CorvusFortis
Prince
About a year ago I created a mod based on Battle for Armageddon - a Games Workshop table-top game set in WH40K universe. I tried to keep it as close to original rules as possible, which was rather bad idea, considering limited possibilities of the editor.
Finally I found the result just not fun to play and started the new version from scratch.
Story
The scenario set in WH40K universe and describes the events of Second War for Armageddon. Armageddon is an important Imperial Hive World. Armageddon's factories produce large numbers of weapons and vehicles critical for maintaining Imperial army.
On 941.M41 Armageddon was attacked by massive horde of Orks - crude and savage creatures searching for fighting only for the sake of fighting. This so called 'waaagh!!!' was led by mighty ork warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka. Due to negligence and arrogance of planetary Governor Herman von Strab, Orks swiftly claimed northern part of the planet’s main continent – Armageddon Prime. However, most of industrial potential was concentrated on south, in the region known as Armageddon Secundus. Containing five large Hive Cities and a number of smaller separate forge complexes, Armageddon Secundus became a field for the battle, which will decide the fate of the planet.
Civilizations
There are two civilizations in the scenario set in locked alliance against each other: Imperium of Man and Ghazghkull’s Waaagh!!!
Imperial forces controls the most of the map. However, they are not prepared for invasion. Imperial player has a small but powerful army in his disposal. But he cannot rebuild units he has till late in the tech tree. Imperial buildable units at the beginning are weaker than Orkish ones and even somewhat overpriced. Economy is in bad shape too so it will take time to develop strong production base. Hurrying production with Gold is very important. Some building will produce “Promethium” unit that is the flag unit. It must be carried to the capital to gain more Gold. In the late game Imperium can easily deal with Orks if most of cities are secured.
Orks outnumber imperial forces. Their units are more powerful too. Ork units are cheap but almost all of them have population cost. So it is very important for them to keep their population as many as possible.
Victory Conditions
Both sides could win game just by conquest. It is more likely though that the victory would be achieved by VP scoring. Player can gain VP only by scoring VP locations. There are 5 of them on the map – one for every Hive. So the player who controls most of the hives by the end of the game will be victorious.
Terrain
Most of the map is covered with wasteland, which is standard terrain type with movement cost 1 and no food, shields or gold. Jungle and ash wastes cost 4 points to move. The former generate some food. Water tiles and mountains are impassible. Hive replace Forest and produce some food, shields and gold. Orks can destroy hives with worker actions to replace it with Ruins. Ruins give no gold or shields but a lot of food. Orks can further improve Ruins with Ork Kamps, which replaces Irrigation and gives even more food. Imperial workers can reconstruct Hives (plant forest).
Roads are very important because they quadruple movement rate. Without roads, it will take a long time to travel from one Hive or factory to another.
Rivers replaced with coast tiles. This ‘rivers’ can be crossed through ‘bridges’ – fortified wasteland tiles protected by the imperial forces.
Tech tree
Every faction has its own tech tree. Orks start in ‘ancient era’ but can go no further because of ‘blocker tech’ that is very unlikely to be researched. Imperium starts in ‘modern era’ and has all ork teches but has no benefit from them. This allows some graphics difference between two factions such as different advisors and different graphics for battle-generated units.
Imperium has two different routes – one for Infantry and one for Armored units. Player can choose to either research fully one route or have something from both. It is impossible to fully research both of them. At the end of every route, there is reinforcement choice – either Space Marine Chapters or Inquisition. Former unlock Space Marine spawning buildings and Commander Dante – the most powerful Imperial unit able to take down even Titans, the latter unlocks Inquisitor Horst. He is not as powerful as Dante but has many special abilities. Inqusition can also build Squats, which are more numerous than Space Marines, and Squat Land Trains that comparable in strength with Titans.
Orks does not have such restrictions on research. They, however, have “Klan Techies” that unlocks clan-flavor units and clan banners. As in the case with Imperial routes, it is impossible to research each clan tech.
Improvements
Nothing special about improvements. The have the same ‘lines’ as in vanilla game: commercial, scientific, industrial, happiness. Happiness is renamed Order and increased by command buildings which also reduce corruption and war weariness. Gold is renamed Munitions and increased by Ammo Depots etc. Production increased by Plasma Generators. Research is now “Tactics” and increased by Tactica Control etc. Orks has one less building in each line and has no buildings that increase Munitions since they are almost useless to them. Only orks have a building that doubles pop growth in a city (ork hutt). In addition, no buildings for air and land veteran units – veterans are stronger in the scenario and can be produced only in battle and by wonders. No coastal buildings too as there are no coastal cities.
Small wonders replaced by stratagems. They have the same effects though. Some stratagems are route- or clan-specific.
Great Wonders are now Critical Locations. Some of them are preplaced and some are buildable.
Resources
There are only two type of resources – Orks supplies and Imperial supplies. Both are critical though as almost nothing can be built without them.
Units
There are many different units. Most of them are route- or clan-specific.
Naval units removed and only three types of air units present. Orks start with powerful Ghazghkull king unit that can destroy even a Titan. Imperials start with a Distress Signal unit that upgrades to either Dante or Horst depending on chosen route. They also have a single Nuclear Missile that can be fired at Orks at any time. However, they get only one and no more can be constructed.
Status
Map is almost ready. Units, improvements and cities to be placed yet. Biq file rule section is untouched but I am ready to start work with it. I have unit graphics I need besides army-coloured Commissar and Steel Legion Fire Support Team. Slowly converting DoW buildings for buildings graphics. Did not think about Wonders Splashes or tech icons yet. None should be a problem though.
