Greetings everyone and welcome to the sixth Goblin Storm dev blog!
Today I will discuss the majestic (and murderous) beasts of Goblin Storm. Beasts come in a wide variety of types. Some are weak and very common, like human Brigands or Centaurs. Others are far more dangerous such as Dusk Reapers, Deathstalkers and the infamous Black Knight.
I will begin by explaining the unique traits pertaining to beasts, then I will explore the different behavior types, before discussing a couple special rules.
Beasts are easily identifiable because of their green chits.
Traits:
In addition to the traits they share with normal units, such as their melee value, fire value, unit type (heavy inf, light inf, light cavalry) and the like. Beasts possess a series of special traits that govern their behavior.
Action: Action determines the % chance that a beast will move in any given turn. Some beasts will move every turn, like Basilisks. While others are far less likely to move, such as Shadow Lurkers, who are perfectly happy to lurk in the forests, waiting for your delicious scouts to run into them and get ambushed.
Aggression: If a beast decides to take an action in a turn, aggression determines how likely they are to attack your units. Some beasts are incredibly aggressive, such as fearsome Deathstalkers which are guaranteed to attack whenever they believe they can win.
Alignment: Alignment determines which side beasts are friendly to. The vast majority of beasts are hostile to both sides. Currently, unicorns are the only beast that is friendly to humans and they are marked with a blue stripe to denote this. There are no beasts friendly to goblins, although code exists to support it.
Behavior:
There are 3 broad categories of beast behavior. Patrolling beasts who patrol in a radius around their lair. Targeted beasts who seek specific targets such as gold. Finally there are roaming beasts who wander around the map without a specific objective
Patrol: Patrolling beasts possess a lair, like the one pictured below. They will patrol within a specified distance of the lair and will only leave this radius if they spot a unit which they can easily kill within their sight range (2 hexes) and they decide to be aggressive that turn.
Targeted: Targeted beasts are far more diverse and generally more dangerous because they are free to move wherever they wish. The fact that targeted beasts frequently attack the same objectives as goblins can lead to tug-of-war battles between the humans and goblins over large loot piles accumulated by beasts. There are four different target types:
Units: Beasts who target units will spend the entire game ruthlessly seeking out and destroying any hostile units they can find.
Gold: Beasts who target gold will attempt to steal loot or even attack poorly defended villages/towns if given the chance. It is not at all uncommon to see a stack of brigands running down a road with a village or two worth of loot under their belts.
Slaves: Beasts who target slaves will prioritize towns, villages, or loot containing large numbers of slaves.
Relics: Beasts who target relics will attack abbeys. They can be a major security risk for a defending human if they acquire a stack of relics and then lose them to the goblins.
Roaming: Roaming beasts wander across the map without any specific plan. They do not have lairs, and they do not relentlessly hunt units. Their actions are entirely governed by their action and aggression stats. Most roaming beasts are only a threat to you if you are within their sight range of 2 hexes. Or if they happen to accidentally run into you and a battle breaks out.
Beast Spawns:
Beast spawns are determined on a per map basis. For instance, the Forbidden Mountains map has a far higher spawn chance for Gryphons than The Vale. Each beast has a specific type of terrain that they can spawn on. For instance, Gryphons always make their nests on mountains. There is also a chance for beasts to spawn in groups as well. Such as 3 flocks of Gryphons all operating out of the same nest.
The number of beasts that spawn is determined by the beast setting chosen at the beginning of the game. There are 4 levels:
Civilized = No beasts at all.
Developed = Few beasts, usually 3-5.
Frontier = Many beasts, approximately 10.
Wilderness = Lots and lots of beasts. Sometimes over 20.
Special Rules:
Flying Beasts: Basilisks and Gryphons are both flying beasts and they ignore all terrain costs. This makes them virtually impossible to plan for, because they move exceptionally fast and extremely far. It is virtually impossible to predict where a Basilisk will be from one turn to the next. This, combined with their high melee, fire and skirmish modifier is how the "giant screaming death chicken" meme got started amongst beta testers.
Unique Beasts: Some beasts are unique, and only one can spawn at the start of the game.
