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But Slayers are good for killing big monsters. And the got some new fancy war machines also. And their own blunderbussys.
I actually wanted to be Resileaf
I imagine they went for mostly slayer units because they add a ton of mobility for Dwarf armies.
It's suspected that for campaign gameplay, Malakai will be a horde army, using the Spirit of Grungni, his personal battle barge the size of a city, like the Vampire Coast use their ships.
I actually wanted to be Resileaf
Speaking of rosters, here's the Tamurkhan reveal.
Wielding an ogre's body, he is naturally a melee monster unit, tanky and hard-hitting all at once. When he is about to die, he will do a desperation attack that will kill units that are under a certain health threshold, returning him to life. Fighting him with low-health lords and heroes is therefore quite dangerous.
He also has an active ability to increase his melee defense and ward save, and another to decrease weapon strength and leadership of units around him (and he apparently uses ogre names as well so he can further increase those penalties). He can also use his weapon ability to increase his own damage, plus that of his allies.
His unique campaign mechanic involves gathering powerful warriors from certain tribal factions around the world and gaining their loyalty by making them his chieftains. He gains a 'dominance' resource which he uses to gain those chieftains, use their abilities and add their units to his recruitment pool. To increase the bonuses given by those chieftains, he needs to increase their fealty by taking actions that they approve of, increasing their loyalty to him. When the chieftains have reached maximum fealty, a quest battle will be possible to gain their ultimate bonuses.
Kazyk the Befouled is the legendary hero of Nurgle and Tamurkhan's chief lieutenant. Always mounted on a rot beast, he's a tank and a leader who makes his allies better when he charges alongside them, removing bonuses against large units from enemies who are affected by his charges. He further strips the defenses from enemies he attacks, making them easier prey for the forces of Nurgle.
Chaos lords of Nurgle are melee tanks, naturally. They fight with shields on a variety of mounts and have poison attacks. They also buff nearby units with increased leadership and melee defense, making them excellent frontline fighters.
Chaos sorcerers of Nurgle are, naturally, hero spellcasters with the lore of death and Nurgle. They have poison attacks too and have immense value as healers, possessing several abilities that regenerate the forces of decay.
Pestigors are beastmen blessed by Nurgle. They have a large health pool and great weapons, making them excellent frontline warriors (I'm sensing a theme here) and the description implies that they have armor sundering (unless it's just a fancy way of saying armor-piercing) along with vanguard deployment. The description also speaks of a single-time use hex called the Tears of Nurgle that creates a debilitating plague that infects enemies nearby and spreads over time to enemies in contact with the infected. I don't know if it's a Ro R thing though.
Plague ogres are ogres, 'nuff said. They either wield giant swords or giant axes, I'm not sure what the difference in gameplay is.
Rot knights are Chaos knights who mount dreadful rot beasts. They are a monstrous cavalry who are not very quick, but have particularly high health and armor as well as regeneration. They have anti-large attacks, making them ideal for hunting down monsters and cavalry and keep them occupied for a long period of time (especially since they have increased melee defense when fighting), so long as they are not attacked with fire.
Bile trolls have increased regeneration in combat thanks to Nurgle's blessing, poison and armor-piercing attacks, cause fear (I think) and can use an ability to share their curse with an enemy, considerably lowering their armor and melee defense and making them easier to kill.
Toad dragons are the showcase unit, gigantic reptilian monsters with massive armor-piercing attacks to wipe out crowds around it. With missile resistance, they shrug off most attacks while they wade into melee and have an active ability to belch out a flesh-melting blast of air, causing huge explosive and poison damage.
As far as the racial update will contain, plagues have been diversified so that there wouldn't be an objective best decision at all times. There will be a "web" of plague symptoms that are connected to each other which randomly change over time, encouraging experimentation. Every cycle, one symptom will become blessed, which double their bonuses/penalties (except Ku'gath, who will get multiple blessed symptoms as a unique mechanic). More mutations are also available, and enemy armies affected by plagues will become immune for a period of time so that they can't be constantly infected.
