Clandestine Nation idea

[Metalder]

I'm trying to come up with a mod nation that relies heavily on stealth, dark magic, and assassinations, rather than direct combat. The idea would be some sort of sinister cabal that is trying to take over the world from behind the scenes, by means of bribery, spying, seduction, heresy, targeting killings, and of course, evil magic. The priests would be stealthy too.

I know that there are some units that may be good for some of these purposes already (assassin, spy, necromancer), but I will have to mod some in. I was thinking that there would be three levels of power ("circles" maybe?), corresponding to power and cost. Like, a first-circle (lowest) necromancer would have the generic powers of a vanilla unit, while the second tier would be able reanimate the dead as an option for a turn, and the third tier might have the ability to reanimate more powerful undead and possibly have some sorta magical ability as a standard attack. Likewise, the seduction units might just be something like a regular but very attractive woman, a sorceress with magical luring powers, and a "flightless succubus" sort of unit with magic.

So yes, it would have the generic mercenary units placed as recruitables, but be geared more towards stealth. Any ideas?

[legowarrior]

Why am I getting a Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom feeling here?

[Metalder]

Originally Posted by legowarrior

Why am I getting a Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom feeling here?

Yeah, I liked that movie. lol

I'm thinking commanders like "Puppet King" and possibly references to late era Ulm might be appropriate. This should be a late era mod.

I never thought there would be no capital (I never thought such a mod was even possible), and yes, blood sacrifice seems appropriate for the mod.

Only issue is what this "conspiracy theory" nation is about. I'm thinking something involving a previous pantokrator who tried to take over the world before, failed, got banished, escaped, and now seeks to take over the world again but doesn't dare use strong-arm tactics a second time... at least not directly.

As for summons... I'm not sure what those may be. I'd like to consider some sorta original demons, but I'm not sure I have the real-life time to make a decent set of pics. Some heretic units might be useful, though, if they are used correctly. I'm thinking "demagogue" as a name for such a unit.

[Serfinus]

if you have an idea for a sprite, but dont have the time to do it i will gladly help you

[Valerius]

There's no getting around the fact that you'll need your cap for immortal units to return to and to recall your pretender if he's killed, but other than that I'd say it should be de-emphasized. Meaning no really important (if any) cap-only units. Of course having very powerful recruit-everywhere units is a balance issue (assuming you care about that aspect) so it would probably be best to make those powerful units summons. Also, inquisitor seems thematic, maybe even blood sacrifice depending on the magic paths. So they can very quickly push their dominion and get a foothold in different areas of the map. I think old age being an issue for the oldest and most powerful members of the cabal would also be appropriate.

[Metalder]

Thanks for the offer! I'll need more time before I can really go ahead with any ideas, though.