Cad’s Marauder Trackers for Norsca
This mod adds a new unit, the Marauder Trackers, to Norsca; it also renames one of the Norscan settlement buildings (Marauder Trackers) to Marauder Venerers.
The Marauder Trackers provide Norsca with a low-tier missile infantry—albeit an unconventional one. Though they are capable bowmen with decent range and a touch of anti-large damage on their projectiles, they have an extremely low ammo count, so they can’t fight from a distance for long; thankfully, they’re very fast for infantry units and deal armor-piercing damage in melee, meaning they can keep pace with better melee troops when prudently deployed. They also have Vanguard Deployment and Snipe, but not Stalk, meaning they can scout out enemy flankers or serve as a poor man’s Hochland Long Rifles in a pinch. Their territorial resilience(s) and wide enemy detection radius make them useful for screening your army’s movements and harrying inattentive foes. They are unconventional troops designed for unconventional use, and thus are easily distinguishable from some other mod-specific Norscan archers such as Sarl Hunters.
Is this lore-friendly?
There was never a tabletop unit called the Marauder Trackers, though as I understand, Norsca itself didn’t exist on the tabletop—at least in Official Army Book form. There is controversy around whether or not Chaos faction updates should offer ranged infantry (especially conventional missile infantry), and navigating this debate was one of my two goals in making this mod. I wanted to produce a unit in line with Norsca’s existing canon which also functioned differently than both conventional archers and other Chaos-aligned ranged units such as Ungor Raiders—essentially, an unorthodox unit whose presence helps establish Norsca as a Weirder, Crunchier Chaos faction when compared against, say, the Warriors of Chaos. As with some of my other Weird Norsca mods, this doesn’t directly contradict canon, but indulges some of the ambiguities therein.
Bugs & Balance
There’s some clipping, though truth be told if you’re playing Norsca in vanilla, you’ve already seen worse. Originally these guys had capes; I switched their one handed axes to bearded axes later in development and got rid of the capes at that stage. I’ve encountered no other bugs, but if you find something amiss, let me know.
Compatibility
I’ve encountered no compatibility issues thus far, and tested these units alongside popular Norsca mods such as Tribes of the North to help ensure this. Marauder Trackers are kooky enough that they won’t step on the toes of other ranged Norscan units added through mods. If you encounter technical or tactical issues, let me know and I’ll deal with them as best as I’m able.
Cheers
I owe a debt of gratitude to all the kind folks from Da Modding Den, particularly Cryswar, Calm, Drazhir, PropJoe, and Cataph helping me with problems I encountered while making this and other mods. Cryswar’s guides to modding here on Steam have been invaluable, and there’s a plethora of other handy resources on Discord for modders of all skill levels.
