Author Topic: Troop Rosters  (Read 40983 times)

Jubal

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Troop Rosters
« on: January 26, 2013, 10:20:20 AM »
This will be for, as the title suggests, discussing troop types and what's been made so far.

BASIC ROSTER
L1:
Arts Undergraduates - weak light infantry wearing coats and scarves and armed with placards saying "down with this sort of thing" (description done)
Science Undergraduates - weak light infantry with long knives, long hair, and geeky t-shirts (description done)

L2:
Phys NatScis - helmets, goggles, and lab coats. And crossbows. The basic ranged unit. (description done)
Historians - Early heavy infantry unit in tweed jacket and corduroy trousers, armed with a longsword and shield (description done)
Social Scientists  - Form small spear-armed inf blocks (yay group psychology), with skirts and roll-neck jumpers. Defensive anti-cavalry unit (description done)
Bio NatScis - Light cavalry in lab coats, mounted on fast horses and armed with clamp stands. (description done)
English Students - Slingers on foot in woollen coats with pink scarves and a good book strapped to their belts (description done)
Engineer Scorpion - the earliest artillery unit, a single piece of very light torsion artillery. (description done)
Bedders - medium axe & shield infantry (description done)
Punts - basic naval unit (description done)

L3:
Engineer Ballista - Long ranged artillery piece firing bolts (description done)
Engineer Catapult - Long ranged artillery piece inaccurately hurling rocks (description done)
Engineer Scorpion Battery - Scorpions now being produced more effectively, a unit bringing three such engines to the field (description done)
Classicists - literally legionaries (description done)
Theologians - powerful hammer-armed heavy infantry (description done)
Battle Ambulance - the medic unit, a hastily crafted covered cart pulled by four horses. Boosts nearby troops. (description done)
Mathmos - Unit with specialist formation-disrupting abilities. Kind of confusing how they actually work. Armed with measuring rods and giant protractors as shields. (description done)
Geographers - Camel-mounted archers with suits, sunhats, and sunglasses (description done)
Philosophers - Ancient greek heavy hoplites (literally RTW vanilla's heavy hoplite unit, fighting in the style of the great Greek philosophers) (description done)
Catering staff - Foot archers that give morale boost to nearby units, with aprons, catering hats, etc (description done)
Gardeners - scythed attack chariots containing three gardeners with dungarees and spade each (description done)
Land Economists - Scout cavalry with javelins, shields, and knives, wearing longcoats and scarves (description done)
Musos - Tiny light inf unit with "druidic chant" of jazz and drums (description done)
CompScis - Scouts/Hidden Unit in Space invaders t-shirts (description done)
Second Boat - attack vessel well suited to destroying basic punts (description done)
Heavy Punt - better armoured vessel, weak in attack but with strong defense (description done)

L4:
Economists - Bull-drawn Chariot (description done)
Lawyers - Late-game heavy cavalry (description needed)
War Punt - heaviest defensive vessel, with a larger crew and better armour (description done)
First Boat - most powerful attack ship, doing multiple points of damage with each attack (description done)
Psychologists - Ultra high morale/never run away/wear silly hats (description done)
Engineer Cannon - Yup, it's a cannon (description done)

AREA OF RECRUITMENT
L1:
CHESTERTON & ARBURY
Townies - massed light inf (description done)
SAINSBURY'S & GRAFTON
Store Workers - light early-game spear troops (description needed)

L2:
THE UNION
Debaters - Javelinmen (description needed)
THE UL
Librarian acolytes - low morale but high attack, inf unit (description needed)
ARU
ARU arts students - massed medium sword-armed infantry (description needed)
ARU scientists - massed archers (description needed)
CHESTERTON & ARBURY
Arbury Outriders - light bow-armed cavalry from the deep wildernesses of Arbury (description needed)
Bike Thieves - fast combat troops riding on weak stolen/bodged light chariots (description needed)
HOMERTON
Education - horde of light-armed children led by exasperated teacher, Homerton Only (description needed)

L3:
CHESTERTON & ARBURY
Chesterton Rangers - Effective Archer/Spear Skirmish Infantry (description needed)
THE UNION
Union Stewards - Legionary-type unit with high-vis jackets, big shields, and pila (description needed)
SIDGWICK
Medievalists - Mounted knights in full plate armour (description done)
ASNACs - Berserk axemen, immensely destructive in close combat with their two-handed war axes, viking helmets and chainmail (description done)
ENGINEERING
Ballista Battery (Engineering Dept Only) - 3x ballistae (description done)
DOWNING
Anthropologists - use the fighting styles of little-known Amazonian tribes and throw the heads of their enemies in battle (description done)
NEW MUSEUMS
Sociologists - similar to the basic social scientist, but in a larger and more disciplined block with longer pikes (description done)
WEST CAMBRIDGE
Vets - Dog handlers, light infantry. (description done)
THE UL
Librarians Militant of Light - very small unit of devastating berserkers, but expensive and vulnerable to shooting (description needed)
Librarians Militant of Darkness - very small unit of devastating berserkers, but expensive and vulnerable to shooting (description needed)
SAINSBURY'S & GRAFTON
Store Managers - very tough medium cavalry (description needed)
OLD ADDENBROOKES
Architects - Battering ram armed infantry for quick siege attacks (description needed)