Cyclical buildings will change a bit. Military buildings will remain cyclical as it's important for Nurgle's core theme, but other buildings will be static. Military buildings will also cost infection rather than treasury. There has been a general overhaul of economy and resources for Nurgle as well to make their campaign less tedious.
Recruitment has been overhauled as well, the virulence of provincial Nurgle corruption gradually increasing the health and lowering the cost of new units when recruited.
The tech tree is remade to be clearer because it was based on Ku'gath's Realms of Chaos campaign mechanics so it needed to be changed for Immortal Empires.
Army abilitie points in battle now increase when negative debuffs are spread to enemies instead of when Nurgle units die so that it fits Nurgle's themes better.
Next week will be Elspeth, Malakai after that, and the Nemesis Crown and free legendary lord in three weeks.
Those Nurgle changes were sorely needed.
Edited by DrunkenNordmann on Apr 10th 2024 at 6:42:53 PM
Welcome to Estalia, gentlemen.
Yeah, I've had fun with Nurgle but these are major game changers. It's incredible.
"Sandwiches are probably easier to fix than the actual problems" -Hylarn
That all you got?
Still kind of a shame that Tzaangors aren't a Tzeentch melee unit.
That is the face of a man who just ate a kitten. Raw.
Uh, they are? You just need to own Shadows of Change.
"Sandwiches are probably easier to fix than the actual problems" -Hylarn
I actually wanted to be Resileaf
Showcase video about Tamurkhan. Mostly the same things as in yesterday's blog, but with a couple of extra in-game precisions and design decisions.
- His Immortal Empires campaign starts in the Northern Chaos Wastes.
- His lord effects give the non-demonic units in his own army bonuses with extra melee attack and immune to psychology. He is, after all, the scariest thing on the battlefield even on your own side. He also recovers from wounds quicker (to simulate him finding a new body rather than just being wounded in battle).
- His campaign concept was based on the Throne of Chaos novel, where he tries to gather a large warband to destroy the Empire.
- Switching bodies wasn't really a doable mechanic as CA wanted him to be more of a beatstick lord, so they figured that his warband mechanic would handle that well enough.
- Kazyk the Befouled starts attached to Tamurkhan's army from the beginning of the campaign. He recruits quick units with high charge bonuses, like chariots, rot knights and toad dragons. As the Befouled, his campaign abilities give attrition to enemies and spread plagues easier.
- There is also Karghan the Crazed, an insane Chaos lord who wants to destroy the world of men. His campaign effects focus on speed, raids and razing, giving his units perfect vigor or replenishing his army's movement range. He recruits some of the most powerful Chaos champions with aspiring champions, hellcannons and dragon ogre shaggoths.
- The Fimir Ketzak Fimdirak is a seeker of knowledge (who looks like he's aligned to Tzeentch, or at least uses his powers) who traps enemy armies in his province and buffs his army with something called the "Dance of Despair". He recruits Fimirs and Chaos Frost Dragons into his army.
- Mournhowl is a cunning skinwolf who specializes in ambushes, able to give not only his own army, but every army in your faction the stalk stance. He brings skin wolves and mammoths to his army.
- Gorkmur Threehorn is a beastman shaman who guides armies through the secret beast-paths of the Beastmen. He recruits centigors, cygors and ghorgons.
- Finally, Ezar Doombolt is a Chaos Dwarf engineer who specializes in logistics, able to replenish his army in enemy territory or even to completely replenish his army, no matter how damaged his units are. He recruits blunderbuss, infernal guard and dreadquake mortars.
- Every chieftain are hero units, which means they can be moved from army to army depending on who needs their abilities the most.
- Chieftain units are sent to a global pool of units that can be recruited by any of your armies. There is simply a limit to how many you can have recruited at once. If you lose a chieftain unit, you need to spend dominance to put it back in the chieftain pool again.
- Chieftain abilities can't be spammed, they have a cooldown.
I actually wanted to be Resileaf
Here's the blog about Elspeth von Draken.
