HSP – Drycha in the Southlands is a lua script start position mod which moves Drycha and her faction (the Wargrove of Woe) from Gryphon Wood in the Empire to Oreon’s Camp in the Southlands.
The main changes are the following:
- Drycha starts with the same army and buildings she originally started with in Gryphon Wood in her new biome in the Southlands. Her starting settlement, Oreon’s Camp, was renamed to “Heart of the Jungle”, the name of its corresponding province;
- Drycha starts at war with the local Greenskin Leaf-Cutterz Tribe, who were given ownership of the previously ruined Sun-Tree Glades;
- Gryphon Wood was given back to its rightful owner, the Imperial province of Ostermark, which now starts at war with the Skaven Clan Kreepus. Both of these minor factions are no longer at war with Drycha.
This mod was developed alongside HSP – Gelt in the Empire and HSP – The Changeling in Cathay to offer a less chaotic experience while playing a faction in or around the Empire, while offering a new starting setting for Drycha.
My campaign tests have shown that Ostermark became a much sturdier buffer state for all of the surrounding Legendary Lords (Katarin, Azhag, Ungrim, Vlad, and Gelt if using my corresponding start position mod), as well as a longer surviving elector state for Karl Franz.
Most often, Ostermark will get destroyed by Azhag, thus presenting a new, built-up threat for the Empire, which will present itself usually between turns 10 and 20, or Ostermark will remain a stable elector state if Azhag becomes engulfed in a war with Ungrim. In over 10 campaign tests, Vlad rarely ventured into Ostermark early on – he usually goes west, and likes to target the Golden Order if Gelt starts in Talabecland (through the aforementioned mod).
This mod is fully compatible with Mixu’s Unlocker and Immortal Empires Expanded. It was not developed keeping any new faction mods in mind.
Herald’s Start Positions mod series should work with mods like SFO: Grimhammer III, which rebalance different aspects of the game, but generally do not touch the start positions of the factions.
I recommend using this mod alongside other Herald’s Start Positions mods, and my other mods, as they are all being developed in conjunction.
I especially recommend this mod if you intend to play as Katarin or Karl Franz, or Balthasar Gelt if you’re using Herald’s Start Positions – Gelt in the Empire.
Credits go to Porkenstein and Swissbob for the script framework which I’m using across my start position lua script mods, and to nopeace.net for the map I used to show the territorial changes in the Southlands.
Discussion
The dev team’s announcement of moving Wurrzag to the Southlands in the 6.0 version of TW: Warhammer III gave me a bit of a headache of what to do with Drycha in the future, which also postponed the release of this mod.
I definitely want to keep her out of Gryphon Wood, for the role which Ostermark provides for the LLs in the region.
On the flip side, the Southlands, crowded how they already are, will be too crowded with Wurrzag there to have Drycha there as well, as all of the provinces surrounding the Heart of the Jungle will start with a Legendary Lord (Mannfred, Thorek, Kroq-Gar, and Wurrzag).
I could be making a rework of several start positions in the Southlands, similar to how I did with HSP – Kislev & Norsca, but I do not think it is worth doing it just to keep Drycha in the Southlands. If for some crazy reason this mod blows up, I might reconsider it, however, I think the best starting province for the expansion of both Wurrzag and Drycha in the Southlands is the Central Jungles, thus presenting me with a game design problem.
Swissbob’s True World already moved Drycha to Cathay, and Porkenstein made a cut version of that mod just for her and Nakai.
I am thinking of moving Drycha to the Forest of Gloom, southeast of the Empire, having her attack Zhufbar as her starting enemy, but I am suspecting that Golgf*g Maneater might start in the area, so I would wait with such changes until further start position modifications and additions are announced by Creative Assembly.
Please leave a comment, or join my Discord server for a chat about the future of HSP Drycha.
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