SFO: Grimhammer II Blood-Grounds Update Showcase

Hello Everyone!
Venris Here!


We meet again to talk about a new update for SFO: Grimhammer II called Blood-Grounds. This time around we focused on the Beastmen as was voted by Patrons. We also have a lot of changes to recent DLC factions and more. This Friday, 27.09.2019, we will be hosting the Campaign Beta. (Note: it wont be save compatible with full version) Depending on the feedback, we aim to have the full release next week!

There is a lot of changes to talk about for this update so let's jump in.

Full changelog can be find HERE, keep in mind that it's still changing.

1. Beastmen Rework-gor

Beastmen are a horde faction that really needed some love. They were a boring faction with little variety of gameplay and almost no mechanics at all. That's why we decided to rework the whole faction from scratch. 

Tribal Call

Recruitment was the first thing we changed. Beastmen economy is based on raiding and they don't have a stable source of income. Because of that, we decided to significantly reduce recruitment costs for the entire faction. This change is linked with a new resource: Tribal Call. It's a new type of resource that you spend on more advanced units and new technologies. We have made sure to keep this resource from becoming problematic like Amber; there should never be an inadequate amount. The more Tribal Call you have, the bigger faction bonuses you receive. 

Technology

Another big change that is linked to Tribal Call is a total rework of the technology tree. More than 55 new technologies have been added, while the old ones have been totally reworked. The new tree has many different effects for your hordes, and an entire new unit-upgrade system which allows you to spend Tribal Call on one of two choices for each unit group. It's all about choice and the tactics you want to use in your game. Thanks to this change you can focus on different playstyles each campaign. This system is fully optional and can be ignored so you get the best bonuses from Tribal Call alone.

Blood-Grounds

With last update we allowed Chaos to raise massive Chaos Fortresses across the world. But the Beastmen don't build such things, so they received the Blood-Grounds. With this new raze option, they can settle in conquered regions. These new settlements are hidden the same way as Skaven settlements. But the Beastmen are not builders, so there is only the main building chain in those settlements to provide vision over the map with small bonuses for hordes. On the second level you can receive a small garrison that will help with recolonizing AI lords. The third level is only for major settlements, and provides the best bonuses and best garrison with other benefits. And again, this new system can be totally ignored by the player, fully separate from other new mechanics.

Video about Tribal Call, Technology and Blood-Grounds - shows older version of actual content.

VIDEO

Bestial Sacrifices

This one is the biggest change we added to the Cloven Ones. On the bottom right of the screen you will be able to find a new button with Bestial Sacrifices within. This brand new mechanic is linked with a new resource that allows you to summon followers, powerful herdstone powers, new units, faction items, horde upgrades, and to unleash the power of your Legendary Lord. For all of these you need the new resource called Dark Devotion that can be received from many new things such as character skills, items, events, raze options and more. This system is also separated from the rest of the new mechanics so it can be ignored or used to gain the ultimate power of the horde.

Video - shows older version of actual content.

VIDEO

New Army Stance

A small thing but I think you may find it very useful in your games. Beastmen received a new army stance that helps them during siege battles.

New Units

It's very hard to make new units for the Colven Ones. We are not able to make new assets so we need to work with the things we have. This update will add two new Legendary Units:

Mutated Warhound: A massive warhound unit that works similarly to Lizardmen blessed units. At the start of each battle, it can decide on its main role on the battlefield by choosing one of 3 different upgrades: Tank/Anti Large/Stalker. It can be unlocked in campaign through Bestial Sacrifices.

Wild Dragon Ogre: A unit from tabletop that was never added to the Beastmen DLC. It's a more offensive variant of the Chaos Dragon Ogre. It also has a new ability that allows it to shake the earth around it, dealing massive damage. In campaign it can be unlocked through Bestial Sacrifices but it does not benefit from any technology or skills. To upgrade it, you need to build special Legendary Lords landmarks.

New/Old Lords and Hero

Beastmen are one of those factions that are in dire need of heroes and lords to make their campaign a little more interesting. That's why we are adding 2 new generic lords and 1 new generic hero type.

Wargor: Hero focused on buffing his own troops and debuffing enemies with new totem abilities. It’s a strong duelist that previously was an SFO Legendary Unit. Now it has a much better role and purpose on the battlefield. 

Great Bray-Shaman: Wizard melee lord with small anti-large bonus. Starts with basic spells from lore of the Beasts and Wild. Can get to pick between the two for advanced spells, locking the other lore. Has healing totem ability.