L4:
ENGINEERING
Catapult Battery (Engineering Dept Only) - 3x catapults (description done)
Cannon Battery (Engineering Dept Only) - 3x cannon (description done)
DOWNING
War Mammoth - extremely tough, with archers in a howdah (description done)
Triceratops Riders - squads of six, with tough-ish mounts and very high attack (description done)
NEW MUSEUMS
Wild Wolves (description done)
SIDGWICK
Nihilist Philosophers - literally invisible hiding troops (description done)
Asian & Middle Eastern Studies - Elephant riders (description needed)
CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENT
Chemist-Grenadiers - throw highly explosive bombs (description done)
WEST CAMBRIDGE
Fire Cannon - shoots fireballs (description done)
OLD ADDENBROOKES
Mutated Slime Moulds (description done)
THE UL
Librarian Knights - powerful heavy cavalry unit, expensive but devastating in close combat. Specialises in killing monsters. (description needed)
Daemons of L-Space - most powerful infantry unit in the game, capable of decimating whole battle lines if they get close enough (description needed)

SOCIETIES
Drinking society - early troops with very poor defence but high attack  (description done)

SPECIAL
Porters - general's guards in suits and wide-brimmed hats, armed with huge square-bladed glaives (description done)
Proctors - Powerful early heavy cav, Exarchate only (description needed)

REBELS & EASTER EGGS
Townies - basic infantry (description done)
Tourists - slingers (description done)

STRAT MAP
Diplomats -> Linguists
Assassins -> Assassins
Spies -> News Reporters

PLANNED TROOP TYPES
L1:

L2:

L3:

L4:

Strat Map:
Spies -> Student news reporters
Assassins -> Assassins' Guild

Other ideas:
College specific: Trinity Mathmos (Trinity), Bridgeguard (Magdalene), Martlet assassins (Pembroke)
Student socs: Drinking Soc members (Drinking Society), Assassins (Assassins' Guild), Spies -> Student Newspaper. Quizsoc, TolkSoc, Rowers?
Other: Zombies?

AOR UNITS IN CUSTOM BATTLES
AOR units will be given to factions in custom battle mode as follows:
Chesterton or Arbury -> Outlands
Eng Dept & Chem Labs -> Exarchate
UL -> Backs Alliance
Sidgwick -> Western Treaty
Downing & New Museums -> Republic
Union -> Entente
Sainsbury's and Ruskin -> Pact
West Cambridge Site, Madingley Rise, Castle Mound -> Hill Colleges

TO HELP OUT
  • Get the following bit of code:
Code: [Select]
{art_ugrad} Arts Undergraduates

{art_ugrad_descr}
Arts undergraduates are a notorious group in the university, known for an eccentric dress sense and high levels of political activism. At the break out of conflict they have been pressed into service as a light infantry unit. However, they are very displeased with this, and express it with passive-aggressive placards whilst marching towards the enemy!

{art_ugrad_descr_short}
Arts undergraduates are a basic light infantry unit pressed into service against their will.
  • Pick one of the units above that has a red (description needed) next to it
  • Change the tag to something appropriate in your code snippet, so if you were doing a fire breathing alien {fire_alien} would make sense, then change it in descr and descr_short as well (so you always end up with tag, tag_descr, and tag_descr_short
  • Write your descriptions! The one in the example is a good size for description length. Feel free to be a bit creative. It will say with the unit if they have a set area of recruitment, if they do you can mention that but you don't have to. Short descriptions can be really short, they don't even need to be a full sentence, and the key thing is that they describe the unit's battlefield function.
  • Post the code snippet here (ideal because then I'll remember to edit the OP) or email/FB it to me or whatever.
« Last Edit: April 03, 2014, 03:03:39 PM by Jubal »
The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...

Ezrael

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Re: Troop Rosters
« Reply #1 on: January 26, 2013, 10:46:07 AM »
Could you mod English students as head-hurlers? Those projectiles look more like books (kind of) which I can imagine English students using as weapons. Medievalists as knights/armoured cavalry?

P.S. This is looking excellent so far

Ezrael

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Re: Troop Rosters
« Reply #2 on: January 26, 2013, 10:49:34 AM »
Music students - morale-effecting unit akin to the Wailing Women in the German Rome army? They can conduct demoralising compositions to bring fear upon their enemies

Jubal

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Re: Troop Rosters
« Reply #3 on: January 26, 2013, 10:50:58 AM »
Yeah - medievalists will be classic plate armoured knights, classicists legionaries, ASNACs some kind of barbarian axe-wielders; those are the easy ones really.  :P

Hm, it's a pity I don't have a book projectile model. Good call though, and yeah, musos as wailing women works well.
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Ezrael

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Re: Troop Rosters
« Reply #4 on: January 26, 2013, 10:54:14 AM »
Ah well, can't have everything  :P Theologians as another support unit? Like the priests in Barbarian Invasion, propping up morale. And architects and/or LandEcs could be specialist sappers perhaps. Vets have vicious attack dogs? Ah, sweet procrastination...

