Mod: Mod thread- WH hordes of chaos

[Valandil]

Following discussion in the wahammer nations thread, I have decided to attempt a mod for actual use.

The Hordes of Chaos are malign, depraved, and destructive. From their fastnesses and gateways in the frozen north of the world, they raid and pillage other civilisations:
Longships from bleak norsca filled with bloodsoaked raiders, hunched sorcerors wielding dark magic from the gods themselves, black armored knights riding to the world's ending, and the hellspawned throngs of daemons.

The hordes of chaos worship the four gods of Chaos:
Tzeentch the manipulator, who weaves men's fates.
Nurgle the plague lord, bringer of decay.
Khorne the blood god, who dictates men's slaughters.
Slaanesh the dark prince of pleasure and pain.

Each member of the horde seeks to rise in the favour of the dark powers- to become a dread champion of chaos, and finally to ascend to immortality and daemonhood. Fortunately for the world, this path is paved with blood, and it may be the blood of other followers of chaos as well.

Only once in a thousand years does a champion arise with the favour of all four gods and the strength of body and mind to weld together the fractious hordes and unite them into glorious slaughter. That time has come.

The forces of chaos are powerful- marauders from the northlands conditioned by years in the harsh climes, and born into a life of battle march alongside the favoured of the gods, men of great stature with unearthly fires burning in their eyes.

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Essentially, there are three aspects of a chaos horde: Mortals, Beasts, and Daemons.
The recruitable units will be solely mortals, such as might be found in the north. Sorcerors and champions will be able to call forth daemons as the war progresses.
(Any tips on the inclusion of beasts would be welcome)

__________________________________________________ _________

[Valandil]

Part One: The Recrutable Mortals of Chaos
(or: Why Elenian Hates Making Sprites)

Marauder
WH- WS4 BS3 S3 T3 W1 I4 LD7 M4
LOTS of options.

Dominions- Att 12 DEF 10 Str 11 Hp 10 Ap 12 Prec 9 MR 9 Mor 10. Wasteland survival.
<<Axe+Shield/Axe+Javelin/Flail>> Light Armor.
Medium infantry specialising in brutal assaults, Marauders are the only 'weak' troops available. They are nonetheless above-average humans, and are decently well equipped.
[no notes here, these are basically easy to do]

Marauder Horsemen
WH- WS4 BS3 S3 T3 A1 W1 I4 LD7 M9

Dominions- Att 12 DEF 10 Str 11 Hp 10 Ap 22 Prec 9 MR 9 Mor 10
<<Axe+shield+throwing axe>> Light Armor.
Decent horsemen, medium cavalry with axes. Ride ahead of the main force souting and pillaging.
(Notes: I cannot draw horses in gimp. Pillage bonus or survivals)

Warriors of Chaos
WH- WS5 BS3 S4 T4 W1 A1 I5 LD8
Dominions- Att 13 Def 12 Str 12 Hp 13 Ap 10 Mr 10 Mor 13 Prec 9
<<Sword+Shield,Greatsword,Halberd>>Heavy Armor
Combat Monsters with supreme stats and equipment. No longer normal humans, more comparable to abysians.

Chosen Warriors.
WH- WS5 BS3 S4 T4 W1 A2 I5 LD8
Dominions- Att 14 Def 13 Str 12 Hp 15 Ap 10 Mr 10 Mor 14 Prec 9 +SACRED
<<Claymore>>Chaos armor=really very heavy.
Ultraelites blessed by the dark gods with fanaticism and sealed suits of chaos armor.

--erm. Computer error. Will finish soon.--

[Sombre]

Regarding the beasts - there's plenty of room for a Beasts of Chaos nation based on the Warhammer army list of the same name and the earlier Beastmen army books.

Feral Harpy
Ungor
Gor
Bestigor
Beast Chariot
Minotaur
Dragon Ogre
Chaos Troll
Chaos Centaur

etc etc. Sort of like a Chaos version of Pangaea. Lots of blood, death and nature magic, along with some stuff from the 4 powers.

But the Hordes of Chaos should get Chaos Warhounds I think, since they are associated with marauders, not beastmen.

I like the stats on the marauders - a basic att value of 12 seems right for Chaos, who are supposed to be the undisputed masters of melee. I think I'd give the marauders another 1 or 2 hp though, they only have toughness 3, but their large northern frame could account for an extra point or so. Skaven have toughness 3 and str 3 as well, but are clearly smaller and weaker - in dom3 you get more values than in Warhammer, so you can represent these differences - I gave them str 9 and hp 9.

As for the chaos warriors - WS5 is very rare and very high in Warhammer (amongst basic troops) and I would give them at least 14 att. By the time they become chaos warriors they are starting to become more than human, so they don't need to be limited by the general Dom3 stats of elite troops having att13 or so.

[Valandil]

Computer seems to have recovered from it's illness, so I here go aagain.

You are right about choas warriors being superhuman, but, well... Chaos lords are WS8! That would be 22 on a linear scale 5=14... Also swordsmasters, if you or I ever get around to high elves...

