Mod: Idea for a mod : any comment ?

[Thierry]

Hi !

I tried one or two simple mods. I want to try something more complete.

In dominion 3 there are many majors countries from the medieval age. I may be wrong, be it seems to me that Ulm stands for the german aera, Man for england, Marignon for spain. So I wanted to add another : France (Yes I know I'm french.. I hope it's not patriotism but rather one of the culture found in medieval story that draws me to add it) After that I'd hope to make a thousand night mod with djinns and such.

I think France could make the three aeras : frankish brute in EA, France kingdom in middle with knights and LA France with demonic cultists and poiseneers.

MA is my first target. Seems to me the main point of the country in MA are knights, lots of them. See the 100' war : most military thinking at the time was about knight supremacy and France thought itself the first country about knights (ok it was not so much as a country, with many dukes nearly independant, but still you guess my meaning).

So the main theme would be knight. As I want to make them powerfull but still 'fragile', I thought about those modification :
- trample, because a charge was considered unstopable by 'foot' soldiers
- very high moral for elite knights ; they surrender only when incapacited
- perhaps a bit more defense because they were hard to kill for foot soldier
- less armor, so that archers can more easily stop them
- maybe size 4 : I fear it would give more trample damage but then they would be easilier tramples

+ strong priests. Religion is strong
+ arbalest / crossbow
+ standard archers (not those good longbows)
+ a few foot troops

What kind of magic ?

[Gandalf Parker]

Here is some about nations from the Wikipedia link on Dominions 3:

The nations in the game are based upon world history and mythology, rather than standard high fantasy races such as elves and orcs. Amongst others, the mythologies of ancient Greece (Arcoscephale), Rome Republic (Ermor), East Rome (Pythium), Sarmatians (Sauromatia), Egypt (C'tis), Medieval France & Spain (Marignon), Medieval England (Man), Ireland (Fomoria, Eriu, Tir na n'Og), Scandinavia (Vanheim, Helheim, Jotunheim, Midgard, Utgard, Nieflheim), Germany (Ulm), China (Tien Chi), Africa (Machaka), Japan (Jomon), Aztecs (Mictlan), Rus' (Bogarus), and India (Kailasa, Lanka, Bandar Log, Patala) are represented. Other nations are based on the work of recent writers, particularly H. P. Lovecraft (R'lyeh), or Abysia, that looks loosely based on Yezidi faith, as it contains Melek Taus in its list of random general names and is mostly associated with holy flames, beings of flame, fire worship and magma, or Hinnom, which is based on Semitic mythology, featuring Nephilim.

Somewhere around here there are a couple of threads discussing it all also. Kristoffer, the developer who did most of the thematic stuff, even jumped in and commented a few times. I wish I could give you the links but to be truthful the conversations lost me in the first couple of posts. Too deep and too much history for me

[Thierry]

Thank you for your insights.

It seemed to me that Marignon was close to France, but closer to Spain. Flagelants for instance were really more spanish than french. Then again neighbour countries often share much in common.

I can't help thinking that there are interesting specifics that would make a nice mod. Definitively more knight oriented. I'll browse through legends and folklore to see where to draw the magic parts. Mainly which and demons dealing sorcere from my childhood stories.. Slingers (from my namesake who used to be as famous as Robin Hood in France)

Also I truly believe we miss something by not having a 'thousand night' theme, with djins, efreets and aladin. Something based on fire, but different from Abisia (camel riders, etc...). Probably an air and fire nation ?

[llamabeast]

I thought that Marverni was France (i.e. the Gauls). Anyway, sounds like a nice idea, although I don't think the trample thing will work very well.

You may be interested in the "Bretonnia" mod by Burnsaber, which is based on the Warhammer nation of knights and Gallantry, and is themed with a kind of cross between Arthurian England and France. It's here:

http://z7.invisionfree.com/Dom3mods/...p?showtopic=50

Also a "thousand and one nights" type mod has been done before, which you may find interesting:

http://z7.invisionfree.com/Dom3mods/...p?showtopic=34

[Kobal2]

Originally Posted by llamabeast

I thought that Marverni was France (i.e. the Gauls). Anyway, sounds like a nice idea, although I don't think the trample thing will work very well.

Yes, Marverni does have a strong Asterix vibe to it, doesn't it ? .

I think a France nation would go Marverni for EA, Frankish heavy infantry and knights in chainmail for the MA (think Charlemagne & conquest of England) while the LA would be the 100 Years War period with superb plated lancers, lots of castles, shielded crossbowmen (France made extensive use of Italian mercenaries in the HYW, even if they didn't like them and often actively screwed them as happened at Agincourt) and regular, perhaps low morale/high armor infantry. Knightly commanders could have the option of recruiting freespawn serfs like the Mictan ones do.

So, basically, very much like the progression of Man only with different magics. Water would make for devastating charges using Quickness. Earth would fit with the whole heavy armour theme. Christian summons are usually Astral in this game.

An important part of French history was the socio-cultural conflict between the North and the South who spoke different languages, had very different traditions and even religions (Catharism, worship of Mary Magdalene were widespread in the south), so you could have two very different flavours of mages. Troubadours and minstrels were also very important so a copy of Man's bard (again, with a different magic path) is all but mandatory, at least in the LA. Speaking of the LA, you could give them a recruitable H3 Antipope to represent the Avignon papacy.

As for national summons and heroes:
- superknights (Roland with his mountain-cleaving Durandal sword, Charles Martel, Godfrey of Bouillon, St. Joan of Arc of course)
- in the same vein, the (holy?) knights Templar and Hospitaller. They used their own equipment and treasury so shouldn't cost upkeep or gold for the French god.
- Reynard the fox and his acolytes Bruin the bear, Tybalt the cat, Baldwin the ***, Ysengrin the wolf and his wife Hirsent the she-wolf. The Roman de Renart featuring the titular trickster fox was huge in the Middle Ages. I figure the protagonists could be immortal animals with special properties, be it dominion spread, stealthy unrest, growth... There's a possibility for magic diversity there as well.
- you could tap into heretical beliefs of the time: Catharism & Gnosticism, the supposed worship of Baphomet by the Templars, the Pastoureaux... don't know much about those myself, but it's an idea.
- Maybe astral/water or astral/earth Angels to match those of Marignon ?

[grimogre]

A Korne version of Chaos with super armor and spawn sounds good