I hope, everything will be ready by Christmas.
Finally I found the result just not fun to play and started the new version from scratch.
Story
The scenario set in WH40K universe and describes the events of Second War for Armageddon. Armageddon is an important Imperial Hive World. Armageddon's factories produce large numbers of weapons and vehicles critical for maintaining Imperial army.
On 941.M41 Armageddon was attacked by massive horde of Orks - crude and savage creatures searching for fighting only for the sake of fighting. This so called 'waaagh!!!' was led by mighty ork warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka. Due to negligence and arrogance of planetary Governor Herman von Strab, Orks swiftly claimed northern part of the planet’s main continent – Armageddon Prime. However, most of industrial potential was concentrated on south, in the region known as Armageddon Secundus. Containing five large Hive Cities and a number of smaller separate forge complexes, Armageddon Secundus became a field for the battle, which will decide the fate of the planet.
Civilizations
There are two civilizations in the scenario set in locked alliance against each other: Imperium of Man and Ghazghkull’s Waaagh!!!
Imperial forces controls the most of the map. However, they are not prepared for invasion. Imperial player has a small but powerful army in his disposal. But he cannot rebuild units he has till late in the tech tree. Imperial buildable units at the beginning are weaker than Orkish ones and even somewhat overpriced. Economy is in bad shape too so it will take time to develop strong production base. Hurrying production with Gold is very important. Some building will produce “Promethium” unit that is the flag unit. It must be carried to the capital to gain more Gold. In the late game Imperium can easily deal with Orks if most of cities are secured.
Orks outnumber imperial forces. Their units are more powerful too. Ork units are cheap but almost all of them have population cost. So it is very important for them to keep their population as many as possible.
Victory Conditions
Both sides could win game just by conquest. It is more likely though that the victory would be achieved by VP scoring. Player can gain VP only by scoring VP locations. There are 5 of them on the map – one for every Hive. So the player who controls most of the hives by the end of the game will be victorious.
Terrain
Most of the map is covered with wasteland, which is standard terrain type with movement cost 1 and no food, shields or gold. Jungle and ash wastes cost 4 points to move. The former generate some food. Water tiles and mountains are impassible. Hive replace Forest and produce some food, shields and gold. Orks can destroy hives with worker actions to replace it with Ruins. Ruins give no gold or shields but a lot of food. Orks can further improve Ruins with Ork Kamps, which replaces Irrigation and gives even more food. Imperial workers can reconstruct Hives (plant forest).
Roads are very important because they quadruple movement rate. Without roads, it will take a long time to travel from one Hive or factory to another.
Rivers replaced with coast tiles. This ‘rivers’ can be crossed through ‘bridges’ – fortified wasteland tiles protected by the imperial forces.
Tech tree
Every faction has its own tech tree. Orks start in ‘ancient era’ but can go no further because of ‘blocker tech’ that is very unlikely to be researched. Imperium starts in ‘modern era’ and has all ork teches but has no benefit from them. This allows some graphics difference between two factions such as different advisors and different graphics for battle-generated units.
Imperium has two different routes – one for Infantry and one for Armored units. Player can choose to either research fully one route or have something from both. It is impossible to fully research both of them. At the end of every route, there is reinforcement choice – either Space Marine Chapters or Inquisition. Former unlock Space Marine spawning buildings and Commander Dante – the most powerful Imperial unit able to take down even Titans, the latter unlocks Inquisitor Horst. He is not as powerful as Dante but has many special abilities. Inqusition can also build Squats, which are more numerous than Space Marines, and Squat Land Trains that comparable in strength with Titans.
Orks does not have such restrictions on research. They, however, have “Klan Techies” that unlocks clan-flavor units and clan banners. As in the case with Imperial routes, it is impossible to research each clan tech.
Improvements
Nothing special about improvements. The have the same ‘lines’ as in vanilla game: commercial, scientific, industrial, happiness. Happiness is renamed Order and increased by command buildings which also reduce corruption and war weariness. Gold is renamed Munitions and increased by Ammo Depots etc. Production increased by Plasma Generators. Research is now “Tactics” and increased by Tactica Control etc. Orks has one less building in each line and has no buildings that increase Munitions since they are almost useless to them. Only orks have a building that doubles pop growth in a city (ork hutt). In addition, no buildings for air and land veteran units – veterans are stronger in the scenario and can be produced only in battle and by wonders. No coastal buildings too as there are no coastal cities.
Small wonders replaced by stratagems. They have the same effects though. Some stratagems are route- or clan-specific.
Great Wonders are now Critical Locations. Some of them are preplaced and some are buildable.
Resources
There are only two type of resources – Orks supplies and Imperial supplies. Both are critical though as almost nothing can be built without them.
Units
There are many different units. Most of them are route- or clan-specific.
Naval units removed and only three types of air units present. Orks start with powerful Ghazghkull king unit that can destroy even a Titan. Imperials start with a Distress Signal unit that upgrades to either Dante or Horst depending on chosen route. They also have a single Nuclear Missile that can be fired at Orks at any time. However, they get only one and no more can be constructed.
Status
Map is almost ready. Units, improvements and cities to be placed yet. Biq file rule section is untouched but I am ready to start work with it. I have unit graphics I need besides army-coloured Commissar and Steel Legion Fire Support Team. Slowly converting DoW buildings for buildings graphics. Did not think about Wonders Splashes or tech icons yet. None should be a problem though.
I hope, everything will be ready by Christmas.
Probably, unit loses to much colors. I have another way, with major color loss and no shadow, but it will be better than nothing.
