Pike and Fireball
Over 800 years have passed since The Son and his followers slayed the last God of this world, in a war that spanned centuries and continents. Over 100 years have passed since the mysterious Laden Guild introduced the Continent to gunpowder weapons at the Battle of Fallen Towers, changing the balance of power forever. Over 70 years have passed since Xiantlan, the mightiest empire the world has ever known, invaded the Continent, a punishment for stealing the gift of gunpowder, bestowed to them by their dead god. Over 30 years passed since the invasion was halted, but not pushed back.
The kings and emperors of the Continent scramble to recover ancient and powerful artifacts from across the world. Mages, shamans and druids from overseas are hired, bought or enslaved. Sacrifices and unholy rites are performed in front of ancient monuments of long forgotten gods, drawing anger from the Church of the Twelve. Things move in the shadow, and at the very corner of the vision, reality seems to be changing. Things awaken, gods, long thought dead. Ancient rivalries are rekindled and the Continent will shake once again. Now prepare for the inevitable conflict. Now is the time for war! For there is one thing Gods crave above all else – Dominion.
Pike and Fireball is a total conversion mod for Dominions 6 based on a personal world building project. Since the beginning I wanted to build the world and a Dominions mod hand in hand, one guiding and refining the other in turn. As the name would imply it is set during a fantasy pike and shot era. Expect to find a lot of long two-handed weapons, musketeers, tight formation, and cavalry charges that more often than not include a volley from wheellock pistols. Mages are trying to find their niche in this new world. Some use advanced optics to hurl evocations further and more precisely. Some focus on understanding the science behind the magic constructing true wonders of magitech. Others still cling to the old ways, trusting they will weather the coming storm.
Besides a whole new world with different factions, independents and mercenaries, there are also some slightly different mechanics compared to vanilla Dominions:
- Cavalry trample
- Long pointy sticks have animal awe – more length more awe
- All magic beings get some invulnerability depending on their power
- All mages are magic beings
- Gunpowder weapons bypass shields and deal extra damage to magic beings in form of an irresistible poison effect (lead poisoning)
The mod currently features:
- 5 new Nations with 5 custom pretenders each
- 16 new Indie Poptypes
- 33 new Mercs
- 55 new items (1-handed and 2-handed done), no lvl 9s
- 8 Powerful Magitech Guilds
- 22 New sites, including non-throne claimable sites for extra bless effects and sites that give you one-off commanders as a founder’s reward
There are over 25 nations planned, mostly focused on the Continent and its surroundings. Currently there are 5 playable nations, but more are on the way!
- Ælfland – Carolean Sweden with vikings, elves and trolls. The royal family rides 8-legged steeds and can veil themselves in illusions, while members of the inner circle hang from a sacred tree for 9 days and nights… completely normal right?
- Snaeholmur – Viking steampunk iceland with fire and frost giants. An uneasy peace reigns over the various tribes of giants inhabiting the island, while the humans have used this opportunity to mix magical fire and ice to produce steam to power weapons, constructs and ships.
- Boiwern – Bavarian romanticism and fairy tales meets Ulm. Also swans. A fairytale land of knights, brave princes, charming princesses and valiant knights. With guns. Also nymphs and satyrs and monks riding around on large barrels of beer.
- Valois – Celtic french empire with a complicated relationship with druids. The king, supported by the cardinals of the twelve, relentlessly persecutes the druids of the land. They are given a choice, serve at the front line of the Grande Armée or be burned at the stake. Royal musketeers go on grand adventures worthy of books and cuirassiers and dragoons ride giant roosters to battle.
- Stahlheim – Prussian empire and Teutonic order consumed by a cult of death. The Holy Allemanic Order brought a mysterious artifact from their crusades. They began worshiping it, transforming their faith into something rather obsessed with death. That didn’t stop progress though and Stahlland marches to war guns carried by skeletal constructs and bone-forged exosuits.
PaF introduces several interesting types of sites:
- Mancer Guilds (8) – The 8 Guilds are perhaps the most powerful organisations on the Continent, bar the Laden Guild and the Church of the Twelve. At the beginning of each game the Guilds are randomly distributed outside the caps and cap circles. No two Guilds can exist in the same province. Capturing these provinces will give you access to powerful mages and troops.
- God corpses (8) and hungering underworlds (1) – the slain gods still have magic in them. God corpses are claimable sites scattered around the world that provide bless and other bonuses when claimed. Be careful however, if a god was not properly killed, a hungering underworld may be left behind. If the hungering underworld eats enough souls, it may transform into a Hungering Divinity – a mad God without worshipers or purpose, wandering the world, bringing destruction, death and madness.
- Sites with founder rewards (4) – some sites offer rewards for those who first found them, this usually takes the form of powerful mages that join once their hiding place is discovered
Most Recent Patch:
— v0.1.04 (hotfix 4)
— Mounts cannot be immobile – all cannons that were immobile get ap 2
— The range finder was not working propoerly (even making the cannon shoot faster). Removed
— INDIES
— Artillery mage prec 10->16
— AELFLAND
— ormrgunder artillerist now has 6rp
— Artillery mage didn’t have farcaster in battle prec 10->16, updated descr to mention poison res
— Artillery mage renamed to Royal Artillery mage to distinguish it from the indie version
— Ormrgunr sprite adjusted slightly, still overlaps but other coms visble (consider world/battle shapes)
— Thurs Cannoneer gets darkpower 2 and no shock malus
— Gotthirding start age to 30
— Galgadrott start age 40 maxage 100
— Thurs Gygja gains darkpower 2
— Thursbinder startage 45
— SNAEHOLMUR
— Vitriologist startage 30
— Vapomancer startage 30
— Sagadir startage 35
— BOIWERN
— Princess startage 25
— nymph startage 300 maxage 1000
— Occidental mage startage 45
— VALOIS
— Wine maker startage 30
— Foreign legion mage startage 30
— witch doctor startage 30
— STAHLHEIM
— All comms with startage over 35 reduced to 35 except bone bishop
