Bannor cottages

[Black Whole]

Yesterday, I read the history of the Bannor people and saw this passage:

...All men are trained from childhood in the arts of war – hand to hand combat, archery, self defence, strength, and agility...

...Because they need to be defended and ready at all times, outlying villages are more like forts, every farm is a small castle, the cities are huge garrison towns but also centers of trade, religion, and diplomacy. Few men are without scars from battle and the women are strongwilled and hardened. They know that the children they raise may one day be lost in battle, and they also know that one day the war may come to them. It is a rare woman among the Bannor that cannot handle a sword...

And while I slept, an idea came to me.
How about giving the Bannor a special cottage/hamlet/village/town improvement, which gives a defense bonus to friendly or only Bannor units and spawns Militia units when enemies are near.

Maybe enable this improvement at Warfare.

Bannor cottage:
5% Defense Bonus
tiny chance to spawn Militia
after 30 turns ->
Bannor hamlet:
10% Defense Bonus
small chance to spawn Militia
after 30 turns->
Bannor village:
15% Defense Bonus
normal chance to spawn Militia
after 30 turns->
Bannor town:
25% Defense Bonus
big chance to spawn Militia

Bannor Militia:
Melee Unit
3/6 Strength
starts with Loyality, Combat 1+2, Courage
disappears if no enemies are within cultural Borders

What do you think?

 

[Bad Player]

I kind of like it. Similar perhaps to the FoL treants spawning thing but flavourful and unique.

 

[felwar]

The militia might be a bit too strong, but a defensive bonus for bannor cottages seems very flavorful. Good idea.

 

[woodelf]

This is a good sounding mechanic to add to them. Maybe start the militia a bit lower and allow them to be upgraded with better weapons?

 

[onedreamer]

I like the idea but not the implementation. It may be flavorful but quite unbalanced and not so accurate to the background.
I'd rather give Bannor a bonus to Forts. They could provide 1 to 3 commerce (upon growth) for example.

 

[[NWO]_Valis]

3/6 is too much but the idea in it self is great. The defensive factor is all right. I would propose make the militia 4/4 and like the summoned disappear after one turn it would disappear after 2 turns. Give it not the summoned trait but patriot(?) instead.

Adding to that they could have an ability that would upgrade them to normal axmen/swordsmen for extra gold and then they would lose the patriot trait and stayed with the civ.

 

[DarthCycle]

I also think the idea has merit.

Instead of generating a specific unit, how about
1) generate Enforcer unit by default
2) generate Guardsman if bronze working is known
3) generate shieldbearer if metal casting is known

The unit has the militia promotion:
1) -1/-1 to strength
2) unit doesn't cost any maintenance
3) unit cannot leave territorial border (if this is feasible)

All units with militia promotion dissapears when not at war.

 

[Black Whole]

I also think the idea has merit.

Instead of generating a specific unit, how about
1) generate Enforcer unit by default
2) generate Guardsman if bronze working is known
3) generate shieldbearer if metal casting is known

The unit has the militia promotion:
1) -1/-1 to strength
2) unit doesn't cost any maintenance
3) unit cannot leave territorial border (if this is feasible)

All units with militia promotion dissapears when not at war.

The militia promotion is a good Idea, but I see two problems:
1) You can't get any militia enforcers because you need Warfare to build this improvement and it requires already Bronze Working.

2) I think the units are too weak when they are spawned. A guardsman with 2 strength and a shieldbearer with only 4 strength couldn't hardly stop anything. This would be free experience for the invading army.

 

[Black Whole]

3/6 is too much but the idea in it self is great. The defensive factor is all right. I would propose make the militia 4/4 and like the summoned disappear after one turn it would disappear after 2 turns. Give it not the summoned trait but patriot(?) instead.

Adding to that they could have an ability that would upgrade them to normal axmen/swordsmen for extra gold and then they would lose the patriot trait and stayed with the civ.

I rather would let them disappear after the war because they aren't a real threat if you know that they disappear in two rounds. Once they disappeared you can march forward. It isn't sure that a militia will spawn in time again.

