The Blood War -- The Legions of Baator Thread - Dominions 4: Thrones of Ascension

Hi, everyone -- some of you may have played Dominions 3 against me recently. This modis the culmination an idea I had rattling around in my head ever since I discovered how easy it was to mod the Dominions games, thanks to some excellent tutorials from the community and, of course, a great game engine from Johan and Kristoffer!

The Blood War is my grand plan to add various planar forces from AD&D's Planescape setting to the Dominions 4 game. First up: The Devils of the Nine Hells.

UPDATED 10/17: The playable Beta version can be downloaded Here!
Update Notes ver 0.43:-Added 5 new units: The Hamatula (Unit), Osyluth (Heretic/Commander), Hell Hound (Spell Summons), Bloodworm (Site Summons), and Iron Duke (Pretender)
-Added 3 new sites: The Serpent's Coil (Capital Site), River of Blood, and Pillar of Skulls (searchable sites and Planescape: Torment reference )
-Added 1 new spell: Baying from the Pit (summons Hell Hounds)
-Tweaked unit stats, traits, and costs
-Refined some unit sprites (some still WIP)!

The baatezu of the Nine Hells represent the crushing, tyrannical boot of Law without Justice. The Generals of Hell are cold, cunning, and utterly uncaring of the loss of their troops, and their orders are carried out without question or hesitation.
The legions of The Pit are all given specific roles based upon their "caste", and only in extremely rare circumstances do they deviate from their mandated duty.

The Lemures and Nupperibo are mindless cannon-fodder; the lowest of the low whose sole purpose in
battle is to shield more valuable troops. Although weak individually, in great numbers they can exhaust and eventually bear down the mightiest
foes.
In Dominions 4, these troops are meant to be spammable units -- cheap in gold and resources, with the only practical difference between the two types being that Nupperibo have slightly higher damage output. Being mindless creatures in lore, they also have the "Mindless"trait.

Spinagons are usually tasked as messengers and spies, but if pressed into battle the skittish demons will snap off shards of their own spines and hurl them at the enemy.
In Dom4, Spinagons are a cheap, flying ranged unit. Their ranged attacks will becomparable to the "Fire Darts" spell. Cowardly by nature, their morale
is fairly shaky.

Tiefling Mercenaries are drawn to the baatezu legions by the promise of gold and glory, without the baggage of"honor" or "mercy". Although sometimes considered little better than fodder, some baatezu commanders use the naturally shifty tieflings as scouts or guerilla auxiliaries and deploy them behind enemy lines.
In Dom4, Tieflings are the most "normal" of the troops. They come in two flavors (melee and ranged), have slightly better-than-average Defense and Resistance stats, and are stealthy.

Barbazu are the shock-troops of the hellish legions. Well-armored and well-armed with their savage glaives, barbazu form the backbone of any standard baatezu
company. Occasionally, powerful baatezu commanders assign veteran barbazus to their retinue of bodyguards.
In Dom4, the glaives of the barbazu also cause minor poison damage (to represent bleeding); the barbazu themselves have the "Formation Fighter" and "Bodyguard"
qualities.

Narzugons are Baator's equivalent of heavy cavalry. Renowned for their obedience to their diabolic lords, the narzugons and their nightmare steeds are highly valued troops.
In Dom4, narzugons fill the role of the knights of other nations. Althoughnot reflected in the sprite (oops), the Nightmare's flaming hoofs cause fire damage. I may remove the pennant from the unit's lance and create a Narzugon Commander with the "inspirational" ability.

The Black Abishai is one of the minions of Tiamat, the mother of evil dragons who resides on Baator's first layer. The Abishai serve the baatezu armies as
tough, ferocious flying troops.
In Dom4, the Black Abishai is a
front-line combatant, able to use its ability to fly to get to those troops it can most easily rend to pieces.

The Erinyes are executioners of revenge and fury. As cruel as they are graceful, the erinyes swoop and circle over the battlefield on dark wings, constantly seeking targets for their flaming arrows.
In Dom4, erinyes are elite multi-role troops. They are equally proficient with their flaming composite longbows as they are with their longswords. Their powerful wings allow them to swoop to wherever on the battlefield they are neededthe most.

Kytons are not true devils at all, but rather a sado-masochistic race of beings who also call the Nine Hells their home. The barbed chains which encircle and pierce their bodies act not only as armor, but also as their main method of inflicting torturous death upon their unfortunate victims.
In Dom4, Kytons are recruitablein swamp, mountain, and wasteland provinces. They are the only berserker units in Baator's armies.

Amnizu are sentries and gatekeepers, monitoring the entrypoints to the hells and chronicling all which enter. If anyone or anything slips past their bureaucratic web,
amnizu swiftly organize search parties and personally lead the search for the transgressors.
In Dom4, Amnizu are Fire mages and basic researchers. They also increase PD in the province. In combat, their touch drains strength, but they are weak combatants with few defenses and should stay behind tougher devils (or ranks of cannon fodder).