Her unique campaign mechanic is the Imperial Gunnery School, focused entirely on the Empire's varied guns and artillery weapons. When you use units that use guns or artillery in battle (or defeat such units), you gain a schematic resource which can then be spent to give permanent upgrades to those units in battle. The image shows the mortar being upgraded to have a large radius, gain camouflage to remain hidden in battle and give the dazed status to units that are hit by the explosions, reducing their speed and melee defense. Not all upgrades are available from the start and have to be unlocked through increasing the level of the gunnery school. The gunnery school increases in level through 'field testing' challenges, probably quest battles that focus on artillery usage. When the gunnery school is high level enough, you can build the Amethyst Armoury, which gives special Amethyst units, which I believe combine artillery and magic to make incredibly powerful weapons, as well as unlock single-use abilities.
Elspeth also has access to the Garden of Morr, a fast-travel network that can be built all over the empire. Up to five black towers can be built in any friendly or neutral empire city, to which Elspeth (and only her own personal army) can travel at will, with a short cooldown between uses. Furthermore, cities in which gardens are located can construct powerful anti-corruption buildings or recruitment buildings that allow recruitment in foreign territory.
Theodore Bruckner is the legendary hero for the Empire. He is the right hand of the countess of Nuln, a giant, savage fighter who either fights on foot or from the back of a demigryph. He is a duelist who specializes on killing heroes and lords, with a passive ability that makes him unbreakable when in range of them. All his abilities increase his hero killing power. He can unlock several weapons and his Baleflame amulet makes him explode upon death, dealing heavy damage to everyone in range, friend or foe.
The Master Engineer is the new lord type for the Empire. They are ranged heroes carrying grenade launchers who fight on foot, on horses, on mechanical steeds or, and this is pretty awesome, in Steam Tanks. Their abilities focus on increasing the power of guns and artillery, naturally, and they have an active ability to fire long range artillery shots called Pigeon Bombs.
Engineers are heroes for the Empire. Basically used like the Master Engineers, but are better at fighting on their own than buffing friendly units. They wield long range rifles and excel at wrecking enemy formations with their powerful Mercurial Shots.
Nuln Ironsides are a new ranged unit for the Empire who both excel at ranged and are quite capable of defending themselves in melee. They are heavily armored and gain increased killing power when left stationary for a while.
Hochland Long Rifles are the snipers of the Empire. Long range, high killing power, they excel at killing single units rather than formations, making them ideal lord or monster killers. They are weak to melee however, having few entities to survive for long.
Knights of the Black Rose are melee cavalry that excel at staying in the thick of combat to occupy blobs of infantry, not commiting to cycle charges. With sword, shields and plate armor, they are very tanky and can survive for a long time, but they don't deal well with other cavalry or monsters.
Steam tanks have a new variant. You can switch the long range cannons for fast-firing volley guns. Furthermore, steam tanks as a whole have been redesigned and buffed to be more exciting to use. For one, they now have directional shielding, meaning that steam tanks deflect shots from the front much more effectively while the sides block fewer, but still protect somewhat. Furthermore, the upper hatch is now open, allowing an engineer to attack nearby enemies with handgun potshots. Finally, steam tanks can now fire whilst moving, making them much more effective at fighting on the move.
The Marienburg Landship is similar to a Steam Tank, but is much bigger and has a weapon platform up top that allows a crew of gunners to shoot down nearby units while the main cannon still shoots from long range. The vehicle is much better at ramming than a normal steam tank, with an active ability that cranks up the speed and increases impact damage at the cost of maneuverability. And if things get hopeless and the Landship is destroyed, it will explode in a spectacular fashion, annihilating anything in a large radius.
Karl Franz will now actively work as a proper emperor. The Summon the Elector Counts button now actually does what the name implies, summoning every Elector Count army that is not garrisoned or besieged in a city to his location, allowing him to deal with massive threats that he otherwise wouldn't be able to deal with on his own. He can otherwise use his prestife to call for imperial decrees, which have effects like calling the inquisition in provinces with high corruption, sending aid to besieged provinces by spawning an army for them or allowing him to declare war on a recalcitrant province without penalty by creating a casus belli on them. He also doesn't get a trespass penalty when moving in Empire-held territory, allowing him to bring assistance to neutral factions without those same factions getting angry that he's trespassing.
