Ndjari - a tribal faction

[peet]

I originally posted this to the "Historical units not in Wesnoth" thread, but it was suggested I repost it here. Thanks to Syntax Error for his feedback.

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If a new faction were to be added I would personally like to see a tribal/barbarian faction. Based perhaps on African tribes.

Since BBCode doesn't do charting well I've put the stats of the faction into an image (see below).

Let's call them the Ndjari. They are chaotic except for the chief and runner paths which are neutral, and the cheetah who likes to hunt in the day (lawful). Their terrain effects would be like humans but they would be better in forest (60%/move 1) and swamp (50%/move 1), except for the cheetah who likes plains and has the regular elusivefoot moves.

Their specialty would be poison and slow attacks. They have no heavy cavalry or armored units; none of them gets any resistances other than the 20% arcane that humans get. They also don't get any good ranged units aside from the blowgunner who poisons but doesn't do a lot of damage right off. Instead of cavalry they have runners who are on foot but move fast and are elusive, much like footpads or thieves.

Their warrior is a powerful lvl 1 unit - expensive but worth it. It branches into three level paths: the chieftain path (leaders), the headhunter path (at lvl 3 they get necroheal from drinking the blood of their enemies), and the lion hunter path, who channels his great fury into a charge attack.

The inspiration for the Firedancer unit are real firedancers, like these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_dancing

Part of the idea behind this race is that since the Ndjari are a warrior culture with a small population their units have to be tougher and therefore more expensive.

Syntax Error suggested that in order to make this faction more interesting I needed to add some new powers. I've included those in red on the chart. Here's an overview:

Observer: This ability lets the unit see 50% farther in fog/shroud, and see hidden (ambush, nightstalk, etc.) units 2 hexes away instead of 1. Not sure if it is codable. Not an especially powerful ability, but interesting.

Aflame: This weapons special represents the fact that it is a non-magical flaming weapon and some effort needs to be made to keep it lit. This weapon would only do 1/4 damage if the unit is in a swamp or water hex.

Chain: With this weapon special the unit gets an additional attack each time it hits successfully. Against units in good terrain this power is fairly weak but in the open or in terrain that reduces defense (like swamp) this ability can be devastating. But the base attacks are fairly weak. Without this power I would make the firedancer line's attacks 3-5/4-6/5-7.

Animal: This ability represents the fact that the unit is a trained but otherwise unintelligent animal. Units with the Animal ability cannot change the ownership of villages.

Note that this need not apply to animals that are controlled through sorcery, such as Vampire Bats; presumably these creatures are more closely linked with the summoner and can carry out more specific instructions.

I know anyone can come up with a bunch of stats and without art the faction is basically nothing. Nevertheless, I find the creative exercise worthwhile and hopefully others will find this faction interesting.

Peet

[Stilgar]

A while back I frankensteined together a few tribal-looking guys. Have a look and see if you think you have use for them as a base. I was going to use them in a faction of my own but I don't forsee that happening any time soon, so go ahead.

[Wolfox]

I think it would be a perfect match.

[thespaceinvader]

Looking very cool, stilgar. I'd prefer to see them with oval shaped animal-hide shields, though.

The changed visual distances for Observer are sadly not currently possible, though - vision distance is hard-coded into the game as move distance +1 hex. Hopefully this will change soon, though. Don't know about the rest, though.

[Pickledpossum]

Neat idea, I especially like the idea of the "Aflame" ability. Good job guys.

[Weeksy]

One thing bothers me. This faction has absolutely no control over water. A trained alligator, lungfish, or bird might work, as would a boatman, swimmer, or perhaps the shaman could transform into one of these animals (it being their totem animal?) using the right-click menu.

[Izaak]

Hippopotamus.


-Izaak, Lord of the Lotus Clan.

[Urs]

Very well thought out, I must say! I especially like the idea of the animal ability. Maybe the animals specific race could also lack the "intelligent" trait?

Turin, do I smell a possible Orbivm faction? Either way, the animal ability makes a lot of sense to me. Can we implement this into orbivm?

[Stilgar]

Looking very cool, stilgar. I'd prefer to see them with oval shaped animal-hide shields, though.

So would I, actually. At the time I put those together I was more frankensteining than anything, and they probably look more unique than they are because I used a lot of bits from non-mainline graphics (eras, graphic library on the wiki). The only thing that was made from scratch on those is the boomerangs (the mask, though heavily modified, was originally based on a Nightgaunt.)

[Temuchin Khan]

do I smell a possible Orbivm faction? Either way, the animal ability makes a lot of sense to me. Can we implement this into orbivm?

Well, similar things have been discussed on the Orbivm forums. Currently, though, the only primitive tribal faction planned is the Orc faction of the Ancient Era. And we both know that very little work has been done on the Ancient Era.

[peet]

Wow! Thanks, Master Stilgar, for providing some artwork. That's awesome... it makes the faction an actual possibility.

OK, looking at the images, lets number them so we can be more specific. The units in the first column (on the left) starting from the top will be #1, 2, and 3, second column will be #'s 4 through 7, and the third column will be 8 through 10.

I would use the #2 guy as the "Runner" since the runner is supposed to be a "light" unit and has nothing but a spear. The Scout could be the #4 guy and the Wanderer could be the #8 one. Not sure what that weapon is in their hands (is it a boomerang?) but the scout and wanderer throw nets.

The Shaman/ Medicine Man/ Witch Doctor line could be represented well by the #3, #7, and #6 respectively.

I would use #5 as the Warrior, though as Thespaceinvader suggested, I'd like to see a new shield of animal hide (like a zulu shield). The #10 guy might make a decent savage, but I'm not sure. The #9 unit looks like it has an orc helmet on, which I'm not especially keen on.

The idea I had in mind for the Lion Hunter was a guy with a lion pelt on his head, so the head of the lion is on top of his head.

The headhunter/ blooddrinker line should probably have some sort fo face paint. Maybe we could frankenstein the #6 head onto the warrior.

So what do you think, Master Stilgar?

Peet

[pauxlo]

Chain: With this weapon special the unit gets an additional attack each time it hits successfully. Against units in good terrain this power is fairly weak but in the open or in terrain that reduces defense (like swamp) this ability can be devastating. But the base attacks are fairly weak. Without this power I would make the firedancer line's attacks 3-5/4-6/5-7.

As a boomerang was mentioned, such a weapon could have an ability inverse to your chain: when it not hits, you get another try (since the boomerang comes back).
To not totally make this weapon deterministic, there could be an upper limit - or simply make it an 5-try-atack, which stops after the first or second hit. (Don't know how easy this would be to implement.)