Doombull: Everyone knew they would come to SFO eventually. The time has come! Strong melee lord that can focus on buffing economy and heroes or leadership and minotaurs with branching skill trees. Can pick one of 4 god marks to alter his stats, abilities and appearance. Has Bullrage ability that increases his defenses while below 50% health.

Beastlord: Similar to the Doombull, we added 4 god marks that alter his stats, abilities and even appearance!

Racial Abilities

We think that we made a mistake in the past by adding upgraded version of Primal Fury ability to Beastmen. That change was not good from a gameplay perspective because it was not doing much to make them more unique. Because of that, we are removing the SFO ability and replacing it with 4 different debuff auras. Each aura has different debuffs to enemies and is on different types of Beastmen units. That way you can unleash the full potential of your army by using all types of units. Most of the units were rebalanced and received new things because of this change.

New Buildings

There are 6 new building chains in total for the Beastmen to allow more horde customization.

Ruinations and Weapons chains received alternate versions similar to the Dawi system we added. You need to decide what building version more suits you and the situation. 

Sacrifices is a new chain that generates Dark Devotion used in Bestial Sacrifices.

Each Legendary Lord received a unique Landmark building that buffs the Wild Dragon Ogre and has other factionwide bonuses.

Legendary Lords

As all of you know, I like diversity, and a unique experience each time you start a different campaign. The Bestial Sacrifices mechanic gave us many new options to achieve this goal. Each Legendary Lord has a unique tab in Bestial Sacrifices with their own ritual-like effects and items they can craft. We also added brand new abilities and skills to each lord.

Khazrak can now summon a special pack of hounds when he is losing melee combat.

Malagor received a new spell that deals massive damage to enemies and summons Defiled Crow units.

Morghur now explodes upon death dealing insane damage and leaving behind tainted ground which damages enemies that enter it.

Prophecy

At the start of each campaign you will have a new dilemma with 4 choices. 3 of those are permanent choices affect your whole campaign. Each has different effects changing your units, lords or economy. 

During the game, you will also have a chance to get specific events linked to factions you are at war with. This provides you with a dilemma to accept specific bonuses and detriments depending on which faction you are warring with.

Those are the most important changes to the Beastmen, for more information check the changelog.

2. Empire of Man

The Empire just received a big FLC update, so we had to rework our things. Zarkis prepared new events that give The Empire even more unique choices. We also reworked the Elector Counts units that you can see in the video here:

Many of the SFO units we added in the past replaced Elector units to avoid unit bloat. Also, we wanted to have more unique units in the campaign like Hochland Long Rifles instead of green Handgunners just being an upgraded version of the base unit. With Xoudad and Willemsen we also updated the look of those units.

VIDEO

The technology tree received some new additions as well with an option to choose a main god patron and minor god patron for your Empire. It's also linked with the new Common Temple building chain.

Empire Captain also received a rework. He is now able to get a Demigryph Mount or an Officer squad in campaign thanks to a new set of skills. General on other side will use different weapons on each mount.

This update is big already and I don't want to delay it even more so more things we planned for the Empire need to wait. These are:

- Empire Prestige panel that allows to spend and earn prestige - different for each LL.

- Grand Master Lord.

- Empire Master Engineer Hero.

Those additions will be added to SFO in a separate update before the Festag Update that CA is planning... I hope!

3. Nakai and Gor-Rok

Here we won’t be adding many new things besides rebalancing existing systems. The biggest change goes to Nakai who will have no construction cost for buildings beside the main chain. We are separating his horde growth that will be needed for buildings and gold that will be needed to upgrade the horde tier. Also, his vassal faction will work like a normal faction now and be able to recruit lords and units. He will also receive other minor adjustments to make his gameplay much more fun.

Gor-Rok starts with Lord Kroak, the strongest hero in the whole game. We buffed him a lot with previous update because he was an end game mechanic. Because of that we need to change how he works for the Great White Lizard. Gor-Rok will be starting with a weaker version of Kroak that he will be able to upgrade with his skills, buildings and technologies.

4. Difficulty

In recent DLC the AI received a lot of new bonuses to economy, units stats and other benefits. We really don't like that change and aim more for a fair challenge that is not based on cheating. New difficulty changes won't allow the AI to field several armies from one province. Also, new changes will make the game beginning easier with scaling difficulty the longer you play.

I hope that you like all the new changes. There is still much to do and polish here, but I am trying my best to deliver this update ASAP and in good shape. Update is big as always and has a lot of minor changes. Be sure to check them all out in the full changelog on top of this post.

As always, my biggest thanks goes to the Patrons that support me every day. Thanks to you I am able to get a second full time modder :).

Venris Out!