What are the requirements for the Entmoot ritual?

Sorry, this one could probably do with a better description in game. You must own a Garden Lord (the promotion for Burgmeister that costs enchanted weed), and be in an ancient forest with a Spring Ent. The ritual promotes the Spring Ent to an Ent Elder.

Had an extensive run with a garden lord. Didn't have a lot of gems to play around with so these ideas are a little lopsided.

The garden lord himself is a rough edge. His swordsmanship and Druid 1 are really just for show... He is an expensive piece of tech that doesn't really contribute much to any fight big enough to be worth risking him. And you don't need an extra officer to shuffle troops! Burgmen are cheap and the Garden Lord route gives you ents--extra officers! The incentive is to plop him on a quiet base and forget about him.

Now, I think it's fine that he isn't the clear pick to lead a doomstack like other "faction leaders". But I think he could use some support abilities that are most useful NEAR danger, so that there is a reward to make riskier positioning a viable option. So, I got to thinking about support rituals that encourage keeping him closer to the action, or at least moving around.

1:Promote Hogmeister or Burgman to "eaglemeister" a flying officer. This does double duty in that it provides a way to actually use the eagle rangers to their potential.

2: Establish Ranger Outpost: Use gold and iron to make a hillfort on an Ancient forest. Mostly as a defensive structure, but with a small trickle of freespawn rangers to boot.

I also just played a Burgmeister game and have a few planned changes that line up with this.

Both paths will have a new non-slow commander that will allow leading Eagle Rangers or Clockwork units to their full move potential without it being a Hogmeister that will very likely get killed/isn't flying.

Horologist/Clockwork commanders will be improved to have a pre-battle effect that summons a handful of clockwork soldiers and a special "Coil Scattergun" weapon. Pre-battle summoning seems like a decent representation of a "tinker" deploying mechanisms in battle instead of magic.

All Horologists will start with a mixed gem Clockwork Soldier ritual. The soldier has no elemental powers, but can be summoned early game before there's strong income for 1 gem.

Burgmeister promotions for both paths will be more equivalent to what their cost usually corresponds to for that path's commander. So Tradition will be Druid 2 casting, while Progress gets summoning Clockwork Soldiers + the Scattergun.

Additionally the cost of Tradition will be decreased, with the Spring Ent being summoned by a separate 1-time ritual rather than having the cost baked in and appearing via event.

Horologist prebattle summons are an inspired idea! I wonder--is it possible to make pre-battle summons only work for attacking, like assassinate attacks?

The flavor text about hoburgh armies being vulnerable to surprise attacks might just be the unreliable narrator kicking in, but it kind of makes sense that robot soldiers would need prep time.

Currently it fires whether it's offense or defense since it's being used a "pseudo-spell casting" attack. There's definitely room to turn it into an assassination attack, or even split into 1 pre-battle and 1 assassination attack so it can be 50% effective during defenses if it seems like it needs to be toned down a bit.

Admittedly, I don't see it being OP if it always works, since a summon in the backlines is pretty hard to get value with in any important (big) fight. I just like the flavor of the horologist needing to be prepared.

The robo-bug variants have decent range on their special abilities right? So maybe limiting the spawn pool to those, and excluding soldiers and horrors is a good idea?

Currently they spawn a handful of the new non-elemental plain clockwork soldiers and at a somewhat random range like a summon spell so the rate at which they enter the fight isn't dependable. The robo-bugs might be a bit too powerful, and with a "weapon" I can't set a pool of potential spawns so I'd have to lock it in to only 1 type of unit and it would be the same element of robo-bug each time. So for that reason going with an elemental neutral unit seems like the way to go. So far it seems fine power-wise and mixed with their upgraded coil gun they feel somewhat equitable to a spellcaster.

I'm back on the game, had a run with an Engineer General. My thots:

Mechmeister has a clear niche as automaton leader--what with speed 3, sharing their damage immunites, and generally not being as deathprone as the hogmeister. I do think their inability to repair on the manufactory combined with their rarity limits their viability as an option--you need to keep building them to get more use out of them, but good luck doing so!

I think they would be fine if they could repair on the manufactory--it would add some decision-making to their use. Alternatively, I don't hate the idea of upping their offer chance--mass producing them as expendables does scratch a thematic itch.

The Engineer General, like Gardenlord, is a weird unit. It's existence is a crucial part of your tech tree, which incentivizes putting him on a base and hitting S. But it just seems like a unique faction leader unit ought to get into combat at some point. He IS a strong and versatile combatant, but he's still backliner with limited range--and again, not expendable, so it doesn't make sense to put him at risk.

I think some kind of errand-rituals like the Bandaraja's totem carving would be good. Perhaps something that kills an ancient forest, thus "disinvesting" further from the other side of the Burgher kit. I could also see room for producing a "workshop" tile, that is fortified and can repair robots, but isn't a citadel and has no (or small) resources.These could be the same ritual--it would need some kind of serious cost and limitations on where you could do it.

Welcome back! I'll preface that I have another big update in the works so most classes already have some new content/units and adjustments upcoming and a few are getting a bit more attention and having mechanics overhauled, and Burgmeister is one of those classes. When things are more solidified I'll make a "what's next" post, but a bit of what I have planned lines up with this so far.

1. Each path will now feature more unique rituals/units, and more existing content from each path will require that path to be chosen. Rather than the chosen path unlocking "perks", it will feel more like choosing the overarching identity for the hoburgs, and the path not chosen takes the backseat and becomes more of a support.

2. Content will be unlocked via an event variable that activates on cast, and the Garden Master/Engineer General will simply have a few features/rituals tied to them and not the entirety of the path. The idea for smaller "workshop outposts" that can heal clockwork units is a neat concept for an Engineer General exclusive ritual!

I've been thinking a lot about how Juz's mod depicts a third "path" for the burgmeister, one that relies on bulk quantities of gold and iron instead of any casting resource. What do you think of that? Do you see a place for that idea in your hoburgrers?

Juz's mods are awesome! At the moment I don't foresee a full 3rd path fitting in. The two "paths" are now pretty fleshed out and each have their own avenues to spend gold/iron outside the standard hoburg troops. The closest equivalent is that there are a few perks tied to the unpromoted Burgmeister that make it a bit of a "pre-cursor" mini-path that make the decision of when to promote a bit more nuanced and give a little bit of catch-up if your leader dies and you're reset back to Burgmeister.

In this case, I think the skypatrol -> war balloon is a good example of something I'd like to see more of. Mechanics that both paths (and pre-path) have but one of the paths has more...

Here's a pitch: Add 1 Monster Boar as a result in the hoburg's lv 2 animal summon ritual. Since its already tile sensitive, making it more likely in hoburgh villages/fortified hoburghs would be cool. The garden lord path would have access to upgrading monster boars into a palanquin-equipped war elephant-like unit.

Gotcha. Yeah, I think what I have planned lines up with this. I wasn't previously thinking of a war boar as one of the options, but now I am for sure as I always enjoy the 2x2 "war beast" units and that's a good fit for the garden path. Good thinking.

They'll probably be changing a bit in how they're acquired from promotions of existing units to new recruitment offers that replaces a former. I like the idea of it being a mostly beneficial double edged sword where standard units are phased out for a more expensive improvement on that particular path, and eliminating some of the extra steps involved with recruiting one unit to promote to another. Right now Burgmeister has a unique merc offer as a small perk to the unpromoted phase, and both paths have 2 unique unit upgrades that replace something from the standard hoburg roster unrelated to their unique summons.