Tweaks for the Underwhelming
Description
This mod is a collection of improvements for underwhelming units and mechanics, in no particular order. It started out as a bugfix for Daemon Princes and turns out I couldn’t stop tweaking it every time something made me say "meh". Hopefully this adds a bit of sparkle to the units you otherwise avoid.
Faction Changes
- Repairs missing skills for monogod factions, specifically Daemon Princes, Chaos Lords, and Chaos Sorcerer Lords. For example, Daemon Princes in Warriors of Chaos factions have skills like +1 Nurgle Authority / +10% Hit Points, which CA made WoC-only (presumably due to Authority being a WoC mechanic), but it means monogod factions miss out on the extra hit points! This mod puts them back in, so Epidemius’ Daemon Princes of Nurgle aren’t strictly worse than Kholek’s.
- Improves stats for underwhelming Daemon Princes – Khorne and Tzeentch in particular – to bring them up to the level of the Exalted demon lord for that faction. Nothing overpowered, but now they fill niches the Exalted lords don’t (e.g. anti-infantry vs generalist). Check the Change Notes for specifics.
- Tweaked Iridescent Horrors and Heralds of Tzeentch so their Burning Chariot mounts apply the same stat boosts Exalted Flamers get, instead of just being a slower more expensive Disc, and makes the Hates Nurgle skill boost both weapon and missile strength.
Daemons of Chaos
- Streamlined and standardised Daniel’s absurdly bloated skill tree. It’s still big, but it retains the god devotion theme and hopefully has some fun stuff in there now, rather than 200 extremely niche skills like "+3% Charge Bonus for Soul Grinders of Slaanesh".
- Tweaked Daniel’s Glory equipment rewards, so his earliest stuff is slightly less good, but his endgame stuff is slightly better, for a more rewarding upgrade path.
- Added +5% Glory to all LL defeat traits that provide 10 Research Rate, so Daniel doesn’t miss out when he fights Epidemius (often the first LL he encounters).
- Added Bile Trolls to Daniel’s Nurgle recruitment options. They added them to his faction but not to any of his buildings, which I assume is an oversight? Fixed!
Vampire Coast
- Deck Droppers buffed – unit count increased, and building tier lowered from 3/4 for variants to 2/3. Ship building also provides campaign benefits. Handgunner ammunition also increased to make up for their poor damage output. Recruitment cost and upkeep increased slightly to compensate.
- Animated Hulks buffed – I based their improvements off similarly-priced ogre units and gave them Bonus vs Infantry and increased Leadership, Weapon Strength, Charge Bonus, and Mass. It sounds like a lot but they were genuinely terrible and expensive before – they should play as a sort of slower and heavier Ogre Bulls (Dual Weapons) now.
- Pirate Coves are no longer lost when the parent settlement is razed. Building cost reduced from 2,500 to 1,500, and effects tweaked slightly to provide beneficial/antagonistic options with the parent settlement owner (check Change Notes for details). Hybrid port/cove playstyle hopefully a bit more viable.
- Hornswaggle also debuffs Missile Resistance, so it’s no longer a strict sidegrade to Taunt.
- Aranessa can recruit Slayer Pirates as well as all Maneater variants.
- Buried Treasure building cost reduced to 500 per tier, so it doesn’t take an absurd amount of time to return its investment.
Vampire Counts
- Added a couple new skills to the Banshee and Wight King skill trees, so they’re slightly less threadbare.
- Buffed the more uninspiring Books of Nagash for Mannfred. See Change Notes for details.
Bretonnia
- Prophetesses now have Greater Aura of the Lady, increasing Ward Save instead of just Spell Resistance. Damsels still use the old version and they stack with each other, so there’s more benefit to pairing them together than before. They also gain Swiftwing as a bound spell from rank 9.
- Foot Squires can now be recruited from the T3 barracks building, instead of T4. The T4 building now provides adjacent recruitment buffs instead.
- Grail Reliquae‘s Icon of Devotion aura now also grants 5% missile resistance.
- The Fay Enchantress’ Chalice of Potions item now also unlocks Damsel recruitment factionwide, as well as increasing their level.
Tomb Kings
- Grand Hierophant Khatep gets +30% spell targeting range as an innate effect, so he can better take advantage of being both a spellcaster and a siege weapon.
- High Queen Khalida‘s Blessing of Asaph now buffs ranged units in a 55m radius, up from 35m, and True Blessing of Asaph is mapwide once she unlocks it at rank 10. No longer should a melee lord feel obliged to babysit their ranged units.
- Carrion have slightly increased Armour, Leadership, and Mass. Now they’re as survivable as Fell Bats!
Cathay
- Sky Lanterns now come in a regiment of 3 units. The regiment has the same max health, so each one has 1/3 as much health as before. Much more appropriate damage but needs protection, which indirectly makes Onyx Crowmen more useful as screens.
Lizardmen
- Dread Saurian variants all have Wallbreaker, and the non-Feral ones also have an extra 10% missile resist.
- Mazdamundi‘s faction now constructs a unique Star Chamber building variant that also increases Spell Mastery for lords, and diplomatic reputation with other Lizardmen factions.
Norsca
- Throgg can recruit Trolls at tier 1, and can recruit Stone Trolls, River Trolls, and Bile Trolls at tier 3. His red line skills and unique skills now also buff non-Norscan trolls, as is appropriate.
Greenskins
- Greenskins have a few unique resource buildings to make up for the fact that they don’t trade, which is fun, but many resources don’t have any for unknown reasons. Added a few more (salt, pottery, dyes, marble, wine, ivory) on par with the others to make their capture less of a disappointment.
- Added a new skill to Goblin Big Bosses, so they don’t feel like a strict downgrade to Night Goblin Big Bosses.
Monogod Factions
Errata
- Slightly increased the Armour Piercing ratio of high tier cavalry units with only 30% AP up to ~35-40%. Currently only Dragon Knights, Blood Knights, Doom Knights of Tzeentch, and Gryphon Legion are affected.
Nemesis Crown
- Halved casualty replenishment rate and diplomatic reputation penalty (even halved it’s still more punitive than the Sword of Khaine).
Stalker
- Now also grants Spotter passive ability, so it’s no longer useless on embedded heroes. Affects Banshees, Goblin Big Bosses, and maybe a couple of others? A few factions have this skill.
High Tier Cavalry
Compatibilities
- Multiplayer – yep
- Existing saves – mostly yes, except for Mazdamundi, Throgg, and Daniel. For all other factions it should be fine.
- Other mods – yep, these are just table entry tweaks so it’s unlikely to cause problems. If two mods change the same thing slightly differently, just adjust the load order so the effect you prefer takes precedence.