Because Elspeth's arrival in Nuln making his region of the Empire a bit overcrowded, Balthasar Gelt moves on from the Empire, traveling to Cathay to start near Zhao Ming, with a mission to befriend the dragons of Cathay and ally with them for the Empire. He will get missions and dilemnas to fight the nomads near the Temple of Elemental Winds, aiding Cathay against their outside foes. Over time, he'll either secure his position in Cathay or pave his return to the Empire with Cathay firmly allied with Altdorf. He also gets a new mechanic called the Colleges of Magic. When he has wizards in his army, he gains a resource called Arcane Essays (more wizards means more Essays), which can be spent to recruit additional wizards instantly. Furthermore, when he has wizards from a specific school in his army, he can use essays to buy various actions. The blog gives the example of having a Grey Wizard in his army and spending essays to get access to the Dance of Despair cataclysm spell, or giving mass concealment to that army, giving it the stalk stance and a 100% chance to ambush. Or with a jade wizard, you can heal and replenish your entire army. No longer will Balthasar fight as the sole spellcaster in his army, this mechanic will encourage having more to support him and give their unique buffs and spells to his battles.
The gameplay showcase will be tomorrow, and next week the Dwarfs.
I really, really love those Empire changes. They look amazing.
Thank you, Monty Oum.
That's nice and all but
where Toddy
I actually wanted to be Resileaf
In Middenland. He was there the whole time.
Thank you, Monty Oum.
His castle-adorned helmet deserves a skill on its own and I will not accept opinions to the contrary.
But yeah it all looks very, very good.
While I am sad Gelt lost his gunpowder specialty (wouldn’t be surprised if Eselph took it), at least now he fills his niche as the Supreme Patriarch of the Colleges of Magic. I would be eager to play around with him becoming best buds with Zhao Ming and establish Empire colony in the south. And, maybe afterwards start encroaching on Ogres, Dawi Zharr and any baddie from the West separating me from my homeland.
I will become a great writer one day! Hopefully...
Gelt still has buffs for hellstorm rocket batteries and some other gunpowder units, not to steam tanks anymore, though.
And regarding his campaign, you can get back to Empire after finishing the quest line in Cathay. You get teleported to Reikland and recieve huge bonuses for 10 turns like +30% movement, immunity to trespassing with elector counts, temporary zerro upkeep for your army and huge bonus to growth.
So if you do not want to piss off Zhao after helping him (-50 relations is not a big deal compared to a chunk of Cathay) or just want to get back, you can and then take back any "free" Empire province for you taste.
He used to buff all gunpoweder and artillery (I did always run him with 2 Outriders, 4 Handgunners and bunch of Hellstorm and some infantry to protect Handgunners and artillery). I will have to experiment with his new army builds.
And, I think I want to take the longer way back home instead of teleporting back so early. I think I would want to go for “My Alchemical Romance” route.
By the way, when do we get the update? Changes to Empire and Dwarfs look so amazing, I wanna try them out as soon as possible.
I actually wanted to be Resileaf
Current predicted patch drop is end of April or early May. Some have thrown April 30 as the date of release.
I actually wanted to be Resileaf
Elspeth's showcase video has been released. Here are the highlights.
- Elspeth's army is immune to vampiric corruption, making her ideally suited to killing off Sylvania. She also gets reduced cooldown on lore of Death spells.
- In the gunnery school, gunpowder infantry and cavalry both have their individual upgrade trees, so upgrading gunpowder infantry upgrades every infantry unit that uses guns (and same thing for cavalry).
- The top upgrade for gunpowder infantry is explosive bullets. Skaven eat your heart out.
- Gunpowder cavalry includes war wagons. Their upgrades increase their speed, allow them to ride through forests unimpeded, replenish their ammunition and debuff units hit by their attacks.
- Hellstorm rocket batteries just fire more rockets. Always more rockets. Explosions galore.
