Vortun’s Eltharion Custom Start & Legendary Lord

After waiting for the announcement of an Eltharion the Grim DLC for too long, I decided to take matters into my own hands. Starting with DaVE, the official modding tool, and gradually moving over to PFM while digging deeper and deeper into the jungle of files this game contains, reverse engineering existing mods and translating tutorials for past TW titles, creating this mod has been a turbulent journey – but it has finally reached a stage where I feel it is finished enough for the workshop.

Custom new faction

Take up command of the Yvresse Warhost, army of Eltharion, as they march east to purge the Greenskin filth before another Waaagh! crashes upon the shores of Ulthuan. Begin your campaign in the settlement of Gronti Mingol on the western tip of the badlands, which has recently been conquered by the Grim Warden.

Custom new Legendary Lord

Play as Eltharion, a legendary character in High Elf fluff – one who has been with the faction for most of the lifespan of Warhammer Fantasy – as he exacts vengeance upon his racial nemesis and sweeps across the badlands like a torrent of blades.

Custom skill tree

Over the years, Eltharion has had two names – the Grim and the Blind. Original fluff had him play the role as the anti-Dark Elf character on the High Elf roster, and presented a dark tale of boldness, capture and torture. However, in later years Alith Anar filled this role and Eltharion was rewritten completely to now fill the role of the anti-Greenskin character, instead having him act the reclusive warden of the doomed realm of Yvresse. I feel that both storylines are worthy of patronage, and have decided to give Eltharion a twin skill tree. You will be able to either follow the path of the Grim or the Blind, locking out the skills associated with the other.

Eltharion the Blind is a character focused on personal combat power, he will be unable to mount, and while exceptionally powerful his legendary item will also give him the Rampage special rule, making him vulnerable to overextension.

Eltharion the Grim is focused on faction-wide bonuses… And penalties. To reflect his status as the warden of the dying realm of Tor Yvresse commanding an army of grizzled veterans with no manpower to draw from and few craftsmen to maintain their equipment, his tree will grant you exceptionally powerful faction-wide bonuses, but also cause your units to both replenish slower and cost more to maintain. You will be able to field truly elite units, but they will be difficult to maintain.

As with all mods that edit the start of the campaign, this mod edits the startpos file. This means that it is not compatible with any other mods that touch this file. Other than that, it should be reasonably compatible. It edits a lot of table, but I’ve taken care to use my own system of unique IDs and trimmed away everything it doesn’t edit.

What does this mean?

It means that the mod is feature complete. I’ve put in the mechanics I want, and the mod is fully functional to play and enjoy. However, it is not yet finished in terms of balance, and you may run into bugs that I have not encountered in my own playtesting. This mod is a one-man project as well as my first mod.

This also means that I’d appreciate input and feedback either here or in personal messages. This especially includes the area of balance. I’ve tried to look at other LLs and judge where to ballpark based on their stats, but before wider playtesting can take place it is just that – ballpark numbers. the Grim branch of the skill tree is an area I am especially concerned with.

Known issues:
– Eltharion sometimes forgets to bring a weapon when riding Stormwing
– Stormwing needs a saddle
– Elf von Carstein sometimes fights defensive battles for the Warhost

Mixu for his LL mods, reverse engineering those taught me a ton about how PFM functions. Also for helping me iron out an especially annoying bug that plagued early development.

Sebidee for his unit modding tutorial, wouldn’t have gotten started at all without it as it helped me realise that this project is actually something I can complete.