Before we tie this dev blog up. Here are a few of the charming beasts in game to sate your curiosity:
Tying it all together:
Beasts can have many different effects on game play. Beasts are rarely powerful enough to turn the tide of the game on their own, but they do become more dangerous as the game goes on and armies become less effective due to rising casualties and loss of cohesion. Nothing wreaks havoc on a crippled and battle weary army like a flock of Basilisks descending upon resting regiments.
Targeted beasts tend to have the most direct effect on game play. On the higher beast spawn settings (Frontier/Wilderness) you can expect to fight with roving bands of brigands - or worse - attempting to burn down towns and villages.
Even lair based beasts can have a significant impact on your strategies and tactics. If there is a colony of a couple hundred giant spiders (Shadow Lurkers) dwelling in a mountain pass. The odds are you will think twice before you march your army through!
The Gothrang Tribe - Faction Introduction 3
The Gothrang Tribe:
Strategy: Wave Attack
Strengths: Very large units. Overwhelming numbers. Good skirmishers. Fight well in forests and mountains due to large amounts of light infantry.
Automatic 15% discount on all units.
Weaknesses: Possesses very few cavalry units, frequently lacks combined arms. Most hordes are poorly trained and can easily be annihilated if trapped alone.
Lore:
The Gothrang tribe is a goblin confederation of several poor and marginal clans, dwelling along the western edge of the Gray Steppe, east of the Dark forest. They lack a central collective narrative about their origins. Some clans claim descent from Gorru Hammer Fist who long ago, conquered the highland dells and dales of the Great Forbidden Mountains south of the tribe’s current territory. According to this tradition, their ancestors lived in that rich mountain realm for 500 years before the armies of the wrathful goblin Mage King Ragorrun drove them into exile. Other clans claim to come from last and most wretched of their kind to abandon the ancient goblin home land in the frigid Northern Wilderness during the terrible natural calamity known as the All Winter.
The Gothrang are held together by a powerful shaman caste and the cult of Nargu, which is of unknown origin and has no corollary in any other goblin tribe. They do not have hereditary monarchs. Instead kings are chosen by a tribal council, the Herkgoz, composed of clan elders and shamans. The Herkgoz is a often a fractious gathering resulting in frequent assassinations, fatal duels and brawls between clans. Gothrang leadership transitions may be bloody, but they never fail to impress.
When compared to their neighbors and frequent enemies, dwarves, men or other goblins, Gothrang armies are generally not well armed or armored. Their warriors are reckless in battle and raiding is both a rite of passage and the primary means of social advancement. Their military system is based upon warbands whose strength, organization, discipline and ability are entirely dependent upon the wealth, prestige and skill of band leaders. Victory often comes to them by sheer force of numbers.
Gothrang on the Battlefield:
No one beats the Gothrang in terms of sheer numbers. Their rank and file soldiers are the weakest in the game and their training is frequently poor. But their companies are larger, between 75 and 100 warriors in each. Consequently, the Gothrang shrug off casualties that would cripple most armies. 300 dead Younglings? Who cares. There are a couple thousand more where they came from.
Not all Gothrang units are of poor quality, they do possess trolls (but no battle trolls) and several types of specialist warriors who are of higher quality than the mountains of expendable trash they usually throw at the enemy. But those warriors will be covered in more detail in a later dev blog on Gothrang unit types.
The Gothrang's strength in numbers is difficult to ignore, but they have 3 critical weaknesses:
They lack and good cavalry. And are frequently short on combined arms.
Most of their soldiers have low fire protection.
They are vulnerable to strong stacks of enemy heavy cavalry that can quickly encircle and destroy their hordes.
These weaknesses can be offset to some extent. Because of their shortage of combined arms, the +20% combat bonus from leaders is even more important to the Gothrang than any other tribe. And because of their large number of units, the Gothrang can easily encircle isolated enemy units and crush them by attacking from as many directions as possible. Remember, the defender suffers from a -10% combat reduction for every extra hex they are attacked from.