Even among the cruel and heartless baatezu,Osyluths are torturers and interrogators par none. Osyluths enforce the will of their dark overlords through intimidation and fear, and no one -- not even those devils of higher rank -- is immune from their attentions.
In Dom4, osyluths have the "Inquisitor" special quality, and also provide a patrol bonus. Osyluths are also strong combatants and cause "Fear" among their enemies.

Native to frozen waste of Cania, the Gelugons are the strategists and masterminds of the Nine Hells. Their plans can
take eons to come to fruition, but when they do they often spell the downfall of entire worlds. In battle, gelugons support their minions
with their chilling spells before moving in to finish off the weakened foe.
InDom 4, Gelugons are powerful Water and Astral mages, and have a high research rating. Additionally, they are heavily armored and their
attacks channel a numbing cold.

Obviously, some sprites aren't quite finished (Nupperibo, Osyluth, Gelugon; I'm looking at you!) Additonally, there are quite a few more units and commanders I'll want to add -- I'm working on the basic sprites for the Hamatula, Cornugon, and, of course, the Pit Fiend for the next version.

While I can't ask forconclusive feedback before the .dm file is actually posted, I would appreciate it if I could get feedback on the following:

Nation Magic: I was thinking that the Baatezu would focus primarily in Fire, Earth, Astral, and Water paths -- possibly with some minor Blood as well.
Would you feel that Blood magic summons would be redundant with a mod such as this? If so, how would you suggest the issue be resolved?

Recruitable Units: One trend I've noticed in Dom3 (I haven't played enough Dom4 to get a concrete feeling on this) is that, fairly quickly, I'll cease recruiting some units in favor of spamming others -- For example, raising armies comprised entirely of Jotun Skratti and Skinshifters. Without artificially forcing players to use a specific playstyle (by making the most expensive units Slow to Recruit or Capital Only), is there a reliable way to encourage people to construct balanced armies?

Lastly, thanks to everyone for checking out the mod, and for any feedback you may offer!

Edited by: Joonai

Will the Nameless One be a hero?

I actually hadn't thought of it, but that would be pretty funny. Should he carry one of his old severed arms as a weapon?

Regarding the mod, I'll see if I can get a playable beta up by tomorrow morning!

Should be fun to try out - do remember you can also do nation specific spells and pretenders.
And PLEASE do add that hero, of course he should be Immortal :)

Nice. AD&D is fun.
We recently bought a couple of Monster manuals in part to inspire, in part to have a fun read, and in part to possibly start an AD&D campaign.
But the current Ars Magica will probably have to do. That particular campaign has suffered a bit this summer due to the Dom4 development. It was probably tho months since we played last time. I find myself wanting a good old RPG session. Fortunately there will be one tomorrow where I am a player (takes less time than game mastering, which I usually do)
Anyway, cool to see a AD&D mod. I hope there will be more. I like mods in series, like the warhammer mods. It is more fun to test them if you fight against other nations from a coherent world.

Edited by: Kristoffer.Osterman

Thanks, Kristoffer! Planescape is a more obscure AD&D setting; it was basically a mish-mash of all other settings together mixed with a whole bunch of lore on the afterlife, elemental planes, and divine myhtologies. I definitely plan on a series of mods in the future in the same line!

Update 10/17 Hooray for arbitrary version numbers! New units, including a "priest"-type unit in the Osyluth and a Pretender in the Iron Duke. The hamatula is meant to be a fortress-defense unit with its castle-defense bonus and Homesickness (to keep them from getting distracted and wandering off). The Hell Hound functions similarly to a light cavalry unit, and the Bloodworm is a weird, stealthy, amphibious life-draining unit that can only be summoned form the "River of Blood" special site.
Other special sites include the Pillar of Skulls -- those who played Planescape: Torment may remember that (them?) -- which provides a research bonus for mage commanders, but also has a chance of Cursing them also.The Serpent's Coil is the unique Baator Capital site; it provides some gems and in a future update, it will allow recruitment of cap-only units such as the Pit Fiend. Other minor fixes including sprite updates, description fixes, stat tweaks, and so on are also included. (Attack sprites sold seperately).Version 0.43 can be downloaded HERE.

Again, thanks to everyone for taking the time to check it out!

Edited by: Joonai

I'm sorry to necropost here but I just saw this topic.
First of all... amazing job. The blood war is a great concept to translate into dominions.
That being said, I feel the style of dominions nations is more about having nations of "regular Joes" and summonable inhuman heavy hitters.
I would rather put more tiefling in the recruitable list and remove some of the devils to turn them in national summons.
As for the pretender... I would make the pretenders something more generic and turn the lords of hell into a national summon like the elemental royalty, where you cast summon lord of hell and receive a random lord
But I'm just nitpicking, all in all is an awesome job.

