centric, but as fitting for the LA, possessing much less magical diversity.

Well, there are many similarities here. Still, I know Ottomanic Turkey somewhat better - so without particular names, I used their troop types. Generally, I thought about adding several types of slave warriors, with the last being magically altered in childhood to obtain somewhat superhuman stats.
Another thing mentioned in previous discussion - I thought about making MA/Arab-based nation based on Shiite priesthood, with LA/Turkic being based more on Sunni. Anybody's opinion on this?

[sevenwarlocks]

Originally Posted by Wrana

Thanks for support! Another thing not mentioned here are Berberic Corsairs. Them I also included. On the other hand - I'm against the dervishes as troop name. I'd just name the sacred troops ghazi - but if most of you won't think it silly...
And yes, Abdul is so. He had also rejected Islam - and so is a heretic! On the other hand, if you will manage to conquer R'lyeh or find one other random side - you'll see what he can do!

These ideas make the middle era sound extremely interesting to me. If the setting is roughly the zenith of the caliphate, then perhaps it should include the Martyr and the split of Islam. Perhaps you could have two kinds of priests, and after an event - such as the death of your prophet - you will have to choose which group of priests to dismiss. Or perhaps you could keep both groups of priests, but they would automatically attack each-other if you put them in the same province.

Or maybe Martyrdom could be a powerful late game spell that permanently removed your prophet from the game, but gave all your priests some great bonus - say +1 priest level and +1 blood magic.

Just thoughts. I'm not a scrpter, so I don't even know if what I'm suggesting is possible, but something that worked the split into the rp and had some game effect would be cool.

[Wrana]

Originally Posted by sevenwarlocks

These ideas make the middle era sound extremely interesting to me. If the setting is roughly the zenith of the caliphate, then perhaps it should include the Martyr and the split of Islam. Perhaps you could have two kinds of priests, and after an event - such as the death of your prophet - you will have to choose which group of priests to dismiss. Or perhaps you could keep both groups of priests, but they would automatically attack each-other if you put them in the same province.

Or maybe Martyrdom could be a powerful late game spell that permanently removed your prophet from the game, but gave all your priests some great bonus - say +1 priest level and +1 blood magic.

Just thoughts. I'm not a scrpter, so I don't even know if what I'm suggesting is possible, but something that worked the split into the rp and had some game effect would be cool.

The second one is possible, though I don't think it's thematic. The first one game engine doesn't allow (you can't dismiss any units in any case...)