Time for an update, finally got to play some more after an unfortunately work intensive week. Here are turns 25 through 50 of my Orc Campaign. I'm still using v1.0 and all my original mods, so it's stil without the bonuses the AI gets in your versions for buildings and growth.
The biggest thing that's been an issue for the AI so far is the sheer amount of war and death. No-one, not even really me, has had much of a chance to build up as we have constantly been ruining each others armies. It all went something like this.
If you'll remember back we left the Broken Tooth clan and Grimgor being besieged by a new enemy , the three region Barak Varr. The seige did not last long as on the second turn Barak Varr decided to try their luck and force the attack on Grimgor and the Iron Rock Garrison. Casualties were heavy on both sides, the resolute dwarfs refusing to break until they had cut down as many of my poor Greenskins as possible. Despite my numeric advantage casualties went in favor of the Dwarfs, earning me a close victory. The dwarfs retreated to lick their wounds. I declined to follow.
In the following turn another new threat popped up...and not just for me. It appears that somehow a rather well organised Orcish grass roots movement had taken hold. Rebellions in Black Crag, Karag Dron, Karak-Eight-Peaks, Dringorackaz and Karak Azul meant everyone suddenly had an extra army to fight. The crooked moon immediately reached out for aid in the form of a military alliance. With Wars on three fronts this seemed like a good idea, I accepted and they were promptly destroyed the same turn...so much for that. Dringo and Karak-Eight-Peaks fell to the rebels in a turn, and their bizarre "occupy hold" movement started. (I really need to mod my game so all rebel uprisings are real factions, this whole weird turn the map blank but occupied is not threatening enough).
Then when I looked south I also found these little guys (They start in Estalia so had been on a nice journey already).
So all hell is breaking loose. Black Crag is now under seige but with an amry there I decide to take the initiative. Still for turn 25 it's a tough rebel army having had just 1 turn of building istelf.
I win the fight and run down the hippie scum. At this point things start to get interesting. Barak Varr comes under a sustained assault from teh Top Knotz and sues for peace. I accept and take their 3000 teef (I didn't ask where they got them). The red horn tribe eventually razes karak Azgal and it turns out Malagor was down here too playing with the Dwarfs of karak Azgul. Spitepeak is a ruin and Malagor spends a few turns seiging Karak Azul before the dwarfs finally see him off. The rebellions however do me a big favor and I claim not only Karag Dron to secure Black Crag's province but also Eight Peaks and Dringorackaz. With the Dwarfs on the back foot and a timely mission I go to war with karak Azul. By turn 35 I have wiped them out, Malago's constant harassment and a Waagh giving me a fairly easy run of it. Barak Varr are still a threat however and now look like this.
After seeing his capital get razed Gorfang comes out of retirement for the third time and thing time rounds up every troll he can find, obviously deciding since Orcs can't get the job done it must be time for something bigger.
It doesn't work...he bounces off the Redfangs in a battle that literally destroyed both their armies down to about 5 units each. I decide it's time to put the redfangs out of their misery and go to war for the third time with them. My Waagh crashes into Gorfang a turn later only to reaslise he can still build pretty fast in his own territory...after a few good fights my Waagh is finally destroyed. I mop up, and over the next couple of turns I take the final two provinces, securing my consolidation of the Entire eastern side of the badlands and Worlds Edge Mountains. Things are looking good.
Karaz-a-Karak still have their hands full witih the Bloody Spears and my non-aggression pack is holding with the Top Knotz, who now own the rest of the badlands and as I discover a few turns later, also the Border Princes and now Barak Varr, meaning the dwarfs recruitment is back to tier 1 troops again.
I also, partly quest instigated, finally get a goblin up north to see whats going on. At turn 44 this is the army of the Most powerful leader in the Old World (I'm number 2)
I also discovered how it came to be that the Skull-takerz were still alive....it's because their army looks like this!!!!! On a side note I can't wait until CA give us a Savage Orc warboss and Shamen so these armies can stop relying on regular Orcs to lead them!!!
These guys would get a waaagh! around turn 50...I'm glad I'm not a Dwarf in the Black Mountains right now!!!!
I spend the next few turns consolidating and building. I finally have some time and money so I get my first tier 4 building!! yep, turn 50+, it's been brutal on everyone! At this point Malagor decides it's time he had some more fun and this popped up in the Silver Road. I was quite glad it decided the Bloody Spears and Dwarfs were a more fun target than me as I had no armies in the area to help at all, they were all helping public order in the south!
So some actual feedback.
- Firstly the mod absolutely improves the overall balance and playability of the game. I ahve played more battles in this play-through than probably my last three put together. The ai's recruitment is that much more efficient that most battles are pretty even on the scale, the exception being unwalled/garrisoned minor settlements.
- Despite my 'no cheat's' setup the ai clearly understands growth and economy at least to a similar level as a player, without some of the intricacies. Barak Varr was a good example of what I saw from any multi region faction with military, public order and growth all accounted for. I'm sure your new update improves that even further.
- For some reason the Dwarfs seem far slower to progress to higher units than everyone else that I saw. I was constantly fighting effectively the same dwarf army. The one exception was Karaz-a-Karak's second army that was pretty much tier 3 based with longbeards at it's core (though it was only 7 units strong).
- Heroes seem to get used in armies more. I'm not sure if that's because of something you did or because of my own agents mod combined with any updates CA have made in the background, but it's welcome nonetheless, although seeing 3 captains in the same Border Princes army was strange, though it does mean that at some point they got to a decent level of building as I never even managed to get more hero slots opened up.
- Hordes are definitely stronger. The Red Horns and Malagor both got themselves killed and re-spawned, but did their share of burning and chaos spreading first. Khazrak is still alive somewhere, which is amazing to me, and you saw above what the infamously bad Skull-takerz were doing...so that's a nice plus, though in my case it literally made my game easier, though I'm sure in another play I'd be the one under fire from them and it would make it all the harder.
Finally, I realize it's not in your mod but I think it's something that potentially should be and that's dealing with the ai's reluctance to recolonize. I'm effectively doin as well as I am because the minute the rebels too over the ai practically ignored those provinces, the same for ones that were razed. Gorfang spent 4-5 turns fighting the redhorns then me instead of simply recolonizing Karak Azgul and turtling for a couple of turns. Mount Spite or whatever it's called remained unused for probably 15 turns before I finally bothered to claim it as I destroyed Karak Azul. If you could include a higher desire to spread out for the ai in your work with their methods of building that would be amazing!
I'm planning to try and finish this play-through before I start one with someone else (and your version 1.1), but that might well be after the new DLC, and that means updating all my mods first too...which isn't easy unless CA stop being stupid with how they introduce the new data into the tables....but we will see. Also need the fix for the startpos so I can have some voctory conditions again! I'd like to try a dwarf play now I've made them more like dwarfs but I hate Thorgrims Model, maybe I'll work out the modelling system and see if I can't put him on the floor....
Thanks again for the mod and the work mate, another 30 turns coming up soon...then we shall see what Chaos brings.