Dwarf Unit Tune Up

Dwarfs as a staple are not truly weak, nor truly strong. They have a roster with no monsters, only Rune Magic, no over the top mechanics, and because of this, they sit so close to the middle line on balance that they are almost bland. That, and they tend to have a weakness to magic spam, despite their innate 25% resistance. In the end, Thorek is the closest thing Dwarf players have to unleashing the proper might of Dwarfen engineering.

This mod aims to unsettle that a bit by analyzing a few things. Dwarfs are the inventors in this realm, and gave manlings their gunpowder- yet have you noticed that thunderers are not only more expensive than Empire handgunners, but have the same damage and range? And that their lower model count lowers relative damage? Dwarfs brought this technology forth first, ensure the material is worthy of their name, and perfect every component before bestowing the item mighty runes. They should cost more- but should also show some quality they can boast about. (This can be interpreted as increased defensive stats not being worth an increased cost and decreased offensive performance to a very similar ranged unit.)

This mod therefore enhances unit base stats, mostly mild for ranged and artillery units, and much greater for elite melee/slayer units. Some other sources are included, such as a tech change, and a new buff for Karak Kadrin. It has been tested on hard/very hard across multiple campaigns and should be save safe on its own for removal/adding at any point. The goal was to make Dwarfs go from a mid-ground "B" to a solid "A". Nothing should be completely overpowered- especially with the most drastic changes being to melee troops like Hammerers.

If you want to see the exact stat changes, please see the change note descriptions.

If you are looking for Rune Magic/Gyrocopter changes, those are here.

>>>>> Update 1.1

As of version 1.1, the mod also touches early game melee units. This is due to the disparity between great weapon and shielded variations. As melee is used to hold a line, higher melee defense, armor, and shields matter more than dealing damage. Because great weapons fail to satisfy any of these stats most of the time, they’re neglected. It’d also kind of ruin the game if they did have similar defense, or somehow wielded shields. So I’ve given them a little more damage as consolation for always being the last choice. It’s probably not going to fix anything, but hey, it’s something. I can’t make a flawed role good by simple stat changes, and if I could make melee more viable in Total War, I wouldn’t be making balance patches.

This update also targets rangers again, giving them a bit more speed- not quite as much as slayers, but they might be able to kite skaven with some decent speed bonuses. With version 1.0 increasing their range and damage, and 1.1 increasing their speed, rangers have some true potential as stealthy asset in any army. They can finally strike exposed artillery or lords, and vanish before the enemy can counter. Add in the Thane’s snipe buff, and the increased range might mean even the elgi have to be careful of the dawi’s vanguard. (I also addressed cannons having lower damage than their Empire counterparts, and bolt throwers. I’m not saying bolt throwers are amazing now, but they do amusing work lord sniping with their greatly increased damage and range. Would you field them over cannons? Probably not. But they might be funny early on for highly aggressive plays.)

>>>>> Update 1.2

Version 1.2 has arrived, and my skills and knowledge have improved. And for the first time, I’ve walked back some of my buffs, which will be explained below, since now the mod does a little more than basic unit changes.

First, we’ll start simple. Longbeards with shields have been upgraded to silver (55%) block. I wanted to increase longbeard block to allow a gradient increase up to ironbreakers, since that made sense to me, but there’s no block value between 35% and 55%. Since the game also generally only uses these two values, I chose to stay consistent with vanilla, and went with the next highest. I could have made a custom block value, but I feel it would be even weirder having longbeards use a unique block value no other unit has or uses. Still, longbeards will now deal a bit better with ranged heavy factions, like wood elves. No more worrying that unless you have ironbreakers, your frontline will just melt when the enemy starts firing back with something fierce.

A "new" ability has been made available for all dawi master engineers. Remember when they increased the range of units in their army? Now they do, again. Jorek Grimm might be some sort of rising savant, but that doesn’t explain why he’s the only one allowed to retain old skills. Ballistic Instructor returns for all master engineers- a simple, functional way of giving the people (me included) what they really wanted.

And now, Karak Kadrin. I’ve long considered this to be a faction you confederated and did nothing else with. The faction effects are pretty trash, and you get most of Ungrim through lord effects. Confederate, and you get The Slayer King, which gives you +5 melee attack, 25% upkeep reduction, and Journey’s End for slayers. So… why would you care about -75% cost for slayer buildings? The best thing the faction gives is 10% movement speed for all infantry. And… Grombrindal just does more. His armor piercing conversion and 35% movement speed for his own army is just what he does from skills, then you take Kin of Grimnir, or even add Mighty Beard of Defense into play, Karak Kadrin just looks like a joke. If you run a respec mod for lords, there’s even less of a point to care.

So I found out how to modify faction effects, walked back some slayer buffs I did, and gave them power elsewhere, namely through Karak Kadrin. The added bonus to large slayers previously had up until 1.1 has been halved, but in exchange The Slayer Oath technology has seen both melee attack and defense for slayers bumped from 5 to 8. Ungrim’s Slayer King skill has also seen its melee attack for slayers bumped up from 5 to 8. Still, anyone can get these, so why would that make you play Karak Kadrin? Try a good 30% physical resistance for all of your slayers, faction wide. You only get that when playing as Karak Kadrin, and I’m going to be testing this now. In 1.1, lesser dwarf factions could survive- but Karak Kadrin struggled. Now, maybe not.

>>>>> Update 1.3

A minor update. It corrects a missing stat change that was supposed to be in 1.0, and equals out the new stats of RoR units and their base version at rank 9 for Ironbreakers and Hammerers. And finally, Hammerers, after many trials, can match similar price point and role units. Yes, even before this they had a 100% loss rate to Black Orcs, Executioners, and Swordmasters- now they win against Black Orcs, 50/50 Executioners, and always lose to Swordmasters. This to me is ideal, and logically follows the price point.

>>>>> Update 1.4

Turns out I missed The Skolder Guard with the last version’s changes. They’ll be the same as rank 9 Irondrakes now. (This was an issue because I originally did equal value changes, ex. +6 for Irondrake/RoR Irondrake melee defense. Somehow the rank bonuses weren’t linear, or something.)

>>>>> Update 1.5

Adds charge defense against large for Hammerers and their RoR. A little experimental, mostly due to the fact it always bothered me that Longbeards Great Weapons got this and Hammerers didn’t. I debated it a while, and trying to quantify if this is/was too strong ended up going no-where. Further tests are required.