Under-Empire Overhaul (Skalm)

More of a tweak than an overhaul. I felt that with only four slots we weren’t getting enough of a chance to use all the toys they’ve provided us so I’ve tried to squeeze the essence out of what we can get in there. When in doubt I always looked to the Horned Rat and the divine number 13.

***Save game compatible. Plays well with "Expand Under Empire NO Cooldown," "Skaven Under Empire: Double Concealment," and "M’s Skaven Warpstone Token Currency" (visible in screenshots).

*All buildings offer at least a 13% movement increase unless stated otherwise.

Underpass/Nexus
(Removed discovery increase for this chain)
*Level 1 – Movement Range +100%
*Level 1 – Cash Income 100
*Level 1 – Percent of settlement 5%
*Level 1 – Ambush chance 5%
*Level 2 – Movement Range +200%
*Level 2 – Cash Income 200
*Level 2 – Percent of settlement 10%
*Level 2 – Ambush chance 10%
*Level 3 – Movement Range +300%
*Level 3 – Cash Income 300
*Level 3 – Percent of settlement 15%
*Level 3 – Ambush chance 15%
*Level 4 – Movement Range +400%
*Level 4 – Cash Income 400
*Level 4 – Percent of settlement 20%
*Level 4 – Ambush chance 20%
*Level 5 – Movement Range +500%
*Level 5 – Cash Income 500
*Level 5 – Percent of settlement 25%
*Level 5 – Ambush chance 25%

I wanted this building to be the basic necessity for all under-empire settlements, conferring many incidental helpers. In my playtests I noticed that many under-cities never last long enough to reap the full rewards of a level 5 so I felt justified piling on (economically 500 gold per turn doesn’t really offset the full cost to get to a level 5 Nexus, I think). But if you have money to burn and keep investing you’ll continue seeing dividends late game. I find with this feature you can never have enough money.

Skaven fight dirty and this building already granted vanguard deployment before I touched it. With the movement bonus you can strike far and wide while still having a home advantage. At best you’ll ambush your enemy in these regions and at worst vanguard; win-win, yes-yes?

The Shattered Tower (Skavenblight monument).
*169 relations with other Skaven
*Warlock-engineer capacity +5

I always use a mod that removes the cooldown to manually expand your under-empire, making the -5 turns feature obsolete. That mod requires engineers so an extra 5 helpers really keeps the under-empire running. This monument also requires Skavenblight be level 5 so the price for admission is (somewhat) justified.

Raiding Camp
*130 Income (up from 100)
*13% Of Settlement Income (up from 10%)

Warpstone Refinery
*-13% Upkeep for specified units (up from 3%)

Strip Mine
*Cash Income 130
*-13% Construction (up from 3%)
*13% Trade (up from 8%)

Warlock Lab
*13% Research (up from 10%)
*Cash Income 130

Reasoning

This Under-Empire mechanic plays very similarly to Star Wars: Empire at War’s Rise of the Crime Lords corruption mechanic, which gradually increases your income to obscene levels if you keep investing in it. By default that game gives you a noticeable base income and movement speed before you even spec out for that. With that in mind I thought a little extra was necessary here.

The Underpass/Nexus is a building I never used but always wanted to. There are just so many other buildings with better bonuses that always force me to chose cash, food, or secrecy.

The Skaven are known for cropping up where they’re least expected via their world-spanning under-way. ALL buildings provide a 13% movement bonus unless specified elsewhere (excluding the pair that destroy the under-city). I’ve added enough cash here that you can avoid building Warp-Token Stash with the addition of getting the movement bonus.

Also, it takes a total of 15000 cash and 15 turns to fully upgrade this structure so the advantage is one you certainly pay for, especially since it could be wiped out in one turn.

Originally I had hoped to add a passive chance to expand to many buildings but have only found a "dummy" value and not the actual mechanic. For the time being I’ve shelved that idea.

I decided to leave corruption values alone. I don’t know if its the vanilla bonus of the Shattered Tower t corruption or just the shear number of settlements but it looks like skaven rebellions are popping up all the time. Increasing this might increase how fast your own under-cities get razed so no need to increase corruption further.