In total the Gothrang tribe consists of 18,092 goblins, divided into 6 clans. There is very little standardization in the Gothrang hordes. Each horde is different and the companies inside often differ significantly. Some of those variations will be discussed in the dev blog on unique Gothrang warrior types. For now, let's take a look at a few of the clans.
Byrgan Clan: The Byrgan clan embody the Gothrang doctrine of overwhelming numbers. Their hordes are massive, but they possess virtually no cavalry and their fire value is low. They can easily trap their opponents with sheer volume of force.
Drencan Clan: The Drencan clan are a balanced clan. They have a large number of poor quality infantry, including a large number of defensive spears. They also possess by a fair number of fire troops and a small number of cavalry and trolls to provide some punching power.
Mereswart Clan: The Mereswart clan possess a little bit of everything, but their true strength lies in their massive fire value. They are capable of concentrating a truly magnificent amount of fire.
Tying it all together:
The Gothrang enjoy unsurpassed numerical superiority, but individual Gothrang hordes can easily be picked apart and annihilated by better equipped opponents. The key to victory as the Gothrang is to lure your opponent into terrain that favors you as often as possible. Keep your leaders alive and use your superior numbers to encircle and overwhelm your opponents in massive overrun attacks.
Original Post on the Forums: http://www.ns2games.com/node/213288
Goblin Storm Beta Update .3.2.0
v. 3.2.0 Released (Checksum D10C)
The version number in game still shows as 3.1.0 because we forgot to update it. Go us! We will fix that in the next update. But as long as your checksum shows as D10C it will not matter.
December 11, 2017
Greetings everyone. Today we have a content update to compliment yesterday's technical update. The new additions are focused on enriching the Gothrang tribe and include several new company types with mixed soldiers (examples at the end of the update notes)
New Units/Balance:
Gothrang Tribe: Added Cleavers, a variant of normal Gothrang warriors with slightly higher attack but lower defense.
Added Butchers, high offense, low defense shock troops.
Added Proven Spears, spear armed veterans who specialize in defense.
Added several new company types Gothrang.
Made numerous changes to horde composition.
Doubled the number of trolls in the Gothrang tribe.
Lore Updates: Updated lore for Knights.
Updated lore for Levy Horse.
Updated lore for Levy Archers.
Updated lore for Levy Spears.
Updated lore for Men at Arms.
Updated lore for Wolf Marauders.
Updated lore for Gothrang Warriors.
The Human Kingdoms - Race Overview
Greetings everyone, this will be a quick overview of the human kingdoms. The unique details of both human factions will be covered in their own faction introduction threads.
Kingdom Heraldry
Building the kingdom:
In Goblin Storm, the human kingdoms are always the defender. At the beginning of the game the humans begin by placing a randomized number of towns, villages and castles. The economy of these towns and villages determines how much gold they start the game with to hire units and build extra fortifications such as keeps and stockades. Consequently, the humans have to balance placing settlements in defensible locations, versus making sure they are as economically prosperous as possible.
When placing a settlement, a convenient settlement card will appear in the bottom left of the HUD, displaying the estimated population, development and economy of the settlement.
Professional Army:
The professional army are the units you hire at the beginning of the game. These are your leaders, knights, men at arms, crossbowmen, rangers/jagers and the like. Your professional army will do most of the heavy fighting throughout the game, so it is essential to purchase a well rounded force.
Leaders: Human leaders grant a +20% combat bonus to all units that they are stacked with. Of course, this only works as long as the leader is still alive.
Levies: Levies are units that are spawned by towns, villages and capital automatically when goblins (or beasts) are spotted nearby. They are not as well trained or equipped as professional troops, but they are useful in large numbers and make good throw away units. If they weren't meant to die, then they wouldn't have been born peasants! At least, that's what their feudal lords think.
The types of levies available to a settlement are determined by the surrounding terrain and development/economy of the settlement. For instance, foresters will only be found in villages located inside or adjacent to forests. Levy horse can only spawn in a town/village has high economy and at least 1 hex of grassland adjacent to it.
For example, here is a Helsatian capital with 1 company of levy horse, 1 company of levy archers and 2 companies of levy spears.