TTG4

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Re: Troop Rosters
« Reply #5 on: January 26, 2013, 02:53:37 PM »
Just a quick query, where will we be getting the models for the L4 units?

Jubal

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Re: Troop Rosters
« Reply #6 on: January 26, 2013, 03:01:27 PM »
I've got cannons from Warhammer Total War, and I'll borrow the slime from Total War: Orcs and Humans which is made by this site's modding & gaming administrator.
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TTG4

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Re: Troop Rosters
« Reply #7 on: January 26, 2013, 03:08:31 PM »
I might make a start on writing a few of these, how much detail should we be putting in? Some of the vannilla descriptions are increadibly detailed.

Jubal

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Re: Troop Rosters
« Reply #8 on: January 26, 2013, 03:31:28 PM »
It really doesn't matter, the longer description can be as detailed (or not) as you like - having an accurate/pithy short description is more important, the long descriptions don't get read much anyway. I think funny/whimsical are the stylistic buzzwords for this project generally.
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TTG4

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Re: Troop Rosters
« Reply #9 on: January 26, 2013, 04:01:35 PM »
It really doesn't matter, the longer description can be as detailed (or not) as you like - having an accurate/pithy short description is more important, the long descriptions don't get read much anyway. I think funny/whimsical are the stylistic buzzwords for this project generally.

Well that I can probably do!

TTG4

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Re: Troop Rosters
« Reply #10 on: January 26, 2013, 06:30:19 PM »
Well this is my draft descriptions for arts and science undergrads, any imput is welcome!

Code: [Select]
{art_ugrad} Arts Undergraduates

{art_ugrad_descr}
Arts undergraduates are a notorious group in the university, known for an eccentric dress sense and high levels of political activism. At the break out of conflict they have been pressed into service as a light infantry unit. However, they are very displeased with this, and express it with passive-aggressive placards whilst marching towards the enemy!

{art_ugrad_descr_short}
Arts undergraduates are a basic light infantry unit pressed into service against their will.

Code: [Select]
{sci_ugrad} Science Undergraduates

{sci_ugrad_descr}
Science undergraduates are more used to stressing about their lab reports than fighting on the battlefield! However, many of them secretly hide fantasies of cutting their way through an entire horde of enemies. This has been harnessed by their leaders who have pressed them into service as light infantry units. Their scalpels can be lethal at close range, but they’re vulnerable against units with a long reach.

{sci_ugrad_descr_short}
Science undergraduates are a light infantry unit armed with scalpels.
« Last Edit: January 27, 2013, 03:39:08 PM by TTG4 »

Ezrael

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Re: Troop Rosters
« Reply #11 on: January 26, 2013, 06:45:52 PM »
Look good to me - perhaps replace "knives" with "scalpels" in the Science Undergraduates one?

TTG4

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Re: Troop Rosters
« Reply #12 on: January 26, 2013, 07:15:25 PM »
Thanks! Changed it now

TTG4

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Re: Troop Rosters
« Reply #13 on: January 27, 2013, 03:54:25 PM »
I procrastinate too much... Here are porters and phys natsci descriptions, any comments are welcome again.

Code: [Select]
{p_natsci} Physical Natural Scientists

{p_natsci_descr}
Physical Natural Scientists (Phys NatScis) have chosen to focus their studies in the areas of chemistry or physics. They easily apply this knowledge on the battlefield, marching to war in lab coats, safety goggles and helmets, armed with crossbows they produced themselves. They are generally used as a basic missile unit.

{p_natsci_descr_short}
Phys NatScis are a basic missile infantry unit, lightly armoured and armed with crossbows.

Code: [Select]
{porters} Porters

{porters_descr}
Before the war the porters looked after the colleges. Security, discipline, nothing was beyond them. Now they form elite infantrymen and guard their leaders with their lives. They have kept their official uniforms, suits and wide-brimmed hats, but now carry square-bladed glaives to slice through those rowdy students!

{porters_descr_short}
An elite infantry unit armed with large glaives who guard their general with their lives.

Also, a quick suggestion, perhaps we could use the porter models to make the rebel general unit into proctors? Since the central strcture o the university has fallen apart I think rebels is the right place for them.
« Last Edit: January 27, 2013, 04:47:15 PM by TTG4 »

Jubal

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Re: Troop Rosters
« Reply #14 on: January 27, 2013, 04:10:54 PM »
The porters are infantry, sorry, forgot to say that. :P
The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...