[Module]Balseraph+

[Sephi]

This module is included in Wildmana by Default.

Goals:
Add some Balseraph Leaders with unique Playstyle

Leaders:

• Perpentach (Insane Trait)
• Keelyn (Summoner, Creative)
• Nojah[neutral] (Illusionist, Wanderer, Hero(will join the Balseraph as a Hero))
• Furia (Charismatic, Thousand Faces)
• Melisandre(Defender, Expansive, Emergent)
• Nell[good] (Creative, Defender, Trader)
• Weevil (aggressive, foolish, raiders)

New/altered Traits:
Wanderer gives Mobility Promotions to Recon units
Thousand Faces gives free Mutation to most units (but not settlers/workers)
Emergent allows to gain traits during the game
Trader gives food/hammers from trade routes
foolish gives ability to taunt to many unitcombats

Unique Units:

• Courtesan: prereq tech is Alteration, requires Hall of Mirrors in City, no prereq Religion, , cost reduced to 120 , reduced to 5, no city attack/defense penalty, no free promotions, gains shapechange ability

thanks to Opera, Valkrionn for leaders

 

[Sephi]

reserved 1

 

[Valkrionn]

I see you went with my trait name (Emergent) rather than the original, (Minor).

I love Furia's trait... Might have to steal that...

Also, what do you mean 'Will join the Balseraph as a Hero'? He spawns as a unit? If so, when?

 

[Sephi]

yes, Nojah spawns as a unit. currently when you build the first city, but his shapechanging ability allows him to stay useful throughout the game.

 

[Shakiko]

Could you explain how shapechanger works ?

Unlike the Grigori heroes I couldn't upgrade Nojah to a Scout, Warrior or Axeman, so is tehre some sort of restriction into what he can turn into ?
Sadly I could not find any information in the ingame-wiki either (found nothing in the Leaders section, units section, Ability section nor Promotion section...)

It's not that he's too weak - in contrary . So easy to conquer at least 2 Civs just with Nojah (Combat 5/Heroic Str.II + Twincast + Balseraph puppets rather seems quite overpowered already, especially as you can walz over your opponents at turn 75 with 4 Str., Combat 5 puppets)
I'm just wondering if you can transfer him into something else for the lategame, just in case you didn't want to go for a conquest victory.

 

[nutranurse]

Check the civlopedia, Nojah upgrades into a mage. He basically is an adept, I believe.

 

[Sephi]

Nojah probably needs a nerf for the early game.

Shapechanging means if the unit you defeated has more base strength, you transform into that form. So if you have strength 5/5 and you defeat a ranger, you have 7/7 after combat.

 

[Imuratep]

As you are differentiating the Balseraph leaders very much I have an idea that might interest you. It concerns the "Weevil, Pickle & Hide" leader/leaders who right now are rather weak (because of Foolish), not very synergistic with the Balseraph (as their strength is in the mid-/lategame and thus aggressive/raiders is not very strong if you don't have the units to use it) and just not as interesting as the other Balseraph leaders you have created.
So my idea is: Split them into three leaders (all should keep foolish as this is the interesting part.)At start of the game you get 2 units: Weevil and Pickle, Pickle and Hide or Hide and Pickle (depending on which of them you have chosen as a leader). They have no strength and 1 movement. If you have founded a city beyond the first you can choose to sacrifice one of these units to give control of this city to a new Balseraph leader (the one you have sacrificed. So if you have sacrificed Weevil, Weevil becomes the leader of this new fraction). This Balseraph leader becomes your ally (or your vassal?). Normally an allied fraction of three leaders should be too strong, but as they all have the "Foolish" trait this should balance this out.
If you want to put them to a later point in the tech tree you could enable that you can upgrade Great Artists into these units instead of granting them from the start of the game.

 

[wapamingo]

foolish may seem underpowered, but the ability to taunt is crazy and in particular crazy when you are on the attack. You can simply taunt out the defenders to attack you or to force a stack to attack you where you want them to attack. the science penalty is there to attempt to balance this out, as i understand it. Yes, the science penalty is big but taunting is really powerful.

Foer example, you only need a few swordsmen to take out archer defended town. The archers attack you!

 

[Imuratep]

Nojah probably needs a nerf for the early game.

Shapechanging means if the unit you defeated has more base strength, you transform into that form. So if you have strength 5/5 and you defeat a ranger, you have 7/7 after combat.

Or an elephant/ gargoyle from Guardian of Pristine Pass. You can just attack it with your heroic strength puppet and then you will be able to finish it off.

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

wouldn't defeating an elephant make you unable to attack though? they have 0/7 so...

 

[Imuratep]

ah that one makes sense. I thought they just have an XML string that prevents them from attacking not 0 attack strength.

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

not sure about the technical details, it's just that I seem to remember them having 0/7 ... I may be wrong of course

 

[Valkrionn]

It's a 'bDefensiveOnly' tag.

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

damn you Valk, how dare you prove me wrong?

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

the Thousand Faces trait looks mostly useless considering you can get mutated on anything by upgrading it from a freak.

 

[Fafnir13]

That costs gold. A rather tidy sum too, especially when you start talking champions and the like.

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

that is true but IMHO upgrading units from freaks is THE way to play the balseraphs so the trait seems redundant

 

[Sephi]

yeah, so what. You can also get a lot of commerce even if you do not have the financial trait Also, can you upgrade a freak into a horseman? I doubt that.

 

[readercolin]

No, you can't upgrade him to a horseman. However, you can upgrade him to a horse archer (through archers), a chariot (through swordsman), or a knight (through either). The only thing that a freak can't upgrade to in the end is a priest (of any kind) or a mage.

-Colin