And the upgrading could be abused. You build everywhere the cottages -> you will get much money -> you can upgrade the militias -> you have great army, since you still produce in your cities.

 

[onedreamer]

yeah I think the basic thing is that it shouldn't work on cottages.
The quote says:

...Because they need to be defended and ready at all times, outlying villages are more like forts

Now, since cottages are already quite a good improvement while forts certainly are not, I think you could reverse the quote and say that along Bannor's frontiers forts are much like villages, and start to work from there...

 

[Saien]

Unfortunately forts and <any other improvement> don't coexist. I don't think you could make forts good enough for anybody to use them within the city workable area.

Now making forts useful would be spectacular, for everybody but with an advantage to Bannor. Unfortunately, they can only be built within cultural borders and that's going to be sparse enough that at least a human controlled enemy would easily be able to avoid walking into those squares so having any sort of "enemy walks into this square and bad things happen" effect would be pointless.

 

[[NWO]_Valis]

I rather would let them disappear after the war because they aren't a real threat if you know that they disappear in two rounds. Once they disappeared you can march forward. It isn't sure that a militia will spawn in time again.

But they shouldn't be any teat to the opposing army. Have you ever heard that the militia on their own won a war? They are only meant to stop the enemy for a while, slow him down.

And the upgrading could be abused. You build everywhere the cottages -> you will get much money -> you can upgrade the militias -> you have great army, since you still produce in your cities.

Yup, that was my idea. IF you attack him and fail you may be facing a bunch of unhappy ppl that remember your face when you walked on their land. It could be tweaked for barbarians thou[smaller chance for spawning], but only if it is a big exploit.

I also like the militia promotion and spawning troops accordingly to tech levels.

 

[Quetz]

very nice idea, IMO

 

[marioflag]

IMO the idea is really good but militia is a bit too strong if you research education at the beginning of the game.Militia should be available to Bannor as soon as you research Bronze Working, their attack and defense value should be lowered to a plain 3.BTW enemy units on cottage tiles should get also a penalty to defense.

 

[zyrev]

hey yo

very good ideas, nice implementations, unique and original...BUT one question that really bothers me, HOW DO YOU SLEEP AND THINK AT THE SAME TIME!?

 

[Blakmane]

wth? different timezones perhaps?

 

[Mesix]

To me the quote screams out no war weariness. If all of the citizenery are hardened to the realities of war and mothers expect that their children will be sent off to war...what exactly makes them experience war weariness???

Little or no war weariness sounds like a much better (and easily implemented) mechanic than the cottages idea. Perhaps the defensive bonus for cottages, but the free militia units sounds a bit much to me.

 

[Gamestation]

To me the quote screams out no war weariness. If all of the citizenery are hardened to the realities of war and mothers expect that their children will be sent off to war...what exactly makes them experience war weariness???

Little or no war weariness sounds like a much better (and easily implemented) mechanic than the cottages idea. Perhaps the defensive bonus for cottages, but the free militia units sounds a bit much to me.

The Crusades civic does not handle that already?

 

[Kael]

Yeah Crusade lowers war weariness across the empire by 75&#37;.

We are going to test having Bannor Town's spawn Demagog's during a crusade. Doing so lowers them from a Town to a Hamlet, and as before Demagog's will abandon the player when the Crusade ends.

 

[BCalchet]

Hmm... expanding something like that might prove interesting, even if balance could be a problem. Say:

A cottage is a cottage is a cottage.

A unit on a hamlet in friendly lands may use 'recruit worker', destroying the hamlet and spawning a worker of the civilization's type. (elf for elf, goblin for clan, etc.)

A unit on a village may do the same, but the village only drops two steps down to a cottage.

A unit on a town may also recruit a worker, dropping the improvement to hamlet, as well as recruit a settler which destroys the town.

During a crusade, the Bannor can recruit military units instead: a Demagog instead of a worker, and a suitably powerful permanent melee unit (think whatever would be drafted) instead of a settler.

Further, workers and demagogs might be given the ability to 'settle', creating a brand new cottage instantly...