Summary
This is the third in a series of games (the last was
Battleground if you're interested in checking out the rules for that one) where the central theme is that of limiting magic to level 6 and thereby removing the traditional endgame of army destroying magic and SCs (well aside from SC pretenders and possibly Jotunheim).
This time around I'm combining the limited magic theme with no indies (and I *really* mean no indies - see below) and Azurain's very fun Assimilation mod that let's you recruit some units from conquered capitols (somewhat altered for this game).
If you think you might be interested, download the attached mod and give it a try (note that there will almost certainly be some fixes before the game starts). If you notice any bugs please let me know.
Settings
Era: MA
Banned nations: All water nations, Ashdod
Number of players: 5
Map: FirstWorld (get map
here and see attachments below for fixed start version of map for this game)
Mods: modified version of CBM 1.6 (see changes below)
Hosting: 24 hours until turn 20, 48 hours until turn 40, 72 hours thereafter
HoF: 15
Other settings default
Player roster
Arcoscephale - ghoul31
Eriu - Samhain
Man - Olm
Pangaea - Valerius
Ulm - Louist
Details
Limited magic - No magic above level 6. All globals also removed. After some discussion in previous games Mists of Deception was also banned as being problematic - though I don't quite remember if this was because it was too powerful or because of the (now fixed) bug that let it continue after the caster left the battlefield.
No indies - We will be playing on a no indies map. Furthermore, all magic sites that allow commander/troop recruitment have been removed. So if you want to diversify from your national units you'll either need to summon units or conquer another nation's cap (see below). Recruitment of mercenaries is allowed and given the lack of other options might make for some fierce bidding wars for the best units. If you come across a site that allows recruitment of units before the game begins please let me know so I can fix it. If it is after the game has begun of course just ignore it and don't recruit those units.
Assimilation mod - I have included Azurain's Assimilation mod in the game mod attached to this post. This mod allows a conqueror to recruit select units from an opponent's capitol. I have made some changes to the units available (see list below) in the aim of balancing them for this game.
Two things I considered in making the changes were avoiding making weaker nations especially too tempting a target (you'll notice that if you rush Ulm you won't be getting a forge bonus
) and providing too big a boost to the conquering nation (this is why I removed the cloud trapeze capable thugs from the glamour nations' lists).
Btw, comments are welcome of you think there are some major imbalances here.
Blood magic - The previous game in this series nerfed blood magic very heavily. There were only two blood nations in that game and playing Vanheim I was the only one who really got to develop a blood economy. IMO, the nerfs were too much so I've reduced the costs of blood summons, though they are still higher than base CBM 1.6. It is important to note that soul contracts, lifelong protections, and jade knives are all banned. Also, some blood magic spells below level 6 have been eliminated. If you are playing a blood nation take a careful look at what is available and what it costs.
Banned nations - In Battleground Ermor and Pan were banned due to freespawn issues in a game that didn't have battlefield clearing magic and Jotun because of recruitable SCs in a game without SC summons. I wasn't too happy leaving them out so I've made some changes in order to include them this time around.
Ermor is no longer a reanimating nation. In order to give them some compensation for this I gave them a level 0 version of Pale Riders that costs only 3 D gems instead of 10.
Pans no longer summon Maenads and the carrion commander summons have been removed. As compensation Pan has a level 1 spell that summons 10 Maenads for 1 N gem and a cheaper version of Construct Manikins that only costs 5 N gems.
I'm most worried about Jotun. I nerfed Skrattis from 2W2B 100% WBND to 1W1B 100% WBND. Also, their werewolf formed was reduced to 40 HP. They may still be too much for these settings but we'll see what happens.
List of units that can be recruited from an opponent's capitol
(units numbers and unit descriptions)
Arcoscephale
50 16 200 (slinger, hypaspist, chariot)
311 (mystic)
Ermor
50 664 665 668 (slinger, hastatus, principe, standard)
669 (thaumaturg)
Pythium
50 687 1840 (slinger, principe, hydra hatchling)
42 (theurg)
Man
59, 57 (longbowman, knight)
658, 152 (bard, mother of avalon)
Ulm
417 71 78 69 (crossbowman, black plate inf [x2], black knight)
748 (siege engineer)
Marignon
218, 133, 134, 217 (crossbowman, man at arms, royal guard, flags)
224 (witch hunter)
Mictlan
1883 725 (moon warrior, sun warrior)
1189 1192 (mictlan and moon priest)
T'ien Ch'i
797 800 802 789 (archer, footman, crossbowman, heavy horseman)
1891 (alchemist of the 5 elements)
Machaka
879 880 885 886 (archer, warrior, spider warrior, spider knight)
893 (sorcerer)
Agartha
1355 1676 1472 (infantry, crossbowman, pale one)
1471 1474 (pale one captain, golem crafter)
Abysia
372 983 (humanbred [x2])
85 923 (anathemant salamander, warlock apprentice)
Caelum
131 127 420 419 (warrior, archers, infantry, mammoths)
202 (caelian seraph)
C'tis
165 504 172 (infantry, falchioneer, elite warrior)
170 502 (lizard shaman, empoisoner)
Pangaea
228 234 27 707 (satyr, minotaur, centaurs [x2])
237 (dryad)
Vanheim
146 400 (einheres, skinshifters)
263 323 (vanherse, dwarf)
Jotunheim
282 300 278 (wolf riders, hurlers, jotun spearman)
913 274 (vaetti, jotun jarl)
Bandar Log
1121 1125 1130 1147 (atavi archers, infantry, bandar longbow, elephants)
1143 (guru)
Shinuyama
1311 1312 1392 1395 (bandit infantry/archers, bakemono warriors/archers)
1429 (uba)
Eriu
1785 1786 849 (fir bolg slingers, fir bolg infantry, daoine sidhe)
850 1774 (sidhe champion, bean sidhe)
Nations - MA, CBM 1.6, max lvl 6, NI, Assimilation - Olm/Man and Louist/Ulm win!
Linear Mode