Is this still being developed? Havene't actually tried this yet but...would be nice if it was updated, sinc new patches have/will be adding more modding capabiility.

serpentcross wrote:
That being said, I feel the style of dominions nations is more about having nations of "regular Joes" and summonable inhuman heavy hitters.
I would rather put more tiefling in the recruitable list and remove some of the devils to turn them in national summons..

There are nations that have (sorta)inhuman heavy hitters as recruitables in Dominions, though they tend to be EA.

What could be cool is having different versions of this across the ages - MA and LA Baatezu would have more and more tieflings and perhaps even some humans. Might end up being a bit Abysia-like. This version which looks very demon-heavy could perhaps fit the most in EA.

Thanks for the feedback, Seprentcross and David88! I'm still working on this mod -- in fact, I've fallen deeper into the rabbit hole, and I've also started a few sprites for the Tanar'ri as well as some Eladrin and Celestial units (what did I get myself into?)

The Deseura forums are pretty crummy in that the original poster can't "bump" posts with updates, so the thread itself quickly falls into obscurity. I'm more active on the Invisionfree Dominions 4 forums. Actually, I'll update both threads within the next day or so!

Regarding Eras -- my revised opinion is that any Planescape mod (as well as any other D&D tabletop mod) fits best into the Late Era, as the vanilla nations of that era may be better suited to counter any diabolic/demonic invasion from the Lower Planes. I also agree that the Baatezu "nation", currently, is a bit "super-monster" heavy. I was planning on adding another tiefling unit as well as adding variations of the weaker devils, as well. The more elite devils would require a lab/temple/Capital/Slow-to-recruit (or any combination thereof) and there are some super-crazy-powerful monsters that would be high-level spell summons, such as the Hellfire Engine and Worm of Minauros.

Anyway, thanks again for following this mod, and stay tuned for an updated version soon!

As I said, compared to some EA nations, it doesn't feel too heavy(I poked at the files, but didn't try it in play yet. It being in LA seems odd even though there's a lot of Blood in this age...

So I think you could have 3 ages representing several different attempts at conquering the world by the Baatezu. The Baatezu being cunning, they might adapt their plans in later ages, assuming the EA plan falls..

Rough sketch, taking freedoms with the source material:

In the EA version, basically everything you can recruit could be full devils, less tieflings but DO have more powerful devils such as the mentioned Pit Fiend, although perhaps they could summons instead.

MA version could be what you seem to have now , powerful devils + tieflings. Basically the devils realize they will need some (demi)human allies rather than just 'brute'(I use the term loosely - they are still Lawful/Orderer) force. MA version would be interesting as this period generally has very little blood, so they could play quite differently from others. Also, the most powerful devils from EA, if you still want to allow them, could definetely be summons rather than recruitables.

LA version would have even less 'pure' devils- perhaps only commanders and some kind of sacred. Main troops would be tieflings, and you might even get human(non tiefling) diabolists who have decided to join the nation. Big devils will definetely have to be summons to fit in.

Basically the idea being that as the ages progress, the Devils adapt in some way, which also fits with the general(but not binding, of course)rule of 'less monstrous units in later ages'.

I understand having it be 3 ages IS a lot of extra work, but a significant amount of units and spells could be reused and it would be nice to see how they work out in different ages, adapting to their 'spirit'.
Also, a whole suit/collection of Planescape nation mods would be pretty amazing. I'd focus on not being 100% faithful to the base source, though, just using the spirit. Imagine a nation of Modrons . Some other D&D settings - the ones that aren't too Forgotten Realms/Greyhawk like also seem like they'd make fine material.
Could have Sorceror Kings for an Athas/Darksun nation, a Ravenloft-based nation of dread, something based on Eberron(not too familiar with that, but I think it has some semi-original concepts)

That's worth considering. I'm not sure that I'd want to go in that exact direction -- EA already has Abysia, Yomi, Lanka, and Hinnom travelling the route of "Mythical/Divine creatures eventually supplanted by mortal descendents", but perhaps I'd go the opposite direction -- that is, EA Baator would be heavy in stealthy tieflings and diabolists in the Early Era, infiltrating ancient society and eventually paving the way to complete fiendish domination of the Nation by the Late Era.
In that way there'd be a general progression through the eras and the modded Nation will remain distinct from EA Abysia (as almost an diametric opposite in terms of evolution.)

My other option is to add even heavier Planescape influence -- including faction allies as recruits, such as some more tyranical-minded Harmonium or Mercykiller (or even Governer) members. One of the nice things of that setting is that it can barge into the Dominions lore with minimal effort -- afterall, DominionLand is just another prime-material sphere ripe for conquest, isn't it? That said, another member by the name of Red Rob integrated his Sahuagin nation into the lore pretty seamlessly, so I'll look to him for inspiration.

Argh, a DarkSun-type nation would be awesome (cannibal hoburgs that kill off your population!) Maybe one day....