- Hellblaster volley guns somehow manage to run with their first upgrade, allowing them to reposition on the battlefield faster than any non-cavalry artillery that any faction can field. Further upgrades gives them suppressive fire and have their projectiles pierce through more units to deal more damage into enemy ranks.
- Great cannons make their explosion damage more impactful by reducing the speed of units hit by their attacks, increase damage done and at top level, unlock grapeshot. Napoleonic wars are back, baby!
- Upgrading the Gunnery School involves fulfilling certain objectives. To upgrade from tier 1 for example, you need to train 3 handgunners, build a shooting range and buy three upgrades. Each objective accomplished gives small rewards as well, so it's rewarding to fulfill those small steps. Completing an entire tier's objectives gives further rewards.
- Once you reach tier 3, you unlock the Amethyst armoury. Amethyst upgrades don't affect the entire roster, but rather specific amethyst units that you have to buy individually for a large number of schematics, which can then be recruited from a special recruitment panel like regiments of reknown. Amethyst ironsides for example are enhanced with better armor and can be upgraded to become solid frontline units, with additional melee attack and defense, more armor and missile resistance, ammunition that lowers weapon damage and armor of units hit by their bullets or a passive ability called Iron Resolve (probably increased leadership). Amethyst outriders can be upgraded to become terrifying, stealthy grenade launchers who can appear out of nowhere with stealth, explode an enemy's flank, then charge in for massive damage. All Amethyst units deal magical damage as well. The video then shows hellstorm rocket batteries firing rockets that turn into Purple Suns of Xereus on impact. Later on, the Amethyst landship is shown, which can be upgraded with bound spells, special ammunition and passive abilities.
- When the Amethyst Armoury is unlocked, Amethyst artillery abilities can be bought with schematics as well. You buy a single use of those weapons, which then combine an artillery bombardment with spells to devastate the battlefield.
- After constructing a Black Tower in a friendly or neutral empire town (which by itself not only allows teleportation but also prevents diplomatic trespassing penalty in that region), you get the choice of one of three buildings. A military building that decreases upkeep and recruitment time and increases global recruitment slots while also allowing the recruitment of several units including the Knights of the Black Rose, a temple that allows recruitment of Knights of Moor (and replenishes their number quicker) while also decreasing corruption and an Amethyst college to train amethyst wizards and increase winds of magic reserves. It's noted in the video that you can't teleport to a besieged settlement, so you either need a nearby tower or teleport ahead of an enemy's arrival if you want to save your towns.
- The Nemesis Crown greatly increases the power of the faction that finds it and its detriments are mostly that factions from a race that isn't you will increasingly hate you for it. Much like the Widowmaker, the bonuses and penalties start small enough but as it grows in power (which you do manually after reaching a certain number of battles fought with it), those bonuses and penalties increase in severity. Sealing the crown and abandonning it gives some gold and a special artifact.
I think I fell in love with what Wissenland and Nuln bring to the table.
I will become a great writer one day! Hopefully...
April 30 is official release date, it is in Elseph blog if I am not mistaken.
And they actually added new animation for it.
I think these updates and reworks to Empire, Dwarfs and Nurgle are amazing. I am most excited about Empire, but I won’t lie I will be very tempted to try out improved Dwarfs and even give Nurgle a try (the only way I would try them out is either via Deamon Prince cuz I run mods that make hin fun, or through Festus).
Wait. Now that I think about it. If they will rework how you create plagues, what will Festus get?
Wait. Now that I think about it. If they will rework how you create plagues, what will Festus get?
He'll almost certainly have the same thing as now, he'll get their plague mechanics minus the plague cultist and with a slightly simplified symptom roster.
"Sandwiches are probably easier to fix than the actual problems" -Hylarn
I low-key hope they're gonna give Clan Pestilens their own plague mechanic at some point.
Welcome to Estalia, gentlemen.
Questioning the impeccable efficiency of Dwarfs and their grand and noble traditions?
That's a grudgin'!
Edited by Eldrake on Apr 10th 2024 at 5:57:12 AM