Perhaps you are right about marauders having a bit more hp than normal people. What is your stance on pillage bonus or sailing for marauders? Horsemen?

AM i right in incluing chosen of the gods as sacreds? Should I bother with chosen knights? (Given my equine drawing limitation?*)

Can you think of a way to 1) limit the numbers of chosen and 2) add some weakness to chaos. As represented in the rules, Chaos has brutal troops, some decent fodder, powerful magic, monsters, and even a BIG cannon.
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*See, I draw all my sprites from scratch in GIMP.
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Chaos Knights:
Warhammer-
WS5 BS- S5(*) T4 W1 A1 I5 LD8 M8
Chaos steeds, it should be noted, are S4
Dominions-
ATT 14 DEF 13 Str 14 Hp 14 Mr 10 MOr 13 Prec 10
<<Sword+Shield>>Heavy armor.

Chosen Knights:
WS5 BS- S5(*) T4 W1 A2 I5 LD8 M8
Chaos steeds, it should be noted, are S4
Dominions-
ATT 15 DEF 14 Str 15 Hp 16 Mr 10 Mor 14 Prec 10
<<Sword+Shield>>Chaos armor. SACRED

Warhounds of Chaos
Att 13 Def 11 Str 13 Hp 12 Mr 8 Mor 8 Prec 4 AP 18
<<Bite>>
[Note: needs abilities to make worth recruiting]

What about chariots? cultists? I have 11 recurtables as it stands.

[Valandil]

Leaders of Chaos-
This is where it all descends into ruin

Champions of the dark gods-
Aspiring champion.
Att 15 Def 14 Hp 15 Str 15 Mor 15 Mr 10. Ld 40.
<<Flail>>
(seriously considering 25% SS chance to represent mark of tzeentch)

I'm ignoring Exalted Champs, since they'd be useless.

Lord of Chaos.
Att 17 Def 16 Hp 20 Str 16 Mor 16 Mr 11 Ld 80.
Standard 10. <<Greatsword>>
(seriously considering 25% SSS chance to represent mark of tzeentch)


Sorceror of Chaos
As chaos warrior, except
FD? ?is 110% FDWB

<B is all that's needed to start a blood economy of khorne daemons. There are no tzeentch sorcs, hence no astral (See Aspiring Champ) Death is Nurgle, Fire is fire, Water is slaanesh and the chill of the north.>

Exalted Sorceror of Chaos
As chosen warrior, minus sacred.
FFD? ?is 210% FDWB

Shaman of Chaos
As marauder, but H1, 10%N1

(What else?)
(Need a scout)

[Sombre]

Pillage bonus sounds good. As for sailing,.. most of the marauder tribes are land based, up in the extreme north around the chaos gate at the pole. Only the norse just north of the old world seem that interested in sailing.

I think Chosen should be sacreds, yeah. Chaos are a pretty religious nation all things considered, since the Four Powers are a part of every day life.

Technically, Chaos should get a Chaos Warrior Chariot and a marauder chariot. I think just the chaos warrior one would be fine. As for cultists,.. I say leave them. That was the old chaos before they brought in the idea of the northern lands being rife with tribes of excellent fighters rather than fodder humans.

I think Knights are a must for Chaos. If you have trouble drawing horses, just use a horse sprite from the game as a base - the sprites were made available by K O recently, including attack sprites, so just find a random cavalry unit from there and heavily modify it to get a nice chaos steed (with extra powerful hoof attack).

I guess the 2 big weaknesses of chaos are the high cost of their stuff (if you leave out cultists) and their lack of missile weapons. This translates fairly well into dom3 I think.

[Valandil]

Obviously they need knights. I was merely wondering about TWO types: chosen and otherwise.

Missiles are definetly going to be absent, save for some horsemen throwing axes and tzeentch daemons.

If you're a warhammer player, you no doubt realise that steeds ALWAYS kill more enemies than the knights. Hence, I agree with increasing the power of chaos hoofs.

Warhounds? Why build them?

[Sombre]

Warhounds can be an auto spawn/summon allies troop of the more Marauder-esque leaders. You could also have them spawned by a Marauder scout of some kind and give them stealth - they'd be the only mundane chaos stealth troops then.

I think variety is good when it comes to chaos. If they have a large number of recruitables that's not a big problem - chaos are a pretty varied army thanks to the 4 different powers. As long as the graphics don't need to be hugely different it doesn't take that long to give Chosen extra fancy helmets, or glowing swords or banners or whatever, so why not have both types?

[Sombre]

I'm really looking forward to seeing pink horrors turn into 'units' of two blue horrors when killed, by the way. It'll look great and work great in dominions.

[Valandil]

Fair Enough.

As of right now, I've finished the sprites (attack and normal) for

Chaos Warrior with great weapon
Chaos Warrior with Halberd
Marauder Horsemen (Based on a Tien Chi Daimyo, thankss Sombre)
Sorceror
Fury
Bloodletter


Only fifty something left. P.