Levy units are marked with a yellow stripe. Like this levy spearman:
Tying it all together:
To summarize:
Humans build the kingdom. They places the towns, villages and castles.
Humans do not know what the objective is in standard game modes. They have to figure this out using the immersive intelligence system and their intuition.
Human units are stronger, but less numerous than their goblin opponents.
Humans receive extra units in the form of levies from towns and villages as the game proceeds.
And here's a little bonus coat of arms for Helsatia for our Czech friends
The Goblin Tribes - Race Introduction
Greetings everyone, this will be a quick overview of the goblin tribes. The unique details of each goblin tribe will be covered in their own faction introduction threads.
Tribal Heraldry:
Secret Objective:
While the humans have the advantage of building the kingdom. The goblins know the objective since the start of the game. Before they have even chosen which tribe to play. This means that while the humans lose precious time protecting everything until they deduce the true objective, the goblins can use this confusion to their advantage and either deliberately misdirect the humans by attacking targets that are not objectives, or stealthily maneuver to take their objectives undetected. If you ever forget your objective or want to check how close you are to victory, you can always check it in the intel scroll, accessible in the top right side of the top bar.
Hiring an army for the mission:
Because the goblins know the objective since the start of the game, they can both choose the faction that is best suited for the mission and hire an army purpose built for the task. The units the goblin player hires at the beginning of the game are the only units they will have throughout the game. Unlike the humans, they will not receive additional units from levies. The goblin's starting gold is proportional to the economy of the human kingdom, modified by the objective they are given. Invasion objectives have the highest gold value, while relic raids have the lowest.
Leaders: Goblin leaders provide a +20% combat bonus to all units from their clan within 5 hexes. As long as the clan leader is alive.
Also, another useful tip about goblin leaders. When you are hiring units in the unit pool, if you right click on a clan leader it automatically selects every single unit that is part of that clan. So you can then buy them all at once.
Getting the loot back home: In any of the raid objective types: gold, slaves or relics, after burning down a target the goblins have to actually get the loot back to camps located in their spawn area. This means that it is essential for the goblin player to escort loot to prevent the humans from recapturing it. Luckily for the goblins, their camps are invisible to the human player. In invasions, the goblins do not pillage and instead seek to capture everything they can.
Tying it all together:
To summarize:
Goblins know the objective since the start of the game and can plan accordingly.
Goblin units are typically weaker, but they have more of them and they enjoy greater diversity of unit types.
Most goblin units are lightly equipped and fight more effectively in forests, mountains, and swamps.
Goblin leaders can be devastating if they are kept alive. Because they can lead from afar.
v. 3.1.0 Hotfix Released
v. 3.1.0 Released (Checksum 0A4A) (Version number remains unchanged)
December 10, 2017
Greetings everyone, this is a small hotfix before the next major beta update. This patch expands the options menu and fixes a couple issues discovered by testers.
Options: Added a V-sync option..
Added a Vertex Rendering Option.
Added an Anti-Aliasing option.
AI: Fixed an AI planning error that caused Goblin AIs to suicidally attack units inside castles. If testers see an AI attempt an attack on a castle at less than 1 to 1 odds, let me know.
Bugfixes: Fixed a rare bug that could cause herds of unicorns to emergency raise levies - under the unicorn's control, resulting in a crash.
Fixed a bug that prevented Windows XP users from starting the game after the last update.
The Helsatian Empire - Faction Introduction 2
The Helsatian Empire
Strategy: Hammer and Anvil.
Strengths: Large numbers of heavy cavalry, including powerful Heavy Knights. Backed up by heavy infantry and crossbowmen.
Weaknesses: Heavy cavalry are very expensive. Few professional archers. Very few recon units. Armies are extremely vulnerable if lured into forests or mountains due to lack of light infantry. Poor quality levies.
Lore:
The land now known as Helsatia was once part of the vast and proud elven empire, Great Palhon. Helsatia lies south of the Gray Steppe, east of the Westerlands and north of the contemporary elven kingdoms of Palhon and Idapalhon. Today, Helsatia is indisputably the most powerful empire in the known world.
