Radious Total War Mod - Warhammer III Blog Entry #2

Hello Everyone, Team Radious here!

Today we have for you the second entry to our WHIII development blog,  encompassing our plans for your friendly neighbourhood lumbering  mountains of fat, muscle, and hunger – the Ogres! As usual, everything  we talk about here is provisional, and can change at any point before or  after the release of the game!

Incase you missed our first blog, its right here.

Ogre Kingdoms

Ogre Kingdoms are a faction built upon a  central paradox that informs every aspect of their society and culture.  Whereas they are considered bestial, uncivilized, brutal, and uncouth  by many (not entirely without a reason, mind you), they are also very  intelligent and capable creatures, and interact often with the other  peoples of the Warhammer world. We want their roster to reflect that  dual-nature, and to let the player stride that line between these two  worlds.

Ogres are a completely new race (barring a couple  of mercenary units from Warhammer II) with their own animations and  visual assets, which means we will need to test WH3 itself to know for  certain how many units and which ones can be made.

With the information we have, these are the units we have planned as of now:

Ogre Lord

Slaughtermaster (Heavens, Death) (Additional Variants of the Vanilla Lord)

Some  Slaughtermasters show an inclination towards magics other than the  Great Maw. Whereas those that draw power from the very creatures they  slaughter are not uncommon, those dreaming of an oncoming fiery comet  often find themselves with a penchant for reading the future and  controlling the weather in destructive ways, whilst always looking to  the heaven for some sky-borne disaster. Few of them, revelling in the  final act of their killing work, focus their efforts on the death aspect  of their work.

Ogre Roster Expansion

Sons of the Mountain (Anti-Large)

The  Sons of the Mountain take great pride in residing near the top of the  Tusk - a particularly high peak on the borders of the Ancient Giant  Lands. There, the tribe has grown famous for hunting the many beasts  that live in the mountains, and their trade in ivory has made them rich  indeed.

Anti-large, ranged unit. Being famous hunters, skills such as “Strider” or “vanguard” would be fitting.

Gnoblar Lucky Gits

A  prospective Git will only join their ranks after some exceptional feat  of fortune; the sole survivor of an avalanche or making it through the  digestive tract of a great mammoth alive. Lucky Gits garb themselves in  all manner of blue things as they believe it attracts more good luck.  Indeed, many Lucky Gits daub themselves in bright blue warpaint, from  small tattoos to covering their entire bodies in woad.

Gnoblar warriors with different weapons and a ward save to reflect their unnatural luck

Manbiters:

Manbiters tend to aspire and become better than other Gnoblars and this has led many Manbiters to embark upon wild,  irrational expeditions across the continent. Sometimes a large mob of  Manbiters will band together and travel together or with groups of  Maneaters as mercenaries and sell-swords on short-lived quests to gain  fame and steal good war stories as Dogs of War.

Veteran gnoblars wiith better gear.

Blood Gnoblars

Blood Gnoblars look like ordinary Gnoblars  except their warty hides range from different hues of browns to dark  reds. They also have a heightened sense of hearing, perhaps due to the  high altitude of their mountain top lairs, making them exceptional  Trappers. Many Blood Gnoblars spend all their time fortifying their  lairs and setting traps for any curious interlopers. In Gnoblar society  it is the Blood Gnoblars who were first responsible for teaching other  Gnoblars the best techniques of trapping and scouting.

Gnoblar trappers with poison attacks and better throwing weapons.

Ironskin Ogres

This tribe valued iron more than gold long  before they even began to trade with the Chaos Dwarfs, and typically  wear black iron gut plates, have metal teeth, and mix iron filings into  their warpaint. It is a mark of status for an Ironskin Ogre to cover  himself with iron rather than mere trinkets such as gold. The tribe  believes that where an Ogre can gain much in trade from gold, a stout  iron club can cut out all that confusing haggling and get straight to  the good stuff.

The Ironskin ogres will be better armoured variants of ogre units.

Angry Fists Ogres

After  recruiting an Imperial trader as an advisor – and eating the second  one- the once-barbaric Angry Fist tribe is now one of the most  culturally and technologically advanced of the Ogre Kingdoms, with  everything from working kilns to modern toilet rooms (and the  appropriate Gnoblars) at their disposal. This has also proven to be a  boon on the battlefield as their gunpowder weapons are usually much  better maintained and handled than those of any other tribe

Much  more accurate gunpowder units and variants of other units dressed on  human clothes to reflect their “more civilized” state.

Leadbelchers (Scattershot)

To fire their weighty guns,  Leadbelchers fill the barrel with shovel-loads of crude black powder,  metal shot, rusty nails, an assortment of wickedly bladed weaponry and  occasionally an actual cannonball or similar sized boulder. They go to  battle with smouldering tapers pushed through the flesh of their scalps  or held between their teeth. When a prospective target comes into range,  they touch the taper to the spark-holes and let loose thunderous blasts  of hot metal and pure concussive force. If all goes well, these shots  will blast apart the target or shred through it with a salvo of rusted  blades.

The Leadbelchers found in the official roster for  WHIII are said to shoot cannonballs, but that´s not how they worked in  the tabletop game. Thus, in case that is true, a variant of  anti-infantry Leadbelchers shooting salvos of bullets will be added if  possible.

Mammoths

Creatures of titanic size and  bloodlust to match, each equipped with lengthy tusks of ivory and  gargantuan hooves. It would take an entire pack of starving mad  Mournfangs, or something massive like a Frost Dragon, to dare a head-on  confrontation with a fully grown bull mammoth. Those of the Ogres that  are strong enough to dominate one of these monsters are often also  intelligent enough to employ them in battle.