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Dux's Dwarf Balance Rework

By and large, CA did an excellent job revitalizing the Dwarfs in the 5.x era. The new grudge system is great, and the reorganization of the Dwarf tech and building trees achieved some much-needed streamlining that made playing Dwarf factions more fun overall. That being said, I think they went a little too far, unnecessarily changing too much about unit flavor (like how Ironbreakers and Irondrakes are presented as unrelated) and making the Dwarfs too easy in some ways (like giving them T2 Irondrakes with no other requirements, which is ridiculous). This mod aims to right these wrongs.

This mod is an off-shoot of my personal (unreleased) balance mod, specifically including all of my Dwarf changes. It mostly alters the military side of the Dwarf tech tree, rearranging things and using some techs that are currently unused in vanilla to provide a progression that seems more logical and loreful to me. Other important changes include Ironbreakers and Hammerers switching places on the armory building line (Ironbreakers come earlier now) and reintroducing a couple of secondary building requirements for certain units (specifically Irondrakes and Goblin Hewers).

This mod can be considered a spiritual successor to my Grudge Rework mod from before the 5.x changes (https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2974824528), although it doesn't touch the new grudge system at all, because I believe CA mostly nailed it with this system. It does take the post-battle captive options update from that mod, though (without changing Oathgold values this time around, since Oathgold is used significantly more post-5.0), and like that mod, it is essentially a balance and flavor pass on the vanilla Dwarfs faction that seeks to polish -- not completely reinvent -- the Dwarfs experience in WH3.

• Military side of the tech tree reorganized in several ways:
  
  • Great Weapon section of the tech tree now applies to Quarrelers and Rangers w/ Great Weapons but does NOT apply to Giant Slayers (they get enough Slayer buffs).
    
  • Irondrake section of the tech tree is now a combined Ironbreaker/Irondrake section, acknowledging that Irondrakes are really a subset of Ironbreakers in the lore.
    
  • What was previously the Ironbreaker/Hammerer section now provides general buffs for all non-Slayer Dwarf infantry plus extra buffs for Hammerers specifically.
    
  • Masterwork Crossbows only applies to units that actually fire Crossbows now, and its position has been swapped with Vanguard Proficiency, which now buffs Rangers exclusively.
    
  • Iron Price is now a general recruitment discount for melee units in the General/Hammerer section; Volley Fire has been returned to the end of the Thunderer line to provide additional reload speed and a recruit rank increase.
    
  • With the exception of infantry obtained from the basic barracks chain (Dwarf Warriors, Quarrelers, Longbeards), the final tech in each infantry branch provides a recruit rank bonus (Thunderers, Rangers, Ironbreakers/Irondrakes, Hammerers, and Slayers all get the option).
    
  • Names and descriptions of several techs changed (or techs moved around) to better relate to what the tech does.
    
  • A few balance changes were added for some techs (e.g., Charge Bonus decreased for Great Weapon tech but increased for Slayer tech; see screenshots for more details)
• Hammerers and Ironbreakers have swapped places in the Armoury building tree, with Ironbreakers coming at T3 and Hammerers -- the elite of the elite Dwarf infantry -- coming at T4. To balance this change out, the following unit changes have been made:
  
  • Hammerers given +4 Charge Bonus (24 > 28) and Charge Defence Against Large by default.
    
  • Hammerers cost increased to 1250 (from 1200).
    
  • Ironbreakers MA reduced by 2 (34 > 32), Leadership reduced by 5 (85 > 80), and HP per model reduced by 5.
    
  • Irondrakes have had their HP reduced by 5 per model to match the same change to Ironbreakers, and their innate fire resistance has been reduced from 40% to 25% to account for the fact that they now have access to a tech that increases fire resistance by a further 25%.
    
  • [Update 2.2] Irondrakes have a new passive ability, "Iron Tactics," which grants them increased speed and melee defence (similar to Evasion) whenever they are within 45m of friendly Ironbreakers.
    
  • The Grudge Settler variety of Irondrakes has had their base range reduced from 120 to 100 to account for the fact that 120-range drakeguns is just absurd.
• Both types of Irondrakes now require the T3 ranged building, and additionally Irondrakes require a Gromril Forge (T3 Armoury, same building that now provides Ironbreakers) to have been built somewhere in the province. Malakai can no longer build Irondrakes from his airship, as the airship has no Armoury buildings.
  
• Goblin Hewers are now built from the Slayer Shrine (or Karak Kadrin's unique version), but they do require a Siege Workshop (first level of Siege chain) to have been built somewhere in the province. Malakai can still build these from his airship's Siege line.
  
• For Malakai's airship only, Slayer Pirates have been moved from the main horde line to the Infantry Workshops (Thunderer) line in order to spice this line up a little in the absence of Irondrakes.
  
• "Sapper" Master Engineer skill now only applies to Artillery Units, not all ranged units, but the values have been significantly increased (+30% speed max).
  
• "Ballistics Calibration" ability now increases accuracy again (no idea why CA removed this).
  
• Master Engineer Grudge-raker now has the same range as the unit (90).
  
• Post-battle captive options updated like my previous mod:
  
  • "Execute and Loot" now counts toward captives killed rather than released, but it is only available for ancestral enemies, defined as all Greenskins, Skaven, Chaos factions, Vampires, or Elves. All other factions get a "Ransom Captives" option instead that provides slightly less Oathgold (vanilla values) and counts toward captives released. In vanilla, most Chaos factions haven't been updated, and High/Wood Elves aren't considered ancestral enemies, which is a hilarious joke.
    
  • "Drink to Victory" now counts toward captives released rather than killed.

This mod should be compatible with most other mods, although it won't be compatible with any other mod that makes significant changes to the Dwarf tech tree or certain units.

This mod should be multiplayer compatible, but I haven't tested it (nor do I intend to).

This mod is save game compatible, but it may screw with your tech tree progress if you are trying to load it far into a current Dwarf playthrough, as many techs early in the military tree have been changed. You can work around this with scripting if you want; DM me and I can help you do this if interested.

I couldn't have learned how to make mods like this without the support of the friendly folks over at Da Modding Den and the resources they've created.

[discord.gg]
[tw-modding.com]