The Helsatian people boast a long history on the battlefield as the arch-enemies of goblinkind. Centuries ago they were called from distant Noarlan by the Westdalians to drive the goblin hordes from the Westerlands. Victory followed victory and soon the ancient Helsatians were recruited as mercenaries by Great Palhon to drive goblin invaders from the northern counties of the elven empire in exchange for land and great riches. Once the goblins were forced back onto the Gray Steppe, the elves reneged on their promises in the hopes of preventing the warlike Helsatians from settling in their lands. In retaliation, the Helsatians turned on the elves, shattered Great Palhon into two successor states and took the northern third of the empire for themselves. In a single stroke, the Helsatians ended elven dominion and carved out a vast empire for their descendants.
Governance of Helsatia is a complicated fusion of Noarlan warrior tradition and elven customs inherited from their defeated opponents. The old elven counties have been carved up into six feudal principalities controlled by the leading dynasties in the empire. The Kaiser is elected for life by the Great Council of State composed of the aristocracy and senior bureaucrats - in accordance with ancient elven tradition - but now the Council is dominated by the six Prince-Electors who often violently compete for power and influence.
Helsatia remains wealthy and powerful beyond the wildest dreams of most kingdoms. But the quarrels of princes and intrigues within the imperial court leave its vast borders vulnerable...and the goblin tribes know this.
Helsatia In Battle:
Helsatia's knights are an iron fist capable of smashing virtually any opponent. But their reliance on heavy cavalry also has downsides. Helsatian armies should always try to fight on the open plains where their cavalry advantage can he used to maximum effect. Forests, mountains and broken terrain will all significantly reduce the combat power of their knights. Helsatian commanders also need to make sure that they do not spend all of their gold on knights and forget to buy infantry to hold the line.
In total, the Helsatian army is composed of 2,704 soldiers.
4 Leaders, protected by an additional 200 knights.
100 Heavy Knights
600 Knights
800 Heavy Infantry (Men At Arms/Grenzers)
900 crossbowmen/Archers
Leaders: Due to its large and wealthy feudal nobility, Helsatia's leaders are escorted by a bodyguard of knights. This means that unlike their Westdalian counterparts, Helsatian leaders can move fast and their guards double as heavy cavalry.
Cavalry: Helsatia's knights are the pride and glory of the empire. They are brave, talented and hardened by constant warfare against Goblins, Elves as well as their fellow men. In fact, there are far too many knights available to Helsatian commanders to possibly hire them all.
Heavy Infantry: Helsatian heavy infantry come in two types. Defensive Grenzer regiments and Men at Arms regiments that are suited for both attack and defense.
Fire Troops: Crossbowmen make up the bulk of Helsatia's fire troops. They do maintain a small corps of professional archers, but fire troops are far less important to the Helsatian Army than they are to Westdale.
Light Infantry: Two companies of Jagers are the only professional light infantry possessed by Helsatia. Use them wisely.
Levies: Helsatian levies are poorly trained and poorly equipped. They consist primarily of levy spears and levy archers. Semi-professional levies like Town Watch are rare in Helsatia.
Custom Unit Groups: The large number of knights in the Helsatian army makes it very easy for them to build combined arms unit groups. Alternatively, multiple regiments of knights can be merged together to form truly devastating cavalry forces. Also remember, unlike their goblin enemies, human leader units can be part of unit groups. Here are a few examples of Helsatian unit groups often used by beta testers:
Tying it all together: Helsatia possesses the best cavalry forces in the game. If used properly, their heavy infantry can hold goblin hordes in place while knights trap and smash them. But knights are expensive and they can never be everywhere at once. Especially since Helsatian armies tend to be the smallest in the game. Additionally, be very careful how you deploy your two Jager companies. As a Helsatian commander you are always short on recon - which makes it more difficult to discover the goblin's true objective. Consequently your Jagers are quite possibly the most important units on the battlefield.
Website: www.ns2games.com
Original post on the forums: http://www.ns2games.com/node/213277
The original post on the forums also features detail info on unique Helsatian unit types.
The Art of (Goblin) War - Dev Blog 2
Greetings and welcome to the second dev blog for Goblin Storm!
Today I will discuss the art and science of killing both man and beast in Goblin Storm. This isn't meant to be an exhaustive guide to combat in GS, but it will cover the basics you need to get started.
The Basics:
Goblin Storm may be turn based, but combat is incredibly fast-paced and highly dynamic.
Attacking your enemies in Goblin Storm is easy. In its most basic form all you have to do is give your warriors a march order and they will attack any enemy units they run into. However, there are a few tips and tricks that can help you get the most out of your armies.
The Impulse System:
Since units from both sides move simultaneously in Goblin Storm, the game uses impulses to replicate real time movement in a turn based environment. Impulses are essentially times of the day from impulse 1 (dawn) to impulse 9 (dusk). In the screenshot below you can see how far a heavy cavalry unit can move in a single turn, the black and yellow numbers over the hexes show the impulse that the unit will arrive in the hex.
Stacking Limits:
Every hex has a 4 point stacking limit. To put this into perspective, a single company of soldiers of any type has a stacking value of 0.5. Full strength regiments have a stacking value of 2.0. So you can fit 2 regiments or 8 companies in a hex at the same time.
The only exception to this rule is roads, during turn resolution up to 6 stacking points can move along a road. This allows friendly units to move through each other on roads during turn resolution and prevents terrible traffic jams on your precious medieval highways. At the end of the turn, any excess stacking points above the 4 allowed will be ejected into adjacent hexes.
Combat Orders:
March Order: As already mentioned, the march order is the simplest and most common combat order in the game. Units will attack any enemy unit that they run into as long as the combat odds are 1 to 1 or better.
Skirmish Order: The skirmish order is similar to the move order with two exceptions:
1) Units with a skirmish order will attack any adjacent enemy unit while moving. If a unit with a skirmish order is stationary, then they will attempt to ambush any enemy unit that moves adjacent to them.
2) Skirmish combat usually favors ranged units like archers or flying beasts like gryphons. But any unit can skirmish. Some are just better at it than others.
Attack Order: The attack order is an all-out assault that grants the attacker a 20% combat bonus but also means that units with this order will only attack once during the turn, instead of every impulse as with a march order. To use this order, select the impulse you want the attack to happen, let's say impulse 9 (dusk) and then select a target hex. Your units will then attack the selected hex and everything adjacent to it on impulse 9 - this is especially useful for coordinating large-scale attacks on fortified targets that cannot move (mostly castles or towns).
How combat works:
Every battle in GS has two parts, ranged combat followed by melee combat.
1) The fire troops (archers, slingers, crossbowmen, etc.) of both armies fire and inflict casualties before melee starts.
2) The surviving melee value of both armies is totaled, buffed by combined arms and leadership and reduced by encirclement if necessary. Then the two armies clash in hand to hand combat. This is the decisive stage of the battle where most of the killing happens.
Both phases can be affected by the terrain the battle is fought in, but we'll get to that in a moment. For now, here are the detailed melee Losses and fire losses from the combat report above. The report helpfully tells you exactly how many soldiers and what type were killed in each phase.
Combat Modifiers:
Combined Arms Combined Arms rewards mixing different unit types together. If you have infantry, cavalry and fire troops in a battle, you can achieve a maximum of 50% bonus to melee value.
Here's a full list of combined arms affects:
just infantry = 0% bonus
just cavalry = 0% bonus
infantry + fire = 20% bonus
cavalry + fire = 20% bonus
infantry + cav = 20% bonus
infantry + cavalry + fire = 50% bonus
Encirclement The defender suffers a -10% melee combat reduction for every adjacent hex that they are attacked from simultaneously. So, if you are attacked from 6 hexes at once you're hit with a staggering -60% melee reduction. If you're attacked from 2 hexes, it's a far more manageable -20%.
Leadership: Human leader units such as Kings and Thanes grant a +20% melee combat bonus to all units in their hex. But only as long as that leader is alive.
Goblin clan leaders grant a +20% melee combat bonus to all units from their clan that are within 5 hexes of the leader. Once again, this only works so long as the clan's war chief is still alive.
Choose your battlefield carefully:
Different terrain types can have a dramatic effect on unit performance. Most of this is simply common sense. Don't use knights in the mountains, keep heavy infantry out of marshes and forests have a nasty habit of catching arrows. Terrain effects are listed in combat reports, and you can always click on a hex and see how the terrain affects different unit types by hovering over the terrain portrait on the bottom left of the HUD.
Don't worry about memorizing all of these combat modifiers, the combat report for each battle helpfully tells you about every little minute detail and how it impacted the combat.
Tying it all together: Once you have the basics - and you will learn them quickly - you are well on the way to mastering the battlefields of Goblin Storm. There are numerous play styles available in Goblin Storm, including (just to name a few): Mongol style mounted hordes. Micro-intensive guerrilla combat with small but highly trained Ranger companies. Flexible armies that mix well trained regiments of infantry, cavalry and fire troops together for maximum combined arms at all times. And of course, when all else fails, massive Goblin wave attacks armed with fire-hardened sticks and wooden clubs. Whatever your preference, you'll find a playstyle that suits you in Goblin Storm.
Website: www.ns2games.com
Original post on the forums: http://www.ns2games.com/node/213277
The Gudhered Tribe - Faction Introduction
The Gudhered Tribe:
Strategy: Combined Arms
Strengths: Good combined arms. Strong light infantry, excellent heavy infantry including troll shock troops. Fair amount of light cavalry, good reconnaissance. Excels in pitched battles.
Weaknesses: Lack of plentiful fire weapons. Most units are poor in skirmish combat.
Lore:
The Gudhered tribe commands a violent expansionist kingdom seated in the dells and dales of the great Forbidden Mountains, a land of vast mineral wealth. In their heyday, their empire was much greater, encompassing many lands won by the sword, including the fertile lands of the Vale. They spread fear far and wide by raiding deep into the Westerlands – past glories they dream of reclaiming.
They are the wealthiest and most prideful of all goblins. They claim to have descended from Queen Kallara and her son and successor, Mage King Ragorrun, who (in)famously created the race of hobgoblins and conquered their present homeland by defeating and subjugating the ancestors of the Gothrang.
The Gudhered are highly organized, and extremely militaristic, even by goblin standards. Their society is bifurcated between ordinary goblin descendants of those they subjugated so many generations ago and the purpose-bred, hobgoblin warrior aristocracy who are fanatically convinced of their intrinsic right to rule. At the pinnacle of this hobgoblin aristocracy stands the Supreme Overlord, an absolute monarch who exercises total power over political and spiritual life throughout the tribe. The shaman caste of the Gudhered, so influential in other tribes, has been reduced to a cult of mere ceremonial functionaries and long contact with the kingdoms of men, and dwarves have caused them to adopt many of the trappings of these more settled societies. In battle, training, discipline and the quality of their arms set them apart from other goblins. They are ruthless, deceitful and feared by their foes.
The Gudhered In Battle:
The Gudhered are by far the best rounded of the goblin tribes. They lack the sheer numbers of the Gothrang, or the mobility of the Werchered, but they are exceptionally flexible. Most Gudhered clans come fully equipped with a stout line of light and heavy infantry, complimented by cavalry and a small number of fire troops to round out their combined arms. With skillful use of unit groups, you can create self-contained battle groups, each with guaranteed combined arms, granting you an automatic +50% combat bonus.
In total, the Gudhered Tribe is composed of 7,483 goblins, divided into 8 clans. No two clans are exactly the same, even when units look the same (share the same graphic), the companies inside often differ. Going through every clan and every single horde variation would take pages and pages, so I'll cover a few notable examples.
Line Clans: The Bradwian clan pictured above is a classic example of the flexibility of Gudhered forces. They have strong infantry, but they also possess supporting cavalry, trolls and a small number of fire troops.
The Brimstone Horde of the Bradwian Clan is a good example that looks can be deceiving. Goblin units are rarely homogenous, they typically have a mixture of different company types inside a horde. The Brimstone Horde is no exception. Their graphic is a slinger, but the horde has 4 different companies inside of it. 2 are slingers, 1 are bows and the final company are spears for melee defense.
The Sceadan Clan continues the trend, they possess a strong combined arms force, but also field an immensely powerful heavy infantry horde, the Doombringers. These hobgoblin assault troops are the equal or better of any infantry their human adversaries possess.
Finally we have the Dydan Clan, who are notable for two things. 1) They possess more fire capability than the average Gudhered clan, but this comes at a price. 2) Their overall melee is somewhat weaker and their cavalry in particular is less capable.
Specialist Clans: In addition to their 'normal' clans The Gudhered also possess a set of three specialist clans. Two of which are small but entirely wolf mounted, making them ideal raiders or decisive cavalry support for major battles. The third specialist clan, the Breotan Troll Clan, are super heavy shock troops. Though, few in number, a single company of 25 Battle Trolls fights with the ferocity of an entire horde of 200 Shield Bearers. These trolls are ideal components for custom unit groups.
Custon Unit Groups: With such a flexible set of units, the possible number of custom unit group combinations for the Gudhered is staggering. Just about any combination you can imagine can be achieved. Here are a couple examples to sate your curiosity.:
Tying it all together: The Gudhered are undeniably powerful in battle. If properly played they can go head to head with vaunted Helsatian Knights and still emerge victorious. But they are not invincible. Most of their units are very vulnerable in skirmish combat, and skillful employment of skirmish orders using Rangers or Jagers by their human adversaries can wreak havoc on Gudhered forces. Moreover, like all goblins, the fire protection of their line infantry units are poor. Making them vulnerable to the huge volume of fire possessed by their Westadlian adversaries.
Website: www.ns2games.com
Original post on the forums: http://www.ns2games.com/node/213277
Goblin Storm Dev Blog 1
Greetings and welcome to the first ever dev blog for Goblin Storm!
I am NS2 Xenophon, Community Manager and Beta Test Coordinator at NS2 Games and over the coming months, I will be writing a series of dev blogs that give you a glimpse into the world of Goblin Storm.
What is Goblin Storm? Goblin Storm (GS for short) is a turn based fantasy game of strategy and deception that pits invading goblin hordes against the kingdoms of men. It can be played single player against an AI, co-op against huge AI armies, or head to head against other players. Our design philosophy is that game play should be deep but easy to learn and accessible to players.
Gameplay Combat is GS is fast-paced and ruthless. Units are able to move and attack many times per turn, so after the carnage starts there is never a dull moment. Armies of thousands of warriors can be reduced to fields of corpses in a matter of minutes. Entire strategies can be upended by unexpected ambushes, wild beasts will hunt down your warriors and if you're really lucky, a Basilisk might fly by and rip you in half.
Armies are divided into specialized units that vary from ranged combatants such as crossbowmen to super heavy assault troops like trolls and recon experts like human rangers. Each unit type possesses unique strengths and weaknesses on the battlefield and is affected differently by different terrain. For instance, mounted knights may be the kings of the battlefield in the grasslands, but are easily slaughtered if they wander into forests or marshes. Trolls are unrivaled melee combatants, but worthless in ranged combat.
Combat in GS is about far more than simply massing huge stacks of soldiers and throwing them at the enemy. You must learn how to use terrain to your advantage and how to employ the units at your disposal to out fight and out maneuver your opponent.
Deception plays a significant role in GS. At the start of every game the invading Goblin player is given a secret objective (gold, slaves, relics or full-scale invasion) and the human player must use reconnaissance units and wits to determine the Goblin's objective and react accordingly. Thus, misdirection and deception play as much of a role in winning in GS as grand battles.
Development Status: Goblin Storm has been in development for one year and is nearly ready for release. We are currently debugging co-op, working on game balance and expanding beta. All other game elements are complete and closed beta is progressing smoothly. Goblin Storm is planned for a December 2017 release on Steam.
That's it for today's dev blog, if you're interested in reading more feel free to head on over to the second dev blog on combat. Otherwise, I shall return next Monday with a new devblog to explore how every GS scenario is made unique by allowing the human player to place their own towns, villages and fortifications in Goblin Storm. In the meantime, saddle the horses, Goblin Storm is coming!
